Marian Leaves Earth

I know some people lose their monitor and then go home thinking they've washed out. I didn't. I was at school - I'd just logged in to my desk - and all of a sudden the principal came down and said I had to go with her. I was terrified that I'd gotten in trouble somehow.

And then there was a Fleet Officer waiting in her office, and we went into the Resource Room to talk. He said I was going to have my monitor taken out in an hour, whether I decided to come or not, but that he hoped I decided to come, because the world needed me.

I'll be honest with you, Ms. Kaminskiy, he said. The Fleet won't collapse if you say no. Saying no might be the best thing for you - you can go home, climb trees, make bread with your mother, have a relatively normal life. But if you say yes, we have that much better chance of defeating the buggers when they come back.

And so I closed my eyes and said a prayer to St. Michael and said, I'll go with you, sir.

He nodded. You can write a letter to your parents now. You can write them from the school, too, but they might not arrive.

So I did. I wrote, Dear Mom and Dad: See with what large letters I am writing to you in my own hand! I wanted them to be really sure it was me - besides, my handwriting really is bad. And then I wrote, I decided to go to Battle School. I love you both so much, and I won't forget you. Love, Marian. At the very bottom I used my neatest letters to write A M D G.

And then they took my monitor out - it really wasn't so bad, although the actual removal made my whole back stiff for a few moments - and I got changed into a uniform.

And then, of course, they made sure I wasn't carrying any diseases or going to get sick. And I couldn't eat anything! And I got to fly on an airplane. Then they let me sleep on a cot in the Armed Forces Lounge at the spaceport, and in the morning there were more kids sleeping in there. And we all got on the shuttle - with people watching us and televising it and everything.

I thought I was going to be flattened while we were taking off, and it felt so good when we were weightless at first. And then I was dizzier than I'd ever been. Some of the others were gagging - that's why we couldn't eat - but I was just dizzy.

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See with what large letters I am writing to you in my own hand! is Galatians 6:11, a verse Marian evidently had memorized. (up)