Lumiea

Year -20 (L.D.)

There had been a great many years before Liberation Day when Aeryn only wanted one thing. She'd felt born for it and sacrificed everything in her life for it. Everything. Her home, her family, even her language.

Back then, she hadn't yet discovered who she really was. What she had really been training for.

So twenty years before Liberation Day, when she shuffled forward in a tight line of fellow students, her heart was leaping within her chest. Aeryn had waited her entire life to take this one step. No, not waited. She'd fought, bled, and defied all manner of odds for this. When she took hold of the handle of the air bus and looked down to the crispness of the teal grass beneath her, she expected the moment to feel impossibly dynamic.

Instead, the trainee behind her sighed in her ear and nudged her, leaving her feeling entirely rushed.

Aeryn stepped foot on the grounds of Iyla for the first time and followed the line of trainees, unable to savor the moment her dreams had become reality. But with each step she took toward the famous marble pillars supporting the dome where her peers gathered, it felt more real.

The distant city rose on the horizon like white and gray mountains. The training grounds were far from the city limits to give them plenty of room to work without jeopardizing any civilians or property, but this was the closest that Aeryn had ever come to a skyscraper in person. There'd hardly been time for sleep, much less travels, as she studied and worked to make it into this program.

"Look at that." A girl walking alongside her stared overhead at the airbuses waiting to enter the arrival zone. Patches of shadows fell over them as they walked beneath the vehicles.

Everything was new here. Back home, Aeryn had lived in a small town that didn't even have an airbus. When she'd left to study bioengineering, she'd moved to a city that had its own fleet like the rest of the civilized world, but they hadn't had a single skyscraper there. Hundreds glittered on this horizon.

Incredible.

Aeryn joined the recruits who had come from all over the planet to enter the program. She knew no one. Out of all the students in her hometown, only five had been accepted in the prestigious schools that trained students to come here. And from that school, Aeryn had been the only one in her year to make it. It had been the second home, the second family, that she'd had to say goodbye to in her short seventeen years.

No sense in feeling sorry for herself. The wonder of Iyla had made her sentimental. Aeryn stared at the ribbed ceiling of the dome and studied the details of the architecture while waiting for the introduction proceedings to begin. Nearly an hour passed after she'd arrived when the students crowding in to join beneath the enormous dome slowed to a trickle.

Three beeps sounded and though no one had explained what that meant, every single trainee fell silent. Aeryn glanced around to see that instructors had gathered in groups around the perimeter of the dome. She recognized the same style of training suit they wore, almost identical to that of her previous instructors, except that stamped in gold across the right shoulder read "Iyla".

The moment she'd anticipated as she stepped off the airbus suddenly captured her. Her heart stilled. Her breathing slowed. This was it. A childlike sense of wonder crawled over her skin in rippling chills.

"Welcome." The voice echoed throughout the dome.

Aeryn looked up to see that where the ceiling above them had been empty before there now hovered two commanders over them.

Immediately and instinctively, she dropped her head in respect. Those around her did the same.

Though she had never never met the pair, she knew who they were, just like everyone else here. They were the two Ephemorian Commanders who served as ambassadors to the Ephemor Federation and as the overseers of the Liberation Program on her planet. Aeryn had grown up dreaming of the day that they would welcome her.

Commander Vehru was the one to speak while Commander Morfrain remained at her side. The two were equal in power but had different tasks. It was Vehru who took charge of the program while Morfrain spent more time working with the federation. Commander Vehru's biomechanical body caught the dim light at the top of the dome and faintly shimmered with it. Though she looked human like the rest of Aeryn's race, her skin had a certain sheen to it, and the perfection of her body made her appear almost unreal. Vehru's light pink hair was tied into a neat bun and her golden eyes glowed in the darkness. The woman's skin, while tender to the touch, would be as hard to scratch as steel. Not that Aeryn had ever touched an Ephemorian. She'd just studied it with great interest at school. Their bodies were amazing feats of technology and innovation. A true leap in evolution that made the body modifications of Aeryn's people look like the work of a caveman.

"I understand the effort it took for you to make it here today. We thank you for your service."

