Becoming Chosen

We’re taking a huge chance with the Agri-crew. I understand Foster’s insistence on choice; after all we are talking about our own progeny. We are walling off so much of their heritage to assure the mission’s success. It would be easy to keep them in the dark for the whole trip, all of them. But I’ve seen the projections; socially we can’t be sure of cohesion if we leave too much out. There has to be a thread of knowledge, even if it is confined to the oldest of the Agri-crew. Still the idea that any one of them could veto the whole thing at any time keeps me up at night. Foster had better be right or all of this is for nothing.

-Excerpt from the Diary of Sheryl Nesbit, Deputy Design Engineer, Sealed Archives.

Miri snuggled into the machine woven sheets of her new bed. What a day! This morning she had been bloody and hungry, now she was a member of the Tech! And with a job no-one else had ever had, could a girl be luckier?

Since her lunch with Captain Collins the day had been a blur of visiting offices and being assigned things. Clothes, a room (to herself!), a data-set, dining hall, the list went on and on and on!

After dinner, where she had met Ronan’s friends, she had been back to one of the Stores areas. It was the first time her data-set had pinged, nearly making her jump out of her clothes.

When she had arrived, with a little help on directions from Ronan, Miri had been asked to sign for a large black tablet.

There were some of them in the Habmo, for communicating with the Town-people, but this one was like the ones all the Elders had, and carried with them all the time.

“The Captain would like you start reading it right away,” the man in charge of the Stores area had told her. “He specifically said that if you have any questions or need to talk about what you find here, you should ask to speak to him. You should be proud little missy, most Tech your age never speak to the Captain, let alone have him on call.”

Miri wasn’t exactly sure what that all meant. It was starting to seem like you needed permission to talk to the Captain. Well, another mystery for another day!

She pressed the square with the picture that she had always thought of as a flower, to start the tablet. The black glass of the front turned blue, then words in dark gray formed. The Book of Elders, it said.

So, this is a copy of the book Gram carried! She had always wanted a look at it, but Gram had been firm that she would get to see it when she was one of the Elders and not a day before. Ha! Another thing that was different here.

She dragged a finger across the words, and the page slid aside. But instead of the words she was expecting, there was a picture of a man, filling the tablet from edge to edge.

The man was good looking, in a solid, friendly way. Lively blue eyes, under graying brows, a strong jaw and high cheekbones made him look instantly trustworthy. The graying hair, carelessly tousled gave the impression he had just stepped in from doing something physical and was giving the viewer some of his precious time.

After a couple of seconds, the image came to life. The man spoke.

“Hello, my name is Foster Delhim. Like you I am one of the Chosen, and an Elder. You have been given this book because you are the oldest person in your Habitat Module. I am making the first entry into this book because as the leader of the project that became our little world, it is my job to explain a few things you have not been told.

“What I am going to say may be upsetting to you. I understand, and ask only that you read the whole of this book before you make any decisions. I am confident that you will understand all we’ve done once you have completed it.

“I grew up in the solar system of Earth. To you it is a near mythical place, but to me it was my first home. The people who lived there, the ones you call the Gods of Earth, had amazing technology. Devices and knowledge that allowed them, us, to live not only on the planet of our species birth, but around and on many other worlds, less hospitable.”

Miri’s mouth dropped open. If she understood correctly, she was looking at one of the actual Gods of Earth!

“Part of our knowledge allowed us to find another place, another planet very much like Earth. The only problem was it was so far away that it would take six hundred years to reach it.

“The machines we had used to conquer our home system could not make the trip, they required a huge number of people and other technology to create and maintain. But there was a way to make this journey.

“We could build a huge ship using our technology, but build it so machines less complex, less dependent on a large population could maintain it. If we did this, we could send a relatively small number of people out to this new planet. We would be able to bring humans to a second home.”

The man, Foster, looked down then up again, and gave the camera a winning smile.

“It was my dream, one that I convinced many others to share. None of us would ever see this new world, but we could give it to our children’s, children’s, children. You or your descendants.

“All this we could do, if we were willing to pay the price.”

Foster grimaced as if in pain.

“You see, we could build the great ship, but it would only work if nothing changed. The Technical Crew had to maintain the ship, just as it was built. The Agri-crew, the Chosen, had a different job. It fell to you to preserve the knowledge of farming and living even more simply than anyone had in many centuries.

