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T he loneliness didn’t last long. Soon it was replaced by something else. Chaos.
The shuttle train had dropped onto several more fascinating worlds: a water planet with floating cities, a desert world with an underground population, and a jungle planet with more greenery than she’d ever seen in her life. With each stop, the train connected to more shuttles, loading up dozens of new students along the way.
The school shuttle train was now more than forty cars long and filled with all kinds of beings, species from planets Elara had never even heard of. Sure, there were lots of humans and humanoids, but there were also fluffy yellow-and-green kids with gills, translucent crystalline students, and a kid who looked like he might actually be a living shadow. It was amazing and wonderful and exactly what Elara had always hoped it would be like to leave her farming community.
“Excuse me... ,” Elara said as she pushed through the crowded vehicle. She had made the mistake of leaving her seat to explore, and the vacant spot was now filled with students. There wasn’t much to do but walk farther down the line until she found an open seat.
“So... uh... hi. Can I sit here?” Elara said, pointing to an open chair between four other first-years toward the front.
The girl on Elara’s left looked up briefly, nodding a slight hello before turning away. The three others—all boys—were laughing among themselves, staring at a pocket holo-game. No one seemed particularly interested in the new girl. This is part of it , Elara thought. Can’t be intimidated on the first day.
“My name’s Elara,” she added boldly. “From Vega Antilles. Sector 17.”
One of the boys seemed to finally notice Elara—a Tharndarian with large eyes and no hair. “I’m Peter. These two are Silent Dave and Scrubby. Well...” He looked at the one identified as Scrubby, a larger boy with golden skin. Elara wasn’t familiar with his species. “His name’s actually Steve. But he likes to be called Scrubby.”
Scrubby looked up, pointing a thumb at himself and nodding. “Scrubby’s a good name. Gonna be famous one day. Gotta have a good name if you wanna be famous.”
“Sure,” Elara said, without being sure at all. “Good names are... important? You... uh... What do you plan to do to make yourself famous?”
“Dunno,” Scrubby replied. “Come up with some killer world designs that break some records. Maybe solve the ‘Impossible Equation’ or invent a species no one ever thought of. That sort of thing.”
“I mean... which branch of terraforming are you planning on studying?”
The girl to Elara’s left looked up again, rolling her eyes. “We’re all first-years. It’s general ed. Don’t you know that?”
“Well, yeah. But I mean, you think about it, right?”
“Pff,” the girl said, turning away.
“Ah, don’t mind her,” Peter said. “That’s Suue Damo’n. She’s the very best of everything ever. Just ask her, and she’ll make sure you know.”
Suue glared at Peter. Elara decided it was best to ignore Suue’s attitude and talk to the boys instead. “I’m hoping to be a bioengineer and work with microorganisms and animals.”
Peter shrugged. “Probably geology, I guess. That’s what my parents think, anyway. Every planet has rocks.”
“An artist,” Suue suddenly interjected. “I’m going to be an artist. I’ll be designing worlds, leading and shaping the aesthetic of our galaxy. You’ll see.”
Elara looked at Suue with surprise, the words flooding out of her mouth without thinking. “But no one is really ever ‘just’ an artist. You become a world designer because of your work in your field. You still have to have a specialty.”
Suue frowned at Elara. “Really? Like I don’t know that? I’m a math expert. The highest level of art in the galaxy is math, and I can use that to work in any field I want. That’s how it works when you’re good at math.”
“There’s more to terraforming than just math,” Elara answered. She was feeling a little defensive now. She had studied planetary art her entire life. “Every world designer has a foundation... like Mik Sigliain. Everyone knows his planets or his work in the Auureie Cluster. But he was still a zoologist for twenty years beforehand. Or Pabs Higdaldoo. He worked as a botanist before he designed—”
Suue waved her hand in Elara’s face. “Who cares! Just because they had to take other jobs to prove themselves doesn’t mean everyone has to! I have a vision, an artistic vision.”
“Okay. Sorry. I just... I’m sure you have a plan. Okay?”
The room fell awkwardly silent for several minutes. Outside, the colors of the warp tunnel had shifted from green to blue. The train was accelerating and streaking past the stars faster and faster. Blue shift, they called it. A phenomenon of light that changes the color of an object based on how far away it is.
Scrubby and Peter were looking at another holo-game. Silent Dave was reading something. Elara was just about to make another stab at conversation when Suue spoke.
“Why are you here?”
Elara felt her stomach lurch. “Well, um... terraforming school. I think we kinda covered that.”
“But look at you,” Suue continued, looking at Elara like a bug under a microscope. “You’re, what, like some kind of farm girl? From the outer rim of nowhere anyone’s ever heard of? You have to be someone if you want to get anywhere in terraforming. You have to have real skills.”
Elara felt her cheeks flush. “I won a scholarship. I know a lot about terraforming...”
“Is that why they stuck you back in the cargo shuttles? Or did you just sneak on board and hope that no one would notice that you clearly don’t belong here.”
Peter looked up from his game. “Hey, Suue. Come on.”
“I’m just saying what you’re thinking, and you know it.” Suue turned back on Elara, who was, for the first time, speechless. “I’m not trying to be mean, but you have no idea what you’re in for. My family owns a planet. I was literally bioengineered to be a mathematical genius. I’m like a living computer, and you sit down next to me with your big eyes and spout off your little dreams and think you’re in the same league? Do yourself a favor and go right back home. It’s where you belong.”
Elara looked up, really seeing the crowd around her for the first time. Their perfectly pressed clothes. Their expensive rings. Smooth skin that had never been burned by a day working under the sun.
Even Silent Dave was staring at her now. Suue looked smug, Scrubby looked embarrassed, and Peter looked like he desperately wanted to be somewhere else. The three boys had seemed nice enough. They weren’t agreeing with anything that Suue had said...
...but they weren’t disagreeing with it, either.
Elara stood up, grabbed her backpack, and walked out of the cabin without another word.
It was frustrating but hardly a surprise. At home or in remote corners of the galaxy, kids were still kids. Elara pushed through the crowd, her frustration mounting as she bumped past her new classmates.
Tired of asking for permission, Elara spotted an open seat and took it, suddenly not caring what anyone thought. She had worked hard to get where she was. She wasn’t about to be scared off by anyone.
Looking up, she realized there was only one other person in the compartment. An unusually large person who filled every inch of space in the train car.
Elara blinked, unsure of what to say. It wasn’t just the unusual size of the being. It was that the student was seemingly made of stone, with eyes that looked like burning coals. Eyes that were suddenly staring at Elara.
The scary giant reached out a hand, each one of its fingers nearly as wide as Elara’s entire body. With a flare of energy behind its sinister eyes, the creature smiled and said, in a high-pitched, squeaky voice, “Hi! My name’s Knot!”
Knot reached down and produced the tiniest, daintiest pot of tea that Elara had ever seen, pouring it into a frilly, floral-printed cup. Handing Elara the tiny cup, the stone creature spoke once more, smiling the goofiest, most disarming smile a giant stone creature could manage.
“Would you like some tea?”