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center of a cluster of the four Bronze Barracks. Because it was summer break, the mess hall was operating on a very reduced scale. Meals were at set times, and she had to eat fast. The food was fairly tasteless, and that was the best compliment Asteria could give it.
       "I'm taking your advice," she told Dai as they finished their first meal on campus. "I'm going to tell everyone my name is Aster."
       "Good idea," Dai said. He looked around the mess hall. Its long tables could accommodate a thousand cadets. "It seems weird to be here all by ourselves."
       Asteria nodded. "Lucky for us, though. We'll have time to memorize the student code."
       "I've done that already. I can boil it down to a few principles: Do what you're told. Don't attract attention. Don't be different. Always let the Aristos win."
       "Same as at home, then."
       Dai gave her a long stare. "You didn't have much to do with Aristos where you came from, did you?"
       She shook her head. "I didn't have much to do with anybody. I was raised on a farm. No neighbors. My dad and my cousin were almost the only people I saw."
    "You never went into civilization?"
       "Our farm was civilized!" she snapped. "Yes, I went into Sanctal—that was the nearest town—with Dad or Andre a few times a month. Sometimes we went as far as Central, where the government center is. You know, dealing with pensions and taxes and stuff."
       "My planet was thick with Aristos," Dai said moodily as they finished eating. On the table in front of them, their plates were quietly dissolving, taking the last scraps of food along with them as they vaporized into curling white mist that quickly dissipated. "Inspectors, auditors, advisors, administrators." Dai lowered his voice: "All of them idiots. You get a lower-level Aristo too dumb or lazy to make it in the Academy or the Royal Colleges, they get appointed to positions like that. The safety advisor for our mines was a baronet. Advisor! He'd come by once a year and say, 'Continue your safety procedures,' and collect ten percent of our profits!"
       "We didn't have inspectors on Theron. Too far out, I guess."
       "Lucky."
       They walked back to Bronze 1, but before they reached the entrance, both of their wrist communicators chirped.
       "Yes?" they answered simultaneously.
       The same artificial voice came from both communicators: "You are to report to Central Medical for your physical at 1350. That is twenty-three minutes from now."
       "Physical," said Asteria. Her eyes flashed to her belt.
       Dai glanced at her. "You sound worried. You sick?"
       "Not exactly," she replied.

    * * *
    An hour later, wearing just her underwear, Asteria perched on the edge of an examination table as the medical Cybot brought in a human doctor, a Vallerian woman with the peculiar greenish complexion of her people. "You'll have to remove the belt," she said.
       "I can't," Asteria told her.
       Frowning, the doctor touched the metallic belt—and yelped.
       She shook her hand. "Did you feel that?" she asked sharply.
       "No," Asteria said. "The same thing happened when the Cybot touched it."
       The Cybot said mildly, "It delivered an electrical charge of more than five thousand volts. Fortunately, the amperage was—"
       "Not high enough to cause damage, just discomfort," the doctor interrupted. "That's not Empyrean technology."
       "I don't know what it is," Asteria confessed. "It belonged to my father."
       "Doesn't it have a release?"
       "No." Asteria tugged at it, showing the doctor how the plates had interlocked. "If I try to push it off, it tightens," she said.
       "We can cut it off—"
       "Negative," the Cybot said. "The material is at least fifteen times more resistant than synsteel, and the circuitry performs in ways I cannot analyze. Attempting to destroy or cut it is too dangerous."
       "You're not supposed to wear anything like that," the doctor