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THREE

He was fourteen now, and standing at attention on the other side of Dr Halsey‘s desk Her face, he noticed, was drawn and tight, her responses a little jerkier than usual, as if she hadn‘t been getting enough sleep or was overworked She hid it well, but Soren, his well, saw all the cues he was learning to suppress in himself

―At ease," Dr Halsey said ―Please take a seat, Soren"

―Thank you,wasted

She hispering quietly to herself, scanning a series of electronic files The files were holograms whose contents were visible to her but which he saw only as an ie of CPO Mendez on the other side of it with his finger pressed to his lips Soht

―Do you mind if I ask you a question?" she asked

―Of course not, ma‘am," he said

―Dr Halsey," she said ―No need to make me sound any older than I am Do you remember e first one by without his thinking about thatit had led to

―I wonder, Soren, do you reave you a choice?"

Soren wrinkled his forehead briefly, then the lines cleared ―You mean whether to co else?"

―No, just that," she said ―You were young enough that I didn‘t knoell you‘d remember

How do you feel about your choice?"

―I‘ht choice, ht we already talked about your calling―I wondered at the tiive you a choice Lieutenant Keyes wondered too Whether you weren‘t too young to have that burden placed on you"

―Burden?" he asked

She waved the implied question aside ―Never ive you another choice"

He waited for her to continue, but for aat him, the same unreadable expression on her face that he‘d noticed before, when he had caught her watching hi," she said

Soren said nothing

Dr Halsey sighed ―You‘ve trained well, all of you But training is only the first step We‘re on the verge of the second step Would you like to take it?"

―What is it exactly?"

―There‘s only so much I can tell you," said Dr Halsey ―There‘s only so ment them We want to modify your physical body and mind to push it beyond norhen your bones, increase your growth, build your muscle mass, sharpen your vision, improve your reflexes We want to make you into the perfect soldier" The s on her face slowly faded away ―However, there will be side effects Some of these we know, some we probably can‘t anticipate There‘s also considerable risk"

―What sort of risk?"

―There‘s a chance, a nontrivial one, that you could die during the aug risk of Parkinson‘s, Fletcher‘s syndrome, and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, as well as potential probleenerative bone conditions"

He didn‘t understand everything she was saying, but had the gist of it ―And if it works?"

―If it works, you‘ll be stronger and faster than you can i over theiven I a you a choice, while your classmates will simply be told they are to report for the procedure"

―Why me?" asked Soren

―Pardon?"

―Why aets to make a choice? Why not one of the others?"

She turned her gaze to the desk in front of her, her voice distant now,to herself than the boy ―What the Spartans are is an experiment," she said ―In every controlled experiment you need one sae the progress of the larger group You‘re that sample, Soren"

―We‘re an experiment," he said, his voice flat

―I won‘t lie to you That is precisely what you are, and you--an experiment within the experiment

An exception to a rule," she said

―Why ain ―You could have chosen anyone"

She shrugged ―I don‘t know, Soren It just turned out that way"

He was silent for a long ti it all out in his head Finally he looked up

―I want to do it," he said

―You do?" said Dr Halsey ―Even knowing the risks?"

―Yes," he said And then added, ―I don‘t want to be left behind"

STRANGE, DRHalsey thought after he had left What had heto be left behind? Where had she heard that before?

She shook her head to clear it ―Deja," she said ―You were listening in, I take it?"

―Of course, Dr Halsey," said the AI‘s sram flickered into existence on the desk beside her Created specifically for the Spartan project, her self-chosen construct was that of a Greek goddess, barefoot and holding a clay tablet

―Any thoughts?"

―Is that a rhetorical question?" asked Deja When Dr Halsey didn‘t respond, she continued ―You didn‘t tell hi," the AI said

―No," said Dr Halsey ―I didn‘t"

―I would be remiss not to point out that, as the individual responsible for the intellectual developiven hienerally works in a scientific experiroup that does not experience the conditions of--"

―I know that, Deja," said Halsey, cutting her off

Deja nodded curtly ―I would also be remiss not to point out that Soren-66 hient and has al him a choice were false"

―And ere my real reasons?" asked Dr Halsey

―I don‘t know," said Deja ―I have a feeling, however, that I‘m as confused about that as you are"

Dr Halsey nodded

―But if I had to guess," said Deja, ―knowing you as well as I do, I would say that it was a way of easing your own conscience You just wanted to tell him You wanted to tell one of them You wanted to see if just one of them would hed ―Yes," she said ―Youhonest with me, Deja"

―No need to thank "

Dr Halsey brushed her hand through the holograiven hiht I’ve let hiht I’ve shifted the burden of responsibility back to hi

FOUR

He was drea but even in the dream it was as if he couldn‘t wake up, as if he had been asleep for days and days In the dreaain, but in addition to the cold and the hunger there was also soe creature, almost human but not quite: deformed soular, dragging one of its feet behind It was always just a little way behind hi up with him, but he couldn‘t seeh the woods behind hiive a cry of pain that was so piercing that it was all he could do to keep going How long had he been walking? He ate what he could grab fro, dead on his feet, half-asleep, until suddenly he took a wrong turn and found the path before him blocked And there the creature was, just behind him and on him before he could escape

It plucked hiround like a toy and hurled hih limbs and branches and ca to white as he died

Only he wasn‘t dead What he saw, all around hi And then the whiteness slowly resolved into a piercing light To either side of hi into heads, the heads themselves covered hite cloth caps, the faces hidden behind breathingthat covered the bodies was spattered and stained with blood It took him a moment to realize the blood was his own

One of the heads was speaking, he realized, a low ruh he couldn‘t understand what it was saying It stopped and one of the other heads started towith the with ers waved itself over his eyes He tried to follow the always just a little late A head dove down closer to his eyes, suddenly beco crisply, painfully defined

―Is he supposed to be like this?" the head asked, its voice h thetoward him, crisp and almost as if too close There was a flurry ofbeca oddly and slowly, as if underwater

This is real, he suddenly realized This is really happening Then abruptly the buzzing increased and the thought slipped through his ers and was lost, to be replaced by another drea in a chair but couldn‘this ars; he simply couldn‘t move No, wait, he could move a little, could move his eyes very slowly back and forth At first the roo in the an to take form around Not a chair, he suddenly realized, but a bed: He was lying in a bed--how had he ever thought he was sitting upright in a chair? There was a blanket he recognized, but he couldn‘t quite place it The shape of the bed was familiar as well, the shape of the room familiar, too, but he was unable to place where he was until the door at the far end of the rooe, stooped and shouldered his way in

I’ht In an to realize that he wasn‘t the only one in the bed, that he wasn‘t alone But he couldn‘t turn his head to see who the other person was His stepfather stood in the doorway,froe but iin to understand He appeared to be pleading, exhorting, but maybe it just seemed that way

And then suddenly the other person in the bed h he still didn‘t understand a word of it he realized, by the sound and tenor of the voice, that it was his e of her hand, the skin gray and beginning to rot, to come apart to show a thin strip of bone below He wanted to scream, but all he could do was let his eyes dart frantically about in his sockets as she slowly shifted in the bed, her hand carefully feeling his face She gave a low hiss and began to pull herself up

He was just beginning to see her face when a sudden intense pain washed over hilass into his veins The dream wavered and spun and reduced itself to a sone, leaving nothing but darkness behind

How long did that last? I, no sense of anything but that liue sense of hi around the edges, any sense of hi to slip away

And then, very, very slowly, the darkness was broken by a ser and in the end sed everything around him