About The Laws of Space

Post 155:

The Laws of Space

Episode Three:

Chapter Three Starts:

Chapter 3: Teaching—A Biohazard

            It was simply her time. For the lucky it never came, for others it came more than once; her number had fallen. The Laws stated she be tasked with a group of dirty, uncouth Charges for a period of one month. It was not punishment; your number fell at random, based on a complex algorithm. Plucked from a life of health, isolation, productivity and achievement, here she was.

           Educational Facility 25.

            It was punishment.

            Day fifteen.    

            She was counting.

            Looking at her Charges through a protective biohazard helmet, a mixture of suppressed memories flooded her cerebral cortex. She’d been one of them, after all. Everyone started from the same place in the Five Cities. After Continuation all were brought here for rearing, raising, and learning.

            “Children, settle in. We have much to cover today.” The unruly youngsters ceased fighting and prattling, slumping into their desks. It was healthy and good to facilitate pugnacious physical interfacing. Years of study showed that only through genuine conflict interaction could the little ones truly learn to detest each other. It was a way of getting it out of their systems, before the System.

            Hers was a decent bunch, petulant and bitter, but there was much more to teach. This group, like every other, shared the same birthday; in two weeks they would be eight years old and the Test would be administered. Chips would be implanted.

            “What will we be learning today, Susa Burke, L9?” asked a little one. Despite the contrarian sentimentality of the class, they had a level of reverence for their instructor. She was a Level Nine Spacer, after all. There were only ten levels, and nobody got that high, save the Administrator.

            “Today we will be discussing your upcoming birthdays.” The clear plastic of her visor started to fog; just thinking about the Test made her sweat. More memories came, a patchwork of images and emotions playing in her head. Susa couldn’t remember taking the Test but recalled the fear that surrounded it.

            “Where does the chip go?” asked Lucie, one of the brighter Charges. Susa believed she would do well, but it was hard to predict the ways of the System.

            “Lucie, you know where.” The instructor frowned and patted her right shoulder with two gloved fingers.

            “Can we see yours?”

            “Now, you know that’s not possible; if I took off this suit for even a moment I could be contaminated.”

            “Contaminated. We’re not contaminated. We don’t have suits.” It was Kiernan, by far the most truculent of all her Charges. He questioned everything and nettled everyone in his path, even Susa with her Level Nine. She should have despised him, but she harbored an ironic fondness for the tiny snipe.