Chapter 2 - Result
Year 3001. Republic Ether Testing Facility No. 3
The staff member sat down across from me in a small room and pulled out a small tablet. He glanced up and smiled, “You must be very excited for these results with all this fidgeting.”
I glanced down at my hands and saw the corners of my nails were red. I smiled, “A little.”
The man laughed, “My son is a year younger than you and also can’t wait for an ether test.”
“Really?”
The man stared up at the soft light that lit up the room, “That little rascal wants to go into energy research.”
My eyes widened, “Energy?”
The man shrugged, “Luckily, I got this government job to help him if the results are not good enough. What’re you trying to major in?”
I glanced up at the warm light, “Ether Manipulation.”
The man’s eyes lit up, “A druid?”
I shook my head, “I prefer the more mechanical side.”
The man nodded, “Military is hard and becoming a Druid is very expensive.”
After tapping a few buttons, the man brought up the test results on his tablet. He passed it over to me and sat back in his seat.
I glanced through the tablet and couldn’t understand much of what it said. I looked up, “Uh.”
“Need some help?”
“Uh… Yeah…”
The man laughed, “That’s why they have us staff members. Let me have a look at tha- oh my.”
The man’s eyes widened as he stared at the file and glanced at me. He sprang up from his seat and stared at me. His hand shook as he looked into my eyes, “No permissions?”
“What do you mean?”
Collecting himself, the man tapped his finger on the table as he stood up to leave, “Hmm. Let me quickly check this.”
Minutes later, a different staff member in a military uniform wearing a mask entered the room and swiped through a few panels on their tablet before showing me a drawing.
“Kaiser Fritz?”
“Yup that’s me.”
A mechanical voice responded, “Your file are locked behind a high level of security. I’m sure your father has explained this to you before.”
“Explained what?”
“Your admitted into the Academy.”
I vaguely remembered my father mentioned the Academy as one of the universities he had picked out for me. I was confused, “What about the Academy?”
“As you know, your ether test results indicate elevated ether sensitivity meaning you qualify for the Academy.”
I was surprised, “How does this work?”
“A transport shuttle will arrive outside your place of residence this Saturday. Your family has already approved of this arrangement.”
Transport shuttle? Dad was right. I shifted my weight forward, “Will I be able to... continue flying?”
They shook their head, “Flying? It might be difficult.”
I sighed, “I guess I have a lot of training ahead of me.”
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“No. That is a different matter.”
“What do you mean no?”
They stared at me. The echo of their metal boots scraping the ground rang in my head. A high pitch noise. The dim light seemed to flood the room in a cold white. I leaned back in my chair as all the air left my chest, “What do you mean- no?”
They pointed towards the image on their tablet, “Your ether channels have eleven times the maximum diameter. You will probably never be able to manipulate ether.”
Well. Shit.
-----
Ring Ring Ring.
“Hey. David?”
“What’s the matter?”
I paused. What would David say?
“I don’t know.”
A long silence followed until David sighed, “You want to stay over?”
I looked down at my hands in the lobby of the testing center. It was over. The dream was over. It was kind of funny. Funny how I thought I could do something. I stood up and started walking towards the revolving doors out of the facility, “What train line you taking?”
-----
David waved to me, and we hopped onto a shuttle to the pad. I laughed, “I guess I’m visiting a bit earlier than usual.”
“Was the test that bad?”
I shook my head, “It was fine.”
“What’s wrong then?”
I paused. What was wrong? I frowned, “Apparently I’m incapable of flying.”
The words couldn’t come out. I frowned, “Nothing. Everything was just fine.”
David put his arm on my shoulder and smiled, “If anything comes up, I’m here.”
I looked up at David’s red face with peeling skin from welding. I had to tell him. David was putting more effort into this racing thing than me. I opened my mouth, but nothing would come out.
An announcement rang through the train, “Now arriving at Lambda thirteen. Please collect all your belongings and watch the gap.”
David stood up and walked to the door and promptly slammed his face right into the glass. Rubbing his nose, he grinned and pointed at the metal latch, “This thing is an antique!”
I looked over at the lever, “A manual release? Damn.”
David smiled sadly, “Mechanical mechanisms are really a lost art.”
