Entry Three:

Entry Three:

            Gavin awoke as a tingling sensation shot up his arm. At first he thought he was having a heart attack, but then he realized it was his wrist unit vibrating. It was as if it knew he was awake, because as soon as his eyes focused on it, it displayed a map of the station, with the orders, “Report to docking bay 19-C at 08:00.”

            Gavin pulled himself up. He had fallen asleep on at the dining table, but he didn’t feel any worse for it. Deborah was curled up on a couch in the seating area. The news played on the projector, but the volume was on mute.

            As he rose from the bench, Goldie opened the door to the bathroom. “Did you get the message?” she asked. Gavin tried to remember if he was hearing her speak for the first time. She had a very soft voice.

            “Is this from command?” he asked blearily.

            “They’re shipping us out already,” Goldie told him.

            “Fantastic,” Gavin said sarcastically. “Is everyone getting the same orders?” His questioned was answered when Deborah lifted up her arm to look at her wrist unit. Lance emerged from the bedroom and Lara came out a moment later. Fredriks was the last one out after Video. “Everyone here sleeps in their clothes?”

            “It’s not like we have anything else to wear,” Lara complained.

            “Right, well I guess we only have a fifteen minute window to get down to the dock,” Gavin opened the main entrance. He wondered if he had to lock the door after everyone, but they had no possessions and there was no lock.

            Video looked considerably paler at the news they were expected to meet at the dock. Fredriks was the least concerned and could hardly call the lift fast enough. His finger pounded at the call button repeatedly until Deborah practically slapped his hand. In the lift, Fredriks turned to Video and looked him over. “How’d you get the name, ‘Video,’ anyway?” he decided upon asking to break the tension.

            “AV was my field of specialty in Engineering. Most other people thought it was pretty useless skill, so they started calling me, ‘The Video Guy,’ to make fun of me. I can’t quite remember what my real name was supposed to be. ‘Bob,’ or something. You’re assigned the name you respond to when you’re born, so it changes in utero. The more creative types get the more creative names.”

            “So you consider yourself the creative type?” Fredriks surmised.

            “I’m created to create,” Video replied with a shrug. “Engineering is the only creative-minded job available to me, and it’s pretty bland by most standards.”

            “You can be creative in any field of work,” Fredriks argued. “You just have to be creative.”

            Video laughed at that and the lift doors opened. They emerged into a cavernous area lined with space shuttles aboard their elevated launch pads. A select few looked like the types of ships Gavin was use to. Others defied description, and he was not certain if they were even capable of flight. One looked like a sphere with a pyramid on top. Another looked like a metal box. Many pads stood empty, however, likely due the crisis. They were in docking bay 15, and had to proceed to the left to find their destination. Workers milled about mostly ignoring them. These were not the First, but rather seasoned veterans and professionals. There was a variation to the colours and cut of their uniforms, and Gavin guessed that this signalled their rank with the Corporation. After a stroll, they arrived at 19-C. The docking platform had a short vessel on top. It looked like an upturned paper airplane with a bird’s tail all in chrome with the wings on backwards. There were no visible windows or doors. The only blemishes to its surface were the jets under and behind the wings and tail. These were not large jets, but instead they each were no bigger than his head and quite shallow. He could see his own reflection in the surface of the vessel with a rainbow effect like on tarnished silver. It measured about thirty feet from front to end with the wingspan about two-thirds of that. It rested on a single foot that ran down the middle from the front to the back and pooled out at the bottom. He had no idea how something like that could even fly. That they expected him to be able to fly it was baffling. He didn’t even know how to get in.

            Deborah casually walked up to the rear base of the foot and pressed her hand against a panel. A narrow doorway opened up, with a steep ramp leading upwards into the vessel. Gavin was the last to enter. The floor was illuminated with blue lights and the air inside was like a metal shop. On top of the ramp were two rows of benches along the walls. At the front was the open door to the cockpit, with two work stations lining either side. There was a large workstation at the back. Above one row on benches was an area for cargo. Above the opposite was the kind of sleeping cabin you’d get on a train. A few containers were bundled up in the storage compartment, but the beds were empty. The area before the workstation and behind the ramp at the back was reserved for large cargo pallets. There was one tarped crate sitting there in the two designated spots. There was no one else inside the cabin but them.

            “Are we supposed to be in here?” Gavin asked.

            “Why don’t you ask them?” Video nodded towards the cockpit. There was someone in the pilot’s chair with their back to them.

            Gavin walked up to them. He passed a bathroom opposite a kitchenette outside the cockpit. The person didn’t turn to face him as he approached their chair, but he recognized the grey cloak they were wearing.

            “Sit down,” the woman’s voice said without turning. She didn’t tell him where, so he sat in the co-pilot’s seat. Lara had come up behind him, anticipating her role as co-pilot. The woman didn’t talk, or look up at him. She tapped away at a command panel before her. There were dual control sticks on either side of her arm rests, much like the chair Gavin was sitting in. The front wall showed the docking bay, along with a list of stats. Gavin waited patiently for her, but she still showed no interest. At last, she looked up, and he saw her face was like his. Her orange hair was unkempt except for a single band at the back holding it in place. “X-77,” was all she said. Her eyes were searching his.

            Gavin swallowed hard and nodded.

            “I’m Kylie Dales,” she said, looking back at the panel. Her hands fell to her lap.

            “Dales? Are we… family?” Gavin was confused. “Are you my sister?”

            “No,” Kylie laughed at him, and it sounded empty. Her cheeks were more sunken than his own, as if she hadn’t eaten properly in quite some time. There were bags under her round eyes. “I only had one family. You and I, we’re just different versions in the same series. Pilots. Maybe they made you to replace me. Maybe they want me gone.”

            “But you look just like me. You have the same last name,” he insisted.

            “And we probably came out of the same vat. We’re Generates, not people. We don’t have brothers and sisters. Look,” she pulled up her shirt at the waist to reveal her stomach. She had no belly button. It never occurred to Gavin to check his own. “You think I could have this and still be related to you?”

            “I’m sorry,” Gavin stammered. “I don’t know how this works.”

            “If you’re lucky, you might live long enough to find out,” she told him as she pulled her shirt back down. “I know about you, though. They brought you out early, like the rest of them. That’s why they called me in to fly for you. A newb like you wouldn’t be ready to handle one of these for years.”

            “Are you going to teach me?” Gavin asked hopefully.

            She laughed again, a bit more mirthfully. “I’m not going to spend the next few years babysitting you like I’m your big sister. This is a one time deal. I fly you in, I take you home. That’s it.”

            “Fly us where?” Gavin asked. “What’s our mission?”

            “Search and Rescue,” Kylie answered. “Communications with other-dimensions is temporarily offline and our away teams can’t call in. A-6 has been missing since before the attack, though. We lost all contact with them the second they left the station and crossed over, but we knew they would be flying in blind. Part of their mission was to set up a communication link on the other side and report back. They either failed their mission, or the interference we’re all experiencing is affecting them as well. In either event, we need to find them and bring them home.”

            Deborah was in the doorway by Lara. “Aren’t they presumed KIA?” she asked.

            “Not by me,” Kylie snapped. “This is A-6, not X-77.”

            “It doesn’t matter what rank they are,” Deborah retorted. “The virus could have easily have wiped them out.”

            “You think I don’t know that?” Kylie bounded from her chair. Deborah hastily drew back, as she thought Kylie was about to lay hands on her. “Why do you think I’m shacking up with you newbs? My whole crew is dead! B-7 is gone except for me. Fourteen people dead and you’re just crawling into this world.” Kylie slunk back to her seat and turned around. “Get in your chairs. We need to make our departure time,” she said softly.

            Before Deborah could even open her mouth, Kylie had turned on the engines and they could feel a faint humming under their feet. Gavin looked around panicking for his seatbelt. Lara took up the Navigation chair behind him on the right. The others took their cue and began to strap themselves in. Despite the sudden onset of the engine, the ship remained stationary. Kylie began to go through the long pre-flight checklist while they waited nervously. “Don’t worry about flying, Gav,” she told him when she finally got her clearance and the ship was raised on its platform. “It’s in your blood.” The bay doors opened overhead, and Gavin felt a sudden weightlessness as they found themselves in space. This was temporary, as Kylie activated the ship’s gravity generator and he felt his stomach settling. “This ship is the Aurora. It belonged to B-7. Now? I guess it’s yours. Treat her kindly, won’t you?” With that, she pulled away from Last Point. There was no window, but there were numerous screens within the video monitors that encompassed the cockpit. Gavin looked back at Last Point as saw it looked like a giant teething ring. It was round with bumps along the rim covered by glass domes. They had come out of a central hub like the spoke in a wheel. He couldn’t quite get a bearing on how large it truly was, but it looked like a fair-sized city to him. Most of the station was in utter darkness save for a few lights inside the domes. There was no sun to shine on it.

            Last Point quickly faded into nothing. There were fewer stars in the sky than he had been taught, but all of his teaching had been centred on Earth. Deborah had told him they were on the edge of the know universe. One horizon was nothing but a foreboding blackness, as if nothing existed beyond that plane.  “How far are we from Earth?” Gavin asked Kylie.

            “That dustball? Couldn’t say. I’ve never been out that far in our universe. Who’d want to go there, anyway?” she asked. “Nobody lives there but the super-elite and the super-poor. We’ve got a multi-verse to explore. We’re heading for New Gaia in U-928201-B. It’s as close to Earth as you’re ever going to get.”

            “How far away is it?” Gavin asked.

            “Let’s see,” Kylie looked at her instruments. A moment later, all the monitors went blank and for the second time in his life, Gavin felt as if he were in two places at once. He swore that he looked over to Kylie and thought he was looking at the back of his own head in front of him. Trying to reaffirm himself, he looked down at his hands gripping the seats. There were two pairs of hands in the place of one.

            “Wha…?” Gavin tried to form the words, but everything snapped back into place the next instant. The monitors came back to life, bathing them in their glow.

