Shaping Faith: Chapter 8, Part 2

The entrance to the rookie dining hall was marked by the largest corridor Verona had seen in the base so far. Two sets of double doors stood open at the end, but all Verona could see was a large, cacophonous crowd. The noise put her on edge. Just before they reached the dining hall, Kyle put a hand on Verona’s arm and pulled her aside, out of the way of the other people streaming in. “You go on ahead,” he said to Merea.

“What is it?" Verona asked, a little annoyed. "Have I messed something up already?" All she had done was walk up the hallway.

“No, I just wanted to give you some advice,” he said in an undertone, and suddenly Verona was aware of just how close he was standing to her. She shifted away uneasily. He continued. “I just want you to know – there’s all sorts of people here. A lot of them are from Rithane, like us, but a lot of others are from other worlds. Try not to offend them. Also, the Coaches will give you your schedule today and explain a few things. Don’t ask too many questions. No, no, clarifying ones are fine,” – he raised a hand to forestall Verona’s exclamation – “but try not to challenge their authority. Some of them don’t mind that much, but they are obligated to mark you as a possible rebel. Just tread lightly, all right?”

Verona nodded. Of course the Absolute leadership would keep a tight eye on the newcomers – any of them could be possible spies.

“Good,” he said, his shoulders relaxing. “Let’s go eat.”

Kyle hadn’t been wrong – there were only a couple hundred people in the dining room, but they were one of the most diverse groups Verona had ever seen. She couldn’t tell who was from which planet, but the range of features, body type, and even age was large. About two thirds of the room looked to be teenagers or young adults like Verona, but there were many older people as well who seemed to be the same rank. Everyone wore the same green shirt.

Many of them had no twin in sight, which jarred Verona. She and Analia had hardly been apart longer than a few weeks, pretty much since birth. She had expected that twins would be together here as well, but it seemed like in many cases, only one of the two had been willing to come. But that shouldn’t be surprising. After all, look at her and Analia.

Kyle noticed her staring at a group of middle-aged adults near the door as he and Verona stood in line at a food dispenser. “Yeah, we’ve got a pretty wide range of ages here, but the older people tend to rank up faster, and there aren’t as many of them coming in in the first place.”

“How are there so many people?” Verona asked, turning on the spot and marveling at the size of the crowd. It wasn’t that many compared to the number of people in her school, but it was far more than she had expected for an underground group of revolutionaries.

They reached the dispenser, which flashed a list of six meal options on the screen. Behind the dispenser would be the kitchen, where a staff of people worked to keep the machine supplied with food. “Recruiting has been really good lately,” Kyle said, selecting a sandwich. “Plus, this is the main base – all of the new recruits go here, and lately that means more than the number of older members they have. I heard they had to completely reorganize their hierarchy to accommodate all the new people.” The pre-wrapped sandwich slid down a chute and dropped onto his plate.

Verona realized it was her turn to choose a meal. A couple of the choices were unfamiliar, but in the end she went for the oatmeal. She set her bowl under the spout, and a thick stream spiraled into her bowl. She picked it up carefully; it was warm, but not hot.

“Why have there been so many new people?” she asked Kyle as he was looking around for Merea.

“Oh, you’ll find out soon,” he said with a grin. “Later today, probably.”

“Fine,” said Verona, also scanning the room for Merea. At last, she saw her, sitting at a mostly empty table in a corner.

Verona had only finished about half her soup when a loudspeaker crackled to life. She had to strain to hear it over the general cacophony. “Any recently arrive Absolute who has not received a schedule or their coms, please report to room 138 immediately for the scheduled debriefing.”

Merea nudged Verona. “That’s you!”

“But I don’t know where that is!” protested Verona.

“It’s really easy,” Kyle said. “Just turn left at the end of the hall. It’ll be the first door on your right.”

Verona nodded. “First door on the right. Where will you be when I get back?”

“We’ve got to go do our jobs,” Kyle said. “You’ll have to as well. We’ll probably see you at lunch.”

