She shrugged and held out her hand. “Perfectly fine. I’m Gemma Proctor.”
His eyebrows flicked up before he smiled softly, shaking her hand. “Christian Holm.”
Gemma climbed onto the top bunk before continuing. “So, Christian, what sector are you from?”
A pair of boys had started fist-fighting over a bottom bunk, and Christian didn’t respond, his attention preoccupied.
Whatever. She didn’t want to make friends in this place anyway.
Every muscle in Gemma’s body ached as she lay on her mattress, and though the lights were still on and voices bounced around the room, she succumbed to exhaustion in seconds.
It seemed her head had just hit the pillow, though, when a loud siren blared, lights blazing nearly as bright as Reva’s blue sun.
Gemma shielded her eyes until they adjusted enough to glare at the timepiece:06:00.
She groaned, slowly dragging herself out of bed, her limbs stiff as she climbed down the ladder.
A loud thud sounded from the entryway as the double doors to the dormitory burst open. Four guards in red lieutenant uniforms marched inside. A fifth—a prepossessing, red-haired woman—entered after them, clad in a dark-blue captain’s uniform trimmed in gold.
The Dissent had cautioned Gemma about her: the Kaizen. She was known all across the Planetary Systems for both her beauty and brutality. This was the last person Gemma wanted to provoke.
“That was the morning bell, in case you haven’t figured it out,” the Kaizen spoke with authority. “You have fifteen minutes to prepare yourself for the day, then you will follow me to your first test.”
“But what about breakfast?” one of the contestants asked.
The Kaizen shot them a glare so harsh that even Gemma wished she were dead. “You will eat when I tell you to eat. Understood?”
The contestant nodded and slunk behind their bunkmate. The room was silent.
The Kaizen roared, “Well, what the fuck are you waiting for? Move!”
Gemma rubbed her neck before weaving through contestants panicking to get ready. Her heart hammered in her chest as she found the locker rooms tucked behind the two single doors opposite the main entrance.This is it, Nadine.The Trials had begun.
Gemma squeezed between two girls to a sink, thankful she hadn’t bothered to change into bedclothes last night. A quick brush of her teeth and adjustment of her braid, and she’d be ready to go. She refused to get kicked out on the first day.
Or ever, for that matter. She would win a spot on the Oranos Space Station and fulfill her mission.
Exactly fifteen minutes later, the Kaizen shouted for her lieutenants to lead the way. Anyone who wasn’t ready had to pack their things and leave.
The remaining participants were led to a dimly lit area where multiple electroglass panels had been arranged across the room. On the floor, cerulean ultralights pulsed, directing them to stand between two of the panels where a square, black mat sat. Service robots stood on the other sides of each station, electropads in their hands.
These were medical stations. They had one in the infirmary in Perileos, albeit a very old one. It scanned for every possible malady and sensed any wound or broken bone a person had ever acquired in their life. The ones here had to be the latest models and—unlike the one in Perileos—would seeeverything.
“Welcome to your first test,” the Kaizen said. “This is your medical exam. You will not proceed any further unless you are deemed fit enough for life in artificial gravity. Each of you will take turns standing between two panes of electroglass. Turns green, you’re good. Turns red, you leave. Go.”
Gemma studied those in front of her. Most passed their exams, but her heart ached for every person who failed. They were ushered by sleek, round robots through a door that Gemma suspected led to the exit. Some of the contestants held their heads high; others sobbed.
Gemma couldn’t blame them. Returning to Perileos was essentially a death sentence.
With the blazing blue sun at Reva’s back and an asteroid field around the rest of Reva’s circumference, Perileos was cut off from the rest of the Illari Galaxy. Any goods they received came through the Oranos Space Station, and they were lucky to see deliveries every two or three weeks. Perileos’ people might as well be enslaved to the mines, living to work until they died, struggling to barely make it by.
They shouldn’t have to live like that.
Gemma was waved forward, and she stopped between two panels, her pulse quickening. Was there something about her medically that she didn’t know? She hadn’t had an exam in three years; it was possible.
Her stomach churned. At least if the test was about skill or intelligence, she would know she’d given it 110 percent. But to stand between these panes and watch her medical biography flash before her...
Her knees locked in fear.
