Elements of Earth: The Element Trials

Synchronous 2; An exploration of subcutaneous memories: Trait development

"Who can tell me the chemical name and formula for Quartz?" The instructor asked.

4 raised his hand and stood. "SiO2. Silicon dioxide."

"Good." The teacher did not smile approvingly or praise 4. It was simply an acknowledgment. She did not even give him permission to sit as she brushed through her notes.

The classroom was large enough to fit fifty. But it was empty aside from the teacher, Kira and her ten. It was not mandatory to attend classes on any elements except for the element your microbes specialized in. It was actually unheard of. That is until Kira began attended every course. Her ability was new and relying solely on it would be tactically ignorant. Know thy enemy, know thyself. That was her initial reasoning, her argument for when she would proposition the judges, requesting to take courses on other elements. But she didn't follow through on that course of action at that time.

She didn't think of it again until her teacher gave them a history of chemistry lecture. "Dmitri Mendeleiev is credited as the inventor of the periodic table. He found the underlying pattern's the elements followed and ordered them accordingly. To do this accurately he introduced gaps and predicted that there were undiscovered elements to fill those gaps. While many chemists have improved and expanded on his work, the periodic table we use today is largely unchanged. Except of course that most of those missing elements have been discovered."

As much as the teachers declared their lectures to be doctrine it was with those words, predicted and undiscovered that Kira saw the world rightly. If there were undiscovered elements there were likely undiscovered reactions, molecules, and compounds. She must learn all she can about every element. So she attended every course, without requesting permission from the judges. No one questioned her. It wasn't against the rules, just that no one had thought of it before. This was no longer a search for Intel on her enemies, though she would learn much of that from teachers and intel trades with other tens. No, she would also look for the underlying pattern, like Mendeleiev. She would determine why things reacted to predict new ways of using her element. She would never again go through something like last time if she tried to develop a second trait.

I felt Kira pushing away the memory of how she had developed her trait and threw in thirty of my fifty percent mental capacity.

A girl appears. The Girl is me. I possess two senses of self but cannot distinguish between them.

I am in a dark room. A boy is here too, but not the same boy as before. The green coat facilitator is here. He screams at us as we run. Tells us we are disgracing him with our failure to develop a single trait. His fur-lined coat covers the number fourteen on his back. His breath fogs angry clouds of white as he tells us to run faster. It is only then I realize how cold I am. In only shorts and a thin shirt, my body aches and yet is numb. The pins and needles are as confused as I am, trying to figure out what to do and how we got here.

"Get down." The boy and I dismount the running wheels too slowly. The facilitator smacks around the boy as I stand at attention. I nearly fall asleep on my feet as I wait, but catch myself before I teeter over. Just in time too. The green coat turns to me. "Both of you, heat room. Now!"

The boy and I take the two heartbeats needed to catch our breath and say, "Yes, facilitator!" in reply. The boy and I run to the hatch. We drape our shirts over our hands so the skin won't stick to the cold metal. As we spin the wheel to unseal the door I see his face more clearly. His dark skin is laced with frost where sweat should be. The white crystals of water make him resemble his brother who wore crystals of quartz. His name is 2. No, that's not his name but his rank. He is in my ten. Aside from myself, he is the only other element in our ten to have never developed a trait. Which was why I was demoted from the rank of 5 to the rank of 3.