The room is still; as still as it has been, as still as it will be. Yet... something has changed. Now, instead of mere darker shapes in the blackness, Hannah, for that is who she must be, can almost make out features on those near her. She pauses a moment to look at them... just a moment. Then, she turns a card...

...The bulletin had gone out two weeks ago; by computer, word of mouth, and of course on the nightly news broadcast. All women between the ages of sixteen and forty born with the Gift were to report to their nearest recruitment station.

The Draft had been expanded. On Hannah Lee's sixteenth birthday.

Hannah left her mother in tears; crying and pleading in vain "my baby, stay with me! You're all I have left!" But Hannah knew this day would come. The Interstellar Wars had been going on for so long... and she could help. Perhaps if there had been a Gifted woman around when her father... No matter. It was her duty. Hannah had a strong sense of right and wrong; and to do her duty was right.

The station was not crowded truly, but there were more bodies there than had been in years. Young girls and full grown women alike filled out paperwork in government issue blue pen, signing their name at the bottom. Then, they went through the little red curtain, and into the back.

Here were the enormous showers; rough men in military uniform, ashamed to be stuck here on Earth roughly tore the clothing from the women's backs, and washed them with coarse soap. Hannah would have preferred if they had looked at her longingly, or even touched her lustily; at least that would have seemed human. Instead, they were like rough machines, touching each woman just enough to clean her; no more, no less.

Then, her hair still hanging wet around her face; her fair skin slightly red from the scrubbing, Hannah was sent through another curtain, into a room with a woman, who examined every inch of Hannah's body, taking notes and occasionally asking questions; "Is that a birthmark or a scar?". If the fact that she was a woman was supposed to make her seem more comforting, or approachable, it did not. Hannah vowed right then and there to never treat people as just another piece of meat.

When that ordeal was through, she was sent into yet another room, where a man behind a desk questioned her about her powers; when they manifested, if her parents had them...

... five rooms later, five rooms of being examined and stared at and not once being told "you're pretty" or even an involuntary reaction to her nakedness, Hannah was now ushered into another room, where a man sat behind a desk, and another naked woman waited.

She was everything Hannah was not. While Hannah was the youngest girl there, this woman was likely the eldest. Dark haired compared to Hannah's blond; tanned skin as opposed to Hannah's fair. The woman's substantial breasts hung slightly from the effects of gravity, her hips were wide from birthing.

"My my, you're a pretty little thing, aren't you girl? I sure hope I get a chance to introduce you to my son; you're just his type," the woman said, extending her hand. Hannah was so relieved by the human contact, and relieved also to be told she was pretty. Being paraded around for three hours naked in front of a bunch of men who didn't react, when all her life she had been told repeatedly how pretty she was, was rather disconcerting.

"I... That might be nice ma'am," Hannah replied, taking the woman's hand.

The man at the desk cleared his throat, interrupting the two women. "There will be time for idle chit-chat later. Now, you two are here to demonstrate your Gift. Nothing fancy; you will each prick yourself with the knife on the end of the table, and the other will heal you."

Hannah did as she was told, pricking herself, and the woman closed her eyes. A slight green glow appeared around the woman's hand, and she raised it and touched the wound, which rapidly knitted itself back together. Then Hannah handed the knife to the woman, who pricked herself.

Hannah closed her eyes and summoned her Gift; the well of green deep within her soul. Her eye still closed, she felt the woman's wound, and raised her hand, and a small portion of her green, and healed it.

"Well done," the man said, "Through the door on your left. There you will find uniforms. In the room past that are your temporary rooms, where you will wait for transport tomorrow. You two are automatically roomates."

The women walked through the door in silence, but when they were through the woman began to talk again: "Woah damn girl! You've got some hefty talent there... I feel a whole year younger!"

"Oh, it was nothing really..."

"Oh, now hush up and don't be modest. I'm Rachel Carlson."

"Hannah Lee. Do you see any underwear?"

"Nah honey. Men, they don't understand how important that sort of stuff is. Grab an extra shirt, and I'll tie you up like a diaper; used to use em when I ran out of Huggies. Then, you do me, K?"

...The card made a slight slap as it hit the table. It was a face card; like a playing card.

It was the Queen of Hearts

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