“Can you see the next bolt above you, across that slope?” Corporal Rudaski asked from her belay position, pointing to the gleam of metal against the dull grey of the cliff.

Kayla ignored her as she stared at the abyss below. Distant boulders were scattered like grains of sand across a scree slope that ran down to a shimmering blue lake. Today, she was climbing with a rope, and therefore invincible. The platoon had spent the previous week training in mountain warfare, and Kayla was beginning to feel like a real super-woman.

“Kenya!” Kes snapped.

Kayla’s head span around. “Yes, Corporal?”

“Where’s the bolt?”

Kayla pointed. “Right there.”

The squad leader eyed her suspiciously. “Alright. This technique is called slab climbing. You need to step across that slope slowly and carefully, without slipping.”

Kayla examined the steep slope of rock. Just past the section Kes wanted her to creep across was a thin handhold, which she could probably reach with a good jump. It’d make for a much more exciting traverse, and impress her new squad mates, who were still ascending the mountain face below. She was, after all, a very good climber.

“What I want you to think about,” Kes continued, “is keeping your body pressed against the wall—”

With a grunt of exertion, Kayla launched herself into the air, arms reaching desperately for the inches-wide ledge. Her fingertips brushed against rock, but the handhold was horizontal, while her momentum was still carrying her sideways. She had jumped too hard, and her body continued its flight across the wall, pulling her away from the handhold, down onto the smooth slope below. She gasped as she slid painfully fast across the rock and fell below an outcropping. The rope pulled taut, and she let out a yelp as she smacked into the cliff face with a sickening jolt.

Kayla hung in space a few feet from the cliff, coughing and gasping as she tried to suck air back into her lungs. Her arm was numb, and she saw that most of the skin from her biceps to her wrist had been ripped off from the slide. She clenched her jaw, fighting back tears as pain flared across her body. To distract herself, she watched in horrified fascination as her skin cells began slowly restitching themselves around the arm wound. It was a miraculously fast process, though she was still facing several painful days before it fully healed.

“Barnes?” Kes called from above.

Kayla struggled to speak. “Yes, Corporal?” she gasped, after a bout of wheezing. The rope crossed the overhang, leaving her swinging a few feet away from the wall. With her damaged arm, she’d need Kes’s help to get back up.

“Are you dead?”

“No, Corporal.”

“Very well.” Kes was silent for a moment. “That was an incorrect technique that you applied to the problem. I’ll push the rest of the squad through, and then we’ll see if you’re ready to give it another go. Sit tight and wait.”

“Yes, Corporal.” Kayla swallowed as she hung over the gut-wrenching drop, her enthusiasm for the day suddenly gone.

“I’ll get to you in good time, but first I’ll put the others onto a new rope, and make sure they move on to the next section. Tasha?”

“Yes, Corporal?” Thandi replied in a shaky voice.

“Are you interested in the slab climbing technique, or would you prefer to explore the cliff with your friend?”

“I am interested in the technique, Corporal.”

“Very good. Now, make sure to keep your weight forward on your toes…”

It took some time for the rest of the squad to move through the climb. Kayla hung in silence as the dark thought began to grow that she may have done more than just annoy her new squad leader.

“Kayla?” Kes called from above.

Kayla looked up.

The corporal’s face was staring down at her. “The others are through, so I’ll haul you up now.”

Kayla felt her harness tug as Kes pulled the rope through a pulley. Just as she was almost back up to the ledge, the rope jerked, and Kayla’s stomach plummeted into the void as she fell several feet. She fought back nausea as she looked back up to see Kes leaning out over the edge, a hard smile on her face.

“Wow, guess my hand slipped,” the corporal said. “Gotta be more careful with a drop like that.” She eyed the valley below as she drew a knife out of her pocket. “What do you think a drop like that would do to you, Kayla?” With an idle flick of the wrist, the knife flipped open, and she began tapping the flat edge of it against the taut rope, as though it were an old habit.

Kayla looked down and shuddered as the image of Rose’s shattered leg flashed through her mind.

Her mouth was dry. She couldn’t think of anything except to get away from the drop, and she had to fight to suppress the animal panic. “I don’t know Corporal.”

“Yeah, I don’t know if that would kill a Ranger,” Kes went on. “But I do know what would—an arrogant, egotistical asshole that thinks she can run off and do whatever she wants. That for sure kills Rangers.”

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The knife tapped gently against the rope, and Kayla hid her shamefully trembling hands behind her back. “I’m sorry, I didn’t—”

“I don’t care. Only thing I care about is protecting the girls in my squad from anything that could hurt them. We could be deployed tomorrow to a real situation, but here you are, wasting my goddamned time. Luckily, though, I just found an easy solution. After all, training accidents happen every day.”

Kayla saw nothing but calm certainty in the eyes of her leader, and she looked down. For a moment, she thought she might vomit, but forced herself to remain calm.

“I became overconfident,” she admitted with a shaky voice. “I let myself get carried away. I guarantee that it will never happen again.”

Kes watched her carefully for an endless moment, then flicked her knife closed and put it away. The rope hauled again, and Kayla smacked herself in the head for being such a fool. Once she was back on the ledge, Kes made her sit down to calm her shaking.

“Take a moment to collect yourself,” the corporal said, “then we’ll go back to the climb.” She sighed. “I like the fire in you, Barnes. Temper it with some discipline, and you’ll be a dangerous weapon.”

It had been a day of excitement, followed by terror, humiliation, and painfully honest personal insight. Another day of being a Ranger.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable, Kayla reminded herself.

