Hicks wandered the hallways and corridors of the SPD academy, frantically searching for the main meeting hall. He cursed the fact that his decision to engage in the pointless argument with that female alien had held him up from getting changed. By the time he had, the dorm was empty and there was no one to follow to the meeting.

The base was truly huge, larger than the whole of Corinth City within the academy's main building alone. By the time the external landing areas, training quads, rec areas, lookout towers, it was much larger. Right now though, he was concentrating on the main building, since he knew that it was in here...somewhere.

After getting to the ground floor, he had started wandering around, looking for the meeting room. So far he had found a kitchen, a mess hall, a basketball court, a firing range, a gym, and some kind of recreation facility that he simply couldn't identify for the life of him.

He eventually found a floor plan on the wall, and had a look at it. He found the marker indicating where he was.

"OK, so the main meeting room is..." He traced his finger around. "Got it!"

He broke into a sprint, since he knew he was now already late. The last thing he needed was to miss the orientation meeting completely. He finally arrived at the room, and opened the door slowly, in the hopes of slipping in quietly without being noticed.

He saw Cruger and Simian on the stage, along with several other staff members, presumably the other instructors. Two of them were human, or at least appeared to be from this distance. Due to the size of the meeting hall, Hicks was almost half a mile from the stage. Standing at the podium, giving a speech was a tall creature, dressed in a long, black SPD officer's uniform, only his head visible. He could vaguely see a face that looked a little like a bird, possibly an eagle. Perfect, he had missed the beginning of the Supreme Commander's welcome address.

"...so make no mistake, you have all been chosen as the finest representatives of your respective agencies. However, I can assure you. The next three months will be gruelling." Birdie continued with his speech. "It will test every one of your limits. Your strength, your endurance, your will, your intelligence..."

Hicks froze as Birdie activated a spotlight, shining it on him. Because of his sharp eyesight, Birdie had spotted him entering the room, even from this distance in the dark. Hicks just looked to the stage nervously as he realised he had been busted.

"Not to mention your ability to keep good time!" He snapped. "What is your name cadet?"

"Hicks." He called out, causing a few of the assembled crowd near him to recoil, holding their ears. He had to admit that he had shouted, but it should never have been that loud.

"There is no need to shout, the sound relay system will carry your voice to me." Birdie sighed. A few of the other cadets laughed as he said this. Hicks had already gotten the impression that a lot of the cadets would be a lot more familiar with the technology here than he was. Not only was he now being reprimanded for being tardy, he was also getting a reputation as the class dunce for failing to understand what they considered simple technology.

"Take a seat Cadet Hicks." Birdie instructed him. Hicks saw a movement and noticed Switch waving him over to an empty seat. He took his seat sheepishly to listen to the rest of the speech. "Interruptions aside, now we can begin what will be easily the greatest test of all of your lives. This room currently has 1000 students in it. By the end of the first month alone, less than half of you will still be here." Hicks could swear Birdie glanced in his direction. He didn't need an interpreter to catch the undertones of that gesture.

"You all have a beacon on the arm rest of your chairs." He announced. Switch nudged Hicks and pointed to it to let him know what he was looking for. "You will all be assigned to groups of ten. The colour the beacon flashes when I activate it will denote which group you will be assigned to."

He pressed a button on the podium, at which the beacons activated. Hicks saw his flashing blue.

"Hey, we're on the same team!" Switch yelled excitedly, gesturing to his own beacon. Hicks smiled a little. At least he knew he would have one person he knew on the team...and who didn't seem to have taken an instant dislike to him. They both got up as the cadets started to file out of the meeting room. Heading outside, they found that a floor plan was waiting, indicating rooms in the colours of beacons.

"Our next destination is here." Switch told him, finding the room indicated.

"Well stick close." Hicks told him. "The last thing I need is to be late twice in one day."

Back on Earth, Gemma was sitting with Gem, having finally calmed him down. She had thought he was just upset about her and Hicks, but she never expected what was really bothering him. When he had told her that he had ended up sleeping with Cassandra, she was a little taken aback.

"So...what did Cassandra have to say about it?" Gemma asked him.

