Transcendent (9781311909442) (5 page)

Trix smiled and glanced at a nearby window
that showed a slowly rotating view of the stars. “It’s okay. Are
you from Venus too?”

Lily gasped. “Yes! You?”

“Me too,” Kami said while Trix nodded.
“Colony Delta-22. You?”

“Sierra-12,” Lily answered. She gasped a
moment later as she did the math. “You were on the dark side!”

Kami nodded. “Only had a couple of veeks
left until spring, though. Not that it matters anymore, unless they
send me back there.”

“Send you back?”

Palla nodded. “We’re all here to learn the
truth of what’s been going on. I’ve been here a few months already
and they say my aptitude is for speaking and leadership. So here I
am, in charge of helping you girls adjust.”

Lily turned to Kami and Trix. “How long have
you been here?”

“We were on the first transports,” Trix
said. “You came on the last.”

Lily’s eyes widened. “The last? But, there
were other people!”

Both of the girls turned to look at Palla.
She offered a sad smile. “Venus is the food source for most of
humanity; there are regular transports out. It’s possible somebody
else might be sent, but I don’t know.”

“Why? Kami asked. “Was there somebody?”

Lily blushed and shook her head. “No, uh, no
reason.”

“They’d be sent to a different habitat ring
anyhow,” Palla said. “It helps you focus on what’s important. This
ring is set up to make your adaptation as easy as possible. It’s
even spinning so that the gravity is barely stronger than what
you’re used to, but still more than five percent less than
Earth’s.”

Lily frowned. She’d already been told about
the physics of the different habitat rings. She was more interested
in what Palla considered important. As far as she was concerned,
Krys and Devon were very important. Her mom and Krys’s mom had been
talking about her and Krys and how obvious it was they liked each
other. They were young but they were already talking about her and
Krys growing up together and being together. Lily liked the idea;
Krys was a smart boy and a hard worker, even if he did worry too
much about things.

“Lily?” Palla asked, pulling her out of her
daydream. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just thinking. Sorry.”

Palla frowned. “Be careful with that.”

“With thinking?” Lily asked. Kami and Trix
both laughed.

Palla smiled. “Not thinking—that’s good. I
meant daydreaming. Trust me, you really need to focus here and do
your best. You don’t want to end up stuck being assigned to a
miserable job track the rest of your life because you were thinking
about something better.”

Lily frowned. “I don’t understand. I
shouldn’t think about what I want because I won’t get it?”

“Depends on what you want,” Palla said. “But
just daydreaming by itself won’t get you anywhere. You have to work
for what you want. Everybody’s equal now; we all have to earn our
ways. Everybody gets what they need and we all work towards making
life better for everyone. So much better than the lucky few at the
top getting everything and everyone else struggling to survive,
don’t you agree?”

“Uh, I guess,” Lily said.

Kami and Trix both glanced at her and each
other.

“So no more daydreaming, okay? I want to
help you ace your aptitude tests!”

“What happens if I do?” Lily asked. “I mean,
it’s aptitude, right? So I can only do as good as I can do.”

Palla tilted her head. “Well, yes, but the
more you learn and focus, the better you’ll be.”

“And what’s in it for you?”

“Excuse me?”

Lily saw Kami and Trix both stare with wide
eyes at the exchange between the two girls. “Where I come from, we
help each other out because we like each other and we know the
other people will help us if we need it later. You just met me and
you’re older. What are you, fifteen, sixteen? I doubt I’ll be able
to help you with anything, so why bother helping me?”

“That’s the kind of thinking the nearly
ruined the human race!” Palla snapped at her. She stopped and took
in a breath to calm down. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken like
that. You’re just learning. It’s not your fault you were raised on
an uncultured planet. We were all so very selfish before President
Ondalla showed the human race a better way to live.”

Lily pretended she didn’t understand the
insult about her planet. She’d already upset Palla; there was
nothing to be gained from making things worse with her. Especially
if she ended up needing help for whatever was coming. “Okay, so
when do these tests happen?”

