Read Transcendent (9781311909442) for Free Online Page B

quick
nod.
    “I checked,” Palla said with a lightness to
her voice. “There aren't any other transports coming from Venus
anytime soon. No reports of additional reeducation candidates
either.”
    Lily nodded. She’d checked too. If Krys was
still alive, he was hiding. More likely he’d been killed with the
rest of them. She pushed the thought away. They were just stupid
kids; no matter what their parents said, the odds of them being
together were pretty bad. None of that helped the burning in her
eyes that she had to blink away.
    The light flashed above the door, catching
Lily mid-breath and choking her as her throat seized up.
    “Your turn,” Palla said with a smile that
felt almost wicked. “Remember, this is just to give you an idea
where your natural talents lie. From here we can work towards
figuring out the rest. Don’t expect to do amazing here, okay?”
    Lily forced a smile on her face. “I’ll do my
best,” she promised. She stood up from her chair and smoothed the
dark blue pleated skirt she wore. Being forced into a uniform that
demanded skirts for girls and pants for boys had struck her as odd
at first. The new government prided itself on equality, but it was
making a distinction between girls and boys? Adult women had the
option of skirt or pants when working, at least.
    She walked through the door and heard it
hiss shut behind her, trapping her in the testing room. A blue
light stretched out on the floor ahead of her, guiding her through
a maze of cubicles to one of her own. She took a seat and wondered
what was going to happen next. Her wait was over almost before it
began.
    The display in front of her blinked to life,
welcoming her to her first aptitude test. She read it and
acknowledged it with a touch of the screen, and then followed the
instructions as it led her through some basic questions and answers
that gauged her skill with math and memory. The questions soon
became harder, requiring her to figure out patterns and solve
harder and harder problems. About the time she started to feel
overwhelmed and stupid, the screen flashed.
    “Aptitude phase one completed,” the display
read.
    Lily sat straighter, surprised. She glanced
at the floor and wondered if she was supposed to go now. But go
where? There was no blue light to guide her.
    “Scoring completed,” the display read,
jerking her eyes back up to it. “Stand by for phase two.”
    Instructions flashed across the screen,
forcing her to read fast as they scrolled off. It was simple
enough: more pattern recognition. She had to touch the screen
before the time ran out when she recognized the solution to the
problem.
    Images began to pop up, showing multiple
pictures that confused her. Crops, insects, sunshine, storm clouds,
and then a picture of a long extinct whitetail deer appeared. She
studied the pictures and then selected the deer. Another scene
appeared, filtering in pictures that she had to connect and then
select the one that seemed to stand out the most. She lost count of
how many she saw, including some repeats, before the display went
blank again.
    “Aptitude phase two completed,” the display
read. “Scoring completed. Stand by for phase three.”
    Phase three was about reflexes and hand-eye
coordination. There was no real skill to it, just sorting shapes
and then guiding objects around obstacles on the screen. She
snorted at how easy it was until the screen went blank again. It
took several seconds before the completion message showed up.
    Lily endured three more phases of testing,
each more complicated than the last. When she finished, she felt
exhausted and had no idea how well she’d performed. The message,
“Scoring completed,” told her nothing. Did she score high or low?
Palla had said it didn’t matter this time around but Palla reminded
her of Pita, someone who thought so much of themselves that nobody
else could ever compare.
    The blue light reappeared at her feet and
started out of her cubicle. Lily jumped to