Episode 1

Chapter 001

Simon Vale woke with his cheek pressed to frozen tile and a laminated handbook digging into his ribs.

The last thing he remembered was white light, torn metal, and a seat belt that would not open. This smelled like disinfectant, wet fur, and panic.

"Trainee Vale." A woman's voice cut through the siren overhead. "If you can hear me, move your fingers."

Simon moved two. His left hand shook hard enough to shove the handbook across the floor.

COMMONWEALTH BOND COMMISSION

FROSTHAVEN DISTRICT

TRAINEE CARE AND HANDLING MANUAL

Wonderful.

He had died and woken up in bureaucracy.

The woman crouched beside him. Dark work jacket. Lab badge. Blacksteel Research Annex. Maya Stone.

He knew her before he knew why. Memories arrived hard: Simon Vale, eighteen, Commission trainee, no active bond, no sponsor, one bad medical review away from dismissal.

"Name?" Maya asked.

"Simon Vale."

"Location?"

"Frosthaven Bond Commission." He tasted copper. "Either the trainee ward or a very depressing afterlife."

Across the room, Dr. Lydia Quinn watched over a tablet. Silver hair. Clean posture. A signed affidavit with shoes.

"Any hallucinations, Mr. Vale?" Lydia asked.

Simon's vision pulsed.

A page opened inside his skull.

[Skill Index initialized.]

[Host condition: unstable.]

[Bond-space: unlicensed / dormant.]

[Observed skill residue nearby: Blacksteel Hardening, failed juvenile drill pattern.]

[Scan permission: limited.]

The words were not sound. They were colder than sound, printed behind his eyes.

From the kennel corridor, something heavy struck metal. The water cups trembled.

"No hallucinations," Simon said.

Maya followed his stare. "Blacksteel cub in B-ward. Rejected from starter auction twice, failed three obedience evaluations, bit through a restraint bar this morning. Not your problem."

Another crash rolled through the ward.

The Index flickered.

[Skill residue strengthened.]

[Subject proximity: twenty-eight meters.]

[Warning: scan cost may induce fatigue, blood pressure drop, and tremor.]

Poor trainees did not get second chances in Frosthaven. A starter bond required money, clearance, and a willing beast. Simon lacked the first two.

The beast in B-ward apparently had none of the third.

That made them a matched set.

"I need the feeding logs for B-ward," Simon said.

Maya stared at him. "You need a chair."

"Probably. But if that cub is Blacksteel lineage and chewing restraint bars instead of test blocks, he's under-stimulated, mineral-starved, or the protocol is wrong."

"And you know that from one handbook?"

Simon picked it up. "I skimmed the liability sections. Very motivating."

Lydia's tablet lowered. "Ms. Stone, is he wrong?"

Maya did not answer.

That was enough.

The kennel corridor was crowded. Two senior trainees stood outside B-ward with shock-poles held low. Behind glass, a black-and-white cub no taller than Simon's waist slammed both forepaws into a polymer bite wall.

The wall did not break.

The cub bounced off, rolled, sprang up, and hit it again.

Tag B-011 flashed on its collar.

Rejected. Unbid. Too stubborn to train.

One senior trainee snorted. "There goes the famous Blacksteel potential. Maybe it can qualify as a demolition hazard."

The cub's rounded ears flattened.

Simon put his palm against the glass.

The Index unfolded.

[Subject: juvenile Blacksteel Bear.]

[Common call marker available: Eleven.]

[Observed skill: Blacksteel Hardening.]

[Status: incomplete activation.]

[Faults: impact timing early; mineral intake below optimal; instruction trust low.]

[Scan cost: accepted.]

Cold drove through Simon's bones. His pulse dropped, then spiked. A thin line of blood slipped from his nose.

Maya saw it immediately. "Vale."

"I'm standing."

Lydia stepped closer. "What did you notice?"

Simon pointed to the wall. "The cub isn't missing power. He's mistiming the hardening. The protocol tells handlers to command 'brace' first because most Blacksteel juveniles hesitate. This one doesn't. He overcommits, burns the burst early, then hits with dead weight."

The senior trainee laughed. "The kid who fainted over inventory solved Blacksteel handling in ten seconds?"

"No," Simon said. "In ten seconds I found the part you kept repeating after it failed."

Maya opened the feeding log. Her face changed.

"Mineral brick allocation was reduced after the second failed evaluation," she said. "Budget hold. He's been getting standard juvenile mix."

The cub hit the wall again. Its paw slipped. Shoulder struck mat.

He was not sentimental. He did not have spare strength for it. But the thing behind the glass got up after everyone had already filed it under failed stock.

That, Simon understood.

"Give me a legal handling window," he said.

