Chapter 11

Jace was awakened by the sound of a male voice sounding over the intercom.

"We are approaching our destination. Please make all final preparations, We should be arriving in approximately one hour. Again, we are approaching our destination. Please make all final preparations, we will be arriving in approximately one hour."

Jace Sat up, rubbing the grogginess from his eyes. It had awoken him in the middle of his scheduled sleep time. He was tempted to roll over and return to bed, but the excitement of reaching the Academy was too great.

He rolled out of bed and shook himself to come fully to wakefulness. Then he quickly stripped off the previous day's clothing and dressed in the new fresh clothing that always appeared by his door while he was sleeping. The excitement was starting to grow until he could barely contain himself and almost sprinted down the main corridor to the bridge. Charlie had promised to let him watch the landing, though she claimed it was just a bunch of talking. 𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘱 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵. But he doubted it, so far, he'd had yet to find anything about spacing that bored him.

As he walked into the bridge, he found himself in a hive of activity. He had to duck and dodge around several people to keep out of their way. He finally found a place where he had a good view outside. Once he had settled down, he was able to look outside and gasped in surprise at the immense sight that greeted him. The Academy almost looked like a massive castle, one large main spire consisting of the majority of the building, with two smaller spires were branching off of it. Three rings circled its base, not to mention the hundreds of tiny dots flit about it representing the ships going to and from the massive station.

As they approached, Jace appreciated the size even more. From their perspective, it looked like they were approaching at a snail's pace, but Jace knew they were traveling faster than would ever be possible on a planet with an atmosphere.

Jace heard footsteps behind him and turned to see Sara approaching behind him.

"It's huge," he said as they both turned to look at the station.

"Well of course," she respon\ded, nodding towards the massive structure. "The academy alone supports education for every age, from infant to adulthood, having to educate, house, and take care of an entire galaxy's worth of students, they also have space for those who remain at the school after they graduate, living in alumni housing is cheaper than many worse options out there. The Cadet Academy population is that of a small planet."

As they approached the Academy, Jace turned his attention to Charlie who was navigating them to the proper docking station. While it was exciting for Jace because he was new, he could see how it could be perceived as boring, because past a certain point, all Charlie did was talk to the port manager while he guided them through the port doors into the immense docking bay. When they landed, Sara tugged at him. "Come on, it's going to get even busier in here now that we've landed." She led him through the ship to the exit ramp, where they joined the steady stream of people entering and leaving the ship.

Jace had expected there to be some kind of grand receiving ceremony, as Sam captaining this flight was an important part of his education, but it was just a crazy mess of people running here and there, loading and unloading the necessary gear to prepare for storage as well as the next time it would be used.

When Sam came off the flight, Jace went over to him to congratulate him on a successful flight, however he was immediately surrounded by a bunch of people wearing the same uniform as him, looking to be about the same age. Jace came to an abrupt halt. Of course Sam would have friends to be with, he'd been at the academy for several years. Jace was about to turn back and leave Sam to spend time with his friend, but just then Sam caught his eye and waved him over. Jace jogged over to him.

"Hey, Jace!" Sam exclaimed when he was within earshot. "Welcome to the Cadet Academy!"

Jace smiled in response. "Thank you! Congrats on a successful flight! When do you find out how you did?"

Sam shrugged. "I won't know for another few days, they have to read the ship's log, review the ship's flight path, and talk to Madam Sheev before they'll be able to give a final verdict." he smiled confidently. "But I feel pretty good about how I did, nothing went majorly wrong, and we followed the correct flight plan. You actually helped me out by giving me an opportunity to show how to handle unexpected situations." he turned to the others surrounding him and gestured to Jace. "Hey all, I want to introduce you to Jace, we came across him drifting in dead space, he's decided to join us here at the academy."

As Sam introduced Jace to each of his friends, Jace tried to remember their names but didn't put a lot of effort into it, he knew they'd be graduating soon and he'd probably not see most of them ever again. But he didn't want to be rude, so he stored them away just in case.

As Sam was wrapping up the introductions, everyone started mumbling under their breath and staring past Jace. he turned his head to see Sara approaching, followed by an adult who was dressed as what Jace had come to recognize as a staff uniform. She waved at him and Sam. "Hey everyone!" She said brightly. She turned to Sam "So when do you find out how you did?"

They had a repeat of his and Sam's conversation earlier, then Sara turned to Jace. "Come on Jace, they've got to get us registered and in the system." She indicated the staff-member waiting behind them, then turned to follow them.

Jace hurriedly wished Sam well, then jogged to catch up to Sara. As he followed the staff through the halls of the school, he looked around him, his eyes filled to the brim with curiosity. The hall that they walked through had vaulted ceilings, and twisting, alien designs. They passed several people clumped up in groups of people, wearing uniforms akin to those that Sam and Charlie had worn. Students, he assumed. As they walked, he felt inquisitive eyes boring into him. He tried to match Sara's carefree, nonchalant attitude and turned his eyes forward to try to ignore the gazes of the other students.

Their guide led them to a door, surprisingly small compared to the huge size of the hall that surrounded them. The unnamed staff member indicated for them to go through the door, then briskly walked away. Sara and Jace glanced at each other and shrugged, then walked through the door.

Inside of the door, was a large desk, with what looked like a large elevator behind her. The lady behind the desk looked up at them and smiled. "How may I help you today?"

Sara stepped up to the desk and spoke. "We're here to get registered with the school?"

The lady looked down at her screen then began typing something into the system in front of her. "Ah yes, straggler applicants. Do you have Identification?"

Sara glanced at Jace nervously. "No, unfortunately, I lost mine, and Jace has never had any."

The lady nodded as if it was no problem. "Very well," She said and lifted a handheld scanner towards Sara. "Please hold still."

Sara obliged as the scanner moved up and down her profile, then information appeared on the screen. Her eyes widened in surprise. "Why, Miss Mortonesse, I had no idea you were to be attending here! It is an honor to have you!" She immediately began typing information onto her screen.

Jace could tell that Sara was disgruntled by the recognition and special treatment, and he hid his grin behind his hand. Not very well though, because she glared at him in annoyance.

The lady turned to Jace then and lifted the scanner. Jace held himself immobile as she ran it up and down him. The lady looked at the built-in screen then tsk'ed in confirmation. "Yes, it looks like, other than some marks for petty theft on Pontilar, there is no information of you on the nets." She looked up at him before turning back to her screen. "Well, what's your name kiddo?"

Jace's eyebrows turned down at the 'kiddo' but he decided to ignore it. "My name is Jace."

"Jace what?"

Just Jace, I don't have a last name."

The lady rolled her eyes and gestured at her screen. "Well according to this you don't have a name at all, and it requires me to put in a last name. So just come up with something. Make it good, you'll be stuck with it for a while."

Jace was stumped. He had no idea where to even begin with coming up with a last name. He'd never tried to name anything before.

The lady decided to take mercy on him and gave him some tips. "Some people will choose a profession, others pick someone close to them, or maybe you could use an animal as a last name, like Fox, or-"

"Stryker"

She glanced at him, annoyed at being interrupted. "What was that?"

He nodded, more as confirmation to himself than for the receptionist's benefit. "My name will be Jace Stryker." He smiled at himself as the woman behind the desk input the information, none the wiser as to its significance to the boy. 𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘬𝘦𝘳, 𝘪𝘧 𝘐'𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮, 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦. 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘬𝘦𝘳!