Make Love Not War: Dragon Fire

Inside the shuttle there was a small narrow silver corridor with glass and chrome doors leading to cabins on either side. Mark walked down the corridor and found that each cabin had six seats inside with what looked like TV screens above them and most of the cabins were full. He passed loud cabins and quiet cabins all full of excitable boys and girls until he found one that had seats empty and he noticed that there was a white button lit up on the side of the door that was blinking at him. He pressed the button on the side of the glass and chrome door and the door slid open silently and he entered. The only person inside was a beautiful blonde girl who was gazing out of the window and Mark sat opposite her and looked out, seeing Erika still sitting on the same bench as she had been before and waving out at her. Suddenly but calmly the shuttle began to move slowly, first forwards then beginning to climb upwards, it was quite a disconcerting feeling because the shuttle didn’t feel like it was moving at all, rather it felt like the world outside was moving instead. Mark didn’t like the feeling and sat back and opened his shoulder bag taking out his book “Assam City – A guide” and began reading hoping he would be able to ignore the window as suddenly the door slid open once more.
“Mr May there you are” The tall thin woman whom he had met on the station was now standing in the doorway.
“My name is Professor Formosa Oolong; welcome to Assam University,” She continued “I hope you enjoy your stay with us. We have six more stops to make and then the Corporation Refreshments Droid will be coming round serving Corporation snacks and beverages. Please do not leave your cabin unless absolutely necessary. If you are travel sick, please press the green button to the side of the door and Doctor Xu, the university’s chief medical officer will be along to administer a sedative. Once again, please enjoy your stay at Assam University and we will speak more once we get to the security checkpoint at the border.”
She didn’t wait for any sign of acknowledgement before leaving with the doors sliding shut behind her and making her way further down the shuttle corridor. A few seconds later Mark could hear her muffled voice coming from the corridor and assumed that she was making the exact same speech to whichever compartment that Leonardo had gotten into.
“She says that to everyone, I think she is a robot or an android or something” the blonde girl looked up from the window and smiled. “Sorry I should have introduced myself earlier my name is Kristina Kay”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Mark May” he replied.
“I’m sorry I must have seemed so rude, it’s just I was the first one they picked up, and I don’t like flying.”
“It’s okay I’m not too good with flying myself, where are you from?” he asked.
“I’m from Ifing City.” Kristina replied. Mark remembered hearing about Ifing City in geography class. For some reason that no scientist had ever figured out it rained for almost all of the year on Ifing Plains and regularly flooded. As a result the city was mainly underground and required anyone working on the surface to have to use foot powered trams to get to and from the city because it was too dangerous to use electrical power with all that water about. Ifinglanders as their population were affectionately known were not only excellent swimmers but excellent athletes because of this and regularly won all the sporting championships.
“Oh that’s so cool, you must be really good at sports” Mark said.
Kristina laughed. “I was quite good at hover hockey at my school” she grinned and began to tell Mark about her parents and her five brothers that were all wheat farmers and bakers and that she had been shocked that someone of her farming stock would have been accepted to Assam. Mark knew how she felt and told her that he had felt the same way when he had gotten accepted. He wondered now whether the ‘best of the best’ quote that was associated with Assam University was entirely accurate.
A few minutes later the shuttle began to slow down again and Mark and Kristina looked out of the window and watched as the shuttle pulled up at another station and with a small jolt, stopped in place. Seconds later they heard a faint hiss of the doors opening, and then saw Professor Oolong step out with the two blue uniformed men and begin talking. They watched as one small red headed boy with glasses stood forward and offered the Professor his permission slip, and then walked inside.
A few seconds later the door to the cabin opened and the small teenage boy walked in and sat down next to Mark. He was quickly followed by Professor Oolong who immediately repeated the spiel that she had dispensed to Mark just a few minutes earlier before once more making her way down the corridor.
“Hi I’m James” The boy said once the professor had left them and offered his hand to Mark.
“My names Mark, nice to meet you” Mark took his hand and shook it firmly.
“Hi I’m Kristina”
“Do either of you play Kamui?” James asked as the shuttle disembarked and began to climb once more.
“No I don’t, what is it?” Mark replied intrigued.
“It’s a card game my brother plays at Assam, He’s the head boy of Phoenix house, and he gave me some of his cards to get me started.” He said reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out a deck of thin rectangular cards with shiny metal backs. He turned one over and revealed that they on the front they each had a picture in the middle and numbers on each side.