The Commission handler blinked. "You don't have a starter bond."

"I asked for supervised trainee handling, not a bond. Ms. Stone as species specialist. Dr. Quinn as compliance witness. Page forty-six. Emergency behavioral correction to prevent self-injury or facility damage."

Lydia tapped her tablet. "The rule exists. If Mr. Vale enters, he wears a medical monitor. If the cub escalates, security drops barrier foam. If this becomes reckless, I write the incident report."

"Comforting," Simon said.

"It was not meant to be."

Three minutes later, Simon stood inside the evaluation yard with a monitor cuff on his wrist and a mineral brick in his hand.

Eleven crouched twenty feet away, a small armored storm with offended eyes.

The viewing rail filled with trainees. Maya waited at the gate. Lydia recorded.

Simon set the mineral brick on the mat and stepped back.

Eleven did not move.

"Fair," Simon said. "I wouldn't trust me either."

He pointed at the wall panel. "You've been hitting that like it's an enemy. It isn't. It's a witness."

Someone above muttered, "Is he giving a speech to a bear?"

Simon ignored it. The Index pressed timing against his sight. He did not copy. Not yet. Scan had nearly put him on the floor. Copying without a bond-space might put him somewhere worse.

So he used what he had paid for.

"Not brace," Simon said. "Step. Breathe. Hit on the turn."

He demonstrated with his empty hand: step, shoulder, twist, impact after the turn.

Eleven looked at the mineral brick.

"You crack the plate, you get the brick."

The senior trainee leaned over the rail. "It doesn't understand you."

Eleven picked up the mineral brick, carried it three steps, and set it beside Simon's boot.

The yard went silent.

Simon looked down. Then at the cub.

"You want payment in escrow?"

Eleven huffed.

It was the first sound from the cub that was not rage.

Simon locked the brick in the reward tray. "Fine. Commission can witness. Break the plate, the brick releases."

Eleven turned toward the wall.

"Step."

The cub stepped.

"Breathe."

Eleven's shoulders rose.

"Now."

The first hit boomed across the yard. The wall held, but the polymer face whitened.

Above, no one laughed.

Simon's monitor chirped. Heart rate high. Blood pressure unstable. He tasted blood again.

"Again," he said.

Maya's hand hovered over the abort control.

Eleven backed up. Not far. Just enough.

Step. Breathe.

This time, black sheen rolled through its forelimb at the last instant.

The wall plate cracked from center to edge.

The reward tray clicked open.

Then the evaluation board refreshed.

B-011 BLACKSTEEL

IMPACT CORRECTION: PASS

HANDLER WINDOW: VALID

FOOTAGE FLAGGED FOR REVIEW

Eleven took the mineral brick and began eating like a victorious piece of construction equipment.

Simon made it three steps before his legs folded.

Maya reached him before he hit the mat. "Medical chair. Now."

"Did the plate crack?"

"Yes."

"Then put that in the report before my dignity gets there first."

Lydia stood over him. "Mr. Vale, this does not grant you a bond license."

"It grants review."

"It grants a provisional starter-bond evaluation slot, pending medical clearance, species signoff, and a fee-waiver hearing."

Simon opened one eye. "That sounds suspiciously like three doors where there used to be a wall."

Lydia's mouth twitched. "Do not make me regret being accurate."

The Index pulsed behind Simon's eyes.

[Scan record stored.]

[Blacksteel Hardening: incomplete pattern indexed.]

[Transfer unavailable: no bond contract.]

[Warning: repeated use may cause collapse, neural bleed, or bond-space scarring.]

"How did you see the timing fault?" Maya asked.

Simon watched Eleven licking mineral dust from one paw, proud and utterly unconcerned with institutional caution.

"Logs," Simon said. "The logs told most of it."

Lydia looked at him for a long second, as if filing away the word most.

The handler arrived with a waiver packet.

PROVISIONAL EVALUATION CREDIT: 300 COMMONWEALTH MARKS

PURPOSE: BLACKSTEEL BEHAVIORAL REASSESSMENT

HANDLER OF RECORD: SIMON VALE

Three hundred marks would not make him rich.

But it bought time.

Simon signed with a hand that would not stop trembling.

Eleven looked up from the brick and gave one sharp huff, like a challenge accepted.

Good, Simon thought. Worship was cheap. Standards were better.

The monitor on his wrist screamed again.

The world narrowed to cold tile, Maya's hand on his shoulder, Lydia ordering a medical review, and the cracked wall plate being sealed as evidence.

Behind his eyes, the Skill Index closed its page.

The Index waited behind his eyes, silent as a loaded chamber, and Simon understood the next shot would cost more than blood.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***