I Choose the Skills Everyone Else Rejects

Elian Voss was already in medical when Nate watched the recording again.

Seris slowed the second impact frame by frame.

The training ram struck Elian’s guard.

His feet stopped.

The rest of him did not.

His torso folded sideways before Force Return threw part of the impact back into the machine.

Seris froze the image.

"Here."

Nate leaned toward the screen.

Elian’s boots had remained exactly where they were.

No slide.

No adjustment.

His legs had resisted the hit while his ribs kept moving.

"Stillpoint," Nate said.

"Something close to it."

"It stopped him from being displaced."

"His feet."

Nate looked at the angle of Elian’s body.

Seris opened the medical report.

Two cracked ribs. Torn muscle along the left side. No serious pathway damage.

"He’ll recover," she said.

"That’s not what I was looking at."

"I know."

The door opened behind them.

Captain Dorn entered with Darek.

Dorn removed one glove as she approached the console.

"Voss is stable."

Seris closed the medical report.

"Good."

"He wants to know why something activated during a controlled evaluation that wasn’t part of his Class."

"So do we."

Dorn looked at the frozen recording.

"Which is why there won’t be another evaluation today."

Nate turned.

"Sector Three?"

"Closed."

"To everyone?"

Darek answered.

"A Third Circuit survey unit is entering."

Nate looked at him.

"When?"

"They’re already preparing."

"I can go with them."

"No."

Darek did not even need to think about it.

Nate glanced at Graveshare.

"My Circuit can stay closed."

"Your last scan still shows pathway stress."

"I can observe."

"They already have people who can observe."

Nate opened his mouth.

Darek cut him off.

"And they’re Third Circuit."

That ended it.

Nate looked back at the recording.

Whatever had answered beneath Western Access was now being handled by people far above him.

He disliked how reasonable that was.

Dorn stepped closer to Seris.

"Could Graveshare have caused this?"

"No discharge was recorded," Seris said. "Its reserve didn’t change."

"Could Calder have triggered it another way?"

Seris looked at Nate.

"I don’t know."

Darek picked up the field report.

"Then he stays out until we know more."

Nate frowned.

"You say that a lot."

"You give me reasons."

Darek headed for the door.

"Medical before lunch."

"My shoulder is fine."

"Medical."

He left.

Dorn remained long enough to copy the recording, then followed him.

Nate waited until the door closed.

Seris was still looking at the frozen image.

"You answered quickly."

She glanced at him.

"About Graveshare?"

"Yes."

"The reserve didn’t move."

"You checked."

"Obviously."

Nate looked at her screen.

"Anything else?"

Seris closed the file.

"No."

He did not believe her.

She seemed equally unconvinced by him.

Nate started toward the corridor.

Seris followed.

They made it halfway to the lifts before she spoke.

"Why did you call it Stillpoint?"

He kept walking.

"Because it looked like Stillpoint."

"You saw that Skill once."

"Once was enough."

"Enough to recognize an incomplete effect from a recording?"

Nate pressed the lift button.

"You recognized it too."

"I had the resonance profile."

"And I had eyes."

Seris studied him.

The lift arrived.

They stepped inside.

Neither selected a floor immediately.

Seris finally pressed ground level.

"What happened in Gallery Two yesterday?"

"You were there."

"I know what my instruments recorded."

"Then you know more than I do."

"No."

The answer came too quickly.

Nate looked at her.

Seris noticed.

For a few seconds, neither said anything.

Then Nate asked, "The rejection trace wasn’t supposed to disappear like that."

Seris’s expression stayed still.

"No."

"How unusual?"

She looked at the floor indicator.

"Very."

"How many times?"

Another pause.

"Three that I could find."

Nate turned toward her.

"Three?"

"Across several years."

The lift doors opened.

Seris walked out.

Nate followed.

"You checked yesterday."

"After you left."

"Why?"

She stopped near an empty terminal alcove.

"Because Stillpoint’s resonance didn’t decay."

Nate waited.

"It was there," Seris continued. "Then it wasn’t."

"That’s different?"

"Normally there is a curve. Fast or slow, but measurable."

