Transcendent (9781311909442) (7 page)

“That’s enough!” the instructor barked. Lily
snapped her lips shut while the instructor glared at her. “The
correct answer is six sides. And you, young miss, are to escort
yourself to the administrative offices immediately.”

Lily felt her cheeks burning as she gathered
her infopad and stood up. She glanced down at it and then started
tapping on it with one hand. Instructor Doleen’s eyes narrowed as
she stared at her. The uneven polyhedron on the display rotated and
flipped over, gaining color on each side of the shape as it did so.
It continued to rotate until the first side was back facing them,
except it had changed by sporting an additional edge along the
middle. It kept going, morphing as it twisted until the shape
resembled a cat.

“Miss Strain!” Instructor Doleen snapped at
her. “That is enough!”

Lily tapped her pad again. The cat tucked
into itself and rolled over, shifting back into the original shape
that everyone saw now bore a startling resemblance to a sleeping
cat with its head and tail tucked against itself.

“Office. Now!”

“Yes, ma’am,” Lily said and turned smartly
on her heels to walk to the door of the classroom. She paused and
glanced back at the glowering woman.

“A cat, really?” the instructor huffed.

“Sorry, Instructor Doleen,” Lily said. “My
boyfriend used to tell me stories about a cat that could walk
through walls.”

Lily turned and slipped out the door before
the face of her instructor could grow any redder.

“Miss Strain, please have a seat.”

Lily looked at the people gathered at the
conference table and then moved to the only remaining chair at the
far end. She sat down and forced herself to stop worrying her lip
with her teeth. She lifted her head and brushed the strands of hair
out of her eyes so she could see.

“I understand there’s been a problem in one
of your classes this morning?” Coordinator Jonas Sykes asked. She
thought he would be sitting at the other end of the table but he
wasn’t. Instead, a man she didn’t recognize with short spiked
salt-and-pepper hair was sitting in the seat of honor.

Lily opened her mouth to admit her guilt but
the man opposite her spoke first. “That’s hardly important right
now, Mr. Sykes. Especially given this young woman’s obvious gifts,
we can overlook this indiscretion as long as it never occurs
again.”

Sykes stiffened and then nodded. “Of course.
Do you agree to such a thing, Miss Strain?”

Lily looked back and forth between them and
then to the rest of the room. “I’m not in trouble?”

The man opposite her smiled and then
chuckled. “Far from it! You are living proof of the philosophy the
human race must embrace.”

Lily’s brow furrowed as she took in his
words. She studied him, guessing at his age and how he held
himself. “Are you the new president?”

He laughed again. “I knew she would be
delightful! Yes, Lily, I am. May I call you Lily?”

Lily swallowed and nodded. “Um, yes,
sir.”

“That’s excellent. And to think, you were a
farmer’s daughter on what everyone considers a throwaway
world.”

“My father raised vison,” Lily said. He was
still a farmer, she supposed, but details were what made the
difference when things mattered.

“Of course,” President Ondalla said. “Lily,
for the sake of our race we need people like you to show our
citizens that we have a bright future. Do you understand that? Of
course you do; you’re probably smarter than I am!”

Lily smiled while glancing at the others.
She had no clue what he was talking about but the gentle laughter
from around the table made her feel it would be stupid to admit
it.

“That’s perfect. Nothing but the finest for
you, young miss. The finest in education and opportunities from
here on out. I understand your classes are a little slow for you?
Not to worry!”

“Yes,” Sykes said. He was the coordinator of
the station’s reeducation efforts. “You’ll be elevated to classes
with students more at your speed, the sixteen-year classes.”

“Sixteen?” she whispered, stunned. Her test
results placed her in the eighteenth-year bracket, but she couldn’t
imagine being moved up two years, let alone four.

President Ondalla leaned forward and asked,
“I’m sorry, but why a cat?”

Lily blinked. “Excuse me?”

“The incident with Instructor Doleen?”

