Eternity (Warhammer High)
Someone else.'s conclusion to his Warhammer High stories. _____
Jake sat beside the others in his program in the Kouthry field house. The Institute President was talking about how the man next to you could be your best friend at graduation, and how nothing was more important to a successful career than blah blah blah. As hard as Jake was trying to listen, the occasional outbreaks of excited whispering from his classmates or applause from the audience of adoring parents was drowning him out.
“It’s like they’re the students,” the kid next to him muttered.
“I know,” Jake said under his breath. “Your parents out there somewhere?” he asked.
“Somewhere, yeah,” the other boy said back. He scanned the crowd. “Can’t find ‘em.”
Jake eyed the bleachers. Vulkan wasn’t there in person, naturally, and he couldn’t spot Alpharius or Corax either. Then, that was often the case. Misja was there, he could see, and though he had never met Cora’s or Alpharia’s mothers, the clouds of Treasury agents near them (and more covert plainclothesmen around them) helped him pick them out.
The convocation address drew to a close, and all the students rose and cheered in unison, while the bleachers erupted in flashes from cameras. Jake waved to his parents as the students started filing out by row, and try as he might, he couldn’t find any of the three girls he knew in the crowd. Of course, they were all different programs. Cora was in one of the civil engineering programs, he knew, and Alpharia had mentioned Education. Venus was in Inorganic Chemistry, while he was in Consumer Design and Practices.
His own row was called out, and he walked out of the room with the others from the convocation address. He flinched as he entered the open air of the Kouthry campus, shying from the light and sliding his sunglasses on. Even after an entire summer out of doors, it seemed, his mild myopia wasn’t going away.
“You got bad eyes or something, man?” the other kid asked.
“Eyesight’s fine, I’m just light-sensitive,” Jake said. “My parents got me these sunglasses as a going-away present before I went on a road trip this summer.”
The other kid nodded. “Cool. What’s your name?”
Jake held out his hand. “Jacob Seager. Call me Jake.”
“Aaron Wabash, call me Aaron,” the other kid said, shaking his hand with a grin. “If you were in my block, you’ve gotta be in the design program too.”
“Well, sort of,” Jake said. “Technically, I’m staff here, not a full-time student. I work in the bio labs. I just take classes too.”
“Cool,” Aaron replied. “Do you live in the city?”
“Student housing,” Jake said. Aaron had a look he was quite familiar with about him: old money. From his watch to his clothes to his hairstyle, he looked like a male Lyra.
“Mmm.” Aaron shrugged. “They make everyone live in the student dorms for freshman year. So annoying.”
“Annoying how?” Jake asked.
“It’s so…cramped,” Aaron said. “My closet back home was bigger than my dorm. I don’t mind my roommate, though,” he added as they walked over to the dorm buildings, down the nearly third of a mile road to the residential end. “He’s a cool dude. Smart as hell.”
“That’s always good,” Jake said. “I’m rooming with my girlfriend from high school.”
Aaron glanced over at him. “You got a job at the same place your high school girlfriend went to college? How much did THAT take?”
“Not much. Her dad and I get along really well, and he’s a school sponsor and alumnus,” Jake said. It happened to be true. “Besides, I REALLY wanted to work here. It’s perfect. And staff get a huge discount.”
Aaron nodded. “If you say so. What do you do?”
“I work in the bio labs, like I said, mostly just cleaning up. No research. I start Wednesday. Mostly midday classes for now,” Jake said.
“Huh.” As they wandered down the road to the dorms, the thousands of students in the campus buzzed all around them, partaking in Orientation activities, exploring the campus, and otherwise taking in the gorgeous day. “Lovely campus, isn’t it?” Aaron asked.
“Fantastic. Reminds me a bit of my high school, though, internally. The buildings and shit,” Jake said.
“What city are you from?” Aaron asked.
“Hive Tetra, actually,” Jake said. “I went to school at Imperator, in Startseite.”