            “It’s about that far away,” Kylie told him, nodding to the screen. A blue world with a purple tinge was before them. Great formations of clouds swirled about farthest hemisphere. Around it circled two moons. One was little more than rubble, while the second one was practically a world unto itself, albeit barely in the gravitational pull of the world itself. He was close enough to make out mountains on the planet’s surface. From the perspective he was in, he had no idea how large it was. “This is New Gaia, or at least that’s what they call it here. It may look pretty, but it’s dangerous down there. It’s a big planet, but only a small section of it is inhabitable, and those are the places currently at war.”

            “War?” Gavin asked, alarmed.

            “Not with us,” Kylie shook her head. “They have their own petty squabbles. They’re not interested in the larger pan-dimensional issues we’re interested in. This planet was originally pegged for it’s natural resources, which the inhabitants are unable or unwilling to capitalize on. A-6 was sent in to open negotiations for mining those resources. It might not have gone so well.”

            “Are there aliens down there?” Gavin asked her.

            “They’re less alien than you or me,” Kylie told him as she adjusted their flight. “The people here emigrated from their Earth generations ago. They’re natural born humans and act the part. That’s why there’s so much conflict. We don’t have enough intel on the exact nature of their struggle. We just know who’s winning, and that’s all that matters in these situations. Still, you should try not to get involved. I’m opening scanners now,” she pulled up a second window on the monitor. “The Corporation imbeds tracking devices into our nodes. They’re one of the few things left behind when they surgically remove them.”

            “The virus attacked the Corporation through our node receptacles,” Gavin recalled as he gingerly touched his. He wondered how long it was going to be there.

            “It made them impossible to detect through normal means,” Kylie explained. “The bio-scanners don’t bother searching our nodes because of their inorganic nature. Even if A-6 is…” she stopped herself. “Even if they’re in trouble, we should still be able to ping them by their homing beacons. The virus itself only affects organic tissue while living dormant in the node.”

            “So we can find them?” Gavin hoped.

            “I…” she checked the scanner results. “This is…” Kylie visibly paled and slunk back further into her chair. “I can find five of them but they’re scattered across the planet. There’s no trace of the other nine, or their ship.”

            “So where do we start?” Gavin caught on to her stress and tried to alleviate it by distracting her. “With these two?” he suggested as he pointed to a pair of dots on the monitor.  “They look as if they’re the closest together.”

            “They’re still hundreds of miles apart. This looks like it won’t be an easy mission after all. Damn it,” Kylie swore. “I’ll have to stay earth-side with you until this is over. I’m going to fire off a messenger probe back to the station to compensate for this interference, then we’ll set her down. The two you saw are near the main capital of this world’s super power. It’s as good a place to start as any, but it’s the most heavily defended. This planet doesn’t have a system in place where we can hail the local authorities and request a landing, so we’ll be going in hot. The Aurora could be fired upon, but I’m a damn good pilot and they might as well be shooting flint arrows.” Kylie entered a list of commands into the console, and there was a slight shudder in the ship as she fired off her probe. The monitors showed it trailing behind the ship and then disappearing completely. “Is everyone ready to land?” she asked, checking the monitor for the ship’s interior. The rest of the crew were still in their seats, looking nervous. “I’ll admit we’re travelling light on this one. We only brought enough gear and supplies to last a week. That should have been more than enough. Normally I could pop back to Last Point and requisition better equipment for this, but we’re in a bind and they’re not going to let me leave you here by yourselves. Besides, it’s not going to look good for you new recruits if we go slinking back home with our tail between our legs at the first sign of trouble.”

            “Understood,” Gavin nodded.

            “From here on out, you’re the one that supposed to be giving orders,” she told Gavin. “This ship is my domain and I’ll have to stay behind to look after her. You’ll have to travel by foot and make contact with our operatives and bring them back to the shuttle one at a time before we can clear out of here. I don’t recommend splitting up, or taking arms into the field. You’ll only end up getting captured or killed, even by the friendlies. I’m going to patch through all relevant intel to your wrist units. With your node still in place, you should be able to uplink key information directly into your brain. You’ve got two Engineers on your team, so the logistics part of that shouldn’t be a problem. Now let’s go,” Kylie dropped the ship into orbit and slowly made her descent. There was a little turbulence as they raced through the ozone. The thin air around the shuttle heated up, but there was no sign of stress on the hull. Gavin wondered what it was made of. They dove into the cloud cover and Kylie used it to conceal their movements as she neared the capital. As she flew, she checked various sites for a prospective landing zone on her long-range scanner. “You’re going to be more than a few miles away from your first target. I’m just getting the vitals on them now. It’s… It’s Victor,” she breathed as for the first time her expression changed. “He’s alive.” She looked over to Gavin for confirmation. “When I saw the feed-back I thought…” she shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. He’s alive. We can save him.”

            “Who’s Victor?” Gavin asked, knowing that she obviously had a connection to him.

            “Victor’s…” she stumbled, “is one of the best. He’s everything you should aspire to be as Captain,” she told him. “That’s why he’s in charge of A-6. This changes everything,” she decided. “I’ll have to accompany you to find him. His signal doesn’t pinpoint his exact location. It’s only accurate within twenty-square miles. Still, it shouldn’t be too hard to find someone like him, even in a thriving metropolis.”

            “Wouldn’t that change violate our mission parameters?” Deborah’s voice came over the intercom. Gavin didn’t know they even had an intercom, or that Deborah had been listening the entire time.

            “You think everything we do ends up in a report?” Kylie asked her by pressing a button on her wrist unit. “In the field you do what’s necessary.”

            “I don’t think your company will be necessary,” Deborah replied. Gavin glanced at his own wrist unit and saw Deborah’s face being projected. “You said yourself that the ship should be your top priority.”

            “The Aurora seals up tighter than a vault and it’s harder to scratch,” Kylie snapped back at her. “You’re completely inexperienced with these types of matters. I know Victor and he knows me. I can have him back on this ship faster than any of you. You should just feel grateful I’m letting you tag along.”

            “Uhm…” Gavin tapped his armrest. “You’re kind of doing a 180 on us, Kylie, and it’s obviously you’re under mental stress. Are you sure this is the best decision?”

            “Absolutely. I’m completely capable of acting on this,” Kylie retorted.

            “It just seems…” Gavin thought of how to delicately approach the topic. “Well you act as though you know Victor a little too intimately. Your entire mood changes when you saw he was alive.”

            Kylie blushed furiously. “What are you saying?”

            “I’m saying you may be making a rash decision based on personal feelings,” Gavin, scratching the side of his mouth nervously.

            Kylie blinked at him, still blushing. “Yes, I am. Gavin, all my friends are dead. Victor is the only one I have left. Do you think I’d leave his safety up to a clone with boy parts?”

            Gavin didn’t know if he should be insulted, or if that what he legitimately was. “You volunteered for this, didn’t you?” Gavin realized.

            “Of course I did. I’m the one who pressed them on this mission, but they wouldn’t give me a crew,” Kylie admitted. “Then, when I saw your name…Well…”

            “You had them pick us,” Gavin finished for her. “In the docking bay, we were the only ones prepping. You had them rush this assignment.”

            “Don’t put this all on me. I’d love to have a more experienced crew with me, but there simply aren’t any available,” Kylie told him. “Time is of the essence here. The sooner we can bring back all relevant data from the field and whatever survivors we might have, the closer we’ll be to unwrapping this mystery. For all we know, Victor could have the one clue we need to our attacker’s identity.”

            “And then what?” Gavin grew frustrated. “Strike back? Everyone tells me we’ve been decimated. Knowing our killer’s name isn’t going to resurrect the dead.”

            “Would you rather lie down and die?” Kylie glared at him. “I can open up the back hatch if you like.”

            “Never mind,” Gavin sighed. “Right now I know as much about you and the Corporation as I do about the people out to destroy us all. It’s a difficult to know where to put my trust.”

            Kylie looked at him for a long time, then said, “Damn it. You are me.” With that, she dropped out of the cloud and quickly dove towards the ground. Mountain, hills and fields sped past the monitors, until they approached an urban area. The buildings in the were tall, flat, and pointed like picket fences. Rows of trees lined every street in uniform height, but aside from the greenery there was little colour. The buildings were grey and mostly featureless. The sky itself was of a violet hue, and somewhat too bright for his liking. Vehicles flew by in the distance, but they did not turn to follow them as they passed.

            Kylie landed the Aurora in a wooded area, but their landing was less than perfect. They snapped a young tree in half and crushed several bushes underneath their foot as they settled down from a hover.

            “Every second from here out counts,” Kylie told him. “Grab all the gear you can carry with you. We’re still miles away, and we’ll be lucky to make it to the city by nightfall. It may take days after that to find Victor.”

            “Victor’s not the only one we’re looking for,” Gavin told her. “What about this other agent? Smith: Navigation?” he checked his wrist unit.

            “Victor is all that matters right now,” Kylie insisted.

            “We might not even find him,” Gavin argued, “but I agree it’s as good a starting point as any.”

            “Then it’s settled,” Kylie was barely paying attention to him as she made her way into the back and got down her backpack. Gavin struggled to undo his belt buckle. Lara gave him a very worried look on his way to the back of the ship. The rest were already on their feet and looking to him for their orders.

            “You heard her,” Gavin sighed. “I guess it’ll be a hike.”

            Deborah came up to him and grabbed him tightly by the arm and pulled him away out of earshot by the cockpit door. She glanced suspiciously over at Lara, who was still in the cockpit before continuing. “Gavin, she’s disobeying Corporate. That’s a serious offence. If this gets out she could be demoted and we’ll take the rap with her.”

            “You have a better idea?” Gavin whispered back. “She’s the only one with half a clue what we’re doing, even if her head’s not in the right place. If we go along we should be able to get this over with faster. Isn’t that the point? Who cares how it gets done.”

            Deborah was shocked with him. “Aren’t you worried about being demoted?”

