The day seemed to pass at a crawl. Mave did the best she could to distract herself with the limited information portal in her room, but to no avail. It was ridiculous that she couldn’t go to the information labs, though she couldn’t, for the life of her, think why this should be the case.
At mid holo-light two days after her trip to the Sector Administration building, she decided to face the music with a trip to the information lab. If she was brave enough to take the lottery, she had sure better be brave enough to deal with all of the attached consequences.
Mave searched through her things for something capable of carrying the slab for convenience's sake, if not to conceal it. She could have a new synthetic fiber satchel of the appropriate size printed, but she’d have to retrieve it from the Sector Administration building. Aside from not wanting to withdraw from the family energy ration, that was the last place she wanted to visit.
Mave began to consider whether it wouldn’t be alright to stay at home when her mother called.
Black slab under her arm Mave answered her mother’s call.
“Yes, mother?”
“Oh, nothing. Just making sure you’re alright.”
Her mother, usually happy to let Mave roam as much as she liked, was now checking on her constantly. It was as if she thought Mave might might kill herself at any moment, not completely uncommon during years when people were forced into the lottery.
“Mother, I’m going to the Information Lab.”
“Oh, are you?” her mother asked her eye flicking down to the black slab under Mave’s arm. “Are you sure?”
For some reason the question made Mave angry.
“Yes I’m sure,” she said. Now she had to go.
She hesitated a moment at the front door, but opened it and left without turning around.
“Okay. Be caref -”
Mave shut the door behind her in the middle of her mother’s sentence. She pushed down a surge of guilt as she moved to retrieve the family electric scooter. It was gone, which meant her father had taken it.
It was a good thing the temperature controls were set moderately that day. It meant Mave wouldn’t have to go back inside for her hood.
Mave was alone for some time, which she appreciate, but it wasn’t long before she spotted figures in the distance. It was couples, walking along in their supposed newfound bliss. It was common this time of year to have couples stroll along in the weeks after becoming contracted together, especially as it was forbidden to stop a signed couple from copulating. Mave was sure many of them had been ‘busy’, and on this one point she perhaps envied them.
The slab under her arm vibrated suddenly.
Mave stood dead still, realizing what it meant: the lottery results had been released. When she took the slab from under her arm and looked at it, her destiny, her entire future, would be revealed in bold, white letters. A sliver of doubt once again sliced through her mind. How in the world was throwing her future away taking her destiny into her own hands? If anything, wasn’t this leaving it completely to chance instead operating in what freedom she had?
She pushed down the thoughts, steeling herself to look at the tablet. Any chance at complete freedom was still better than a small portion of freedom within the certainty of slavery. One last deep breath, and she rested her hand on the slab to take it from under her arm.
Suddenly it disappeared.
Mave was confused until she heard the familiar voice of Tim Stevens. He was standing next to his electric scooter with his newly contracted next to him. She’d been so far into her own head that she hadn’t heard them sneak up.
“Well, what do we have here?” he said, dangling the tablet with it’s back to Mave.
“Give it back, Tim.”
“Oh I sure will, as soon as -”
“Tim. Look!” The mousy girl said.
“Don’t interrupt me!” he shouted loudly, a tinge of rage Mave had never seen in him entering his voice. She had really avoided the airlock with that one.
“I’m sorry, Tim. Please forgive me,” The mousy brunette said, but she persisted at pointing to the slab.
Tim’s anger faded to wide-eyed amazement and mirth as his eyes read the slab and knew Mave’s destiny before she did.
“In the name of M.O.T.H.E.R., I couldn’t have asked for a better ending,” he said. He held the slab up dramatically.
“Mave Longborn, are you ready to know who your destiny is?”
Mave knew if she grabbed for it, she would only incite him further. It wasn’t as if everyone wasn’t going to find out anyway.
“It’s no one. Ever,” he said in a raucous laugh as he flipped the slab over. On the front of the slab, in big white letters, was written Deselect. He unceremoniously tossed the slab on the ground with the word face-up and got back on his electric scooter.
“Come on, honey. We’ve got to announce the good news to everyone!”
Then they started a chant as he started the scooter, shouting it as they drove past the other couples.
"Mave Longborn, De-sel-ect! Mave Longborn, De-se-lect!”
Other couples began to look back at her. Some of the people had pitying eyes, some merely sniggered. A few joined in the chant for a while pointing at her and laughing before turning to continue their walk as if nothing had happened.
Mave snatched her slab off the ground and ran as far and fast as she could, passing even her house. Nowhere was safe for her, anymore. Nowhere ever would be, again. This was her life, now. She took a small path that led to a rarely used park on a tall hill. There she could see many of the other sectors, and the Great Spoke far in the distance. There were five spokes in all, and the center of the spoke was at the end of the cylinder-like megastructure that was New Cradle.
The Spoke was where the powerful lived. The Spoke was where M.O.T.H.E.R. was housed. Sure, they hadn’t made this mess. That was the progenitors, those first Earth folk who built the proto-ark and, after it, New Cradle. But they had sure as hell maintained it. Mave silently cursed them.
But this was her life. She’d visit neighboring sectors, but only those near her class. She’d live and die an outcast. There was nothing to be done.
Then Mave remembered TheFreeOne’s article.
It was the first time she had ever considered that deselect status might have some worthwhile silver lining. But was it true? Come to think of it, she didn’t know much about deselects other than they were forbidden from having children. Her birthing controls, but on a temporary lock at puberty, would now be put on a permanent lock. After that, she wasn’t sure what happened. Her sector didn’t have any deselects and it was taboo to talk about them in normal conversation.
The holobracelet on Mave’s armed buzzed for her attention.
“Mave Longborn, report to the Sector Administration building at once."
Generation Alpha Centauri - Part 1
Generation Alpha Centauri - Part 2
Generation Alpha Centauri - Part 3