"And yesterday?"

"The curve ended."

Nate felt something tighten in his attention.

Forsaken Claim had failed at almost the same moment.

He kept that to himself.

Seris logged into the terminal.

One record appeared.

POST-SELECTION RESONANCE REVIEW

The candidate’s name had been removed.

The date was nine months old.

Nate read the Skill.

ANCHOR SKIN

Temporary resistance to forced movement while maintaining contact with a stable surface.

Defensive.

He looked at Seris.

"Another movement resistance Skill."

"Yes."

"What happened to it?"

"It was rejected."

The graph beside it descended for several seconds.

Then stopped.

No gradual fade.

Nothing afterward.

Nate looked at the timestamp.

Seris opened a second record beside it.

WESTERN ACCESS LOCAL CONDUCTION EVENT

The times were almost identical.

Nate compared them again.

"How close?"

"Eighty-three milliseconds."

He looked at her.

"You found this last night?"

"I found the resonance record last night."

"And the field event?"

"This morning."

"Why weren’t they linked already?"

"They belonged to different systems."

Nate looked back at the screen.

A rejected Skill disappeared.

Something happened inside the Colossus almost at the same moment.

Nine months later, Stillpoint did the same thing.

"You said there were three cases."

"Three abrupt resonance losses."

"How many had field events?"

Seris closed the second record.

"One that I can prove."

Nate noticed the wording.

"That’s less exciting."

"It’s more accurate."

He almost smiled.

Almost.

"What happened to the candidate?"

"They left Varen."

"Alive?"

Seris looked at him.

"Yes."

"I had to ask."

"No, you didn’t."

Nate leaned against the edge of the terminal.

"What about the response beneath Sector Three?"

"Still being analyzed."

"It moved."

"The reading shifted."

"You corrected me about that yesterday."

"Because those aren’t the same statement."

Nate looked toward the corridor leading to Western Access.

"Do you think something is down there?"

Seris did not answer immediately.

"I think our maps stop being useful long before the depth of the response."

That was new.

"How far down do they go?"

"The current service network is mapped properly."

"That’s not what I asked."

Seris logged out.

Nate remained where he was.

She looked at him.

"There are older survey records."

"Older than Varen?"

"Older than the current access network."

"Can we see them?"

"I can request them."

"You haven’t?"

"I did."

Nate straightened.

"When?"

"Ten minutes ago."

"And?"

Seris raised her terminal.

REQUEST DENIED

Nate read the authorization line beneath it.

IMPERIAL TALENT DIRECTORATE

He frowned.

"Why would Talent Directorate control survey records?"

"They normally don’t."

That was the first thing Seris had said that sounded like it bothered her.

Nate looked at the restriction time.

Twenty minutes earlier.

Before she had submitted the request.

"So someone restricted them first."

"Yes."

"Because of yesterday?"

"I don’t know."

Nate looked at her.

This time she did not add anything.

Good.

At least one of them had learned when to stop guessing.

Seris’s terminal vibrated.

She checked the notification.

Her expression changed.

Small enough that Nate might have missed it if he had not already been watching her.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"That’s convincing."

She turned the terminal away.

Nate caught the header first.

IMPERIAL TALENT DIRECTORATE

FOREIGN ASSESSMENT DELEGATION

ARRIVAL CONFIRMED

He looked at Seris.

"Related?"

"I hope not."

That answer interested him more than if she had said yes.

"Do you know them?"

Seris put the terminal away.

"One of them."

"Who?"

She started walking.

Nate followed.

"Seris."

"Go to medical."

"That’s not an answer."

"No."

They reached the intersection.

She turned toward Talent Services.

Nate stopped.

"Are we going to look at those records again?"

Seris kept walking.

"If I can get them."

"And if you can’t?"

She glanced back.

"Then I’ll find out why someone decided I shouldn’t."

She disappeared into the next corridor.

Nate remained there for another second.

Behind him, the route toward Western Access was closed to First Circuits.

Ahead of him, someone from the Empire had locked records Seris had only just decided to read.

And for the first time since Stillpoint vanished, Nate knew one thing for certain.

Seris was hiding something too.

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