The only reason Jaylen made it through the day was because of Anu and Niven, bearing the load of the hell together. Without them, he wasn’t sure if he’d make it.
At 0730, they were in a classroom. Captain Bran was the teacher. Their studies were mundane, going over the politics of the Citadel and various races, the million year war, and Jour history before and after the war.
All things Jaylen learned in school, but this time he answered the questions Captain Bran wanted answered, earning him good favor.
The older cadets in the class didn’t do as well as some of them hadn’t been in a classroom for hundreds of years.
At 1300, it was another meal with the same old gruel.
Between 1330-1700, were more classes, classes where Jaylen barely paid attention.
At 1700, they had their last meal of the day, but this time he had blue gruel.
Between 1730 and 2200 was more training, where they learned hand-to-hand combat. Captain Bran would show them a technique and ordered them to spar with each other on the beach and to defeat their opponents with that technique. Even though Jaylen had never been in a fight before, he was a quick learner and quickly rose to the top as the most skilled fighter in the group.
Afterward they would train some more. It was during that period toward the end of the three weeks when Niven broke.
Jaylen and Niven were running toward the back of the formation during a run. Sweat covered Niven’s face, he huffed and heaved through each step. Jaylen noticed that there were some who struggled more than the others during physical training.
It was the older ones who had the hardest time. As they had used their star power for the most of their lives, the power strengthening their bodies, they relied on it.
Without it, they started to revert back to ‘normal’. Their muscles weakened, their skin pulled back, they started to age at an abnormal rate. Niven looked hundreds of years older.
Jaylen worried for him and made it known but Niven just smiled back and told him he was fine.
But that today was different; they were coming to the end of the first three weeks and Niven fell to his knees.
“Niven!” Jaylen yelled.
“I can’t…I can’t do this anymore!” Niven gasped.
A halt was called as Captain Bran strolled up to them.
“Get up cadet!”
“No! I’ll get up on my own.” Niven stood. “I’m done taking your bullshit orders! Screw this training and screw you!”
Jaylen placed a hand on Niven’s shoulder but it was shrugged off. Captain Bran didn’t balk.
“What are we even doing here? This isn’t special. I didn’t sign up to be a god damn soldier!” Niven roared.
The formation stood at attention, making an effort to stare forward. Captain Bran finally spoke, “If you don’t want to stay, you may leave.”
Niven paused and stared into Captain Bran’s eyes. Everyone knew what that meant. In the weeks they’ve been there, there hadn’t been a day where a ship had flown over the horizon, not a single speck of outside life had shown itself. They were isolated on this island with Captain Bran and Niven knew it.
Of the six who had quit before Niven’s outburst, none of them were ever seen again. Yet, Jaylen never heard a single ship or craft in the sky.
Jaylen believed whoever had quit was certainly dead. Niven would be been the seventh. But then Niven simply stood up straight and walked back into formation. They started the run again.
At 2200, it was lights out. There were no specific orders to stay in bed after 2200. It was just that after a full day of training, most passed straight out.
Most nights, Jaylen didn’t sleep in his bed. He’d leave the barracks and go to the beach. It was only a short walk. He had a difficult time getting there as there were no lights in the sky to guide him and no moon to light his path. But he remembered the path from when Bran ran them through the area.
After the first few days it became simple. He sat and leaned against a tree at the edge of the beach, the white sand cold against his legs as he looked up into the starless night.
He couldn’t see a thing in the sky, but it was comforting in a way. All he could hear was the ocean crashing into the white sands. There was a spark of light in the distance, dancing with the black, a sunfish. They danced as if they were wisp of light whisked away into the air.
Jaylen felt something out there in the blackness, it wasn’t the stars or the planets, but something different. He wasn’t sure of what it was, but he liked the feeling. As he watched the sunfish and wondered what was beyond the black, he feel asleep.
He dreamed of turquoise seas and turquoise skies. But they were different, the waves of the sea were surrounded by the black, the turquoise skies imprinted with sparkling jade gems. It was beautiful.
Every time he woke, his eyes were studded with tears.
The sun rose early on this planet, the light woke Jaylen just in time for him to be back for roll call. It was like that for exactly three weeks. He would go through his training, fall asleep on the beach and wake up to do it all again.
But the day after the third week everything changed.
Jaylen was awoken by the sun once again, the sun crested higher than usual in the sky. It was way past 0400, he overslept.
“Crap!” he yelled. He wiped the sand off himself and made a mad dash for the barracks.
He tumbled into the barracks, barely breaking a sweat. It looked like all that training actually helped him.
“What the…” Jaylen muttered. Everyone was still asleep, he ran over to Anu and shook her up.
“Argh…What is it?” she groaned.
“The sun’s out.”
She jumped up. “What? What time is it!?”
Sunlight poured into the room, they were always awake by sun rise.
“Nice of you to join us, Mr. Lonel.” Captain Bran sat in a chair at the far end of the room. He stood.
“Everyone up!” he shouted. Everyone stumbled up to attention. “Starting from now on, you will report in formation for class at 0700, it is currently 0500. I don’t care what you do until then. Welcome to the second part of your training.”
