44 Trouble always finds her

Ji-ho attended her classes with the dedication she had shown during her years as a medical student. While the Academy was full of smart people, Ava was higher than the others on the totem pole of intelligence. Her focus had always been on academic pursuits and dreams for a better life with her parents. Thus Ji-ho could not allow herself to slack off. Relying on Ava's superior understanding of the sciences and mathematics, Ji-ho was going to fulfill the ghost's dreams of becoming a navigator on the Draconus.

A little bit of research on her end had led Ji-Ho to discovering that the Draconus was an Angel class battleship, one among the five most powerfully armed and most heavily armored warships in existence. It was a flagship that commanded other ships in its fleet. Captain Blake Johnson, a veteran of the reptilion wars was the current commander of the Draconus.

"How the hell am I going to do this?" She muttered to herself. Getting top scores at the academy wasn't going to cut it. That wasn't even in the basic requirements because top scores were meaningless without practical abilities. She needed battle experience and recommendations from the highest ranked military officials to be shortlisted for the rank of junior lieutenant, navigation. This meant that Ji-ho would have to enlist and serve aboard auxiliary ships before she would be allowed entry into higher grade Starships.

"Do what?" Lois asked from her side of the room. Ava's roommate specialized in xenobiology and attended a different set of classes. Being in their first year, they both shared some common classes which included physics, astronomy and mathematics.

"Get aboard the Draconus," Ji-ho answered as she powered down her data pad. She was just an entertainer who had had dreams of becoming a doctor. Now she was in a space faring society, facing an overwhelmingly difficult task that would require luck, hardwork, and connections.

"The Draconus?" Lois said with a smile. "Big dreams, Ava."

"Gotta aim for the stars if you want to hit the treetops," Ji-ho responded. The key to not getting overwhelmed was taking baby steps. She would tackle the problem like she was eating a whale, one bite at a time. "Goodnight, Lois. Join me for breakfast tomorrow."

__

Two weeks into attending classes and studying like her life depended on it, Ji-ho had no social life to speak of. She had three destinations and her routine swapped between them like clockwork. Classes, Mess hall, dorm room : these three formed the triangle of space that Ava would be seen within at any time of the day. The thought of taking some time out to go sight seeing tempted her now and then but Ji-ho promised herself that sight seeing would be the reward she gave to herself after acing her first set of tests which were only one month away.

On a particularly sunny day, Ji-ho had just finished submitting an essay she had worked half the night on. Superior grades being her aim, she had to get high scores for every paper, test, project, exam that came her way. Her stress levels had been higher than normal but today was a good day. Ji-ho popped in a mint gum that tingled on her tongue.

"Ah," she sighed, after sitting down on a bench for some sun basking. She was looking forward to her secret indulgence: drinking a mug of ice latte while poring through medical texts and research papers. Mankind had made leaps in every branch of science so she would have been a fool to not seek out such knowledge, especially in a discipline she was passionate about.

A loud thud interrupted her daydreaming. Ji-ho turned to look at where the sound had come from and she saw that a student had collapsed to the ground.

"Archer-"

"Someone call a medic-"

Archer Svenson was on the ground, sweating and panting hard as if he had sprinted a mile. Ji-ho clutched her bag and made her way to where a crowd was forming around the fallen student.

"Fuck, he's beginning to manifest!" A male student shouted. "We need a sentinel!"

Ji-ho's eyes widened when she heard that. In this world, humanity had developed strange abilities. One in every ten thousand humans was born with psychic abilities. Such a mutation was detected early on in childhood but in very extremely rare cases, the psychic abilities would remain latent till a time in the future when it would manifest dangerously without warning. She felt very interested in the subject and considered herself lucky to witness a manifestation with her own two eyes. Thus Ji-ho stood at the front of the circle that was forming around the fallen Archer, a position to better spectate this unusual event.

"He's going to die," the person next to Ji-ho muttered. "They won't get a sentinel here on time."

She suddenly felt guilty for treating him like an exhibit in a zoo. Ji-ho didn't want Archer to die. There was nothing that could be done by her though so she silently prayed that a sentinel would quickly arrive. Sentinel abilities were the only known ways to calm down or fire up a psychic's powers. Utterly useless on their own but a life saving existence to those like Archer. They were more common than psychics and weren't tested for it because every third person on the street was an untrained sentinel.

"Svenson, someone's gonna get here soon so try and remain conscious," the student propping him up advised. Archer was impressively able to reign in his abilities but if the man fainted, nobody knew what could happen.

"Sen-" Archer moaned in pain. "Mmmph-"

And at that moment, Ji-ho felt a sharp stab of pain in her head.