Jace stepped into the darkened corridor later that night. The door slid soundlessly closed behind him. He wasn't sure what the rules were for being out and about after he was supposed to be in bed, but he was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to do it.
He made his way through the halls filled with doorways and branch offs, but he ignored most of them. He had made sure to memorize this path specifically over all the others, though in the darkness it was a little harder to find his bearings. He finally turned down one of the branches, then turned again to follow a long curving hallway that would have been the main hall in most buildings, but was merely an offshoot in this massive structure.
After several minutes of walking the hallway opened up to a large open room, there was nothing significant about the room itself, there were many such alcoves along other hallways, used by students as studying nooks or hangouts or simply ignored. What made this room special though was the massive viewing port that took up the far wall. Half of the beautiful view was encompassed by the planet they were near at the time, with the swirls of the weather and the blue of the water evident in the light of this solar system's star. It was actually day down there, so it lit up, causing there to be an eerie yet somehow comforting light in the room. He liked and preferred it this way.
While Jace appreciated the enormous planet in front of him, from what Sara had said it was pretty similar to his homeworld, so he had no interest in it. He was most taken in by the massive expanse of stars that swallowed the other half of the window. He could see thousands upon thousands of stars, their light evident with the lack of atmosphere between the station and outer space.
It seemed to want to swallow him up. It was like a warm blanket that promised to fulfill his every wish. He felt himself being drawn toward it until he found himself reaching out and hitting the viewing pane with his hand as he tried to reach for it.
He started. He hadn't realized that he had walked across the room he'd been so taken in by the sight. But soon the distraction fled from his mind and he looked back at the stars.
"Beautiful sight, isn't it?" the voice of an elder woman sounded behind him.
Jace started then flushed in embarrassment. He recognized the voice of Madam Sheev. He didn't turn around, wanting to savor the view as long as possible just in case she was sending him away.
Instead, she came to stand next to him. "This sight has inspired many a spacer." Finding she wasn't telling him to return to his room, he turned and looked up at her. She wasn't dressed in her standard uniform, but she was wearing school-fitted clothes like himself. The aura around her was much more relaxed than normal, and Jace realized that she had been quite a beauty during her younger years, and retained some of that in her age.
He shook her head to get back to the topic at hand and looked out of the expansive planet in front of him.
"Was it something like this that inspired your spacefaring days?" he asked.
She laughed easily, leaving a gentle smile on her face. "No, I took to the stars in pursuit of love. But I ended up falling for space travel and forgot about love early on. Fortunate for me too, as the man I was pursuing fell for someone else."
She sighed, and Jace thought he could hear a faint hint of old regret in her voice. But when she spoke up again there was no sign of it.
"But that was long ago and behind me. How we live now is much different than it was back then, technology has advanced rapidly, as well as space law, or some degree of it anyway."
Jace didn't have any words of response, so he didn't say anything. They stood there silently for several minutes, being swallowed up by the emptiness of space, especially in contrast to the bright planet beside it. Finally, Jace spoke up.
"Do you think my dream is enough?"
Madam Sheev looked down at him, her eyebrow raised. "What do you mean?"
Jace didn't return her gaze, rather he kept his eye on a lone ship slowly crossing their view. "My dream is to explore the reaches of space, to experience new things and… I don't know, that's about it. And that's the problem. It's so broad. The universe is so vast, and there are so many experiences to experience, so many things to learn. What if I just end up wandering around, getting nowhere, and not growing as a person and a spacer. What if I jump around so much being non-committal that nothing gets done and I am unfulfilled? Will I be able to do anything with my life with such a generic dream?"
He heard her bark out a laugh, though she still somehow managed to keep it at a quiet volume. "Ah, youth." She looked at him, grinning. "You're not smart enough to dream."
He looked up at her quickly. "What??" he asked, shocked.
She indicated for him to wait till she was finished. "What I mean is, It's impossible to know what you want in life with just the experience you have right now. Sure, some are lucky and stumble across a dream that they love early on and stick with that their whole life, but so many of us are not so lucky, we have no idea what we want to do, no idea where to go, and we're just taking it a step at a time. At least at first. Some people live out their whole lives this way, simply living the life that's expected of them because they don't know what they want and are intimidated by the options. You've got a lot on others because you are actually pursuing a direction, however vague it is." She chuckled. "Although I guess you didn't have much of a choice in the matter." She waved at the room around her. "Look at me, I had no idea I loved teaching until I was about mid-twenties, and I didn't start pursuing it until I was almost thirty." She returned her eyes to him. "Here's my advice to you. Go out there, experience as much as you can. Don't be scared by your lack of direction or purpose. Try everything, either you'll find something you want to focus on, or you'll discover that what you have is enough, and you'll continue to do that. Just don't let fear hold you back, and you'll be fine."
Jace felt that there had been a weight lifted from his shoulders that he hadn't known was there, and he let out a sigh of relief. He looked up at her again. "Thank you. That's been on my mind for a while."
She nodded and they turned back to silently observe the outside of the ship.
The emotional unloading had made Jace tired, and he felt his eyelids begin to weigh on him. He said his farewells and expressed his gratitude to Madam Sheev before returning to his room. He knew he'd seen a sight of the woman that many didn't see and he probably wouldn't see again.
-
Sheev Ardimeya smiled as she watched the boy return to his room. She felt a light inside of her kindle. That boy was going to become something, she was sure of it. There was actually a superstition among the staff that anyone who was drawn to this particular viewport would eventually become a famous spacer in some form or manner. Sheev liked to think that her late-night talks were part of what made that superstition a reality. She was excited to see where this young man would go in the future.
"Madam?" a male voice came over her earpiece. "Everything all right?"
She shook herself and began to make her way back to her quarters. "Yes, James. Just the normal delinquents out past curfew scenario."
She heard a sigh. "Y'know, the galaxy is not as it used to be, the free life of adventure you push on these children is a lot harder to come by these days."
She smiled at his words mirroring her own only a few minutes before. "But I think the world provides those who can handle it as well."
She could almost hear his grin through the mic. Then he spoke in a more serious tone. "Madam, I was going to wait until after the sleeping hour to tell you this, but since you're up anyway, I figured I'd let you know. Rumors of Korvac assembling a crew are beginning to circulate in the Wendyx system."
She mentally sighed, putting on her academy headmaster mask. When she spoke, it was with the cold, commanding tone that so many in the galaxy were familiar with. "Reach out to our contacts in the area. I want to be kept up to date on his movements. I'll reach out to some old friends and see what we can do about it."
𝘓𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. She thought to herself. But she couldn't let a petty revenge plot against her get in the way of teaching her current students.