Shaping Faith: Chapter 5, Part 1

Someone tapped Analia on the shoulder, jolting her back to reality. She looked up from where she had been resting her head on the desk in her cubicle and winced at the crick in her neck. How long had she been lying there? At her side stood one of her coworkers, a middle-aged man named Noran. He had been the one to help her through her first week as a trainee, and now that the year was almost up, they had become friends.

“I’m so sorry, I was just writing up that statistics report and I must have fallen asleep,” yawned Analia.

“Yeah, I know,” Noran smiled. “You’ve been out for about half an hour. I would have let you sleep, but it’s almost noon.”

Analia shot to her feet. “The meeting!” There was a briefing for the trainees on their options after the exam at noon. She grabbed her techpad and dodged around Noran out of the cubicle, throwing a quick “thank you” over her shoulder.

“Wait, Analia!” Norman called. Analia paused, glancing down the hallway anxiously.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Norman said. “You could take a few days off – I’m sure the boss would approve it, what with everything that’s…happened.”

“No, I can’t,” Analia said. “I’ve got to get into the inter-planetary program. If I take a few days off I’m that much less likely to. I’m just tired from all the studying. I’ll be able to catch up on sleep after the final exam tomorrow.” She left Noran and hurried down the hall, ignoring the stab of guilt she felt at the lie.

The truth was, she hadn’t been sleeping well since Mom died. And once life had finally started to get back to normal, her twin, her best friend, had done the stupidest, scariest thing imaginable, and got caught.

What happened to my twin, my soulsister? Analia could hardly bear to think about their meeting yesterday. At first, she wasn’t going to go at all. What could you say to your best-friend-turned-murderer? But she had worked up the courage to go.

And sure enough, everything had been different between them. Verona had lied to her. Verona got angry easily, but she had never let it control her. The attempt had been premediated, not done in a fit of rage. With a sinking feeling, Analia knew Verona would have tried to kill Murrin only if she was convinced it was right, even if her logic wasn’t sound. And somehow, Verona had convinced herself that it was Nirvana’s will. It wasn’t hard to see how. One of the basic tenets of Nirvanism was perfect justice, and part of that meant the death penalty for murderers, although the topic was highly contested. Since Verona already thought of Murrin as a murderer, it couldn’t have been that big of a leap.

Analia would never have expected Verona to have the nerve to do what she did. And now she will be locked away for twenty years.

Analia reached the meeting room. Most of the trainees were already there, and a few more were trickling in, but they hadn’t started yet. Analia took a seat next to her friend Rilee and looked up at the screen. It was blank except for the date and time in a corner.

With a shock, Analia remembered that Verona’s transfer was today. In fact, it was happening right now. Soon, she would be farther away from her twin than she had ever been in her life.

Suddenly, chairs scraped across the floor as all the trainees stood up and saluted. Analia quickly followed suit. Colonel Ritter, a somewhat portly man with a mustache that would make a razor tremble in fear. The rest of the trainees numbered about twenty in total, filling most of the seats at the long conference table. At the front of the room, the smartwall displayed a slide that read “Post-intern Opportunities.”

Analia grinned at this, driving the thoughts of Verona from her mind to concentrate on the meeting. She had been waiting for this meeting for ages. It would tell her what she needed to get into one of the good police training programs.

Colonel Ritter reached the front of the room and with a wave of his hand bade them to sit. Once they were seated, he took a laser control out of his pocket and pointed it at the smartwall, where it underlined the word “Opportunities.”

“Welcome, cadets. I’m sure you’re all feeling proud of yourself now. You’ve nearly made it through intern year, and that’s more than a lot of cadets can say. The police program at ASI isn’t something to sneeze at. You’ve all worked your arses off to get where you are today, and I commend you for that. But you aren’t in it yet. You’ve still got a nice round of exams before you can apply for the programs I’m going to tell you about today. I hope you’ve all been studying.”

There was a round of groans at this comment. Analia knew that most of her peers would be happy to never see another exam as long as they lived, and frankly, she agreed.

The colonel chuckled. “Yes, groan all you like, but you’ve still got to take them. However, our topic today concerns what happens after you are fortunate enough to pass them. So I hope all of you are planning on passing, or I’ll just be wasting your time today.”

He clicked on to the next screen. It showed a list of the different branches of police work they could go into, including the local Patrol Force, the Interplanetary Alliance Against Terrorism (IAAT), and prison work. “Crime Scene Forensics” was fifth on the list. Analia sat back, ready to twiddle her fingers until Colonel Ritter made his way to that. She already knew that’s what she would pick. The only thing she needed to do was make sure she scored well on the exam. She had taken the required courses over the last year.

Colonel Ritter spent forever on the local Patrol Force, but that only made sense. Statistically speaking, most of the cadets would wind up there. Analia zoned out for most of the IAAT, but when Colonel Ritter read out a list of the organizations the IAAT was keeping an eye on, Analia sat up straight in shock. The Absolutionists were on that list. Analia hadn’t exactly seen eye to eye with them, but she hadn’t known they were seen as terrorists by the government. And Verona supported them!

At least she can’t run off and join them, now that she’s in prison.