I shrugged, “That’s been the case for hundreds of years.”
“It’s a shame really.”
“What do you mean?”
David stopped and looked back at the train as it pulled out of the station, “That train is probably over a thousand years old and has never been replaced.”
“Its parts have been replaced though.”
David nodded, “Yup. That’s exactly why it’s a shame.”
“I guess it is easier to replace a bolt than a circuit board.”
David turned to continue walking, “It’s unfortunate.”
I took a glance at the train. It felt like some part of me was left on that train. Something I was missing. A sudden thought crossed my mind. A fully mechanical combat corvette. Nah. That was impossible.
-----
David hit a button opening the doors of the run-down aircraft hangar that housed our corvette modules. David glanced at me, “You eat yet?”
“Nope. What do we got?”
David opened a little rusty minifridge in a corner of the hanger, “We got some eggs and some ham. No bread or butter though.”
“There should be bread near the torch.”
“Where?”
I leaned behind the couch that was next to the minifridge and pulled out the loaf of bread wrapped in plastic that had been wedged between the couch and the minifridge. I took out four slices, “How much do you want your bread toasted?”
David shrugged, “No butter so I’m fine with whatever.”
I turned on the torch and started toasting the bread, “What did you get on the ether test?”
“It isn’t great.”
I glanced at David, “Academy?”
He nodded, “Yup.”
I squished together a little sandwich and handed it to David, “Did they say anything else?”
David shook his head, “They couldn’t figure anything out since that was my first scan.”
I stared at my hands as I assembled a second sandwich. I was lucky. I had multiple scans before my evaluation. I had a full map of the ether in my entire body. My parents would spend any amount of time and money making sure I succeeded. But what was I succeeding at anyway? The dream of racing? Gone.
I looked up and saw David rummaging through a few tools near our Hornet my father had shipped in from the moon. I shook my head and leaned back in the couch and slowly dozed off, David would figure something out. He always does.
-----
“Sir! Your son’s ether scan has been finalized.”
“Ah that’s good.”
“Hmm, are you sure this is the right result?”
“Yes sir!”
The man scratched his chin and looked up at the door, “What are you doing over there Kaiser? You can come in if you want.”
I crawled over to the little hologram in the corner of the office as the military officer that was speaking to my father started to retreat.
“Officer. Has this report reached the moon?”
“No sir.”
The man frowned, “Put this file under level one security. Make sure my wife doesn’t find this until we complete the plans for the Republic.”
The officer looked troubled, “General Gaius, if you-”
Dad stared at me who was giggling on the floor while punching holographic bricks and muttered, “The council should understand what is more important.”
“Pardon?”
“Make it happen.”
The officer saluted, “Yes sir!”
Gaius crouched down next to the smiling baby on the floor of his office. He smiled, “Sometimes I wonder what being a child is like. If only I could go back and do it all again.”
I looked up at dad and grabbed his finger with both of my little hands. The memory of the event slowly started distorting and twisting. It was an old memory after all.
-----
I woke up with a start and realized there was a blanket over me. I must have been out for at least an hour. Out the door of the aircraft hangar the blood red sky of the sunset shined over the mountains. The beauty of the scene put a smile on my face.
David leaned on the couch, “You up?”
“Yeah. I needed a nap to think about stuff.”
“Stuff?”
I watched as the red lines disappeared one by one behind the mountains, “Yeah.”
David pointed up to the sky, “This might be the last time we see the red sky.”
I smiled sadly.
Okay so this chapter was so difficult to write in a satisfactory way. I hope it was good. For this story I wrote like 5 different chapter 1s and ended on this idea after a lot of drafting and planning for this story. Oh and don't tell my school that I've had a torch in my room. They don't need to know that.
So yeah. I'm again gonna ask you to look at my . It's $10 a month to help support me in continuing this hobby. It's been pretty fun. Please check it out if you wish to help me pay for my textbooks. Also, you get 5-10+ chapters ahead of the RR release! Pretty great deal huh? All the chapters for the 2 launch weeks are already up on the patreon! That's a whole 20k words to read! Right now! you want that? It's just $10! Well. Only give me money if you are able to. I'm poor so I understand the struggle. I won't die... probably.
