“I couldn’t have guessed.” I stared pointedly at her phone on the counter. On her lock screen was a picture of Gravita in her iconic white arbiter suit, her purple cape fluttering up behind her as she came slamming down onto a section of concrete. “You know, normal teenage girls put pictures of hot guys on their phone.”
“Ha ha.” She snatched her phone off the counter and stuffed it in her pocket. “Real funny, mom. We both know if I put pics of guys on my phone, dad would have a heart attack. As it is, I’m sure he’s not really happy with Gravita being on my phone.”
“You think I hate Gravita?” Jake’s voice came from behind Nicole, announcing his arrival into the kitchen.
“No.” She spun around and gave him a look that I thought was a bit too innocent.
He shrugged. “I can understand where you’d get that impression.”
“It’s not much of a mystery you’ve had a pretty bad history with primes.” I looked at him, then wondered if I should try to steer the conversation into safer, less uncomfortable territory. Ultimately, I couldn’t help myself. “But Nicole’s just told me they spotted Gravita today flying around downtown.”
“I saw her.” He fixed me with a hawk-like glare. “Flew right by my office window. For a second I even thought the sonic boom was going to shatter it. You’d think she’d worry about people getting the wrong impression, you know? Like primes don’t care about property damage, or something like that?”
“Dad, that’s not fair.” Nicole sounded indignant. “I know you’re not the biggest fan of arbiters, but she—”
“Not arbiters, rogues!” I spoke before I could stop myself. Nicole frowned and looked at me, and I glanced at Jake to see he was giving me a severe expression. “I mean, you just have a problem with rogues, right? You think Gravita does a good job, don’t you Jake?”
“As I heard someone put it, ‘there doesn’t seem to be a damn thing that woman can’t do.’” He gave me a barely perceptible wink, and I stuck my tongue out at him while Nicole wasn’t looking. “I just wish she hadn’t buzzed my building, that’s all.”
“Yeah, that’s true.” I shrugged. But I guess I was still giddy from the experience of flying, because I couldn’t help but add, “I guess she was just getting some fresh air. Must be kind of cool to fly, you know?”
“You know, she doesn’t just fly.” Nicole’s voice bore an unmistakable note of annoyance. “Remember when she single-handedly saved the John Hancock Center from that giant robot invasion a few years back?”
“That was a pretty good one.” Jake smirked, finally breaking eye contact with me to smile back at her. “If I remember right, she didn’t even throw a punch, did she?”
“Those robots were so large the only way they could stay up was through anti-gravity.” I tried not to sound petty, but knew I had to sound pretty shallow. “That battle must have been a cake-walk for her.”
“I’m sure it was.” He smiled and returned my gesture by sticking his tongue out at me behind Nicole’s back.
“It was still incredible to see her take out those behemoths, though.” Nicole sounded in awe.
“Yeah, yeah.” I rolled my eyes as I stacked the last dish onto the drying rack. “I think we can all agree Gravita’s awesome.”
“Honey?” Jake sounded hurt, though his voice dripped of insincerity. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were jealous!”
“Only way I could be jealous of an arbiter is if I were a prime. And we both know that’s not true.”
“I wish you were.” Nicole laughed. “Some scientists are starting to think there’s a genetic component to being prime.”
“What are we talking about?” Sam asked as she came into the room with a pile of chips in hand.
“Primes.” Nicole picked up one of Sam’s chips and plopped it in her mouth.
“And dad’s not yelling?” Sam looked at her father with a devious glint in her eye. “This isn’t a dream, is it?”
“You guys are so funny.” He rolled his eyes, then helped himself to one of Sam’s chips as well. “I’m going to go check on Alan.”
That evening, after reviewing everything I had done earlier in the day with Jake, he seemed impressed with the control I had shown while flying. Although I would have liked to take more credit for what I had done, the truth was that most of it came to me on pure instinct. It seemed that, when I thought too much about how to use my powers, it became almost impossible for me to use them. I explained as much to him, but as always, he didn’t seem too put out by my attempts at self-deprecation.
“That’ll be good advice to keep in mind for your exam.” He smiled as he pulled the covers up to his chin and settled into bed. “Just don’t think.”
“You’re so funny.” I slugged him lightly on the arm.
6
WITH ONLY DAYS LEFT until my exam, I focused my training on the few remaining skills I knew I would be assessed on during my certification exam. The test was scheduled for that Friday, giving me precious little time to review the basic martial skills Jake had been coaching me on. What time I couldn’t spend at the hub I devoted to studying the rules and regulations that arbiters lived by—there was literally a book on it, which Jake had been kind enough to lend to me the week I started arbiter training. I knew that information would be invaluable, and would take up most of the written portion of the exam.
Despite all my work, though, I felt woefully unprepared that Friday as I descended the elevator down into the hub to take my test.
“Amber!”
I tensed at the voice that called my name as the elevator doors slid open, even though I recognized it. I resisted the urge to throw my hands up defensively as the owner of the voice barreled into the elevator and threw her arms around me.
“Hey Kiara,” I squeaked, struggling to breathe under her oppressive hug.
