At 15 most youths are required to select their future career and profession. We have a choice between a hundred opportunities based on the results of aptitude and physical examinations. I scored average and had a choice between working on the docks, on a merchant ship or joining the military. Essentially, a life of backbreaking labor.
Kallos scored near the top of our class and he immediately chose to work on a merchant ship like his father. By default, I picked the same and we were pleased with our good fortune to be granted the opportunity to begin training together on the Grand Traveler.
I've known Kallos since we were very little and first met beneath the tunnels in our home sector. Many of the children would spend hours playing in the underground tunnels and we were no exception.
No one was quite sure where all the tunnels led and there was always a new twist or turn to be found. We sometimes imagined the tunnels were a living thing and every so often moved on its own. So bewildering that even natives like ourselves would still get lost down there.
The worst experience, Kallos and I were both about 7 and we took a wrong turn and were lost for at least 8 days underground. We could hear the echos of our worried parents and neighbors yelling our names, but they couldn't hear us as we were in levels too far below them. While we were experienced and were able to find fresh water and raw mushrooms, it was very scary and terrifying. Our only solace was we had each other as we wandered through the dark without any light.
Finally, by luck we somehow made a turn thinking we were going back to a makeshift camp we had made near a water pipe and instead saw a faint light and walked towards it realizing it was a lamp above an exit door. The door opened to a street that was almost halfway around the station. To this day, we are still not quite sure how we traveled that far and even attempted to retrace our steps from memory. It strengthened our belief that the tunnels have some sentience.
We sometimes laugh at our little tunnel odyssey and have been inseparable ever since. I consider Kallos my best friend and often spend every waking hour with him. Both of our parents have accepted this and made arrangements that one day we would marry.
For us, we didn't really care about marriage and at the same time were not against it. If it meant we would just be hanging out together all the time, what difference would it make?
Enya came by near the tunnel entrance to congratulate us. We also praised her for being selected to leave on the first ship back to Earth to begin her own training. She had been trained well by our teacher and she passed along a note saying she wanted to see me before I left for the Grand Traveler.
Sister Marina lived nearby and I went to her apartment to pass my pleasantries. She welcomed me inside and next to her was Madam Naoka. They asked me to join them as they had some news regarding me and the sisters. Naoka shared that I had been selected to begin my training as a sister and I would be joining Enya on the next flight out, which would be on the Grand Traveler.
I was floored by this and Marina said she put in a recommendation for me to be reinstated and had continued my training all this time. I felt nervous and afraid not wanting to anger them, but I had my heart set on being with Kallos.
Madam Naoka then placed her hands on mine and wanted to share a secret. My great grandmother was a direct descendant of Olivia making everyone in her direct line very special to the sisters. It was Olivia who saved the sisters, the Neo-Artesians and brought about everything we see before us.
Olivia had a daughter named Ninya who had a child who was raised by Olivia and was very special to her. That child was my great grand mother's direct ancestor. As she only had sons who in turn had sons, my generation having two girls was very special.
I stammered trying to compose myself saying I failed their tests and was a poor student. Marina took me aside wiping the tears. She then became stern and showed a face I had not seen and I stopped quivering. Since there are two of us, they can settle for having only Enya, but being the eldest this would be an embarrassment for the sisters. A reassignment would have to be made of significant value.
Naoka stopped Marina. She shook her head in disagreement and looked towards me. She pressed her hands on mine and suggested they give me some time to decide. The Grand Traveler would not arrive for 4 days.
I embraced Marina and bawled my eyes not caring that I was in the presence of a madam. I begged her that she would not harm Kallos or his father, or my parents. If that was what they meant by retribution then I would accede and go to Earth and become a sister.
Naoka was disappointed by this and said there would not be any killing. And it was not by sheer coincidence that I am friends with Kallos. She shared that our fate and lives are intertwined as he is a descendant of Karl Knutmudsen by his sister Greta. His is a very special line even more significant than my own.
The reassignment would be to separate us and another sister selected. There are other descendants of Olivia.
Marina and Naoka smiled and brightened up. My going to Earth was always intended to bring both family lines closer. It was necessary as things have forced their hand with the rise of the Proto-Artesians causing problems for the Neo-Artesians. Both sides have long suspected that there were living descendants of the Knut among us.
The sisters felt it was time to tell me quite a bit more and I felt a sensation that by entrusting with me that I was being made responsible for the fate of those I cared deeply about. Gregor Illum, the second mate on the Grand Traveler is also another descendant of the Knut and a cousin of Kallos and his father. This is a secret that was held from both of them, excepting that Gregor is aware of his ancestry.
I began to wonder and rather than hold my tongue asked if events in past were orchestrated or even staged somehow by the sisters. Naoka beamed and embraced me. She looked more intently and felt somewhere in my blood there indeed were traces of Ninya.
A knot grew in my stomach and my head began to spin thinking much of what has happened to me, my interactions with Kallos may have all been a lie. I wanted to reject everything.
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