On the morning before her seventeenth birthday, there is talk that the American Assembly is preparing to launch their ships into the Omelie system. Nobody is sure why, but they are certain it is happening.
She wakes in her compartment to find a note slipped under her door. Not a hologrammed message or a recording in her implant, but a real-life, old-fashioned handwritten note on paper. She picks it up and unfolds it, wondering if it is from Dante. But instead she discovers Rufus’s handwriting.
Gen – congratulations. You’re in. Report immediately.
She smiles. She pulls her suit on, disintegrates the note and makes her way through the corridors, her boots clunking on the metal floors of the space station. When she reaches the Strategic Facility, she finds they are expecting her.
This is it, she tells herself. This is what she has always wanted, ever since she joined the Academy. Her parents would be ecstatic. She thinks of them back home, on Earth, of her younger brother Luca, shooting plates in the backyard and dive-bombing in the pool. They would be immensely proud of her and yet … she knows she won’t be allowed to tell them.
She is scanned at every entrance, six of them, until she arrives in a dimly lit chamber two floors down. Before her, at a long, gleaming silver table, sit six superiors. Two she recognises, Rufus and Neile. The others she has never seen before. In each corner of the room, there is a guard. Rufus offers her a hidden smile, meant for her only, and gestures for her to sit.
Welcome. You’ve been selected, the man in the middle says, as the twelfth candidate in the Ares Program. It is an incredible privilege, as I’m sure you know. So, congratulations.
His voice is strained, she notices, as if the inside of his throat has been burned. One of the others she doesn’t know taps a finger on the table, bringing up her profile. It is being expunged, eradicated. A false profile will replace it, one that says she has been tasked to Level-4 administrative duties. Everything from here onwards will be conducted covertly. If she is discovered or captured, there are no guarantees. Does she understand this? Yes, she does. Does she consent? Yes.
The process will take two years, another one of them explains. Nine months of biological modification. Three months of stringent testing. One year of training.
She is ready, she tells them. She is honoured. They nod gravely, stand up, as if going about some invisible task. No one has dismissed her, no one is giving her any direction.
So, how does it work? she asks them after two minutes or more have passed. How do we start? When? Her voice echoes inside her head, as if she’s suddenly become hollow.
One of them, the man from the middle, turns to her in surprise. His expression is haughty, as if he has no time to suffer these questions. Rufus glances at her and she detects a hint of uncertainty in his eyes. Or is it guilt? She can feel time and space skipping through her.
When? the man mimics, setting his eyes on her. Has no one explained to you how this works, child? Now, is when. You will begin the procedure this morning, immediately. We just need a few minutes to prepare.
Wait, what? But …
She stifles the rest of the protest as they all turn to face her. This is not the reaction they want.
It’s just the way it has to be, Rufus explains, gentle and slow. He gestures around the room, at the officers, the guards, the closed doors.
She swallows. Once you’re in …
He did explain this to her, months ago. He used those exact same words. But she hadn’t listened. She’d told him it was what she wanted, what she had dreamed of as a soldier. It was too late to change her mind now.
Fine, she says with a determined nod, meeting all of their stares. She isn’t sure how brave she is, but she can fake it.
I’m ready, she tells them. Where do you want me? What’s first?
The main the middle turns to her, smiles like a monster. She considers taking a step back but stops herself, holding his gaze.
Blood, he says without any further explanation. That’s what. First, we will take all of your blood.
The Last Darkness 