Colonial Year 265; 213 Terran years after the Founding

Christiana was in trouble. A lot of trouble.

On instinct, she took cover behind one of the cement pillars found throughout this large parking garage.

Just then, three projectiles hit and ricocheted off the other side, leaving small craters on the otherwise unblemished surface.

'Damn! Where did they get their hands on a semi-automatic rifle?' she thought as she performed a silent roll to the next piece of cover. This time, she was behind a low barrier meant for pedestrians as they climbed up to the building above.

However, while there were barriers between herself and the person with the semiautomatic, it opened her up to fire from another angle. "Pop! Pop!" a pistol discharged from covering ten emms away.

"UGGH" she vented in a low voice as her wrist chronometer began to vibrate.'Only fifteen minutes left before Mainday sunrise,' Christiana realized. 'All that's left is to make it to the extraction point and the mission will be a success.'

Looking around for an escape route, the only one that she could find was the stairs.

'The stairs it is,' she thought as she crouched and began taking them two at the time. Luckily, the stairs had a low, waist-high concrete wall which provided great cover. 'There can't be enough enemies to watch every stairwell on every level,' she realized as she went upwards. 'I also doubt that they have any more semi-automatics.'

With that thought, Christiana's morale went up, and she started climbing even faster until she eventually made it to the ground floor. Then she looked around to see if there were any sentries.

'It feels clear,' she thought as she emerged from the stairway and went through the emergency 'lock. Just then, her watch vibrated again. 'Crap! Only five minutes left.'

Christiana had to pick up the pace if she was going to find an unguarded 'lock.

At random, she rushed off in search of a way outside so they could pick her up. Within a couple of minutes, she was at a 'lock. 'Come on and work!' she thought as she used her automatic code finder to find a working combination.

After what seemed like an eternity, the card beeped and the 'lock door opened. As soon as the inner door closed, she hit the emergency purge button and the outer door opened with no delay.

Christiana then ran to a black van and hopped into the back with mere seconds to spare.

---

After completing her mission, Christiana went to take a shower and clean herself up. 'Five days in the outback and I still got chewed out by the SWAT training officer. I made it at the last second. But Haruhi-nee took an extra half hour and therefore did not even complete the mission properly.'

After finally reaching the shower room and finding it was deserted, she took the time to look herself over in one of the floor-length mirrors. Her clothing and gear were quite worn from her travels across the outback. Her long hair was woven into a simple braid, and she had tucked it underneath her black "baseball" cap.

She also looked at her figure and her proportions. While she was still vertically challenged, she was now two cee-emms taller than her Asian womb-mate. On the other hand, Haruhi-nee had a complex about how Christianna had developed. After all, the blonde had blossomed early and Haruhi-nee had matured later. Haruhi-nee had even worn a padded bra at one point. Christiana had joked with her Sister that once she was Married her Spouses would wonder where her boobs went every time she undressed.

Many girls their age were getting ready to graduate and then join the workforce. Other females got to go to University and postpone their entry into a Marriage by five Colonial Years. Of course, there were still others who settled into a Junior Wife position, working to help the Senior Wives take care of their offspring. Very few could just buy their way into a high societal Marriage contract the way their Mother had.

However, both she and Haruhi-nee were dealing with problems of their own. People their own age people their age inundated the Sisters with Wedding proposal after Wedding proposal day after day, night after night. After all, both of them had worked for years as their Brother's Keepers and therefore received a large dowry from their Mother. They were also set to inherit an enormous fortune from their secMother Karen the day that they came of age.

'Miss Harrison encouraged us not to Marry so young and instead advocated for both of us to go to university,' Christiana thought 'Heck, knowing Miss Harrison, she would pay my and Haruhi-nee's tuition all the way through graduate school or even medical school if either of them ever expressed an interest in the healing arts.

Christiana could not help but sigh as she stripped and stood in the warm stream of water. 'I still don't understand why Miss Harrisons arranged these SWAT training exercises, but if it gets me out of class, then it's a good thing,' she realized as she shampooed her hair. 'I'd rather do anything other than sit through those watered-down lectures,' Christiana thought as she undid her hair and tried her best to get the grime out of it.

She and Haruhi-nee had both covered the male's senior educational material back in seventh grade. It was even more frustrating to see the males struggle to answer the questions asked because of the little bit of history that the schools had exposed the males to.

That was why both Keepers went to the training whenever they were offered. Of course, only one Sister could take the training at the time because of their Keeper status. One of them had to stay behind and guard Johnathan-nii. Thus, one of the two Sisters was often absent from normal class because they were working to make it through the police academy besides their normal homework. However, it should be noted that the SWAT training simulations were fairly new, and this was the longest Christiana had ever spent in the outback. As a result, she leisurely washed her skin, letting the hot water work its way into her painful muscles.

However, the bliss of the shower was soon interrupted. Suddenly, the com in her shower beeped. "Miss Christiana Washington gee-emm Harris, please report to debriefing room one immediately. I repeat, Miss Christiana Washington gee-emm Harris, please report to debriefing room one immediately."

'Not even time enough to grab a hand meal,' Christiana groused as she put on a fresh uniform provided by the facility's stores.

After donning the SWAT uniform, she rushed to the debriefing room. Luckily, the debriefing rooms were nearby in the gigantic building.