“Oh, okay.” Verona didn’t fancy the idea of navigating this place by herself, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. With a regretful glance at the remainder of her soup, she dumped it into a nearby trash can. As she made her way to the doors and out into the corridor, she noticed about ten people walking in the same direction, most of them looking vaguely confused. She figured they were also on their way to the meeting.

“It’s right here,” she said when they reached the door. I’m glad one of us knew where it was.

The room they met in turned out to be some sort of data center. Row after row of computers took up most of the space, but there was enough room in the front for the eight of them to pull up a chair in front of the wallscreen. A thin woman with an athletic build was already there waiting for them. She wore the blue shirt of a Guide, and tucked under her armpit was a box and a techpad.

“Everybody here?” she said looking around at each of them. Without waiting for a response, she continued. “I am Shaper Mila, one of your guides and the head Shaper of this section. I am in charge of the equipment rooms, which some of you will be assigned to. When your name is called, raise your hand and I will hand you one of these.”

She pulled a set of comwatches out of the box, which she had set on the floor. “They’ve already been configured with your name and schedule, and you can contact anyone else in the base on them. They’re keyed to you only, but anyone above you in rank can override it, which in your case is pretty much everybody. All communications are monitored by us for security reasons. Any questions?”

A blond-haired boy who looked like he had just gotten his growth spurt raised his hand. “What if we want to contact someone outside the base?”

“You can’t,” she said in a clipped voice. “They aren’t connected to any computers outside the base system. We maintain strict radio silence here, for security reasons. No personal communications in or out. That is why we have a dual Blocking field over the base. No teleporting or Linked conversations.”

Verona, of course, had already realized she couldn’t talk to Analia. In a way, she was glad – it made their awkward situation easier. She had never quite understood why some twins disliked being linked, but now she could see where they were coming from.

“Now, would you please pull up your schedules quickly and make sure everything’s in order? The system is fairly new and it’s been having some problems.”

Verona did as asked. The first thing she noticed was that the work portion simply listed “Shaping Room,” a fact that excited her to no end. Shaping wasn’t work, it was play!

It seemed they would be doing a mixture of classes and work, but the some of the classes were unlike any she had seen before. Every day they had something called “Doctrine Education,” which she supposed was a bit like the Yirvnah study groups at home. And that was the most normal one. The others included advanced Shaping, exploiting government structure, self-defense, and weapons training.

That same boy raised his hand again. “Um, why do we have to have weapons training if we aren’t going to be field agents?”

Shaper Mila shook her head in dismay. “This isn’t some vacation facility. No matter what you may think, we aren’t safe here. Evil and corruption fight back with everything they’ve got. If the government ever finds us here, you will have to fight. Each and every one of you.”

She looked from person to person as she spoke. Verona stared into her eyes firmly, not wanting to show a flicker of fear. Of course she would fight when she had the chance. She wasn’t a coward. Though that doesn’t mean I’ll be volunteering for field missions anytime soon. That’s Lani’s job.

The blond boy gulped and said nothing. Good, Verona thought savagely. He needs to understand what he’s getting himself into. He’s probably never had anything to do with violence before. She ignored the fact that she wasn’t exactly experienced either.

“Now, there is one more item of business before you can get to work,” Shaper Mila said. A smile twitched in the corner of her mouth. “Let us raise a hypothetical question. How do you keep sensitive information out of the hands of your enemies? You have to stop your agents from being captured, something much more easily said than done. Other potential leaks include traitors, spies, and plain stupidity. Even the most tightly woven net has holes. Eventually, something will slip through.”

She’s enjoying this, Verona realized. Whatever she’s going to tell us, it’s big. And we probably won’t like it.

“But what if you could hide information in your brain?” Shaper Mila lowered her voice, and Verona was reminded vividly of a magician about to reveal her trick. “Cloak it so that even you can’t remember it? Even under torture, you wouldn’t break. You wouldn’t be able to break. The question is, how?”

At the mention of torture, the boy paled visibly. Verona wasn’t happy to realize that that was what awaited Lani if she got caught.

Shaper Mila was grinning broadly now. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have been working “magic” for nearly two thousand years, but there is still more to discover. One secret in particular has been kept closely guarded. There is a third Room.”