“You need to wear that uniform here?”Derran's father asked him.

“I cannot take it off. I still have to wear it for another two months. Those were the rules.”

“And then?”

“Then I'll take it off and never put it on again.”

“They teach you how to kill. And from what I've seen, you did very well.” Harsh words, his father did care to pick them to be soft. He could see they landed on his son harder. There was no pride, only sorrow. He sighed deeply, feeling even more remorse than his son. “But what they have not cared to teach you is how to live with it.”

“I know.”

“Filled your heart with hatred, blinded you with thinking of your enemy as less than humans so you could do their bidding.”

“I know. And you have no idea how sorry I am.”

“I don't want you to be sorry, kid. For one thing, I'm glad you are still alive, because...” his father had to stop as tears that suddenly bursed out of his eyes ran uncontrollable down his face. “For all the time that you were gone, I just prayed to all the space spirits to save you.”

“Dad, but you do not even believe in space spirits.”

“What can I say? I was desperate.”

“I'm so sorry, dad.”

“I'm so sorry too.”

“You were right, you were right about everything.”

“No. If I was right, if I was so damn right, you would not have gone to the war in the first place. I would have... been able to connect with you, teach you and explain what I saw. If I was right, I would have done right. I was wrong. I was so wrong. And I failed. I failed your mother, your sister, and you.”

The embrace was hard, harder than Derran thought his father was capable of, as if that hug and the strengh of it could transmit all the love that his father felt for him.

“No, dad, no dad. It was not your fault.”

Receives invitation for the

“What is it?”

“I just got invitation...”

“For what?”

“To train...”

“And you're ready to trust them?”

“No. Never again.”

“Good. Maybe then you can do some good.”

***

“I want something in return.”

“You are still on active duty-”

“You can shuve your active duty up your ass, Sir. You want my cooperation and are interested in using me, I have no problem with that. But, I want my parents taken care off. And my sister. The top healthcare for all of them.”

“We can do that.”

“And I want it now. Not negotiable. I want them to be taken cared off, and to be able to have a body transffer when they get old.”

“Certainly. We'll put then on the A+ list. No problem.”

“You were right. He might be one to keep, certainly someone who has a lot to teach others. Now can he do it?”

Three men sat in a darkened conference room, looking at video bits being played in the air in front of them.

"I'll tell you one thing, my son, " A tall woman with deep facial lines and graying hair was hugging her boy and whispering in his ear. "Our house might be one of the smallest and, right now, certainly the least well-off. Through the past hundreds of years, we've been betrayed, manipulated, targeted, almost to the point of a complete extinction...That is all true, no need to be ashamed of it. But take that as a motivational tool, something to push you forward, to fight that much harder."

The boy struggled to come out of her embrace, but she put her both hands on his cheeks as she continued: "You know, a long time ago, the emperor came from your bloodline, and if this gives you a chance, maybe you can return that fortune and respect to your house and family once again."

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Three men turned their heads to another video showing a man covered in a knee-long, brown coat made of the most expensive Echemonian-96 quality silk talking to a young man who was standing, tall and thin, a few inches above him.

"Don't you pay no attention to those that say our house is made of criminals! Don't you dare fall for that! Besides, there has never been any proof, any real proof that we are members of organized crime! I can't believe that anyone could even suggest that…" The voice seemed a bit too loud, and the man in the coat lowered it instantly. "You are given a chance here, a chance to work for the police, for the empire. Just consider, if you succeed and you become one of these top investigators, how much help would that be for a family, for your brothers, for me? So, of course, I want you to go, and not just go - I want you to win! Make it work! However, you can."

The man in the coat didn't seem to like the soft tone that persisted in his son's eyes and face. "Listen to me boy! You have done almost anything your whole life. The only thing you did was enjoy what was given to you by me. This is your chance to become someone more, someone who can help contribute, help your family become even bigger and stronger. So, of course, you will do it. Either make it or don't come back. Do you understand?"

Three men stopped the video and looked at each other.

"So, what do we do? Do we disqualify these two candidates right away?"

"Why should we?"

