Wolf Heart

Chapter 20

"Of course!" Jon said from the lower level of their seating.

"Only because we're one season closer to Starcross," Katie teased from the left aisle.

Laughter filled the classroom with warmth. Professor Yava nodded. "Indeed. I hope our team does their best and stays safe this Quad."

Jon pumped his fists. "We absolutely will!" He shifted in his seat to give Rayan and James a wide smile. James scoffed and smirked, while Rayan hid behind his hands.

"For the upcoming weeks we'll be delving into our Edevium course," Professor Yava said with a tap on the holoboard, which was filled with the subject curriculum. It copied across their tables, and Ava spread out her school datapad to take notes. "Uses. Application. History. So, I'll start with our first question of this course — probably the most important for a foundation." Professor Yava turned her back on the holoboard while it switched slides. "What is edevium?"

Rayan snapped his hand up, causing everyone to turn to him and for his arm to drop down.

"Rayan?" Professor Yava asked. "You can answer."

"Oh." He wriggled in his seat then sat forward. "Edevium is a biochemical substance found in gas giants. Eruda has several mining facilities syphoning it. One of its properties is absorption and release. It's used in a wide variety of everyday objects; it runs ships, hovercars, hovercycles, solarboards. It also has uses in weaponry and medicine."

Miss Yava smiled at him. "You must know quite a bit on this subject — you're right on all accounts. As he said, edevium has absorption qualities. You'll see this in your science classes in more action. One of its most well-known uses is its application in what the Strike Forces term 'Transform' weapons. It allows certain alloys like solarium to take a different shape than the original as long as it has a foundation imprint for it to follow." Miss Yava smiled. "Imagine fire for a moment," she said as she held out the baton. "What is one of the things fire extrudes?"

"Heat?" Meryn questioned.

"Heat." Miss Yava clapped. "If you do this with a blade imbued with edevium, it will absorb the flames. It will sear whatever it touches with the right amount of pressure — but this also factors in the source used to absorb it. For the spring, that is what we will be studying."

Ava wrote down the information on her datapad, but stopped when Katie raised her hand. "I have a question."

"Yes?"

"What would happen if the edevium absorbed something alive?" Katie asked.

Miss Yava hesitated with a faltered frown. "I... I do not know. As far as I know, edevium's never been injected into a living thing. It has volatile properties as a liquid. It can only be controlled in a refined state." Her finger tapped the holoboard, where it switched to a slide of edevium within the process of absorption. "If you inject it into something that can adapt, that is alive, well... the most likely result would kill the specimen. I suppose, if we're going by theories, on the off chance it didn't it'd send the body into constant overdrive. It'd cause it to surpass all normal capability."

Rayan lowered his gaze to his desk. "Taking the brakes off and running at full throttle."

"Yes, Mr. Falae," Miss Yava said. "I believe even that would cause insurmountable damage on the specimen if it was possible, but to be honest, I don't quite know."

Ava wrote it down on her theory tab, but stopped at the wide-eyed expression on Rayan's face. "Ray?" she asked when distress creased his brow. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing." He returned to work on his datapad.

It doesn't seem like it.

"So, for your question, Katie," Miss Yava continued. "I don't know. I think death would be certain unless you had an inhuman amount of fortitude and a ridiculous amount of dumb luck." Everyone fell silent, so she switched the slide. "We'll be focusing on its uses in inanimate things — what it does and how it does it."