The Class I Pioneer Corvette, as the ship was officially named, was even more spacious on the inside than Nic had hoped.

RTIFIS announced when they boarded the vessel.

“How do they pack so much room onto one ship?” Jarek marveled aloud.

RTIFIS answered matter-of-factly. Jarek nodded and gave a thumbs-up.

“The ship’s nearly 60 meters from nose to tail,” said Maqsud. “The Devi is only a 5-meter cube. Even with the thrusters, what’s all the other space used for?”

“Devi?” Jarek echoed.

Perri started to answer, “He means the wormhole—”

“The Devi drive?” Max cut her off. “Named after the scientist who first cracked the speed of light by creating a traversable wormhole? Possibly the most important technological breakthrough of the 22nd century? Maybe even of the last millennium, second to the atmosphere pump or, I don’t know, electricity? Did anyone else even pay attention in Space Studies?”

Jarek squinted at Maqsud, nodding with an amused smirk tinged with just a little annoyance. “Devi drive—now I remember. That’s all you had to say. Magister Yvonne always called it the FTL engine.”

Max sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Sorry. I’m being a bit of a jerk to you guys, aren’t—”

“Yeah,” Perri and Jarek interrupted in unison.

Max smiled humbly and nodded. “I apologize. I haven’t slept much in the past few days. In all honesty, I’m feeling apprehensive about leaving today, and it’s made me irritable... ‘I can control my passions and emotions if I can understand their nature.’ Spinoza. 17th century. Earth. I’ll try to be less of a jerk to you all since we’re sharing this spaceship for the next... however many years. Okay?”

“Much obliged,” Jarek said, patting Max on the shoulder.

A moment of silence passed, after which RTIFIS replied,

Jarek chuckled. “Mystery solved.”

Nic watched the interactions of his squadmates as they spread out to explore their new living quarters. He was already learning a lot about them. Jarek seems agreeable enough, Nic thought. Easygoing. Sense of humor. Patient. Perri is friendly but she seems to have a lot of inner strength and confidence. Maqsud, he might be the brightest one here... but, yeah, he’s kind of a jerk at times. I’m guessing he might have issues in a team setting. Shanti is still the wildcard—I’ll have to keep an eye on her.

Just as his gaze reached Shanti, she retreated from the group and ducked into the last of five bedrooms opposite the living room. She left the door open, but she lay down prone on her new bed, wrapping a pillow around the back of her head to bury herself. He still hadn’t heard her say a word, nor did she give any kind of gesture unless addressed directly. Yeah, I’ll definitely have to keep an eye on her.

“Screen and a holotable,” said Jarek, rubbing his hands together in the living room. “Very nice amenities we got here, guys. I love a nice movie night!”

“I doubt they packed popcorn on a ship this size,” Perri observed, scratching her chin. “Corvettes usually—”

RTIFIS cut in.

Perri and Jarek exchanged a grin and then high-fived each other. “Microwavable!” Jarek exclaimed. “Now that’s classic. That’s Earth classic. I love this place already!”

“RTIFIS,” said Nic, striding through the living room toward the Simnasium in the back. “Please tell me the locations of all rooms.”

“What kind of sims can we play?” asked Perri.

RTIFIS trailed off as the lights dimmed slightly. Nic panicked for a moment, as it reminded him of that one time Paradigm Prep experienced a power outage when he was 10 years old, and the chaos that had ensued for the next 90 seconds or so until the lights came back on at full strength. This didn’t look like an outage, though—this was planned.

“Shanti,” Nic called out. “We gotta—” But Shanti was already slinking out of Bedroom 5 toward the Control Room with the rest of Team Scarlet. Audio input is fine. It’s just the output that she has issue with, I guess. Got it.

Nic joined his squad in the vessel’s cockpit. There was a dizzying array of levers, buttons, and other controls, similar to what he’d seen in his Space Studies class lectures on early space travel. He was grateful that he’d never have to figure out how to operate anything in this room. There were four chairs arranged in a square in the center of the room and one pilot seat located at the very front. Shrugging, he took the frontmost seat once everyone else had fastened their safety harnesses, and then he secured his own.

“Y’all excited to see the stars today?” Jarek asked, the nervous giddiness palpable in his voice.

