Antonias and I strapped on backpacks filled with tanks of oxygen and other atmospheric gasses compressed in by a concentrator and grabbed the handheld spray thrusters that were each connected by a clear tube to the backpack’s air canister.

“Here you go, lords.” The Servus man behind a counter providing magnetic locking shoes said as he handed us boots after a long wait to find a size big enough for us. He had gone back into a closed off area to search for sizes fit for our Path’s expanded size.

“Thank you.” I said to him, though Antonias merely nodded to the man. Better than some I supposed. Most Imperators probably wouldn’t have acknowledged a lesser being’s service at all, taking work by a Servus as expected and without need for comment.

“So where is it?” I asked my friend.

“Through here.” Antonias said but when he led me into the adjacent room there was only grey walls. And glass circles in the floor. Twelve of them. They were faintly lit with bluish white light.

Antonias stood on one and motioned for me to do the same.

“Activate.” He commanded to some unseen computer system listening in on us and monitoring our movements with sensors. The glass disc under his feet dropped from under him, swiveling on a hinge. There was a suction sound and Antonias shot downwards.

I looked down warily. I couldn’t see the bottom of where the tube lead. It curved out of view a bit farther down.

“Activate.” I said.

The disc moved and I began to be sucked in with trepidation in my heart. In the instant that I transitioned from my feet being level with the floor and myself being waist deep in the pipe my Bronze reflexes kicked in and my arms moved unprompted to catch myself on the edges of the circle.

I breathed in. I was being a baby over this. Antonias did it and he was fine, I told myself. I just didn’t like the sensation of falling through a vacuum tube to parts unknown for an undetermined length of the trip.

“Man up. You’re on the Path of the Emperor.” I told myself and let go.

The vacuum force wrenched me downwards at high speeds, though when my broad shoulders touched the sides of the glass tube there was no friction against my skin. Some kind of coating sprayed or painted on to make it slicker than if it had been greased up with cooking oil. Every ten feet there was a blue-white LED light that illuminate the inside of the glass construction. The lights zipped by quickly as I moved through the tube. Outside of the glass was the metal of the innards of the ship.

As I was whipped left and right and down and upwards, I began to get a little annoyed. This seemed impractical. Why didn’t the ship just have a simple airlock entrance to the zero gravity room?

I heard a sound distantly. On a whim, I lowered the comforting sounds of the light rain of the storm in my hearing and reached out with my senses. It was Antonias, whooping and laughing.

“Oh,” I said, feeling sheepish. This was supposed to be fun. Why couldn’t I enjoy this like he did? Why was I always so rigid, so practical, so frigid? Tullia Cantion had said my new form fit me, that it was as cold and statuesque as my personality. I resolved to take things lighter. It wasn’t like this was like Shine, intoxicating and overwhelming me, it was okay to have a little fun.

I forced a grin as the air shrieked past me, as silly as it felt. I noticed light coming from ahead. A second later, my tube shot out of the metal enclosure of the inner walls and barriers of the ship and from the glass tube I looked down to see a section of the central promenade. People were walking down below, children were playing in fountains, Servi were being seated in outdoor seating of little cafes and restaurants. I saw Antonias ahead of me and the twelve tubes interwove and danced around each other, then suddenly darting together towards the floor of the promenade.

We went through an enclosed forest, the tubes wrapped with ivy and flower vines, and I was once again plunged into the dimmer light of the LEDs as I was surrounded by metal. I saw more light ahead, a colder white than the warmer shades of the promenade and felt pressure push against me to slow me down. I shot out of the glass tube into an immense white room. A quarter of it was clear so that the occupants of the zero gravity room could see outwards into the void. In front of the viewing glass as well as the white illuminated walls was metal grating for our magnetic locking boots to secure themselves.

Antonias and I spiraled in the gravity less expanse and I remembered my handheld controlled sprayers. I let out little spurts of gas and stabilized my spin until I was floating idly in the air. There were obstacles in the room, hovering via some gravitational manipulating mechanism, and Antonias danced around one in circles, angling the thrusters in his hands to simulate orbit.

I put my hands behind me and sent myself rocketing forward towards the viewing glass on the side the ship. As I neared it, I slowed my descent so that I would land lightly like a cat on the metal gridwire in front of the glass. My magnetic boots locked on with a beep. I found there were little red buttons on the handheld thrusters that deactivated the boots one at a time. The left controlled the left boot’s magnetic lock and the right handheld managed the right boot’s attraction. I got the hang of it quickly, pressing the buttons one at a time as I walked along the metallic webbing.

In zero gravity, there was not truly an up or a down, one merely constructed their own understanding of direction as they adapted. While I had just entered the zero room, the glass side had appeared to be forward, straight across the room, but now as I stood on the metal that partially obscured the view beyond, I found that it felt very much like space was below me and that the rest of the ship and the central promenade that ran all the way through the large cruiser was above me.

I walked, lost in my thoughts. I was a bit worried, but I had previously hidden that feeling deep down inside me. I believed I had the stuff to make it through the Scholarium’s fitness and physiological baseline tests that preceded the examination of our mental abilities, but I was not so sure about the others I had brought with me. Toni, Caesia, and Kato were all Bronzes now, and I had made them to the best of my ability, but they weren’t quite my equals. I was not sure I was going to be the peak of those prospective students that came and applied to become officer Strategos of the Solar Guard, there was too much power and money secreted away in the most prominent Imperator families. They could train with the best teachers, would have genetic engineering done on them, would have the constant benefit of Refounding pills like the ones I had Antonias take should they damage themselves in anyway.

In other words, their Foundations were going to be rock solid and inhuman even by Imperator standards. What if Antonias, Caesia, and Kato did not make the cut? I would be left all alone without friends or allies when many of my potential peers would have established relationships and alliances with each other. I could easily find myself boxed out or at risk of sabotage by others. I needed my friends with me, both the Imperators and Livia, if I wanted to succeed. The Pit Below, if I wanted to be happy at the very least I needed them.

Antonias landed behind me.

“You look moody.” He commented.

“It’s nothing, Toni.” I dismissed.

“Let’s play a game then.” Antonias said.

“What kind of game?” I asked.

“Unlock battle mode.” Antonias ordered his handheld thrustors. A little silver button rose next to the red one that controlled our magnetic boots on his right thrustor.

“What’s that do?” I said.

He smirked and pointed it at me and pressed the silver button. A green beam like a laser but made of some other energy than photons projected out and struck me. It didn’t hurt much, but I didn’t think it was supposed to for Imperators. It went through my clothes and gave a mild stinging sensation at most.

“Seems rather strong if it can make us feel anything at all. They let Servi play with this?” I said.

“They would feel the same thing, I think. The beam activates pain receptors regardless of how durable you are.” Antonias said.

He kicked off and shot me again and I returned fire and then began evasive maneuvers, darting along the metal grid webbing with my fingers furiously tapping and releasing the controls for the magnetic boots as I ran at superhuman speeds.