I Choose the Skills Everyone Else Rejects

The warning sounded behind them.

Darek kept walking until both groups reached the junction. Once the passage widened, he moved his team against the right wall and checked the device beneath his sleeve.

Captain Dorn brought the Talent Exchange candidates in beside them.

Her researcher was watching the same rise on a larger display.

"Still climbing."

"Return route?" Dorn asked.

The Field Command technician checked the north passage.

"Clear."

Darek opened his transmitter.

"Western Access. Junction Twelve. Two groups withdrawing through north."

Static answered.

Then:

"North confirmed. Stay out of Nine."

Darek acknowledged and started moving.

Ethan dropped back until he was beside Nate.

"What did he notice before the alarm?"

"The reading was moving."

"Ours still said safe."

"So did his."

Ethan looked toward Darek.

"Then why leave?"

Nate adjusted the seal near his wrist.

"He didn’t wait for it to become unsafe."

Ethan looked back once at the corridor they had left.

The pale channel beneath the wall had grown brighter.

Then he followed.

The north passage was narrow enough that the groups had to form a long line. Dark channels crossed beneath the floor and disappeared into the walls.

Dorn kept her candidates together.

Darek stopped once at an intersection while the two technicians compared readings.

"Left," his technician said.

Dorn’s researcher nodded.

They turned.

The floor shifted under Nate’s feet.

Several people stopped.

"Keep moving," Dorn called.

A grinding sound came from the right wall.

The pale material curved inward.

One of the candidates moved away from it.

"Is the passage closing?"

The researcher watched her display.

"Not enough to block us."

The wall moved again.

Darek looked ahead.

"Service cut?"

"About seventy metres."

He increased the pace.

Nate followed without touching his Circuit.

His shoulder barely hurt now.

He noticed, remembered yesterday, and ignored it.

The service cut appeared ahead as a rectangular steel frame built into the side of the passage.

Darek reached it first and pulled the manual latch.

The narrow maintenance route beyond was dark but open.

"Through here."

Dorn started sending her candidates inside.

Mara went with the first half.

Ethan stayed near the entrance while the others passed him.

Nate was still outside with Darek and the two researchers.

"You can go," Nate said.

Ethan looked toward the people behind them.

"I’m fine here."

Another grinding sound travelled through the wall.

The floor jumped.

A candidate near the rear stumbled sideways.

His left leg slipped between the steel frame and the moving wall.

The gap closed around his thigh.

He screamed.

Dorn caught him before he fell.

"Stay still."

The boy grabbed at her sleeve.

"My leg..."

"I know."

Darek dropped beside the lower section of the frame.

"There’s a release under here."

The wall pressed inward again.

The candidate cried out.

Ethan moved closer.

"Can we pull the frame?"

"No circulation," Dorn said.

"Darek?"

Darek had one arm beneath the lower rail, searching by touch.

"Give me a second."

The candidate’s trouser leg tightened against the metal.

Ethan looked at the frame.

Then at Darek.

"Can you get it?"

"I don’t know yet."

The wall shifted.

Ethan opened his Circuit.

Nate felt the pressure immediately.

Ethan’s First Circuit was much denser than his own. Energy moved through his shoulders and arms as he planted both hands against the steel frame.

Dorn grabbed his wrist.

"Ward"

"The frame is moving."

He pushed.

For several seconds the metal refused to give.

Then it bent.

Only a few centimetres.

The trapped candidate screamed again as Dorn pulled.

Darek caught the boy’s knee and guided the leg through the opening.

"Now."

Dorn dragged him free.

The frame snapped back against the wall as Ethan released it.

He closed his Circuit immediately.

Darek looked at him.

"You closed?"

"Yes."

"All of it?"

"Yes."

Darek pointed toward the service cut.

"Then move."

There was no time to argue about it.

The injured candidate could not walk. Dorn and one of her researchers carried him through while the rest of the group cleared the passage.

Nate went in behind Ethan.

Mara was waiting on the other side.

"What happened?"

"His leg got caught," Ethan said.

"Is it broken?"

"I don’t know."

She looked at him more closely.

"You circulated."

Ethan nodded.

Mara’s face tightened, but she didn’t say anything.

They moved.

The maintenance route was older than the main passage.

Steel supports had been driven through dark layers of Colossus material. Some were bent enough that Nate wondered when anyone had last inspected them.

Darek stayed at the front.

The injured candidate was conscious, though every few steps he asked if his leg was still there.

Nobody joked about it.

After several minutes Ethan moved his right hand against his thigh.

Nate noticed.

"Something wrong?"

"No."

