 
"In 100 years people will look back at our way of life and at the decisions we made and ask

what on earth happened."

To my daughters

The Triad's Daughters

SK Elix

Copyright 2019 SK Elix

Cyclopia

Haaaaaa, Haaaaaa.

Lucy was puffing and couldn't breathe. She was suffocating. Jiggling her legs and moving her arms made the matter worse. Her ears were also ringing from the fall. Adrenaline had kicked in to the point that she could barely feel her legs. That warm and tingling feeling was going through her entire body. It was dark. The lights in her round, astronaut-like helmet barely worked. They kept on flashing randomly, adding to Lucy's panic. The water had now completely filled her suit—the weight was pulling her down, she was starting to drown. The smell in there was putrid, it smelt like dead fish and vomit mixed together. Rubbish was floating everywhere.

"No, no, no, no, no, no," she screamed. "Can someone hear me? HEEELLLLPPPP!"

She suddenly heard someone talking through the speaker in her helmet, but the line was crackling.

"Where are you?"

Lucy had trouble breathing, she could barely put two words together. "I've slid in the bottom well, I'm drowning."

A reassuring voice came through clearly in Lucy's helmet. "We're coming."

"Quiiickkk!" yelled Lucy.

She could now see some fairly large rats swimming towards her, some were biting her too.

The water was now filling her helmet at a faster rate, and Lucy was trying not to drink any of the filthy water.

A different voice came through.

"We' re coming, we'll be here in two minutes."

"I'll be drowned by then," yelled Lucy.

The rats were still biting in the hope of an excellent meal.

Lucy was now breathing and spitting a mix of water and air. Thirty seconds had passed but it felt like hours. She was lying down to stay afloat, but the weight of the suit and the rats kept pulling her feet down. Suddenly a rat managed to jump onto her helmet and even though the glass was slippery, it stood up. It seemed like it wanted to claim territory or to ascertain its power.

"WHERE ARE YOU?" screamed Lucy.

Lucy could now hear some noises and voices coming from the tunnel she fell from. The rescue team would have to hang some ropes and abseil for about twenty metres before getting to her.

Lucy was talking to herself, "I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to make it."

The team had now arrived and was starting to abseil down. They could barely see Lucy in the dark, just a faint light from her helmet.

"Lucy, can you hear me?"

Lucy wasn't answering

"Lucy, CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

Still no answer from Lucy.

"LUUCCYYY," yelled Isa.

They were now swimming towards her, pushing away the floating rubbish and hitting what was now a sea of rats.

Lucy was now unconscious and barely floating. Isa clipped a hook to Lucy's suit, and Tegan, who stayed up on the edge of the well, started to pull her up with a wrench. Some rats were still hanging on to Lucy's suit. Isa started to zap a few. Isa and 9 were now abseiling back up the well while zapping a few rats. 9 turned around and threw an electric grenade to zap them all. They were now all out of the well. Lucy was lying down, her helmet full of water.

Tegan, Isa, and 9 were now trying to remove Lucy's helmet. It had been damaged in the fall and it was impossible to remove.

Tegan and Isa were now yelling and screaming, "LLUUUCCYYY."

9 grabbed her spanner and smashed the helmet. The water was now exiting the suit. Glass had cut Lucy's face and skull; there was blood everywhere. 9 turned Lucy's face to check the back of her head. Behind her ear, she could see a little, blue light through her skin.

Tegan was relieved. "She is still alive."

Tegan took her oxygen breather and put it in Lucy's mouth.

Tegan and Isa were doing CPR on Lucy.

"COME ON, COME ON, COME ON, LUCY."

Lucy suddenly gasped and came back to life. Her light was now purple. Tegan, Isa, and 9 put her on the robot stretcher back to the hospital. Lucy passed out, but her light was still purple; they had to go up to the hospital. She could breathe and her heart was fine, but she hurt the back of her head so hopefully her Skilex had not been damaged. 9's Skilex had been damaged in a fall when she was five and she couldn't talk.

They were now running to keep up with the robot. The three girls and the robot were now out of the tunnel.

Cyclopia is not a pretty sight. It is a giant landfill full of smashed cars, plastics, screens, and other rotting garbage. Even from the highest building all you can see is rubbish.

"Control, can you hear me?" said Tegan.

"Roger," said control.

"Can you send us a drone to get to the hospital?"

"Why?"

"Lucy is in a critical situation."

"What's the colour of her light?"

"Purple Zet, Purple!!"

"Dark purple?"

"Yes, dark purple"

"Okay sending you now."

"What's her problem?" said Isa.