He walked toward the door. “I’m proud of you cadets, most of you naturally woke up around 0400.” He glanced at Anu, who looked away.
“Hope you use that time efficiently.” He left.
Anu said, “Three hours. Well, I’m up.”
Jaylen thought there wouldn’t be anything to do but when the cadets were asleep, Captain Bran did something magical and opened up five more stalls for showers and toilets. They simply appeared in the walls.
The next two hours were a rush to use the new facilities, but the pushing and shoving were unneeded as they’ve gotten so used to taking thirty-second showers that all of them were freshly clean and dry by the end of the first hour.
With only one more hour to go, Anu and Niven sat on Jaylen’s bed with him.
“Part two? Part two?” Niven repeated.
“Can you stop repeating that?” Anu asked.
“Not until I figure out what the second part of our training has in store.”
“If you don’t shut up I’m—“
Jaylen interrupted, “Can you two stop?”
“What do you expect us to do for two hours? Except for argue I guess?” Niven asked.
“Literally anything else.”
As if on cue, the familiar sound of ion engines echoed outside. Everybody ran out of the barracks. The sky was littered with Jour ships, all coming toward the island. One passed only a few hundred feet above them.
Jaylen was the first to speak, “Who are they?”
“They’re someone to fucking talk to.” Nobody noticed that Captain Bran was sitting outside of the barracks the entire time. “This base will become active again, three weeks late,” he stated.
He turned to the cadets. “Before 0700 and after 2200, you will have free time, you will be responsible for your own breakfast and studies. There wil
l be no more hand-holding or coddling. At 0700 you will undergo understanding training, at 1000 we will do more physical training. Between 1200-1300 will be your free time, I suggest that you eat lunch. At 1300, your studies will resume and between 1600-1800, will be your specialty training. And afterwards is your free time before lights out. How you spend your time is up to you, understood?”
They all snapped to attention. “Yes sir!”
…
Jaylen, Anu, and Niven made their way to the mess hall. It was filled with soldiers of many kinds, officers and infantry. Captain Bran told the recruits that they were to be officers, or they would be when their training finished.
As enlisted passed them, they were saluted. So as to not look out of place, Jaylen saluted officers as they made their way to the food compositors. Anu and Niven quickly followed suit.
“Finally!” Anu said in glee. Jaylen and Niven stood next to her as she yelled. Jaylen stared at the food compositor; they now had almost every choice of food in the galaxy.
As Jaylen sat down with the others, he noticed nobody was sitting near them, only other cadets.
But he didn’t let that get to him and enjoyed his meal anyway.
When 0700 rolled around, all of the cadets were standing in formation in front of the barracks.
Captain Bran walked up behind them. “Good, I don’t have to yell at anyone. Forward march!”
He marched them to the opposite side of the island to a makeshift building on the beach.
It had not been there before.
Inside, it looked like a regular-class room with desk and chairs, but in front there was only a table with a white board on it and a man standing behind it.
“Please take a seat and we will begin your class of understanding,” the instructor said. Captain Bran left as they sat. Jaylen, Anu and Niven sat next to each other.
“This will be a little different from what you were taught in school, we’re not going to teach you which subject of understanding you’re best at or even improving your understanding of time itself. But we will teach you to understand the unseen, the true universe.”
Niven leaned over to Jaylen, “What kind of pseudo crap is this?” he whispered.
“Quiet, you.”
Niven stiffened in his seat.
“Now, since growing your power of understanding is only possible with use and becoming perceptive of understanding is difficult. We will be training you on a one on one basis.”
The class stirred.
“But before you get too excited, while I’m working with one person, you all will sit and watch.”
Niven rested his head on the desk. “This is going to be boring. I’m almost an ascended, I already know how to understand,” he whispered.
“Well, you can give me a pointer or two,” Anu replied.
“Oh, yeah? I got a pointer for you…Wake me up when the instructor calls on me.”
The instructor finished his speech, “Only Jahum and a few choice others have the power to see thousands of years in the future. The church of understanding and most of us pine for that power, to see into the future so we can change it. All the while only being able to see a few hours or days into a possible future that might not come true. I say, why pine for something unreachable, when there are so many things to understand in the present that could change our future. So for our first exercise.”
He pulled out a metallic gray blob and placed it on the table and stretched and molded it into a long rectangular prism. It then shifted into a cylinder and then into a triangular prism. He picked it up and placed it behind the white board on the desk.
“You will use your power of understanding to guess what shape this object is behind the board. First up, Niven Dastnamel.”
Niven’s head popped up. He walked to the front of the room with a confident stride.
“Now watch how he makes his guess, how he uses his power of understanding. Niven, you have five minutes.”
A rush of air brushed against Jaylen. He glanced up at the vents on the ceiling, why did they turn it on, it was freezing inside and it wasn’t even hot outside yet.
The instructor placed a timer on the table, counting down from five minutes. Niven stared at the board, his confident smile fading. He stared at it for the full five minutes until the timer went off.
