~ * ~ * ~
On the third month of training, the twenty recruits were down to thirteen. Cloning was a privilege afforded only to persons and above—the demonstration with Tayden being an exception. When they squared off in teams to play war games against each other, seven recruits had managed to lose their lives.
Arn had been missing for a little over a month, and new jumper trainers were flown in weekly to train them in various skills. The sex ritual was finished after month number two, and each jumper recruit was instructed to avoid sexual relations for the remainder of the year. Rafian found ways to sneak around with Camille and Tayden, but he soon began to add others into the mix.
The days and nights ran together and the exercises were the only thing that the recruits looked forward to. They would wake up early in the morning and do a run of about eight miles, then have a liquid breakfast and a few minutes for a bathroom break. They would then do simulations that placed them in the middle of wars, natural disasters, and sometimes worse.
At one time, Rafian was made to survive space after being ejected from his ship with limited air and no real way of getting back home. There was never any indication what a simulation would be; they had to be ready for any situation at any given time.
Once the recruits managed to finish a simulation, they were given three hours of personal time. It was during these times that Rafian would sneak away with Camille or he’d find a quiet corner of the base to meditate and practice some of the things he was learning.
Once the three hours were up, the recruits would reconvene, spar one another inside the arena, and try to improve their fighting skills with unarmed combat. The next couple of hours were dynamic, as it depended on who was leading the course. Whatever the exercise was, it normally took them into the evening, when they were sent home to shower and return to study warp crystal technology before dinner.
As the year trickled on, Rafian and the others began to notice a change in their form, shape, and abilities. It went beyond the training and conditioning, and it was assumed that a sort of hormone or steroid was being fed to them to make them physically impressive.
There were no complaints about this, of course, but Rafian wondered if there was a reason for it beyond the needs of combat. It was not a big enough concern to raise an issue, so he kept it to himself and kept on training.
On the eleventh month of training, Rafian was summoned to Arn’s office, which was the large, padded, white room he had first visited. The place still had nothing but a chair, some holo-desks, and furniture that would materialize on command whenever they were needed.
The old man got up from behind the desk, and it vanished into the floor as he did so. He walked over and inspected Rafian from head to toe before nodding in approval and sending away the aides who had brought him in.
“We’ve been grooming you, number three,” he said slowly. “You and your beloved number eleven, Camille YAN.” He said her name in a mocking way, which made Rafian a little bit worried.
“Grooming us for what, sir?” he asked humbly, a respect that had been learned through months of pain and conditioning.
“I know about you two, y’know,” he said as he bit into a cherry . He stared at Rafian intently while nodding his head in amusement at the shock that was echoed on his face.
“The sneaking about, the nastiness, and most of all, the plotting. We know it all. You plan to cut me up and bathe in my blood.”
He let the silence get uncomfortable and cautioned Rafian to remain quiet.
“We expect recruits to be strong, number three, not broken supplicants to their masters. You have feigned compliance; you, that girlfriend of yours, and number five have all played the part of liars and conspirators within this temple. Though you think it your free will expressing itself, I assure you that this was all a part of your conditioning. You all can move on now to become persons. You have the hearts to be deemed worthy.”
He kept on watching Rafian, whose rapid eye movement seemed erratic as he puzzled over what was going to happen to them.
“What’s to happen to us?” he finally asked, resolved that he would finally meet his fate through pain and death, the way he had always imagined it would end within this hell of white walls and mystery.
The old man kept pacing and a number of men and women walked in, dressed in silver armor and brandishing black staves. When they surrounded him—there were six in number—he dropped to one knee in anticipation of lashing out and forcing them to kill him as a fighter instead of a prisoner. When he fell to his knee, one of the armored women touched him with her staff, and he felt his body go still and then topple.
The six jumpers interlocked the staves in a way that hoisted him above their heads and took him to the library, where they moved a panel on a shelf. It opened up to reveal a circular room where a bright crystal stood floating within a column of light. There was nothing else in the room except for a stone chair decorated with symbols that looked like nothing a human could have made.
Rafian wondered what had happened to the other recruits. He would normally see some milling around during that time of day, but the temple seemed to be vacant as his captors strapped him to the chair facing the crystal. He began to feel a numbing pain behind his eyeballs.
“Welcome to your first jump, young Rafian,” Arn said, but it appeared as if he was doing so telepathically.
“In a few minutes, you will cease to be who you are and will forget everything you think you know about your life, your history, and even your beloved Camille YAN. You will be making your first jump, recruit, and when—or should I say if—you complete the mission, you will come back to us a person.”
As soon as he said the word “person,” Rafian lost consciousness, and the bright light was the only thing he would remember for a very long time.
Memory 14 | Reset
Aurora SYN played with her bracelet, not daring to look at her commander in case he saw the fury reflected in her eyes. It had been over a year since she’d seen Rafian, and she was convinced that Abe RUS was in on his disappearance.
“We’re a military ship, Aurora, and some information is classified. A bright officer like yourself shouldn’t need me to tell you this. Look, the situation is delicate and I know it is, but this is a really trying time for all of us. I lost two of my best leads without any warning and there is nothing that I can say or do about it!” Abe RUS squeezed his eyes tightly when he realized what he said and sat in anticipation of Aurora’s press.
“What do you mean lost, sir? Please, what do you mean lost? If my brother is dead, I need to—”
“NO, no he’s not dead. Maker, woman can you trust your commander? You’ve been in my office every week and I can only say classified so many times.”
“Classified, yes, I know, but Raf would not just leave without saying goodbye,” Aurora said.
She got up and saluted with much frustration and got into the transport to go home. She thought about it for a few minutes and then decided to change course, choosing instead to go by Rafian’s and Camille’s apartment.
Camille had programmed Aurora’s palm signature into the security panel so she touched and stepped inside. Things were in place though it felt cold and empty, so she walked around looking for clues.
A repeat vid of Raf and Camille kissing had been positioned in the corner of a table. It caught Aurora by surprise and she turned around quickly as the tears began to fall from her eyes.
She moved to the bedroom and stopped in her tracks when she saw the half-packed suitcase and the unmade bed. They must’ve left in a hurry, she thought and began to look around for any clue as to what had happened.
The mystery of Rafian and Camille disappearing was a ship-wide concern and the popular rumor was that they eloped. Aurora, who was always involved with Rafian’s life, knew that this was unlikely. Eloping was one thing, but to be gone a year would mean that the couple had deserted.
She would sooner believe that Rafian was secretly a Geral
os than believe that he would desert his post in order to hide away with the woman he loved. That woman was a warrior as much as he was, and he had the advantage of sharing the war with her. What she believed was that they were on a secret mission and had gotten in over their heads somehow. She exhausted her search and then lay on the bed, frustrated and exhausted.
You can survive anything, Raf, I know you can, so please come back to me, she thought. She rolled over on her side and her eye caught Camille's tablet that was left blinking rhythmically to indicate that it was low on power. Aurora reached for the device and then touched the glass and the jumper's letter of recruitment came into view.