Upon arriving at the proper room, Christiana knocked before entering. Then she opened the door, and she saw the head of the SWAT team's training division Mrs. King was sitting in a chair at one end of the rectangular metal table. Sitting in the next chair was the head of the local SWAT team, while the last person was there virtually via a video 'com. Much to Christiana's surprise, this third person was her friend and mentor Miss Harrison.

"Now that everyone is here, let us get started. Please take a seat Miss Washington gee-emm Harris," the head of the local SWAT division, Mrs. Jenson, requested while gesturing to the fourth metal chair in the room.

'This is quite odd,' Christiana thought as she sat in the one unoccupied chair. 'I wonder what is up.'

"Hello, Christiana. I assume you know everyone present?" Miss Harrison asked.

"Yes ma'am, I do," came Christiana's quick response.

"Good, then you probably know why all three of us are here for your debriefing," Miss Harrison continued.

"Yes ma'am."

"Then let this debriefing begin," Mrs. King stated. "Miss Washington gee-emm Harris, did anyone tell you ahead of time what this training entailed?"

"Only the information included in the briefing before the exercise," Christiana explained. "Nothing before that."

"Then your Sister didn't provide you any inside information?"

"No ma'am. Besides, even if we wanted to we had our communications limited and closely monitored. We also could not meet face to face. How would Haruhi-nee get detailed information to me concerning the mission?"

"Okay, Christiana," Miss Harrison began. "What do you think was the purpose of this lengthy exercise?"

"I thought that the course was just yet another training mission," Christiana began. "Why?"

"This was the final SWAT training mission," Miss Harrison revealed. "It is designed to take three potential SWAT contenders ten days to complete. Both you and Haruhi completed the course individually and in half the time."

"So Haruhi-nee also finished the course on time?" Christiana said as she perked up. "So we both passed," she noted with a smile.

Miss Harrison confirmed this. "She finished with almost of five full days to spare."

"When Miss Harrison said that you both would finish in half the time as normal candidates I thought she had gone barmy." Mrs. Jenson admitted. "Yet here you are..."

"I know my girls," Miss Harrison said with a smile.

"I have one question," Mrs. King began. "How did you detect the location of the enemy troops and then avoid them?"

"I went with my gut." was Christiana's explanation.

"So you missed the enemies totally by chance?" Mrs. King said incredulously. "There is no way that you avoided all of those guards by chance. The probability of doing that successfully is almost z...".

Here Miss Harrison broke in and said, "I am sorry ladies, but we need to discontinue this line of conversation because they have declared it top secret."

"Who has declared it top secret?" Mrs. King asked.

"The Federal Government has. Now I must call this meeting adjourned." Miss Harrison said with some force.

"But I haven't asked about...," Mrs. King began.

"I have adjourned the meeting!" Miss Harrison said forcefully. "Don't make me say it again."

---

'Well, that was a weird ending to a meeting,' Christiana thought as she arrived back home. Then she went into the room that she and Haruhi-nee had shared since they were toddlers. She hadn't even had time to change out of uniform before the rooms' built-in 'com beeped.

"Connect call, voice only," Christiana said as she removed her slug-proof vest. "Hello?"

"Hi Christiana," came a cheerful voice from the room's 'com. "How are you doing after that debacle of that meeting?"

"Hello, Miss Harrison." Then, after a pause, "Why did Mrs. King react like that?" Christiana asked.

"Oh, that's simple, just another example of the East versus West," Miss. Harrison said, "You just have to love politics. Even now, one hundred seventy-five Terran years after the Uprising, there is still bad blood between the Second Wave and the Federalist parties."

"So since you are from the Federalists and were put in charge of both my and Haruhi-nee's training it really threw a monkey wrench in their plans."

"Yes, if word gets out that you two prodigies blew away all sorts of records who do you think wants to gain the credit? So she wanted to look important and gain influence in local politics," Miss Harrison explained. "Judging from how bossy she is she probably has her sights on the Mayor's Office."

"Weird," Christiana said.

"Weird indeed," Miss Harrison retorted. "Now, let us get down to the main reasons that I called."

"Okay," Christiana replied.

"By spacing your training for both the SWAT team and the basics from the police academy like we have, it has left us with a bit of a quandary: you have the strange fate of having completed the training of the SWAT team before finishing your basic police training," Miss Harris explained.

"But you can't join the SWAT team until you finish police training..." Christina pointed out.

"Exactly! So for the next couple of months, we will speed up training both you and your elder Sister Haruhi-nee."

"Wonderful," came Christiana's sarcastic yet heartfelt reply.

"Are you changed yet? I need to talk to you about something else, and I would like to see your face while we discuss the matter."

"Give me a second," Christiana said as she quickly changed into a more comfortable top. Then, after only a double fist of seconds, she activated the camera on her portable.

"Please sit down on your bed and listen closely to my questions," Miss Harrison asked.

"Okay..."

"How were you able to decide where and when to move during the training session?" Miss Harrison asked in a soft voice.

"I just listened to my gut. It is almost as if I had someone say go right, take the next left, or similar advice. I always listened to my instincts."

"Has it ever been wrong?" Miss Harrison asked.

"No, it is never wrong on the larger scale. Only on unimportant stuff like winning a chocolate bar or something trivial like that."

"Okay, thank you for your honesty. You must be exhausted. I will talk to you later," Miss Harrison said as she rang off.

'That makes two weird conversations in one day...'