“Of course,” Nic lied. “I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t be.”

said RTIFIS. Just then, the Corvette lurched. Nic’s heart leaped into his throat. Through the front viewscreen, he saw that the AI-piloted ship was reversing out of the spaceport, taxiing toward the back of the queue, 18 other ships ahead of them and one behind. Facilitators in airsuits waved goodbye to them from just outside of the spaceport’s airlock. Cold fear flooded Nic’s gut like ice water.

I wonder what would happen if I just bailed right now, he thought. I wonder if the facilitators would even let me. Probably not. Plus, that’d be so stupid. I fought so hard to be here!

He had fought harder than ever in the Arena—well, maybe not ever. Nic felt an inexplicable twinge in the scar on his chin, psychosomatic, most likely, the phantom pain of a jogged memory.

“You’re a born winner. Don’t ever give up, okay? I just want what’s best for you. Please don’t ever forget that.”

Think of what she sacrificed for you. Think of what you did to get here. Think of these people counting on you. This morning, you didn’t even know what the Final Exam would entail, and now here you are, a winner. Don’t squander this.

“Uh, guys,” said Nic. His mouth was dry. He could feel a cold sweat prickling to the surface of his skin.

“Yeah, Nic?” Jarek replied.

“What is it?” said Max.

I can’t do this. I don’t know how they expect any one of us to do this.

I can’t do this.

“Everything okay, Nic?” Perri asked.

I can’t do this...

...but I have to do it anyway.

“Um...” Nic cleared his throat. “...yeah. Somebody give me their holophone if they have it on them, please.” Jarek handed his forward and Nic craned his shoulders slightly to take it from him. “Thanks.” He navigated the holo-UI to access the device’s camera.

“Sure thing, but why?” Jarek said.

Nic grinned, holding up the holophone above his head to capture all five members of Team Scarlet in the frame. Fear gave way to a shaky, slap-happy kind of excitement. “Because that meet-and-greet has nothing on this moment, and Hansen Dyne took a selfie of it anyway. This is the moment when we start our journey together. This is worth remembering!”

Other Corvettes ahead of them were entering the takeoff roll. The first and second ships in line were already blasting off into the atmosphere of Ayrus, Colony 228, and soaring into the untapped heavens beyond. Their ship soon followed suit.

“Everybody smile and say ‘Team Scarlet’ on three. Get ready!”

The gravity of the planet tugged them backward ever so slightly as the ship’s nose started to pull skyward.

“One... two... three...”

“Team Scarlet!” four of the five squad members cried out in unison. For what it was worth, Shanti looked up at the holophone as the selfie was being taken—and Nic saw the faintest hint of a smile in the corner of her lips.

The Corvette rumbled loudly as its thrusters blasted hot fire and propelled them off the surface of Ayrus for possibly the final time. Nic didn’t know how to access the ship’s rear viewscreen, if it had one, and in that moment, he was grateful for that fact. He and his squadmates could only look ahead.

“Sic itur ad astra,” said Maqsud, suppressing a queasy belch. “Virgil. The Aeneid. Last century BCE. Earth, obviously. I think I might be sick...”

“What does that one mean?” Perri wondered aloud.

“I know this one,” said Nic. I remember this from the exit exams, he thought. “‘Thus one journeys to the stars.’”

Perri clicked her tongue. “Oh, that’s right.”

A few minutes later, shortly after they left the burgeoning atmosphere of Colony 228, they floated weightlessly in their safety harnesses. A litany of stars pinpricked the velvet black of the universe before their eyes. Their local sun was off in the corner of the viewscreen. It was just one of many, Nic told himself, totally alien to billions of people who had lived and died trapped on Earth, and yet he’d called it home—all because someone else had explored and fought and conquered Ayrus all those years ago.

Now he and his squad were about to do the same.

said RTIFIS. There was a click, followed by a barely audible hum. Then everyone plopped into their seats with a sudden metallic clunk as the artificial gravity kicked in for the first time.

“I really thought I was about to throw up all those hors d’oeuvres” said Maqsud, swallowing and smacking his lips. He shuddered. “So, about 17 days, eh? A little time to get to know each other.”

“And time to prepare,” said Nic, beaming with pride. He stood at the front of the Control Room and folded his arms. “All right, Team Scarlet. We have some work to do.”