Chapter 01

  A Familiar Face

  2136 A.S. (2034 A.D.)

  Mira blocked Stephen’s attack, hitting his arm off to the side. His blonde hair pulsed blue again as he went in for a second, but she skirted it too. Embers from the blue flame coating his dark-skinned arms flew about, brushing past her purple ones.

  Mira shook the short brown strands of her hair out of her face. Promptly, she spun in the air and extended her legs, hitting Stephen square in the chest and shooting him backwards.

  He flailed, wobbling his arms back and forth, illuminating dark blue circles around him.

  Mira wound up a punch, ready to fly in for a strike as he was still struggling to reorient himself.

  Stephen braced himself, holding his arms up, manifesting a thin blue plasma shield to protect his chest and face.

  Mira cracked a grin as she flew forward, her incoming fist a radiant purple. Before she could make contact, though, she heard a whistling sound in her earpiece. She snapped out of her motion to reach up and twist away the disconcerting noise. The flames on her arm fizzled out. Below her, she saw her instructor, Rigel, standing at the edge of the spherical combat pit. His whistle hung out of his mouth, steaming with a thin blue dust.

  The combat pit was one of six in the high-ceilinged, Leftward Training Hall located at Helyx Academy. The monotone spheres indented into the ceilings and floors with diameters of up to 100 ft., giving ample space for dueling.

  Her instructor waved her over.

  Mira scoffed and flew down to her one-armed teacher, close enough to see the pale gray nova scars that patterned his darker skin and his matching gray irises. “What did I mess up this time, Rigel?” she asked with a hint of annoyance.

  “I love your spirit, but we're training your maneuvers, not your strength. Also, I’d rather Stephen not be killed,” he replied, a half-smile on his face.

  “Fine,” she grumbled. It was getting tiring to hear the same complaint over and over again. She was strong; why shouldn’t she show it? Stephen could take it. He was fairly strong too, at least relative to everyone else.

  Rigel raised the silver whistle to his mouth to reinitiate the training sequence. Before he could, the sliding doors behind him whooshed open. Rigel looked back.

  A man with pointed black hair, peachy skin, and robes made for a government official stepped through the doorway. A light blue sash denoted his strength as a Class IV star. It was two classes below Mira and one below Stephen.

  A broken cough rang through Mira’s earpiece as Rigel choked on his whistle.

  Mira turned down the volume on her earpiece, grimacing at the sound. “Who is that?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. "Do I know him?” She felt like he was familiar somehow. Not familiar in the sense that she’d met him before but that she’d seen his face in a picture or in a textbook.

  “Get back to training,” Rigel prompted.

  Mira gave him a confused look but did as she was told, meeting back up with Stephen in the center of the training pit.

  “Who is that?” Stephen asked the same as her.

  “Doesn't he look familiar?” Mira questioned.

  Stephen shrugged, squinting his eyes.

  The man was talking to Rigel. It did not appear to be a conversation he was enjoying.

  “Could be, I don’t know,” Stephen responded. “Rigel sure seems to know.”

  Rigel gave a subtle wave to them to continue their practice.

  Mira smirked and made the first strike with a purple palm, hitting an unreadied Stephen in his side.

  “Oh, no fair!” he yelled. Stephen’s fists burst into flames, and he readied a counterattack.

  Mira braced herself as he came with a fistful of deep blue flame. She parried his attack, bouncing to the side. Stephen rolled forward, and Mira gave him a gentle smack on the back.

  Stephen yelped and somersaulted in the air. From opposite her, he sent his legs towards her chest.

  She dodged the first, but the second struck her shoulder. Pushing back, she made a twirl in the air and came down on Stephen with her elbow. She hit him in the cheek, sending him spiraling downward.

  Stephen surrendered, making a ‘T’ sign with his fingers. He rubbed his cheek. The inflammation caused it to glow a bright navy blue. It was the same color as the plasma that filled his veins.

  Mira put out her fists. She looked up to Rigel. The man beside him was still making conversation as he watched them duel.

  “Watch the face,” Rigel mouthed to her.

  The man tapped the railway to the combat pit and appeared to say one last thing to Rigel before turning away. The doors glided open as he exited the training hall without looking back.

  Rigel didn’t watch as he left, his eyes staying on the pit at some fixed point behind them.

  Mira flew over to Rigel, landing at the pit edge, pulling her feet to the ground, and shifting her inner energy in her body to simulate standing, despite the zero gravity of their space habitat. “So what’s the story?” she asked.

