The World Flying Force Rebellion in the Shadows

Chapter 18- Notawa's News

            It seemed like I was the least stealthy person on the planet. My fire was too smoky, my scent too strong, my clothes not covered by enough mud, and my gathered supplies too few. Santeeg was hard on me. It wasn't surprising since he knew my future role as Master Guardian. This special scrutiny seemed to be adopted by all the privy masters and instructors. It still didn't help that while I was failing at every turn, while Krit'ts excelled at stealth training. While my attempts were sometimes described as 'pathetic,' Krit'ts was the hero of stealth training. Each time he excelled, he would look at me, just beaming with a terrible smug expression. He was impossible to deal with. The smug look on his face drove me crazy. I thought about all the time, what I wouldn't give to wipe that look off his face, just once. The orbital class was just as difficult but differently. It exercised the mind

"Orbiting isn't that complicated, why? What makes an object continue in a circle around another larger object?" no one put their hand in the air.

"Come on people look at your notes, we already went over this, weeks ago. Newton's first law of motion? Anyone? No? An object in motion stays in motion, without gravity or friction, a satellite will forever be pulled towards a planet while the satellite's momentum pushes it away from the planet. Now, what happens if you don't have enough momentum to escape the gravitational pull of our planet?"

"You crash into it," Somewhere behind me someone had answered.

"Yes, exactly. That is why it is so important to understand the required escape velocity of our planet," The instructor had projected a graph that related the information he was giving.

"Is that different than taking off the surface? Isn't the escape velocity the same in orbit as it is on the surface?" I asked.

"No, the escape velocity is higher the closer you get to the planet's surface, however, in space you will be traveling at roughly 25,000 miles per hour in orbit already, it takes roughly 10 km/s to escape the gravity on the surface, while in orbit, it will only take about 6 km/s, how would this compare to a larger planet? Earth-sized?" he asked the room. I was only half paying attention when I answered,

"Earth was bigger, so it would be higher, but why would we need to know that? Who cares about another planet?"

"It's 'need to know,' according to this instructors manual, moving on,"

That explained nothing, and the instructor knew it.

He showed a short video that displayed take-off from the view on a space pod. I wondered how they got the video since we had supposedly only flown simulations. Zarlique had said that our pod had been flown for real. It seemed more plausible now. It even seemed likely.

I was diligently taking notes, but my mind wandered to the rebellion. I hadn't had an update from anyone in a while several days at least. The intense study sessions and training sessions had been my only focus. Arwago had made it clear, he needed to be trusted and left to his own devices.

All my wondering turned out to be unnecessary. The class had ended so I gathered the half dozen books that were meant to help me study and walked out. Arwago had been standing next to the exit. He was facing away from the class so that he could meet my stride right when I left the classroom. He was also eating some sort of snack food I couldn't identify; this didn't surprise me anymore. He seemed to know where I was at all times and always had some sort of food to munch on.

"Reconist, you are required in the lab, report there immediately,"

"Of course, thank you, privy master," I gave him our salute and started walking towards the lab. To my surprise, he kept walking with me. As soon as we were out of earshot of any other students, he started talking fast. I hadn't heard Arwago talk this fast before, he seemed to be channeling his inner Tesser. More than the speed of his words, the tone of his words was frightening me.