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“I know, I know,” I sigh. “I’ve studied the lessons, Gerard. It’s all I do these days.”

I’m twenty-one years old, and the only times I’ve ever been past these towering walls has been under Gerard’s watchful eyes – and flanked by twenty cold, dead Sentinels.

It’s an intimidating procession when it occurs. You can’t miss the way people avert their eyes and rush away from us when we venture beyond these walls like that – not wanting to feel the cold stare of the robotic guards, numbering an army, but moving as one.

Sentinels creepmeout, and I’m the one they’re programmed to protect. They’ve creeped me out ever since I was a kid, when my father first brought them here to serve as my protectors.

Over the years, I’ve been surrounded by the deadly robots on a daily basis – but I’ve still never quite got used to them. Standing nine feet tall, they have no faces – only two glowing, red dots peering out from the featureless head casing. Red dots that seeeverything.

The Sentinels have neverdoneanything violent since they’ve been protecting me. All they’ve ever done is walk and watch. That’s still enough to creep me out. I’d never want to see the deadly automatons in action – and thankfully, nobody’s been stupid enough to give them a reason to.

Gerard lays a gentle hand on my shoulder.

“It won’t be long, Lady Carani. You know that.”

Not long.

He’s been promising me that my entire life.

“Our family is at risk,” my father has told me, ever since he first discovered those Orb-Deposits.

Butwhatfamily? My ‘family’ consists of my father, a venerable old guard, and an army of faceless, emotionless Sentinels and drones.

“But, that’s going to change soon.” That’s what my father tells me. “Once the mines go into production, we can leave Marn behind.”

I wonder if that will ever happen. A planet on the periphery of the Aurelian and Human Empires, like our reluctant home world of Marn, is the best place for a man like my father to make his fortune – and he’s such a avaricious man that I know he’ll not be satisfied to leave her – even after his much-touted mines go into production, as he’s promised.

No, he’ll stay here – and he’ll keep me here, because he wants me to be ‘safe.’

He’s trying to protect me, but he’s keeping me right where the highest risk is. Risk that’s only mitigated by tight security and oppressive prudence.

As a result, I’ve been prudent my whole life.

It wasn’t always this bad. I did have friends growing up – a few.

As a little girl, I was permitted the occasional playdates with children from neighboring estates – but even the playdates were guarded by my silent, robotic Sentinels. If you imagine how much they creepmeout, you can only imagine how threatening they’d appear to the parents of another child.

With my Sentinels ever at my side, it’s not surprising the invitations to playdates stopped arriving pretty quickly – and I lost the outlet of even those tightly supervised escapes.

As a result, the older I grew, the less connection I felt to anyone else. On the increasingly rare occasions I met with other kids my age, the distance between us was ever apparent. There was always hostility - resistance. Even children are coached in how to act and what to say, and it was clear their parents had been whispering things about me and father for quite some time.

I was in danger, and I presented a danger. At six years old, news came of a brazen kidnapping during a neighbor’s playdate – and at that point, all invitations to spend time with children my age stopped arriving. That’s what my father told me. Thinking back, I expect he simply stopped accepting them, and told a young me that no one wanted to play.

From then on, I rarely saw another child.

The bright blur of an asteroid suddenly flashes overhead, breaking me from my thoughts. I stiffen, instantly returning to the present moment – where I’m standing beside Gerard, and suddenly filled with a sense of dread.

“It’s too big!”

“Trust the defences, Lady Carani.”

The fiery trail of the asteroid passes over us, plummeting towards the ground. This isn’t a shooting star, or a pretty comet – this thing is like a missile, hurtling towards it’s target.

Gerard curls his arm around me and shields me with his body, pushing me into a crouch.

“Cover your ears and eyes, m’lady,” he demands.

I do what he tells me – the old soldier has fought in enough battles for me to trust his instincts. As soon as I do, lightning fills the sky – and it’s so bright it still hurts my eyes, even with my fingers clenched across them.