The sound of the door closing woke Speed and she opened her eyes to find a doctor and Captain Dimak standing at the end of her bed. Speed pulled herself into a sitting position and looked from one to the other, waiting patiently for them to speak.
"You've had a rough couple of weeks." Dimak said.
"I'm ready." Speed replied matter-of-factly.
"Not according to Doctor Hammond" Dimak mused, "apparently you were bed ridden until yesterday."
"I'm ready for that launch sir." Speed said, "There's nothing left for me to do on the surface."
"I'd feel much more comfortable if you waited for the next launch." Dimak said, looking from Speed to the doctor.
"No!" Speed exclaimed, she swung her legs over the side of the bed, and stood. She took several steps to Dimak and grabbed at his uniform. The doctor yelled and several aides burst into the room, "I'm not waiting here captain, it was waiting here that I got sick in the first place! Take me up on that shuttle Captain!"
Speed continued to yell as the aides pushed her back into bed. They struggled to hold down her flailing arms and legs. The doctor filled a hypodermic needle with some clear fluid and at a nod from Dimak, injected it into Speeds neck. Speed's erratic motions slowed, then gradually stopped. The aides released her and left the room, the doctor close behind.
Dimak looked at the chart attached to the end of Speed's bed.
"Who knows?" he mused, looking at the now sleeping child in front of him, "But we really do have to stop accepting Thirds."
Speed looked around at the other children walking towards the shuttle. Everyone looked confident on the surface, but their eyes were darting around nervously. Speed was excited, but her face was passive. She was much more interested in observing the other children then the shuttle in front of her.
Particularly of interest was the small boy to her left. Speed had always been undersized because of slight malnourishment but nothing compared to this child. He was practically infantile. He alone was the only one of the boys around her who was watching the others. Their eyes met and he looked up at her without the slightest bit of intimidation in his clear eyes.
Speed climbed into the shuttle and slid into the first available seat, an row seat three rows from the front. The small boy took a seat closest to the window directly across from her. Speed took a few minutes to figure out the five-point harness and then sat back with her eyes closed to enjoy the ride.
The other children were talking and laughing. The boy right beside Speed poked her in the arm. Speed opened her eyes and turned to look at him.
"Hi," He said with a friendly, innocent smile, "I'm Nikolai, what's your name?"
"Speed." She said, returning his smile, "Nice to meet you Nikolai."
Just then Dimak came down from the cockpit. Speed watched in silence as he called upon the small boy across from her. Dimak began to systematically humiliate the boy, who Speed learned was called "Bean." Speed didn't understand, she had thought Dimak to be a nice man, but she was singling Bean out because he was smarter? There would always be someone smarter then her, she didn't much care, and she had already surpassed the world's expectations for her by stepping on the shuttle. All she had to do now was learn.
As Dimak continued to talk about Bean, anger arose right from Speed's heart. 'We're all smarter then you Dimak,' she thought, 'did you realize that? How dare you make us resent him, when we're going to be fighting the buggers, and you're stuck teaching little children?'