The Apollo Academy (8 page)

ZANE

Z
ane pushed his food around on his plate. When he decided to join the Academy, he hadn’t been thinking of helping anyone but himself. Why should he help those who had never helped him? And was digging on the moon really that big of a deal?

Zane shoved those thoughts away. None of it mattered. He was here for the free food, shelter, and better life. He
would
not
be an unknown forever.

“Do you want to go look around?” Akemi asked, his quiet voice breaking his reverie.

Zane looked over at his roommate and nodded. “Yeah, just let me finish.” He picked up his fork with renewed vigor, but when Aurora and Kaylana stood, he remembered that normal people probably didn’t shovel food into their mouths the way he did. He carefully set his fork down next to his empty plate and looked up to find the girls walking away and Akemi silently watching him.

“Hungry?” Akemi smiled.

Zane kept his face blank. “Yeah, I guess.”

He was secretly pleased with his roommate assignment. Akemi had rescued him from yesterday’s altercation with the guard and had yet to even ask for an explanation.

Hailen leaned into him, putting her lips next to his ear.

“Where are you going, Mr.
Unknown
?” Hailen whispered.

Zane winced at the word.
Did she mean unknown as in no identity or that I’m somehow mysterious?

“Um, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied in a dismissive tone.

“That’s it? I tell you that I’m aware you have no retinal recognition identity and you’re not even going to try to deny it?”

How did she know? She must have seen what happened yesterday. He had hoped everyone was already in the cafeteria at the time.

Zane pulled away, trying to get more space. “Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He quickly looked at Akemi, hoping he couldn’t hear their whispered conversation.

Hailen grabbed his hand, not letting go. “What have you been doing with these hands of yours?”

“I work with tech a lot.”

“I like a man who doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty.” Hailen moved her hand from his and up his arm. “I won’t say anything.” She smiled. “I think it’s kind of hot. I thought we might be kindred spirits.”

“What would give you that idea? And what does that even mean?”

Hailen shrugged.

Zane needed to deal with this once and for all. Thankful Aurora had already left, he grabbed the hand Hailen still had on his arm, squeezing. He kept his face frozen, giving nothing away. “Do you think the Academy would really let an unknown into their facility?” He sneered. Zane had perfected the arrogantly rich, bad-boy persona a long time ago, and no one ever seemed to want to see through it, except for maybe Akemi. Zane had the suspicious feeling that Akemi was already putting some of the pieces of his puzzle together.

He dropped her hand, picked up his tray, and glanced at Akemi. “Let’s go explore.”

Akemi looked liked he’d been caught staring. “Yeah, okay.” He grabbed his plate, jumping from his seat.

Hailen pursed her lips at Zane’s dismissal, then her face smoothed out in determination. She hopped up from the table like she had been invited to join them, and Brianna and Kylie followed suit. Neither Zane nor Akemi said a word when they followed them out of the cafeteria.

“Where to?” Hailen asked when they all loaded into the elevator, her earlier attitude quickly changing.

Akemi seemed uncomfortable, so Zane pressed a random floor number. A woman’s monotone voice came over the elevator speakers. “Fifth floor, physical training.”

When the elevator door opened, Zane couldn’t believe his eyes. There were four Olympic sized pools all lined up next to one another. They passed a bay for virtual reality running that several people were pounding away on. They also passed a large weight room, a simulated boxing ring, a dance room, and a lot of equipment Zane didn’t recognize.

“This place is nova,” Hailen exclaimed. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Zane looked at her; it was the first time she’d shown any emotion other than superiority. Brianna and Kylie stopped, giving her a quizzical look.

“I mean, of course I’ve been to some great training rooms, but this one is pretty cool.” Hailen shrugged her shoulders.

Zane’s attention was pulled from the girls in front of him when his techiwatch beeped.

1100 meeting with Ms. Lovell
scrolled across his watch. Zane sighed.

“Everything all right?” Akemi asked.

“Yeah. I have my meeting with Ms. Lovell.” The meeting was supposed to be about his area of concentration and class schedule, but he knew his would be more than that.

“Oh, okay.” Akemi looked at the girls as if asking what he should do about them.

Zane sure as hell didn’t know, so he turned away from the girls who were still huddled together and began walking back to the elevator.

Akemi ran to catch up. “So maybe when you’re done we can keep exploring?”

Zane was new at this whole let’s-be-friends thing, but he felt himself nodding. “Yeah, I’ll catch up with you later.” Zane stepped into the elevator.

He touched the tablet-sized screen and selected the sixteenth floor. The elevator door silently closed, locking Zane inside for his short ride up. He was always amazed by the swiftness of elevators as they accelerated up to speed and delivered a person to another location within seconds. It seemed like the elevator doors had just shut when they began to open again.

He hesitated in the door of the elevator, preventing it from closing. He didn’t want to face whatever this meeting held in store for him. He wanted to hang on to his newfound life for just a few more seconds. It had been nice having enough food to eat. Last night he’d even slept on a real bed with a roof over his head.

Shit. Getting into a fight with that security guard probably wasn’t the best way to make a good impression.

The elevator asked him to step out of the way, so he had no choice but to move forward. He managed to return to his usual arrogant façade by the time he made it to Ms. Lovell’s office. When he walked into the room, Zane found Ms. Lovell and Dr. Stevenson already in deep discussion.

Zane swallowed. What was Dr. Stevenson doing here? He thought this was just about his area of concentration.

“Zane, please have a seat.” Ms. Lovell indicated the couch situated in front of her desk.

Zane sat down.

Ms. Lovell clasped her hands together and leaned forward. “Zane, I’m just going to get right to the heart of the matter. We wanted to meet with you right away because, quite frankly, you’re a special case.”

