QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

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"It's impossible!" hissed Becca. "This can't be real!"

Will shushed her and gave a quick look around. No one seemed to have noticed her agitated state. The class was in their cooldown period after training, and they were wiping down their mechs before packing them away.

"Wait!" whispered Remy and tapped his pad. "I'll get a secure line set up!"

A minute later, Remy handed them two pairs of earbuds. Becca sighed and connected the buds with her CAD, putting them on. "I can understand being careful when we are on the net, but we are talking face to face. Isn't this a little paranoid?"

Remy snorted and pointed at the mechs beside them. His lips barely moved when he spoke, but he came through loud and clear from the earbuds. "The suits aren't even under our control. The first thing his asshole cousin—" Remy pointed at Will—"showed us is that they can wrench control of it at any moment. I'd rather not talk next to it."

"Fine, fine." Becca relented and touched her throat. The CAD suit clung snugly around it and was picking up her voice. Speaking only through their suits was a lot safer.

"I'd better clean up the mech when I get the chance," said Remy. "I don't want this sword hanging over our heads forever."

Becca nodded and turned to Will. "So, tell us. You can't drop something so big and then keep us hanging."

Will's eyes flicked between the two before he started his tale. They listened with rapt attention, and when he reached the part where he predicted and countered the grenades, Becca looked pensive.

"We have to test this," she said.

"How? Which one of you is going to punch me?" Will smiled.

"We could flip a credit token," said Becca.

Remy shrugged and brought out a round metal coin-like token. "Careful, I got half my life savings in that."

"If I lose it, I'll pay you back." Becca snatched the token and handed it to Will.

"Alright, princess," Remy grinned. "Make sure to lose it, Will. I'll double what I have and cut you half."

Becca smacked him on the arm, and both of them waited with bated breath for Will to flip the token.

Will rotated the token between his fingers. There was a tower symbol on the front and a fig leaf on the back. "Okay, on the count of one, two, three..."

He flipped the token and stared at his arm in anticipation. It landed on the back of his hand, but no markings appeared on his body, much less a vision.

"Um..." began Will.

"Did you do it?" asked Remy.

"Yes, I'm still connected to the crystal, but... I don't know what happened," said Will bewildered.

Remy scratched his chin. "Maybe you are doing too many things at once. This time don't think about your arm, just focus on catching the token. I'll keep track of the markings."

Will shrugged and triggered the skill. The world around him vibrated, and he felt something pressing against the back of his hand. The premonition was gone before he could blink, and he found the token spinning in the air. He caught it before it could fall, and resting on the back of his hand was the token with the tower symbol facing up.

"Will, look!" said Becca with an excited whisper.

Dotted on his arm were red coin-shaped symbols of both the tower and fig leaf. There were dozens of them.

There was a flash of a camera as Remy took a picture of his hand. "Now this is odd. It didn't tell you the future. It shows both heads and tails. What does this mean?"

"That both probable futures are true?" guessed Will. "So fifty-fifty?"

Remy shook his head. "If something as simple as a coin can have fifty-fifty, what about a person? You were able to accurately predict where the disruptors would land, so why is it beaten by a coin?"

Will looked thoughtful as he examined the token.

"Wait! There is something," said Remy. "Oh, this is interesting. The number of leaf and tower markings are not the same. There are fifteen leaf symbols and only eight towers. Do you know what this means?"

"The probability is skewed," said Becca. "The crystal got it right."

"65% chance of it being leaf. Yes, that does change things," said Will. "I have an idea. Let's try it again."

He readied the token again and took a breath. "Ready? One, two, three."

He tossed the coin and triggered the skill, but this time only after the token had left his fingers. The world around him vibrated, and he felt light smacks against his left hand. It lasted only for a moment before he was wrenched back into reality. The coin landed on the back of his hand, and several markings appeared on his hand, predominantly of the tower. In fact, he would guess ninety percent of it was. Will slowly revealed the token, and facing up was the fig leaf.

"The leaf is up, which means it landed on the tower," Becca said in a hushed whisper.

"Ninety-one percent," said Remy with a grin. "Almost a perfect prediction."

"Why is it so different?" asked Becca. "I didn't see you do anything different."

Will explained what he did, and Remy and Becca looked thoughtful.

"So, you made a prediction when the future was already set?" Remy mused.

"This is not future sight," said Becca. "There is some simple trick behind this. The future cannot be set."

"Why not?"

"Because this violates several known laws of psionics! This is bonkers!"

Remy chuckled. "We still haven't hashed out our disagreement about the thing's origins. Natural or manufactured?"

"Oh, not this again." Becca sighed, glancing at Will. "You okay, Will? You look a little pale."

"Yeah," said Will, his breathing uneven. "Just catching my breath. Something just occurred to me. Do you remember the first time I used the skill?"

"Yes, the military symbol," said Becca quietly.

"How did it get there?" mused Remy.

Will frowned, placed the token on his hand until it pressed hard against his skin, and then lifted it up.

"You are telling me..." said Remy, catching on. "Did you press a seal on yourself? There was a lot of crap on that desk back then."