Aeryn had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep herself from smiling. It was inappropriate and childish, but she was star-struck in a way she never had been. To meet Commander Vehru in person was unbelievable. What would her parents think of her if they could see this? Did they know she had made it?

Without warning, longing shot through her heart like a bullet. It had been seven years since she had spoken to them. That was the price of training for the most elite program in her world. Vehru's soldiers had to be completely committed with nothing tying them back to their homes or even their world. Aeryn banished the pain from her heart. Unacceptable, really. What was wrong with her?

"I won't waste our time on congratulations, not when we have so much to accomplish. Your first trial starts now."

A murmur spread through the crowd. So few people made it to Iyla in the first place and anyone who succeeded never returned home. Whenever someone did fail and come back, they didn't talk about what had happened here. They didn't talk about anything having to do with the program. Aeryn had no idea what to expect and she wasn't sure why she hadn't anticipated this. At the very least, she thought they would be assigned their dorms.

The instructors shot holograms above their heads as they spread out. Aeryn found the bioengineering symbol and jogged to an older woman who looked like she hadn't smiled a day in her life.

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"Hold your arms out."

A dozen or so had circled around the instructor. They each complied immediately. The woman's hand flashed almost too quickly to see and she slashed open the forearm of the nearest trainee, right down to the bone. Disciplined enough to not scream despite the shock of the injury, the boy's mouth opened wide in a silent, straining gape.

Aeryn steeled herself as the instructor did the same to each person. Determined to handle herself better than everyone else, to set herself apart, she clenched her teeth and stubbornly refused to react at all as the thin knife flashed and pain erupted in her arm.

Blood poured out immediately. The morning supplements helped to slow blood loss, but this was a deep cut. She would need to treat the wound soon or dizziness would set in.

"Tend your wounds. The closure must be perfect."

A few trainees looked to one another, like anyone would be able to give them the answer. If their schools had done their job then they had been extensively trained like Aeryn had been in developing first aid medicine from scant supplies. The problem was that these were more than just scant supplies. They had nothing except for grass and dirt.

Good thing Aeryn had worn her best mods. She winced as she squeezed her hands together to activate the thin membrane covering her palms. The grass was bright, which meant the soil likely had a decent amount of minerals. Aeryn dropped to the ground and did not waste her time holding her wound shut. Instead, she dug for a clump of dirt and squeezed it in her palm to get a reading.

The information flowed freely through her mind. There wasn't enough here to work with. It would take a truckful of this dirt to have enough of the minerals she needed. The grass would have nothing to offer to help with a sealant to apply to her arm.

Aeryn looked down at the blood pouring from her wrist. She felt disconnected from the pain, like it belonged to someone else. Biologics always provided far better material to work with. In an emergency, blood could be used to supplement a sealant mixture, but she would need more of it. Horror and revulsion filled her, because she didn't need any longer than that to understand what the instructor intended for them to do. The practice was meant for emergency, dire medical treatment, when the blood of a dead comrade could be used, or a person had lost enough to use their own.

There was no time for weakness. Not when she'd pass out quickly if she couldn't apply the sealant and prevent further loss once she'd bled herself. This had to be perfect.

She spread the dirt over her arm to soak up the blood she already lost and then pressed the palm mod against the wound. Pain gripped her stomach in anticipation. Aeryn suctioned the blood with her mod, thinking of how much she needed, and allowing the device to do the rest for her.

It was self-inflicted torture knowing she could end the pain by simply willing it to stop. Sharp zaps in sync with her heart cut into her body. But the fear buzzing through her was much worse. What if she couldn't do this? What would her life be then?

Though she'd managed not to react to the initial knife wound, this was too much. Her blood was draining fast, congealing in her palm as she focused on collecting it. Weakness and horrific pain zapped her endurance and sank her to her side.

Her eyes threatened to close as she continued to draw in more blood.

Finally, she had enough. But the calculation on how much time she had before losing consciousness was not good. Less than a minute. Aeryn gathered the dirt and blood into her hands and withdrew the travel extractor from her pocket. It would take thirty seconds to extract the minerals she needed. At least ten for her to compress it into a paste. Did she have enough time?

