We met up at the athletic center to play wallball. I had warned the others that I had invited Yuli so they wouldn’t be surprised if she decided to show up. Kolo and Delroy opted to play the first game.

  Like always between those two, it was a close match made more interesting by the use of Telekinesis. Neither of them was nearly as skilled with the spell as I was, but Delroy had figured out how to add extra spin to the ball when he hit it, and Kolo frequently used it to move around, helping with her height disadvantage.

  The game was tied, twelve to twelve, when Yuli showed up. She seemed a bit hesitant, but she was there. It was a bit strange to see her awkward like that—usually she came across as bold and outgoing.

  “Hey,” I said, waving her over. “It’s good to see you.”

  “You, too. So, uh, how does this work?”

  I explained the rules to her while the game continued, including our particular variations.

  Shortly after I finished, Delroy pulled off the victory, fifteen to fourteen.

  “Hey, everyone. I said as the two players stepped back into the viewing area. This is Yuli. Yuli, these are my friends.” Each of them introduced themselves.

  “So, Yuli, want to give it a try?”

  She hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Sure. Who am I playing against?”

  “I’ll play,” volunteered Valissa. The two of them picked up racquets and entered the court.

  Yuli struggled at first, even with Valissa taking it easy on her, but she quickly picked things up. It looked like she adopted a similar technique to Kolo, using Telekinesis to move around the court, allowing her to reach balls that she wouldn’t otherwise. By the end of the match, Valissa was playing a bit more seriously, though it ended with a score of fifteen to five.

  “That was good, especially for a first time,” I told her when she exited the court.

  “I think I was getting the hang of it by the end, though I clearly still have a long way to go.”

  “You should have seen me the first time I played. I was terrible.”

  She laughed, the signs of her discomfort having vanished.

  “You up for a game?” Gathrok asked me.

  “Sure.”

  Grabbing a racquet, I headed into the court. The game started off normally. Gathrok didn’t use much Telekinesis, but he occasionally boosted a jump or slightly modified the ball’s direction on a hit. I, on the other hand, incorporated it as much as I could. I occasionally even used it on the ball in-flight, changing its direction slightly on the fly.

  The score reached a tie at fourteen-fourteen. We rallied for a bit, then Gathrok managed to catch me out of position, and even with a Telekinesis-assisted leap, I wasn’t going to make it. Instinctively, I shoved the ball away with a blast of force, causing it to nearly reverse direction and head back toward Gathrok. His surprise caused him to hesitate, and I scored the winning point.

  “Wow,” he said. “That was impressive.”

  My desperate act gave me an idea. “Yuli, you up for another match? I’ve got an idea.”

  “Oh?” she asked, clearly curious.

  “I’m going to play without a racquet, only Telekinesis.”

  “You are so going to lose,” Delroy chimed in.

  Kolo got a toothy grin at that. “Care to wager?”

  The two negotiated a bet while we entered the court. I suggested Yuli serve first, and she sent the ball flying my way.

  I cast the spell, targeted the ball, and proceeded to shift it a bit too late, giving Yuli the point. While Telekinesis gives you a weak sense for the presence of mass, the ball was small and the spell wasn’t designed for fast-moving objects. It was only my significant amount of practice that let me do this at all.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  The second ball, I managed to return a few times, but it was difficult to hit it at a particular angle since doing so required targeting it with multiple forces simultaneously. I ended up losing that point and the next point before I had an idea.

  The next time, I spread my arms out wide. Yuli looked at me funny before realizing what I was doing and laughing.

  “Clever,” she said, “but we’ll see if it’s enough.”

  Having my arms out helped since it gave me more places to focus the spell from, allowing for a wider range of angles. It took me another two points to really get the hang of it, though. Finally, however, I managed to score a point.

  From there, it became more even. We rallied back and forth, scoring a bit more frequently than the games I normally played since Yuli was so new and I had a severe handicap. Eventually, the score was fourteen to thirteen in Yuli’s favor.