“These fit into grids that they have in Assam’s common rooms” he explained. “Each player takes it in turns to place them into the grid, once on the grid they light up in the players colour. When two cards are next to each other the grid computer reads the numbers on each card. It compares the numbers on the adjacent sides and declares a winner. Whichever card loses changes into the opposing players colour. At the end of the game the winner is the one who has the most cards in their colour when the grid is filled. And the winner gets to keep all the cards in his colour plus any he started with that were taken by his opponent.”
“Sounds fun” Mark said.
“My brother said they have a card tournament every Christmas. He won it two years in a row, I’m going to win this year” James said almost too confidently.
“Where do you get the cards from” Mark asked intrigued.
“You can buy them from the Games District in the Upper City” James said excitedly “You can even have your own made with your picture on it if you want but you have to trade in another card for it. My brother told me that some people leave cards with their pictures on in boxes around the Lower City for people to find. But we’re not allowed down there in our first year.” said James.
“Is that Hermione G. Hoover on that card?” Kristina asked, suddenly interested.
“Yeah” said James. “All the cards have on them famous people who have studied at Assam”.
“Who is Hermione G. Hoover?” asked Mark he thought it was a fair question, he had never heard of her, but when he looked up both Kristina and James were staring at him as though it was the most obvious question they had ever heard.
“How can you not know who she is?” James exclaimed.
“She’s the most awesome writer in the history of Gaea. I have all her books.” Kristina said excited. “I heard she sometimes does readings at Assam University, I brought my favourite book ‘Technology of Magic’ just in case she comes and does a reading this year and I can get it signed.”
“Would you like her card?” James asked smiling offering it to Kristina.
“Oh that would be super, thanks.” Kristina looked like she had been offered one hundred bars of gold. She placed the card carefully into her bag and looked inside for something to give James in return. “Umm, would you like some gum?”
The shuttle stopped three more times to pick up more students, and Mark, James and Kristina watched out of the window as Professor Oolong and he blue uniformed friends went out to meet them and they saw lots of students saying goodbye to their friends and family and walking into the shuttle although no more entered Mark’s cabin. The shuttle then began to climb higher than before until all Mark and Kristina could see out of the window were white fluffy clouds. Once they had levelled out, the screens above each of the chairs flashed on and Professor Oolongs face appeared.
“Welcome to Assam University Transport Shuttle Three. We are now cruising at ten thousand feet and will reach Security Checkpoint Alpha shortly. At the checkpoint we will pass through security checks and before crossing the border into Jotunheim. The refreshments droid will be along shortly should you require anything.” She said robotically. Sure enough within a couple of minutes the glass and chrome door to their compartment slid open and a hovering droid with flat circular head which resembled the Food Materialiser that Marks mother had used earlier.
“Would anyone like any refreshments” it said in a low computerised drone.
“Yes please” said James excitedly. “I’d like some Corporation Gum and some Corporation Swizzlers and some Corporation Jelly Beans please.”
“That will be two Midgardian credits please.” the droid whirred. James reached into his pocket and produced two bronze coins and placed them into a slot where the droids mouth would have been had it been human. Within seconds James’ order had materialised on the droid’s head plate.
“Thank you for using Corporation Droid services” said the droid before leaving back through the door and entering the compartment opposite.
The shuttle continued for some time. Mark, Kristina and James talked about their previous schools and what their favourite subjects were. Mark’s was Maths, Kristina’s English and Drama and James couldn’t decide because he didn’t really like any but reiterated his desire to play as much Kamui as possible whilst he was there. Soon though the shuttle began to descend and Professor Oolong’s face appeared on the screens once more telling them that they were about to dock at Security Checkpoint Alpha. Mark looked out of the window and instead of seeing the lush green grasses of Emerald Hill or the trees of Midgard countryside he saw a dry arid desert empty except for line of silver posts which reached high into the sky.
“Those mark the border between Jotunheim and Midgard” James explained as a yellow beam of light passed through the post nearest to them.
“That light is the security beam right?” Kristina asked James “I heard It keeps anyone from trying to cross the border. If it touches you it will kill you.”
“That’s right but it also produces a magic barrier, which stops anyone in Jotunheim doing magic against anyone in Midgard.” James explained. Mark had heard of Magic before but he wasn’t sure what it was exactly. There had been a war between his nation Midgard and the nation of Jotunheim. The people of Jotunheim had been given the name ‘The Magics’ by the people of Midgard as during the war they had used Magic against the armies of Midgard. Midgard had triumphed however and had subsequently banned magic from ever being used.