The campus was bigger than she imagined. Buildings of glass and steel, walkways that curved like rivers, students moving in clusters with voices too fast and clothes too clean. Dru stood at the edge of the commons, ---clutching her course catalogue like it might bite. She had memorized the Environmental Engineering track. She had planned every credit. ---But now, ---standing in the shadow of the flight tower, --she couldn’t breathe. Overhead, the student pilots were training. Sleek crafts cut through the sky in tight formations, banking hard, ---engines humming like distant thunder. Dru sat on the grass, legs folded, catalogue forgotten. ---She watched the maneuvers with wide eyes,--- her heart thudding like it had found its rhythm for the first time. ---She didn’t understand the physics. ---She didn’t know the protocols.--- But she knew. She wouldn’t be choosing Environmental Engineering. ---She would fly. She didn’t move for a long time. ---Just sat there, watching the sky, ---tears slipping down her cheeks without sound. This was her reason. ---Her ache. ---Her answer. She had come to serve the land. But the sky had called her name. A hand touched her shoulder. ---She turned, -startled.--- A boy stood there---tall, ---quiet, ---with silver mesh visible beneath the skin of his temple. ---A biomek. ---The first she’d met. ---His voice was soft, almost analog. ---"Are you okay?" ---She wiped her face quickly, smiled the way she always did---quick and easy. ---"Yes. ---Thanks. ---I’m fine. ---I’m Dru." ---He nodded once. ---"I’m Halix." ---They didn’t shake hands.--- They didn’t ask questions. ---They just stood there for a moment, two freshmen on the edge of something vast. ---Then he turned and walked away. ---She watched him go.--- Didn’t know his name would echo in the wreckage years later. ---Didn’t know he would be the last voice to hear her final recording.
