...I, Elfangor, was going to become a great warrior, a prince, a hero. I was posted as an aristh, a cadet, to the Dome ship StarSword...

...the dome of a Dome ship is a circular area about a third of a mile across. It is filled with grass, trees, ground rushes, and flowers. There is a lake in the middle and a stream that runs around the circumference. It's as much like home as it can be. You'd almost think you were running across any well-kept area on the home world...

...a Dome ship is built with the dome at one end and then, far away, far back, there are the three huge engines...Connecting the dome to the engines is a long, long shaft. Inside this shaft is the place where everyone has their quarters - their private areas. For arisths, the quarters are tiny. I mean, extremely tiny. If you want to turn around you have to back out into the hallway...naturally, warriors and princes get bigger quarters. And of course the captain has quarters so big he can practically play driftball in there. But the captain isn't usually in his quarters. He's usually on the battle bridge...

...some fighter pilots were moving off toward the fighter bays. You can always tell a fighter pilot. There's a swagger they have. It's almost like there's a special light that seems to shine on them...

...they say Captain Feyorn can practically see through walls. He knows everything that goes on aboard his ship. He stood in the center of the room...the room was circular, with bright monitors glowing and computer screens reeling off data. Holographic monitors created images in midair, and there were sound-speech info-tags and thought-speech computer warnings. Warriors working on the battle bridge often used hand signals between themselves so that the thought-speak noise wouldn't become a jumble...

...suddenly, I realized that everyone on the battle bridge was looking at me...and that's when I almost did faint. The captain was going to send us into battle...