  Rigel shook his head and sighed. “Ophiuchus is doing another review of their facilities. That man’s the worst of them.” His cheeks flushed gray with regret. “Don’t tell anyone I said that.”

  “Who is he, though?” Mira asked. “I know I’ve seen him before.”

  Rigel sighed. “Yeah, he’s a pretty big name in the Greater Systems, Legate Castor. I guess you heard about him in one of your classes.”

  She had heard that name. She lit up.

  “Mira, no!” Rigel blurted, now realizing what she was about to do.

  Mira burst out the door of the room at rocket speed, not allowing Rigel any time to catch her.

  Stephen landed beside Rigel, scratching his head.

  Mira dove from the platform just outside the doorway and into the open, gliding hallways of Helyx Academy. The patterns on the rounded hallways whizzed past her as she flew. The blue glow of their nebula from the above and below skylights illuminated the passageways. Behind her she left a trail of purple embers. She looked for any sign of Castor, now wanting to meet the famed man in person.

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  “Watch it!” A dark blue star yelled, fumbling her books as Mira zipped past her.

  Mira didn’t stop to apologize or collect any of the books now floating about the passageways.

  She paused at an intersection in the corridors. Looking to the left, she could see a figure deep in the tunnel. Squinting her eyes, she could make out embers of light blue flame. She darted towards the silhouette.

  The figure stopped at the dock to another door and pushed at it with an open hand of light blue flame.

  Mira sped up, not wanting to miss him, pulling to a stop just in front of the dock.

  Castor looked down at her, a little puzzled. “So what do you want?” the man asked.

  “You’re Legate Castor!” Mira blurted.

  “Yes?” the man responded, eyeing her up and down in confusion.

  “I’m Mira,” she replied. She showed him her color, flashing her purple flame. His eyes lit up for a second.

  “Shouldn’t you be training?” Castor questioned, looking away as if uninterested.

  Mira nodded.

  He waved her away.

  She was confused, thinking he’d be more interested in what she had to offer. “I just want to know why you’re here,” Mira inquired, hoping it had something to do with her.

  “I’m sure that’ll reveal itself soon enough,” he said with a smirk, then entered into his doorway, closing it almost to a slam behind him.

  **BREAK**

  Mira glided with Stephen through the hallways, her arms crossed, occasionally looking up through the starward windows to look at the dark blue nebula that they called home. The white dwarf star Helyx stood center, its ominous gray glow distorted blue through the dust.

  “I think I really fucked it,” she said with a groan, drooping her head.

  “It's probably just how he is,” Stephen replied. “No point getting upset over it.”

  “How could he not be interested? I’m the only person with a purple flame, the only one, Stephen.”

  “No way, really!? Why haven’t you ever told me?” Stephen replied in his own way of lightening the mood.

  She rolled her eyes at him. “Whatever, I'm going back to the training hall.”

  “Huh?” Stephen questioned. “We were just there.”

  “I need more practice,” she said. “Without the old man looking over my shoulder.”

  Stephen sighed. “You do you. I think I’m headed to the library. I kind of want to read something.”

  Mira raised an eyebrow. “Ok, you do you,” she mimicked him.

  Mira flew back to the left wing training hall, landing at the dock. The doors slid open, revealing the large gallery of training outlets. Outside of the six large pits that lined the central region of the room were several matted arenas enhanced with gravity training, and along the walls were long and short corridors used for a variety of range-based plasma training.

  She walked into the large room and tried to find an open pit. Of the six in the room, they all appeared to be taken. Mira pouted. Scheduling had seemed to get more and more hectic over the years, and Helyx had not grown to accommodate it quickly enough. It used to be common to have a full pit to yourself for hours; now they were never not full. Mira was of the opinion that Helyx needed to cut back on recruitment. Most of these stars wouldn’t last a day on a battlefield full of the Ruber anyway. Focus should’ve been on the ones that counted, like herself. She had no plans as to what she would do, but she was just hoping to get noticed next time Castor paid a visit.

  She decided on one of the gravity arenas, floating over to an empty mat in the back left of the room. Hanging from a rack beside it, she removed one of the gravity suits and strapped it over her baggy training clothes. She pressed down onto the mat. The foam compressed under her feet. With a soft beep in her earpiece, she was pulled with the strength of a planet. She stabilized herself as she accommodated the magnetic tug between her suit and the mat. The technology was pioneered by Helyx and still remained fairly exclusive across the Greater Systems.

