Jonathan couldn't take his eyes off the image of the approaching warp gate. The center of it was so completely black that it looked like some kind of technical glitch on the viewscreen. The longer he stared into the void, the more uneasy he felt. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He could almost make out something lurking in the darkness, something moving at the edge of his vision. With an effort, he tore his eyes away from the viewscreen and focused his eyes on the reassuring sight of his hands, clenched in a white-knuckled grip around the buckle of his seat belt.

Warp gates were strange, even by the standards of the Orion Star Kingdom. It was a technology that had been inherited from the Second Human Empire. While they were still able to maintain the existing network and even add the occasional new gate, the underlying science wasn't well understood. From what Jonathan had seen, nobody was even sure if the old Empire had known what made the warp gates work.

Jonathan only knew the basic facts. Warp gates couldn't be placed near inhabited planets, and each new gate was more difficult to build than the one before. Digging any deeper required more mathematical knowledge than Jonathan had managed to accumulate in two lifetimes. Fortunately, the warp gates still worked whether they made sense or not. It was the warp network that made interstellar travel practical for ordinary, if wealthy, people, instead of the exclusive province of only the most powerful mech pilots.

Jonathan took a deep breath and forced himself to relax his grip. His palms stung as he let go of the buckle, temporary lines scored into his flesh from his moment of anxiety.

It was strange. He'd died and been reborn. Of course, there was no guarantee that he'd get a third chance if he were to die young another time, but Jonathan thought he should be beyond the childish fear of the unknown. Still, he couldn't help but feel like he'd just had a glimpse into something forbidden. Or, if not forbidden, at least something that he shouldn't study too closely, lest it start to study him back.

His introspection was interrupted by a soft chime over the ship's intercom. "Initiating warp in thirty seconds."

Jonathan tugged at his seat belt, making sure that it was securely fastened. He found it hard to believe that the seat belt would do much if something went wrong, but it was the only part of the warp jump that was under his control.

Thirty seconds later, as promised, they passed through the gate.

Movement flickered in the corner of his eye. The taste of the color purple across his tongue. A cold gaze stabbed through him, shoving against something intangible. For a heartbeat, Jonathan was convinced that the seatbelt was the only thing keeping him from spinning off into the universe forever, all alone. Then everything snapped back into place.

His seatbelt was just a seatbelt. The only taste in his mouth was the faint memory of breakfast. Jonathan looked around from side to side, but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"Warp complete. Welcome to the Orion star system."

The soothing voice coming through the intercom was the final confirmation that Jonathan needed that everything was back to normal. Jonathan let out a sigh of relief. The short transit through the warp gate had left him wrung out. And he was just a passenger. He couldn't imagine the pressure that was put on those superlative mech operators who were able to transit warp space on their own.

He still had some time before they'd arrive at the capital planet. Enough for a quick nap. Jonathan leaned his seat back and closed his eyes. He wanted to be at his best when he formally arrived at the Royal Academy.

ooOoo

"We have arrived at Orion station."

Jonathan blinked, the soft announcement just enough to rouse him from his nap. All around him, passengers were standing and lining up, ready to disembark. The landing had been so gentle that he hadn't even woken up when they touched down.

Jonathan yawned and moved through a few stretches as he came fully awake. He wasn't in any huge hurry. He didn't bother trying to break into the line that had begun to stream out of the ship. Instead, he only moved to stand up once the ship was empty except for a few stragglers like himself. He pulled his small backpack down from the overhead storage and slung it over his shoulder before he left.

His trunk had been earmarked for delivery to the Royal Academy directly from the ship. He'd put his few important mementos in his pack, leaving his changes of clothing to the mercy of the luggage system. It would be no big loss if something went wrong. Academy students were supposed to wear their school uniforms most of the time, anyway.

The space station serving the capital planet was massive. The map posted on the wall looked more like the map to a city than an airport. Fortunately, the Royal Academy was important enough to merit its own sign on the wall, mixed in with all of the arrows pointing to "Sector 7-G" and the like.

Jonathan followed the trail of signs until he reached the lobby devoted to the academy. The walls were decorated with mural paintings of the mechs that students would learn to pilot, at half life size but still towering over Jonathan's head. His access card granted him access to the secured area, once he passed through a short hallway and was scanned by some untold number of machines.

The Orion Star Kingdom took student safety very seriously. After all, the students of the Royal Academy represented the future of the kingdom. It would be a devastating blow if one of the kingdom's enemies were to take out such talented seedlings before they had a chance to blossom.

Of course, such total protection was only provided against outside threats. As Jonathan understood it, the Academy didn't mind a certain amount of rough and tumble as students sorted out issues amongst themselves. Even there the administration would likely step in if it looked like there was a serious risk of permanent harm, but the academy wasn't looking to raise a bunch of hothouse flowers. The Royal Academy's graduates were expected to stand up to the rigors of war, which started by proving their ability to stand out in competition amongst themselves.

Jonathan wasn't too sure how he was going to navigate that mess. With the Divine Piloting System backing him it would have been easy to swagger in and establish himself up as the king of the academy. If he needed actual pilot time in a real mech to earn more goodies from the system, though, then it was going to be a long time before he'd get anything more than the basic piloting package out of it.

