Becoming Chosen

I completely understand and sympathize with the Propulsion and Navigation teams’ objections, but they are just going to have to deal with it. One big habitat is a non-starter. It’s incredibly inefficient, all that empty space between the inner walls. More importantly, we can’t separate the biospheres, or the populations. Yes, all those spinning cylinders are going to cause a problem for navigation, but that is nothing compared to the problems of one habitat.

- Chief Habitat Engineer Wilhelm Blaylock, Sealed Archives.

It had seemed like far too long for the car to come, but when it did Miri stepped right in. It was just like the cars she’d ridden in her whole life. The same hand holds, the same foot straps. It was a little disappointing, about the only thing different were the walls, which seemed to be made of very thick glass.

Another difference she saw as the doors closed were the ten buttons on the wall. The elevators the Chosen used only had two, one for up, one for down. After dithering for a minute, Miri chose the one marked with a five. The top or bottom might be busy places, but whatever happened in the middle?

The elevator chimed, then started up. The elevator went through the same bumps and clangs, and then she was in no-weight. It only lasted a second or so, then she was very lightly pushed towards the floor. Outside the glass walls, big blank sections of metal slid down.

Miri tried to straighten her torn shirt, but it hurt when she started to peel it off her back. Better to leave it until she arrived. She was scrubbing her face with her palms to get as much blood off as she could when she noticed the light changing.

Pulling her hands away from her eyes, Miri saw that the elevator tunnel walls had turned clear. In front of her was the biggest space she had ever seen.

It was easily ten times as big as the inside of a Habmo. Most of the chamber was dark, but there were bright lights shining here and there showing the contents of the massive cavern.

In the distance, she could see three rows of three huge stone cylinders. They looked like the biggest silos imaginable, but knocked over on their sides, by something even bigger.

The stone silos were all spinning, she could see the surface moving, under one of the huge spotlights. From the very center of each silo was a large pipe, that went through some kind of grid. On the other side of the grid, the pipes came together.

Miri hadn’t realized she had leaned forward until her sore nose pressed against the glass inner wall. She pulled back from the pain, then carefully leaned in. Her elevator was continuing to climb and now, if she strained to look down she could see the pipes all led to the center of a big disk. The disk was spinning too, but faster than the silos.

Her mind was whirling. What could these things be? Then it snapped into focus.

“Gods of Earth,” she breathed, “those are the Habmos!”

A tingle like diving into cold, cold water, washed over Miri. She was seeing the outside of the Habmo’s. As a child, she had wondered what was outside the floor of her wrap-around world, but in her wildest dreams she had never thought of something like this!

If the giant silos were the habmo’s, then the disk must be the Town! Leaning as far forward as she could, she looked at it. There were bumps and bulges all along the outer skin and it seemed to be turning much faster than the habmo’s. Why was that?

She had never known the habmo’s were turning? Why hadn’t anyone ever told her? A heretical thought crossed her mind; maybe none of the Chosen knew. She might be the first!

Miri stared greedily out, trying to take in as much as possible. There were moving lights here and there in the giant cavern, but they were so small and far away she couldn’t make out what they were, even with the incredible clarity the view provided. She had never been able to see things this far away with such precision.

The elevator continued up towards the walls of the huge space. As the wall got nearer, Miri could see that it too was spinning, much slower than the Habmo’s or the Town, but still fast enough that small objects on the inside seemed to blur by.

When Miri was about a mile above the inner surface, the outer wall became metal again, cutting off the amazing view. Miri sighed. She had left the Habmo’s to see new things, and if she died right now, she could be happy.

The euphoria lasted only a moment, then reality asserted itself. She had thought that all of the Town-people lived in the Town. There were never as many of them as in a single Habmo, but now she had to wonder how many Town-people lived in such a huge place. Thousands, many thousands? Who could know?

Worse, for a people who could make all of this work, what could a Chosen girl offer them? She had thought being smart and curious would be enough to see her through, but now? What could she have to offer people like that?

A sneaky, nasty part of her whispered there was an alternative. She could always go back to the Chosen. All it would take is waiting until the elevator arrived, then pushing the button to take her back to the Town.

She would be embarrassed, sure, but she might live that down. She could find a boy, any boy and pair up with him. That would stop some of the talk. And then she could commit to the Chosen Path like never before. Just keep her head down and work. It would be hard, but at least she would be in the place she knew with people she understood.

It was a tempting offer. Just in the elevator ride, Miri had seen things beyond imagining. Things the Town-people took for granted! Who was she to think she would fit in here?

She thought about what Gram and Uncle Fergus would say, how they would react when they found out what she had done. That led her to a thinking of her parents. Daddy in particular.

She remembered a time when the kids in the school had teased her and said she was unrighteous because she wanted to know where the electricity came from. She had run home and hid in a small wood. Miserable and alone she had sobbed and sobbed.

Then Daddy had come and found her. When he asked what was wrong she had poured her misery out to him. He held her and listened until she wound down.

“It is a hard thing to be different,” Daddy had said after a while. “But difficult things are important, you know that don’t you?”

“Like being Chosen,” Miri had sniffed.

“Like that, yes, but other things too.” There was a rustling in the tree above them. When she and Daddy looked up there was a red squirrel on a branch looking down at them.

“Sometimes we just have to be who we are, no matter what other people think. See that squirrel? Do you think he cares if we think he’s silly for buryin’ nuts?”

Miri remembered shaking her head.

“The squirrel just does what he has to. He doesn’t doubt, he doesn’t hesitate. He just goes about being the best squirrel he can be. That’s what you should do. Be the best Miri you can be. Go forward, as hard as you can, and if others think you are silly, well, they will never know how much they are missing.”

“But Daddy they are so mean!” Miri had nearly wailed.

“Yes, but they will never be more than they are now. You don’t have to be like them. You can be better.”

“Better?”

“Yes, better. Because you ask questions, because you want to know, because just bein’ Chosen is not enough.”

“Is that what you do?”

Daddy had smiled in a way that made the world around warm and safe. “I try little squirrel, I try. Will you try?”

“I will, Daddy. Even if it’s hard.”

His smile had grown and he hugged her tight. “That’s my girl.”

Da and Mum had died not long after that. But Miri never forgot the talk. Suddenly the temptation to go back to where things were, well, not easy, but at least understood, was gone.

Miri straightened her shoulders. Yes, the Town-people might know so much, and yes, they might not think they needed a Chosen girl, but they had not met her yet.

“I’ll be the best I can be, every-day, and to the mulch with anyone who says I’m not good enough,” Miri said out loud. “I haven’t forgotten Daddy; I’ll be the best they have ever seen!”