Lily felt her cheeks heat up again. “Oh, um,
it was just some stories a friend of mine used to share with
me.”

“A cat who walked through walls?”

She nodded.

“How old was this friend?”

Lily picked her head up. “Same as me,
fourteen.”

“Absolutely amazing. Is he here with
us?”

Lily’s throat tightened up. Rather than
squeaking, she shook her head.

Coordinator Sykes cleared his throat. “Mr.
President, we only have one other student from Miss Strain’s
colony. A boy by the name of Krys. He tested above his age bracket
as well, but only by two years.”

“Krys!” Lily gasped.

“A friend?”

Lily blinked back the sudden tears in her
eyes and nodded. She couldn’t speak. Just knowing that he was alive
made the room spin around her.

“Well, for the sake of your education, I’m
afraid you’ve been separated indefinitely. Males and females are
allowed in co-educational learning environments at the age of
sixteen, but that’s quite awhile for your friend. By the time he
reaches it, you’ll probably have moved on.”

She shook her head and whispered, “Krys
should have beat me.”

“Pardon me?”

She stiffened. “My friend, Krys. He would
have outscored me. He’s smarter than I am. He worries a lot,
though.”

The president sighed. “Well, young miss,
that’s interesting. Your performance is exemplary compared to
everyone else’s, including his. A pity. I wonder if other young men
and women from your village might have performed well. So many good
minds lost to the treachery and greed of our past. Yet another
reason we must strive to improve our way of life!”

“Excuse me, sir, but have you heard those
stories? About the cat?”

President Ondalla’s smile faded. “I have.
They offer some very dangerous concepts. Ideas that lead to
betrayal and selfish disregard for our brothers and sisters. For
the sake of all of us, and most especially yourself, I would
encourage you to forget those stories you heard.”

Lily’s eyes widened before she nodded and
looked down. “Of course. My apologies!”

“Curiosity is not a flaw, young miss. But it
must be tempered with the wisdom to know that those with more
experience are better able to make informed decisions.”

“I understand.”

“I believe you do, young miss. You impress
me again and again. Remember, there may be probabilities of things
we are unaware of, but it is the things we are aware of that we
should concern ourselves with. And the things that are aware of
us.”

Lily stared into the president’s intense
gaze. What he said didn’t really make sense. Why wouldn’t she want
to learn about the unknown things in her life? That’s how she
learned! And what unknown things were there that knew about h—

Lily’s nostrils flared as she thought of the
soldiers and the biomechs. Had he just threatened her? Why would
the most important and powerful man in the human race need to
threaten her?

Because she was being made an example of.
She’d just agreed to let them parade her around and make an example
of her. She’d seen Pita use her golden child status a few times.
Pita was gone, though, so now it was her turn.

“I understand,” Lily said. She would say and
do anything if it meant she might find a way to see Krys again.

The president clapped his hands together.
“Excellent! Miss Strain, you are the future of the human race. Make
us proud. Make me proud.”

“I’ll do my best,” she promised.

“I’m sure you will. Coordinator Sykes will
arrange private tutors as necessary. You will also find yourself
receiving visitors. Various coordinators will be contacting you to
try to sway someone with your presence and abilities to follow in
their footsteps.”

“Sir?”

“Your future is yours to choose, Lily. A
career in science or politics, perhaps? Or maybe something more
hands-on? Agriculture again? I’d think something more public facing
would be best, but that’s up to you to choose.”

“Oh! Um, okay. I did vow that I’d reach
mastery level by the time I turned sixteen.”

He chuckled while several others stared in
shock at her. “Miss Strain, I applaud your efforts. I commend you,
even. And now I implore you, make that happen. You’ll have an
entire civilization behind you!”

“Are you sure you can do this?”

Krys stared up at the man he’d come to
respect and love and nodded. “I seen my dad do it enough and he
showed me some things. Besides, getting the locator out is the easy
part!”