"She didn't say much." Gem admitted. "I just felt so bad about what happened, all I could do was apologise to her."

"Gem, what you did wasn't something to be ashamed of." Gemma told him sympathetically. "You love each other."

"We've talked about this, we both wanted to wait." Gem told her. "I overheard you and Gem talking about the hotel room, and I kind of flipped out. I went into our room to let off some steam."

"I had no idea it would upset you that much." Gemma replied, trying hard not to get a mental image of what had happened. She couldn't ask, but she kind of hoped that at least it hadn't happened in her bed.

"I was feeling sorry for myself and Cassandra was just trying to comfort me. It just kind of happened." He told her. "I knew it was a mistake when it happened. It didn't feel right."

"Have you told Cassandra about this?" Gemma asked him. He shook his head sadly.

"I can barely bring myself to look at her." He admitted. "She was there for me when I needed her, she was so caring and I...I just feel like I took advantage of that." He looked to his feet in shame.

"I wanted to have something special with her, to make everything perfect when we finally...you know." He explained. "The way we both felt after wards, I really feel like I ruined everything for us."

"You didn't ruin everything Gem." She assured him. "Sure, what happened might not be what you had in mind, but I've seen how you are with each other. I know if you just try you can work this out."

"But what if she won't talk to me?" Gem asked her. "She seemed pretty upset."

Just then, there was a knock on the door and Cassandra came in. Gemma just looked to him and smiled.

"I'll just leave you two alone." She told him in a tone that kind of said 'I told you so'. Gemma just left the room, leaving them alone together.

"Gem, we need to talk." Cassandra began.

"Yeah, we do." He replied, gesturing to Cassandra to take a seat opposite him on his sister's bed.

In the SPD academy, Hicks and Switch arrived in the assigned room to meet up with their team. As they got there, Hicks breathed a sigh of relief that they were the first ones there.

"At least I'm not late again." Hicks commented. It wasn't long before another arrival came. It was the female alien he had met in the dormitory.

"Oh great, not only do I have to sleep in that...torture chamber, now I've got you on the team!" She complained loudly.

"Well I knew my luck couldn't hold out for long." Hicks replied sarcastically. "I'm not thrilled about it either, but the least we can do is make the most of it and be pleasant to each other."

"Great, I have to carry you two." She grumbled. "I may as well kiss that sabre goodbye. I came here to graduate top of the class, not babysit a couple of moneys!"

"Take that back!" Switch snapped at her, beginning to get noticeably irritated. Hicks had to admit not liking her attitude, but it didn't sound like she had said anything that bad. "Take it back or..."

"You monkeys, you get worked up so easily." She sighed, taking a seat as Hicks calmed him down.

"What's going on Switch?" He asked him.

"She called us monkeys!" Switch responded. Hicks just shrugged.

"So?" He asked ignorantly. "I mean, I suppose it's not the most flattering of names, but..."

"She's a Ju'kran." Switch explained. "They often look down on humans. Some of them use monkey as kind of a racist slur."

"Because we're descended from apes?" Hicks asked. Switch nodded.

"Humans evolved over millions of years into what we are now." He reminded him. "The Ju'kran were discovered as a primitive, almost cretaceous-like level of evolution a little over a thousand years ago. Now they've evolved into a dominant species with technology vastly surpassing human levels. A lot of them...this one for instance...have a superiority complex because of their development. To them, we're still Neanderthals, that's why they call us monkeys."

"Well trust me; I've been called a lot worse." Hicks assured him. "Just try to ignore her. With that attitude, she's bound to piss off enough people to get drummed out of here."

The rest of the team arrived, most of them taking their seats, though one rather noticeably did not, remaining standing as they awaited the officer assigned to oversee their unit. He was a huge, blue scaly creature, with a hunched posture, his head and neck seeming to come out of his chest.

His body was covered in bright blue scales, interspersed with a few mottled markings. His chest and stomach, what could loosely be referred to as an "underbelly" due to his reptilian appearance was like tanned leather, and several bony plates sprouted from his back and shoulders. Its arms were thickly muscled, and its fists about the size of bowling balls. Its eyes were a burning yellow, with dark slits and its mouth was rimmed with razor sharp fangs.

