The heck did I just do?

I just ordered the president to shoo away her robot bodyguards. Roboguards. I didn’t even recognize that I’d been talking to the president! What kind of First Division citizen was I?

She—the president—led me down a long corridor. Only the two of us. She might have had her robots follow if I hadn’t protested.

My legs were numb, so keeping up was hard, and I felt uncomfortable being so close to the leader of my entire division. I spaced out my own footsteps to give her room.

“No need to keep your distance on my account, Wander,” President Frost said as she beckoned me closer. That was immediate. Was she watching me? “I wish to know more about you. Your reason for being here. It’s important to know as much as I can about my future explorers. Especially when one is Michelangelo Locke’s grandson. Honestly, you should be walking ahead of me.”

I tripped as though I’d stumbled on an invisible rope.

“So you know about my grandfather? Sorry, dumb question. Who hasn’t heard of the guy?” I tried masking my disdain, but my grimace wasn’t going anywhere. If you wanted to instantly end any conversation with me, all you had to do was mention my grandfather. “I wouldn’t say having a deceased war hero in the family influenced my decision much. I just crave adventure, and being an explorer means satisfying that craving every day. Oh! I’m also here to help people of course! Explorers experience different cultures and record the findings; that’s helpful.”

She chuckled. “How kind. An explorer’s primary task is indeed to search for, discover, and report interesting findings on ‘alien’ planets. However, should help be needed, I trust them to offer it. Any ambassador of the First Division should know that much.”

Nailed it.

The space-themed hallway led to a series of doors. Each one was steel and bulky like it was made from cruiser parts. It only took a glimpse to know that they were modeled after spaceship doors. They were made to be fortified against the icy depths of space.

“Enter through this door and wear the equipment presented.” President Frost raised a palm. The space suit parts around it clicked and retreated, revealing her bare palm…and lovely purple nails. She pressed it against a hand scanner beside the door, which glowed green at her touch. The door slid open with a thunk. She nodded like this was a victory. “Good luck! I shall be seeing you soon.”

President Frost walked away before I could ask her to elaborate. I assumed that meant she’d see me afterward. I’d be an actual explorer by then. The thought left a warm feeling in my stomach.

I couldn’t see into the room; a wall of darkness made sure of that. But I didn’t have to see inside to know that it led to the rest of my life. I bounced on the balls of my feet, hyping myself up. This was it!

I sprinted into the darkness with the door sliding shut behind me. The remaining light faded, leaving only the dark. I couldn’t see my own hands in front of my face. My first instinct was to activate the lights, but there was no switch. I think. It wasn’t like I could visually confirm that.

Blue seeped into the room, waving off the shadows. The walls, floor, and ceiling all ushered in a virtual sea. My brain couldn’t accept that I wasn’t going to stand in water.

Click!

A beam of light burst into the center of the room. I blinked the stars from my eyes and peered at what lay underneath the flash. A reflective helmet, gray gloves, and gray boots. All gathered in a black chair. Not my style, but President Frost had mentioned putting on equipment. As long as they were as smooth as they seemed. I hated weird textures.

The helmet weighed as much as a black hole. I swore my head was receding into my neck under its pressure. I couldn’t see out of its visor either, so I had to blindly put on the other stuff. I willed my suit to disassemble around my arms and legs to fit the garments. Their insides were padded like my suit, so they were comfortable enough.

An image flickered onto the visor. White specks scattered across a black canvas. I was seeing stars again. Why? Below those stars was a rainbow of buttons, cluttered around a monitor. Dark steel walls surrounded me. A beeping dot sailed toward an “X” on the screen.

I was in a spaceship.

“What the—did they invent teleportation helmets when I wasn’t looking?!” I brought my hands up to my face. They floated in midair, completely disembodied from my body. My feet were the same way. Thank goodness I was born in the twenty-fifth century, or this would have nauseated me. “No. Virtual reality. Awesome!”

“Rather archaic, actually. Virtual reality is at least five hundred years old.”

I twisted my back so that I could turn around. Four vertical rows of chairs extended behind me. There were enough for any exploration companions, but all the seats were empty except for President Frost’s. Wait, what was she doing here? She looked exactly like the real one. I guess she was. Was she?

“Are…you real?” I jabbed a virtual finger at her. “Or is there always a hologram of the president in here?”

She rested her chin on her hand as she grinned. “That would be flattering, but no. I chose to give you this exam myself.”

“So, no pressure.”