After failing to relieve stress at the shooting range, she checked her weapons back in at the armory, then jogged over to the platoon’s administration office, where she found Sergeant Reyes staring in frustration at her computer monitor.

The sergeant looked up as she entered. “Private Barnes? I was just checking to make sure there wasn’t an error in your unit assignment. Mountain Rangers is a big deal, and honestly, I didn’t think you’d make it through boot camp.”

Kayla caught the twinkle in the woman’s eye and forced herself to stay calm. “Thank you for the vote of confidence, Sergeant. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for nighttime interlopers around the camp.”

Reyes laughed. “I guess you’re getting ready for your weekend trip? Where are you headed?”

“Caldera, Sergeant; visiting family.”

“I hear you’ll have some young stud to impress, too.” Reyes smiled and ignored Kayla’s scowl. “Here’s my best line; ‘Listen, Johny, the rumors are true. The Academy is a super-secret spy ring.’ Then you do the full puppy dog eyes and work up a tear. ‘You know, Johnny, when you live on the edge of death, you have to make every moment as intense as you can.’”

Kayla rolled her eyes.

Reyes laughed raucously. “That’s the male override switch right there. One day you’ll appreciate the advice, young neophyte. It’s all in good fun.”

Kayla grudgingly cracked a smile. She waited as the sergeant pulled up a file on her monitor and scanned it carefully.

“Anyway,” Reyes continued, “I’m sure it will do you good to visit home again. Let’s see, what do we need to go over? Okay, yes—I’m afraid you need to limit your stay to the Rackeye zone itself, as a security precaution.”

Kayla’s face fell. “My dad lives out in the farms.”

“Can he meet you in Rackeye? It’s not something I have control over, it’s the rules for new recruits.”

“Yes, Sergeant,” Kayla said, less politely.

Reyes reached to a cupboard behind her and retrieved a small device, which she handed to Kayla; a metal key with a button.

“You’ll want to keep that with you at all times off-world,” the sergeant explained. “It’s a sub-spatial transmitter. Once activated, it will send out a beacon, which our routing stations will pick up. Imagine you get hit by a car crossing the street, and the locals are too curious about your injuries. Tap this, and the closest team will be alerted that you need assistance. But it had better be an emergency, Barnes, or you will be in serious trouble.”

“Emergencies only—got it,” Kayla nodded.

“One more thing. When you walk out into the world, you’ll feel like the baddest chick around. Don’t let that go to your head; stay out of trouble. That means walking away from fights. I understand that probably runs contrary to your nature, but if we find out you’re deliberately getting into fights, you will get kicked out of the organization. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Sergeant,” Kayla responded, confident that an easy, relaxing weekend awaited her.

Back at the squad apartment, she threw on a long sleeve shirt to hide her scar, and found Thandi packing a travel case.

“Did you have to tell everyone?” Kayla asked.

Thandi grinned. “No, Ray took care of that for me. Of course, I didn’t deny it either.”

“I’ll get you for that. Where are you off to?”

“Heading back home to spend time with my family. They’re so excited—they haven’t seen me in such a long time. You?”

Kayla nodded. “That’s great—same for me.”

“And the boyfriend?” Thandi flashed her a wink.

“We’re just friends!” Kayla flopped onto a couch and grabbed her tablet. She saw she had a new message from Weslan, and hurriedly opened it.

Kayla, I’m afraid my work here requires my undivided attention, and I cannot waste any more time on these exchanges. Please don’t try to contact me in Rackeye. Perhaps in the future, things will be different. —Weslan

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Thandi asked, concern in her voice.

“Huh…” Kayla said as she stared at the screen. Whatever Reyes said, she could probably get away with at least one fight in Rackeye.

“You’re either about to punch someone or smash your tablet. What happened?”

“Nothing.”

Thandi sat down opposite her. “Girlfriend. Your expressions are an open book to me. Did he just stand you up?”

“Look, it’s not even a big deal. I don’t see why you care.” Kayla placed her tablet gently beside her in an exaggerated motion and fixed her eyes on a spot on the wall.

“Okay,” Thandi said, and waited.

“He said he wouldn’t see me. He was kind of an ass about it, frankly.”

“I’m sorry, babe. Did he say why?”

Kayla shrugged. “Career stuff I guess.”

“Sometimes, guys only want one thing. Sometimes you’re just an obstacle to their ambition. Good thing you learned that he’s an asshole before you got in any further.”

Kayla paused, then shook her head slowly. “Doesn’t make sense. He used to be crazy about Rose, and when she dumped him for the Academy, he was really torn up about it. He wouldn’t turn around and do that to someone else.”

“Okay, well, that explains a couple of things about…” Thandi trailed off as she caught Kayla’s expression.

Kayla was not content to accept the email at face value. “He was really excited to get a break from work and hang out,” she argued. “They were pushing him so hard—almost seemed like he couldn’t handle it.”

Thandi studied her. “I know you’re hurting, but you shouldn’t go chasing after people if they don’t want to see you.”

“Uhuh…” Kayla said, barely paying attention.

“They have a word for people who do that.”

“I don’t need to chase after him—I just want to say hi, right? I’ve known him for a long time. Nothing wrong with not leaving things at an email?”

Thandi placed her head in her hands. “Please don’t get in trouble. Or the news. Or kicked out.”

Kayla laughed. “I promise.”

“You’re stopping by to see Rose on your way out? She messaged me that she saw Christie.” Neither of them had heard from their friend since they’d left for their new units.

Kayla nodded. “Of course.” The habitual wave of apprehension threatened to flood her mind, but this time, she was able to let it pass. Now she was almost looking forward to chatting with her old rival.