Siff follows the unit on foot to a transport that whisks them to a set of railed train-cars taking troops in all directions. They board the closest one, “This is how we get around to our slave labour. The grav doesn’t work so well on these things so you might feel a-” The transport lunges forward and accelerates, Siff feels her breakfast coming up again and forces it down. The rest of the team watches her until it’s clear she has managed to fight back the urge to vomit.

“Dammit!”

“Ha! Pay up guys!”

“No fair. You tried to warn her!”

“But I didn’t, did I? Pay up.”

Karl’s face has a big grin as the others hand over cash one-by-one, “They didn’t think you’d handle the acceleration so well, but I had faith in you. You’re tougher than you look, kiddo.”

Siff isn’t sure if she should be offended that they laid bets against her, or proud that she proved them wrong. But she is happy that Karl believes in her. Maybe the others will, too. Maybe she’ll even be able to believe in herself. She looks at the guns and grenades strapped to her military suit. Can I do it? Is it in me to fight—to kill—for others? Can I kill those who want to kill me? She can feel the soft fabrics underneath it all reminding her what she is really here for. Can I leave my friends for the Chosen Ones? After they said I was one of them? After I’ve been accepted as part of the team? Siff sees her face in the reflection of a window. No, this isn’t me. Violence is not me. I need to find peace. And that peace is my only hope. And my hope is just as important as my new friends’ hope. Besides, I’m not a soldier like them. I’ll just slow them all down. Addy’s right, I’m just a burden to the team.

Siff chooses to believe herself and returns to focus on her surroundings. The tracks take them deep into tunnels lined with wiring and pipes. Ventilation and doors into the walls appear every so often, but as the transport continues to accelerate it is harder to notice them beyond a brief flash of color or texture against the continuous lines of cables. It feels much more raw down here. Exposed. Not as finely finished as she is used to, but she imagines it makes maintenance easier without having to remove, replace, and polish paneling for every piece of work you do.

The other units on the transport are joking and catching up with one another, but the tension is palpable. Everyone here is nervous, but also excited to finally exact some revenge on their oppressors. Siff is not exactly comfortable and wonders if they know who she is. And if they knew who she was, would she be safe in the midst of such charged aggression? As much as Macy has managed to make her accepted, can they truly see her as anything but an upper-level oppressor? Siff returns her attention to the window, not wanting to think about those things too much. The repetitiveness of the confining scenery is a welcome distraction from her anxious thoughts. The dim lighting gives her a hypnotic dream-like affect. She soon finds herself lost in pleasant imagination of what is soon to come: her escape to the Chosen Ones. She dreams of the new adventures that await her in a land of freedom and peace.

“We’re almost there. How’re you holding up?” Karl must have seen her spacing out. Siff jolts back to reality and sees herself in the window reflection once again. The military gear shocks her back into her nerves, “Feeling like I might puke after all. I can’t believe I’m here right now.”

“Neither can any of us. Things really accelerated this last week. But we have a chance to make our lives better and we’ve got to take it.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“I said it before, we’ve got your back. I’m watching out for you Siff.” He puts his hand on her shoulder and makes sure she makes eye contact, “You’re going to be okay.”

The transport begins its deceleration as the tunnel opens up to a massive hall filled with machinery. Siff looks in wonder at the marvels of technology and engineering that lay bare before her, “I’ve worked in this section my whole life. That door ahead, that’s where we’re going. It’s a separate accelerator that will connect us with the grav module.”

“What does the grav module do?”

“It’s connected to the Tube. There are eight of them in total, each connected just below the Needle and expanding to the outer circumference where it connects to the ship. They keep the Tube spinning with zero friction. Where we’re entering, the grav-module is spinning at over to three thousand kilometers per hour. We’re going to enter a grav transport to get us up to that speed.”

“And the security forces are coming in from there?”

“They’re making their way to us however they can. It’s not a terrible idea to enter from the Needle: we don’t have access to those systems. Of course, aggravating conflict this close to the Chosen Ones isn’t a great idea in my mind. But hey, Diana’s the genius, not me.”

“Why do you call her that?”

“I reckon that’s her title. We’re at war, so I’m a captain and she’s Diana. Kind of a noble thought, I reckon. Anyway, here comes our stop.” The train comes to a halt and the doors slide open, “Okay troops, let’s head out!”

