iNSiDE (eBook)

S. A. Gales (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
368 Seiten
Faber & Faber (Verlag)
9780571385836 (ISBN)

Infos

S. A. Gales

Textauszug

Chapter One

I tell myself I’m ready. I prepared for this moment. Ran through every scenario. Completed visualisation exercises. None of it matters. As soon as the doors open and I step into the bright lights, panic erases every single useful thought from my mind.

I lift my hands to shield my eyes but the chains connecting them to my waist keep them from going any higher than my chest. It’s going to be OK; I can do this. I walk forward, blinded until a tug at my chains brings me to a stop.

My escort steps up beside me, fully anonymised in head-to-toe combat whites. I might not know who they are, but how they feel about me is crystal clear. They yank at the cuffs around my wrists, the metal biting into my skin, before undoing the restraints. The skin beneath is mottled and bruised.

I do my best to stand perfectly still. Not to give them any other opportunity to take out their anger on me. Not that I blame them. How could I? I did this to myself.

They unshackle every last restraint, except the thin black band around my left wrist that marks me as a traitor, and gather the chains into their arms.

And then I’m alone.

Fear threatens to overwhelm me but I pull my shoulders so far back it hurts. I focus on the pain and stare straight ahead. I only have one chance. There’s no room for emotion. Failure is not an option.

As if sensing my determination, the lights shift, illuminating the circular arena. Everyone’s here. The soldiers I grew up with who protect and govern our city: Emas. The ones who raised me. The ones I looked up to. As well as every Academy cadet, from my class all the way down to the new recruits. We trained together with one goal: become one of those soldiers and join NSDE – the Neo-Settlers Developers & Engineers.

I don’t know whether I want to laugh or cry at how far I’ve fallen.

The audience stands in perfect silence, looking down at me from their tiered platforms. I search for Kaven, but the arena’s lights make it impossible to distinguish facial features. The only ones I can see clearly are NSDE’s commanding officers. Unlike the crowd, standing in their silent judgement, the officers don’t seem to notice my entrance.

The General sits front and centre. The head of NSDE. The president of Emas. My mother. Her smooth silver-flecked black hair is pulled back into a neat bun. Her trousers are perfectly creased. Her shirt sits stiff against her frame. And despite her wearing the same white uniform as the other officers, hers somehow seems brighter – crisper.

I run my hands over my jumpsuit, but days of living in the same clothes creates wrinkles no amount of smoothing will get out. As for my hair … my curls have always defied taming. My fingers only exacerbate the situation.

I lift my chin and stare at her until she finally deigns to glance in my direction. I search her face for concern. Regret. Encouragement.

She scans my body from head to toe, and the space between her eyebrows furrows.

What did she expect? I’ve been in detention for days. There was no way to keep up appearances.

But the General has never cared for excuses. The only thing she hates more: weakness.

It takes all my concentration to keep my confusion from ruining the mask of indifference I know she’ll be expecting me to wear. I can’t disappoint her. Not this time.

Eventually, the General lifts a manicured hand and stands.

The effect on the arena is instant. Cadets, soldiers and officers alike all snap to attention.

I have to physically fight the instinct not to follow suit.

Sergeant Corvon’s voice rings through the space. ‘The Academy presents Cadet Naya Tambor …’

I flinch and don’t miss the subtle downturn of the General’s lips at my reaction. Less than a minute in her presence and I’ve already earned my first strike.

I shouldn’t have let Sergeant’s voice take me by surprise. Of course he would be the one responsible for reading my charges; he’s been responsible for everything related to my life since I entered the Academy. Eleven years. Eleven years of training, mentoring, and borderline torturing. He was the closest thing my squad and I had to a parent growing up in the Academy. And now, instead of handing me a diploma and commending me on finally graduating into NSDE, he’s about to condemn me.

Humiliation keeps me from meeting his gaze.

The other officers pass around a tablet: my history at the Academy. I’d thought reviewing a summary of my life would take longer than a minute, but the tablet exchanges hands with surprising speed. When it’s extended towards the General, she waves it away.

‘… found guilty of violating multiple NSDE regulations, including but not limited to treason …’

I stare at the General while Sergeant reads off every charge. Despite knowing them, my heart drops with each one.

It’s going to be OK; I can do this.

The General blinks at me, unfazed.

‘The Academy hereby strips the prisoner of their title. Does the judging committee agree to proceed?’

The officers on the platform stand as one and salute.

I’m going to be sick. What was I thinking? Why did I do it?

The room spins until I finally spot Kaven. My best friend. My only friend. I focus on his familiar features and force myself to breathe until I manage to regain some semblance of control.

Unlike the General, his face is a battlefield of emotion, but the one that dominates the rest: betrayal. Why did you do it, Nay?

My heart twists in my throat. I want to tell him the truth. I want to go back to the bunks like we used to when we were younger and tell him everything. I want him to help me come up with a solution to this problem. I know he’d do it. He’s always been there for me. He’s half the reason I made it as far as I did in the Academy.

I look away.

Kaven can’t help me. No one can. I got myself into this mess and I’m going to have to get myself out of it.

‘Tonight’s criminal stands accused of attacking an NSDE officer and pillaging supplies. The Spiravit has been tried and found guilty on all accounts.’

Kaven’s eyes go wide, letting me know I’m no longer alone.

I can’t force myself to turn around and face it.

‘As stated in the by-laws, amendment 2C, the Definitive Optimal Decision protocol will only conclude when a participating party achieves unquestionable victory.’

I brace myself.

‘Tonight’s D.O.D. will be a fight to the death.’

The crowd goes wild.

The blood drains from my face. I panic that I might faint but Sergeant finally locks eyes with me, as if commanding me to pull myself together. He waits until I stand steadier before concluding, ‘Naya Tambor, in accordance with NSDE and Academy laws, you have been granted one last chance for clemency. This has been sanctioned by all parties present. The rest of your fate is in your hands, and it is my duty to announce that your judgement is officially begun.’

I whip around as a cacophony of jeers echoes around me.

Panic nips at my heels but I shut the noise out. I shut everything that might get me killed – or worse, make me fail – into a box and shove it all away.

This isn’t an exercise. There will be no do-over. I have eleven years of training. I have Kaven in the stands. Sergeant in the officer’s box. And the General watching.

I’m not just going to be OK. I will come out of this. I will not fail.

My opponent is thrust forward by prods and batons, and at first, I hesitate. It’s a boy. He might be a bit older than me, with dull grey hair and sallow skin, but he’s human.

I stand there like an idiot and stare. I stare at the constellation of freckles running across the back of his hands and forearms. I stare at the green tingeing his fingertips. I stare at his clothes, neon-orange shirt with teal shorts, torn into rags, from what I can only guess has been endless rounds of torture.

What’s going on? Where’s the Spiravit? Where’s the monster NSDE’s warned us about our entire lives?

Then he lifts his head.

Milky white eyes stare unblinking and unseeing from yellow-green skin stretched tight over a protruding skull. Its mouth is too large, filled with too many teeth. Its arms and legs are all stringy muscles and disproportionately long. Its features shift and morph between human and monster as if it can’t decide what form to take.

And for a split second, regret overwhelms me. This isn’t how my last year at the Academy was supposed to end. I shouldn’t be here. What was I thinking when my mother …

The Spiravit takes the first step forward.

Years of training kick in and I slip into a fighting stance.

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Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 5.8.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch
• ISBN-13: 9780571385836 / 9780571385836