            “How could I be? Besides, I thought we’re already at the bottom rank,” he told her.

            “You’re supposed to be Captain, Gavin. You have to look out for the rest of us. Any screw-up is going to hurt our careers,” Deborah pleaded with him.

            “Right now I’m more concerned with our lives. We were just told we’re walking into a war-zone. The city looked peaceful on the monitors, but who’s to say what will happen to us out there? I’d rather go with her experience and have us live,” Gavin told her.

            “You’re caught thinking in the short-term, Gavin,” Deborah warned him.

            “Short-term is all I know,” Gavin replied. “Besides, Deborah, a day ago you were telling me how Corporate screwed us over. Now you’re looking to play nice with them? I still don’t even know who they are, only that they think they can dictate my life to me.”

            “I just…” Deborah fretted. “I just don’t want to be stuck with this rank the rest of my life.”

            “I’m sure we won’t. You’re probably smarter than the rest of us, Deborah, and more level headed,” Gavin told her. “If something goes wrong I’m going to be the one taking the blame as Captain, I assume. It doesn’t bother me, and it shouldn’t bother you.”

            “Thank you,” Deborah relented. “I just want you to know there’s more at risk than you might think.”

            “Survival comes first,” Gavin told her. “I’m only a day old and I don’t want to die yet. We’ll take as few chances with that as possible.”

            “Would you two love birds get a move on?” Kylie shouted back to them. Deborah blushed at that and turned back into the cabin. Kylie had already lowered the ramp while the others had yet to even find their gear. Lance and Goldie looked at the bundles overhead and shrugged at each other, not knowing what to take. Lance still offered to take the lion’s share of the load from her, though, at which point Video quickly stepped in and offered his help as well. She was left with only a small pack to herself.

            “We should evenly divide some of the supplies in case we get separated,” Gavin suggested, thinking ahead.

            “If you get separated, you’re dead. Just take what you can carry,” Kylie told him as she bounded down the ramp. “Hurry, I want to lock up.”

            “This…” Gavin shook his head in defeat. “Maybe there’s no way to prepare. We’re on an alien world in another dimension. Up until this point I would have thought the air would be unbreatheable.”

            “As Generates, we’re able to adapt to a variety of atmospheric conditions,” Deborah explained to him helpfully as she reached for a pack. “This world’s air content isn’t that much different than Earth originally was.”

            “That’s right,” Gavin remembered. “You’re our Researcher, aren’t you? You’re supposed to be able to tell me about this kind of stuff.”

            “I can tell you as much as the data tells me,” Deborah replied as she handed him some gear. “I was able to upload all the files we have on New Gaia during the short flight over. To give you a snapshot, New Gaia’s larger than Earth, but has smaller icecaps and more inhabitable land mass. With a population of only half-billion, only about 7% of the surface area has been cultivated. It was originally settled about two hundred and fifty-eight years ago as a mining colony, but quickly became a central hub because of the abundance of good farm land. New Gaia is rare in that it can be completely self-reliant, but it still deals heavily on foreign trade. It’d almost be a tourist destination, but most of the local complain about the weather.”

            “So if they’re just a bunch of miners and farmer, what are they fighting about?” Gavin asked her. Goldie, Lance and Video had headed out after Kylie. Fredriks and Lara were waiting for him.

            Deborah shrugged. “The reports vary, but it’s all the normal stuff. Religion and resources. It seems as if a large section of the population emigrated directly from Earth to escape their main religious order. Trouble seemed to follow them. Here on New Gaia, the religion in question has more of a cult following, but they’ve been linked to numerous terrorist activities. I couldn’t get much clearer information than that because the reports are heavily biased.”

            “We’ll try not to get involved,” Gavin hoped.

            “Religion and politics are two topics best avoided,” Fredriks advised as he adjusted the shoulder straps on his pack. “Unfortunately, it looks as if we’re headed for the capital, so they’ll be plenty of both. If this Victor is there, he’s either a guest or a prisoner. The only way we’ll get to him is through the ruling party.”

            “I wish we could be more incognito,” Lara frowned. “We’re going to stick out like sore thumbs.”

            “They probably already know we’re here. The Aurora should deflect radar, but we don’t know how advanced their scanning systems are,” Deborah told him.

            “We’ll have to be upfront with them,” Gavin decided. “They must already know about A-6, so we should come as no surprise, even if we are invading.”

            “What about all the missing members?” Lara whispered to him. “Do you think they’re dead?”

            “If they are, it’s probably due to the virus,” Gavin didn’t really believe it himself.

            “Their ship is missing too,” Deborah reminded him. “Perhaps Victor sent the rest of his crew home when he lost contact, and for whatever reason they haven’t reported in yet.”

            “That’s wishful thinking,” Gavin replied, “and it wouldn’t explain why the rest we found are scattered across the globe. Anyway, let’s get going before Kylie busts something.”

            “You know what’s she’s up to with Victor is completely unprofessional, especially with someone of her rank,” Deborah leaned in and whispered in his ear, “not to mention his.”

            “We don’t know what they are together,” Gavin replied. “For all we know she just may have a crush on him.”

            “Don’t fool yourself, Gavin, you saw how she reacted. They’re lovers. They’ve probably been keeping it secret for a while now. They’ll be lucky if they’re not demoted the second they step back on Last Point,” she said quietly.

            “Why? Are you going to tell on them?” Gavin asked suspiciously.

            Deborah grew angry, but kept her voice low, “I’m not a little snitch.”

            “I never said you were,” Gavin said as way of an apology, “but here we are gossiping about someone we met an hour ago.”

            “Whom did you want me to gossip about? I only know two handfuls of people,” Deborah said as they reached the ramp.

            Gavin burst out laughing, but he kept his hand over his mouth. Lara, who overheard the whole thing, snickered as well. Deborah smiled a little as well, and her anger seemed to have subsided.

            “Would you girls please stop snickering amongst yourself about boys and makeup and get down here?” Kylie poked her head into the hatch to voice her impatience. Gavin knew her words were direct at him.

            Outside, it was far brighter than Gavin had suspected, and he shielded his eyes from the sun. The adjusted quickly, however, and he gazed up at the violet sky. Great clouds rushed by high overhead, while there was only a hint of a breeze down below. He breathed deeply, and marvelled at how good the air felt. He felt invigorated. The canopy of trees around them had a hint of a honey smell to them. Their leaves were broad, with needle-like extensions to their tips. He imagined it was Spring where they were, if the planet could be said to have the same seasons. The sun itself was a quarter of the way up the sky, but on an alien world the day could pass by in a matter of hours or weeks by his standards. He’d have to reference it with Deborah or his unit to find out. For the moment he was content to explore.

            “Come on,” Kylie beckoned them forward. The forest floor below them was spongy, and riddled with roots as thick as his fingers. It was difficult to manoeuvre around them, and Video tripped several times, only to be helped up by Goldie. Gavin himself was feeling quite spry and practically bounded over every obstacle. Deborah soon caught his liveliness and chased after him. It became something of a game as the two ran ahead after Kylie, and quickly surpassing her, even though they had no clear idea of where they were headed.

            The woods faded and soon came to a clearing, from which they could see the distant city. Gavin could see a few squat, domed houses far a-field. They were spaced out quite far from each other along dirt and gravel roads. He wondered as to how people got around aside from flying, and soon saw an angular looking vehicle pass down one of the roads. He realized how remarkable his own eyes were, and he could make out the tiniest details in the distance. He tracked the flight of a yellow bird from slanted tree to tree. “I like it here,” Gavin decided. He felt like he had been cooped up his whole life, and realized that it was literally the case.

            Kylie motioned for them to follow a path that would take them away from the roads and out of plain view. She would check occasionally with her wrist unit for directions, but it was clear where they were going. The city had the only tall buildings across the horizon. They soon came across a babbling steam, and Gavin wondered if it was safe to drink. On a foreign world, he imagined it wouldn’t. Deborah’s footing grew a little unsteady as they tried to cross over on the rocks, and he reached out to help her.

            “I saw that,” Kylie said as she glanced back at them.

            “Are you trying to embarrass me?” Gavin asked her as he let go of Deborah’s hand on the other side. Deborah herself blushed.

            “Yes, it’s pretty fun,” Kylie admitted. “You’re nothing but a bunch of dumb teenagers, gawking at everything you see. Try and keep those mouths closed by the time we reach the city or they’ll think you’re a bunch of country bumpkins.”

            “This is like my second day alive,” Gavin protested.

            “Happy birthday,” Kylie smirked and turned back to the imaginary path she was following. She drew a knife out of her boot that Gavin hadn’t noticed before and sliced through a thicket.

            “Why are you wearing that cloak, by the way?” Gavin asked her. She had drawn up the hood once they got outside, as if she found it cold. Gavin thought the weather was rather pleasant, although the clouds had made it grey. All the clouds seemed to be moving from the city itself, where the skies were clearer.

            “Why are you wearing that expression?” Kylie shot back.

            “We have the same face,” Gavin furled his brow.

            “Only I look good,” Kylie said without looking back.

            Gavin just shook his head and trudged along. “Is it really okay to leave the ship there?” he asked her. “Isn’t someone going to find it.”

            “Of course they’re going to find it,” Kylie told him. “It’s thirty-feet long and all chrome. Did you see me camouflage it?”

            “So why leave it out in the open?” Gavin asked her.

            “Because I have no way of disguising it, and because I already set off virtually every alarm this planet has by dropping into the atmosphere. The only reason we don’t have guns pointed at our heads right now and planes flying overhead is because their forces are otherwise occupied or woefully inept.”

            “How are we supposed to talk to them once we meet them?” Gavin wondered.

            “They speak English,” Deborah explained. “The Queen’s English, if you prefer.”

            “That… doesn’t make sense,” Gavin blinked. “How could we go to another dimension and another world and still people speak English?”