Of course, he'd still be aiming for the top. He was honest enough to admit, though, that relying on his own strength to compete against the top prodigies selected from dozens of star systems was a chancy proposition.

Even worse, a sizable percentage of his score would depend on the performance of his battle team. There was more emphasis on individual strength on the battlefield as a mech pilot than there was back on Earth, but teamwork was still important. The Royal Academy reflected that by peppering in a heavy dose of team battle tests. Jonathan wasn't too confident in his own ability to sweet talk top students into joining his team.

Worst come to worst, he'd have to do his best to drag a team of mediocre students to the top with his fighting ability.

Perhaps the most logical move would be to keep his head down and find somebody to follow while he was at school. Don't start to make any waves until he had access to a real mech of his own. It made sense, but as an adult going through secondary schooling for the second time, Jonathan really couldn't imagine bowing his head and currying favor with some kid, no matter how wealthy or well connected.

The rigorous security procedures really brought it home to Jonathan that he was joining a serious military organization, stirring up the worries he'd been keeping in his heart. He did his best to toss them to the back of his mind as he stepped forward into a luxuriously appointed lounge. Ultimately, almost everything at the Royal Academy came down to piloting ability. It was silly to make plans when he had no idea how he would stack up with his classmates.

Nobody else was waiting in the lounge. Jonathan discovered why once he reached the front desk. Where the ships connecting ground and space back on Matoug had been set up like shuttle buses, the Royal Academy was equipped with the equivalent of space taxis. Small vessels that were meant to carry small groups to their destination, or even single passengers. Jonathan was soon seated in his own personal spaceship. The autopilot kicked in as soon as he buckled in, lifting the shuttle free of the station on a whisper smooth cushion of power.

They emerged from the space station above the night side of the planet. The surface below glittered like a jewel, bright city lights stretching to every inch of land. The planet Orion was the capital of a kingdom that measured its territory in light years. Real estate was too precious for any patch of land to resist development. Only government mandates had preserved the open oceans and what few stretches of greenery graced the planet's parks.

The shuttle moved swiftly, the endless city flying by beneath them a stark indicator of the sheer scale of the planet-sized city. Jonathan had spent some time in bustling metropolises back on Earth, but he still had a hard time wrapping his head around the idea of a single continuous stretch of urban development housing billions and billions of people.

Fortunately, he wasn't going to be forced to live elbow to elbow with the teeming masses. The Royal Academy was the size of a city in its own right, set apart from the rest of the planet by a security barrier that was no less deadly for its tasteful appearance.

They'd been catching up with the sun, but they didn't quite reach the daylit area of the planet-sized city before the shuttle began its final descent. The space taxi circled around the edge of the academy, giving Jonathan a chance to appreciate the view from the air as twilight fell over the campus.

The decorative towers surrounding the academy couldn't quite hide the muzzles of anti-aircraft weaponry that Jonathan was pretty sure were rated to reach the lower reaches of outer space. Banks of shield emitters were packed closely enough to create a military spec shield, which paired well with the hardened military spaceport inside the campus. Anybody bearing ill intentions for Royal Academy students would have their work cut out for them.

The campus defenses could only hold Jonathan's attention for a moment. The size of the academy was impressive, but the obvious care and attention that had gone into designing the buildings dotting the campus was just as remarkable. Bright lights gave Jonathan a great view as the shuttle flew low and slow towards his destination. Row after row of buildings dedicated to teaching, training, and student housing all passed underneath him. The Royal Academy only admitted two hundred students a year, but maintaining a galaxy-class training facility required a small army of instructors, mechanics, engineers, and other support personnel.

It was humbling to think that Jonathan, along with his small cadre of classmates, would soon be the focus of so much concerted effort.

The shuttle settled on the ground with a quiet thump. For a vehicle capable of traveling to and from orbit, it was a remarkably gentle landing. Jonathan stepped out and found himself in front of his assigned dormitory. The sun had just set, but the area was well lit. Nobody passed by as Jonathan stood there for a moment, absorbing the atmosphere. It seemed that taking the first available flight off Matoug had let Jonathan arrive on campus ahead of his peers.

He craned his neck to look up at the building before making his way inside. It was just as ostentatious as the rest of the campus. The Academy wouldn't put its students up in luxury—that would go against the purpose of military training, after all—but it certainly wasn't sparing any expense. From the imposing architecture to the meticulously clean entryway, just stepping through the front door was enough to make Jonathan straighten up and carry himself seriously.

A scan of his id card got him through the door. His trunk was waiting for him in the lobby, his id card allowing him to retrieve it from the storage nook. He pulled it behind him as he made the quick trip up the stairway and down a hall before arriving at the door to his own dorm.

Jonathan took a deep breath. He'd be rooming with a randomly assigned roommate for the first year at the Academy. It wasn't impossible to change rooms, but he had the impression that it was frowned upon. Luckily, Jonathan had gotten used to living with other people over the years at the orphanage. Now, he just hoped that his roommate was a reasonable person.

He scanned his card and opened the door to find something flying right at him. Without thinking, Jonathan snapped his hand forward. He felt the sting on his palm and closed his fingers automatically. When he realized what had happened, he was holding a metal ball about two inches from his nose.