Zane forcefully kept his face blank, anticipating the blow to come. Evidently the rumor of his unknown status was already making its way through the Academy, and he wouldn’t blame them if they changed their mind about accepting him.

“When we took your retinal scan during your admittance test, we were alerted to your unknown status.” Zane made a move to try and explain, but Ms. Lovell cut him off with a wave of her hand. “Obviously we decided to give you a chance anyway. I’m deeply sorry for the misunderstanding that occurred with the guard yesterday.” She paused before dryly adding, “But I would appreciate it if you’d try not to resort to brawling if faced with a situation like that in the future.”

Zane vehemently nodded his head; so far this was going in a much different direction than he’d anticipated.

“We’d like to change your status, but we need to make sure it’s worth our efforts before we do. Once you’ve proven yourself at the Academy and graduate to astronaut status we would like to add you to the world retinal database. But only if you graduate.”

“That sounds like an excellent plan.” If he had known this was how the meeting would go, he would have run to it.

Ms. Lovell nodded as if she expected that sort of response. “However, I would like for you to tell me the truth. Why have you been living your life as an unknown and not under the name Zane Paxton? That is your given name, right?”

Zane knew he could calmly tell them about his childhood, but he wouldn’t tell them the reason why he was never adopted. About his genetic anomaly. “I’ve been an unknown my whole life. As far as I know I was abandoned at a very early age. I don’t think I was ever registered in the WRD, so when I was found I was placed in an orphanage. I was never adopted and eventually ran away. At the time I didn’t know how to change my status, even if I had wanted to. I don’t know if Zane Paxton is my true name, but it’s the only one I’ve ever known.” Zane shrugged his shoulders. “It was easy for me to survive off the Grid, so I did.”

Ms. Lovell spoke again when he finished. “We assumed something like that was the case. I hope you realize that your status does not matter to the Academy.” With a smile she continued, “We accept the best and brightest cadets, regardless of background, and with your scores we may have even accepted you even if you were a criminal. But nevertheless, I’m glad to hear you confirm that this is not the case. We’ll have no problem creating your new record once you graduate.” Ms. Lovell cocked her head toward Dr. Stevenson, who until that point, had yet to say a word. “I’d like to have Dr. Stevenson take a retinal scan from you for our records in the mean time.”

“That sounds nova,” he said then cringed. In his excitement he’d reverted to slang, but Ms. Lovell just smiled at the delight he was so carefully trying to contain.

He glanced to Dr. Stevenson and saw that he had already pulled out what looked like a thin white pen from his coat pocket. It looked a lot like the one the guard had used on him yesterday, but Dr. Stevenson’s version was much smaller. A blue light appeared from the device as the doctor scanned his eyes.

“It’s curious,” Dr. Stevenson murmured. “Even if you were abandoned, why wouldn’t you have a retinal record at least from the hospital you were born at?” He turned away, placing the retinal scanner back in his pocket.

The doctor didn’t look like he actually expected an answer, so Zane kept his mouth shut. He certainly didn’t have them. Zane glanced at Ms. Lovell out of the corner of his eye, but she seemed oblivious to the doctor’s quiet ramblings.

“Okay, great. I’ve got what I need.” Dr. Stevenson patted his coat pockets.

“Thanks, Dr. Stevenson.” Ms. Lovell focused on Zane. “When you earn your status, the Apollo Academy will be able to deposit money virtually into your Gridline account whenever compensation is deemed necessary. I think you’ll find living on the Grid much easier. All you have to do is prove you belong.” Ms. Lovell winked.

If Zane hadn’t seen the wink himself, he wouldn’t have believed it because a second later she was back to business. “However, if you don’t make it through training, I’m afraid we won’t be able to help you.”

All of his momentary excitement vanished. He couldn’t allow himself to forget the stakes. If he failed, his life would be over. He wouldn’t live like that again.

Unaware of his thoughts, Ms. Lovell continued, “I think Dr. Stevenson still needs one more thing from you before he leaves.”

“Of course,” Zane said, finally looking at the doctor.

“I’d also like to draw a vial of your blood. Just as standard procedure to ensure your basic body functions. It’s probably been awhile since your last doctor’s visit.” He smiled.

“What will you do with it?” He tried to ask it without inflection but wasn’t sure he succeeded. Zane knew it was standard procedure, but it still made him nervous.

“We keep a blood sample on file for all of our cadets and astronauts. I’ll be completing a routine check to identify your blood type. I’ll also check your blood count, cholesterol, etc. Then any remaining blood left from your sample will be placed in storage.”

Zane kept his face completely blank throughout the explanation. Detailed genetic screening was far from routine, so he was safe. For now.

He held his arm out to the doctor, allowing him to get what he needed. He didn’t even feel the needle prick his skin or the quick drawing of his blood. When the doctor finished, he placed the sample carefully into a hard case that held a few other samples. Dr. Stevenson locked the case and slipped it into one of his many pockets.

“That’s all I need. I’ll let you and Ms. Lovell finish up here.” Dr. Stevenson walked to the door but turned back to Zane, “I’ll see you at your scheduled time next week.”

Like he could forget.

Ms. Lovell smiled her dismissal to the doctor and turned her attention back to Zane. “Now that that’s all taken care of, we can move on to more fun topics, like your area of concentration and your class schedule.” She looked down at her desk and tapped with her fingers, pulling up Zane’s test scores. Zane watched as she quickly scanned through them then looked up. He already knew what she would say.

“You’ve been placed in the tech AOC. Your scores were off the chart in the engineering, components, and design testing. You also showed an extremely high aptitude for analytical thinking. With these types of strengths I think the tech AOC will suit you best. Your class schedule will focus on courses in electrical engineering, AI programming, systems and components for the shuttle, and a laboratory class where you’ll be able to work directly with equipment. I think you’ll find that these classes will suit your interests. Don’t you agree?”