By now he knew the drill but still wanted to confirm; there was something nice about feeling that feeling of accomplishment.

  SKILLS:

  —--------------------------------

  Mana Sense (Internal): Tier 1 - [Bulk]

  Shockwave: Tier 1 - [Overcharge]

  Purge Mana: Tier 2 - [Passive] [Control]

  [Growth]: Tier 0

  [Imbue]: Tier 0 - Harness mana that has been infused with a specific purpose to imbue a target. The effect requirements for activation are dependent on the infused purpose and the relevant target.

  The description seemed like one of the more generic ones as far as he could tell but it fit with the way Turrel described it. Being a ‘base’ skill as he had put it, he could see why.

  Letting the plate drop to the ground, he shook his wrist; it was a little sore. The plate hit the ground and again the sound that rang out was duller than expected. It wobbled a few times before settling into place, not a scratch on it.

  “Wow, that was pretty quick. Am I some sort of genius? That's two skills and two skill upgrades in a day,” Jack said.

  He wondered what was going on in Turrel's mind as the man's eyes were squinted very aggressively; Jack assumed he was thinking. Turrel tapped the rod in his hands against the floor in a repetitive tap tap, tap tap pattern.

  “It is very impressive, Jack. You seem to have a way of making difficult things seem very simple. That will come in handy as long as you are able to maintain that way of thinking.” The tapping sped up a little as he tilted his head slightly.

  “You were a little quicker than I expected so we have a little bit of time to practise a few variations if you want. I did run into Monty while I was getting equipment, however, and we should probably find somewhere a little more… comfortable soon. We are about to enter warp and well that can be a little disorienting for people the first few times.”

  Jack thought back to the few times he had warped so far. The only one that was calm was to and from the induction facility. He assumed that was likely smoother as it was a fixed point with an established start and end. The short warp to the rift and in and out of the rift itself were less gentle.

  “Ohhh okay. Soo wait a sec, like it sounded like we would be ‘in warp’ for a long time. Is this disorientation just like a start and end thing? What's the deal?” he asked idly rifling through the pile of items Turrel had brought with him.

  Laughing at Jack’s obvious discomfort with a slight smile on his face, he nodded; he had never experienced it before but people got motion sickness from cars right? It made sense some people would get motion sickness from really, really fast spaceships as well.

  “The start and end are the worst. The whole process probably won't make much sense as your world hasn’t worked out FTL travel yet. There is a mix of mana and technology at work here that will allow us to travel a distance that would otherwise be impossible. Across entire galaxies in the space of hours. There is stabilization around the vessel; the forces at play can … be difficult to adjust to. It is best if we have you close to your bedroom so you can lie down if need be.”

  Not really liking the words or the look on Turrel’s face he nodded.

  “Fair. Let's do whatever practice you want and head off then. I think I could use a break. I don’t actually know how long I have been in this room, I should get a watch or something…” Jack said, glancing down at his wrist.

  The next half an hour or so passed pretty uneventfully. Jack’s wrist was very sore by the end of it as Turrel ran a number of different tests on the plate and various other props he had. Jack had to adjust the mana he imbued, what he thought of as he imbued and even where he tried to imbue.

  It was all a little rushed if Jack was honest but he had a feeling either Turrel was starting to understand how he learned, or he was adjusting to Turrel. Maybe it was a bit of both but he thought he saw what was happening. He thought that perhaps the man was trying to plant some ideas and uses for the future so Jack could put things together himself.

  They were almost back at his designated room when an announcement sounded over the intercom throughout the vessel. It wasn’t the first one that Jack had heard since he had been here but it was still pretty rare so it shocked him a little as Monty's voice rang out.

  “BEGIN WARP PREPARATIONS. WARP COMMENCING IN APPROXIMATELY THIRTY MINUTES. DURATION APPROXIMATELY TWO DAYS.”

  Looking over his shoulder with a slightly mischievous expression on his face, lips pursed and eyebrows raised.

  “You know, I forget this is like a proper professional environment sometimes. Like this is all kind of still surreal to me, man. I’m on a spaceship about to ‘Warp’ into some other solar system thing while talking to a dude with natural blue hair. A fish lady lectured me on economics and I was attacked by scary doggos and wombats in the space of a few days.” Shaking his head as he turned the last corner heading towards his room.

  A hand patted his shoulder gently.

  “Your situation is a little less normal than average. Most people have more time and other people experience this change with them. If you need to talk about something I am here for you; it is part of my job to make sure you are able to make a successful transition.” Turrel pulled his hand away as they approached the door to Jack's room.

  He wasn’t necessarily that upset about going through it all alone; it would be nice to occasionally have someone else that understood from his point of view. At the same time it would be a lot for him to feel he had to fill that role for someone else as well; in that case he was fine being alone.

