Fracture - Book One of the Glass Galaxy Trilogy

Chapter 28: The Past

Galactic Year 10,653

November 19th

6:10 AM

Waking up was always the worst part of my day. It started with the bright lights above me blinking into life and the door to my room sliding open, an indication of morning's arrival, and before I was even remotely awake I was up and donning my shirt and pants. I went through the same mechanical motions I do every day, and a moment later I went through the door of my room into the hallway.

On my left five similarly garbed teenagers like me stood in front of their rooms, all as groggy and listless as I, and on my right stood a girl with large black bags under her eyes. As I stepped out of my room she glanced at me, the sharpness in her eyes contrasting her sleep-deprived appearance.

"Sure you're up to the task today?" she asked quietly. "You look like you slept poorly."

I returned her question with a concerned smile, "You look like you slept a lot worse than I did."

"I didn't sleep at all, actually. Too many voices again."

I frowned at that, giving her a concerned look, "I thought the changes they made to your room stopped that?"

"They did," she mumbled, "for a few weeks. They're getting stronger now: the work they did isn't enough."

I took a small step toward her and squeezed her hand gently, receiving a tight squeeze in return. "I'm sure if you ask tonight they'll take a look at fixing it again. I'll go with you to ask, okay?"

She gave me an appreciative smile, "Thanks. I couldn't get through this without you, you know that?"

I stepped back to my door and looked over at the larger boy on my left. "She'd be fine without us, wouldn't she, Neagen?" I asked.

The boy nodded solemnly, "Absolutely. Kaeya's the strongest of all of us after all."

As I turned to give Kaeya a cheeky grin a voice in my head, crystalline and hollow, replaced my thoughts, "No. No, I wouldn't be fine at all. I'm only strong because you're here with me..."

I looked at Kaeya, expecting her to be looking at me as she does when talking telepathically, but instead she was looking away, awaiting our researcher's arrival. What had I just heard, then?

Then the doors at the end of the long, white hallway slid open and two women wearing lab coats entered. The taller of the two, Meredith, handed each of us a breakfast bar. We got the same food every morning, but at least it didn't taste too bad. "Eat up, today's the big day, kids," she said gently, "and you're gonna need the energy."

The smaller researcher, Chantelle, stood waiting as we ate, and spoke up only once we were all finished, "Today we will finally determine whether or not each of you are fit to continue working here with us, so I better see you all trying your hardest. We don't expect all of you to display psychic gifts, so those who fail will still be rewarded a promising career at the Naval Academies for your work here. Now come this way, you'll change into your pilot's suit on the way."

She spun on her heel and set a brisk pace down the hallway as we marched behind her. A few minutes later we arrived in the one room none of us had set foot in before, dressed in our pure black pilot spacesuits. We were in a large dome at least two hundred metres across, standing lined up at the feet of a massive humanoid robot.