The units disembark and head their separate ways. Siff doesn’t have much time to wonder where the other troops might be going, as her team jogs to the door Karl pointed to earlier. They enter a small loading platform and wait for the door to close behind them before the next one opens. They step into the small transport, just large enough to seat their six-person team, and strap in.

“Want to know something amazing?”

“Do I?” Siff isn’t so sure.

Conner laughs and knocks on the wall of the transport, “Sure you do! We’re about two meters away from the outer wall where the grav modules rotate around the Tube. Right there is something traveling at over three thousand kilometers an hour!

“And you can’t hear or feel a thing because between us and that wall is a vacuum: nothing but space. If this transport malfunctions we’re going to collide with a wall moving at three thousand kilometers an hour and then what’s left of us is gonna get ejected into space!”

“Happens a lot, does it?”

“Not often, but you can tell when a transport’s gonna malfunction when it shakes during acceleration.”

The little shit. Siff knows what he’s doing, but she can’t help feel her nerves pick up as the doors close and the transport begins to move. And yes, it shakes. It shakes like a bitch. Siff glares at Conner who smiles and waves back. At least the grav is working in this one. Accelerating to these speeds with the shaking would definitely have her redecorating the room.

Fortunately the shaking starts to die down after a few minutes, “We’ve reached correct velocity, now we’re lining up with the grav module.” There are a few more seconds before a click is heard and the door on the opposite side of the room opens. Suddenly the shaking is completely gone, “Okay, here we go. Stick together and follow me.”

Karl leads them through an entranceway and into a hall where they meet up with three other units. Siff sits with her team and waits for Karl to return with news of their mission. It doesn’t take long, “Okay guys, here’s the deal. We have intel that Brainers are attempting to infiltrate from the Needle to secure the grav modules. We’ve got teams on all eight, but our mission is to hold number seven. They still don’t have control of the elevators so they have to use the vents and wiring corridors. Our unit is stationed by the main elevator to keep an eye on the panelling on the floors and ceiling. We are unit four. Units one and two are entering the vents as we speak, and unit three is guarding the secondary elevator shaft.”

“So we have to sit here while those other guys get to have payback? That’s bullshit.”

“This ain’t the place for sulking Addy. This is serious. The Brainers could still make it by our guys in there. There are a lot of vents and shafts to cover. We have to stay alert.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Okay team, let's move.”

Siff jogs with them over to the main elevator, where they set up watch. Karl points out possible points of entry. There are a lot of them. From the floors, to the walls, to the ceiling, Karl knows every detail of the layout. Siff is given the elevator and surrounding paneling to watch over. Any sign of movement or sound or smell and she has to call it immediately. The others are given similar assignments in the surrounding area. There is a lot more open space than Siff imagined; a lot more ground to watch over than she feels comfortable with. She leans against a couple of crates and stares over the ground she has been given. How am I going to get to the Chosen Ones from here? There’s so few of us to cover this much space, maybe they do need me after all? How is Macy going to make this work?

Siff reaches inside her jacket and pulls out the headset Macy gave her. Checking to see that no-one is watching she removes her helmet and puts on the device. Immediately she hears her friend, “Ah, there you are. How goes the mission?”

“I don’t know Macy, are you sure they don’t need me here. We’re spread really thin.”

“So you want to stay after all? Because you still have that option.”

“I don’t know…I just want them to be safe.”

“None of us are safe, Siff. We’re at war. If you leave, we’ll manage. But it would be great if you stayed.”

Siff looks around at her new friends spread out across the gigantic hall, they are all so eager to fight for the freedom they’ve never had. And Siff wrestles once again with her conscience. They’ll fight for what they want in life, and so will I. I have dreams of my own. But what about their dreams, don’t I want to help them be free? I already have! I’ve sacrificed everything for them to have this chance. I want to have my own chance at a happy life-

“Siff? You there?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Soooooo…?”

“I still want to go.”

“Okay, here’s what’s going to happen. After we’re done talking here you are going to return this headset to your jacket and put your helmet back on. You are going to wait a few minutes until the elevator doors open. Then you are going to run into the elevator and replace your helmet with this headset once again. After that I will guide you through step-by-step. Got that?”

Siff’s heart drops a beat, it’s actually going to happen. She swallows and nods her head, “Got it.”

“Right. Put the headset away and get ready.”

Siff takes it off and returns her helmet to her head. Communications restore to her teammates, and she goes back to staring at the walls, growing anticipation in her gut for the elevator doors to open any second. Any second now. Any second…now. Damn it, why is it taking so long?