"I would take a seventy-three degree heading," Nura said, "dropping out of slipstream at one point seven million klicks from Brannon. Adjust vector by negative ten degrees and cross threshold. The corridor will reach the jump gate in three aumeters."

Nura looked from her datapad to the holographic projector in front of her and smiled proudly. The displayed map showed the course Nura plotted around the star and orbiting planets. She was certain she'd found the best route out of the system.

The lecture hall was deserted. Two rows of benches encircled the holographic projector where an instructor would present their lessons. The room's ceiling had an array of luma panels for lighting, but they were currently dialed off to make the holographic map easier to see. The hologram gave more than enough illumination to navigate the room by.

"Nicely done," Meras said. She uncrossed her arms and pointed at the gas giant Nura's course bypassed. "Only problem is that you'll be tugging against Brannon's gravity well for most of the final leg to the gate. That'll cost you a tee and a half of fuel more than you need to spend."

Nura wrinkled her nose. She'd honestly thought she aced this one. "I can't find a course that comes anywhere near this low of fuel consumption. Every viable path from the launch point encounters either Brannon or Gerk."

Meras leaned in and spoke reassuringly. "Don't sweat it, Nura. This'd get you a top score from jhot'Rin. I'm just saying it could be better."

"How?" Nura asked as she squinted at the hologram.

"You're thinking in two dimensions and charting along the orbital plane. Exit the launch point on the z-axis, and the corridor's trajectory around the star will take you behind Brannon's orbit. You won't have to drop and adjust before reaching the gate, and better yet, Brannon won't be pulling the fuel from your reactor."

Nura frowned. "Leave the orbital plane? If the slip engine fails, I'm out of sight of the nav buoys. I'm stuck for weeks out in space with just conventional engines."

"When's the last time you saw a slip engine fail with a mechanist looking after it?"

"I seem to recall a small incident not long ago."

"Ah," Meras said. "Point taken, but this course takes less than half the fuel. Some captains will say that's worth the risk."

Nura ran a hand through her hair and growled in frustration. "It'd be easier if I could just point in the direction I want to go. It's faster."

Meras shrugged. "It's not always about speed. Fuel isn't always cheap, and a lot of boats don't have the capacity to haul that many tees around. First rules of astrogation, Nura. Velocity is constant, so your slip engines are forced to expend the energy required to remain at that speed while you're fighting against the particle stream and gravity. Heading can't be manually altered within the corridor, but gravity from celestial bodies still affect it."

Nura nodded as she made a vague vocalization that was meant as an affirmative. She traced the proposed vector with her eyes while she entered the course into her pad.

Meras made it seem so obvious. Nura found it fascinating how Meras often had trouble finding the words to describe her thought process when finding the most efficient method of traveling from one point to another. What Nura had to study and struggle to achieve, Meras was able to do seemingly by instinct alone.

The course simulation Nura ran on her datapad backed up Meras' advice. Her holographic ship would reach the jump gate by expending only a single tee of fuel. A perfect score on this test required two and a half tees or less of consumption.

"I would like to point out," Nura said, "that my course would have sufficed for the exercise."

Meras let out a short laugh. "Where's the fun in meeting expectations? You gotta leave them in your particle wake, and make their perfection your bare minimum."

Nura shut down her pad and the hologram projector. The room was pitch black for a moment before the luma panels turned back on automatically. "Very well. Be better than perfect. Should be easy."

A cluck of her tongue revealed Meras' disapproval. "You're too smart to be sarcastic, Daj. Save it for the ones who can't think of something really devastating to say."

Nura slipped her datapad into its pouch on her belt. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Still sounds sarcastic," Meras observed, "but I can forgive you."

"How gracious."

"Very. Thank you for noticing. Any other questions before we take off?"

Nura had more questions than Meras might be willing to answer today. There was so much she didn't understand, and Meras seemed to know everything. Top astrogator, as well as rivaling the placements of several dedicated pilot course students as an elective student. It was maddening.

"There's one thing that's been a conundrum for me since I came aboard," Nura said. "It hasn't been explained to me to my satisfaction."

"Ooh. Big questions and big words. Lay it on me, showoff."

Nura fought back a grimace and a smile in turn. Meras was making a habit out of charming her with insults. Quite confusing, but pleasantly so. "Pilots and astrogators are segregated into two different courses. Why isn't there more overlap? Shouldn't pilots know how to chart a slip vector?"

"They should," Meras agreed. "That's why I'm in both, but not everyone's cut out for both. It's because flying in slipstream is completely different than flying at normalized velocity."

"But why is that?"

