There had been a lot of tests, most of them totally incomprehensible. It wasn't that they were difficult to understand, but just that they didn’t seem to have anything to do with what they said. There were the usual IQ tests, which she knew she’d aced, but others, like picking a sequence of numbers that were then randomly generated from a machine, just to see if they matched up, seemed pointless. They wouldn’t show her the results, but the two men seemed pleased. They’d smiled at her.

Then they’d gone to speak to her parents.

She was going to be a Companion. That had been her dream ever since she was old enough to know what a dream was. To dress in those fancy clothes, to meet glamorous people, to be feted and adored … She knew there was more to it, had seen something in her mother’s eyes when she announced her desire that day at dinner, and it had made her blush, but for once her father nodded approvingly.

“I think that would be eminently suitable,” he’d said, his gravel voice rolling across the table. “A fine career for a Rostov.”

“Ivan, I don’t know,” her mother had put in. “She’s so young.”

“Genia, she’s old enough. And nothing will happen for a long time yet.” He’d made up his mind, and once he’d done that, there was no changing it.

Elena beamed, only wincing a little as Alex kicked her under the table.

But then her school had introduced these new tests. Boring, easy and predictable was her opinion, and she told her friends exactly that. Even crowed a little when Alex did nowhere near as well as her. Then her mother had taken her into her study one day and explained that these tests showed she had aptitudes that the Alliance felt should be encouraged.

“They want us to send you to a school,” her mother explained. “It’s special, with classes designed to make you work harder.”

Elena had never minded hard work.

Her father didn’t speak to her about it. If anything he ignored her even more than he had before.

---

“Inara’s been keeping to her shuttle a lot