Lumiea

Year -20 (L.D.)

The end of the competitions had brought much less fanfare than the initial days. Only a dozen people had even watched Aeryn's match. Which she won, of course.

She pressed her fingertips to the cool window of the airbus and craned her neck to look at the skyscrapers reaching down to the ground below them and stretching high above them. They'd caught some traffic on their trip to a downtown hotel that had been rented out for their big night. All of the privates-in-training would receive their squad assignments tonight, something each of them had been waiting for since they first began training as children.

After tonight, they would have a few days off to get to know their squad, and then they'd fly out for their first few weeks in one of the better controlled contested areas. It would still be the most danger Aeryn had ever faced–it was an active warzone. But it was ground they'd taken and needed to keep, not enemy territory which they had yet to conquer.

It was a new phase to her preparations that she looked forward to. This next year would involve learning to operate as a squad independently. Then they would join with others in a larger division as their training progressed. It was imperative to be successful alone or in larger formations. Aeryn was ready. She didn't need a few days off. She wanted to head out to test her limits now. This was what she had been preparing for. At least, once tonight was over.

She was not eager to rush through this introduction. Butterflies tickled her stomach as she thought of finally meeting the five comrades who would become a family to her. It had been a long time since having one of those. Everything in her life would soon revolve around them.

She turned from the window to lean back against it when she heard a shocked voice nearby.

"Holy fuckballs."

What kind of criminal excuse for jargon was that? Aeryn twisted with her expression pinched and looked right into the reddish eyes of none other than Jace.

She gasped. "Ah, fuck."

"Balls." His eyes quickly scanned her as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Are you a math person? Can you calculate these odds? How are you here?"

Aeryn lifted one brow and spoke in monotone. "How are you here?" Anyone who said something like fuckballs had no business being in the same program as her. He must have been reading some weird Earth shit.

"Wild," Jace said. "How have you been?"

"Great." Her tone came off as sarcastic. Well, so much for her plan not to get distracted talking to him. Why did he have to be on her airbus? Quickly, her stomach loosened. She was being a jerk and that wasn't like her. Forcing her tone to soften, she asked, "What about you?"

"Good." Jace grinned and lifted a hand to her. "I can't hear your accent at all."

"I wouldn't be in the program if you could."

"Right. I just know how hard it is to cover up our thick dialect. Bravo."

Aeryn blinked. "Are you insulting me?"

"I'm amazed. That's all."

Curiosity was getting the best of her as she held his eyes. How had they both ended up here? Had that ever happened in a small town like theirs? Their paths had separated when Aeryn left to study bioengineering and he'd moved on to a combat school. Despite how silly he'd just sounded, Aeryn remembered his performance during the festival. He'd done so well that she had only narrowly avoided having Nikka force her to talk to him. It was undeniable that he belonged here. But it just didn't seem like a good idea to mix home with her training when it had been so hard to leave everything behind.

"To be honest, I never took you seriously when you said you'd be a combat soldier for the program." Aeryn nodded in appreciation. "Guess I was wrong."

He looked built for this role. A mod junkie, for sure. He used more than just the wearables she had seen when he sparred. In the light that washed through the window, Aeryn could discern the subtle tint of blue beneath his skin from the biofluid mixing with the blood in his veins. While she wore her body enhancements, Jace most certainly had many of them surgically implanted.

"I took you seriously," he said. "You were such a nerd. I knew you'd outsmart everyone else and end up here."

She smirked. "You expected me then."

"Well," he said. "No. Not after I went through what I did to get here. I didn't think anyone would make it. Not even myself."

"Hm." Aeryn tilted her head. "You were always arrogant. Sounds like you're a changed man."

"I'm still arrogant enough. This program will humble you is all. At least, a little."

The way she'd felt seeing Commander Vehru for the first time filled her again and she nodded solemnly. "Guess so."

It took only a pause in the conversation for the amazement at running into him to catch up to her and for the nostalgia of home to prick her insides. They looked at one another for a moment.

"Doesn't feel real," she said.

"No." He broke the quietness with a chuckle. "Well, I should get going. I've got a new mod I'm getting used to. I have to eat constantly to keep my calories up during the adjustment period."

"Have fun."

"It was nice to see you." He gave her the same kind of taunting look that he had as kids when he wanted to tease her. "Just don't get the wrong idea."