"You could ask the heuristics students, but they'll just shrug and go off about superior Aythear science if you're lucky and Divine Form dogma if you're not." Meras stretched her arms over her head and bent to the side until there was an audible pop in her spine. "There's a reason we call it 'threshold', Daj. In some ways, the corridor is part of another universe. Once you're in, regular physics don't apply. You can toss fas'Boran's Laws of Motion out the airlock because there's a whole new set of principles on the other side."

"A completely different set of rules," Nura said quietly.

Meras nodded. "You know me, Daj. I don't believe mysticism has any place in the cockpit, but when you're in the corridor... It's like... I don't know. You're part-ways here, and the rest of you is..."

Nura nodded when Meras trailed off. "Somewhere beyond. I feel it, too. The other side of the veil is where nothing in this universe makes sense anymore."

"Is that your hangup?" Meras asked. "You're doing pretty decent in physics class, so is it that you're having a hard time letting that go and wrapping your head around particle stream macro-friction and arrested orientation?"

"Possibly. I'll take another look at the required readings tonight. Maybe something will finally click."

Meras got a wide grin. "That'd be great. I'd love to have you nipping at my backside."

"I... You'd love what?" Nura's flattened fur and pressed ears were mirrored by Meras doing the same.

"Woah, that came out wrong," Meras said hurriedly. "I meant that back when you were higher in the placements, I kept working harder to stay ahead. I kinda miss that."

Nura felt her fur settle as she composed herself. "Well, that makes much more sense. I hope you're right."

She said it more confidently than she felt it. Nura read the astrogation texts nightly, and she doubted that anything new could be gleaned by another late night of studying. But, Nura resolved to continue making the attempt. She wanted to impress Meras the next time they came after-hours to run these tests.

The test Nura just ran through was one of the dozens of challenges listed in the school's computers. Like most of the exercises, this latest one focused on fuel consumption. When Meras first offered to tutor her, Nura had thought it would involve more advanced math. Ratios, vectors, and logarithms. Meras' tutoring approach leaned more towards practical application.

"If I threw a datapad at you," Meras once said when Nura brought it up, "you wouldn't stop to calculate its trajectory. You'd just catch it."

The end of the semester was drawing closer, and with Meras' help, Nura had clawed her way up to the fifth spot in the placements. Much of their free time was spent together, Nura reading up on star charts while she introduced Meras to the inescapable pit of Fey'lin vid dramas.

Nura's other courses came as a welcome relief. After staring at simulated nav computers for hours on end, she found reading about the endocrine systems of dextro-protein based lifeforms a refreshing change of pace. That she could understand without feeling like she'd spent an hour with her head inside a reactor core.

The rest of their day was open, and they wandered the Tovre aimlessly in search of something to occupy them. "Kalko's been sending me comms again," Nura said as they left the lecture hall behind.

Meras made a highly suggestive and horrifically inappropriate gesture with her fingers.

Nura recoiled. "Gah, no! Don't ever do that again. It's about the final exercise."

"Two more weeks," Meras said. "You feel up to it?"

Nura grimaced. "Do you want me to say I am, or would you like the truth?"

"Come off it, Nura. You're too down on yourself."

"But the placements..."

Meras' threw out an exasperated groan. "Yeah, you're placed fifth. In the school. A school on the Tovre! Do you have any idea of how big that is?"

Nura kept silent. She didn't think Meras quite understood the problem.

"You can cross threshold as well as most anyone else here," Meras continued. "Twenty successful solo flights. You have jump gates down, too. They weren't half as hard as you thought they'd be."

"Each time," Nura said, "I had days to prepare. I had my calculations completed hours before I got into the cockpit." She lowered her voice. "I had you to help me. It's not going to be the same once I'm off of the Tovre."

"What do you mean?" Meras asked.

"I'm going into the Service once I graduate from the Baullock, Meras. I won't have days to prepare. Can you imagine me plotting a slipstream jump in a combat zone? It won't be enough to get it right. I'll need to do it fast. In seconds. I can't do that. It's just not in me."

Meras opened her mouth to argue, but she stopped herself. "Okay, I suppose that's a different story. But who's to say you need to be working on a badass warship? Confed has supply boats."

Nura imagined Vanta's face if she told him that his daj's assignment was aboard a freighter hauling food and medpacks between supply depots. "I think my uncle would toss himself out an airlock."

Meras reached out and took Nura's hand. She gave it an encouraging squeeze. "It'll be fine. It's not like you're heading to Di Valos tomorrow. That's years away."

"There's that," Nura said. Despite herself, she did feel a little better. Meras had a talent for sending Nura's worries away for a time.

