More of the three hundred chosen followed, one by one, whisked in by the flight of pods on train tracks to the hall where the Governor would give us a send off speech before we were taken away for the officers’ school.

Following Quartias Fulvion was Kastor and Pollixa Gallion, fraternal twins from the High Iulian House of Gallion according to Clodias. Kastor was ranked 005 and Pollixa was placed right after him at 006.

“Other than you, the first chunk is probably all going to be children from High Iulian families.” Clodias explained to me as we waited for everyone to show up at the train station entrance and join us.

“Then it will likely be Bronzes from the planet of Iulius, not wealthy and distinguished enough to be High Houses, but enough to afford quality training, genetic engineering and cultivation resources, and after that will be prominent citizens from important bloodlines scattered throughout Apollo system or prodigies sponsored by powerful patrons and plucked out from the masses of the Imperator subspecies, and finally your baseline friends will be sneaking into the back of the line.” Clodias said.

“You are sure they will get in?” I asked him again, worriedly. After seeing the competition and the great number of applicants, a hint of doubt wormed its way into my heart.

“Yes, yes. I told you, your little friends will find themselves picked up by the hand of the Scholarium’s policies on blood purity and will knock out three more deserving candidates. You will see them soon enough, just before Governor Claudion gets here and gives his congratulation speech to all of us.” Clodias said.

“Right.” I said, a little less worried.

Next arrived Andarias Fulvion, the hulking, brutish clone with the acquired DNA of a Campeador Champion that made him a staggering eight feet tall and swelled his muscles beyond the aesthetic norm of the Imperator geneline to an exaggerated and monstrous bulk. Holographic light floating above his head generated by his monitor revealed him as 007.

“Sandy Andy.” Clodias called to him. “You’re a sight for sore eyes.”

“I will pop you like ripe fruit, Aezion, you little shit.” Andarias said in reply.

“You would have to catch me first, big boy. All that muscle makes you slow as a slug, I’ve seen you run.” Clodias said in a mocking tone.

The gigantic clone blurred forward and reached out to grab Clodias by the throat, but Clodias took a lightning quick step backwards and leaned away out of Andarias’s grasping reach.

Andarias Fulvion was about to make another go at catching Clodias when his brother spoke.

“Brother.” Quartias Fulvion said in a measured tone. “If you ruin this day for me, I will chop off your head and feed your corpse to hellhounds.”

Andarias turned to his fellow clone. “You dare tell me what to do, little brother?”

“We’re the same age.” Quartias said blankly, the barest hint of annoyance trickling into his voice like drops of lemon juice acidifying a glass of ice water.

“Don’t make your elder brother fold you like a lawn chair.” Andarias said.

“We are literally the same age.” Quartias repeated.

“Perhaps he’s referring to weight. Your copy has been pounding the doughnuts compared to you, Quartie.” Clodias suggested.

“You see a single gram of fat on this work of art, Aezion?” Andarias Fulvion said, flexing his ample muscles. There clearly was no amount of loose, extraneous material, water weight or fat content, on his herculean body.

“Yes.” Clodias said. “You look a day away from the mortuary, Andy. Put down the fork once in a while, would you?”

“Why you!” Andarias said, taking another step again towards Clodias.

Caias Fulvion, the clone with Venator Hunter and canine wolf DNA, arrived next. He bared his lupine fangs in a false smile as he stepped off his pod and strode over to us. He was marked 008.

He stopped in the midst of the group.

“Seriously?” Caias said in disbelief. “Aezion got first? What rigged bullshit is this?”

Clodias yawned. “I don’t know what happened, I swear I was not really trying. It was easy, honestly.”

009, the next person to stop at the station was not Lucias Fulvion, the last of the clones, as I had been expecting but rather someone named Helias Caesion. His nails were painted gold and he was playing with a lighter, flicking it on and off.

“How did you smuggle that thing in here?” Thorania asked him.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, Thor?” Helias laughed maniacally.

“I would, yes, that’s why I bothered asking you, Caesion.” Thoriana Korazion said, rolling her eyes.

“Simply be cooler than the rest.” Helias said, licking the lit flame of his light sensuously.

Over the course of an hour, the rest of the three hundred members of the first year class rolled in on the tracks. As Clodias had predicted, the first had come from Iulius’s thirty High Houses and then from other Iulian prospects and then finally from prospects hailing from further ranges of the Apollonian solar system. I was quickly surrounded by a critical mass of bragging and posturing from the children of Apollo system’s leading families that threatened to implode at any moment into an all-out brawl of hilarious and brutal proportions.

The stream of newcomers blended into each other mostly for, a string of proud Bronze Imperators who strode into a barrage of congratulations and mockery from their peers as the welcoming party saw their rank and called out their remarks on the oncoming person’s status compared to everyone else. The initial arrivals that had come in with me were roughest with their fellow High Iulians and were more lighthearted with those Imperators they did not know personally.

A few of the crowd of the chosen few stood out to me though, I noted that the fourth of the Fulvion clones, Lucias Fulvion, was ranked number 200.