“As long as they can’t track us,” Mig said.
He looked at the four people gathered around him: Krys, Angelo,
Kerry, and Kerry’s wife Stef. “All right, let’s do it. Krys will
come up from behind to grab the picker after the three of you come
in from around them. I’ll cover with my rifle in case they try
anything. You’ve got three minutes to get in position. We go
whether you’re ready or not. So be ready.”

Nods, grunts, and thumbs-up were his
responses. Krys watched them go and then turned to head for his
spot.

“Krys!” Mr. Strain hissed. “Be careful!”

Krys nodded. He wanted to smile but his
stomach was twisted up. So far they’d stolen fruit and even managed
to capture one small vison and butcher it. This time they were
trying to get their own highpicker. Then they could grab food more
easily, without risking discovery and capture. The tricky part came
in the reprogramming Krys needed to do. He was counting on being
able to salvage some power cells to make one of the two infopads
they had work.

“Best get going. Not much time left,” Mig
said.

Krys turned and hurried through the vineyard
they’d come through towards the edge of the field. They’d practiced
this maneuver a few times on empty fields away from the crops. This
time it was different. Not only would the crops slow them down but
they had to worry about being seen now.

Krys hadn’t done it himself yet, but Mr.
Strain and Kerry had both ventured close enough to their old
village to scout it out. It had been rebuilt. More than just
rebuilt: people were living there. And not only people, but a squad
of soldiers too. The robot was gone but it had been replaced with
two tanks. Small tanks designed for speed and scouting, not heavy
battle tanks.

Krys checked his watch and wondered how long
until it would run out of power too. They were only a veek away
from fall, which meant a little over three veeks from their first
sunset in the wilderness. They’d been trying to store up what food
they could, even drying out the vison they’d killed to store the
meat, but it wouldn’t be enough to last a hundred seventeen days of
darkness.

They needed clothing, too. Everything they
had was worn, dirty, and starting to fall apart. The resistance had
started out as terrifying, exciting, and even a little fun. Now, as
the days turned into veeks and the summer slipped behind them, Krys
realized he’d been kept busy. It had been useful training, but it
had also kept him from dwelling on his family and friends.

He checked his watch again and scowled. He
was late. Only six seconds, but their timing had to be dead-on. He
slipped around the edge of the grapevine and ran across the dirt
road and into the coconut grove.

Krys counted off seconds in his head,
running hard to try to catch up. He slowed after sprinting for half
a minute and caught some of his breath back. He saw other figures
running through the trees towards the transporter ahead. His new
friends and family, the other survivors.

The worker in his blue and white uniform
looked up, either hearing or sensing something. He saw Angelo
bearing down on him, the large bear of a man pumping his arms and
looking like he was leading a charge of stampeding cattle. He
turned away and leapt towards the cab of the transporter. Instead
of reaching the open-sided cab, he found himself face to face with
Stef.

Krys passed beyond the back of the
transporter and lost sight of Stef right as she swung her fist
towards the man. Krys wanted to look and see if she needed help,
but his job was to grab the highpicker. He leapt up onto the back
of the transporter and climbed over the walls of the bins to the
landing apparatus on top of it. There was a scuffle going on below
but he focused on his job and only his job.

“Krys! Relax, we got him!”

Krys was working hard at removing the manual
clasps on the picker and had to be told a second time before he
realized what was being said. He lifted his head and looked around
the transporter. The worker was lying face down on the ground. He
wasn’t moving.

Krys gulped. “Is he dead?”

“No,” Kerry grunted. He grinned at his wife
and added, “Might wish he was with the shiner Stef gave him,
though!”

Krys stared at the fallen man a long moment
and then shook his head. “Grab anything you can!” he said.

“Need any help with that picker?” Angelo
asked.

Krys turned to look at it and then looked
back down at the transporter. “Get me the control deck!”

Angelo grunted and climbed into the open
cab. Krys turned back to the picker and frowned. With two of the
four clamps manually released, it wouldn’t release automatically.
He went back to work on the other two and, without the fear of
discovery, he had the presence of mind to focus and get them
released.