“Fun,” Glacia says, feigning excitement.

Victoria waves her finger at me. “As for you, Mr. Lance, everyone expects you to replace your father. But even if Michael is chosen, your name still holds a lot of power. Use it to your advantage.”

Even though I don’t want to be an ambassador, what can I do? Refuse the nomination? Recruits elected to be ambassadors must negotiate a treatise before they’re officially named. If it comes to that, maybe I’ll fail on purpose. Then they’ll have no choice but to demote me.

“All right, let’s see.” Victoria checks the time, then looks at me again. “You’d better head up to Chancellor Green’s office. Remember, it’s just an interview. Nothing to worry about. When you finish, you’ll have free time until I pick you up at eight o’clock for the Hologis tournament.”

Glacia stays to talk with Victoria, so I head to the elevators alone. I ride it up eleven floors and an Official escorts me into the Chancellor’s office. Then it’s a full ten minutes before Chancellor Green limps over to me from around the other side of his curved office.

Good to know he likes to take his time.

The braces of his spectacles push into his nose so hard that they indent his skin. Father wore glasses too. I tried them on once and they made the bridge of my nose itch.

“How are you, Arman?” Chancellor Green asks.

“Good.”

“Enjoying your stay?”

“Yup.”

A flicker of doubt flashes across his face, but it passes as he gestures behind me. “Let’s have a seat and get started, shall we?”

I walk to the two chairs. A projector sits on a small podium between them. My face and personal information are already displayed on it. Chancellor Green settles himself in his seat and straps a tendril glove onto his hand, then pulls the image toward him.

“I’ll start with the big question,” he says. “What do you see yourself doing in the Embassy? Working in an office? Traveling? What are your plans?”

“Traveling.”

I’ve already been assigned to the Ember. Obviously I’m going to travel.

“Political expeditions, I assume?”

I’m about to answer ‘yes,’ but stop myself.

“Are there other kinds?”

He lets out a short laugh. “If you continue to work with Threshold Tower, you’ll fly on political voyages to assist in treatise conventions, data cataloging, and training for other positions. But if you ever transferred to, say, Horizon Tower, most of your time would be spent traveling deeper into the galaxy to hunt planets and map territory. You may also gather data from stars or inspect galactic anomalies.”

Chancellor Green pauses to press his fingers together, and looks away in thought. Then,

“And there are a few brave souls registered to colonize the next habitable planet we discover. Could be tomorrow, could be decades.”