I Choose the Skills Everyone Else Rejects

Ethan was still looking at Nate’s field badge.

"Already did?"

"Twice."

Mara glanced toward the medical room behind him.

"Was that where you got hurt?"

Nate nodded.

Ethan’s eyes moved to Graveshare.

The last time they had seen each other, Nate had still been wearing Academy equipment. Now black plates covered most of his right forearm, fitted closely enough that they looked less like armour than something grown around him.

"What is that?"

"Imperial armament."

"From Last Contact?"

"From a site we recovered."

Ethan waited for more.

Nate didn’t give him any.

Someone farther down the corridor called Ethan’s name.

The Talent Exchange group had started moving toward the briefing rooms.

Ethan looked over his shoulder, then back at Nate.

"How long are you staying in Varen?"

"I don’t know yet."

"We’re here for six weeks," Mara said. "Initial placement."

Nate looked at the white field coats.

"Colossus training?"

"Orientation today. Field work starts after that."

Another call came from their instructor.

Ethan started after the group, then stopped.

"We’re in the north residence. Seventh floor."

Mara gave Nate the building number.

"Come by tonight if you’re free."

Nate looked at Ethan.

They had barely spoken properly since Derren.

"I’ll see."

Ethan nodded.

That was enough for now.

They left.

Varo came out of medical a few seconds later with a terminal in one hand.

"You know them?"

"Yeah."

He followed Nate’s gaze toward the departing group.

"Talent Exchange?"

"Both of them."

Varo checked something on his screen.

"They’ll be back tomorrow."

Nate looked over.

"Why?"

"Orientation is mostly classroom today. First exposure tomorrow."

Nate glanced toward the access gates.

"Here?"

"Western Access has one of the safer training routes."

Nate thought about Olan’s hand.

"Safer."

Varo didn’t react.

"You’re finished for today."

Nate went to the north residence after dinner.

The lobby alone was larger than most of the Last Contact depot.

Polished stone covered the floor. Someone had decided indoor trees were necessary. The security desk had two attendants instead of a tired soldier behind reinforced glass.

His temporary visitor pass got him to the seventh floor.

Ethan opened the door.

"You came."

Nate stepped inside.

Mara was sitting at the table with three food containers.

Nate looked at the third one.

Ethan closed the door.

"I bought it before I knew whether you’d show."

"You could’ve asked."

"You could’ve answered."

Nate pulled out a chair.

The room had two bedrooms, a small kitchen and a wide window facing east.

One of the Colossus ribs rose beyond the city.

Mara followed his eyes.

"Does that ever stop being strange?"

"I haven’t been here long enough to know."

They ate for a while.

It took Nate a few minutes to realize how long it had been since the three of them had sat around the same table without someone evaluating them, transporting them or bleeding nearby.

Mara pointed her fork at Graveshare.

"Does that thing come off?"

"No."

Ethan looked up.

"At all?"

"Not yet."

"What does it do?"

"It has a weapon function."

"What kind?"

"A blade."

Mara leaned slightly closer.

"That’s all?"

"No."

Nate kept eating.

Mara watched him for a moment, then let it go.

Ethan lasted longer.

"Does it have something to do with why you’re in Varen?"

"Yes."

"The Empire?"

"Also yes."

"You’re making this difficult."

"I know."

Ethan sat back.

He didn’t look angry. That was almost worse.

Mara opened the schedule on her terminal and pushed it across the table.

"Tomorrow. Since you’re apparently our local expert now."

"I’m not."

"You’ve been inside more than we have."

Nate looked at the route.

WESTERN ACCESS — SHALLOW ORIENTATION

ACTIVE CIRCULATION: INSTRUCTOR AUTHORIZATION ONLY

He tapped the last line.

"Listen to that one."

Ethan read it.

"I can follow instructions."

Nate kept looking at the screen.

Ethan noticed.

"What happened?"

Mara looked between them.

Nate handed the terminal back.

"First time inside, I opened my Circuit when I wasn’t supposed to."

"Why?" Ethan asked.

"I wanted to see what Graveshare would do."

"And?"

"The Colossus filled it with energy."

Neither of them spoke.

Nate continued before Ethan could ask the obvious question.

"It felt good."

Mara frowned.

"Good?"

"Better than outside. Less tired. Old pain disappeared."

"What went wrong?"

"I didn’t notice the pathway damage until Darek made me walk."

Ethan’s face tightened.

"How bad?"

"My foot started dragging."

Mara put her fork down.

Nate added, "It stopped."

"After you got out," Ethan said.

"Yes."

"And you’re going back tomorrow."

"It’s why I’m here."

Ethan looked toward Graveshare.

"You opened your Circuit knowing they told you not to."