            “This is an alternate reality,” Deborah explained. “At some point in history, our universes diverged like cells dividing. Things changed. In this universe, the British Empire never really abated. They held control of America, India and China. Pretty much everyone speaks English as a result. Of course their accents are a little hard to understand, but our implants take care of that. We should be able to talk to them and understand them perfectly.”

            “Implants?” Gavin paused.

            “It’s part of the node. The main part of your node uploads data into your brain. That’s supposed to be surgically removed before you’re born. They leave behind a part that works as a universal translator, along with a tracking device,” Deborah explained.

            “So I’m just a walking cyborg?” Gavin asked, touching the back of his device.

            “You’re more genetic upgrades than anything else,” Deborah explained. “In the old days they kept the nodes in, but they’re considered unsightly by most of the cultures we deal with. Like you said, people think we’re cyborgs. It makes for awkward situations.”

            Fredriks, who was trailing behind them coughed into his hand. “Most cultures look down on things like cloning, genetic manipulation and cybernetic implants, so it’s best not to mention them.”

            “I’m not so sure about this place,” Deborah disagreed. “Robots look as if they’re fully integrated into their society.”

            “Down,” Kylie hissed and waved frantically with her hands as she dove into the bushes. Gavin and Deborah stood there stunned for a moment before catching on. Gavin dove down onto the dirt and covered his head, not knowing what the danger was. He hadn’t heard anything. Kylie was lying motionless, as were the rest.

At last, Gavin looked up. “What are we…?” he began to say.

Something crashed through the bushes. For a moment, Gavin was level face to face with the creature. It looked at him for a moment, then dropped it’s tusks and charged.

Gavin pushed off the ground with his hands and bounded up, jumping higher than he thought he could. Still, the beast caught him by the ankle and sent him tumbling back down to the ground. Pain shot up his leg and he imagined if he had torn his ankle. Deborah screamed behind him, but it was more of fright at seeing him injured than herself being at risk. The beast had already lopped off into the bushes, but Gavin could hear it turning around.

Gavin was able to get up on one knee and meet the beast head on as it jumped back out at him. The creature hadn’t been able to get much of a running start, so with quick reflexes, he was able to grab it by the tusks and wrestle with it. It crashed into him, bowling him over onto his back. He could feel it’s foul breath against his cheek as its slobbering maw gaped open. Rows of crooked teeth tried to reach him, but he was able to keep it at bay. Its hooves dug into his chest, but couldn’t tear through the fabric of his uniform.

In an instant, Kylie was on it with her knife, stabbing wildly into the thing’s back. Gavin recoiled as blood sprayed him. The thing made a rasping squealing sound. Gavin gasped, as he thought Kylie’s knife might pass clear through the thing and into his own stomach, but she was more careful than that.

Gavin and Kylie were able to knock the thing away, and it stumbled off a few steps before collapsing. It looked at him imploringly before dying while Gavin sat shocked.

            “Are you okay?” Mindless of the blood Deborah grabbed him desperately by the shoulders and shook him while Kylie stood with blood dripping off her knife. At last she leaned down and wiped the blood clean on the grass before depositing it back in her boot.

            “I’m fine, stop shaking me,” Gavin told her as he tried to stand. His ankle hurt, but he could walk on it. Deborah offered him her support while he tried his footing and he leaned on her.

            “A wild boar,” Kylie said as she walked over and kicked the creature over to look at it. “Looks like they brought it straight from Earth. Don’t know why. Must be a cultural thing. Oh no…” Kylie listened. She could hear the tall, yellow grass rustling around. “Run!”

            Fredriks has already bounded past them in a blind panic, while Video and Lance were hurrying Goldie along. Deborah looked at Gavin, who nodded to her as he began to run with them. Pain shot up his leg with every step, and he knew he must have hurt it worse than he originally though. Still, he was able to keep steady on his feet. He had to push Deborah in front of him because of her concern for him was keeping her back. Two more boars with thick, matted fur tore out of the bushes nearby and scurried after him. Their tusks were as long as pencils and each has to weigh more than a hundred pounds. It didn’t look as though he was going to be able to outrun them.

            Deborah stopped in her tracks and scooped up a fallen tree branch that was about as thick around as her wrist. She wielded it awkwardly and swatted at the first of the boars as it came up. The beast was rather unfazed, but it couldn’t advance for the moment.

            Gavin had no idea what to do. The second boar was on him, so he turned and kicked it as hard as he could. This was unfortunately with his bad foot. The kick connecting with a cracking sound, and for the moment he didn’t know if the sound came from the boar or his foot. By the way the boar reacted, it was from it, but the pain in his foot said different. The boar was stunned by the blow and scrambled back. Gavin, meanwhile, winced and limped off closer to Deborah as she swung her stick around.

            As she tried to defend herself as best she could, another boar narrowed in. This one was at least twice the size as the others, with tusks to match. Gavin merely stared at it, wide-eyed, and tried to time his next leap.

            As it narrowed on them, Deborah raised her stick high up into the air, ready to bring it down.

            Suddenly, the beast fell dead, and the others followed. Smoke plumed up from their sides as blood pooled beneath them. Gavin hadn’t even heard the shots. He turned back to look at the others, wondering if it had been Kylie, and what type of gun she had. She stood with her empty hands raised high into the air, and he saw the others use her example. He followed where their eyes were looking as Deborah dropped her branch and raised her hands.

            Two figures with white helmets and dark visors stood behind a pair of bushes. In their hands they held small rifles, one of which was trained on Gavin himself. A golden badge shone on each of their breasts.

Entry Two:

Entry Two:

            Gavin took his first real sip of water from the dispenser in the corner. It tasted wrong. All his life he had assumed he knew what water tasted like and now he found it had no taste at all. He still had an acidic taste in his mouth from the vat chemicals which the water did not wash away.

            “How old am I?” he asked thoughtfully.

            “Probably two, or so,” Deborah sat with her head on the table. Their new quarters were Spartan. The main entrance led into a kitchen area with a small area to prepare meals. There was no stove, only a square-shaped dispenser with a touch pad to select meals. The dishes themselves came out of the dispenser as well, and went into another waste unit directly below. Gavin imagined they were recycled and reused in the same dispenser. There was a shutter below the dispenser as well that led to the bare floor. Gavin had no idea what it was for and it wouldn’t open. He had first thought that was where the trash was supposed to go. To the left of the kitchen was a seating area centred around a holographic projector set into the floor and low ceiling. To the right was the bathroom. Two separate doors at the back of the kitchen led to the shared bedrooms, one for girls and one for boys. Above their entrance was their crew name, “X-77,” in indigo blue. Beyond that there was no decoration. Everything was clean and sterile, even the air. “We all are.”

            Video was curled up on one of the two identical couches in the seating area. Goldie was completely sprawled out on the opposite. She hadn’t said anything since they brought her here and she appeared to be sleeping softly. Video was appropriately enough watching videos of the attack. “We’re only useful to them in our prime, so they grow us to that stage and keep us that way as long as possible.”

            “The Corporation, you mean,” Gavin surmised.

            “What’s left of it,” Video rubbed his eyes and turned off the news. “It’s been weeks and it’s still the only news story.”

            “Why grow us? Why not use… real people? Am I real?” Gavin felt like he was having his second existential crisis of the day.

            “We’re human enough,” Deborah told him, “only better. We don’t get sick or age normally. We’re smarter, stronger and faster. That’s why they use us instead of Norms. Norms spread disease into other dimensions and bring it back too. One viral infection could wipe out entire civilizations.”

            “That’s why whoever attacked our people must have used their nano-virus. There’s no biological defence against nanobots. You can’t even scan for them properly in their dormant state,” Video recited.

            “You seem to know a lot about this,” Gavin came and sat with him. He spoke softly so as not to wake Goldie.

            “I’m an Engineer,” he insisted. “It’s what I’m designed to know. That’s the other aspect of being a Generate. While we’re still developing us they run use through the programs in the Nursery. We’re ‘born’ knowing everything we need to do out jobs. Everyone but you, it looks like, and the rest of the First in our Generation.”

            “Even with what they’ve done, there can’t be enough First this Generation to fill all of the empty positions. This is going to take years to finish recruiting,” Deborah mentioned.

            “Worse still, the next Generation will probably get to finish their programming. They’ll be better suited for their jobs than you or me,” Video complained. “We’re getting the short end of the stick. No matter how hard we work, we’re always going to be on the bottom as newer, better Generates take the positions we want.”

            “That’s why we have to prove ourselves,” Deborah sat up sharply as if reinvigorated. “We Ace our first assignment and we get them to take notice. The only thing we’ve got going for us is how well we can operate in the field. If we get the experience we need, we can advance.”

            “How dangerous is this job?” Gavin wondered. “I mean we lost thousands in a blink of an eye, and we don’t even know why?”

            “We’re pseudo-soldiers,” Video told him. “Remember the part where she said we’re stronger than Norms? They’re the ones we’re doing business with. We’re their metal and physical superiors, and we’re the ones with all the cool toys. They may have their armies, but they can’t touch us. They’d only be shooting themselves in the foot if they did. Virtually all new technology comes from the Corporation. If they stop us, they stop progress.”

            “Then who are our enemies?” Gavin wondered.

            “Everyone,” Video insisted. “We’re just one Corporation in a multi-verse of Corporations. Our jobs put us in direct conflict with rival Corporations who want us out of the way. We’re at constant war, even if we don’t know who the enemy is.”

            “And all of this is over trade?” Gavin couldn’t put his head around it.

            “Call it trade, or call it conquest, it’s all the same. We’re an Empire that stretches across the known Universe and into countless others. We’re just the scouts who find new worlds with new resources. If we’re lucky, we’ll never see open conflict, but by the sounds of the news, that’s not likely going to happen.”

            The main entrance opened and two teenagers stepped inside. One was a man with unkempt black hair and pale complexion and a rather sharp nose like a hawk. The other was a tall woman with honey-brown hair and skin to match. They looked around the room cautiously. The boy referred with his wrist unit, then looked up at Gavin and smiled. “A pleasure to meet you, Captain Dales. My name’s Fredricks. I’ve been assigned as your Ambassador.”