Aaron looked over at him, surprised. “You’re a hiver?”
Jake glanced back, a bit coolly. “That a problem?”
“No, just surprised, is all,” Aaron said quickly. “You don’t act like any of the hivers I’ve ever met.”
Jake let the moment drag on before dropping it. It certainly wasn’t any different from anything he'd had at Imperator.
As they reached the dorms, both stepped aside as a row of about ninety men in camouflage shirts trooped past. “Reservist guys, I guess,” Aaron commented.
“Or Officer trainees,” Jake said. “Though with the daughters of three Primarchs on campus, there’s some Treasury around too. You see all of them in the crowds at the convocation?”
“Yeah,” Aaron said. He watched the soldiers go with a somewhat disgruntled look, but didn’t elaborate. “Which ones are here again?”
“Venus, Cora, Alpharia,” Jake said immediately. They had been playing cards the previous night, after all.
“Right. Shame Victoria’s not here, too,” Aaron said wistfully.
Jake smiled. “She’s taking the year off,” he said.
“Ah well,” Aaron chuckled. “Any of them in our program?”
“Nope,” Jake said. “You know, they went to Imperator too,” he said. “I was in their class.”
“Oh? Cool,” Aaron said. “Out of how many people?” he asked as they reached the dorm buildings.
“Around a thousand,” Jake said.
“I can’t imagine going to school with the same people so long,” Aaron said. He held the door open for Jake. “This’ll be a learning experience.”
“That’s college, all right,” Jake laughed.
A Treasury agent walked past them as they left, carrying several empty plastic bags. Jake nodded to him as he passed him, but got no response. As they reached the stairs, Jake peeled off. “What floor are you on?” he asked.
“Fourteen,” Aaron said. He chuckled. “Room with a view.”
Jake blinked. “Me too! What’s your number?”
“Zero seven one four eight eight,” Aaron supplied.
“Oh, that’s on one end, isn’t it?” Jake asked. “You get a corner dorm, at least.”
“Yeah.” Aaron tapped for the lift.
“Bah, take the stairs! Commemorate your first day with a workout,” Jake said.
Aaron looked up the massive stairwell. “No thanks.”
Jake sighed. “Fine.” The two of them walked into the lift, making room for a group of departing parents, their arms filled with suitcases.
As the doors started to close, however, the ambient noise in the lobby dropped off a bit. Cora emerged from the throng of people around the door and started walking towards the elevator. Jake held his hand over the door and she sped up, sliding in with a grateful nod.
“Thanks,” she said.
“What’s your floor?” Jake asked as Aaron stared, eyes wide.
“Uh, fifteen,” Cora said. “I’d take the stairs, but I have to get this message off before they lock up the package delivery room for the weekend,” she explained. She tapped her pocket. “Damn post office taking weekends off on move-in day.”
“What floor is Alpharia on?” Jake asked. Aaron’s wide eyes turned to him, shocked that he would have the effrontery to ask a Lady Primarch where her relatives lived.
To his manifest surprise, Cora answered. “Top floor, twenty, I think.”
“Heh. There’s a funny coincidence,” Jake chuckled.
“Yeah,” Cora said with a grin. She glanced over at Aaron. “Who might you be?”
“Uhh…A-Aaron Wabash,” the tanned teenager answered shakily. “Your Highness,” he added hastily.
“Mmm. Corvus Cora.” The liftcar fell silent as they arrived on the fourteenth floor and both boys got off.
Aaron heaved a sigh as she vanished behind closing doors. “Well. That was…interesting,” he said.
Jake shrugged. Aaron stared at him in reproach. “You shouldn’t have been so frank,” he said.
“What?” Jake asked.
“You asked her where Princess Alpharia is staying! That’s none of your business!” Aaron said, clearly perturbed by his brush with royalty.
“Whoa, man, cool off,” Jake said, putting a hand up. “I told you, we went to school together. She knows me.”