It was wearing trousers, with a hole cut in the back for its tail which swung lazily behind it, but it didn't wear a jacket as a standard uniform would never fit its massive frame, and so instead it wore a bandolier running from its right shoulder to its left hip. Around its neck hung a necklace adorned with numerous things which looked like claws, teeth and other bones and grisly talismans. Hicks was almost hoping he wouldn't hear what they were or how it got them. Eventually Doggie walked into the room.

"Cadets, I have been chosen to oversee your group." He announced. Hicks was happy with this development. He at least knew Doggie a little. He was sure that it would make things easier in the long run. "Many of you know who I am. For those of you who don't, I am Commander Doggie Cruger, the Supreme Commander of SPD Earth. You are fortunate to have me overseeing your group, since if any of you graduate and take one of the available positions, you will be reporting to me."

He paced the room for a second, preparing for the next part. He pulled out the Shadow Sabre, showing it to them.

"When I graduated from SPD officer training, I graduated at the top of my class. I was given this weapon, the Shadow Sabre, in recognition of that accomplishment. Such is the tradition of SPD that the top scoring graduate of every officer training class is granted a similar weapon. That is the ultimate accolade in this academy, and I expect each and every one of you to do everything you can to attain it."

He put it back in his belt, before continuing.

"You ten will be training with each other for the foreseeable future. Some exercises will be individual tests, others will be group exercises. I propose that we all begin by going around the room and introducing yourselves. When I address you, I want you to state your name and spend a minute telling us a little about yourself."

Back in Gem's room, he and Cassandra were still sitting staring at each other, waiting for the other to begin. Gem took a deep sigh.

"Cassandra, I'm…"

"If you apologise one more time I'm going to be really unhappy Gem." She cut him off. "You did nothing to feel ashamed about."

"You were there for me when I was being an idiot. You were just trying to help me." He reminded her.

"Gem, do you really think I didn't know what you were thinking?" Cassandra asked him. "You know how my gift works. I can drown it out, but if I get excited or emotional or, well…apparently my concentration slips."

"What are you telling me?" Gem asked her.

"I knew what you were thinking of doing." She explained. "The reason I didn't try and stop you is because…well…there was a part of me that wanted it to happen too."

Gem didn't know how to respond to that admission. It was true that she didn't try and fight him off; he had never really thought he had forced her; he wouldn't have been able to bring himself to hurt her like that. He had, however, felt like he had pressured into taking things further than she was willing to go. He thought that in her desire to help him, she would have been unable to risk hurting him by refusing. She reached across, taking his hand softly.

"Gem, it wasn't just your mistake, it was mine too." She admitted. "I did what I did because of how upset you were, but I made the decision myself."

"You think it was a mistake?" Gem asked her. She reached a hand up to his face, stroking it softly with her fingers.

"That's not what I mean Gem. The mistake was we did what we did for all the wrong reasons." She told him. "You did it because you were upset…"

"…and you did it because you tried to make me feel better." Gem concluded.

"What Gemma and Hicks did, that was the way we should have done it." She told him. "We should have waited until the time was right, a time when we both wanted to do it because we were happy and we loved each other. Doing things this way, I can't help but feel like we missed out on something."

"I kind of feel that way too." He admitted. "When it happened, it should have been special."

"Well, it's done now." She told him. "Now the only thing we can do is move on from it."

"Can you?" He asked her sadly. "Can you really get past this?"

"Gem, I love you and that's all that matters to me." She replied. "Sure, what happened was a disappointment, but that's just one thing. Think of everything else we could have together. I know I'm not willing to lose what we have because of one bad decision."

"Neither am I." He replied, kissing her softly. "Now, um…would you mind helping me change the beds?"

"Why?" She asked him.

"I think Gemma's kind of creeped out by the idea we might have…you know…in her bed." He explained.

"But we didn't." She told him. He just laughed.

"Do you really think I wanted to go into that much detail with my sister?" He asked her. "That conversation was hard enough without giving her the full mental picture."