7. The First Taste of Nothing

“Marcus.” A hand shook my shoulder. Ferdinand. “Your name. They called your name.”

“What?”

“You’re up, idiot.” Ferdinand tried again.

The Assembly Hall swam back into focus. Three faces stared at me.

“Marcus Tiernan!” The announcer’s voice boomed again, a hint of impatience breaking through the rehearsed grandeur. “Marcus Tiernan!”

“I think they want you,” Tom said dryly.

Right. Yes. My name. My turn…

The Federation logo on the floor began pulsing, mirroring my heartbeat. I stepped onto it, forgetting the walk across the room. My legs felt as though they belonged to someone else.

“Uphold the name, Tiernan.” Ferdinand’s voice followed me.

CLINK

The platform descended with mechanical smoothness, rotating as it went. The Assembly Hall ceiling receded above me, replaced by the yawning maw of the arena. A hundred thousand faces turned upward. A hundred thousand pairs of eyes found me. They examined. They weighed.

“Marcus Tiernan!”

The announcer’s voice thundered through the space, wrapping around me like chains.

“The Tiernan Line! Forty-one generations of service!”

Forty-one. I’d heard it my whole life. Forty-one generations of pilots, soldiers and heroes. Forty-one generations of spilled blood for the Federation. And now me…

“Son of Major James Tiernan! Grandson of General Arthur Tiernan, currently serving!”

Holograms lit up across the arena, revealing my family’s service record. From the very first General Marcus Tiernan, all the way to my sister, Warrant Officer Sara Tiernan. Each name a weight added to my shoulders. I caught glimpses of the crowd. The Merit Seating. The Common stands. The Legacy Section. The Chen Dynasty’s box, where Wei had already been escorted.

“Great-nephew of S-Grade Luminary Lydia Tiernan, who gave her life at the Battle of Proxima!”

The pin burned against my chest. Not warm anymore. Hot. The copper taste flooded my mouth so suddenly that I nearly gagged.

The crowd noise began to fade. Not quieting, distancing. As though I was hearing it through water.

“…seventeen combat…”

The announcer’s voice stretched. Fragmented.

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“…three gener…”

“…awarded posthum…”

Words arrived out of order. The arena had taken on a strange quality. Lights too bright. Shadows too deep. Faces in the crowd smeared at the edges.

How long had I been falling?

THUD

The world snapped back. Sound and light and heat rushing in like a wave breaking. I stumbled, caught myself. The crowd roared.

The pod waited.

Twenty meters away.

Gleaming under spotlights that made it look almost alive. The same pod Wei had entered minutes ago. The same pod that had measured every Tiernan before me and found them worthy.

I walked toward it. Each step heavier than the last. The pin burned. The copper drowned.

Ten meters.

The pod’s surface caught the light strangely. Almost iridescent. Almost…

Five meters.