She snorted. "Oh, and what ideas might I be getting?"

He clasped the rail above her head, smirking as the turbulence jostled them both. His face was close and voice low. "I'm the first person from my school to make it here in three years. I had to say hi. But I don't have time to make friends." He smirked. "Or anything else."

He was teasing her. That bastard. A memory nearly warmed her cheeks. Of her tripping while they all played tag at the park. Jace helping her up. Aeryn, at a young eleven, noticing for the first time that he had nice eyes. He'd given her a quick peck on the cheek after he helped her up and then ran away when she'd screamed at him. Then he'd laughed hysterically. Surely, he had been making fun of her then. Just like he was now. Arrogant asshole. Couldn't he tell she wanted nothing to do with him?

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Aeryn shifted forward into his space, holding his stare. The air between them was too thick to breathe with how frustrated he'd made her, so she held it in her lungs, puffing herself up with it, not letting him make her feel small. "You don't know me anymore, Jace. You don't know what I've done to get here." His thick frame cut her off from everyone else on the bus, so it felt like it was only the two of them. But she wouldn't let that weaken her voice. "I'm the one who doesn't have time, because I'm not just going to make it here. I'm racing for the top."

The smirk on his face had softened into an appreciative smile. His gaze ever so briefly flashed down her and then he nodded. "Alright, Aerie." A deep sigh. "We understand each other."

But that sigh, the rumble of a childhood nickname no one ever called her anymore, the reminder of home and all they'd left behind, shredded the words they'd said and the tough composure they'd had to spend years cultivating. They swayed in the turbulence again, for a moment, two kids from a little town lost in a city that could swallow them whole. For that brief hesitation, before Aeryn eased back and Jace took a step away, neither of them smirked or puffed themselves up. They held each other's eyes even though they'd promised–threatened–not to get too close.

Aeryn missed home. Missed it in a deep ache that never left her bones. Did he miss it too?

Jace turned away from her and didn't look back once as he slid through the crowd for the door to the food cart.

She fell back against the wall and released all the pent up breath.

The odds.

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Aeryn could hardly stand still in the little stall, surrounded on three sides by a curtain that separated her from the rest of her squad. After waiting for hours in her hotel room, her time had finally come, and she'd had to keep herself from running to the third floor where the introduction would take place.

Now she was buzzing with excitement and it made her feel like a silly kid. Aeryn hated feeling that way. Her whole life, everyone had commented on how empathetic she was. Sometimes kindness could make her seem weak. So she could not afford to act childish. Sure, she was young at only seventeen. That was an excuse, though. Age no longer mattered. She was a soldier now.

But she still couldn't help feeling giddy.

Commander Vehru stood in the center of the room. She rarely had occasion to speak to new recruits personally. So it was a great honor to have her introduce each of them to their squad.

"The introduction is one of my favorite nights of the year." Vehru normally sounded so commanding. Even though her voice was still strong, she spoke more casually, and it was strange to hear. "We are very careful with our selection of squads. We like to see who gets along well together during the initial months of training. The bond you share is life and death. There will come a time when you'll only have each other and everything, from your survival to your mission, will depend on that."

Aeryn held her breath as Vehru met her eyes this time.

"These five are your blood."

Vehru pressed the button that would draw back the curtain so the entire team could see one another. Anticipation pounded against Aeryn's chest as she turned to look. Her throat tightened when she immediately saw Nikka. Despite trying to remain stoic and professional, Aeryn couldn't catch the relieved and joyful smile that came over her face. But as she turned to look at the others, seeing a man she didn't recognize, and a shorter woman with a stern expression, she made out a familiar figure from the corner of her eye. Shock hit her as hard as a fist to her gut.

Jace stood in the stall beside her, already looking at her, his jaw slack.

"You both looked surprised." Vehru chuckled quietly. "It's so rare for two people from one community, much less one small town, to both make it into the program in the same class. The bond you formed in childhood will strengthen your squad now. Well done to both of you for making it here."

This was why they'd ended up on the same airbus. Not once had Aeryn suspected that Commander Vehru would place them in a squad together. Her mind couldn't wrap around seeing him the first time still and certainly she couldn't comprehend that they would be fighting together as long as they were alive. Her instinct to stay away had clearly been misplaced.