  He would have liked a bit more time to just let things settle, but that didn’t seem to be in the cards for him at the moment. It was kind of exciting. He had a sense of accomplishment and a drive to progress. He had always been a fan of the numbers go up type games and being able to have a distinct acknowledgment of the effort and skill put into something was a powerful motivator.

  Opening the door, he walked in and motioned for Turrel to follow. The room was pretty basic; it resembled an average hotel room. He had a couch, a large and very comfortable bed, a desk and a small reading chair in the corner. It was mostly how you would picture a room inside a spaceship, if it had nice furniture that is.

  The walls and ceiling were all industrial metal, differing shades of silver and grey occasionally accented by mana circuits that pulsed with different colours. There was a small door inside that sectioned off the bathroom from the rest of the space. He had his own shower and toilet and there wasn’t much else he was missing. He was a pretty simple man after all.

  He flopped down into the couch and motioned for Turrel to take a seat at the desk.

  “Thanks, man, I appreciate it. I’m okay for now, just adjusting.” Stretching out on the couch he tried to get comfortable.

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  “I guess if you are on watch duty we just chill here till the warp starts and check how I am, right? I’m going to try to let our training sink in a little bit and ponder why you are purposefully not telling me what Life Mana can and can’t do.” Jack winked at Turrel.

  Smiling at Jack Turrel took out his tablet again and started to scribble away at it.

  “Sure, Jack. When we get the next announcement we can reposition. I would suggest you be laying down when we start but it is up to you. As for the other thing, it is better I do not place limits on you. You and I will both learn more that way.”

  The two men sat in relative silence for the proceeding half an hour. The occasional tapping sound broke the silence as Turrel tapped his stylus on the desk. Monty's voice sounded out over the intercom.

  “FIVE-MINUTE WARNING - WARP ACTIVATION COMMENCING”

  Looking up at Turrel Jack shrugged his shoulders, they weren't doing anything so 5 minutes was a long time. They waited through two more announcements until Monty finally got to a one minute warning.

  “Okay, it is up to you but I would suggest laying down on the bed to start with,” Turrel said, turning to look directly at Jack.

  “I can lay on the couch if I have to. It’s stupid but it’s like a pride thing, you know? I kinda wanna see what the fuss is about.” Jack said, splayed out on the couch.

  “WARP INITIATING IN THIRTY SECONDS”

  “TEN, NINE, EIGHT…” Monty counted down over the intercom.

  “THREE, TWO” Jack tried to relax, but he found himself laying flat on the couch clutching at the edges tightly.

  “ONE”

  The whole vessel shook for a moment. Jack felt a strange pulse of mana pass over them. It reminded him of the feeling he got from the strange black gem at the induction facility, the one that must have been powering the transporter. He was pretty sure Monty had mentioned it was space frequency.

  It sent shivers down his spine and gave a strange sense of weight to the air around him. Almost as if he was underwater and each movement had to displace something before it could move. He tried to sit up and the sensation was… strange to say the least.

  He felt his body begin to move but something happened - as if he had split into two. One part of him, he could feel sit up, each twitch of his muscles was at the forefront of his mind, each hair felt the air around him as it moved. At the same time he was still lying flat on the couch, he could feel himself struggling to sit up, pushing against some pressure or force that tried to keep him stationary.

  After a second he seemed to kind of rubber band slightly; the fragment he felt sitting up and the part that was laying down both snapped together. He noticed he was halfway through sitting up when he felt he had control over his body again.

  Pulling himself up the rest of the way he turned his head towards Turrel and saw he was staring.

  “Are you okay, Jack?” He asked.

  Jack slowly turned his head from side to side, still feeling as if he was underwater. It was difficult to move and he felt ‘something’ all around him.

  “Yeah… I think so, feels kinda heavy?” Jack said.

  He waited for a moment to see if that feeling would come back and Turrel simply watched him. After what felt like a few minutes he assumed that was the worst of it and he stood up. Well he tried to stand up at least.

  As soon as he tried to put his foot forward the sense of doubleness appeared again. As he pushed off the couch with his arms he split a second time. He now felt he was in three places at once. Before he could make sense of what was happening he snapped together again, halfway through all three motions. His arms were not braced on anything and splayed out to his sides. His legs were mid-air and his body was slightly twisted forward. He rolled forward out of the couch and landed on his back with his arms out to each side.

  Laughing, Turrel walked over and reached down to help him up.

  “This is the part that is a little… difficult for people. The warp barrier deploys around the entire vessel, it keeps things together while we are moving. The pulses come whenever we ‘pass through’ something. We are moving too fast to avoid things like meteors or satellites or any other thing floating in space. A path has been plotted so we mostly avoid planets and moons etc but some things are unavoidable.” Turrel paused speaking.

