The Invincible Hero - Chapter 107

Boval was on the ship for nearly twenty hours. The first six hours he was on board he spent meeting new cadets sharing his cabin. The last few cadets arrived and their CO came in briefly to tell them to sit tight. They were told departure would be soon, but it wasn’t until fourteen hours later that it seemed like the Igmus might actually ship out.

When the ship finally ascended into the heavens, it was deep into the night. The strange panther-like creature, Boval’s bottom bunkmate, came out of bed. He was nocturnal by nature and he was awake and curious. There were a number of Cadets awake although most were asleep. Boval and Freg were up and walking around the cabin. Freg was sitting on Boval’s shoulder and the pair were quietly conversing as they walked around. Elves were known for needing little sleep so they could be found up at all hours of the day and night. Gremlins were mostly nocturnal, but they were also energetic and never had a consistent sleep schedule.

Boval noticed the panter-like creature looking at Boval a Freg. Smiling, Boval walked over once more to his grouchy bunkmate.

“Hello, I’m Boval and this is Freg. Sorry for disturbing you earlier,” he said with a smile.

“I am Pwerno, I am sorry if I were rude earlier,” he said. Pwerno watched Boval and Freg like he was hiding behind the shadows ready to pounce.

“No need to apologize, Freg and I didn’t realize we were bunking with a Shadowcat. I’m sure I would also be grumpy if awakened during my natural sleep cycle,” he said.

Pwerno’s muscles relaxed a little and bared his teeth in an attempt at a smile. Most sentient beings understood the convention of smiling and did it naturally. Unfortunately, not all species had the same facial anatomy to pull it off as a smile many humanoid-like creatures did. Pwerno was trying to smile to demonstrate there were no hard feelings.

Boval was amused by the attempt at smiling by the creature and accepted with a smile of his own.

“I am familiar with Shadowcat’s, so no need to imitate humanoids. Smile as you like,” Boval said.

This comment relaxed Pwerno even more. he looked at Boval with appreciation. The Gremlin still made him tense.

The three chatted for a while before Freg took off somewhere and Boval went back into his bed to read for a little while. Pwerno continued stalking through the Cabin and learning all of the smells, sights, and geography of his temporary home.

The journey to the Sippar Imperial Military Academy would take three months of straight traveling, but the Cadets were also scheduled to make a stop along the way for practice drills and battle simulation. They would arrive on, Juren, the planet where the drills and battle simulations would take place, in a month and a half.

During the time the Cadets were aboard the ship they were put through boot camp. Along with exercising and learning the ins and outs of military command and structure, they were split up to learn according to their specialties.

Boval’s specialty was medicine and he was sent to learn with the other field medics. Boval was way beyond the field dressing stage of medicine he was being put through. Just because he was a genius it didn’t mean he could go off and do something else. Military life was regimented, it was like a mobile factory where everyone was either a cog in the machine or a person operating the machine. Uniformity was the most important thing, teaching the cadets to act on their own just because they were smarter and more knowledgable than some of the fellows was a recipe for chaos.

Due to this, Boval was sitting through all of these boring classes. Luckily, he wasn’t completely miserable. He had many skills he learned from his teacher and others over the years. Although many of the more fantastic skills couldn’t be utilized effectively in this mortal universe, there were some skills he was able to practice and use.

One such skill was the ability to split his mind and carry on several mental tasks at once. This technique is part of the three-five paths. It allowed Boval to study multiple subjects at once if he desired. Currently, Boval was only splitting his attention between sitting through the rudimentary medic courses and the exciting world of fighter jet mechanics.

As a pilot in training, he would be assigned his own starfighter once he graduated and joined the military for real. Right now, he was thinking about the possible ship models he might find himself assigned to in the future. He then imagined the different changes he could make to them to make the ship exceed its abilities.

Freg was similar to Boval and they both spent their time between classes and training discussing the modifications they could make on various devices. Their main focus was on the ships. As the two became friendlier, Boval was able to convince Freg to teach him the Gremlin language. The language, when spoken, sound course, animalistic, and erratic. It also involved a lot of strange and evil sounding laughter.

Most species were unable to learn the language but Boval was an exception. He always had a knack for languages and loved the study of them. Talking with Freg in his language was actually better. Freg was always so uncomfortable speaking the common language of the Sippar Empire. When he talked in his Gremlin language he was much freer and even funny, on purpose.

Although Pwerno rarely engaged in conversations with Boval and Freg, Shadowcats, like many animal species, liked hanging around Boval. Elves were able to make must creatures trust them. Although Pwerno didn’t actively teach Pwerno his language, Pwerno was extremely intelligent and constantly observing and reflecting on his environment.

Shadowcats were typically deployed for covert activities. Boval and Freg assumed Pwerno was combat focused. It turned out that although combat, recognizance, and assassination were specializations for Pwerno; he was also a pilot in training.

Boval eventually learned everyone in their cabin were pilots in training. He didn’t know if this were true for the other cadets on the ship, but to have so many pilots together, it seemed odd.