The eight candidates were brought to the dormitory building by a military aide who showed them the girls’ dorm on the ground floor and the boys’ on the second. Anna’s private room was on the third floor.
“Penthouse, baby!” Anna said as she left the others with a quick wave.
“Nice work today, guys,” the military aide told them. “Welcome aboard.”
With quick good-byes, the boys and girls separated and went to the rooms that would be their homes during the competition.
The boys’ dorm was one large room with two bunk beds along opposite walls. There were four desks with chairs and a laptop on each. On the beds were their backpacks. They were allowed to bring items from home, but told not to bring clothes because they would be given uniforms. As promised, the uniforms were laid out next to the backpacks. Each bunk held a pair of light gray running pants along with a long-sleeved workout top. The right half and sleeve were navy blue; the left was brilliant orange. There were also low black cross-trainers, orange socks, and orange boxer shorts.
Ravi picked up the shirt and said, “Are we going to space or the circus?”
“I need to meditate,” Niko said.
“Uh, what?” Gabriel asked.
Niko climbed up onto an upper bunk and sat cross-legged in the center. He closed his eyes, rested his hands on his knees, and took several slow deep breaths.
The other three boys exchanged confused looks.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Niko said without opening his eyes. “I just had a near-death experience and my core body temperature dropped. I need to get realigned.”
“Or you could just take a hot shower,” Ravi said.
“Meditation taps into the deeper powers of the mind to heal the body,” Niko said. “You would be amazed at what the power of proper meditation can do.”
“If it’s that powerful,” Ravi said, “meditate me up a spot in the final four.”
Niko ignored him and slipped deeper into his meditative state. Ravi looked at the others and spun his finger next to his head in the universal “crazy” gesture.
Dash and Gabriel took the other bunk beds. Dash below, Gabriel above. They both went right to their packs and began emptying them.
“Where are you from?” Dash asked.
“Outside Chicago. We got a big old house for a big old family. Two sisters and two brothers. I’m square in the middle. Add in my parents and grandparents and it gets pretty crazy. What about you?”
“It’s just my mom and little sister. We live in Orlando.”
“Really? You got Mickey Mouse for a neighbor?”
“Yeah,” Dash said with a laugh. “We hang out all the time.”
Gabriel laughed too. “Hey, if I lived there, I’d be going to Disney World every day.”
Dash shrugged. “That would get expensive.”
“Ten million bucks would fix that real quick,”
Gabriel said. Gabriel pulled a few items from his pack: a small tool kit, books, and a stuffed koala bear that he quickly hid under his pillow.
“Is that why you’re doing this?” Dash asked. “The money?”
“Absolutely,” Gabriel replied. “That kind of cash could set up my family forever.”
“And solve the world’s energy crises,” Dash added as he climbed up onto his bunk.
“Yeah, that too. I wouldn’t mind being a hero. What about you? Don’t you care about the money?”
“Well, sure,” Dash said. “It would be great if Mom didn’t have to worry about money anymore, but mostly I’m doing it because I’m scared.”
“What?” Gabriel exclaimed.
Ravi had been listening and leaned a little closer.
Niko opened one eye.
“If you’re scared, you are in the wrong place,” Gabriel said.
Dash took out a framed photo of himself, his mom, and his little sister. All three wore big, happy smiles. He gently placed it on a shelf above his bed.
“I’m not scared about the mission,” Dash said. “What scares me is a world without power. Money won’t matter much if we all get sent back to the Stone Age.”
Gabriel had no comeback.
“I say we make a pact,” Ravi said, jumping out of his bunk. “The four of us guys should be the ones to go on this mission. We don’t need girls out there. Especially that Anna. She’s wound a little too tight. We gotta do everything we can to make sure we’re the final four. What d’ya say?”
Dash and Gabriel hesitated, not sure how to answer. Dash opened his mouth to speak and…
“Excellent! You are making yourself at home!” came a tinny, cheerful boy’s voice through a speaker.
Everyone looked around for the speaker, but instead saw a visitor.
It wasn’t a boy.
It was a robot.
“Well, this is different,” Gabriel said, stunned.