"Yes."

"Because you wanted to test it."

Nate looked at him.

"Yes."

Ethan inhaled through his nose.

Mara reached for her drink before he said anything.

He noticed.

"I’m not starting an argument."

"Good," Nate said.

Ethan gave him a tired look.

For a while they ate without speaking.

Eventually Mara asked, "How’s Last Contact?"

Nate thought about Greyhook.

Nima.

Dax.

Malvern.

"Different."

"That’s useful."

"It’s dangerous."

"We guessed that part."

Nate rubbed his thumb along the edge of the table.

"People don’t stay long."

Mara understood before Ethan did.

She didn’t ask for numbers.

Ethan looked at Graveshare again but stayed quiet.

A few minutes later he said, "They closed the investigation."

Nate knew which one he meant.

"Yeah."

"I only heard after we got transferred."

Nate kept his eyes on the table.

Ethan continued carefully.

"They cleared you."

"Officially."

"That’s not what I meant."

Nate looked up.

Ethan didn’t seem to know how to finish the sentence.

Neither did Nate.

After a while Ethan asked, "How are you doing?"

Nate took too long to answer.

"I’m working."

Ethan looked down.

"Right."

Mara checked the time.

"We have prep at seven."

Nate stood.

At the door, Mara asked, "What time are you entering tomorrow?"

Nate checked his terminal.

A new assignment had appeared.

WESTERN ACCESS — 09:40

He showed them.

Ethan’s group was scheduled less than forty minutes later.

"Same entrance," Ethan said.

"Looks like it."

Western Access was crowded the next morning.

Talent Exchange occupied half the preparation hall.

Nate recognized the difference in their equipment immediately. Better seals. Cleaner sensor rigs. Protective inserts that weighed less than the ones Field Command issued him.

Darek stood beside Nate’s locker.

"Those your people?"

Nate looked toward Ethan and Mara.

"Used to train with them."

Darek followed his gaze.

"The Legacy pair?"

"Yeah."

He didn’t comment.

Nate changed into his field suit.

Ethan crossed the hall while Darek checked the seals.

Without the white coat, he looked more familiar.

His Circuit didn’t.

Nate felt the difference when Ethan got close.

Still First Circuit.

Much farther developed than Nate’s.

The route felt dense and settled in a way Nate’s didn’t yet.

Ethan noticed Darek looking at him.

"Ethan Ward."

"Darek."

They shook hands.

"You’ve never been inside?"

"No."

Darek nodded toward the Talent Exchange instructors.

"Do what they tell you."

Ethan looked briefly at Nate.

"I’ve heard."

Darek went back to Nate’s suit.

Mara joined them.

A woman called the Talent group into formation.

Captain Sera Dorn.

She had short dark hair and a Second Circuit Nate could feel even across the room.

Darek checked Nate’s final seal.

"We’re taking Junction Twelve."

"Recorder work?"

"Observation."

"What are we observing?"

Darek opened the inner gate.

"Hopefully nothing."

Nate followed him in.

Their route crossed the Talent Exchange group twenty minutes later.

Nate saw Ethan first.

The candidates stood along one side of a broad pale corridor while researchers attached sensors to several dark channels in the walls.

Captain Dorn was speaking to them.

Nate and Darek stayed on the opposite side.

Darek slowed near a junction marker.

He checked the small instrument clipped beneath his sleeve.

Nate kept walking another two steps before realizing Darek had stopped.

The sergeant looked at the reading again.

Nothing sounded.

No warning.

He turned toward the wall.

Nate stopped too.

"What is it?"

Darek lifted one hand.

"Wait."

One of the Field Command technicians behind them checked her own display.

"Small drift."

"Direction?"

"Rising."

Across the corridor, Captain Dorn noticed them.

"Problem?"

Darek looked at the nearest channel.

"Maybe."

Her researcher checked the Talent Exchange sensor.

"We’re green."

Darek was already turning his team around.

Nate moved with him.

Dorn watched for a second.

Then she looked at her researcher again.

"How far below threshold?"

"Still well below."

Darek didn’t stop.

Nate followed.

He had heard almost the same thing two days earlier.

A clean reading could stay clean right until it wasn’t.

Behind them, Dorn made the decision.

"Pull back to the junction."

The candidates turned.

Ethan looked confused but followed the order.

Mara was already moving.

Both groups entered the wider passage.

The first warning sounded twenty seconds later.

Talent Exchange’s sensor gave a sharp repeating tone.

The researcher looked down at it.

The reading had crossed the threshold.

Nobody said anything.

Darek kept walking.

Nate glanced back once.

Ethan was looking at the warning device.

Then he looked past it at Nate.

Nate had already been moving before the alarm began.

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