I was the two hundredth and fifteenth twenty-five year old to walk through our assigned entrance to the Arena floor and along one of the eight paths leading to the centre of it until I stopped at my assigned position between the ones who had entered before and after myself. We had been placed in order from the oldest to youngest in our age group and once the last of the speeches had been made and the platform holding one of the two hundred and fifty large Devices that are used to determine those who will progress to the actual system trial.
What the Du’atha call them never mind whoever actually invented them is unknown but they are commonly referred to as System Trial Aptitute Recognition Scanners by the people of earth or STARS for short. They are Octagonally shaped large kiosk or gazebo-like structures with a flat roof and eight entrances. A half a meter in diameter semi-circular console that has room for up to eight individuals to place their hands upon it rises from the floor in the middle to a height of about a meter. The structure itself is three meters tall and has a diameter of about four and a half meters and it and the console are entirely made of some kind of crystalline material that is greyish in colour.
When the first batch of eight lottery winners entered the STARS eight holes opened up in the roof and a small greyish transparent orb emerged from each of them and floated up about a meter into the air above each of those about to be scanned. While the participants were directly told the result of their scans by the device these orbs would allow the onlookers to be kept informed of the results. If they were chosen to undertake the system trial the orbs directly above them turned green for two seconds otherwise they turned red.
There was also a rumour that on rare occasions other colours might appear but it hadn't happened during any of the previous ceremonies that had been held on Earth, so who knew. Out of the first batch of eight that entered the device all the orbs turned red and it was until the third that a green light appeared.
By the time I stopped paying attention about five minutes later, the largest number of green orbs to appear in a single batch was only three and that had only occurred once. Since the first year that the ceremony had been held on average only 9.23 percent of those tested had progressed to the system trial and there hadn't been much variation year on year.
Soon it was the turn of the individual in front of me and by then I was too close to the device to see the orbs even if I had wanted to I did not see how he faired. While waiting my turn I hadn't even tried talking to either him or the woman behind me so worried I had been about my fate. The possibility that I would not progress never crossed my mind not even for a moment and when I could no longer be distracted by wondering about the fates of others all I could think about was the moment in the not-too-distant future when my family would be informed of my demise.
I knew with my very being this would come no matter what I did or said, sure they say the system trial, whatever form it actually takes and there are many schools of thought on that, can and has been completed by others, the Du,atha included. But how many had to undertake it before that had occurred and how many races had failed to do so even after two hundred and fifty years of trying.
The Du'atha were not very forthcoming about things like that or at least such information never filtered down to the population at large.
At the same time, I was also aware that simply giving up wasn't really an option either, sure I had no chance of succeeding but life isn't fair and all you can do with it is make the best of what it throws your way. If I couldn't finish the trial no matter what then all I could do was to last as long as I possibly could. The longest any human had survived so far was one year and two months or more accurately to say four hundred and twenty-five days including one of those twenty-nine day Februarys.
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Thus just as what I had long feared was to be my fate was coming ever closer I suddenly became determined to last longer and by a large margin at that. How I was to go about this was at that point unimportant and frankly immaterial all that really mattered was my determination to do so. It was I thought at the time and subsequently certainly a far wiser course than simply giving up even if just as far as my sanity was concerned. With my decision thus made I tried not to wonder how long this newfound determination might last but rather how many of my compatriots were thinking similar thoughts before walking over to the console and placing my hands upon it.
For those reading this who have been fortunate enough never to have experienced being scanned by a STARS device, it may be hard to understand why those who have never spoken about it. No matter how I might go about explaining the process I can never do so for you see those who do not pass are made to completely forget and those who do well their memory of it has been replaced with an image of the devastation a blackhole is causing as it passes through a solar system.
Even though it may look nothing like ours everyone who has undergone this forever know in our hearts that it actually is. This image is quickly replaced by the information that we have been successful and that in a few days, we will have to leave all we have ever known behind to face our greatest fear. You would think that every year this realisation might drive a few of us to the point of madness or beyond but it never has and perhaps this is one of the things the device judges us on.
Thankfully I did not have to question what actually happened in those few moments I was judged fit to face the trials ahead. Like all those others who were similarly judged I just knew without any doubt that it was the way things are and that there is nothing I could do to change that even if I was far more knowledgeable about the system than anyone else since those who created it.
With the affirmations of my fate, I left the device that had sentenced me to my inevitable death and exited the ceremonial space by one of the eight doors next to the device. On the other side of the door was a short corridor with three doors at the end I walked through the one on the right with a small digital sign saying 'Successful Candidates Here' while seven other individuals who had entered the corridor at the same time as I walked through the central one that said 'Unsuccessful Candidates Enter Here'.
On the other side was a large room nearly filled with rows full of all kinds of chairs some of which were already occupied. Shortly after sitting down on one of them, I received a communication from the Du'atha wishing me well in the trial ahead and informing me of the landing location where the shuttle that would take me to their ship in three days would pick me up and also a list of the few things I was permitted to bring with me. This mainly consisted of a change of clothes, a single keepsake and several items that I didn't own in the first place and even if it had been otherwise I would have left them behind with my family.
After reading it thoroughly, more than once I received another one from my sister with a video clip attached plus a link. I quickly played the video clip which showed the eight orbs above the STARS device one of which flashed Amber twice before turning red. I never heard about one of them doing that before and I quickly wondered why she had sent me it but then the image of the orbs was replaced with one of me and I realised it must have been me that had caused the phenomenon. I spent a few moments pondering what it all meant before following the link which lead me to information explaining what the orb flashing orange signified.
According to the information provided a single flashing light means that one of the parameters the STARS device scans for is found to be at a borderline level and so it redoes the relevant part of the scan and this usually leads to the orbs then turning red. Sometimes however it turns green and while this doesn't occur that often it isn't unheard of but it flashing Amber twice and then turning green is, at least where the Du'atha are concerned though apparently the race that ran them through the system trial over a millennium ago once informed them about chancing upon second-hand information concerning a member of another race overhearing unconfirmed rumours of an orb once flashing Amber three times before eventually turning red.
Whatever the truth of this god-knows-how-many-handed rumour it was clear that the device had twice redone elements of its testing before, though I wish it had been otherwise ultimately deciding I was ready to face the trials ahead of me.