"You keep doing that."

Ethan looked at his hand.

"My fingers feel thick."

Dorn heard him.

She moved closer without stopping the group.

"Can you feel this?"

She pressed two fingers against his palm.

"Yes."

"Same as the other hand?"

Ethan checked.

"No."

Mara moved to his other side.

"Anything else?"

Ethan took a breath.

"I feel fine."

Nate looked at him.

Ethan caught the expression.

"What?"

"That’s what I said."

The answer wiped the last trace of confidence from Ethan’s face.

Dorn raised her transmitter.

"Western Access, we have one circulation exposure. Candidate Ward. Possible external uptake."

The reply came quickly.

"Medical ready."

They kept moving.

Ethan flexed his fingers once more, then stopped.

Nate didn’t tell him to close his Circuit again.

He knew Ethan had already done it.

That hadn’t been enough for him either.

The checkpoint opened before they reached it.

Medical staff took the injured candidate first.

Ethan tried to follow the others out of the room.

Dorn pointed toward a scanner.

"Not yet."

"I’m fine."

Nate almost laughed.

Ethan heard himself.

"Okay. I know."

He stepped into the scanner.

Mara waited outside.

Nate stayed as well.

Darek joined them after handing over his field report.

The scan took two passes.

Dorn read the result over the medic’s shoulder.

"Pathway stress is minor."

Ethan exhaled.

The medic continued.

"External charge is elevated."

"How bad?"

"Not bad enough to treat. No active circulation for forty-eight hours."

Ethan looked annoyed by that.

Mara looked relieved.

Nate watched the injured candidate through the next room.

A medic had cut the fabric away from his leg.

The thigh was already dark with bruising.

Darek sat beside Nate.

"Don’t start."

Nate looked over.

"Start what?"

"Whatever you’re about to tell Ward."

"I wasn’t."

Darek watched the other room.

Nate asked, "Would you have gotten the release open?"

"Maybe."

"Before the wall moved again?"

Darek took longer to answer.

"Maybe."

Nate understood.

Ethan had broken procedure.

The candidate had also kept his leg.

Darek stood when the medic finished with Ethan.

Dorn came over.

"How bad is the trapped leg?"

"No fracture. Compression injury."

She nodded.

Ethan sat on the bench.

Mara remained beside him.

Nate looked at the medical strip now wrapped around Ethan’s wrist.

Ethan noticed.

"Go ahead."

"With what?"

"Tell me I was stupid."

Nate looked through the glass at the injured candidate.

"I don’t think you were."

Ethan seemed genuinely surprised.

Dorn looked over too.

Nate continued.

"I knew what opening my Circuit could do. I still don’t think I would’ve stood there and watched his leg get crushed."

Ethan rested his forearms on his knees.

"That’s almost supportive."

"Don’t get used to it."

Mara looked between them.

"Do either of you hear yourselves?"

Nate let that one go.

Darek checked his terminal.

"Orientation’s cancelled."

Ethan looked up.

"All of it?"

"For today."

Dorn nodded.

"I’ll take them back."

Darek turned to Nate.

"You’re finished too."

"I never opened my Circuit."

"The route moved."

"So?"

Darek put the terminal away.

"So we’re finished."

Nate had already learned when there was no point arguing.

Outside Western Access, Ethan caught up with him.

Mara was several metres away arranging transport.

Ethan looked toward the Colossus.

"I thought you were exaggerating."

"About what?"

"Feeling fine."

Nate understood.

"Yeah."

Ethan rubbed his thumb across the medical strip.

"It really does feel good."

"Until it doesn’t."

Ethan looked at him.

Neither of them had much to add to that.

Mara called from the transport lane.

Ethan started toward her.

Then he stopped.

"Dinner tomorrow?"

"You’re inviting me again?"

"You came the first time."

Nate considered it.

"Maybe."

Ethan nodded and left.

Nate’s terminal vibrated as he started back toward Field Command.

Three notifications waited.

Two missed calls.

Both from home.

Then a message from his mother.

Your father saw Ethan and Mara in Varen on the news. Are you there too? Call us when you can.

Nate stopped walking.

The broadcast made sense. Talent Exchange loved cameras whenever nothing was trying to kill anyone.

His mother had apparently noticed the city behind them.

He looked at Graveshare.

Then at the medical strip still visible around his own wrist from the previous day’s scan.

He typed:

I’m fine. I’m in Varen. I’ll call tonight.

His thumb stayed above the screen for a moment before he sent it.

The message went through.

Nate put the terminal away.

He still had several hours to decide how much of the truth belonged in that call.

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