THE EPOCH CHRONICLES | ✔

02. SAFETY PROTOCOL

D A M O N

On the edge of Bradleyston, Eden

━━━━

"AM I the only one who has a bad feeling about this?" Damon shot Laila a nervous glance, looking over her shoulder to the distant fencing that stretched up to the landing site.

A board cheerfully glowed, Welcome to Bradleyston!, and on top of it was an Othnielia that was feeling pretty acrobatic. Those guys got everywhere.

"Pretty much," Laila replied, which did not reassure him one little bit. As was her way, he guessed, as he watched the Othnielia hop down from the board, looking as antsy as he was internally. (Okay, maybe externally too.)

Laila flicked her fringe out of her face, flicking her PortScreen on and off... On and off... "You're gonna waste the battery," he reminded her, sweat gathering underneath his own device's satchel strap. Laila shot him a glance that told Damon he maybe should've shut up, O-ho, guess I'm not the only nervous one here, but he said nothing about that.

"Maybe if someone was willing to help me restore this thing's battery lifespan, I could turn it on and off as much as I wanted," Laila retorted, eyes wide on him.

Because he was the 'someone'. He could tell as much.

Damon shook his head with a snicker, then remembered it wasn't really the time to snicker. A human shipment was about to come in, and he and all the rest of their Practical Implementation unit were going to give the newbies an Overview. Not really the job for a bunch of kids, he reflected, but it was for credit, so, whatever.

"I can't go fingering around in your PortScreen," Damon told her, just like he'd told her a million times before. "You gotta get a licensed PortScreen technician george to do that."

Laila shook her head with a put-on sigh. "But I don't want some other george to fix my PortScreen. I want my best friend to do it." Before he could escape, she had snuck up next to him, and though it felt good to be close to her, Damon bit his cheek because it wasn't for the right reasons.

"Please?" Her eyes widened even more expectantly, and Damon felt something twist a little in his stomach.

For a moment he paused—Yeah, no worries, it's just illegal and I could lose my apprenticeship to Luca—before he shook his head resolutely. "Nope. No can do."

Laila scowled and pulled away from him. "Fine. Excuse me for trying to develop your skills. I'll get some other george to do it."

Damon felt a grin surge on his face, because her tone showed that she wasn't really mad at him, just acting like it. He was pretty adept at picking up on his friend's moods. "Hope it goes well, then!" He said cheerfully, just as he heard the familiar voices of their other PracImp classmates.

They turned to face them, and their tutor, Juliette, took the lead, standing in front of all of them with her hands on her hips. Great. Damon felt his mood dip a little. Not even an acknowledgement that we were early. He shot Laila a look, because he knew she was thinking the same thing.

She met his gaze and pulled a slight face. Damon had to look away to hide his smile.

"Alright everybody," Juliette called for attention as two kids at the back rustled each other up. Damon knew that they were Harvey and Alan without turning around; those georges were always at each others' throats.