Excerpt: Archaeoscope

Dr. Robert Collins looked at his phone. “It's the Chancellor,” he said. “Please excuse me for a moment.”
“Okay,” said Cassie.
Robert- although she wouldn't have called him that aloud, since he hadn't asked her to- stood up from the table they were sharing and walked out into the entryway of the eighth-story restaurant. As he did so, Cassie turned her gaze from his striking, handsome face, with its scruffy hair and whiskers and its brilliant, arresting blue eyes, to the starry sky outside the window she was sitting next to. She was already missing the view she had been enjoying a moment ago.
Her palms began to sweat. They both knew that what she was doing was positively insane. They were living in a very progressive era, but there was still quite the social stigma against professors and students who were caught dating each other.
“Does he know?” Cassie asked Robert when he returned to his seat across the table.
“No, he doesn't know,” said Robert. “He just wanted to make sure I was coming to the benefit tomorrow night.”
“Why? Do you ditch them?”
“Occasionally.”
Cassie laughed. “That is so like you.”
“The world needs more women with your attitude toward irresponsible men.” That just made Cassie laugh more.
After they had finished dinner, they parted ways outside the entrance to the building, trying to avoid being seen together by too many people. As Cassie was walking along the sidewalk back to her car, a wide, boxy, olive-drab van drove up next to her.
Cassie's mind went numb. Of course. It had to happen tonight, the most exciting and one of the happiest nights of her life. Apparently, the universe loved irony. And mood changes that could practically give a person whiplash.
The passenger door of the van opened automatically, right in front of her. The man sitting in the front passenger seat, who was wearing a uniform that matched the van, said to her, “Good evening, Miss Heather.”
“Good- evening, sir,” Cassie said awkwardly. “You... must be from the army.”
“Yes, I am.” The man took a printed form out of the glove compartment and handed it to her. “Cassie Heather, your recruitment into the Maris Astria Army is hereby put into effect. Do you have your personal possessions prepared for your stay at the training facility?”
“Yes, sir, I do. They're just over there, in my car.” Everyone knew that you had to keep them in your car at all times. If they came to pick you up and you didn't have them handy, they picked you up anyway, and your training period basically sucked.
“Very good. We will follow you there.”
The van maneuvered into an aisle so that it could turn around. Cassie walked purposefully but slowly toward her car. She retrieved the duffel bag she had been keeping in her trunk for weeks, closed the trunk, placed the key to the car in a small metal container magnetically attached to the underside of the car, and pressed the small button on the outside of the container that would send out the pickup signal. When she stood up, the olive-drab van was idling just behind her car, and the rear door on the passenger side was open. The seat there was empty. Cassie stowed her bag in the rear cargo compartment of the van, then strapped herself into the vacant seat and closed the door.
She looked around at the other passenger seats in the van. They were all occupied by other young people, all dozing, reading, or listening to audio through earbuds. She knew better than to expect to get to know them until they got to the training facility.
The van drove out of the parking lot. “Good evening, Miss Heather,” said the driver of the van in a commanding voice. “I'm Sergeant Curt McLean. Are you familiar with the rights and responsibilities you now have?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I will be your training instructor for the next six weeks. See that you live up to those responsibilities.”
“Yes, sir. I will, sir.”
They drove to an area of Maris Astria that Cassie had never been to before. The van pulled up in front of a building with an unusually small, light-up sign on it that read 'West Selenia Regional Hospital.'
“All right, all of you, listen up!” said Sergeant McLean, turning around in his seat. “You now know where the entrance to the Army training facility is. Congratulations, you've just received your first piece of classified information. Let anyone outside of the Army know about this and you'll be lucky if the GMA blows us to pieces before I get to you. Remember, loose lips sink marine habitations.
“Your basic training starts with a physical. Go inside and follow the signs to the Department of Sports Medicine. Army personnel are waiting for you there. They'll give you further instructions. Move out!”
Everyone climbed out of the van and followed Sergeant McLean into the hospital. Cassie brought up the rear, then suddenly found herself frozen in place at the threshold of the complex. She could barely move her legs. Now that she was out of the van, the reality of the situation was beginning to sink in. Even though she knew it wasn't factually true, her instincts were telling her that if she went in there, she'd never have a chance to return to her normal life.
“What are you waiting for, girlie?” snapped McLean, whirling around to face her when he realized she was no longer by his side.
“I... I don't... want to...” stammered Cassie.
“You don't want to,” sneered McLean. “It's a little too late for that now, minx.” He grabbed her wrist and tried to pull her forward through the double glass doors.
“Hey! McLean!” called a female voice. Cassie looked behind McLean to see a woman with wavy brown hair approaching them. She had blue-green eyes and a look of authority about her. Over her fashionable blouse and skirt, she was wearing a white laboratory coat with a badge identifying her as Dr. Keri Everitt. “I know you're harsh with your recruits, but this is right over the line, especially for someone who's brand-new. Get your hands off her.”
McLean let go of Cassie's wrist. “I knew this one was trouble a little while after I picked her up. I heard her whispering to herself on and off the whole way here. She was probably talking to her little Sophie to reassure herself. Means she's weak. Now she's proving how weak she is by getting cold feet. Might as well dump her back where we found her and revoke her NCRFC privileges.”
“You don't have to do that,” said Dr. Everitt. “Just don't send her in to start her physical and tests yet! Let her talk out all her issues first. Give her some time to process things before you get started on her. I can borrow a voice recorder stick for you from the psychology equipment room down the hall. She can record in there, actually.”