“To assure that this was the only focus of the Chosen, we have cut you off from the thousands of years of science and technology that have accumulated since our ancestors lived as you do now. We also needed to keep it from you that this knowledge ever existed.

“Please believe me when I say that this was the only way we could make this journey possible. If there were another way, we most certainly would have taken it.”

The man’s blue eyes were now pleading. He had been dead for centuries, but his plea still reached out of the tablet to Miri. She wanted to think about what she’d already heard but Foster was already continuing.

“Even though we have chosen to live the way you have all your life, even though we have done what we have done to give all of us a new world, it would be unfair, unjust, to keep our children in the dark for all their lives.

“It is in an effort to be fair and just that this book was created. You are the oldest person in your Habitat. You have lived as one of the Chosen your whole life. Now you know the whole truth of your world. The reason things are the way they are, and must remain that way.

“Still, you must have a choice. If we failed to provide you one, then you would be no better than cattle, living but not in control of any aspect of your life. So, now you do have a choice.

“In this book you will find words from every Elder who has ever read it. Each of them have added their thoughts and given their consent that the mission go on. The choice was theirs, and now it is yours. If, after reading it, you feel that the sacrifice is not worth the eventual reward, all you have to do is enter that you do not consent, and the mission will stop in its current form.

“I urge you to think of all the consequences of your choice. Even if you choose to stop the mission, you and everyone you know is so far from Earth that you could not return in many lifetimes. To abort the mission will give you access to all the knowledge of Earth, we did send it with you, even if we made it inaccessible. If the mission is stopped you will need all of that knowledge to survive.

“The other choice is to continue as we always have. Knowing that there is more to the world than you were taught does nothing to change the way you have lived. You have followed the Path of the Chosen, just like those who made entries before you. You have preserved the skills, raised a family, had joy, had sorrow, and persevered. In this you are no different from all those who stayed behind.

“I so believe in our mission, that after we were on our way, I came to Habitat Module Four, to live as the Chosen, to raise my children and pass the needed skills down to them. This was my sacrifice.”

Foster paused for a second, then smiled that warming smile again.

“So, now it up to you, Elder. You must make up your mind, for yourself and all aboard this vessel. I have hope and faith that you will continue the mission, and one day, our children will step on to a new world. It will be your actions that have given it to them.

“My name is Foster Delhim, and I give my consent that the mission continue.”

The image faded, and Miri lay in her bed, stunned. There were so many thoughts whirling in her mind she felt dizzy. There were no Gods of Earth, they were just the distant grandparents of everyone in the habmo’s. All the pious talk, all the chants and sayings, nothing more than stories told to keep everyone the same!

She scrolled through pages and pages of entries in the book. Some were long, some were only a single sentence consenting that everything continue as it always had. The weight of this new knowledge pressed down on Miri. Every Elder had seen this, read it and agreed. Even Gran!

Is that why she changed when she became the Elder? Had the weight of it all struck her like it did Miri? What must it be like to know this and only be able to talk to eight others who also knew? Did she struggle with the choice, or had she just agreed with the charming and smiling Foster Delhim to keep things the same?

Miri knew she could scroll to the end of the book and see if her Gran had consented, but she didn’t. It was too much.

All the unfairness she’d lived with, all the pain she’d endured, it could have been different? And no-one had ever said.

Oh! Mum and Da! They died too young, they never knew the truth! How would Mom have chosen? Or Da? Miri couldn’t be sure, she had been so little when they died, but in her soul, she felt like Daddy had chaffed at the narrow world they lived in, just like she did.

One thing was true, that Foster knew what he was talking about when he said this was upsetting! Miri was angry and sad and confused all at once. At the moment, she was ready to put her lack of consent in the book, but would that really make things better?

Captain Candemir had told her the mission was almost over. No matter what happened now, they would be at the new place in her lifetime, she had the chance to see that world Delhim had only dreamed of.

She would do as he had asked and read the whole thing before she made any decisions. If nothing else, it was only fair to those who had done the same before giving their consent.

But not tonight! She put the book on her bed stand and called for the lights to dim. There in the dark Miri hugged herself and cried. Cried for a life she had never known, one that generations of others had decided she couldn’t have, one they never had either. She cried for all those who suffered the binding rules of the Chosen, who were mocked and shunned for wanting to know more. She cried for herself and her people. Could any new world be enough to make up for this?