A friend like her was invaluable. Meras was loyal, honest, and caring. Nura didn't know how she had managed to endure five years on the Tovre before becoming close with her.

Canas kept her sane, but she couldn't speak with him like she did Meras. A twin was like the other half of one's soul, but some things weren't as easily shared with family as with a friend.

Meras watched her closely. "If you're still stressed, we could head to the docking ring."

That was the most popular spot for students to smoke Commonwealth tobacco out from under the eyes of the faculty. The decontamination scrubbers in the airlocks removed all lingering traces of the stuff.

Nura shuddered. "I can't believe you wore me down. I can still taste it."

"Just muscle on through that initial disgust, Daj. It gets better." She closed her eyes as if in ecstasy. "So much better."

Nura braced herself.

"Just like sex," Meras proclaimed happily.

And there it was as scheduled. Nura gave her a glare in retaliation. "I should never have introduced you to Fey'lin dramas."

Meras shrugged. "Hey, I've been on this boat since I was a whelp, and the only boy who gives me the time of day is my brother. A girl gets frustrated."

Nura tried not to get pulled into the feedback loop that thinking about Meras' frustrations caused.

"Aww, look at your ears. I've gone and embarrassed you."

"Do you think it's strange," Nura asked, "how a best friend is outwardly indistinguishable from a worst enemy sometimes?"

"Clarify."

"It's the same with Jano and Canas. Half the time, I can't tell if they're messing around or honestly trying to kill each other."

Meras snickered. "Oh, but the look on Canas' face when Jano pretended the airlock door wouldn't open. Priceless."

"Invoke the Voidtouched, and they appear," Nura muttered.

Meras gave an inquisitive grunt. In response, Nura nodded towards the corridor ahead. As if he was indeed summoned by being spoken of, Canas approached. Jano shi'Vanec and a girl from the heuristics course were with him.

"Well, look who showed up," Meras said loudly. "The top-ranked crew."

"Not all of them," Canas replied with a cocky grin. "We're down an astrogator. Any idea where she went off to? She's this loud and obnoxious girl who rips the nav comp out of its housing when she gets mad."

"Sounds strong," Meras said, playing along with Canas' game.

"Sure. Arms like a Pexu. Short as a Sul'voy."

Meras wrinkled her nose.

Nura groaned in distaste. When did her brother turn into such a boor? Was that what passed for courtship on the Tovre, now? Surely, Canas was clever enough to come up with something better.

Meras turned towards Nura. "You think Kalko would mind swapping astrogators?" she asked.

Nura knew that for the empty threat it was, but the sudden look of terror it put on Canas' face was quite satisfying. She pointed a finger at him. "Behave. Keep a civil tongue in your head, or I'll let her trade with me."

Jano stepped around Canas and tapped Meras on the shoulder with his fist. "Ignore the flyboy. If you have the time, we're going to run some simulations down in the bay on our boat. Will you come?"

After spearing Canas with a pointed glare, Meras nodded. "I'll be there. Provided," she said with a harsh look for Nura, "that the Lady Daj gets in touch with her crew and does the same."

"Yes, Mother," Nura sighed.

"That's my girl," Meras said while giving Nura's left ear a pinch.

Nura swatted the offending hand away. "Canas, have you heard anything about the Agency ship coming?" she asked to change the subject, even if the one she chose was just as uncomfortable a topic.

Her brother's ears were still twitching over how his ill-advised attempt at flirting turned out. When he heard Nura's question, his ears slapped against his head hard enough to make a sound. "Burning hell, Nura. You have to remind me?"

Jano shuddered while Meras and the mechanist girl unconsciously touched at their ears. It wasn't a popular subject of discussion, but Nura felt it necessary to be prepared. When the frigate arrived, they would be asked to drop everything.

"I don't like it either," Nura said. "The sooner they get here, the sooner it'll be done with. Then, we can focus on the final exercise. I just want it to be over."

Jano nodded. "What she said. How about it, Canas? Did your saj tell you anything?"

"Nothing he didn't tell Nura." Canas scowled. The mere thought of being in the same room as psychics, even registered and sanctioned psychics, terrified him.

Nura blinked. She couldn't remember when he told her that.

"My father said it's not that bad," Jano said. "A couple of Agents take you into a room on their ship, ask you a few questions, make you concentrate on some things, then send you on your way."

"That's all?" the mechanist girl asked. Nura wanted to ask her what her name was but couldn't think of a way to do so without offending.

Jano shrugged. "I guess so. These mandatory Psy-Agency screenings happen all over. Every species in Confed gets them at some point. If they were a problem, no one would submit to them."

"I heard Humans don't until they're in their mid-twenties," Canas said. "Wish we didn't either."

