by Rebecca Rode
A girl with four knotted ponytails hesitated at the hatch beside Ember, covering her mouth and nose with both hands. She waited a full five seconds before stepping out, then finally took a deep, gasping breath. Freckles flooded her face and arms.
“Are you all right?” Ember asked, confused at the performance.
“Fine. Just testing the air.” She thrust her hand out. “I’m Mariana. My friends call me Mar because I love the ocean. You’re from a water planet, so you get it, right? My people sent me even though I didn’t want to come.”
Ember returned the handshake and pulled away a second early. She missed everything, not just the ocean. Her village, Dai, Bianca, familiar food. The ship had supplied food packets, but they just weren’t the same. And the light here felt so unnatural. The only piece of home she still owned were her skirt and blouse, and that was only because she’d fallen onto her bed before undressing two nights before. Stars, she was grateful for that now.
“Well, you coming? Mar asked. “I mean, I’d rather avoid orientation too, but you can’t stay on the ship. They’re going to send it below, and the pressurization would kill you.”
“I—I’m coming.” Ember stepped off the ship, still gazing at the city before them. The ramp turned sharply into another white building with metal accents. The ship’s crew had already begun to clean the passenger area behind her. Had Commander Kane already exited? Where were the guards?
Mar walked down the ramp without looking back. “I’ve only been here once, when I was too young to remember. I heard they originally painted the buildings white to keep them from getting too hot. It used to be a lot closer to the second sun, you know. The artificial atmosphere could only do so much.” She shrugged. “But then the sun’s flares kept messing with their tech, so they moved the station back. I guess they decided to keep the white.”
“They moved it,” Ember murmured, jogging to keep up with Mar. “Just like that.” She kept glancing to the side of the ramp, but it was too steep a drop to jump down. No wonder the guards hadn’t felt it necessary to follow her. There was nowhere for her to go but inside.
“I’ve heard the shopping is great too,” Mar continued. “They have everything here. We’ll have to go sometime. If they ever let us out, that is.”
Shopping. Maybe they had her father’s medicine here. If she found enough of it, she could bring home a year’s worth. Maybe even two. That had to be long enough to get him better.
Focus. Ember didn’t have time to shop for medicine or anything else. Her first priority was to convince them she didn’t belong here. If necessary, she would make it clear she didn’t intend to cooperate so they’d have to send her home. And if that didn’t work, she’d find a way to escape.
Mar went on ahead, chattering about another station she’d visited once. Ember sighed and followed the line of excited recruits—flickers—down the ramp and into the building looming above her.
The corridor inside was white like the outside, with a tall, looming ceiling that left Ember feeling uncomfortable and overexposed.
An unnaturally tall woman in a black uniform met them inside, and Ember immediately recognized her as one of Kane’s guards. Now that Kane wasn’t here to command her attention, Ember took a long look at the woman. Her pink hair was chin length and streaked with black. And her uniform’s trousers fit much too snugly around her rear end.
“Call me Talon,” the woman said in that low voice of hers. “You will follow me.” She turned and walked briskly down the hall, her long strides eating up the ground like a giraffe’s. The crowd of young people followed, some trotting to keep up.
They reached the end of a hallway and found themselves in front of a single door.
“File inside quietly for uniform assignment,” Talon said. “Men to the left, women to the right. Anything else, choose a side. You will wear your official uniform from this moment on, for everyone’s safety. Those caught wearing anything else outside their quarters will be severely punished.”
She looked at the door, and it slid open as if on command. The crowd pushed forward, each flicker determined to be among the first to get their uniform.
Ember hung back, fingering her skirt. This wasn’t good.
“Go on,” Talon said, motioning to the doorway. “Or shall I tell the high commander you’ve decided not to cooperate? I’m sure he can find you a nice, comfy cell.”