  She served, and I sent the ball back off the left wall. She returned it, a bit high, but I used Telekinesis to levitate briefly and fling it into the ceiling near her. She leapt up, boosted by Telekinesis, and deflected it back at me. This continued for nearly a minute before she hit the ball at a strange angle. I tried to get in position, but I was a bit slow. I ended up using some strong forces at sharp angles to get the ball going in the right direction, but I wasn’t able to brace properly, and I stumbled. It took me a second too long to recover, and she returned the ball for the winning point.

  “Great game,” I said, a bit tired from two games in a row.

  “You too. That was wicked impressive. I’m not sure what was cooler, that or you doing the obstacle course under full-g last term.”

  I shrugged. “Like I said, I practice a lot.”

  “It shows.”

  We handed off the racquets to Delroy and Gathrok and sat down.

  “So, why Telekinesis? I mean, it’s a cool spell and all, but it doesn’t seem all that practical once you get the basics down.”

  I shrugged. “Honestly? I just find it fun. I mean, sure, it’s occasionally useful, but mostly it’s just super satisfying to make things move, especially once I figured out some of the more complex uses.”

  “How do you get the ball to travel in such varied directions, anyway?”

  “I studied physics—forces are kind of our thing. Really, though, the physics just told me it was possible, but actually being able to do it is more practice and developing my intuition. Anyway, what about you? You’re in the engineering track, right? What drew you to that?”

  She smiled. “Machines are cool. I actually find entirely mechanical devices the most interesting, but the kind of advanced manatech that goes into starships is fascinating. I decided that I wanted to work with the most advanced stuff I could, and the best place for that is either the military or the companies that make starships. Since I prefer actually getting to work with my hands, the military seemed a better fit.”

  “Have you always been interested in technology and mechanics?”

  She laughed. “Of course! I was the kid who took apart everything she could get her hands on and only sometimes managed to put things back together. My parents eventually got tired of me breaking everything and ordered a subscription service that delivered various kits every few weeks designed for kids or teens to put together. I loved those things.”

  “You from around here?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, grew up in a large town about an hour’s train ride from the capital, on the other side from here. My mother is a healer working at the local hospital, while my father makes custom furniture. I always enjoyed helping him work, but when the furniture just sits there and does nothing, it’s not as interesting, you know?”

  “That makes sense.”

  “What about you? Are you from nearby?”

  I gave her the cover story I had created for Dax, hinting at a rift between my family and me. She seemed to believe me, and I felt that familiar pang of guilt at lying to someone who seemed to be becoming a friend.

  We continued chatting while the others played, then soon it was my turn again. I tried playing solely with Telekinesis, like before, but Delroy was much better than Yuli, and I lost fifteen to eight. Still, I was better with Telekinesis than I was with a racquet when I first started, which I was proud of.

  We played a bit more, then left to shower and head to dinner. Yuli thanked us for inviting her, and I told her she was welcome any time. I invited her to dinner, but she said she was going to meet another friend.

  The next two weeks passed normally, though Yuli started hanging out with us occasionally. She had other friends, of course, so she wasn’t as consistent as the five of us, but she occasionally had a meal with us or met up to study with Gathrok or play games with us.

  It turned out that she was really good at cards. It was a good thing that we never bet with real money because otherwise we’d all be out a decent chunk of coin. She was always a terrible sport about it, taunting us all, but in a way that was funny rather than obnoxious. Still, I quickly learned never to bet against her.

  During those weeks, cadres started going out on two-day tours of the system, but no one was willing to tell the rest of us anything about the experience. They all just told us to wait and see for ourselves. I wondered if the staff had instructed them to say that, or if it was something that they decided on their own. It didn’t really matter, though—either way, the experience would be a bit of a mystery.

  When my cadre’s time finally came, we met up at the shuttle pads. The shuttle waiting for us was large enough for the entire cadre. Unlike voidships, it was much more aerodynamic, designed for atmospheric flight. While the lift and motion came from gravity manipulation devices, it had stabilizer wings for control and stability.

  Right at 0700, a human junior commander stepped out of the shuttle and looked us over before he began speaking.