Aeryn couldn't breathe as she looked into Jace's eyes. It looked as if he couldn't either. The longing for her mother and father, her brothers and sisters, her grandparents, and everyone she had grown up loving suffocated her once again. He brought home back to her in a way she couldn't ignore. This pressure in her chest was more than that though, wasn't it? Aeryn had cared about him once and she'd always lost everyone she cared for. It scared her to think of letting someone back in. And that made her realize how terrifying it would be to really let the rest of the squad in. Her joy at the thought of a new family soured in fear at the reality.

For so long she had only had herself and her mission to lose. That had been all-consuming. How much more painful and frightening would it be to get close these people and risk losing them?

It was expected to greet one another but her tongue clung to the roof of her mouth and her voice was stuck in her throat. "My blood is your blood," Aeryn managed.

He nodded, eyes serious. "And mine is yours."

That promise meant more than anything in Aeryn's life now. This was the sacred bond between members of a squad. Their mission was everything, and their mission was accomplished together, not alone.

"Take the next three days to get to know one another," Vehru said. "The morning you leave for your first tour, you must be prepared to work together. Otherwise, you won't make it. This isn't just training anymore. You'll be defending the federation and the planet from terrorists who stand against everything we believe in."

No matter what happened from here on out, whether they remained one combat squad for life, or whether they rose the ranks to become leaders in their own specialties, even once they married with children, this bond would remain. They would never really go their separate ways. Together they would fight as a squad or together they would advance as officers, parallel to one another, expected to continue to be each other's closest confidants. In this life they'd chosen for themselves, it was not a person's spouse who was their closest life partner. It was the five chosen for their squad.

If one of them died or was dismissed from duty, they would never be truly replaced. The emptiness never filled. Whoever filled the boots of the lost member would be someone who had already lost their own squad. It wouldn't be the same.

Aeryn was now supposed to be whole as she stood with her comrades, only she didn't feel whole.

All she could feel was fear. It was something she'd learned to no longer feel for herself. Now, it wasn't just her anymore.

She had a new family. And that seemed incredibly dangerous to her.

Vehru introduced each private-in-training. Every squad was comprised of six members–four combat soldiers–Nikka, Jace, Alix, and Lyon, in their case–and two specialists.

Aeryn was one as the bioengineer. The other specialist was introduced as their data analyst, Trin. Aeryn glanced at the other private's stern face. It was a unique job she had. Analysts merged their own neurology with AI through a permanent neural implant that allowed them to work seamlessly–instantly–with the best available AI software.

This was the most dangerous of all the roles, because despite the advancements made in singularity tech, it was still challenging for the human mind to function with the AI. Insanity was a major risk for all data analysts and the reason so few managed to make a career of it. The number of mental and neurological issues which could arise from the implant were enough to make Aeryn's head spin thinking about it. Those who could succeed were highly valued. Every squad needed a good analyst.

Commander Vehru, herself, possessed her own form of singularity tech, only it was far more advanced. Though Aeryn's world was a part of the Federation, they were not full citizens, and did not have access to the federation's proprietary technology. Her world would need much more time to get to that level. Earth was the first planet they would liberate. It would take at least five more conquests–hundreds of years of work–for them to qualify. It was a great honor, though, to be a part of helping her planet work toward full membership.

After the introductions, Aeryn expected to be dismissed. But Vehru shared there was one more matter to discuss.

"It's important for you to be aware of something we have not shared with you before now. Every team has one member who functions in two roles."

They all looked around at this information. Who had the dual role? What could it be?

"We have many important positions in our organization, some more public than others. Take the generals. We all know who the generals are and understand their function." Commander Vehru looked at each of them. "There is only one person who serves in our most important job in our entire operation."

The most important? More important than the General in Chief in the highest office of the armed forces? Or the Senior Combat General who was the top rank of all field operations? That didn't make sense. How could there be anyone more important than they were? Other than Commanders Vehru and Morfrain, of course.

"Your squad, like every squad, has one candidate for this role. None of you have the clearance yet to know more than what I'm about to tell you. And even this is not to be spoken of. Ever."

Commander Vehru leveled her deep stare directly at Aeryn. Her stomach lodged up into her chest.

"Your candidate for the Witness Program is Aeryn. Protect her life at all costs."

Slowly her five comrades shifted to look at her as the room seemed to close in.

The panicked question slipped from her lips before she could stop it. "Me?"

What the hell was the Witness Program?