As one of the Final Exam’s winners, Nic was escorted to the Arena’s exit at the end of the corridor of bunks, where he was given a lightweight airsuit to put on. It was flimsy, even lighter than a SimSuit, and he had a hard time believing it would offer him any protection against the elements of Ayrus. Then again, he learned that the planet was not quite as inhospitable as it may have been when he was growing up in Paradigm Preparatory Institute’s underground city.

His airsuit had a duller, far less exciting HUD of its own compared to the combat-based one of the Final Exam. It displayed environmental readings as well as an internal O2 meter and basic biometrics.

“Right this way, Mr. Siegfried,” said one of the facilitators. He wasn’t used to being called by his last name, rather than his given name or his Student ID number. As with all of his classmates, his last name was the final memento of a family history he’d likely never know.

The facilitators had donned airsuits of their own. They led him into an airlock at the end of the corridor, which hissed shut behind them and then opened gradually in front of them, revealing an oversized five-row convertible rover. Several other students were already seated, and he took the last open seat in the back. The sky was grayish-blue and Colony 228’s sun shone brightly but impotently down upon them.

Once outside, his HUD flickered to life with his airsuit’s first operational reading.

SUIT O2 CAPACITY: 99% INTERNAL TEMPERATURE: 20C OCCUPANT: 63BPM, 37C, (98)O2 AMBIENT TEMPERATURE: -8C PRESSURE: 0.640ATM

Wow, he thought to himself. It’s getting halfway livable up here.

He knew that Colony 228 being officially cleared for the use of airsuits rather than fully-pressurized spacesuits was a huge breakthrough, one that happened around the time of his birth. Given his knowledge of terraforming, he estimated that the next generation born on Ayrus would probably be the first to experience the surface without airsuits. It would probably still be a bit chilly, though. A planet like this one required a few decades to terraform from start to finish—a middling world in that regard, not easy, but not that difficult either.

It was strange being out on the surface; Nic had spent well over 95% of his life in PPI’s underground super-hab. Being on the surface, looking up at the sky and knowing there was no ceiling holding him down, made him fret that he might accidentally take a wrong step and drift off into space somehow. Logically, he knew this was impossible, given Ayrus had a gravity 1.1 times that of Earth. But phobias didn’t need to be rational.

The rover brought them to another hab, a separate one located maybe half a klick from the agridome where his class used to take field trips. The facilitators directed the students to exit the rover and they all piled into another airlock that spat them out into a classroom full of SimSuit helmets, sans the suits themselves. The students all pulled them on in approximate unison.

RTIFIS was there to greet Nic again. The AI took the form of an androgynous person wearing a Paradigm Preparatory Institute magister uniform.

Nic could overhear several restrained cheers, whoops, and a smattering of applause throughout the room.

Sweet. I have no idea what that means, but I’ll take it!

“I was 70-something-eth place,” Nic muttered. “Last time I checked, anyway...”

RTIFIS paused and folded its holographic hands behind its back, detouring to clear up Nic’s confusion.

“I’m going to need you to explain that one for me.”

I feel like I’m understanding less as time goes on, but whatever, Nic thought. He was still too happy to care.

No wonder I was up and down so unpredictably. He snickered quietly to himself. Maybe these corporate people don’t like teabagging.

RTIFIS went back to gesticulating in a preprogrammed way, signaling that it had resumed its regularly-scheduled debriefing. Nic couldn’t help but grin at the sound of that—it went straight to his head.

After the rest of the orientation wrapped up with a few more logistical details, Nic and the others were directed to a narrow hallway outside the classroom, which led to a much larger silver, dome-shaped room already full of dozens of other students. A digital ticker over the doorway read SQUAD PROCESSING. Inside, there were 20 individual screens on the wall spaced equidistantly throughout the spacious chamber, each one bearing a different squad leader’s Student ID photo and, to the right, a list of all five Student ID numbers, but no names. His was the nineteenth, almost at the very end. Once again, at least I wasn’t dead last.

All four of his squadmates were already waiting by his ID photo. He had seen all of them around PPI at some point, but he didn’t know any by name; they were all in his graduating class, but not in any individual classes he took, nor did his friend group intersect with any of theirs. Lita was right, he mused. Out with the old and in with the new. He tried to eye them all as discreetly as possible on his walk over.

The tallest of them was a broad-shouldered, dark-skinned young man with short, wiry black hair and warm brown eyes. There was another guy with silky black hair slicked back on his head, the beginnings of facial hair, tan skin and striking amber eyes that roamed distractedly around the room. Then there was a girl with brownish skin, long black hair pulled into a tight bun behind her head; she looked sadder than Nic thought anyone could possibly look after winning a competition like the one they’d just been through, sad and standoffish. She leaned against the wall away from the group. Finally, there was a pale girl with freckles, platinum blond hair and baby blue eyes grinning a big grin and powerwalking straight toward him. Compared to the sulking girl, he found this one’s enthusiasm disarming.

“Hey there!” she exclaimed, extending her hand for him to shake. “My name’s Perri. Well, my full name is Peregrine, after my dad’s favorite animal, the peregrine falcon—extinct, of course. But not me, I’m still alive and well! You must be Nic?”

“The one and only,” he replied, cringing at how awkward that sounded. He had never been put in a position of leadership like this before. He cleared his throat and tried to sound more mature. “So, squad, my name is Nicolas Siegfried. You can just call me Nic, or Squad Leader, if you prefer.”

“I will not be calling you that, Nic,” said the tan guy with a muted smile. He waved. “It is a pleasure to meet you regardless. My name is Maqsud. You can call me Max for short, if you prefer.”

“Nic?” said the other guy, flashing his straight teeth in a smile. “Player 443, Nic, is that you?”

“Jarek!” Nic realized aloud. Without prompting, the two of them went in for a clap of a handshake with a lean-in half-hug, patting each other on the back. “Dude, you made it!”

“Skin of my teeth, man, yeah, but I did,” Jarek chuckled. “All thanks to you.”

“Hey, that Overclock got me out of a tight spot. We helped each other. I’m honored to have you on the squad, bro!”

“You guys are both totally and completely best friends now,” Perri observed matter-of-factly. “So cute! Oh my gosh, I love your friendship already!” Ordinarily, Nic would have thought she was mocking them, but there was an ineffable sincerity in her voice that told him otherwise.

He turned his attention to the quiet girl in the back. “Hi, I’m Nic. I didn’t catch your name.” She glanced at him without a verbal response.

“Oh, this is Shanti,” Perri interjected. “She’s not really much of a talker.” Then the blond girl leaned toward Nic, cupping a hand around her mouth and speaking at a conspiratorial volume. “Hab Syndrome. Diagnosed young. She was in my class in Year 2 and I’ve shared a few others with her since then. Not super verbal.” Perri pulled back and returned to her original volume. “So, yeah. That’s us!”

Nic took a deep breath, briefly picking up on all the conversations happening in the room around them. He smiled warmly at his new team. “Well, squad, it’s very nice to meet all of you. I’ll be honest, I...” His voice trailed off when RTIFIS took over on the room’s intercom.

We’re going to space, Nic thought. Today. This is really happening. The whole situation felt a bit dreamy and out-of-body. More airsuits were distributed and they were herded into the next airlock. He put on a brave, excited face for his squad, trying to hide the twisting knots in the pit of his stomach.