“Niven, your answer? I will know if you were guessing or not.” Niven’s face showed conflicting thoughts. He still didn’t answer. “Niven.”
“Umm…Tri—no—cylinder, it’s the cylinder,” he said.
The instructor revealed a rectangular prism.
“Wrong, now take a seat.”
Niven slumped back to his desk, Anu had a grin on her face. “So about that pointer—“
“Shut it.”
Jaylen laughed.
The instructor placed the whiteboard back. “Just because you think you understand means that you don’t truly understand a thing. There are many types of understanding, don’t get cocky.” The class laughed.
Anu was next, but she had the same result as Niven. A whole lot of staring and no results. After half of the class failed, it was Jaylen’s turn.
As he approached the table, he noticed the air conditioning turning back on. Every time a cadet went up, the AC turned on, and when they failed, it turned off again.
Jaylen stood in front of the table, staring at the board.
“You have five minutes.” The instructor reset the timer and it counted down.
Jaylen concentrated. What little control he had of understanding came to him. His senses amplified, he smelled the pungent air, he heard the ion engines roaring outside, tasted the salt in the air from the ocean.
That was the extent of his power to understand. He stared at the board.
The air conditioning roared harder, the hairs on his arms straightened. He felt the air blowing across them. The air blew straight past him and into the wall. His hairs swayed from the moving air. He closed his eyes and stood still while the air swirled around his body.
He felt every intricate movement, every slight variance of temperature as the AC was cycling through the air. Then he opened his eyes, he could see it. The air, the wind. It was still invisible to the natural eye, but he felt the motions, the waves wrapping around him and the object behind the board.
The air twisted and twirled around its smooth circular sides, unheeded by nonexistent corners.
“Cylinder.”
The instructor looked at him. “Correct.” He hit the timer, it stopped with three minutes to spare.
“Go have a seat, you will be present until every one of your classmates guesses correctly.”
Niven yelled, “That’s crap!”
The instructor simply smiled and called up the next person. Jaylen sat down and Anu smiled. “Congrats, mister perfect.”
“Thanks.”
Niven didn’t say a word.
As all of his comrades failed, Jaylen studied them. There was a reason the air was going on and off. It was to help them, without it he believed he would’ve failed. As the day went on, Jaylen was the only one to pass.
No one else noticed the small help they were getting, and after class no one asked for his help; Anu was the only one that spoke to him, even Niven closed himself off.
The very next day, Niven passed with only a minute to spare and Anu the next day. Not all used the movements of the air, some used other things based on their level of understanding.
Jaylen noticed that the ones who hadn’t, didn’t have that intricate tic or flicker, their hair didn’t stand up on their skin. He didn’t know how they found out what was behind the board, but he knew they didn’t use the wind.
At the end of the first week of class, everybody passed. By that point, Jaylen’s level of understanding had risen exponentially, he could tell what was behind the board without the cues of the air, he just knew.
As the last person passed the test and sat down, the instructor spoke, “On to our next lesson.” The instruct
or pulled out two pieces of large round orange fruit. They started to glow.
“Everything in this universe is made out of energy, everything has a source of life, a source of power. If you cut off the source then its life will cease.”
The instructor released the glowing fruits and they floated in place. He pulled out a knife and struck the left one. It exploded into a blue powder, dissolving instantly.
“Severing the beings source will instantly destroy it. But—“
He stabbed the last fruit and it detonated into a blue light and blew him back into the board. Jaylen shielded his eyes. When he lowered his hands, the instructor stood before them without a mark.
“But sometimes the source is as small as an atom, if you miss it, the results can be dire. For study, you will take one of these fruit and find out its natural movements and tomorrow you will make it disappear from existence.”
That night, Jaylen lay on the beach with his fruit in hand, holding it against the backdrop of the starless night. Unbelievable, he could finally see the night. Just a little. As ion engines lit up the sky, crossing like shooting stars, it provided light. Sadly, it wasn’t so peaceful anymore.
He couldn’t figure it out, the inner workings of the fruit. How could a piece of fruit have energy? How could it have a pulse, a flow? How could it live? He fell asleep, never finding the answer to his question.
He dreamed of a turquoise sea once again, the turquoise waves were as vicious as ever. As if they were trying to drown the ships of the sky. Then they just stopped, the turquoise frozen against the black and a single steady spark floated in the sky.
The sun bathed Jaylen and he woke up in a daze. His dream was strange. That had never happened before.
He glanced at the sun light fighting the shadows in the sand. The light of the sun not yet touching the base as the sun rose. The sun woke him up at the same point every morning. Even after a month, the light hit his eyes at the same time.
He was starting to think this planet didn’t have seasons, but it ran on a twenty-four and a half hour cycle. He looked up at the sun, instead of the usual shying away as a person would do if they stared into a ball of heat, he peered right into it. It didn’t burn or blind his eyes, but he took in all its glory: The heat swirling around inside it, the waves of molten heat, the flares ripping off its surface.
Chaos in the Starless Nights (In A Universe Without Stars book 1.5) Page 5