"Well, their family ambitions will obviously skew their judgments, compromise their integrity. I mean, one of them is told to become the criminal and help his family become even more deviant and powerful, the other to become an emperor himself!"

"Yes, that is true. But let's turn the table around, if they were told to become the best possible agents they could, would that really make a difference? I believe they need to make their own choices. Being isolated and away from their family might change a lot of things. That is my opinion. What do you say councilman Wallic?”

"I say, let them stay here a bit longer. Their training and testing have not even started yet. We can note this and vote on their removal at the later moment."

"But how about this one?" One of the councilmen said pointing to the video stream that filled the air above them the very next second.

"Take this! Take it!" A woman was pushing a small communication pod into the jacket pocket of a long-haired, blond teenager.

"But, mom! Didn't you read the file they gave us? They specifically said 'no' to any communication devices."

"I know, I know, but how would they know...If you hide it good enough, they will never find out. And who knows, that way you can always call us, ask us for help if there is anything that we can do."

The councilman who put the video in continued explaining, "I understand that the kid kept the pod..."

"That kid needs to be returned home," the other one answered. "The whole scene is making me feel angry and disgusted. It doesn't matter what test scores he had, how brilliant he might have been. If he can't resist his mother plea to break the rules, who knows if he will ever be ready to walk all by himself on his two legs straight?"

"I agree. He is already twenty-one years old. He should have some sort of self-esteem build-up, some sort of rebellious independence, some mechanism to say what is right and what isn't."

"Same here. He already broke the code. He could not follow what was asked. So, send him home now, together with his mother. Better now than in a week when he starts sobbing after talking to his mommy. I bet he was never even away from her. Spacespirtis! Twenty-one years old."

After long hours of examining video bits, six councilmen gathered outside in a gazebo overlooking the campus. They set around an oversized, rude, ceramic pot from which the wildflower tea was steaming and fragmenting the air. Each, using a long wooden ladle, served themselves a cup.

Above them, heavy clouds were piling up, looking gray and menacing. Autumn came fast to the Planet Fyora and lasted short, and those clouds might break out in snow rather than rain.

"It was a good idea to let one of their parents or guardians come here on the planet to say 'good-byes'."

"Yes, the idea of letting them see where their children would be living was a good one, and this way we can put them into elevated stress situations like saying 'good-byes' always are and see how exactly they all behave."

"It is not to say that these kids cannot outgrow a lot of errors of their youth and upbringing..."

"But that would require so much more effort on the part of educators...To change many of them this late in their development years would require a lot of energy."

"And a lot more time, and time we do not have...so, this is a very good preliminary screening. Great idea, Senator Sulivaro. "

“So, all in all, we already tossed out fifty of them.”

"Yes, that leaves us with exactly one thousand nine hundred and seventy-nine candidates to start with the training process. The youngest is only fifteen, the oldest twenty-one. "

"Not all of the farewells were bad. Look at this girl here…" The man placed a video bit above the fire pit. One skinny girl, dressed in running pants and a thick winter jacket was not taking her eyes off her mother. "Only fifteen years old. She is one of the youngest ones. And, look… She is comforting her crying mother. Look at that look in her eyes. How strong, how determined. She looks so calm, so assuring. And her hands, touching her mom like that!"

“You think it would be the other way around. Mother consoling her daughter.”

“Not here. She seems trying to be so strong for her mother. She seems tough…so ready to be here, so eager to embrace her opportunity.”

“What is her name?”

"Siya Flint from the Siux system… Her scores are the top one percent of all the aptitude tests. She is very impressive indeed… She displays the capacity to retain almost perfect memory, can learn a thirty line poem by heart after a single reading."

“It would be good to have individuals of such quality work for us.”

“Still, she is not through yet. It will be interesting to see if she can make it to the finish line.”

“Maybe we can help a bit, push her…”

“No. Actually, move her to the toughest group…If she makes it there, then we’ll talk about her. If not, she is better off then becoming a doctor or a scientist. That is the best what we can do for her.”

“I hope she makes it,” murmured one of them.

“So do I.”