Free Psion Beta by Jacob Gowans Page A

sort of fight. The door in the middle of the mural said Reynolds/Reynolds. The one after it read Hayman/Petrov, and finally Berhane/Plack.
    “ Cool! That’s you, right?” Brickert asked pointing at the names, and smiling for the first time since they had met. “We’re going to be roommates.”
    Sammy saw the relief in Brickert’s face. The poor kid’s probably been terrified he’d get a roommate that would eat him . Rooming with Brickert was fine by him; at least he would not be stuck with some anal-retentive wacko. Unless Brickert turns out to be some anal-retentive wacko . But from the little they had already spent together, Brickert seemed okay.
    “ I don’t think that I can reach that eye-scan,” Brickert mumbled at the door, and he was right. He had to jump just a little to get his eye over the scanner.
    “ You’re the youngest person here,” Sammy pointed out quickly, “it’s no biggie. It’s not your fault someone didn’t plan better.” He put his eye over the hole and heard a click.
    They went inside their new bedroom. It was much larger than Sammy had expected. A bunk bed stood against the left wall. He guessed he’d probably be sleeping on the top given Brickert’s size. Two large desks stood at the back wall with a chair apiece, and spacious closets with mirrors were on the opposite side of the room from the beds. The furniture all seemed high quality and looked recently cleaned and polished.
    “ Wow!” Brickert said. “I can’t believe I’m going to be living somewhere so—so posh!”
    Posh was not the word Sammy chose to describe it, but he was still impressed. “Yeah . . . it’s pretty nice.”
    “ Let’s see if they’ve brought us those suits Byron mentioned we’re supposed to wear during the day.”
    In the closets, they found their personalized flight suits. All of Sammy’s suits were white and light blue, but to add a little flavor, each had different colored embellishments on the sleeves and legs. He grabbed the one with gold trimmings, and pressed the collar tabs. When he stepped inside and pressed the tabs again, the front sealed seamlessly. He looked over and saw that Brickert’s jumpsuit color was white and a soft green; Brickert had chosen one with white trimmings.
    “ Amazing, huh?” Brickert said, gesturing to the clothes. “I’ve never worn anything like this before, I’ll tell you.”
    Sammy had worn seamless clothes before, mostly when his parents took him to fancy parties and important ceremonies, but he thought it best not to mention it as Brickert probably came from a poorer family and was embarrassed easily.
    “ Where are you from again, Samuel?” Brickert asked, trying to sound casual.
    Sammy choked back a laugh. “Call me Sammy. No one calls me Samuel, not even my parents, except, well, unless I made them really mad.”
    “ Sorry.”
    “ Don’t worry. I’m from Johannesburg.”
    “ You’re—you’re the first black person I’ve ever met,” Brickert said. Red spots grew on his cheeks just as they had during the orientation.
    This time Sammy’s laugh came out. “You kidding?”
    “ I’m—well—from a very small town.”
    “ I’m actually only half-black. My mom—my mom’s about as light-skinned as you,” Sammy said. “How did you find out you were a . . . you belonged here?”
    “ I was fixing up our shed with my father and accidentally hit my finger with the hammer. I got so mad I blew a hole clear through both sides! It was a cheapo shed but my father saw the whole thing. Made me get checked in at the hospital. He was freaking out. I was there about three hours with all these confused doctors before Byron came in dressed as a doctor, too.”
    “ Byron came?” Sammy asked.
    “ Yeah. I think he recruits everyone. He told me and my folks about this place, and then let us talk it over for a while. When we agreed, he said I’d have to wait a few months for the next recruiting period to end before I could come.”
    “ So you’ve