Read Transcendent (9781311909442) for Free Online

clutched her pad to her chest. She glanced up and saw
two other kids in her class hurry to catch up to her, as well as an
older girl who had spoken to her. They stopped and glanced around.
“Hey,” the older girl greeted her with a smile. “Welcome to
TLS-1.”
    The six-week space flight had been horrible.
There’d been nothing to do but listen to boring recorded lectures
talking about how wonderful the new government would be and what
her place would be in it. There were half a dozen of the recorded
sessions and with six weeks of travel, all of the children on the
transport had to endure them multiple times.
    She’d learned a few useful things too, like
her home for the next several years would be a space station called
TLS-1. TLS, the Learning Station, was a failed attempt ages ago by
Earthlings to create a habitat in space. It was perfectly
habitable; the problem was the lack of organization and structure
in the people who tried to run it. The new government, voted into
place as an emergency measure to protect humanity from destroying
itself, had repurposed it. And now it was her home for the
foreseeable future.
    “I’m Palla,” the older girl said and thrust
her hand forward. “This is Trix and that’s Kami.”
    “I’m Lily,” she said and then blushed. They
already knew that thanks to their teacher introducing her to the
class. “Sorry, you knew that.”
    Trix smiled and glanced at a nearby window
that showed a slowly rotating view of the stars. “It’s okay. Are
you from Venus too?”
    Lily gasped. “Yes! You?”
    “Me too,” Kami said while Trix nodded.
“Colony Delta-22. You?”
    “Sierra-12,” Lily answered. She gasped a
moment later as she did the math. “You were on the dark side!”
    Kami nodded. “Only had a couple of veeks
left until spring, though. Not that it matters anymore, unless they
send me back there.”
    “Send you back?”
    Palla nodded. “We’re all here to learn the
truth of what’s been going on. I’ve been here a few months already
and they say my aptitude is for speaking and leadership. So here I
am, in charge of helping you girls adjust.”
    Lily turned to Kami and Trix. “How long have
you been here?”
    “We were on the first transports,” Trix
said. “You came on the last.”
    Lily’s eyes widened. “The last? But, there
were other people!”
    Both of the girls turned to look at Palla.
She offered a sad smile. “Venus is the food source for most of
humanity; there are regular transports out. It’s possible somebody
else might be sent, but I don’t know.”
    “Why? Kami asked. “Was there somebody?”
    Lily blushed and shook her head. “No, uh, no
reason.”
    “They’d be sent to a different habitat ring
anyhow,” Palla said. “It helps you focus on what’s important. This
ring is set up to make your adaptation as easy as possible. It’s
even spinning so that the gravity is barely stronger than what
you’re used to, but still more than five percent less than
Earth’s.”
    Lily frowned. She’d already been told about
the physics of the different habitat rings. She was more interested
in what Palla considered important. As far as she was concerned,
Krys and Devon were very important. Her mom and Krys’s mom had been
talking about her and Krys and how obvious it was they liked each
other. They were young but they were already talking about her and
Krys growing up together and being together. Lily liked the idea;
Krys was a smart boy and a hard worker, even if he did worry too
much about things.
    “Lily?” Palla asked, pulling her out of her
daydream. “Are you okay?”
    “Yeah, just thinking. Sorry.”
    Palla frowned. “Be careful with that.”
    “With thinking?” Lily asked. Kami and Trix
both laughed.
    Palla smiled. “Not thinking—that’s good. I
meant daydreaming. Trust me, you really need to focus here and do
your best. You don’t want to end up stuck being assigned to a
miserable job track the rest of your life because you were