“The first is in a couple days,” Palla said.
“Then at the end of every year until either you’re eighteen or you
show a mastery level in something. Whichever comes first.”

“Wait—how will you help me with all of that?
You’re older than me. Won’t you have moved on by then?”

“This is my career track,” Palla said. “I’m
working on my master level and helping you girls is my project.
When you succeed, I succeed.”

“So you do get something!” Trix said.

Palla glanced at her and frowned. “This is
how everything works now. We work together, and when one of us
succeeds, we all do. It’s a team effort. My idea was to create
mentoring groups like this to teach the concepts firsthand.”

“How old are you?” Lily asked.

Palla glanced at all of them before
admitting, “Almost seventeen Earth years. Why does that
matter?”

“I want to make you proud,” Lily lied. “I’m
going to do it before I’m sixteen.”

“Still think you can do it by the time you
turn sixteen?” Palla asked while she and Lily waited outside the
testing room for her turn to take her first aptitude test.

Lily glanced at her and nodded. “I
will.”

She heard Palla’s breath rush through her
nose. Was she snorting or surprised? Lily didn’t dare look.

“Do you even know what you want to do yet?
You’re so young.”

“Did you know when you were my age?”

“What? No, of course not,” Palla said. “I
mean, I knew what I liked doing, but I didn’t realize I could do
something with it.”

“I’ll figure it out,” Lily reasoned. “My
parents were ranchers and my boyfriend was a mechanic. I’ll—”

“Aren’t you a little young for a
boyfriend?”

Lily shrugged. “Small colonies on Venus. We
don’t get away; we’re always working. So we learn to make do with
what we have. And who we have.”

Palla smiled. “That was who you were asking
about, wasn’t it?”

Lily felt her cheeks warm. She gave a quick
nod.

“I checked,” Palla said with a lightness to
her voice. “There aren't any other transports coming from Venus
anytime soon. No reports of additional reeducation candidates
either.”

Lily nodded. She’d checked too. If Krys was
still alive, he was hiding. More likely he’d been killed with the
rest of them. She pushed the thought away. They were just stupid
kids; no matter what their parents said, the odds of them being
together were pretty bad. None of that helped the burning in her
eyes that she had to blink away.

The light flashed above the door, catching
Lily mid-breath and choking her as her throat seized up.

“Your turn,” Palla said with a smile that
felt almost wicked. “Remember, this is just to give you an idea
where your natural talents lie. From here we can work towards
figuring out the rest. Don’t expect to do amazing here, okay?”

Lily forced a smile on her face. “I’ll do my
best,” she promised. She stood up from her chair and smoothed the
dark blue pleated skirt she wore. Being forced into a uniform that
demanded skirts for girls and pants for boys had struck her as odd
at first. The new government prided itself on equality, but it was
making a distinction between girls and boys? Adult women had the
option of skirt or pants when working, at least.

She walked through the door and heard it
hiss shut behind her, trapping her in the testing room. A blue
light stretched out on the floor ahead of her, guiding her through
a maze of cubicles to one of her own. She took a seat and wondered
what was going to happen next. Her wait was over almost before it
began.

The display in front of her blinked to life,
welcoming her to her first aptitude test. She read it and
acknowledged it with a touch of the screen, and then followed the
instructions as it led her through some basic questions and answers
that gauged her skill with math and memory. The questions soon
became harder, requiring her to figure out patterns and solve
harder and harder problems. About the time she started to feel
overwhelmed and stupid, the screen flashed.

“Aptitude phase one completed,” the display
read.

Lily sat straighter, surprised. She glanced
at the floor and wondered if she was supposed to go now. But go
where? There was no blue light to guide her.

“Scoring completed,” the display read,
jerking her eyes back up to it. “Stand by for phase two.”

Instructions flashed across the screen,
forcing her to read fast as they scrolled off. It was simple
enough: more pattern recognition. She had to touch the screen
before the time ran out when she recognized the solution to the
problem.

