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.”