# Chapter 9: The Crown and the Beacon
The first glimpse of Primori Academy stole Isabella's breath.
She'd seen photographs, of course. Everyone had seen photographs of humanity's premier military academy—the images were used in recruitment materials, in news broadcasts, in the kind of inspirational media that made children dream of serving among the stars. But photographs couldn't capture the reality of it.
The station emerged from the black like a city suspended in space. Massive didn't begin to describe it. The central hub alone was larger than any structure Isabella had ever seen, a cylinder of reinforced metal and composite materials that stretched for what must have been kilometers. Radiating outward from the hub were six major spokes, each one a self-contained facility connected b