Images began to pop up, showing multiple
pictures that confused her. Crops, insects, sunshine, storm clouds,
and then a picture of a long extinct whitetail deer appeared. She
studied the pictures and then selected the deer. Another scene
appeared, filtering in pictures that she had to connect and then
select the one that seemed to stand out the most. She lost count of
how many she saw, including some repeats, before the display went
blank again.

“Aptitude phase two completed,” the display
read. “Scoring completed. Stand by for phase three.”

Phase three was about reflexes and hand-eye
coordination. There was no real skill to it, just sorting shapes
and then guiding objects around obstacles on the screen. She
snorted at how easy it was until the screen went blank again. It
took several seconds before the completion message showed up.

Lily endured three more phases of testing,
each more complicated than the last. When she finished, she felt
exhausted and had no idea how well she’d performed. The message,
“Scoring completed,” told her nothing. Did she score high or low?
Palla had said it didn’t matter this time around but Palla reminded
her of Pita, someone who thought so much of themselves that nobody
else could ever compare.

The blue light reappeared at her feet and
started out of her cubicle. Lily jumped to her feet and followed
it, heading through the maze of tiny testing rooms back to the door
and then stepping through it.

Palla looked up from her infopad and gasped.
“You’re back!”

“You expected someone else?”

“Well, yes,” Palla admitted. “You were the
last one to go in; you shouldn’t be the first one out.”

Lily grimaced. “Um, I hope that doesn’t mean
I did bad.”

One of Palla’s eyebrows went up. “Remember,
the first one just shows your natural talents. We’ll work from
there on what you need to improve and whether you’re inclined
towards any area.”

Lily caught the gleam in Palla’s eyes and it
made her heart flutter. Palla thought she was stupid. Was she
right? Had she screwed up the test?

The door hissed behind her, startling her.
She jumped out of the way as another girl emerged. She was younger
than Lily but she offered a weary smile. Lily smiled back and moved
to sit next to Palla.

“So now we wait?”

Palla nodded. “Once everyone’s done, they’ll
display the results.”

Lily’s lips parted to let her breath rush
between them. “You mean we see each other’s results?”

Palla smiled. “Of course! This is how we
celebrate the gifted and help those who have more opportunities to
improve. Remember, our goal is to make everyone a contributing
member of society.”

Lily bit her tongue to keep from pointing
out how the thousands of vison her family raised and the hundreds
of kilometers of crops her colony raised had contributed to
society. She grunted instead and turned her attention back to the
door as it slid open again. Two girls came out this time, one after
another.

From there it was almost a steady stream of
young women finishing their aptitude tests. Trix and Kami sat next
to Palla and Lily when they came out and soon the room filled up
until every seat was taken. Once everyone was seated, the wall next
to the door shimmered and faded to black. Off-white text appeared
on it, offering congratulations to everyone for completing the
testing.

What followed was a listing of the top
scoring students for each age bracket, as well as their overall
score. A display pane on the other side of the door appeared,
listing everyone regardless of age. The master list included their
sub scores in mathematics, reasoning, response time, retention, and
comprehension.

Lily felt her cheek flare as she saw her
name at the top of the list for the fourteen-year-old bracket. She
heard Palla gasp and the excited chatter from the other girls in
the room but she ignored it. She jumped her eyes over to the other
display and frowned when she couldn’t find her name. She saw they
were arranged in order of descending score and noted that she’d
scored eight hundred twenty-seven.

Lily’s jaw had already fallen when Kami
shook her and hugged her. “Lily! You’re in sixth place. Out of
sixty-seven people!”

Lily nodded and studied the two charts. It
was easy to figure out that the girl in fifth place was in the top
spot of the seventeen-year-olds. Fourth place was a
sixteen-year-old. The remaining three were on the eighteen-year-old
age bracket at the top.

Lily turned and saw Palla staring at her
with eyes so wide she could see the whites all around her pupils.
Her mentor’s lips parted and closed a few times before she smiled.
“It looks like I’ve found a child prodigy.”