            Gavin rose to shake his hand. “Thank you, but it’s not, ‘Captain Dales.’ I’m simply Gavin Dales.”

            “Are you kidding me?” Deborah tapped at her wrist unit. “No, he’s right. Gavin, you’re the Captain of our crew. You’re the one in charge.”

            “How can that be? I don’t even know what I’m doing!” Gavin protested.

            “Ah, modesty. I like that in a born leader,” Fredricks smiled at him. “And this is Lara. I can’t claim intimate knowledge, as we’ve only just met.”

             Lara waved to everyone then shook Gavin’s hand. “Are you confused as I am?”

            “Yes,” Gavin breathed a sign of relief. “I’m out of my element, if I even have one.” She laughed at this. “Are there more coming?”

            “One more, I think,” Fredricks answered for her. “Ah, here he is,” a bulky boy with dark skin came in. He looked far stronger than anyone Gavin had met yet. He had a square jaw and deep-set, yet thoughtful eyes.

            “Hi, I’m Lance,” he said shyly as he shuffled in. He was the tallest by far and slouched somewhat in the low vaulted room.

            “I think that’s the last of us,” Fredricks admitted. “Even the skeleton crews get skeleton crews.”

            Deborah made a frustrated noise. “We’re doomed,” she said. “There’s no way we can operate like this.”

            “That depends on the missions they throw our way,” Fredricks pointed out. “I think we’re more than capable of handling anything they serve up.”

            “Our first mission is likely a search and rescue, am I right?” Gavin looked around. “That shouldn’t be too hard, should it?”

            Deborah laughed at him, “Gavin, we could be heading into Hell itself. You have no idea what it’s like out there. I don’t, even.”

            “I’m trying to be optimistic,” Gavin frowned. “I doubt they’d want us dead as soon as we’re born.”

            Fredricks was already making himself a coffee at the dispenser. “I like you. I was worried, coming out, that X-77 would be a bunch of know-nothing rejects. Here you are, a man given the worse news he can get and you’re already looking forward to sunnier days.”

            “We are know-nothings,” Deborah informed him. “I don’t know Goldie’s story yet, but Gavin hasn’t graduated.”

            “Neither have I,” Lara admitted in his defence.

            “I don’t know what any of this is about,” Lance said as he deposited himself on the couch.

            “It’s about adventure, it’s about learning, it’s about experience,” Fredricks told him as he sipped at his coffee. “We’re going to look back on this as the start of something wonderful.”

            “We could be dead this time tomorrow,” Deborah argued. “How do we know we haven’t just been infected with the same nano-virus as the rest? You think our enemies will wait while we regroup?”

            “Who’s to say who our enemies even are?” Fredricks shrugged, still smiling.

            “I’m sorry,” Deborah lowered her head. “I had expectations about my life. I had dreams and ambitions. This… isn’t them. That’s nothing against you all. It’s this situation I’ve found myself in.”

            “None of us find this ideal,” Fredricks relented, “but look at it another way. You had your whole life laid out for you before you were born and now you’ve been dealt a wild card. Your fate isn’t so clear now. We can become our own people. We can become better than what we were made for.”

            Video had been tapping away at his wrist unit. “I’ve noticed something auspicious about this event. The nano-virus had the potential to completely wipe us out. I’m talking about every last man and woman. All it needed was more time. That means whoever did this jumped the gun. They either wanted us alive, or else they panicked.”

            “That’s interesting,” Fredricks told him.

            “So we’re safe for now,” Gavin furled his brow, “or until they can create a new virus.”

            “The station has had upgrades since the attack to scan for nano-viruses on every incoming party. There’s a rigorous quarantine procedure. That should make it safer for everyone on board. Once we’re off, though, there’s no protection,” Video barely glanced up from his wrist unit.

            “There’s something else I find interesting about this. The nano-virus can only infect Generates,” Video claimed. “That’s how it was programmed. Norms are immune. It has something to do with how we’re fitted for node receptacles. The virus specifically attacks that point by the brain stem. Death is almost instant after that as the connection between the brain and the spine is severed.”

            Deborah thought it over. “It can infect any Generate? What’s to stop it from infecting Generates from another dimension?”

            “That’s what’s weird about it. If it’s a rival Corporation, they’d be using Generates like us. They’d end up sacrificing their own people,” Video looked at a few vids on mute. “What would they gain?”

            “We might not even have been the ones targeted,” Deborah surmised. “We could have caught the virus accidentally.”

            “These are all speculations for people higher up than us,” Fredricks warned them. “There’s no need to trouble ourselves with this now.

            “We need to learn as much as we can as fast as we can,” Gavin told him. “An hour ago I didn’t even know I existed.” He walked back to the dispenser and went through the menu. “Do I even need to eat?” he asked no one in particular. “I’m not human, am I? How often should I eat? Should I sleep?”

            “You’re human,” Deborah assured him. “You need to eat when you’re hungry.”

            “Could you make us all dinner?” Fredricks suggested. “I’m sure we could use something after two years in the tubs.”

            Gavin thought about it for a while and then settled on burgers. The dispenser produced his meals almost as fast as he could open and close the door. He soon had the table set with Fredricks and Deborah helping him. “Come on, everybody. I’m not sure if it’s your favourite, but it’s your first meal ever, so you shouldn’t have a favourite.”

            Even Goldie came to the table. Gavin took a cautious bite. It was steaming hot, with a flavour he couldn’t place. His palate was woefully small. He put it back down and looked around. “Can we do this?” he asked them. “Can we work together?”

            “I don’t see why not,” Fredricks shrugged.

            “You’re the only people I know, so I couldn’t really imagine working with anyone else,” Video told him.

            “Why don’t we go over the roster,” Deborah tapped at her unit. “Gavin’s our Captain, after what must have been the shortest decision ever. That Linn woman must have just picked us at random. No offence,” she hastily added. “Lara, you’re apparently Lieutenant and Co-Pilot. Great, two pilots and no ship,” she mused to herself.

            “I don’t know anything about flying,” Lara told her.

            “Where have I heard that before?” Deborah rolled her eyes. “Video and Goldie are Engineers, not that we need even one. I’m Research. Fredricks is Ambassador and Lance is Soldier.”

            “I’m a Soldier?” Lance was confused. “Am I supposed to kill people?”

            “If it comes to that, yes,” Deborah told him. “Just pray it doesn’t. I’m guessing by your node that you’re not familiar with your job either. Aboard the ship you man the weapons. In the field, you carry the weapons. That doesn’t mean you have to fire them off all the time. Soldiers are mainly just for show and get used like pack mules.”

            “Does anyone else want to be Captain?” Gavin offered. “I don’t think I’m up for the job.”

            “It doesn’t matter what you think,” Deborah told him. “It’s your job and you have to fill it.”

            “What happens to me if I don’t agree to any of this?” Gavin wondered.

            “You don’t have that luxury,” Deborah explained. “It’s this or a prison planet. If you think you can escape, go right ahead. You’re on the edge of nowhere. Like you said, you don’t know how to fly, and you’re on a space station. Do the math.”

            “So this is the rest of my life? Never being able to decide what to do for myself?” Gavin was terrified. “How long do I live for?”

            “Usually around a hundred and twenty years or more,” Video told him. “In this line of work it’s considerably less than that.”

            “Do we get to retire?” Gavin asked.

            “In about a hundred years,” Deborah told him, “although most stay on longer than that.”

            “Do you think…” an idea occurred to Video and then he began to tap on his wrist unit. “Oh, thank you,” he said to the file he read. “For a moment, I wondered if the last people who lived here were dead. We’re in a recommissioned dorm. The last X-77 team disbanded over twenty years ago.”

            “So we don’t have to worry about sleeping in the same beds as someone who died,” Deborah surmised, “or the legacies dropping in to see the new pledges. What am I saying? We’re in the bowels of the station. We’re lucky if anyone drops in.”

            “They’re putting everyone in the lower ranks. You shouldn’t feel so bad,” Fredriks told Deborah. “They’re the only available rooms. The rest of the quarters belonged to people M.I.A. or transfers.”

            “Maybe it isn’t as bad as I think it is,” Deborah tapped her fork on the table. She hadn’t touched her food. Lance was the only one vigorously attacking his meal. He was factually eating like he hadn’t eaten in years. Goldie looked at him with an expression that might have been disgust as crumbs trickled down his chin and onto his uniform. She herself drank heavily from the cup she had, but didn’t touch her food.

            The doorbell rang, which was the first time Gavin realized he had a doorbell. He got up from the table and answered it. A woman stood in the door. She was dressed in a uniform like his but with a ragged grey woollen cloak with a hood overtop. She looked tired and haggard, although she couldn’t have been much older than him. At her lapel was a button with the platinum insignia, “B-7.” Wisps of red hair trickled down from inside her hood and cascaded over her green eyes. Her nose was oddly pointed above her pursed lips. She stood there, with one gloved hand resting against the doorframe, staring at him searchingly. Her face was very sad.

            “Hello?” Gavin offered. “Can I help you?”

            Still, she said nothing. She merely looked at him with penetrating eyes beneath heavy lashes. At last, she turned and walked away down the hall.

            Gavin peered out after her, and she quickly disappeared around a bend in the hall. He shut the door and turned back to the room. “Who was that?” he asked.

            “How should we know?” Video asked him.

            “If you ask me, you have an admirer,” Fredriks winked at him.

            Gavin ran his fingers through his long hair, which had looked so much like the strange woman’s. It was one more thing to ponder. Goldie excused herself wordlessly and stumbled off to the bedroom. She left her untouched meal on the table, which Lance proceeded to snatch and devour. “I guess that’ll be the women’s sleeping quarters,” Deborah decided after the door closed behind Goldie.

