In the third basement of the Brussels-based kommandantur, thirty students dressed in formal green attire, revealing only their hands and faces, look on fearfully as a very young woman calmly walks towards a pedestal protected by immaterial blue beams.
As the young woman approaches dangerously to the pedestal protecting a relic of a fortunately bygone past known as the Declaration of Human Rights, thirty pairs of hands begin to shake simultaneously.
[Attention! Contravener, reported twenty feet from your position. Possible intervention by the public safety brigade. Please move as far away as you can.]
Conditioned to obey the nano-chip implanted inside their hearing brains from the age of two, as one, all students step back immediately after this warning is processed.
Blocked by the white wall, all students begin to panic. The elevator door that only the young woman who contravenes the rules imposed by the Kommandantur can open is unusable, so in a panic movement, between shouting and jostling, everyone starts looking for another way to escape before the arrival of those who are not known for trying to distinguish the guilty from the innocent.
...
[Attention! Your range is less than 8 feet from the forbidden relic on display. Please take three steps back within five seconds. Failure to comply with this warning will result in... Special mission order, reported. Test in progress. Contravener's reporting canceled. Officer-in-training initiation test completed. Data collection from students during test in progress. Collection completed. The Federation of European States thanks you and wishes you a good day, Special Sergeant assigned to the Kommandantur, Vera Kunst].
As the message from her Informator ceases to be broadcast in her brain, Vera turns to the thirty students still stunned to have been fooled in this way.
Surprised, embarrassed or saddened at the thought of their grades, which will certainly not increase because of their reaction worthy of those of simple civilians, all lower their eyes when after a few steps, Vera places herself in the center of the white room.
"As you've probably understood, knowing how to adapt to the situation is paramount for an soldier. Whether you want to be part of a public safety brigade, an intervention brigade, anti-propaganda, intelligence or the righteous, this truth is law. Well, as far as your results are concerned, your instructor will be in a better position than I am to guide you so that this debacle never happens again. Cowards have no place in our agencies. I'd like to say, break ranks and get out, but seeing this disorganized training, I'll settle for: go away! Elevator's available."
After the thirty students, ashamed of themselves, clicked their heels together and placed their right hand over their hearts, Vera watches them calmly leave in two perfect lines.
…
On the second floor of the Kommandantur, four men in brown military dress are studying the file sent to them by their informator.
[Special Sergeant assigned to the Kommandantur, Vera Kunst, 21 years old, 5.96ft, blond hair, green eyes. Muscles, tendons, nerves, compressed spandex. Skin composed of standard human epidermis combined with a complex alloy. Titanium bones. Blood vessels protected by hundreds of millions of synthetic red micro-globules that prevent all diseases and almost instantly heal any cut or injury.]
To her superiors, this young woman is unquestionably the perfect woman.
[World Champion in all disciplines of gymnastics, civilian cadet category at the age of 12, 13 and 14, her plane crashed over the Alps in 2053, after she had won her last title.
Left for dead, by the civil rescue services, suspecting that the source of the accident was not a simple engine failure, the agents of the French intelligence brigade found the current Special Sergeant fighting for her survival. Considering her enormous potential and the girl already being dead to the world, the kommandantur decided to save her and make her one of their Interceptors.
Since then, and after undergoing no less than 368 surgeries, she is one of the (special) 0.000001% privileged to have been chosen to become the elected representatives of the Federation of European States.]
"Is her body stable enough for us to consider to send her so far away?"
Any lie about a case of this importance being liable to execution, the doctor in charge of Vera's care nods reluctantly.
"Yes General Jung, after 7 years of daily treatment and care, I can certify that Special Sergeant is fully fit to begin her foreign service. However, as a precaution, I recommend a doctor attached to the Kommandantur accompany her on her journey."
The General is observing the doctor's face attentively. Not being able to discern any trace of malice on the man, visibly more worried than guilty, his eyes turned to the two other officers present in the office. In agreement with the two heads silently giving their approval, General Jung ordered the Informator to send a priority summons order to the Special Sergeant for the next morning, 10:00am.
…
[Attention! Summons to appear before the high court of the Kommandantur on 06/06/2060, 10:00am. Failure to comply with this summons will result in the withdrawal of 2 points of Federal citizenship. Together with the civil sanction, as an NCO of the Federation of European States a reprimand for failure to obey orders will be issued by your hierarchy.]