Guardians Academy

After getting a few more details and chatting with Mom a bit more, Cody ended the call and went to do a few more missions. The next day, he went for his first class in Rudimentary Telepathy.

In this era of Gate travel, Psionic abilities were not rare. Learning the usage of Psionic energy was a matter of training and practice. Just about everyone could do it if they had access to a good teacher with some time and effort. While just about every human had at least a little Psionic ability, few had high levels of Psionic strength.

In the Core Worlds of human space, about one in a hundred would have enough Psionic strength to broadcast thoughts to entire groups at a time. About one in a thousand would be able to send images and memories from mind to mind. About one in a million had the power to cause illusions and hallucinations or to mess with dreams. About one in a hundred million could use Psionic energy to form substantial energy fields, like Psi Blades.

But if it was just sending mental messages from one mind to another, assuming both were intending to communicate discreetly, well, that was definitely within the scope of the common man. It was a useful if somewhat clumsy tool.

This was especially true in the GNF. Out in the Frontier, estimates tagged Psionics in the Galactic North Frontier to be easily thrice as common as the Core Worlds. More than half of the Top Hundred Psionics List of the last decade were from the GNF. One quarter more were from the Galactic North-East Frontier.

So Cody learned how to send Psionic messages, via one-to-one telepathy.

As for how to do it, exactly… if you want him to tell you, you'd have to pay fifty Academy credits.

What? Fifty? But Cody only paid forty! He took the class when it was on offer, 10 credits off!

But Cheryl insisted. Their instructor in this class was a small, breezy Floran teenage girl with a gentle temperament unless you argued back, in which case, it got explosive. She made all of them promise that if they were ever to share these techniques with anyone, they would charge them fifty credits as a base rate. New Student Intake discounts were subsidized by the Academy, so in Cheryl's case, she would still earn fifty credits per student, even though they only paid forty each.

"I'll give you a hint, Cody, since you're a fellow Floran." She added, as class was ending. "You should test your potential at an official institute and see if you can develop your Psionic abilities for advanced use. I suspect you might have quite a bit of potential with Psionics. A lot of Florans do. A lot of us even use Psionics in combat."

"How does it work in combat?" Cody asked.

"Generally speaking, most people use it as an extra option, a way to supplement their main combat style. At the very least, you might be able to distract your opponent." Cheryl explained. "But some few really powerful Psionics use it as their main combat line. For example, I have a friend named Sarai. Half the time, her opponents run away screaming without her having to even lift a finger. Of course, she says it's actually more tiring to make them hallucinate, but every enemy she ever had swears they'd rather brawl a guy twice their size than face Nightmare. Yes, that's her nickname and her call sign. She's also a pilot."

"Wow. Just how strong is she in Psionics?"

"Two months ago, she was rated a Class 6 Psionic. Even teacher Ilayn, the strongest Psionic Instructor in the Academy, is rated a Class 7."

"What about you?"

"I'm only a Class 3."

"And me?"

"You're not even rated yet."

Incidentally, as he and his classmates were leaving class for the day, Melinda and Laila arrived. "Hi, we're here for class! Has it already started?"

"It's… just ended." Cody gulped.

"What?!" Melinda's face fell.

"Melinda! Laila! Get over here, you're early!" Cheryl waved.

"But we just finished!" Cody protested.

"You did. They're just about to start." Cheryl said. "Yours was the boys class. Theirs is for girls. It's different."

"How is it different?"

"Girls think differently." Cheryl said mysteriously

"But you taught us just fine."

"Yes, but I had to teach you differently." She said, and left it at that.

***

Finally, it was time to head to Silver City. Cody went over to the shuttle pad and looked around in a lost manner, not sure who to talk to or what.

"Are you all right, Cody?" Elder T was there, eyeing him worriedly.

"Um… I have a job at Silver City, and I'm supposed to take a shuttle there, but I'm not sure how."

"Oh, you have to go to the Departures counter over there." Elder T pointed. "You'll have to check in with them, then you'll be brought to the waiting area until the shuttle is ready for boarding. Do you have any luggage, vehicles or pets to bring? Anything other than what you're carrying by hand?"

"Uh… no, just what I have on me now." Cody said.

"Just your clothes and a fishing rod?" Elder T eyed him. "Are you sure you're going to be okay doing a mission at Silver City?"

"My brother and his friends will be there. He said they'd make sure I was fine." Cody mentioned dubiously.

"What friends are those?"

"Some guys named Elliot and Aki."

Elder T let out a low whistle. "I wouldn't expect you to survive with Aki, but if Elliot and Cyril together are watching out for you, then…"

Cody waited, but Elder T never finished her sentence. She just nodded to herself and walked away, leaving Cody all by himself at the shuttle port.