Ending up in a prison cell would make getting home to Dai very hard. Ember swallowed and went through the door. Talon followed, and the door immediately shut after her. Automatic doors. She’d heard of such things even in Earth’s history, but seeing them work was disturbing. How did the door know when to close?
She followed the group to the right. When she reached the front, a woman with braided hair greeted her. Finally a hairstyle she recognized. Her tag read Sindi.
“Medium,” the woman said to herself, looking Ember up and down. “May be small in the waist, but you’re tall enough that you’ll need the length. Here.” She retrieved a black bundle from the table behind her. “Put these on.”
Ember took the bundle and separated the pieces. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. She didn’t like the color black, but if the fabric was appropriate . . .
She held the trousers up and groaned. “They call this a uniform?”
Sindi turned back to her. “They’re formfitting, but you’d be surprised how soft the fabric is. Very forgiving.” Her nose wrinkled as she eyed Ember’s long skirt.
Ember snorted. “I’m not wearing that.”
Sindi held up the black trousers and examined them. “No holes, no signs of wear. I think you’ll have to explain to me where this aversion is coming from. We could try a large, but it would fall right off those tiny hips of yours.”
“I don’t—I’ve never—”
The woman’s eyes went wide, and she dropped the trousers back onto the table. “You’ve never worn trousers before.”
Ember nodded, relieved that the woman understood.
It began as a long, sharp cough. Sindi’s shoulders shook with the power of it. Then Ember realized the woman was laughing.
“Talon,” she called out through bursts of sound. “Some assistance, please.”
The lanky, pink-haired guard peeked her head through the divider. “Problem?” Ember cringed, even though she was still fully clothed and it was a woman.
“This girl says she’s never worn trousers before. She wants to keep her skirt.”
“She refuses her uniform?”
“I think you could say that, yes.”
Talon glared at Ember. “Put on the uniform, or I’ll drag you into the open and dress you myself. The choice is yours.”
Ember scowled. Nobody would dress her, especially in public. But wearing that . . . that . . . thing was absolutely indecent. “I’m not staying. I’m going home soon.”
Talon shrugged. “Makes no difference to me.” She shoved the curtain aside and began to approach.
Ember growled and snatched the trousers from Sindi’s grasp, glowering at the guard with all her might. Now both Talon and Sindi were laughing.
“The jacket, too,” Sindi said, holding another bundle of black fabric.
Ember changed quickly, her face warming as the two women watched.
The room was nearly empty by the time she emerged from behind the curtain. Feeling utterly exposed in her new trousers, Ember rubbed her thighs uncomfortably. The fabric was thin, closer to long underwear than anything. Sindi had disappeared, and all Ember could hear was soft whispering from across the room.
A long mirror covered the wall facing her. Ember had seen mirrors plenty of times—her mother had owned one—but never this big. She’d never actually seen her entire body in a mirror before. She almost didn’t dare look, wearing this dreadful outfit that left so little to the imagination. But she couldn’t resist a peek.
In the mirror, a woman with black, flowing hair glowered back at her. The pants hugged her lower body so tightly that pink sp
read to her cheeks. It gave her face an angry glow. She didn’t look Roma at all.
“Are you sure the women here don’t wear anything over this?” Ember muttered.
“One more thing,” Sindi said, appearing from nowhere. “Records say you’re from one of the outer planets, so I’m required to give you this. Combats the air change and makes sure you don’t spread anything.” She grabbed Ember’s arm, pulled up the sleeve, and stabbed her with something tiny and sharp.
Ember shrieked and scrambled back, but the pain subsided instantly. She stared at her arm. Only the tiniest speck of blood was visible. “What was that?”
The woman put the device into a bag and dropped it into a bin against the wall. “Just an immunization, dear. You don’t have those on Earth either?” That set the woman off in her laughter again.
Ember chose to make her way quickly out of the room rather than argue. It wasn’t until the door whooshed closed behind her that she remembered she’d left her skirt and blouse behind.