“Jake told me about your exam today,” she said by way of explanation. “I figured I should come. You know, for moral support.”
“Thank you.” I felt a genuine smile tug at the corners of my lips as I looked back at her. “I guess I’d be lying if I said this didn’t make me nervous.”
“You’re fighting for the right to save lives.” She took a step back and nodded toward the hallway. I took her cue and followed her out of the elevator. “You’re trying to make a difference in the world in a way you never could even dream of before. I think it would be stranger if it didn’t make you a little nervous to be attempting this.”
I couldn’t think of anything to say to that, so I didn’t respond. If my silence bothered her, though, she didn’t show it.
“By the way...” She lowered her voice as she looked around the deserted corridor we were following. “I was hoping to have a better update by now, but everything my techie has done so far with her thought splitter hasn’t been able to replicate what happened with you and Jake. We’re going to keep testing, but it’s not looking good.”
“Thank you anyway.” I smiled. “I really mean that. I think, though, that I’ve accepted that this is who I am now.”
“Are you going to be okay with that?”
“I learned a long time ago to let go of things I couldn’t control. I can’t lie, having my whole life and identity ripped away and turned on its head has been rough—”
“A bit of an understatement.”
“—But, if I had to be stuck as anyone, getting to keep my family and some semblance of my home is a pretty good deal. Plus...” I couldn’t keep the grin off my face as I met her gaze. “Being able to fly almost makes the whole thing worth it.”
By the time we got to the exam room, I had almost forgotten what I was even there for. When I opened the door, though, what I saw made reality come crashing back down on me.
“Good morning.” Greg smiled from behind a desk on the opposite side of the room as he met my gaze. “I hope you’re ready for your exam.”
I forced myself not to look at Kiara as I nodded, even while my stomach gave a sickening jolt.<
br />
Greg wasn’t the only one there, thankfully. There were almost a dozen other people seated around the room. Some of them were in arbiter attire, bright, primary-colored suits and all, though the majority looked like they would be more at place in an office than on the street fighting crime, the tell-tale sign they were administrators, not arbiters.
I took a seat at the desk in the middle of the room and glanced at the booklet in front of me. I listened politely as a man came forward and explained that I had an hour to answer all the questions in the theoretical section of the exam. After that, they’d move me on to the practical test, whatever that would be.
I thought back to my final days in college, more than seventeen years before, which had been the last time I had taken a test like this. With a deep breath, I opened the booklet and started reading the first question.
To my pleasant surprise, I found that most of the ethical questions in the written exam were easier to respond to than I thought they would be. As I worked my way further and further through the questions, I realized that, throughout the nearly two decades of our marriage, Jake had routinely asked and discussed with me these same types of questions. In hindsight, I thought it was endearing that, in his own way, he had always tried to share with me an important part of his life, even if he hadn’t felt he could divulge all of it to me.
I put my pencil down and pushed the booklet away from me minutes before my hour was up. I had spent the past ten minutes writing out an answer to the final essay question. I knew it might have looked better if I had spent all of my time re-examining the questions and reviewing my answers, but with the time I had left, I wouldn't really be able to change anything. Even if I tried, I didn’t think I could come up with an answer in three minutes that would be better than what I had already put down.
The man that had explained the first part of the exam to me stepped forward and collected my materials before explaining to me the next part, which would be the practical portion.
“You’ll have an hour.” He slid a piece of paper in front of me, which I caught on the desk without letting my eyes stray from him. “Effectively, you’ll need to get through a maze, though it’s something of an obstacle course as well. At various points throughout the course, there will be arbiters...” He paused to point out the six arbiters dressed in their suits seated around the room.
As my eyes followed his gestures, I forced myself to look at Greg, who was smirking back at me in his dark blue arbiter suit. I was going to treat him like any other arbiter, even if, by the look he returned to me, I could tell he wouldn’t be extending me the same courtesy. The fact alone he was there meant he had to have been read in on what had happened to me. I couldn’t be certain of how he’d reacted to the news he had come onto a man in a woman’s body, but if the look he gave me was any indication, it didn’t seem like the idea sat well with him.
“You will be able to choose whether or not to face them,” he continued. “Bear in mind, though, that working your way around to avoid any of the arbiters may cost you more time than battling your way through, and that a big part of this assessment is how you handle yourself against other capable primes. For these matches, your goal will be to incapacitate your opponent, either through scoring a knockout or holding them still for one minute. Any use of lethal force will disqualify you. The same rules apply for your opponents.
“Your overall objective will be to reach the end of the maze, or to neutralize four of your opponents. Each opponent that you defeat will also add five more minutes to your time limit. We will be measuring your performance throughout the challenge, not just the end result. If you are incapacitated or run out of time before reaching the end of the maze or defeating four arbiters, you may still pass, depending on how well you performed throughout the rest of the course. Any questions?”
I glanced between the six arbiters seated around the room I would soon be facing. I knew four of them, along with their powers, and while I knew none of them would be easy to best in a fight, I also knew I was trying to prove my ability to take on opponents who were at least as skilled as those six.
I returned my gaze to the man in front of me, then shook my head.