"That's because the Human brain hasn't stopped developing until then," Nura said. She found that fact from her exobiology course interesting; Humans matured physically before they did mentally. She imagined that could be... problematic. "It's the same with most Aytheric species. The Psy-Agency doesn't require a comprehensive gene testing or interview them until they're much older."

Nura became aware of the strange looks some of the others were giving her. They found it amusing that an astrogator, not a science student, was at the top of the placements in every biology related course on the Tovre. It was a common opinion that Nura was wasting her time on hobbies, or worse, stealing top placements from students who could actually use them.

Meras gave Jano a nod, then fist-tapped Canas' shoulder. "We're wasting the day. I mean it, Nura. Go find Kalko. I'll wait for you by the lockers tonight."

Nura leaned into Meras to give her a farewell embrace. She couldn't help but feel diminished without Meras at her side. Nura said her goodbyes, gave a parting warning for Canas to be respectful, and then she was alone.

She pulled out her comlink. There was a nervous, frantic twisting in her stomach as she made herself send a brief message to Kalko. It wasn't that the boy himself made her anxious, but what he expected of her.

The message was sent, a simple request that their crew run simulations. Kalko responded within seconds. He asked her to collect their crew's sensor operator while he found the mechanist. They would meet in the bay in thirty minutes.

Finding the crew's sensor board operator would be simple enough of a task. Kalko recruited Meras' twin brother, Velos shi'Zhar for the position. Velos would be near the bay. His courses ran the gamut of support roles, from maintenance to ancillary operations. He wasn't particularly high placed in any of them, but his wide range of skills still made him an attractive candidate for the final exercise crews.

Nura took a lift to the middle decks then a tram car towards the hangar. As she neared her stop, the tram tube became a clear-steel window to the hangar floor.

Four mid-sized transports sat in a row at the rear of the bay. They were of various design and origin. She spotted the Blind Dragon, which Canas and Meras' crew was assigned to. The Dragon was a Human-built vessel, rather blunt and utilitarian in design. Nura believed it was called a Madison-class transport.

Her own vessel was coming down from the landing deck. The fifteen transports necessary for the final exercise were too large to all be kept aboard the Tovre at once, so they were rigged with castellan AI's to keep them in formation around the school, then bring them aboard when requested.

The Lucky Peddler was a native Fleet vessel. She was old, maybe as old as the Confederation itself. The Peddler had seen more refits than Nura had hot meals. Kalko claimed her age made the Peddler seasoned. The vessel continued to fly because, after so many centuries, it didn't know how to do anything else.

Nura looked on the Peddler with a sense of awe. She'd never been the starship fanatic her brother was, but she felt a stirring in her chest when she saw the boat's graceful, spherical hull and slender engine pods.

She's mine, Nura thought. The first ship I'll truly serve on. I should've come to say hello sooner.

The Fleet didn't waste boats-- never sent a hull long past its prime to be scrapped when it could still carry a crew. When the overwhelming majority of an entire species lived their whole lives in space, sometimes never setting foot on a natural world for decades at a time, starships had become a cultural institution.

Other sapients saw starships as mere vehicles, a way to go from one system to another, and didn't view them in the same way. To Threshpanians, starships were as gods, more real and present than any carving upon a plinth. They were the guardians that shepherded the Threshpanian people along their eternal journey. Deity, companion, and homeworld in one.

Nura stepped off the tram when it came to a stop. She felt a burning, primal need to run down to the hangar and place her hand against the Peddler's armor plating. However, she had an errand to complete before she could allow herself such an indulgence.

Her search for Velos took her through the deck crew's workshops. Several students machined components under the watchful eyes of their instructors. They pointed her towards where she could find Meras' brother.

Nura found him crouched in a quiet corner of the hangar bay. His black fur blended into the shadows. If Nura hadn't been told to look here specifically, she would've missed him. He held a datapad in his hands, but it was obvious he wasn't using it. Velos' eyes were lidded and distant as he stared up towards the ceiling.

Is he dozing off? Nura wondered as she approached him. She could hardly blame him if he was. Students were all but dropping unconscious in the corridors lately due to long nights of studying for the end of the semester.

Nura was about to call out to him when Velos jerked upright. His attention snapped immediately to Nura, and he nearly dropped his datapad.

"Hello, Velos," she said. "Kalko asked me to get you. We're going to run simulations on the Peddler. Can you spare the time to join us?"

Velos stowed his datapad in a belt pouch. He nodded. "Yes. I'm free."

His voice was soft, almost distracted. He was a quiet boy, never using more words than were necessary. Plenty of students considered him dismissive and rude— more concerned with components than with people.