  As Jack was pulling himself up he felt the feeling once again, he was partially suspended this time and couldn't really move without Turrel pulling him. When the feeling passed he remained where he was.

  “When it happens it is best to remain still if possible. I am not an expert at space mana but when we have to ‘phase’ through something the vessel is partially moved to a different location. The two objects are kind of squished in four-dimensional space and pass next to each other, they then revert to their original space and continue on.” Jack was standing now and Turrel led him gingerly over to the bed.

  “The space mana is activated on the vessel; when you feel that ‘pulse’ it means it is taking a snapshot of the position of everything inside. If you remain stationary then nothing really happens. If you move during that time, however... well it needs to scan again and then calculate where you are and where you should be. The experience of being in more than one space at once is off-putting to some. You seemed to handle it quite well though."

  Laying back on the bed as Turrel's words settled in his mind he shook his head.

  “So basically for the next three days, every time we have a collision with some space rock I am going to be split in two and snapped back together?” Jack asked.

  “Only if you decide to move.” Turrel replied with a straight face.

  “Fun, fun, super fun.” Jack said, letting out a loud sigh.

  “Ok then at least we can pass the time talking for a bit. I’ve been thinking and I am interested in your take as Monty’s might be a little biased.” Wriggling to the middle of the bed and splaying his arms out to the sides so he wouldn't have to move, Jack continued.

  “What is it like out there, like in the wider universe? I know we are about to see a new planet and I have already met other alien races, but what changes, really? Is life better? Are people happy?” Jack let out some of the questions he had been pondering as he had been observing everyone around him the last few weeks.

  Turrel laughed as he took a seat on the couch Jack had just gotten up from.

  “You constantly surprise me, Jack. I have no idea where your mind is sometimes… That is a very hard question to answer. I think it is better if you make an assessment on generalisations yourself, preferably after you have experienced more than a few different worlds. What I will say is that like Monty, you are an ‘Old Worlder’. You are going to find it much harder to adapt than future generations; I would say, however, the biggest change for us and by us I mean human life forms, is life expectancy.”

  Jack could practically hear Turrel stroking his beard as the man paused.

  “Technology will change, that is something that happens on every world regardless of its original technological level. Mana is too powerful of a tool to simply be ignored, it is incorporated into all aspects of life in one way or another. Most people will likely remain at Tier 0 or Tier 1, Riftshards are valuable and risky for most people to obtain. For those who do however advance to Tier 2, you will find that most chose the Reinforcement body modification.”

  Turrel paused his speech as a space pulse washed over them, both of them remained still for the second until it passed.

  “That modification essentially means that with a regular exposure to mana, death by old age is not a likely outcome. Even for people at Tier 0 or 1 there are massive enhancements to life expectancy and with access to people like yourself and Monty. In general the average lifespan for humans is nearly tripled.”

  Jack shook his head, he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. He wasn’t one to get involved in politics but it seemed like it could open the door for rich and powerful people to exploit things. On the other hand it also gave him another reason to get away from people. He knew the beauty industry was massive, imagine if people found out he had access to an essentially infinite supply of life mana and could use it to stop aging? No thank you.

  “Now I can guess some of what you are thinking, humans across many different planets are very similar. As a short-lived race there is almost always a struggle against time and powerful people fight to hold on to their power. The Origin has no desire to interfere with or enforce laws or change onto new worlds. The Centre is the organisation that is responsible for the ‘Logistical’ oversight of the Origin's desires and management of the universe.”

  “They know these struggles happen and it is one of the reasons they appoint an overseer to newly inducted worlds. It is also less of a problem for longer-lived lifeforms. There is generally a higher level of wealth equality in longer-lived races than there is in shorter ones but I doubt that is what you are interested in.”

  Letting out a big sigh, Turrel paused as another pulse passed.

  “The universe is a big place, Jack. There is good and there is bad. There are people out there that are more powerful than you can imagine. They could destroy entire solar systems alone if they wanted to. While there will be some people who will abuse their powers, there is always a bigger fish out there. A lot of people and I include myself in this group, believe that this whole universe is a playground for the Origin. If so then the general consensus is that while the Origin likes to observe, it also likes to maintain a tidy playground.”

  “Now that is enough of that for now. You should get some actual sleep seeing as you won't be moving around much. I will bring you some things tomorrow so we can try some exercises while we are traveling. Until then I am sure you have plenty to ponder.” Standing, Turrel said as he headed towards the exit.

  “Cheers, man, thanks.” Jack replied as he thought over the implications of a universe that was much larger than he could ever have imagined.