Aaron shook his head. “Right. Sorry, that was just…and she lives above us?”
“Yeah. Room over mine, actually, I think,” Jake said. “You want to just hang for a while? You look spooked.”
“Sure…why not,” Aaron said, shaking himself loose. “Sure. I should make sure nothing got damaged on the flight, too,” he said. “I flew in from Arcadus, over on the Farwest hives.”
Jake followed his new friend to his dorm and glanced over it. Pure stock, all of it: two elevated beds with computer desks underneath and a holoscreen set against the wall on a table, with a wide window at the end of the room. “I’ve stayed in hotels worse than this,” Jake said. “It’ll be home in no time.”
“No offense, dude, but you live in a hive,” Aaron said.
“Not for the last three months,” Jake said. “I went on a road trip with my girlfriend and a few of her cousins. We were all over the place, none of it hives.”
Aaron picked up one bag and unzipped it. “Still.” He looked over his bed and sighed. “I don’t get why we’re not allowed to bring our own furniture.”
“Besides the fact that they provide you with plenty?” Jake asked drily. “Well, think about the logistics. How would Moving Day look with every student bringing their own shit?”
“True,” Aaron conceded. Jake followed him in and looked out the window.
“Your room has a better view than mine, all I can see is the wall around the school and the buildings past that,” Jake said. “At least you can see the campus.”
“Your room faced east, right? You get the sunrise,” Aaron said.
“Ugh, not with my schedule,” Jake groused. “Up at five, work from six to nine, classes ten to noon and one to five, work from six to seven, in bed by ten.”
“That sucks, all right,” Aaron said. “No time to do your own shit except late at night?”
“Well, yeah, but I get weekends off,” Jake admitted. “That will be homework time, I fear.”
“Hah. Probably.” Aaron glanced back at him and his eyes went wide. “Oh man…don’t look now, but Primarch number two is en route,” he said.
Jake glanced back. “Oh, yeah. Hey, Venus!” he called.
Venus looked up from their door. “Oh, there you are,” she said, walking up to him as every other person on the floor stared. “What are you doing over here?”
“Just meeting the neighbors,” Jake explained. He gestured at Aaron. “This is Aaron. Aaron, Venus,” he said.
Venus stuck her hand out. Aaron went stock-still until Venus shook her hand in midair a bit for emphasis. Aaron snapped free and gingerly took her hand, flinching at the heat. “Nice…nice to meet you, Princess,” he managed.
She sighed slightly. “Yeah, nice to meet you. You in Jake’s program too?” she asked.
“Y-yes, your Highness,” Aaron said.
“Venus, please.”
“Uh…Venus,” Aaron said, shaking his head. “Sorry. Uh, yes, we’re both in Consumer Design and Practices.”
“That’s cool.” Venus leaned back against the doorframe. Her illuminating red eyes flooded the room with light.
Aaron straightened up as his confidence returned a bit. “What are you here for?”
“Inorganic Chemistry,” Venus supplied. “Maybe stay for a Masters, too, I dunno. I’m only on this floor because my roommate is too.”
“Oh. Well…” Aaron said, his seventeen-year-old chemistry and upbringing driving him towards a single converging destination. “I’m looking forward to living with you, Venus,” he said, sliding easily into the effortless schmooze-mode of a born socialite.
Venus shook her head. “No, my room’s down the hall.”
“Right, but I mean on the same floor. Will you be at the floor meeting tonight?” he asked.
“It’s mandatory, so yes. Then I’m heading out to a little get-together in the city,” Venus said.
“Ah, cool. Do you need someone to go with?” Aaron asked.
Venus allowed the faintest hint of a smile to reach her lips as she divined Aaron’s ultimate desire. “No, my boyfriend already said he’d go,” she said.
Aaron deflated, his momentary lifelong dream wilting away. “Ah.”
“Wh