“Yes, yes,” said Cassie. “I want to do that. Please let me do it. I think that would help a lot.”
“All right,” said McLean, “that's fine. I'll just let this one get her pretty little head on straight while I go and process the rest of the applicants. They walked right in without having to be coaxed.” He looked at her as if she were a cockroach who had gotten into the pantry.
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“You're welcome. When I come back, give me the recording. I'll want to listen to it later, after you've been processed.”
Cassie nodded. She was too afraid of him right now to argue.
“I'll come and find you later,” said McLean, and turned and walked further into the complex. Dr. Everitt smiled comfortingly at Cassie.
“Thank you for protecting me,” said Cassie.
“It's the least I can do,” answered the doctor. “McLean is an arrogant, misogynistic ass, but we really need the contract we have with the government, so we have to put up with him. I try to make things better by helping out the new recruits in any way I can, and you look like you're under a lot of emotional stress.”
“Yeah. This recruiting system... it's very sudden. Obviously, I did sign up for it, and I knew there was a chance I would get the call, but they don't announce themselves before they recruit you.”
“So I hear.” The doctor extended her hand. “I'm Dr. Everitt. I'm the director of the hospital.”
“Cassie Heather,” she said, shaking hands.
“Come on. I'll take you to the psychology equipment room.”
They turned down a hallway, passed by the door to Dr. Everitt's office, and came to a small room shaped like a long, scalene triangle. All the walls were lined with either shelves or hooks holding all kinds of equipment, from copy paper to parachutes to basketballs to art supplies, and there were several comfortable-looking if slightly battered upholstered chairs sitting here and there. Dr. Everitt took a rectangular, white voice recorder stick down from a hook on a wall. “Do you know how to work these?” she asked, handing it to Cassie.
“Yes, I do,” said Cassie.
“You can record in here. No one should be coming in to get anything at this time of day. Sit wherever you like. McLean will know where to find you.”
“I understand. Thanks again. Are we going to stay here tonight?”
“Yes. McLean usually keeps his people here for the first night, then moves them to the base, which borders the hospital grounds. After you move there, you'll only come back here if you become seriously sick or injured while on duty.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Good luck.” Dr. Everitt turned and closed the door behind her.
Cassie sat down in one of the armchairs and looked at the voice recorder stick. It was a simple white plastic box with only a few buttons on one end of one of its wider faces, and a cross-shaped pattern of small holes on the other end. She pressed the Record button, held the end with the holes up toward her face, and started talking.
“First of all,” she said, “they're not all named Sophie. Mine isn't. Her name is Rosemary. People just think they're all named Sophie because of the Daydreamtopia movies and TV series. That Sophie is so iconic and so beloved by children, especially little girls, that her name has become synonymous with 'a little girl's imaginary friend,' but that's just not true in reality. Some little girls are different. I was. And anyway, I wasn't talking to her. I had stopped doing that by the time I was thirteen, like we're supposed to. When we were coming here in the van, I was talking to myself some of the time, and some of the time, I was praying. I hope you don't think that makes me weak. Even if you do, I know the policies. You can't kick me out because of that. I make no apologies either for that or for having had an imaginary friend when I was younger.
“And the truth is, if you must know, yes, I am scared. The idea of early, violent death is naturally a little scary. I wouldn't be surprised if a few of the other recruits in my squadron are scared, too, right now; they're just doing a better job of hiding it than I am. I'm sorry we didn't get off to the greatest start. I'm not having second thoughts about this. I'm not backing down from the commitment I made when I signed up to be included in the random draft. I love Maris Astria, and I intend to be as good a soldier as anyone else.”
Cassie paused, then went on to talk about her other emotions. She soon found herself leaving “just in case” messages for her parents, and even one that she said was for all her professors at the university but really intended just for Robert. She did the best she could to keep her voice calm and even, trying to avoid giving McLean any more ammunition to throw back at her.
“What am I saying?” she said. “I'm talking like I'm sure I'm going to die. I know perfectly well that no one is sure, and there's no way to be sure. Which is only a little reassuring... but it'll have to be good enough.”
Cassie could see McLean coming through the window next to the door of the psychology equipment room, which faced down the hallway she had come through. She pressed the Stop button on her voice recorder stick, stood up, opened the door, and approached him, holding the stick straight out in front of her at arm's length. “Here,” she said. “I think I talked all my issues out well enough.”
“We'll see,” said McLean. He took the stick from her hand and placed it in one of his jacket pockets. “Follow me. The personal trainers are waiting for you.”
Cassie followed Sergeant McLean across the hospital's entryway and toward the Department of Sports Medicine, putting on a brave face that was now genuine.

“This is interesting,” said Amber.
“It certainly is,” said Ian.
“She's not going to die in the battle. Oh, man, I wish I could tell her she isn't going to die.”
“You don't know that. She could have already had a secret lovechild before she was recruited, and have descendants through that child, so she could die in the battle.”
“Well, you're just a ray of sunshine today, aren't you?”
“And you're becoming remarkably emotionally attached to a historical figure you only just discovered.”
Amber paused. “That's a good point. Actually seeing these people's experiences through their eyes makes it hard not to be emotionally attached, though, doesn't it?”
“It does.”
“You're right, though, Ian. Your hypothesis is definitely plausible, given that Cassie's willing to go out on secret dates with faculty members. I'm sorry I was sarcastic with you.”
“I forgive you. We're definitely going to have to invite this person back.”
“Absolutely. This is intriguing. She could be a treasure trove of information about the Battle of Maris Astria.”