She ran back to the door, but it didn’t open. She pounded on it without success, then tried pushing it open. It wouldn’t budge.
“This is the third time you’ve made trouble in twenty minutes,” Talon said, walking up behind her in the narrow corridor. “Is this what we should expect during your stay?”
Ember had to crane her neck to meet the woman’s gaze. “My belongings,” Ember said. “I left them inside.”
Talon waved a long-fingered hand. “In the incinerator already, I’m sure. They burn everything right away.” She eyed Ember’s hair and frowned. “Particularly when there’s a question of sanitation.”
Her skirt and blouse she could replace. But her mother’s hand-painted tarot cards in the hidden pocket were priceless. Now they were gone forever, just like the woman who had given them to her.
“None of the others brought luggage either, gypsy girl,” Talon said. “You don’t see them crying about it. They’re all seated, waiting for orientation like you’re supposed to be.”
“None of them were kidnapped, then,” Ember snapped. “So much for my rights as an Empire citizen. I don’t care what abilities you think I have. I don’t belong here and I’m going home.”
Talon’s eyes narrowed. A chill settled over Ember as she remembered what this woman was capable of. Her abduction had happened quickly, but she was certain Talon was the one who’d cut her down with the stunner. At the moment, the woman looked as if she longed to do it again.
Talon’s voice went low and dangerous. “You have no idea what you’re dealing with, gypsy. You belong where High Commander Kane wants you. Every one of this year’s batch has been marked since they tested positive around age five or six. They’ve been preparing for testing week ever since. You somehow escaped the Empire’s notice—”
“Marked?” Ember interrupted. “You mean branded. Like livestock.”
Talon was silent for a long moment, her long fingers hovering over the stunner at her belt. Ember knew she had crossed a line, but she forced herself to meet the tall woman’s gaze.
“Interrupt me again,” the woman whispered, “and I will render you unable to travel anywhere, Earth or otherwise. Now go. Orientation is about to begin.”
8
The building felt so modern, so ship-like, that she had nearly forgotten she was standing on a giant white planet station, but when she stepped into the briefing room, it was impossible to forget. The room was shaped like a glass dome and had a clear ceiling exposed to the “sky” above. But it wasn’t like an earthly sky—stormy or clear or sunny. It was a murky gray. No clouds, no stars. Something drab and in-between. She wasn’t sure why they’d even bothered with this glass dome if there was nothing to see above it.
Most of the flickers were already seated. Ember caught a glimpse of Stefan near the front next to Eris. She muttered something, and he chuckled. Ember instinctively gripped where her skirt had once been, but in its place was a smooth, soft fabric that hugged her curves.
Feeling as if the entire room was watching her, she scanned the neat rows for an empty seat. Mar waved to her from the back and motioned to a chair. Relieved, Ember headed toward her just as Talon entered. The woman made it to the podium in four strides and began to speak.
“Today is an important day for you, flickers, one we look forward to every year.” Her deep voice was amplified by speakers in the walls, but Ember couldn’t see a microphone. Their tech was so strange.
“There are seventy-three of you here, from forty-one sectors. Many of you have trained for testing week since childhood. Many of you probably thought your twentieth year would never come. Others, however, are woefully unprepared for what is ahead.” She didn’t glance at Ember, but several flickers did. Ember kept her face impassive. She was nineteen, not twenty, but she doubted that was enough reason to send her home.
“You have a remarkable gift, one that makes you incredibly valuable to the emperor. That’s why you’ll spend your week in comfort, housed in some of our finest rooms and eating the very best food. Each of you is a powerful weapon in our battle against the enemy. Unfortunately, not every flicker is right for our program. Either you have what we need, or you don’t.”
The silence was stifling. The air squeezed around Ember so tightly she could almost feel Talpa’s bone-breaking arm around her throat again. One word reverberated in her mind, overtaking her thoughts until she couldn’t see anything else. Weapon.