The robot stood three feet tall and had two arms, two legs, and a wide head with two lenses that looked like eyes. Its plastic-cased body was mostly white, while all the joints were a mix of black and metal, lit up by glowing blue lights that emanated from within. Its tiny hands were fully functional, complete with opposable thumbs. And though it had rather substantial feet, it almost seemed to glide like a hovercraft when it moved from place to place. It walked toward the boys with a fluid motion. There was nothing robotic or stilted about its movement.
“Welcome to you,” the robot said warmly. “I am STEAM 6000. Call me STEAM. Yes sir!”
Niko and Dash climbed down from their bunks. None of them could take their eyes off the little machine.
“You’re a—you’re a…robot,” Niko said numbly.
“He probably knows that,” Ravi said.
“Maybe it’s a she,” Dash said.
“I am neither,” STEAM said. “Shawn gave me a boy voice, so you might as well refer to me as ‘he.’ ”
“Shawn?” Niko asked.
“Commander Phillips,” STEAM replied.
“He made you?” Dash asked.
“Yes sir,” STEAM replied. “I will assist you through the selection process and training. I will try to answer your questions and help make the experience as easy as possible.”
The four boys stared at the little robot in wonder.
“Man, this day just keeps on getting stranger,” Ravi said.
STEAM walked back for the door. “Put on your uniforms and meet outside. Time for dinner. I will alert the girls.”
STEAM pushed open the door and left.
The four guys stood there with their mouths hanging open.
Finally Ravi called out, “Okay, bye!”
“That really happened, right?” Niko said, dumbfounded.
“Who is this Phillips guy?” Gabriel asked. “He’s running this whole show and still has time to invent talking robots?”
“He must be a genius,” Niko replied. “It’s not going to be easy to impress somebody like that.”
The four boys looked at one another, remembering that they were in a competition.
“Remember,” Ravi said. “The guys gotta stick together. Everything we do has to be about bouncing the girls. Just keep it on the down low. Right?”
“Let’s go eat,” Dash said, ducking the question.
The boys got changed and walked down the stairs that led to the first-floor common area. Waiting for them were Siena, Carly, and Piper. All three were dressed in their orange-and-blue uniforms.
“Look at us!” Ravi announced. “If we don’t make the team, we can always get jobs at Jiffy Burger.”
“I think they’re cool,” Piper said.
An elevator door slid open to reveal
Anna and STEAM. Anna hurried out of the elevator, looking irritated.
“Back off!” she shouted, pointing a finger at the robot.
She went right up to the others and stood behind Piper’s wheelchair for protection.
“What’s the matter?” Piper asked.
“That talking Lego is freaking me out,” Anna said, clearly upset. “I didn’t bust my butt to get here just to have some plastic WALL-E Pillow Pet telling me what to do.”
“I do not mean to upset you, Anna,” STEAM said. “I want to make things as easy as possible for you. Yes sir!”
“Yeah, well, no sir!” Anna shot back. “If you really want to make it easier on me, waddle yourself on out of here.”
“I will do my best to stay out of your way,” STEAM said. “Everyone please follow me to the dining hall.”
STEAM hurried out of the building with quick short strides. Everyone followed except Anna. Dash saw that she wasn’t coming and went back to her.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she said sharply. “I just didn’t expect to have some mechanical Munchkin knocking on my door.”
“It kind of threw me too. Maybe you should sleep in the dorm with the other girls. Being alone is only gonna make it tougher to—”
“Whoa, stop,” Anna barked. “I earned that room and you want me to give it up?”
“No! We’re all in this together and I thought it might be easier—”
“We are not in this together,” Anna snapped. “When the final four get picked, I’ll care about the other three but until then we are in an eight-way fight. So back off.”
Anna stormed off after the others, leaving Dash with his mouth hanging open.
Up until that moment, he had only thought of the competition as being about proving himself. It was him against the various tests and challenges. He hadn’t thought much about having to compete against others. Now, between Ravi trying to create a secret alliance and Anna throwing down the gauntlet, he was faced with another reality. He not only had to prove himself, he had to worry about seven others who were in a desperate fight to win.
And he had only been there for three hours.
