I Choose the Skills Everyone Else Rejects

For three seconds, the room had no light.

The turret clicked somewhere beyond the door. Metal shifted inside its housing, slowed, then stopped.

Nate kept his hand on the control panel.

His palm had gone numb. A tremor ran through his wrist and up his forearm, but he could not make himself let go.

The emergency strips came on.

Red light spread across the control room and through the narrow window in the sealed door.

Derren lay on the other side.

He had fallen close to the threshold. One arm was stretched toward it, his fingers open against the floor. Blood had reached the groove between two metal panels.

Cale stared through the glass.

Then he rushed at the handle.

Tomas caught him from behind.

"Let go of me."

"The grid could still have reserve power."

"It stopped."

"We don’t know that."

Cale drove his elbow back. Tomas grunted, tightened his grip and pulled him away from the door.

"He’s right there!"

Nate looked at the body.

"I know."

Cale turned toward him.

His face tightened. His fist closed, but he did not swing. He looked through the window again, breathing through his mouth.

Iris stepped closer to Nate.

She did not raise her voice.

"Did you hear me?"

Nate remembered her shouting as Derren ran toward them.

Wait.

"Yes."

"Why didn’t you?"

"The turret had locked onto him."

"That isn’t what I asked."

Nate’s fingers finally left the panel.

Iris watched his hand fall to his side.

"Could he have reached the door?"

"I don’t know."

"You made the choice without knowing."

Nate looked at the distance between Derren’s hand and the threshold.

"There might have been time."

Cale stopped struggling.

Tomas loosened his hold but stayed behind him.

Iris looked through the window. She pressed her lips together and moved away from Nate.

Something struck the outer hatch.

Everyone flinched.

"Academy security," a voice called. "Move away from the entrance."

Tomas raised his voice.

"The defence grid lost power, but the turret housing may still have charge. I removed a bridge from the control rack."

A vibration passed through the wall.

The locking mechanism released, and the hatch opened.

Instructor Dacre entered first. His circulation was active, visible through the slight distortion around his shoulders and arms. Two security officers followed him with insulated shields. A medic came in behind them.

Dacre took in the open control rack, the discarded power cell and the blood visible through the door’s narrow window. His eyes stopped on Nate beside the control panel.

"Move away from it."

Nate stepped back.

Dacre crossed the room and placed two fingers against the doorframe. A short pulse moved through the metal.

The turret clicked once.

"Power is gone."

The medic opened the door and entered the corridor.

Cale followed before Tomas could stop him again. He dropped beside Derren and reached for his shoulder.

The medic caught his wrist.

"Leave him where he is."

"He could still be alive."

The medic checked beneath Derren’s jaw, then placed a scanner against his neck.

The screen stayed blank.

Cale watched it for several seconds.

The medic lowered the device.

"I’m sorry."

Cale sat back on his heels.

Dacre looked toward the cell connected to the rack. Academy-grey paint covered most of its casing, but the older military stamp remained visible beneath it.

CLASS 2 ASSAULT

"Who put that in?" he asked.

Cale did not answer immediately.

"I did."

"Who told you to?"

"Nobody."

Dacre waited.

Cale wiped both hands over his face. A smear of Derren’s blood remained on his sleeve.

"I thought it was part of the exercise."

"You thought an assault cell belonged in a training system?"

"It was in our equipment."

"That wasn’t my question."

Cale looked at the floor.

"I thought it was a hidden evaluation. The instructors keep saying we’re supposed to notice opportunities. The connection fit, and the case had our section number on it."

Tomas turned from the damaged rack.

"Our number?"

"Nineteen. It was marked on the side."

One of the security officers picked up the empty case with gloved hands.

Tomas crouched beside the open panel and pointed inside.

"The cell should never have reached the defence grid."

Dacre came over.

Tomas held up the black piece he had pulled free. One end had melted into a rough lump.

"This carried the power around the training lock. Someone removed the rear panel, cut the normal line and hid the new connection beneath the insulation."