It was exactly like her father’s article. They were making flickers into weapons.
Talon raised her voice again. “Your testing will consist of three phases over three days. The first begins tomorrow morning at 08:00. You will receive the room number on your wristbands. And, no, I’m not authorized to reveal what the first phase entails, so don’t ask.” She pressed her lips together in a grimace that was probably supposed to be a smile. A few people chuckled uncomfortably.
Ember barely heard. Weapon. Battle. Enemy. Closing your eyes leaves you exposed, Stefan had said. What kind of twisted system was this? Reading a person’s inner light was an intimate experience, a gift from the stars. Was the Empire training a force of readers to spy on their enemies? Or was there something even darker going on here?
“The room number to your quarters will appear on your wristband soon,” Talon continued. “You have the afternoon to explore the city. When your wristband begins to vibrate, return to the station immediately and report to the cafeteria by 1700. Stragglers will be disqualified.”
The room began to fill with excited whispers. Talon stepped down from the platform and exited, although the guards lining the walls stayed.
Mar leaned over. “They’re testing us already. They’ll track us around the city.”
Blood pulsed in Ember’s ears. The room seemed to be closing in on her. Ember had danced along the edges of what was moral by profiting from her gift, but using it to win a war? This was absolutely and completely wrong. She couldn’t stay in this terrible place a moment longer.
The flicker recruits stood and headed for the double doors at the rear. A group of several men and one woman joined Stefan and Eris, apparently discussing where they would go. Ember brushed past them. The doors slid open for her, allowing her outside.
The city reflected painfully against her eyes. She missed the casual chaos of Earth, the colors and textures and familiar ground. There wasn’t a sign of dirt anywhere. Occasionally plants broke up the whiteness, but they were obviously fake. Some were even bright colors, like purple and orange.
“Gypsy girl!” Mar pulled up beside her, breathing hard. “How could you go barging off without me?”
“Roma,” Ember corrected. “And I’m Gheorghe Ember of the Argyle Beach Kumpania.”
“Uh, I’m not going to remember that. You go by what, exactly?”
“Ember.”
“Got it. So where to first?”
She looked behind them at the group passing through the doors and laughing. They moved easily, as if they’d been here before. Th
ey probably had, if they were some of the lifelong-preparation flickers Talon had mentioned. She spotted Stefan in the center. Eris had her arm through his.
Ember hadn’t told him about the kissing vision, thank the stars, and it didn’t seem like he’d seen it in her earlier. She would just pretend it never happened and move on.
Ember thought quickly. “To find some medicine.” And if she was lucky, find a ship to take her home.
“Oh.” Mar frowned and slowed her step. “That doesn’t sound very exciting. Don’t you want to head for a bar? This is the best tech center in eight sectors. They’ll have the best VR stations ever built. I mean, there’s this one at the Grande that supposedly uses an antigravity module with—”
“You go ahead, then. Don’t let me stop you.” Ember continued on her path, following the others down a massive stairway to the city street below.
Mar scowled and caught up to her. “Well, I guess we can run your errand first. I mean, since you don’t know your way around.”
Mar technically didn’t either, but Ember didn’t feel like pointing that out.
They made their way down six flights of steps before the street came into view. She felt light-headed for a moment and paused along the wall, allowing people to pass.
“You okay?” Mar asked, pulling up beside her. “I know the air’s different here, but they were supposed to give you an adjustment when you got your uniform. I didn’t need one, but I totally understand if you’re feeling an oxygen percentage discrepancy.”
“I’m fine.” Ember stepped slowly down to a sidewalk packed with flickers. They seemed to be crowding toward a sky-train platform. She turned the other direction, determined to walk. She’d had enough air travel to last her a lifetime.
Ember headed down the sidewalk, already deep in thought. Would Talpa turn her in when she got home? Would the Empire care enough to look for her again? Was Dai still alive?
One step at a time, she reminded herself as Mar fell into step beside her.