Kindling

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"You're the first familiar face I've seen since I've woken up, sir. Who are all these people?"
The lieutenant couldn't help but crack a small smile as Erin looked around the room. She was still feeling a little disoriented from her time in cryosleep, and the room wasn't as she remembered it.
When she first agreed to temporarily go on ice, the technicians were still working on installing their new equipment in the room while the nurses were finishing their tests. She could remember their faces, their body language, and she distinctly remember there only being three of them.
Now, a team of four were removing the equipment, and all of them were completely unfamiliar to Erin. They were dressed in new uniforms and utilized a different set of tools from the original installation.
She looked back to the lieutenant, who seemed to be at a momentary loss of words.
"The doctor told me it worked," Erin reassured the lieutenant. "I'm all cured, sir."
"Erin," the lieutenant finally spoke, taking a knee to lower himself down to the trainee's height. "I had once hoped I wouldn't need to do this. The operations took much longer than any of us could have anticipated. I regret to inform you that you're ineligible for graduation with the rest of your company."
"I'm sorry?" Erin was too confused about what she was hearing to grasp the actual meaning Lieutenant Ambrose was trying to convey. "How long was I asleep, Lieutenant?"
"When Mendez and I first offered this option to you, we informed you that we couldn't estimate how much of your training you would miss." He sighed, trying to build up the strength to continue. Three of the technicians cleared the room, but one stayed behind, bobbing her head to a faint sound of music in her headphones.
"Sir?"
"About three years." While Erin was still not the best at reading the nuances of facial expressions, she could tell the lieutenant felt defeated. His hazel eyes drifted to the floor, not ready to see Erin's reaction.
Three years. Erin calculated the date in her head. It was October 2541 when she went to sleep. In the best case scenario, Erin had maybe a few months to continue her training before augmentation and graduation, and in the worst case she missed all her friends already leaving the planet.
"I…" Erin attempted to break the silence, but struggled to find the words to use. "Sir, it is okay. I needed to do this; I was sick. You did your best, sir."
Perhaps Erin was supposed to feel devastated by the situation much like the lieutenant was. Maybe she should be angry that her future just got torn away from her. It was possible that she was expected to dwell on "what-ifs."
But Erin's mind never lingered on the past like that. She lived in the present, as that was what she knew and could touch. Her future was always full of shifting expectations, and her past an unchanging memory. She never asked herself "what if," but rather "what now?"
"Some of the others are still planetside," Lieutenant Ambrose spoke as he rose to his feet. Erin's lack of an outburst seems to have returned a smile to his face. "I'm sure some of them might want to see you again before they leave."
"Really?" Erin was overjoyed to hear her friends were still around. "Which ones waited for me?"
"You'll just have to go and see for yourself." Lieutenant Ambrose gestured towards the door at the far side of the room. The last technician was wheeling some piece of machinery through the doorway on a handcart. "They've grown quite a bit since you last saw them. I'm sorry you weren't able to do the same."
"There's always next time. Right, sir?" Erin began to follow the technician down an unfamiliar hallway, observing the exit signs.
"Next time? What do you mean?"
"Some of the trainers told stories about the company before mine. Won't there be more kids coming that get to hear our stories?"
"That's a direction I hadn't considered, and I can't make you any promises right now." Lieutenant Ambrose seemed hesitant to the idea. "You would still be willing to serve, even after this?"
Erin nodded confidently. "When I first met you, you told us we were needed, we were special. It was our duty to become Spartans and save everyone. I don't care how long it takes me, I won't give up. I'm going to be a Spartan, sir."
Category:Shattered Glass Stories