ACT01:- Ken Marinaris
Allen Moore, 89, passed. Alice Capri, 63, passed. Richard Geiss, 77, passed. Dolphie Svenson 85, passed...Good.
A faint smile was etched on the face of the blue-tied officer, who was runnning through the UPE Examination papers marked eariler by one of his colleagues. The results are pretty good for this year's admission. The best proof that he's done his own job right. And his students obviously didn't disappoint him either. He closed the emerald coloured file, and while pushing it aside, he opened the dark-red piece beside it. There's only 4 admission papers in the file. Out of the total 300.
Ahh...the reddies.
"Hey Johnson! How's it going with the papers?"
Blue-tied Johnson looked up from the small pile of paper, his gaze fixed on the guy in red-shirt who'd just enter the office with two cups of Arabica Coffee. The aroma filled the room almost instantly, and for a moment Johnson was at lost for words. Then the senses on his fingers worked as usual.
"Good, very good. These guys are so much better than those of the previous years."
"And how 'bout those?"
Red shirt asked, while handling Johnson his cup.
"Thanks. These are, of course, those who needs more workouts."
Johnson flipped the file open again, and ran through the marks.
"Albert Morley, 45, Shawn Perci, 32, Debbie Dyaz, and-"
Johnson stopped, his blue eyes following his index finger which is tracing the line of the person's name whose marks is not what he'd expect in the 'red-file of failures'.
"And what, Johnson?"
"Hey Charles, I think you misplaced this one."
Johnson replied, waving the file with his left hand while sipping his cup of coffee wih his right.
"Did I?"
Puzzled, Charles took the red file and read the last person on the list of failures.
"Ken Marinaris, 99. Oh, her."
"What do you mean, 'Oh, her'? That's outstanding!"
"I know, but I don't think I'll give her a pass."
"Why is that? You can't just fail somebody with such impressive results."
"Yeah, but she's a martian. And also an XB runner (XB Runner eX-Bahram runner). I'm not saying that I'm being a racist here, but her past in Bahram makes her, you know, not trustworthy, being one of that Nohman guy's troops."
"I see. Well, too bad, and so much for the results. Hope she'll get the idea that she's not fit to be in the UNSF and stop taking this test."
Charles was half nodding when there was a hard, loud bang on the door, followed by the sound of footsteps of someone running away from the door.
"Who the hell?"
Charles went towards the door to check out who the culprit was, and when he opened it, standing in front was an angry-looking Alice, and an orange-haired girl was already halfway down the corridor.
"Hey, you!"
He opted to get out of the office to go after her, but Alice placed her hands on his chest, stopping him in his tracks. Her gazed was sharp on him, her eyes fixed on him, not blinking.
"You're one big shame for us Earthlings for using your authoritive power to judge someone like that."
His eyes narrowed, obviously not pleased to be critiqued by the rookie.
"What's that you're saying?"
"I'm saying that you're quite the jerk. You can't fail someone with such potentials just because of her past."
"Listen- I'm the one who was asked by the HR Department to get those who are fit to be in the UNSF. In other words, they only care for the ones who I think fit enough. I'm in charge and I'm the one to decide whether or not to put a 'Pass' or a friggin' 'FAIL', on your sheet of paper!"
How could anyone on earth let this sonnuvabitch be in the exam department? With such attitude AND his work ethics, he can't even fit for the position of a janitor.
Alice was already on the verge of 'losing it'. His arrogance had spilt out of control when he's ticked off, yet there were no signs of remorse or guilt or whatsoever that signify the values of virtue in him. Probably the best reason for Alice to thread over the thin red line between rationality and irrationality.
"Oh? Is that so?"
Without a warning, Alice snatched the half-filled cup from his hands, and splashed its content to his face. The warm liquid stained his red shirt immediately, and wet his nicely done hair. As the excess of the drink trickled down his face to his chin, he opened his eyes to see Alice still standing there, wearing a smile of sarcasm on her face.
"Why don't you fail me for this too, you bastard! I'm a friend of that Martian!"
She said, and flung the cup to the ground, the sound of plastic touching the cold marble tiles beneath their feet loud contrasting the dead silence between them. Before he could react, she turned her back on him and start chasing after the now out of sight girl.