            “We’re lucky to have a lot of empty beds,” Fredriks said. “This place seems rather large for the seven of us.” Gavin himself thought it was rather cramped, but then he had spent the largest part of his life in a metal container scarcely bigger than himself. He sat back down, but he still couldn’t get the thought of the woman out of his mind.

            The others grew tired shortly after having eaten and made their way off to bed as well. Gavin chalked it up to the after-effect of being born. He himself had too many questions racing through his brain to hope to find sleep. He sat at the table with his empty plate before him. Deborah was with him, but she was absently flicking through the news feed on the holopojector. At last, she turned it off and came over to him at the table.

            “Hey,” she said as she sat down. She reached out and put her hand over his hand. “It’s going to be okay.”

            “I’m not worried,” Gavin lied.

            “I want to thank you,” Deborah told him earnestly.

            “For what?” Gavin barely looked up at her. His gaze was on his plate.

            “For helping me today. I know this has to be harder for you than it is for me. You really stood out,” she told him.

            “Thank you,” Gavin glanced up at her. “I mean that. I thought… I’d go crazy a few times in there. Maybe I am. I don’t know,” he admitted.

            “You’re not crazy. I don’t think you can psychologically go crazy. You’re genetically engineered to adapt and you’re stronger than you’ll ever know,” she explained. “Still, it can be tough.”

            “Are you doing okay?” he asked. “This all seems like a disappointment for you.”

            “It is,” she admitted. “I’m sorry that I’ve been so negative, but this is devastating for me. They bred me to have certain ambitions, and they’re not being met.”

            “I hope I can be what you need,” he told her. “I don’t want to be Captain, whatever that entails. I’d rather be… I don’t know.”

            “You couldn’t know. They never taught you,” she said sympathetically. “What was it like, for you?”

            “I… I thought it was real. I imagined most of it, I guess. I’m not talking about the simulation itself, I’m talking about everything around it. I imagined I had my own home, my own parents and friends. Even in a fake world, that wasn’t real. I guess it was my subconscious filling in the blanks in my life, trying to make me feel real. Now I’m… nothing,” Gavin put a fist over his mouth and choked back a little.

            “Hey, don’t be that way,” she told him, leaning in. “You’re real. I’m here. Can you feel my hand?” she grasped his own hand firmly.

            “Yes,” he nodded. “I feel you.”

            “You were talking about escaping?” she whispered.

            “What? Yes. I don’t know,” Gavin shrugged. “Didn’t I already escape? I don’t know what kind of world is out there. I don’t even know where I am.”

            “Hold on to that feeling,” she told him in a hushed voice. “Then you’ll always know just where you are. I was in my own prison for a long time. You’re only in the vats for a couple of years, but to you it seems like decades. Once I learned where I really was, once they told me, I felt trapped. I could almost feel the wires sticking out of me. It was Hell, it really was, but I always knew that if I lasted there was a world waiting for me on the other side. Still, I thought about escaping from a cell that had no door. Now I’m out here and I’m as free as I’m allowed.”

            “Is it weird if we’re talking about rebelling against an organization I only just learnt existed?” Gavin asked her.

            She laughed at him. “No, it’s human nature I supposed. No one wants to feel trapped.”

            “I hope we can stay friends,” Gavin told her. “Are we friends?” he suddenly doubted himself.

            “Of course we are,” Deborah beamed. “We’ve been in this from the start, haven’t we?”

            “That was barely two hours ago,” Gavin laughed.

            “It seems like forever,” Deborah admitted. “That could be because of our perception of time regulating itself. We experienced maybe ten years crammed into the space of one. This is real time.”

            The shutter beneath the dispenser opened up and a small robot on a set of wheels rolled out. It was shaped like a trash can, and appropriately enough rolled up to the table and scooped up the dishes, depositing them inside its mouth on top of its head. It took no notice of either of them as it went about its task and then put the dishes into the refuse station. Deborah and Gavin looked at each other and then laughed.

Entry One:

I thought I'd try writing again, so I whipped up the first chapter in a book. It's a reworking of an earlier concept I first developed in high school, but now with a young adult audience in mind. The protagonists are teenagers learning the ropes of their new jobs in an unusual setting. I haven't decided on a title yet.

Entry One:

“Training will end in three… two… one…”

“What?” Gavin was confused by the sensation of being in two places at once. In one place he was sitting at his school desk, as he had done every day for the past ten years. Before him was the kindly Ms. Sange, his instructor, in her blue and purple paisley dress she favoured. Around him were his thirty-odd classmates, all staring straight ahead, but for the moment he couldn’t make out their faces. The kindly Ms. Sange didn’t look so kindly anymore either. It was as if her face had distorted into something grotesque. Her voice has sounded different, almost electronic and he didn’t understand the import of her word. Gavin tried to raise his hand to speak, but they wouldn’t respond to him. He wondered if he was having a medical problem, which was unlikely after a lifetime of perfect health. Illness was something he had only read about in books. The ground beneath him felt very far away, although he could feel his feet against it. He tried to open his mouth to cry for help, but no words would come. It felt as if he were choking. There was an acidic taste on his tongue. For the moment, he wondered if he was going to die.

Elsewhere, he felt another version of himself trapped in a similar predicament. His arms and legs were bound, and he was drowning. A thousand pinpricks rippled through his body. He wanted to open his eyes but they were glued shut. With every hastened breath more fluid would escape through his nose and mouth and it was cold. Far too cold.

Gavin blinked, wondering why this other version of himself felt so familiar, yet altogether alien. He was completely paralysed now, and couldn’t feel the desk beneath him. The forefront of his vision was darkening, while white lines of light snuck up from his peripheral. Now he knew he was dying. What would his mother and father think?

The confusion continued, and he struggled to remember who his mother and father even were. He couldn’t see his classmates anymore, and could no longer even remember what they looked like.

In a flash of white, everything went black, and he could feel the other him being bounced about. Water was dripping off him, and he could feel every puff of air against his skin. Something was being laced around him like a spider cocooning its prey. He tried resisting his unseen foe, and for once his arms and legs responded. They went every which way like a newborn baby’s. He was being propped up by something cold and metallic around his chest and shoulders. In a moment, even was gone, and he fell like a ragdoll onto a forgivingly soft floor. Still, the air was knocked out of him.

He was dizzy and lay there for a long time. Light shone through his eyelids, and he fluttered them open, but the light itself was too blinding. Muffled noises were all around him. Finally, he found the strength to push himself up with one hand and raise his weary head. There was an immediate pain in the back of his neck, and it went down his spine. He put his hand against the back of his head, expecting to feel blood, but it was only slightly damp with water as if he had just stepped out of the shower. He looked at his hand and saw it was pruned as though he had been in a bath for a long time. A tight fitting sleeve made of some silver cloth was around his wrist, and he noted that he was oddly dressed, as if in a space suit. The air smelt like cleaner and other things he could not describe.

Eventually he began to make out other shapes and images in the distances. Everything was a variation of white, blue or chrome in colour. There were rows upon rows of metallic vats taller than he was, with round pad in front of them. On some of these were other teenagers, lying prone. They were all dressed the same in snug uniforms that matched the colours of their surroundings. The rows of vats looked as if they went on forever in a curved line. Above him were a series of tubes that went into the vats, along with mechanical hooks and prongs. As he watched not far away, something that looked like a fork dipped into the top of a vat and produced a practically, twitching teenager and held him aloft. Tubes and wires encompassed the boy, but broke away and a second set of prongs came down and enveloped him. Faster than he could even follow, they twirled around him, spraying him first with water, then air. At last, they made a third pass, and fabric stitched itself around his body, forming the uniform that Gavin himself wore. He was plopped unceremoniously onto the soft mat on the ground and left to lie there.

Wearily, Gavin rose to his feet. He was colder than he had ever been, and hugged himself as he shivered. He wondered to himself how he came to such as strange place, and what had become of his class.

To his right, he heard the approach of footsteps on the metal grid that formed a walkway between the vats. “Ah,” he heard someone say, and he turned to look as a man in a black and silver suit approached him. He was smiling, as though pleased, though it didn’t really touch his grey eyes. He had a military crew cut and his hair was beginning to grey, but Gavin couldn’t say for sure how old he was. He had the air of authority about him, and he held a tablet in one hand. He waved it at Gavin, and suddenly his holographic image was projected from it’s screen. “Gavin Dales,” he proclaimed. “You’re the first one up. That’s good,” he nodded to himself.

“W-What…?” Gavin stammered. His tongue felt thick.

The man shook his head. “There’s no point in asking questions right now. You’ll be briefed on everything soon enough. Now, I’m a bit short-staffed at the moment, so if you can help me wake up the others here.”

“I don’t…” Gavin hung his head in his hands and thought of what to say, but the man was already striding past him on the way to the next person. “Over here,” he beckoned and flashed his tablet at a girl lying prone on the ground. She was groaning softly to herself like someone being wakened very early by their alarm clock. “Deborah Mills. See if you can get her on her feet.”

Not knowing what else to do, or even where he could go if he chose to run, Gavin obliged by stumbling over and kneeling down by the girl. He felt his strength coming back to him with every step. Aside from the spasm of pain down his back, he realized he felt fairly well. The air was becoming more pleasant. He almost smiled as he reached out to tap the strange girl on the shoulder. He hoped, for a moment, that she was one of the girls from his class and that she could explain everything that was happening to him, but as he gently rolled her over on her side, he realized he’d never seen her before. She looked about his age, with long dark hair past her shoulders, and an olive hue to her complexion. He remarked inwardly to himself that she was rather beautiful, and that he was certain he could place her if he’d ever seen her before, but she was a complete stranger. “Wake up,” he said to her, leaning in close. “Wake up, please.”

“Hmm…?” she blearily rubbed her eyes. She seemed more sleepy than anything. She looked up at him with one open eye, black like her hair, then shut it again. “What time is it?” she mumbled.

