Space Knights: The Arrival by Gregory Samuelson (buy e reader .TXT) 📕

hall that was off to the right of the school building and connected to the front room. The photographer was in the second classroom down and Trance waited in line with several other students and their families. He felt self-conscious as many of them looked over at him and his parents. They were all friendly and most seemed curious. They all knew about the Earth people and many of them knew about Dr. Sonderson. Some of the kids had met some of the kids from Earth and even befriended them, yet there were others that had not met anyone from Earth so they were curious to know what they were like.

Trance talked to a couple of the boys and learned about classes and various teachers. He also heard about the sports that some of them were going to try out for. In a few minutes it was his turn. He sat and got his pictures taken as his mother filled out the form. They left the photographer and went back to the office and picked up his packet. Trance pulled out his schedule and took a couple minutes to locate the rooms where he would have his classes. He found that he even had a map that was color-coded to show him where his classes were and when he had them. When they left the school Trance felt fairly confident that he’d be able to find his way around.

***

At school the sights and sounds were just what they had been like back on Earth. Trance walked to the band room for his first hour, noticing that almost everybody was wearing basically the same kind of clothes that kids had worn to school on Earth, canvas pants, like denim jeans, athletic shoes, and T-shirts. He entered the band room carrying his old trombone. It had belonged to his uncle Matthew, his mother’s youngest brother. He got the instrument to use when he went to sixth grade, and he’d played every school year since. He looked around and spotted some kids with instruments incredibly similar to his trombone.

The main floor of the band room was down two steps. About the middle of the upper level was a square section that stuck out slightly and was where the band teacher would conduct the class. The chairs for the band were set up in three arcs. Nervously Trance went down the two steps and went around to the back of the room and around to the first third of the third arc to find an empty seat where the trombones were.

Trance sat down and set his backpack behind his chair like everyone else and then opened the battered case and pulled out his trombone. After he’d gotten home and registered for school he’d learned that somehow some of their belongings from the Sparrow XIV had survived, including his trombone and many of his books from Earth.

He spent several hours cleaning and trying to tune the horn so he’d be ready to play it again when school started. He had never been the best, yet he did enjoy playing the horn. Now he sat assembling the three pieces nervously as he sat near the back of the trombone section. He relaxed himself and fitted the bell with the slide and then carefully attached the mouthpiece. He slid the slide down a little and took out a bottle of slide oil, put a couple drops on the inside tube and checked to make sure the slide slid easily. He had a few minutes to wait before the class would start so he reached into his backpack and pulled out the book that he’d selected to read first and started to read, an old habit from his early school days, read a minute before class started if he could.

“What are you reading?” asked the boy sitting next to Trance on his left.

“Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain,” Trance replied automatically before realizing that this boy wouldn’t even know who Mark Twain was.

“Is that a new book? I haven’t heard of it before,” said the boy curiously.

“Well, actually it’s quite an old book. My copy was new when I got it for my birthday one year back home,” Trance answered and went on to explain. “I’m from Earth and this is one of the most classic books from Earth.”

The boy was stunned for a moment and then said, “Well no wonder I haven’t heard about it before. What’s the book about?” He was still curious and remained friendly and polite.

Trance briefly summarized the book and let the boy look at it and read the first page. Trance’s copy of the book was a fairly nice looking hardback with a glossy cover. The boy flipped through the book before realizing that he hadn’t introduced himself or gotten to know his new friend’s name. “My name is Gracer Karry. May I ask what your name is?”

“Sure. I’m Trance Sonderson,” Trance said, introducing himself and extending his hand. Gracer shook his hand. Trance noticed that as they had been talking that several other students had looked his way and were curious about him.

Gracer thought for a moment and then exclaimed, “You must be Kyle’s brother. My brother Zak graduated with him. Now I remember,” Gracer said more excitedly, “Zak called home a couple weeks ago and told us about finding you. You just happened to wonder into the restaurant his troop was eating at. This is cool meeting you here in person.”

“Really,” said Trance surprised. He remembered talking to Zak very vividly. How interesting this was to be talking to Zak’s brother.

“Yeah, Zak even said that you had an interest in becoming a knight and taking the knight class. I’m in the knight class also. It’ll be a blast. I’ve been in it for three years now. I plan on being a knight. How about you?”

“We had knights on Earth ages ago, long before I was born. I grew up studying them, and I’ve always dreamed of being a knight. Now here’s