Pride x Familiar by Albert Ruckholdt

and
there in deep space mining.
    The Sanreal Pride, known for its presence in the
world of shipbuilding, shipping, salvaging and surveying.
    The Irulan Pride, known for its interests in
construction and deep-space colonization.
    The Fenrir Pride, recognized for its interests
in research and development of new technologies – as well as very old ones.
    The Lorian Pride, with deep widespread
connections to the learning institutions and academies across the
colonized systems.
    The Raynar Pride, known for its ties to the
military and covert organizations.
    And last, but not least, the Lanfear Pride –
known as the black sheep Pride.
    Courtesy of my bonding to Arisa Imreh’s blood –
actually to the Symbiote inside her blood – I was bonded to the
Lanfears.
    As such, my affiliation to them wasn’t viewed
with much pride by the Aventis of our academy. As mentioned before,
the Lanfears weren’t very well received. This stemmed from the fact
that the Lanfears had a habit of going against the flow. They would
frequently paddle upstream when everyone else paddled down. This
didn’t always work out in their favor, but on the occasions that it
did, the Lanfears would profit greatly.
    Also, the Lanfears had their fingers in everything , whether legitimate or illegal.
    Elements of the other Prides were guilty of
crimes as well.
    However, it wasn’t nearly as much news as when
members of the Lanfear Pride got into trouble.
    Personally, I felt the other Prides simply had a
grudge to bear against the Lanfears. After all, when it came to
Fragments, the pieces possessed by the Lanfear Pride were by far
the coolest, yet hardly the most dangerous of them all.

Chapter 4 –
Decision.
    (Caelum)
    First Semester, Week One.
    Let me describe it.
    After class, I would travel with Caprice to the
training center where both our performance and that of our
Fragments was studied and measured by Lanfear Pride
researchers.
    Locations in Pharos were identified as follows:
by Island, by habitat, then by district grid.
    Galatea Academy resided in Island Three, Habitat
One, District Four Alpha.
    The training center where Caprice and I worked
out at was located in Island Three, Habitat Two, District Two Gee,
which happened to be an entertainment district.
    I say ‘entertainment’ not ‘red-light’
district.
    The region was full of clubs, gaming centers,
drinking establishments, and VR houses providing a plethora of
virtual experiences.
    The training center was situated underground,
beneath a nightclub owned by Arisa Imreh that hosted a healthy
patronage even on school nights.
    To arrive at the club, Caprice and I travelled
by mag-lev. Not only could the trains travel at high speed through
tunnels connecting the habitats, but they were pressurized and
designed to travel between the Islands. In other words, they could
handle the vacuum of space. Running on flexible mag-lev rails, the
trains were like rocket powered caterpillars running along vines
between trees. They would exit one asteroid island, run along the
mag-lev track and then enter a second asteroid island.
    Even if they were pressurized, there was always
the uncomfortable sensation in a person’s ears upon exit and entry
of an Island. It was only a little less bothersome when exiting and
entering a habitat.
    Caprice and I would enter the club through a
side alley. A big, metal door resembling a fire escape exit
intersected the permacrete wall of the club building. But it wasn’t
a fire escape and the only way to open it was to press one’s palm
against the metal.
    A smart door.
    Very smart door, indeed.
    After recognizing either myself or Caprice, the smart door would unlock for us.
    From there we walked down a stairwell to the
underground levels. The doors that greeted us at each level were dumb doors and were kept unlocked. Even if they were locked,
Caprice and I had a key for them.
    The training center was much like a gymnasium or
fitness center, except built under Arisa’s nightclub.