“I guess being a baseline Imperator wasn’t enough to put him with his brothers at the top.” I said to Clodias and Thorania.

“Lucy has always been a bit of high society priss, scared to break a nail.” Clodias commented.

“I can’t believe I’m hearing judgment like this out of the slacker.” Pollixa Gallion said, shaking her head in disbelief.

“Top of the class.” Clodias reminded her, pointing upwards at the holographic numbers above his head, smirking as he did so.

“The Kadmean aberration markers of cloning marring one’s genecodes is a heavy weight to bear if you don’t have the enhanced performance of extensive alteration to make it up.” Thorania replied to me, watching the last clone step over to us.

“Lucias! I thought you might have gotten lost or something during the testing. Mother is going to be so disappointed. 200. Might as well have blown out your brains once rank 60 was taken if you did not want to break her heart.”

“I am always going to be her favorite, dear brother. Kindly swallow a sword, it will free me from having to look at your pathetic, envious face whenever she asks me to go shopping.” Lucias Fulvion replied.

“Like I would want to do something dumb like that with her.” Andarias said in reply.

The others blurred by in my perceptions, with only the last four to step out of the pods to catch my attention once again.

The first of the final four was the blonde Aurelia Nerion, the girl that had been so excessively hybridized with DNA from the Hetaira subspecies that she had Red Haloed and who had been looked at so disdainfully by the Medicus who had done our genetic testing, Doctor Lakion.

“Well, that’s legitimately impressive.” Clodias remarked on Aurelia’s progress.

“How so?” I asked him.

“That level of impurity with the paltry genetics of a Courtesan of all mixtures to be had? She had to have gotten all the demerits possible without any cognitive or physical advantages to be gained, unless you count a pretty face and a tight-“ Clodias said before Thorania kicked him in the leg right as he was about to finish what he was saying.

“She must have fought hard to get in.” I said as I observed her. No one called out to her in greeting or amiable mockery, the rest choosing instead to ignore her presence.

“Nice job, Aurelia!” I said, raising my hand in greeting, trying to be more welcoming.

She did not even bother looking at me, and I put my hand down, my smile fading.

“Oh, well.” I said, with a shrug.

The last three arrivals were my friends.

“Told you.” Clodias said, nudging me.

Kato was 298, Caesia was 299, and Antonias was the dead last, ranked number 300.

The whole group took up raucous applause at Antonias’s entrance marking up the end of the pack.

“Thank you, thank you!” Antonias said to the teasing. “Try not to be too threatened by my excellence, friends, you too can reach my peaks of strength, skill, and focus if you try hard and eat a hearty breakfast cereal like me.”

That gathered a laugh from the mob of Bronzes present at Antonias’s burgeoning attempt at a comedy career.

The Governor, Theseas Claudion, appeared in a flicker. Silver teleportation as Clodias had said, a special ability gained by Imperators at the third Rank in the same way that Bronze Imperators received Bronze reflexes and Coppers gained Copper senses that enabled sight without the presence of light.

He spoke without a microphone as he did at the opening ceremony for Examination Day, but there were so few of us in such a comparatively smaller space that I did not even need to use my enhanced hearing or try out lip reading again to see what the Governor was saying.

“My sincerest congratulations, applicants. You have all persevered through the Examination Committee’s rigorous inspections and proved yourself first amongst the many. You have the bodies of the Champion, and the minds of the Grey Eyed One, and the wills of the Regent himself. You have earned yourselves coveted positions at the Scholarium and will train to become Strategos of the Strategoi who will lead the armies of the Solar Guard of Apollo system in righteous and glorious campaigns against ungrateful rebels within and ambitious marauding outsiders without our great solar system. I reserve the greatest depths of pride as I envision your eventual ascension to the ranks of officers upon your completion of three years education at the Apollonian Scholarium. As Governor, I commend your prowess and determination and urge you onwards! Go forth and seize the glory owed to you!” Governor Claudion said and then disappeared in a flash.

A few of the crowd of the three hundred started to clap.

“He can’t hear you, you morons, he teleported away!” Someone yelled out and the whole group laughed.

Hovering drones flitted in like birds, carrying the bags that we had relinquished our clothing into at the body scan coffin stations. One dropped its load right above me and I caught the falling object and pressed my thumb to the black fingerprint scanner locking the bag closed. Stripping off my hospital gown that had served me well throughout the testing examinations, bearing both extreme temperatures and copious amounts of sweat equally well without any noticeable degradation or wear, I replaced the patient’s garment with my ordinary attire as the rest of the room was doing as well at the same time as I was.

We walked further on beyond the gathering hall, pressed together by the exit corridor like sardines sealed in an aluminum canister and entered a teleportation chamber, one with the same white walls and black and gold circuit board-like floor as the one Caesia, Antonias, Kato and I had taken to get down from Iulius’s ring to closer to the planet’s surface, but it was much larger and appropriately sized for three hundred Imperators to stand shoulder to shoulder within its confines.

I grimaced.

“What?” Thorania asked me, noticing my negative expression.

“I hate how these things feel when they zap you around.” I explained.