Free Star Force: Divergent (SF74) by Aer-ki Jyr Page A

chamber was exactly the
same as it had been when she…
    No, wait. Something was different. There was a smell
that wasn’t there before. It was faint and coppery, almost undetectable, but it
definitely had not been there before. Jyra didn’t recognize it but thought
fast, wondering what it could be as the scent increased in intensity. She
definitely did not like the feel of this and took another step forward,
thinking hard.
    Another step followed but still no response. Feeling
like she was about to walk into a huge trap she continued forward, for the
smell was increasing like a countdown. When she was a third of the way to San
she abandoned the tiny steps and just walked normally, looking down and around
and on her guard as much as she could be. She got to the halfway point and
continued strolling on as the smell increased to the point that it felt like it
was starting to clog her nose.
    With the tension in her running at an all-time high
she walked the last few meters and up in front of San who held out his hand.
Glancing right and left she looked for something to attack her at the last
moment, then cringed and pulled out the orb and reached it towards him…
    The palm-sized ball landed neatly in his hand and his
fingers curled up around it as she let go.
    “Well done,” he said, tossing it into the air
playfully and catching it again.
    Jyra frowned. “That’s it?”
    San nodded. “What were you expecting?”
    “Oh fuck that!” she said, backtracking a few steps and
closing her eyes in vexation before clenching her hands into angry fists and
mentally kicking herself for letting him do it to her again. “What the hell is
this?”
    “Your final trial,” he said casually.
    “What, climbing that?”
    “I said it was your final trial. I never said it would
be hard.”
    “Fuck you, San. Do you have any idea…oh, damn it. I
did it all to myself again, didn’t I?”
    “Well, you certainly didn’t set any speed records, but
you still completed the mission.”
    “So the whole, ‘you only get one shot at this’ was
just a load of bull?”
    “No, you did only get one shot. If you can’t climb
that and grab a stupid ball,” he said, tossing and catching it again for
emphasis, “then there’s no way in hell you deserve to be a Commando, let alone
an Arc Commando.”
    “I really hate you now.”
    “I did nothing.”
    “That’s exactly why. You made me kick my own ass
again,” she said, letting a bit of a smile slip. Through it all she hadn’t
missed the fact that she had actually passed, worthless of a final test as this
was.
    “Sometimes the mission is a lot simpler than you
think.”
    “Final lesson then?”
    “If you ever stop learning, then quit and go civie . We have to stay adaptable. Come on then, what are
you waiting for. We’ve got stuff to do.”
    “Like what?”
    “Like making you an Arc Commando. It’s not just a
title you know.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Follow me and find out,” San said, turning and
walking off with the door opening before him again. He left Jyra there until
she jolted out of her angry/happy stupor and jogged a few steps to catch back
up with him as they left the final challenge chamber and its coppery stench,
heading off to who knew where.

 
 
    7

 
 
    May 6, 2897
    Solar System
    Earth

 
    The mantis Jyra and San were flying in set down on a
pad atop an unremarkable bioharvest facility in Antarctica, with the Commando
eyeing him questioningly.
    “Can I talk now?”
    San rolled his eyes. “Follow me,” he said as the
boarding ramp opened and the two passengers got out, stepping down onto the
thin layer of snow amidst a storm that was kept back via a bubble shield
covering the landing pads. It was coming down so hard that the few times it had
to be lowered to allow ships to come and go the falling snow had blanketed the
surface. The temperature was frigid regardless, causing the Archon to shiver a
bit when it first hit him, but he walked across the