“I don’t know,” Gavin admitted. He looked at his wrist where his watch should have been and found a strange device with a long oval screen on it instead that went halfway up the length of his forearm. He touched it, and it came to life with blue lights. It ran off a series of data he couldn’t make sense of, but in the one round corner he saw what must have passed for time. “25:87, Phase Ten, Alpha Cycle Eight? Does that sound right to you?”

Deborah flopped onto her back. “That’s too early,” she complained.

“That… doesn’t make much sense to me,” Gavin said mostly to himself and tapped the screen again to see if he could correct it. Instead of changing the time, he brought up a series of news stories with mute videos, mostly of explosions and fire in locations he couldn’t place. The skies in the background looked all wrong, and the buildings were odd shapes and sizes. Shaking his head, he turned his attention back to the girl. “Do you need help up?”

“Do I have to get up?” she asked him.

“Well you’re lying on the floor,” he explained to her. “So there’s really no other choice unless you want to roll around.”

She smirked at that. “Fine,” she finally opened her eyes in earnest and looked up at him. She reached out with both hands and Gavin grabbed them for her. He helped her up into a sitting position, then onto her feet. She was surprisingly steady on her heels after her ordeal. “My name’s Deb. Who are you?” she cocked her head to the side slightly.

“Gavin… I think. Yes, it must be Gavin. Gavin Dales,” he looked around furtively.

“You’re not sure about you own name?” she thought this was funny.

“I’m not sure about any of this,” Gavin admitted. “I don’t know what’s happening.”

“Didn’t you go through your graduation?” Deborah looked at him confused and crossed her arms over her chest and gave a little shiver. She must have felt as cold as he did.

“No,” Gavin scrunched up his face and shook his head. “I was still in school.”

“That’s odd,” Deborah admitted. “You should have finished it by now if you’re out here. What about the others?” Deborah took in the long line of vats for the first time, but didn’t look at all surprised by their presence. “Why’s everyone just lying about?”

“I don’t know,” Gavin told her. “That man over there told me to wake people up,” he pointed to the man with the tablet, who had worked his way nearly out of sight around the bend.

“Well let’s get to work,” she said and led him over to the next sleeping person. Gavin followed her obediently and stooped down as she tapped the boy on the shoulder. “Hey, you go over there and try to get that guy up,” she suggested.

Gavin nodded, and did as he was told. As he turned around, however, he heard Deborah gasp. “What’s that on your neck?” she asked.

Gavin stopped in his tracks and reached out to his neck. Off to the left side of the base of his skull was a round metal bump. He felt Deborah’s hands on his shoulder as she leaned in to investigate. “This is your node,” she told him as she tapped it. She pulled on it as if it were supposed to pry off, but Gavin let out a pained cry and doubled over. It felt as if his entire brain was being tugged on. “They’re supposed to have taken that out cycles ago,” she told him as she helped right him. “What’s going on here?”

“I don’t know,” Gavin felt like crying, but he wasn’t about to show his true fear.

“Hey!” Deborah shouted after the man. None of the people he had checked had roused yet. “Hey you! Minder!” The man didn’t turn, or speak, but instead raised a finger and beckoned her to come closer. Deborah chased after him, and Gavin followed along as best he could. The pain was still with him, and was making him shiver. “What is this?” she asked as she stepped up to him.

The man sighed and turned around. “Listen, as you can see, I have a lot of  Firsts to look after here. I can’t spend all day answering your questions. We’re going to have a debriefing session in the Main Auditorium at 27 Hour. Everything will be answered there.”

“Where’s all the other Minders?” she asked anyway, ignoring his plea. “All I see are zonked out Firsts.”

He flipped the tablet at Deborah once more and brought up her holographic profile. “Ah, you’ve graduated. Good,” he said. “A lot of this won’t be new to you, but we’ve run into some… difficulties. Nearly every other Minder has been reassigned as a result, and I’m not allowed to pull anyone in to fill the vacancies. I’d appreciate some volunteerism, since I don’t think I’m going to have everyone up by the time the briefing starts,” he nudged the nearest person with the tip of his polished shoe. “Everyone is out like a light.”

“Why is that?” Deborah demanded.

“As you can see from Mr.,” He flipped the device at Gavin, “Dales here, I had to pull most of you out early. You’re one of the few graduates in this Class.”

“That’s insane,” she protested. “They can’t possibly be ready. Gavin still has his node in,” she grabbed him roughly by the shoulder and turned him to show the thing on the back of his neck. “How is that right?”

“It’s not, really,” he agreed, “but Corporate says it is so here you are. Consider yourself lucky you excelled so well with your training. You could have been in the same lot as him, not that it’ll do you much good in the end.”

Deborah looked at Gavin in bafflement. “He doesn’t even know where he is. Nothing could justify that kind of oversight.”

“If any of you could explain to me by the way,” Gavin offered, “it would really help out.”

“Enough!” the Minder exclaimed. “Like I said, I’m busy. If you two want to piece it together by yourselves, go ahead. I’ve got work to do. It’s not like it’s a giant mystery, or anything.” He turned his backs to them and continued down the line.

“Come on Gavin,” Deborah said dejectedly, “let’s just help the others up. Hey there,” she bent down to the boy the Minder was prodding and shook him by the shoulder, “it’s time to wake up.” The boy rolled over and began to make a retching sound, but nothing would come out. She looked at the back of his neck. “Another node,” her face paled. “This isn’t good.”

“Something’s gone wrong,” Gavin surmised.

“You’re taking this all rather well,” Deborah complimented him as she patted the boy on the back. He continued to cough, as if something was stuck far down his throat but wouldn’t come out. He eventually subsided and lay back down, groaning.

“I don’t even know what this is,” Gavin said. “Was I abducted by aliens or something? This looks like a space ship to me.”

“Close enough,” Deborah admitted. “This is Last Point. It’s a Corporate station on the edge of known space. We’re far enough from the Conflict here.”

“Ah,” Gavin said as if it all made sense, which it didn’t. He tried patting the boy on the back with her. “The Corporation? Are they aliens?”

“What? No, there are no aliens. Not exactly. If anything, we’re aliens. Gavin,” she looked up at him, “how could you not know this? How early on were you?”

“I don’t really know what you mean, but honestly the last thing I remember is being in Ms. Sanger’s class. If I try remembering anything else it kind of gets fuzzy,” he admitted.

“Ms. Sanger?” she was shocked. “Gavin… you’re still years away from graduating. You weren’t even introduced to the Program yet.”

“So you know Ms. Sanger?” he was relieved. “Why don’t I recognize you, then? Were you in the class before me?”

“No, Gavin, Ms. Sanger was just a part of the simulation. Everyone aboard here went through the same training in the vats, only for some reason you were farther behind than I was. You should have been in your prep stage to end your containment,” Deborah explained.

“Then… none of that was real? Is that why I can’t remember who my parents are?” he reached back to feel his node. “What am I?”

“A Generate,” she told him. “Like everyone else. We’re part of the Corps.”

Gavin had to stop. It was unbelievable, but it rang true with him. He remembered his lessons, but not the teachers, or the class. It ended with Ms. Sanger, in Grade Ten. He had been learning about Human History, but had only gotten so far as the 21^st Century and WWIII. Looking back, he could make out the classroom, but not the halls, or the school itself. He couldn’t remember where he slept at night, or even what he had to eat. He knew there were other students, but he never talked to them. No one spoke but the teacher.

Through it all, though, there had been a promise of great things to come once he graduated. His teachers had always assured him he was doing quite well, and would be rewarded once he finished his studies with a good career. They never once told him what that job would be.

“I believe you,” he finally admitted. “I’m sorry, it’s sudden for me. I had my doubts for a moment.”

“I still have my doubts,” she told him earnestly. “This isn’t standard procedure. It’s wrong of them to dump you out here by yourself. You’re lucky you’re developed enough to even speak.”

“I’m not simple,” he assured her. “It’s that I don’t have enough information to work with. Whatever I went through, they didn’t bother to tell me what I was supposed to do.”

“It makes me want to cry,” she admitted. “Look at all these Firsts, Gavin. They can’t even stand.”

Gavin spied a boy with dirty blond hair trying to crawl off his pad with great difficulty. He quickly ran over to him to try and help him up. As soon as he made contact, the boy screamed out, “Help! Help me!”

Gavin grabbed him and held him close as the boy began to convulse, telling him, “It’s going to be okay. You’re safe.”

The boy screamed again in utter fear, but slowly focused on Gavin. “Help me,” he pleaded in a quieter voice.

“You’re okay,” Gavin assured him once more. The boy was rather lanky compared to the others, but a bit taller than most. Gavin realized just then he had no idea what he himself even looked like. He recalled some athletic training and sports he’d participated in that gave him a better sense of his physicality, but never once had he looked on his own face in a mirror. His entire perception of himself was of his hands and body. He reached up and felt his own face and hair. It was long like the boy’s. He pulled some in front of his eyes and saw it was orange. Feeling his own bicep, he found they were larger than he had first thought. He was rather fit, but beyond that he couldn’t tell anything from the suit. Looking over at the vat beside him, he began to make out his reflection in the chrome finish. Although it was curved and bent, he looked as if he had a strangely rounded nose to go with his round face. His eyes had a green hue to them.

“Who are you?” the boy asked him.

 “Gavin Dales,” he assured the boy and himself. He pulled back some of the boy’s hair and saw a node like his. “He’s got a node,” he called over to Deborah, who had move on to the next person.

“So does she,” Deborah called back. “I think… maybe everyone here has. Am I the only one?”

“That’s not good, is it?” Gavin asked.

“What’s going on?” the boy asked.

“What’s your name?” Gavin asked him instead of answering. The Minder was right when he said it’d take too long to explain.

“Video,” was all he would say.

“What? You want a video?” Gavin was confused.

“No, that’s my name. That’s what I call myself,” Video explained.

“And what do other people call you?” Gavin asked.

“I… I don’t know anyone else,” Video realized. “What’s going on?” he asked again.