"I don't remember," Will shook his head. "But what I do remember is that I was in the bathroom when it happened. How could the shard predict the seal that was a room away?"

Silence fell among the trio.

Remy cursed. "What the hell is this thing?"

"Attention!" A yell came from an officer. "You have five minutes to pack your gear."

Becca sighed. "That's enough for now. We will test more tomorrow."

Remy nodded, while Will stared at the token in his hand, lost in thought. Just what did all this mean?

▼.▼.▼

Morning came around, and the cadets went about their usual pattern. The routine was ingrained into them by now, so it came as a surprise that they finally got to do their drills outside.

Remy and Will were in their mechs, jogging up the road without saying a word. Becca joined them shortly and was surprised by their sullen silence.

"Why are you two so quiet?" asked Becca. "Most of the time I can't get you to shut up, Remy. What's going on?"

Remy tapped the side of his helmet, and Becca understood. They connected with their CADs and went on a private network separate from the mechs.

"Just to be sure," said Remy. "I went through the armor, but you never know. Might need to check them again."

"Enough stalling," said Becca. "Tell me what happened."

"We tried Will's little trick on the stock market," said Remy. "Didn't work."

Becca snorted. "Honestly. You two are the smartest dumb people I know."

"Hey, those are fighting words!" said Will.

"She called me smart," said Remy. "I think it is the first compliment she has given me."

"It is not a compliment, you dolt!"

"And... we are back," said Remy.

"What would be the first place the officials look if you had a skill like this?" asked Becca.

"The stock market," Remy sighed.

"Or any place you can make quick cash," said Becca. "You are lucky it didn't work."

"If this is luck, give me damnation," Remy shook his fist in the air.

Will laughed and looked around them. It wasn't snowing as heavily today, and the base looked a lot less grim. In the distance, Atlas Mons loomed. The megastructure was covered in frost and looked more like an unusually symmetrical mountain than anything man-made. Several lights blinked high up the Tower, and Will spotted several airships taking off and landing. The commercial ships were few and far between, but it was a whole another story about the military ones.

High above the clouds, huge ships glided across the Nimbostratus cover, and titanic shadows could be seen moving above them. There were so many that Will lost count of them.

"That's a hell of a lot of ships," he murmured.

"They say it is the largest mobilization in a decade," said Remy. "Things are getting really dicey at the border."

"Let's hope the troubles stay over there," muttered Will.

They rounded the corner and came to their new training area. The obstacle course was quite expansive. They had the standard climbable walls and balance beams. A bit further up the course, there were hurdles and monkey bars. Will didn't know when he would ever require the knowledge to swing across iron bars with mech armor on, but he supposed it was good training for better control and dexterity. Right now, he could barely run without tripping up on his feet.

The class halted and quickly got into formation. Weeks of running the same drills had them executing their usual orders without even being prompted.

Tara Lawson stepped forward and addressed the squad. "Today's PT session will be in this obstacle course. You already have a rudimentary understanding of how to move your mech. Now you must learn finesse and control."

"Speaking of finesse, your performance yesterday was—I won't sugarcoat it—subpar. You weren't economical with your internal reserves—"

"Hard to be economical when you have bombs thrown at you," muttered Remy, and Becca shushed him.

"—Yes, you managed to fight harder for a few seconds, but what good is that? There is no need for you to be in the machine if you are only going to spend mere minutes in it."

"So, that is your goal for the day," continued Instructor Lawson. "Be economical. Be efficient. And you will do this with another class, the Shield Horns. You will be cross-training with them on the course. Make sure to play nice."

The sound of stomping mechs came from behind them, and Will spotted another class marching to their location. Their mechs were painted differently, and they had a lot more grey in their mechs than their stark white. The new class marched in sync and seemed a lot more coordinated. The squad finished their quick march and came into formation right beside their group.

Two instructors stepped forward. Their white exosuits matched Instructor Lawson's suit, and one of them handed a datapad to her. She examined the pad and nodded. The duo took their place behind her.

Will frowned and blinked a few eye commands. The HUD zoomed in on one of the instructor's hands. There was a lime green band around his wrist, and the bracelet depicted a lizard biting its own tail.

"What's with all the lizard jewelry?" Will muttered.

"What was that?" asked Remy, but Will waved it off as nothing.

Instructor Lawson lowered the pad and called out, "Cadet Valerie Maxwell, Ethan Wright, and Oscar Wilson, step forward."

Will brought his HUD to normal zoom and spotted Valerie Maxwell step out of formation. He dismissed the small bubble with her name popping above her head and watched her stride forward with two other mechs. The three moved with the grace and fluidity of people who had been piloting for years.

The instructor gave a nod. "The three of you have shown some excellent situation awareness and great piloting skills. Why don't you show the rest of the class how it is done."

The three saluted and proceeded towards the start of the course.

The Shieldhorns broke into applause, but the instructors didn't bother reprimanding them.

"Let's go, Val," Victor cheered.

"Wow," said Becca. "We will get to see people who have been in the arenas."

Remy gave an appreciative nod, and Will folded his arms with eyes fixed on Val. "This will be interesting."