Chapter 74: Arrival at the Heart of the Ecunopolis, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bureaucracy
The connection cut sharply, leaving an echo of cold static as Hailey’s father blinked at the empty air, his mind sputtering in confusion. "Could you repeat that, my sweet? I swear my hearing’s finally gone."
Hailey, less than amused by the exchange and impatient to exit her father’s presence, repeated herself in a tone so flat it could have frozen magma. "I want you to get a job in the College of Psionics on Ecunopolis 7 after my rotation here is done."
This ti, her father heard her clearly. The old man’s confusion deepened, his brow furrowing as though he had just been hit with a gravitational anomaly. "Are you sure, sweetie? When you graduated at fifteen, you told you’d never go back to ’that hellhole of a school.’ What’s changed?"
Hailey’s expression, once icy and unreadable, grew colder still, a mask of regal indifference designed to obscure any trace of emotion. Her father began to stamr, his voice betraying his fear. "D-D-Don’t worry, sweetie. If that’s what you want, I’ll get you a job there today."
"No," she interjected sharply. "In six months, when my shift here is finished. I will contact you tomorrow expecting all the paperwork to be completed."
With that, she cut the connection, leaving her father a bundle of emotional contradictions — distraught by her abrupt departure and yet thrilled by the prospect of speaking to his ’Princess’ again.
In the aftermath of the conversation, the King of the Spartari rubbed the back of his neck and let out a small sigh, addressing the counciln who had been waiting for him to end the call. "Sorry for the delay, gentlen, but as any father with a daughter knows..." He trailed off, allowing his fellow parents to fill in the blanks with knowing nods.
One of the council mbers, a heavyset man with a surprisingly delicate face, leaned forward. "We sure do, Your Grace Dickon. Now, if we could return to the matter at hand..."
King Dickon’s attention flickered back to the political matters at hand, but his mind couldn’t help but wander to the call — the excitent blooming in his chest as he imagined his daughter’s return.
anwhile, Hailey, still seething from the interaction, allowed her calculated composure to fall away, her stoic expression cracking into sothing raw and youthful. She pressed the back of her hand to her lips where Apollo’s kiss still lingered.
He was so young, and yet so strong! she mused, the words tumbling out before she could stop them, a sound of astonishnt and... desire.
The reason Hailey had gone out of her way to inspect the ship was simple: she had felt a psionic wave radiating outward from it — powerful, sharp, yet aimless, like a pressure wave with no focal point. Her training told her to expect so ancient psionic hermit, a being whose powers had been honed over centuries, but the reality had been far different. She had encountered the ship, only to find it inhabited by two young, seemingly average humans — and the odd crew mber. None of them looked particularly imposing. Certainly, no grand aura of power emanated from them. And yet, there was a strange absence of information that left her perplexed.
Her first assumption was that the pair were engaging in psionic cloaking, so subtle manipulation of their own powers to mask their true strength. Perhaps they were concealing themselves, not to draw attention. But then Apollo had spoken.
The truth was far stranger than Hailey had expected.
When he explained that he and his companion were entering the College of Psionics as students, she realized in that mont that the presence she had felt was his. And in that instant, her regal mask cracked.
She feigned a distraction, glancing at her device, but inside, her pulse quickened. She hadn’t expected this. Not from soone so young. So powerful.
As her heart raced, she wrestled with her emotions, caught between admiration and frustration. What is wrong with ? she wondered bitterly. Her father had pushed her into arranged marriages since she was a child, a constant parade of noble suitors who never seed worthy of her. The pressure of marriage, her family’s expectations — it was a heavy burden, one she had cast aside in favor of autonomy.
But now? Now she was thinking about this young man. Powerful, fierce, a protector of his own people, and younger than her by a re five years.
She wondered what it would be like to have him by her side. To have soone who could stand against the empire’s darkest threats. Could she trust him? Could she allow herself to care about soone when she had been trained to place duty above all else?
Before she could spiral further into this maddening web of feelings, the abrupt sound of a knock at her door interrupted her thoughts.
The flush that had heated her cheeks faded away as quickly as it had co. Her mask of cold authority snapped back into place with an ease that betrayed her inner turmoil.
"If this interruption is not urgent, I swear to the stars, I’ll make the life of whoever’s out there a living hell," she muttered under her breath.
"Enter!" she commanded, voice clipped and sharp.
---
Two days later, the ship finally ca to a halt, drifting slowly into orbit around the massive structure ahead. The Ecunopolis 4, one of the seven core worlds of the Spartari, lood large in front of us. As the stars stretched around the planet’s enormous expanse, I turned to Ronnie.
"Why are we flying this thing slower than a slug on sedatives?" I asked, the boredom practically oozing from my voice.
Ronnie, ever the obedient crew mber, glanced back at from the cockpit. "Apologies, Apollo. Civilian ships are only allowed to travel at a regulated speed when approaching planetary bodies, to avoid any unintended collisions. Our estimated ti to orbit is two hours."
Slow by my standards, but not painfully slow. I shrugged it off, deciding to use the ti wisely. Two hours of orbiting a distant planet could easily be made productive. I sank into my Mindspace, seeking sothing more fulfilling than staring at the colossal rock that would eventually be my destination.
For the past week, I had felt an itching sensation in my mind. It was the stirrings of a new power, the hint of sothing huge on the verge of awakening. The spark that would unlock it was just beyond my reach. I focused on drawing it out, centering myself in the swirling chaos of thoughts and sensations that made up my inner universe.
But distractions always had a way of finding .
Onyx was in my Mindspace, playing a violent ga of ’Eat the Kitty’ with Sapphire. The little bastard had zero concept of how to let up. Concentrating was damn near impossible with that kind of chaos unfolding nearby.
I tried. I really tried. But my attempts to unlock this new power were stunted by the ntal noise that Onyx was creating. Instead, I shifted my attention to a side project that had been niggling at my mind ever since my fight with Onyx.
I wanted to float, to feel the freedom of it, the way I had when my rage had montarily spiked. Floating for real, like I had seen in the books, was proving to be tricky, but it wasn’t impossible.
I concentrated, focusing all my will on my body, coating it with psionic energy, drawing myself up just a little above the ship’s gravity. The sensation was like a gentle tug, a lightness in my body, but just as I was about to achieve sothing, my focus snapped. The pressure hit like a brick, and my feet slamd back into the ground with a thud.
But I wasn’t discouraged. Not yet. This was part of the journey.
I exited my Mindspace, my body slick with sweat from the ntal exertion. I needed a shower.
Kimchi, of course, saw an opportunity to ’help clean’ and bolted into the bathroom before I could blink. She didn’t care much for human soap — in fact, she preferred the natural thod of her hive, which involved eating the uppermost layer of my skin as a cleansing ritual. I had explained that was not how humans bathed, but that didn’t stop her from offering unsolicited assistance as she scrubbed down with a mint-scented soap she had picked out — probably because it wasn’t chemically toxic to her.
When I finally erged from the shower, minty fresh but covered in the kind of love bites you only get when soone’s having a little too much fun, I dressed in the clothes I had set aside earlier: black cargo pants, a white t-shirt with so logo I couldn’t place, and a sleek black leather jacket with purple accents. The pants and t-shirt were comfortable, but the jacket... the jacket felt like it was mine, like it belonged to in so way I couldn’t explain. It was more than just fabric — it was a statent, a companion.
With a final glance at my reflection in the mirror, I took a deep breath and walked out of my room, heading for the cockpit. The planet below was huge. And this? This was just the beginning.
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End of Chapter
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