  She posed in a battle-ready stance and let flames sprout through the mesh of the suit’s gloves, coating them in the liquid purple flame. Twirling in the arena, she tried to repeat maneuvers she had learned in the past, landing kicks and hits in the open space, pretending her opponent was just opposite her.

  Through the hour she trained, she continued to look back at the doorway, hoping she’d see Castor walk in. She hit in front of her, leaving a colorful streak of purple that quickly dissipated. She gritted her teeth.

  A girl walked past her arena on her way towards the exit, her put-up, almost black hair bobbing with each step.

  “You!” Mira motioned to her. “Get up here.” The girl looked up to her, startled.

  “Sorry?” she questioned.

  “Choose a weapon, fight me!”

  “Oh,” the girl responded, a hint of nervousness in her tone. "I was actually just leaving.”

  “A quick one,” Mira replied. "Come on, that’s what we’re here for, right?” Mira looked at her in a way to arouse intimidation.

  The girl gulped. Most people in the academy knew who Mira was and usually weren’t keen on initiating any kind of duel with her, aware of her strength.

  “Don’t cower. What’s the point of training if you’re not going to use it? I’ll let you choose a weapon.”

  “A quick one, I guess,” the girl replied, feeling she had no choice in the matter. Shaking, she put on the gravity suit and took a weapon from the adjacent rack, picking up a staff. She glided into the arena, a light blue, almost white flame emitting from her, the same color as her eyes.

  Mira smiled, an easy opponent for her.

  The girl stood at the other end of the arena with her staff held upwards, crackling in her blue-white flame.

  Mira positioned herself. “Ready—go,” she said, not giving her opponent much time to process that the battle had started. Mira dashed towards her, and the girl was successfully able to fend off the first slashes with her staff. Mira rolled back and up. She dove forward, fist first towards the girl, knocking her staff almost out of her hands, but she managed to keep her grip.

  The girl was too frightened to respond and still stood there cowering.

  Mira extended her leg and kicked the staff, finally knocking it out of the girl's hands. Mira landed down with a pose and dropped her flames. “Good battle, try to be less defensive next time.”

  The girl nodded.

  Mira thought it kind to not mention she had restrained her strength to give her a chance.

  “Yeah, good battle,” she muttered, clearly shaken up, her eyes wide.

  Mira leaned towards her and went in for a handshake. The girl jumped. “I don’t bite,” she said. The girl hesitantly took her hand. “What’s your name?”

  “Sola."

  “Mira. You probably knew that though.”

  The girl nodded.

  Mira dropped the handshake and stretched her neck. As she did, she caught a glimpse of the sliding door to see the man enter. Castor. He was walking up to one of the pits, locating an instructor. Two dark blue stars were dueling in it. It was evident to her now that Castor was at Helyx with the intention of finding strong stars, maybe to recruit for the next offensive on the Red Star Alliance, the Ruber.

  “One more battle,” Mira blurted, pointing to the girl, arm extended. She had already exited the arena, hoping to get out of there.

  “What?” The girl questioned as she was putting away the staff.

  “One more,” Mira said. "I’m giving you another shot.” The girl gulped but still felt obligated to nod in acceptance. She removed the staff once again from the rack and reentered the arena.

  They both took their positions.

  “Go!” Mira shouted. She punched at the girl with more force in her fists than before. The staff in her hands just about broke in two, but she held it firm for the moment, until Mira made one final slash, knocking both the staff and the girl to the ground. Mira looked back to Castor, who was still preoccupied with the other pit. Mira shook her head. She held up her hand to pick the girl off the ground. She lifted her up and motioned for her to ready up again.

  Sola did so, shivering, and Mira took a few steps up, readying an attack. She moved forward, and with just one slash, she hit the staff out of the girl’s hands. Caught up in the moment, eyes closed, Mira didn’t forfeit her next move and went in for another attack. Firing up her left leg, she extended it forward, hitting the girl square in the chest.

  With a flash through the air, the girl sped upwards from the force of the kick. She hit the back gray metal wall. The sound of metal warping rattled Mira’s earpiece.

  Mira opened her eyes to see the remnant flames from where the girl had stood. She looked up to see the girl compressed into the back wall, lying numb inside it. The area around where she landed had deep cracks, and the metal was indented outward. Sola's flame fizzled in agony.

  “Oh shit,” Mira whispered. Mira looked back at Castor. She couldn’t make out his reaction, but the other instructor was making her way towards her, understandably frightened. Castor turned to leave and walked out of the training room, the door sliding closed behind him.

  “Shit,” she said again, a little louder.