The thoughts swirled in her mind as the world grew darker and she waited for the extractor to work its magic. Aeryn didn't even hear the quiet ding when it was done. No longer did she feel the rush of panic or adrenaline. All of her being went into creating this trial. She opened the extractor and used her mod to apply the heat and pressure needed to create her emergency flesh sealant.

Dots danced in her eyes as she spread it over the edges of her open skin and forced herself to push it into her gaping wound. The pain overcame her and ripped the breath from her lungs. Still, she couldn't stop. Couldn't hesitate or flinch. As she closed the wound and held pressure to seal it, there was no thought as to whether she would be okay, or when this pain would end. Had she sealed her would well enough? Was it perfect?

She had just lost her hold on the world when warmth flooded her chest. A full minute passed and Aeryn managed to make out the image of the instructor standing over her. The woman had injected her with her medication to help her regain consciousness and had wrapped her wrists with a body mod that was so expensive, Aeryn thought she never would have seen one in person. It wouldn't fix her blood loss, but it would help her body be able to push oxygen through her system with less blood and more efficiency.

Her strength slowly returned. Throughout the ordeal, she had not registered the other trainees or attempted to look at them. So she looked now. No one else had made it as far as she had yet, though two were close. She cringed as she watched them struggling to apply the sealant to their wounds. Others were still sucking the blood from their own bodies with their implant. And three were passed out on the ground with their wounds only partially sealed.

"It's always an honor to see the first." The instructor wasn't smiling, but her face didn't look so tense. "There's always one the others copy. Well done, child."

Aeryn managed to sit up. "Thank you. I'm well enough. Can I give these to someone else?" She felt faint still but worried about the others losing so much blood.

"You need to take care of yourself. Let them take care of themselves."

That seemed hard to do when they were passed out.

Once another person had successfully applied their sealant, the instructor did take the wrist wraps from her. The ones who had failed were still bleeding on the ground.

What if they died? The thought chilled her. Was the instructor leaving to them own their fate?

It felt like ages before everyone who had managed to seal their arms was sitting up, looking pale and shaken. The instructor inspected their arms and nodded. "Perfect. What perfect seals. The skin is closed together nicely. The soldiers you help in combat will be lucky, indeed."

Then she frowned as she looked at one girl's arm.

"No, that won't do. Look, it isn't as tight here as it is there. You're dismissed."

"Yes, ma'am. Sorry, ma'am. Where…" Worry pinched her face. "Where am I dismissed to?"

"Home, of course."

"Home? Like the dorms?"

"No, child. Home like where you come from and where you belong. I'm sure you'll find a way to make your parents proud there."

The girl let out a horrified cry, the kind she should have released when her arm had been cut open. But the instructor moved on from her and continued to inspect everyone's work. Aeryn could not slow the beating of her heart when the scrutinizing eyes fell on her. It would be better to die than go home a failure.

The instructor didn't leave her wondering for long. "Very nice," she said. "You're one to keep an eye on."

And just like that, the trial that had ruined the dreams of five trainees was done. The instructor called medics to carry away the injured and sent two more to wait for the airbus. The rest of them were pointed toward the cafeteria.

"You'll find first aid near the entrance. A few minutes with the machines and you'll feel brand new."

Aeryn watched the two trainees walk away back toward the airbuses and tried not to think about the ones still unconscious. The programs before this had been cutthroat and high stakes. But she hadn't known that one small mistake in the very first trial could send a person home. It wasn't really fair. What if it was one bad second? What if they would have made for great soldiers in the field?

Aeryn supposed that during the real deal, none of that mattered. One bad second could kill a person. This was a new level of training, just like the rest of this complex and city was new to her.

As much as it scared her, it made her more determined than ever. Because Aeryn would be there on Liberation Day. There was a planet waiting to be set free. To have hope and help after so long alone in the darkness of space. This work was sacred. An entire planet depended on them.

And there was no way Aeryn was going to fail at the only thing she had ever wanted in her life. She'd suck every drop of blood from her own body first.