Kimmalyn squealed, then rushed over to talk to another cadet, someone she apparently knew. Inside the building we found wide hallways, most of which appeared to be lined with classrooms. I barely held myself back from running over to the glistening starfighters lined up for duty-I’d done enough gawking for one day. Kimmalyn and I soon arrived at a wide, single-story structure near the launchpads. Only the best of the best would actually pass flight school and be assigned to full-time pilot duty. From what I understood, around twenty-five of us had passed the test, and had been organized into three training flights. Inside, we counted off the buildings, joining a handful of other cadets. Well, soon I’d be so famous, the guard at the door would salute me on sight. Not much ceremony for my first official entrance into Alta. However, the bored guard only marked our names off on a list and waved us in. We stepped up to a checkpoint in the wall, and I thrust my pin toward the guard there, half expecting rough treatment-like I’d always gotten from Aluko when entering Igneous. “It must take brave people to volunteer for service up here soĮxposed to the air and to Krell attacks.” She looked up at the sky in awe, and I wondered if this was the first time she was seeing it. “They planted those just after the Battle of Alta,” Kimmalyn said. Almost three meters tall! Before this, the tallest plant I’d seen was a mushroom that reached up to my waist. I’d seen these trees from a distance, but up close they seemed enormous. I stopped on the walkway, and found myself gaping again. Right outside it, the farms gave way to an actual orchard. We approached the base, a group of tall, stern buildings surrounded by a wall. Scud, they’d let this girl in, but had denied me? What was the DDF trying to do? Put together a knitting club? “You said your callsign was Spin? Shouldn’t you be something like Lamentation or Eats Enemy Eyeballs?” My great-grandmother was assistant quartermaster.” She eyed me. “That’s where the clans from the Antioch crew settled, right?” The Antioch had been one of the gunships in the old fleet, before we’d been driven into hiding here on Detritus. It was a cavern somewhat close to Igneous, also part of the Defiant League. “We call it that, but nothing really grows there.” “Born and raised in Bountiful Cavern!” She leaned in. “Where are you from? Not Igneous, I guess.” “Um, it kind of is-and flight school especially is.” I frowned, noting the accent in her voice. “Couldn’t it be something a little less gruesome?” “Afterburn? No, that’s probably too confusing. ” She fished in her pocket and pulled out a paper. “Um, we’re supposed to have callsigns already?” Best to be on good terms with the other cadets. “It’s a line from a story.” I stuck out my hand to her. “The most wonderful sound ever is the lamentations of my enemies, screaming my name toward the heavens with ragged, dying voices.” “Isn’t it the most wonderful sound ever?” Part of me wanted to be offended-but she seemed so genuine.
We both stopped to gape, and I extricated my arm from the girl’s grasp. I’d rather have been walking with Rodge, but they’d called him in late last night to ask him something about his test, and so far I hadn’t gotten word of what that meant. We entered the wide walkway leading through the town, toward the base. I was so stunned that I didn’t resist as she towed me after her out of the elevator. People normally treated me like a pariah they didn’t take me by the arm. I had no idea what to make of this behavior. The girl took my arm in a much too familiar way. “What tactical advantage would they gain by that?” I asked her. “Do you think it might be some cruel prank they’re playing on us?” “I keep thinking it can’t be real,” she said. She spoke with a faint accent I didn’t recognize. I’d seen her earlier on the elevator and noted her cadet’s pin.
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She was taller than I was, with tan-brown skin and long, curly black hair. “Oh, isn’t it the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?” a voice said from behind me.
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I found myself strangely hesitant as I stood there, pack full of clothing over my shoulder, the phantom feeling of my mother’s kiss farewell on my forehead. This represented a threshold to a new life, a life I’d always dreamed about.
I lingered in the large elevator as it emptied of people. A real town, populated by the stubborn farmers who worked the strips of greenery beyond. Lining the roadway between the two were shops and homes. Yet the elevator structure opened a good two hundred meters outside the base proper. The elevator doors opened, and I looked out upon a city that should not exist.Īlta was primarily a military base, so perhaps city was an ambitious term.
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