Dacre handed the bridge to the nearest officer.

"Seal the room and record everyone who entered this block today."

The officer moved aside and began speaking into his radio.

Nate rested his shoulder against the wall.

Iris noticed.

"You’re shaking."

"I can stand."

"That isn’t what I said."

She took his wrist before he could move it away. Two of her fingers pressed against his skin.

Her attention sharpened.

"Your circulation is still open."

Dacre looked over.

Iris released Nate.

"He’s Linked."

Cale raised his head.

Tomas slowly stood.

Dacre crossed the room and took a reader from the medic.

"Since when?"

"A few days ago."

Dacre held the device near Nate’s sternum. A pattern formed across the screen almost immediately, showing a completed loop.

"First Circuit."

Cale gave a short, disbelieving breath.

"You told us you were Unlinked."

Nate did not answer him.

Dacre checked the reader again.

"Your awakening assessment was twenty-six days ago."

"I trained."

"So did the rest of your section."

Nate kept his breathing even.

Iris had seen him during the train attack. She had watched him move Holt’s stretcher when he should have been exhausted. She had already known something about him did not fit.

Dacre lowered the reader.

"What Class is listed in your file?"

"Variant Kinetic Recall."

"Root Skill?"

"Deep Imitation."

Nate answered without stumbling.

Iris’s eyes stayed on him for a moment.

Dacre returned the reader to the medic.

"We’ll discuss how you closed your Circuit after you’ve been examined."

Another officer entered the control room. His uniform carried the academy administration mark rather than security insignia. He stepped around the blood near the door without looking down.

"What do we have?"

"One fatality," Dacre said. "Three minor injuries. The defence system received power through an illegally installed bridge."

The administrator looked at the damaged rack.

"The technical team will establish the sequence."

"Tomas already found the bridge."

"A cadet’s opinion is not a technical finding."

Tomas opened his mouth, then stopped when Dacre raised one hand.

The administrator looked toward the sealed door.

"Until the technical review is complete, the initial report will list the door closure as part of the system activation."

Nate spoke before he had time to decide whether he should.

"It closed before the power failed."

The administrator faced him.

"Your name?"

"Nate Calder."

"How can you be certain?"

"I closed it."

Cale stared through the doorway toward Derren.

The administrator’s expression did not change.

"You activated the emergency seal?"

"Yes."

"While Cadet Vale was still outside?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"The turret was tracking him. The door was the only cover between it and the people in this room."

"Did you believe delaying the seal would place those people in danger?"

Nate remembered Derren running.

He remembered Iris shouting.

He remembered his own thumb pressing the control.

"Yes."

The administrator studied him.

"Did you know Cadet Vale would die?"

"I knew he might."

Cale turned away.

The administrator glanced at Dacre.

"I need a formal statement."

"He needs a medical assessment first," Dacre said.

"Military Oversight has already contacted the academy."

"They can wait until the medic clears him."

"This is no longer an internal matter."

"Military hardware was installed in a training block. It stopped being internal before Calder touched that door."

The administrator’s jaw shifted, but he did not argue further.

Dacre pointed toward the exit.

"Calder. Come with me."

Nate followed him into the corridor.

The medic had covered Derren’s body, though one hand remained outside the sheet. His fingers were still wrapped around the plastic marker from his exercise vest. The edge had broken in his grip.

Nate stopped beside him.

He tried to remember the last thing Derren had said before the exercise began.

Nothing came.

He could remember the sound of the turret. He could remember how far Derren had been from the door and the exact moment he decided the others mattered more.

Dacre waited a few steps ahead.

Nate looked down at his own hand. The shaking had spread into his fingers.

He closed them and continued walking.

At the end of the corridor, Dacre opened a side door.

"Military Oversight requested your file before security identified the bridge."

Nate stopped.

"Why?"

"The network flagged an unregistered military cell and a Linked circulation signature assigned to an Unlinked cadet."

Dacre looked at him.

"Whatever you were hiding, you aren’t hiding it anymore."

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