"I guess… I should go to the Departures Counter." He said, and went over.

***

After check-in, and a short wait at the waiting area, they boarded.

The bamboo pole had to be stowed in the cargo bay along with the luggage while Cody and a handful of other passengers went into the passenger bay, where there were seats in two long rows across a narrow aisle. Cody grabbed the third seat on the left and looked out the window as the egg-shaped shuttle took off.

There was a sudden tug of weight as the shuttle rose directly upwards on magnetic repulsion from the pad, and then the thrusters kicked in and he and everyone else were pushed back tightly into their seats.

"Why… didn't they… spend more… on inertial compensators!" Oren grunted, as they zipped off into the sky. One of the only two faces Cody recognized on board this shuttle, Oren and Kenneth were likewise going out of town on jobs.

The difference is, they were only going as far as Boom Town, which was a midway stop en route to Silver City. Their trip was a much shorter one than his.

In fact, their trip only took two minutes. In a real-life situation, such a trip might take at least twenty to forty minutes, but in this VR simulation, the Academy saw fit to cut down on needless shuttle travel times.

They dropped off more than half the passengers at Boom Town, and took on three or four more. Then the shuttle headed onward to Silver City.

All through the journey, Cody enjoyed seeing the scenery below whiz past. The simulation really did show everything they passed over, though the speed of their passage felt a bit unrealistic. Not that he was complaining. The sooner he got to work, the sooner he could start earning credits…

Soon enough, the shuttle descended at the Silver City Spaceport. From Initial Village to Silver City, it took a little over ten minutes, including the stop at Boom Town.

Silver City Spaceport was, in a word, massive. The shuttle that was easily the biggest vehicle at Initial Village suddenly seemed like a small bug weaving in between much larger spacesh.i.p.s who were docking or waiting to dock at Silver City.

"Orb?" Cody called his virtual assistant. He pointed. "What are those? Those big sh.i.p.s?"

"Tracking optical marking. Five possible targets identified. Two are Cruiser-class spacesh.i.p.s. Three more are Frigate-class."

"Tell me about the smaller ones first, then the bigger ones." But even the smaller ones were several times bigger than the entire shuttle.

The smallest of the five looked like a huge square crate easily the size of a commercial block, about as big as the whole warehouse at Initial Village. Orb identified it as a Minarib Container Frigate.

The second smallest was an Ancayi Chariot Mk IV Frigate. Ancayi Chariots were standardized multi-purpose general-usage sh.i.p.s designed for mobility and versatility. Their main drawing point was their cheaper prices, being mass-produced with typical Ancayx Shipyards one-size-fits-all mentality, and the ability to swap components to suit whatever mission they were needed for.

Then there was the third frigate who looked vaguely like a fish. This was an Ocearan Orca, a Frigate designed not only for space travel but deep water operations and heavy water pressure. Since Cody didn't have any scanners with him, Orb couldn't tell exactly what sort of functions it had, because while they might share a general classification, every Orca was customized personally by its owner and built accordingly at Ocearan's shipyards. They were also very stylish and very expensive for their class.

Compared to the Frigates, each of the two Cruisers was big enough to fit all of Initial Village inside. One of them was from Ancayx Shipyards, again a multi-purpose standardized design, except there was no telling what modules or equipment it had equipped.

The other was a Mammoth Mk III Transtellar Bulk Cruiser. It was this huge ship that many smaller sh.i.p.s relied upon for Gate travel. Many Frigates and smaller sh.i.p.s simply didn't have space to mount one of the huge Gate Drives. As a paid service, the Transtellar Corporation made a lot of money from simply letting smaller sh.i.p.s take a ride on their Mammoths from Gate to Gate. They'd dock on one side, ride the Mammoth through the Gates, and then undock on the other… for a small fee. One Mammoth was capable of easily carrying two Frigates or a dozen Corvettes, or maybe a hundred Shuttles (or a mix of the above) through the Gates.

"Orb… I was just wondering… are there other planets in this virtual universe?" Cody asked.

"This virtual universe reflects the Galactic North Frontier. Every planet is represented. We are currently on the virtual representation of Sophia IV."

"You mean… there's an actual planet just like this out there in the real world? With a Silver City and an Initial Village, and Riki blowing up stuff?" Cody was startled.

"Silver City is a real city in Sophia IV that this simulation has a representation of. Initial Village only exists in this simulation. Only major landmarks and traits of the planet Sophia IV are represented in this virtual copy. All events that occur here are unrelated to events in real world."

"Oh." Cody thought for a bit. Then, "Where are the East Lockers in the Starport?"

"This way."