“As you should know, passing this exam is dependent on how well

you can steer this virtual ship to its goal. I assume you’re new to this simulation, based on your reaction. You didn’t truly skip VR training, did you?”

I froze. Signing up for VR training wasn’t easy when you lived in your cruiser. It was hard enough getting Opifex to sign me up for my last year of high school. Besides, there wasn’t a vehicle that I couldn’t pilot. Exploration ships and cruisers were cut from the same cloth anyway. All our vehicles spawned from the Frontier Project. Along with everything else that made up our world.

“Training’s nice, but nothing beats experience!” I gripped the wheel, which was more of a yoke. It also wasn’t much of a grip since the ship wasn’t really there. “Enjoy the ride, Madam President.”

I seemed confident, but my stomach was full of butterflies. Not due to the exam, because I had that covered! I’d just never been in an exploration ship before. I’d always wanted to, and I’d studied ships to death, but this was a first. It wasn’t real, but that’s why I was there. To make it real.

I pushed at the fake speed slider. It moved up, increasing the ship’s momentum. The stars streaked across the dashboard. It was a beautiful sight. It was an even easier obstacle course. I had no idea how deep this “reality” went, but if this was it, it’d be easier than I thought.

“President Frost, have you done this for anyone else today?” I asked as I glided around an asteroid.

Not that I can recall,” she said. “Is there a problem?”

“No, no! It’s just…why are you administering an exam at all? And why to me? I guess I just figured leading the First Division was a busier gig.”

“It very much is.” She sighed like she was a teenage girl with twelve essays backed up. “I don’t have much time reserved for myself, so I use it wisely. Exploration is very important to me seeing as mankind’s curiosity is one of its greatest attributes. It’s why I’m as involved as I can be in the Explorer Program.”

I nodded, adding even more pressure to my helmeted head. “That all makes sense, but still…why me?”

The only answer she offered was a calculated gaze. Was she searching for my soul? I was just searching for an answer.

A flash of red demanded my attention. I whirled back toward the monitor, which now showed an additional dot. One that was larger and redder than mine. I scanned the dashboard for signs of this threat. There was a blue speck among the white, as if a star had gone rogue. Letters shifted rapidly on the monitor until they formed sentences—the last sentences I wanted to see:

WARNING! AGGRESSIVE INTELLECTUAL SHIP DETECTED!

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

My fingers froze over the monitor. No way. How could this be allowed in an exam? It hadn’t been mentioned in anything I’d studied.

“Seems that you have unwelcome company,” President Frost said as casually as someone announcing dinner. “Quite the obstacle. How will you handle the situation?”

The blue blip inched closer, while I remained frozen. How would I handle it? Why was this difficult for me? I’d never even seen an AI in person. I just knew what they’d done. I shouldn’t have had any issues dealing with them. So why was my forehead burning with anxiety?!

“I—I’ll just cloak us.” I shifted through the monitor’s options. The cloak option had to be in there somewhere. “But, Madam President, are they supposed to be here?”

“I’d love to know what exactly you’re implying, but I must first stress that using the cloak is a risky maneuver.”

The speck grew into a blob. Its dot on the monitor was speeding toward ours. There wasn’t time for another plan.

“Yeah, for most ships it’ll drain the heck out of our power. Sometimes to the point where warping will be impossible. I guess warping would also work here huh? If only I knew the coordinates of my objective. I’ll stick with cloaking though. More suspenseful.”

Red continued to flood the cockpit, spiking my adrenaline. If I’d known the monitor’s menus better, this would have been over already. My garbled mind wasn’t helping either. I was stuck flipping through absolute gibberish, while the AI hurried over like they were making a delivery. Those garbage heaps! Real or not, they’d never catch me.

A delicate hand crept into my view, blocking the monitor. The president? No, her suit didn’t look like this. Like mine.

I gazed up at the face of my sister, as clear as it had been in my dream…or when she had still been with me. I couldn’t describe the squirming my stomach did or the confusion I felt. “Beth?” I reached out to touch her but stopped myself. I didn’t want to confirm my suspicions. “How are you here?”

Her chubby cheeks puffed up as she smiled. The innocence in her eyes struck a blow to my heart. Nothing about this was fair.

“Whatcha doing, Wand?” Her voice was as sweet as ever. She looked straight at the monitor. “Running away? So you won’t end up like me? Why not stay and fight? So you can avenge me?”