“Good.” He allowed a smile to spread across his face for a brief second, the first emotion he had yet to show. It didn’t last long. “Then get ready. The test will begin in fifteen minutes.”
Of everything to feel grateful for, I hadn’t expected to be quite so relieved that they let me suit up for my practical exam, and yet, it was one of the few things about my assessment I was feeling good about. It was odd to realize I found so much comfort being back in that skintight suit, but it was impossible to deny I was more at ease while wearing it.
As I entered the maze, I took stock of the bare concrete walls that rose up ten feet on either side of me to meet a similar cement ceiling. I knew there had to be cameras placed all over the maze, but for my part, I couldn’t see one. It wasn’t hard to imagine a dozen stuffy men and women watching every angle of me from the safety of an observation room, trying to dissect my every action to see if I could cut it as an arbiter. It didn’t upset me to know that. Well, not exactly. There was no getting around that arbiters lived conspicuous lives. I would just have to get used to it. No, oddly what bothered me was realizing just how self-conscious I was of my suit. Strange that I could be both comforted by my suit and also embarrassed by it at the same time. I shook my head.
“Hope you’re all getting a good look.” I blew out a raspberry, then adjusted the way I walked to make sure my cape fully covered my backside. Maybe that was why Jake had included the cape as part of Gravita’s gear.
Thin lines of light ran along the corners of the maze where the walls met the ceiling and floor, providing the only lighting around me. It was enough to see by, but only just. I took note of that. Of the four arbiters I had recognized, one of them was a mind smith who went by the alias Daydream. With one glance, he could lock me away in my own head behind an illusion that would be virtually impossible for me to overcome. Jake had briefed me on dealing with mind smiths, but his prognosis had been grim. With enough personal experience, I might have been able to build up a mental barrier strong enough to ward off mental intrusions, but that was experience and a barrier that I almost certainly lacked currently. The one solace I had was I knew Daydream’s powers only worked from sustained eye contact from both parties. I just had to avoid looking him in the eye. If the lighting in the challenge rooms was at the level of these corridors, though, my chances of being able to keep track of Daydream while avoiding eye contact were slim.
I came to the first split in the maze, a T-junction that forced me to choose left or right. I spent only a moment glancing down either path before jogging off to the right. Either choice looked the same, and I was on too tight of a time limit to deliberate a choice between identical outcomes.
At the next bend in the corridor, I came to my first obstacle. It looked as though a section of the maze had collapsed ahead of me. Thick slabs of concrete littered the ground, leading to a pile of concrete, dirt and rocks that sloped up to the fractured ceiling. As my eyes swept over the scene, I became acutely aware again of the fact I was a thousand feet underground with an accompanying twist in my stomach.
Reaching out with my power, I began shifting the rubble away to clear a path through the cave-in to the other side. As I moved a boulder-sized piece of concrete at the base of the pile, though, the dirt and rocks above it began sliding down in a torrent.
I jumped out of the way as a rock two feet across barreled down the heap on a collision course with my legs. It rolled down the corridor, bouncing off the walls, but otherwise doing no other harm. It looked like the dirt and rock above the cave-in was loose, meaning if I wasn’t careful, clearing away the debris could send even more down on top of me.
I closed my eyes and gauged from the mass I could sense in front of me how much of the corridor had caved in. From what I could tell, it was only a few feet thick. Doable, if
difficult.
I sighed and focused my attention on the task at hand. It would take more energy than I had wanted to expend this early in the test, but there was nothing else for it.
I held an arm up and forced a wedge of negative spacetime in front of me into the pile of rubble. At the same time, I pushed another bubble of negative spacetime around the rest of the rubble strong enough to compress it and keep it in place.
The dirt and rock in the mound stayed in place, even as a two-foot wide section of it along the wall was pushed back.
My eyes snapped up to the ceiling, where a few lines of dirt trailed down the pile from the ceiling, freed by the minute shift to the dirt in the base. As I watched, though, the dirt encountered my bubble of gravity and floated for a second in midair before drifting to a stop midway down the sloping mound.
I stepped cautiously through the path I had cleared as soon as I could, my eyes never straying from the precarious mound of rock I was holding in place. Only once I was well clear of the pile did I let my power ebb.
With a dull rumble, the mound readjusted to fill the hole I had cleared, causing a fresh cascade of dirt and rocks to tumble from the hole in the ceiling. With one last fleeting glance, I set off again, a small measure of accomplishment bubbling up in my chest.
I passed a few more junctions, but without any better strategy than speed, I didn’t spend long at any of them. My suit had a built-in heads-up display projected on the inside of my visor which let me keep track of my time. As I glanced at the clock on the edge of my view, I bit my lower lip. Twenty minutes had elapsed from the time I entered the maze, and I only had one obstacle under my belt. What was more, I hadn’t encountered any other arbiters.
Struck by an idea, I paused at the next juncture I came to and closed my eyes. I stretched out my grav-sense to feel the mass and spacetime around me. By that point, it was effortless for me to slip into my grav-sense, but this time was different. I needed to find an arbiter to challenge, and that meant I had to find movement. I wasn’t sure it would work, but I was getting desperate.
Prime Identity Page 7