He was so closed off and withdrawn. Nura had grown accustomed to being able to read the facial expressions and body language of others to tell how they were feeling. With Velos, she simply couldn't get the same insight. Nura would be lying if she said that didn't make her the tiniest bit unsettled.

But, he was Meras' brother. Nura thought of Meras as another sibling, a bonus twin, so Nura took it as a given that she should try to be close with Velos as well. If only he wasn't so... brooding.

Nura was tempted to reach out and take him by the wrist. It would be a forward gesture, an assumption of familiarity. It might also be interpreted as an opening for intimacy, even permission for him to court her, so Nura suppressed the urge.

"The others should be arriving soon," she said to fill the quiet. "Want to take a look at her?"

Velos narrowed his yellow eyes in what appeared to be an expression of deep concentration. "Sure."

Not very talkative, Nura thought. She hoped he would open up a bit during the simulations. At the moment, getting anything out of him was like pulling teeth from a Pexu.

The Lucky Peddler was settled and powered down ahead. Nura stopped restraining herself and jogged up to it. She placed a hand against the hull near to the port exhaust vent. It was still warm to the touch. She grinned as she felt along the metal.

"You love my sister," Velos said abruptly from behind her. "You're not faking it."

Nura blinked in surprise, then turned to look at him. "Of course I'm not. Did you think I was?"

Velos shrugged and wouldn't look her in the eyes. "Maybe. I figured it was some game to humiliate her, but it's not. She thought it was, too, at first. She didn't trust you."

It probably shouldn't have been as surprising as it was to hear him say that. Meras must've put up with a lot of silly, hurtful, and juvenile taunts from other students. But, Nura had hoped that she would've seemed different.

"Does..." Nura cleared her throat. "And now?"

Velos glanced at her before looking away again. "She wants to be a Lera," he said.

Nura nearly gasped. A Lera? The only way that could happen would be if the elders of the Ganlera and Zhartomi families negotiated for her to be rechristened. With the current state of Meras' family, that was almost impossible. Either that or...

It became clear. "Canas," Nura whispered. "She... wants to marry Canas?"

Velos nodded, the simple gesture tearing into Nura's gut like the blade of a sword.

Marriage would also require a negotiation, but it was an entirely different matter. If two people wanted to marry, their families could hardly stop it. It would only be a matter of compensation from one family to another for the new member.

Such a possibility had never occurred to Nura before. Meras shi'Lera? No, don't be silly, Nura thought. It wouldn't be until after the semester. Meras won't be a child anymore and can marry whomever she wants. Meras nim'Lera, or even mul'Lera. It has... a nice sound to it. Doesn't it?

Nura clutched at her chest, and she felt her eyes begin to tear up. She turned away from Velos so he wouldn't see her getting emotional like this.

"He comes by," Velos said. His voice began to carry a hint of resentment. "He touches her hand where I can see before they leave."

Canas hadn't been subtle about his attraction to Meras. It was just unbelievable the feeling was returned.

Nura choked back a sob. Why did she feel like this? She should've been happy. A way for Meras to become a Lera, to be Nura's sister in name as well as in spirit. She should've been happy.

She was my friend first, Nura thought.

It was petty and childish to feel possessive. She wouldn't let herself act so immaturely. Nura swallowed and forced herself to take deep breaths. Once she calmed herself, Nura turned towards Velos and smiled.

"It's so sudden to hear," she said, her voice bright and even.

Velos eyed her from beneath a furrowed brow.

Nura began pacing. "Our uncle might not be receptive to it. I'll have to think about how to present the possibility to him so he ends up thinking it was his idea."

A rumble came from deep in Velos' throat. "Yeah. Good idea," he muttered.

Nura could feel her heart fluttering. It must've been excitement. Now that she was thinking clearly, she was having a hard time thinking of anything else but bringing her brother and Meras together. Did they even need her help? By what Velos said, they were halfway to speaking the words already.

Of course they need my help. Canas doesn't think things through, and Meras charts her vectors by instinct. They need someone to clear the skies ahead of them before they hit threshold.

She was still a bundle of nerves by the time Kalko arrived with their mechanist, Calo shi'Dahr. Nura had to shake her head to bring herself back to the present. After all, she could hardly plan for an engagement if she couldn't focus long enough to make it through the semester.

Over the next three hours, Kalko managed to be both merciless and encouraging as he pushed the crew through a half-dozen simulations. Nura did her best, managing a vector or two that elicited praise from her pilot. But, throughout the ordeal, Nura often found her mind wandering.

Her best friend and her brother. It was the best outcome she never expected.

It should have made her happy.