My jaw hung open. “No, no, that’s not something you’d say. And you’re not dead!” I reached out to grab her shoulders but my hands went right through. That could have just been due to the VR. “You’re here, you’re real! I know it!”

“Wander.” President Frost’s voice cut through like a knife. “You need to focus.”

I gasped as the flashing red reclaimed control. I looked around for Beth but she literally vanished before my eyes. Did President Frost hear all of that? I looked out the dashboard and only saw blue. Something was taking up the entire window. Something huge. Sweat rolled down my face as I realized what it was.

“No, no, we gotta cloak!” I scrolled through the options until they finally popped up. Two magical words: INITIALIZE CLOAK. “Yes!”

BOOM!

The dashboard shattered into pieces, which an explosion launched at me. I shielded my face, and when I lowered my arms, my worst enemy was staring me down.

A Kilo towered over me, essentially cornering me in my seat. Kilos were the weakest and lowest-ranking AI, but they were still deadlier than any human. According to a witness, a Kilo had killed my parents. Those piercing blue eyes instilled more hate than fear in me. It raised a “hand” that broke apart and created an arm cannon before my very eyes. This it lowered toward me.

“Stop!” Beth threw herself between us, her arms wide open. Was she shielding me? “Stay back.”

The Kilo didn’t even seem to have heard her. Its cannon glowed with power, but the shot wouldn’t hit me, not at first. Not while Beth was in the way.

“Beth, you gotta move!” I watched in horror as the Kilo continued to charge. I had to move. I had to get us both away. But my legs wouldn’t budge.

The energy’s light peaked as it fired its fatal shot. Right into my sister’s gut.

“STOP!”

Black consumed everything. Blue trickled in. Heat surged through me. I couldn’t tell if it was from the attack or the anger. I had no idea what had happened, and I didn’t want to know. It took me longer than I should have to realize that I was seeing black because the simulation had ended. I yanked off the helmet and set it beside me. It took all my willpower not to chuck it across the room. I did the same to the gloves and boots, while a pit settled in my stomach and a pain in my head.

That simulation had taken such a drastic turn. The AI, my sister, the fact that the president had been there to see it all. Who knew what she thought of me after that? The door glided open, and in marched President Frost herself. Her face was unreadable, but it sure wasn’t the relaxed expression she had previously had.

“Ma’am, just what was all that?” I massaged my head, but that didn’t ease the pain or frustration. “I’m surprised my brain didn’t explode.”

She cast a forlorn look at the helmet. “A glitch in the program, a decimal misplaced? It’s impossible to say for sure. Until I get my hands on the technician in charge anyway. As for your exam…all things considered, I’d hardly count it as completed. Unfortunately, the computer did.”

Despite all the madness, my exam was over. As long as I’d passed, that was fine with me. I searched my memory for the point at which I’d guided the ship safely and found no such thing. Wait, but that meant… “I’m sorry, Wander, but you failed.” She handed me a slip of paper stamped in bright red letters: FAILURE! The rest of the paper went on, detailing things I didn’t care about. “As a personal witness to the horrors and hallucinations you faced, let me just say that I’m sorry…”

Frost’s words fell on deaf ears. I directed all of my brain power toward comprehending this: I had failed. I wouldn’t be walking out as an explorer. Not today. It’d be months before I could even try again. This couldn’t be happening.

“President Frost…you have to let me retake this exam!” I grasped for more eloquent words, but my brain was failing me. “I really need to be an explorer as soon as possible! It’s already been a year, I can’t let her wait any longer!”

She took a step back. “I am unsure as to what you’re referring to, but I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do. I truly am sorry about this.”

Did I even have a heart anymore, or had it been crushed? Time stood still and moved a mile a minute at the same time. I didn’t remember saying goodbye to Frost, leaving the EEC, or even getting into my cruiser. I just blinked, and there I was.

There was one other thing too. Something I had to do, even if it seemed like the last thing I would do. Desperate times called for measures you wouldn’t otherwise take. My senses (and my grip) returned after I drove into that ridiculously fancy neighborhood. Then I texted a message to my only hope. I asked her to step outside. I’d have knocked on her door, but her parent’s cruisers were back in the driveway.

I mindlessly swiped my phone as a door closed in the background. Footsteps followed. I didn’t even look up when my cruiser door was yanked open.

“Tell, me, everything!” Laura Genki climbed in and kicked down my belongings. “Don’t leave out the embarrassing parts. Those are the best.”