“Just try to stand up,” Gavin prompted him. “I need you to be strong for me, Video. Can you do that?”

“I think I can,” Video nodded, and began to stand with a great deal of assistance from Gavin. Gavin slung one of his arms over his shoulder and carried him over to where Deborah had hoisted a girl onto her feet. She was rather short with blonde hair so long it went past her waist. Gavin realized he had no idea how tall the average person was expected to be, but most looked as if they were around his own height, much like Deborah.

“She says her name is Goldie,” Deborah explained. “That’s all she can tell me.”

“Where are we all supposed to go?” Gavin asked her. “Maybe that’s a good starting point.”

Deborah used her one free arm and pulled it over to her other, which was being clung onto desperately by the girl named Goldie. Her name was rather apt, as she had a golden hue to her skin. Gavin looked at his fingers again, and confirmed he was white. He had learnt about race and prejudice in his History lessons, but he couldn’t understand they underlying concepts of the hate involved. The first boy they had tried to help was beginning to get up on his own, and he had darker skin. Video was pale as a ghost. Everything was a discovery to him, and he could only imagine what their two new companions were going through. Deborah touched a few spots on the screen at her wrist and craned her head to look. “There should be an adjoining hall that leads to the Main Auditorium. It’s where we’re all supposed to go when we first come out.”

“We should help these two there and then go look for others,” Gavin prompted.

“Right, follow me,” Deborah offered and they all hobbled along. They passed twenty or so First lying prone on the ground. One had rolled onto his back and hadn’t got much farther.

Gavin glanced at the device on his wrist. “26:12?” he read the time. “Didn’t that… Minder guy say we’re having a meeting at 27?”

“He’s dreaming,” Deborah told him. “There’s no way everyone will make it in time.” There was a narrow corridor in the inside curve leading downwards at a gentle angle. Inside the passage there was workstations on which there were more of the tablets used by the Minder. As they passed, Video reached out and scooped one up with a little difficulty. “That isn’t yours,” Deborah warned.

“It’s fine,” Video grumbled. He activated it and waved it at Gavin to bring up his profile. Gavin marvelled at his own image. In his hologram, he had short hair and looked somewhat older and fuller than he suspected he was, like an idealized version of himself. “Gavin Dales, Pilot Class S: Restricted. Activated. Additional training required.”

“A pilot?” Gavin sputtered. “I don’t know the first thing about planes.”

“That’s good, because you won’t be flying a plane,” Deborah told him. “You’ll be flying a shifter.”

“I don’t even know how to drive standard,” Gavin argued.

“Not…” Deborah stopped him. “I don’t know if you’re joking or not.” They had reached a separate hall, which curved like the first corridor with the vats, only this one had windows that looked down at a vast domed chamber. There were four blank screens facing four directions. Above was a domed glass ceiling looking out to the stars. On a crescent stage with no decorations stood a lone woman who paced nervously back and forth as she checked her wrist unit. “Great, there’s no chairs,” she remarked and then nodded her head over to the tunnel leading down.

Curious, Video referenced himself. “Video Daniels, Engineer Class. No surprises there.”

“You know your job?” Deborah asked.

“Barely,” Video replied. “Well I shouldn’t say that, but I was a long way off from graduating. That’s why I’m still plugged into my node. I’m still farther along than Gavin, here, I guess. I think I’ll be okay walking from now on,” he said to Gavin. “Thanks, I feel like I’ve gotten over the initial shock. I only had an inkling of what was going on. I mean I heard rumours, but nothing that really prepared me.”

“Rumours?” Gavin asked. “How?”

“Once you reach a certain grade you’re hive-linked with the others in the simulation. It’s a little more natural,” Deborah explained. “That way you can talk with others when permitted, but it’s all heavily monitored and regulated like everything in the simulation.”

“I don’t remember ever talking to either of you,” Video said, “but I know Goldie here. She’s the same class as me. You doing okay, Goldie?”

“No,” was all Goldie could say. She was practically doubled over. Now that Video was walking on his own, Gavin helped Deborah carry her along.

They entered the dome, and were promptly greeted by the woman on stage. “Ah, you’re here. Good, good, good,” the woman tapped the side of her cheek thoughtfully. “Are the others behind you?” she had to practically shout over the distance between them.

“I don’t think there’s going to be many others coming soon,” Deborah told her as they approached the stage.

“Drats,” the woman said. “I do apologize for all this, but do gather around. Take a seat,” she pointed to the complete lack of chairs. They plopped themselves on the floor in front of the stage and the woman self-consciously adjusted her skirt, although it was well past her knees. Her uniform looked less formal, but businesslike and in the same colour scheme as they were all wearing. “If there aren’t going to be any others, I might as well begin.”

“We should head back up and help the others,” Gavin suggested, although he wanted to hear what she had to say.

“They can make it on their own,” the woman huffed. “After all, it’s not like they have anyplace else to go, now do they?” she laughed a little too loudly at her own joke. “Don’t mind me, it’s been a busy day. My name’s Linn, by the way. I’m your Arranger. We only just received the order a few hours ago, so this is all going to be a little rushed, as you can imagine.”

“Who gave the order?” Deborah demanded.

“Why who else? Corporate? If you want specific names, I don’t think it matters. They’re all pretty much the same, the one’s above my head,” she made a dismissive gesture over her slanted-haircut. “We had to wake everyone up to fill in the void. We expected as much would happen, but we were hoping for more time. I mean look at you,” she wrinkled her nose up. “You’re scarcely babies.”

Gavin was about to ask his questions, but Deborah broke in, “What void?” Video shared her distress.

“Oh, yes, you wouldn’t have heard. Luckily I brought along this clip to explain,” with a touch of her wrist, she lit up the four screens with a holographic video.

A booming voice echoed throughout the dome as an announcer appeared on screen. He had thick, matted hair and moustache to match. “If you’re just joining me, the Corporation has reported casualties in the hundreds of thousands after an apparent attack from a yet unnamed group,” the scene shifted to show bodies being led away in body bags by authorities while a police officer told the camera to leave. A woman knelt and wept in the background while two police officers talked to her. “These attacks were carried out simultaneously across our own universe and it’s believed that others Corporation members in the fields have suffered as well. Any communication with these away teams has been futile. The culprit has been identified as nano-virus, named Mark 5.2. At this time we’re still uncertain of how this nano-virus was distributed, or how long it’s been infecting it’s victims, but we do know that once activated, death was virtually instantaneous. We’re still waiting to tally the final body count.

“Luckily, the life-cycle of the nano-virus auto-terminated, sparing the Corporation total losses. It’s unclear, however, how exactly they’ll recover.” They showed a video clip of an Asian woman with greying hair smiling and talking to the press. “The Corporate Chairman Ang Young also perished in the attack and the Board was quick to elect Vice-Chairman, Lee Fields, He had this to say.”

A man wearing a dark suit with a white shirt and open collar appeared before the camera. He was wearing dark glasses and his hair was parted in the middle and flopped down above his ears. His fingers-tips were pressed together before him and he wagged them all emphatically as he spoke. “This is a tragic event to be certain, but this is only a temporary setback. The Corporation is too big to fail. We have virtually limitless resources, one of those being our employees. While many have fallen, we have no staffing shortages. Our priority right now is to restructure our employee base to fill in any vacancies and proceed with our investigation into these events.”

“I’ll stop it there,” Linn said and touched her wrist unit. “I’ll only end up playing it over for the rest when they arrive and I don’t want to bore myself. That’s the short version. It’s news to you, I bet, but not to any of us who lived through it. Despite what Mr.Fields might have said, we’re in serious trouble. You First were luckily unaffected by the nano-virus because of your quarantine conditions. Beyond that, we only lost a hundred here on Last Point because we’re so remote from the rest of the universe, but those who survived were transferred to other stations to fill-in. Now we’re operating with a skeleton crew. That’s why you were so rudely awakened. We need to fill a lot of boots, and we don’t care how that gets done.”

“How many did we lose?” Video asked, raising his hand, although it was hardly necessary.

Linn shrugged. “The media says anywhere from between thirty to a hundred and fifty thousand. The media is really the only thing with have to go on, because the Board isn’t telling us much besides our orders. The bigger issue is our away teams. We’ve lost almost all our Searchers. They’re not necessarily dead, mind you, it’s that we can’t reach them. They’re presumed dead, but we have a strict, ‘No Man Left Behind’ policy. We need to set up new teams of Searchers to look for the old ones. Now I realize you’re not fully trained, but this should be a relatively easy mission. Since the four of you are already here, I might as well group you together. Now where should I put you?” she looked at her wrist unit and tapped away for a few seconds. “How about X-77?”

“That’s one of the lowest ranks!” Deborah protested.

“And you’re some of the least qualified First we’ve ever had, although that’s no fault of your own. You’ll have to prove yourself in the field and complete your training to move up,” Linn explained.

“You’re putting two Engineers on the same team with a Pilot who doesn’t know how to fly?” Deborah was aghast.

“You’re not going to be doing any engineering or flying. Like I said, you’re not qualified. We’ll find you a pilot. In the meantime, all you need to do is go where you’re told and do what you’re told. Is that clear?” Linn asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” Deborah hung her head dejectedly.

“Now, dear, don’t be like that,” Linn told her. “I’m just a little testy. A few people I know died and they didn’t even bother with a proper funeral. Just a mass service. All of this is temporary. Why don’t I send you off to your quarters with some more viewing material, so you can get a grasp on this before you get your first assignment? Hold up your units, please.” Deborah held up her wrist unit and the three other followed her example. Gavin glanced at his and saw directions on a map, with an arrow prompting him out of the hall. “Try and get some rest,” she suggested. “You may find yourself called upon sooner than you think.”

“Come on, guys,” Deborah motioned for them to follow.

As they turned, Gavin swallowed hard and asked, “I have an important question. What is it that we do?”

Video stopped and stared at him. “We’re the Corps,” he told him. “We’re inter-dimensional space explorers and traders.”