"She was sent back from Fields," replied Tegan.

"Why?"

"Something wrong with her Skilex, they say."

"So, she's stuck here forever?"

"Yep."

They now could see the drone and Lucy's light was going from purple to blue. Hopefully the drone would take her even with a blue light.

The drone was dropping the cables to grab the stretcher. It was a ten-minute flight to the hospital. The girls clipped the stretcher to the cable and within a few seconds it was secured in the drone. Tegan, Isa, and 9 clipped themselves on the drone. It lifted, and they were now hanging from the hook and flying to the hospital. From up there they could see on one side the recycling factories, multiple landfills, rubber tyres, and thousands of cars and on the other side hundreds of small villages, in the middle was the control centre. From up there, the three girls could see their village. It had been named after a now extinct tree called "Wattle."

"Skilex, switch to Amazon view," said Tegan.

Tegan could now see the Amazon as it was before. A gorgeous green forest with the meandering Amazon river.

Isa preferred islands so she opted for the Greek Islands; she loved blue and white.

9 could communicate using a computer-generated voice, which she hated, or she could also sign. She opted for New York City at night. At that moment she wished she was in Central Park on a warm summer's night picnicking.

This was the only way for them to escape this life, by picturing themselves in, what used to be a welcoming planet.

They had been on Cyclopia since the age of twelve, and after thirteen years living in Cyclopia they were only a few weeks away from going to Fields. During those thirteen years they learnt how to use their Skilex, but also had to work in the rubbish tips of Cyclopia. Cyclopia is the size of a large country where all the planet's rubbish goes to be recycled, but there's a backlog of 127 years of recycling to catch up from the Wastage years. The boys work on one side of Cyclopia and the girls on the other side. In the middle is a large desert with a large rock formation in the middle. Cyclopia was chosen because it wasn't habitable anymore. It had not rained there for decades, no crops could be grown, and the forests had died. It was more or less a large, red desert.

The drone had now arrived, and Lucy was directed to the operating theatre. They quickly put Lucy on the robot stretcher and the girls ran to the operating theatre. Lucy was placed on a bed. A tunnel-like glass surrounded her.

A blue light scanned her whole body and within seconds small laser beams were closing her wounds. It would only take a few minutes to operate on her.

"Operation finished," said the scanner. Lucy needed some rest; her light was now dark purple. She was out of trouble.

Lucy needed to stay at the hospital for another twenty-four hours to check that everything was fine.

It was now dark, and Tegan, Isa, and 9 had to go home for dinner. They lived in a shared house with other women. They had a shared kitchen and all food was either frozen or in cans. No fresh fruits or vegetable were grown on Cyclopia, everything was grown in Fields, where the climate and the soil suited the growth of trees, fruits and vegetables. Another part of the planet was called the 7th Quarter, it looked like a megacity where everything was manufactured, from drones to axes and the Skilex that everyone had at the back of their head. This was also the capital of the planet, the government ruled from the 7th Quarter.

Lucy had been cleared by the doctors, her vitals were fine, and her Skilex worked perfectly.

The Skilex looks like a small moon crescent, about two or three cm long made of carbon fiber and has two little spikes that plug into insert under the skin.

The Skilex is like a USB that contains your whole life; it has your DNA, all your memories and can be uploaded with skills, languages etc. It is unique to you and can't be replaced if broken or damaged, it is usually put in at age three. Humans, droids, and robots have Skilex.

Lucy was lying down in her hospital bed. She had a couple of intravenous drips in her arms and computers were monitoring her. The doctor had set up her favourite dream program so she could sleep properly.

The Skilex could be programmed to make sure that people slept properly and had peaceful dreams. Lucy's favourite was her swimming in the Iguazu Falls in Brazil. That brought her calm and happiness, but also sometimes sadness as they had disappeared some one hundred and ten years ago when it ran dry.

The dream had started, and she was watching the immense beauty of the Iguazu Falls, when suddenly her stream started to fade, the images were blurry and cracked as if someone was hacking her dream. Her body started to convulse, she was sweating, her back was arching, her head was moving left to right very rapidly as if she received an electro shock.

"No, no, no, no," yelled Lucy.

She woke up completely drenched in sweat, her heart was pounding.

She recalled her dream. It was a little girl playing in a playground, but she couldn't work out who it was. There were no children on Cyclopia, and some of her childhood memories contained on the Skilex had been wiped out when she moved to Cyclopia. The 7th Quarter said it was better for us, it helped us cope better when separating from our parents.

Lucy yelled loudly but no one noticed. She would not tell anyone about the weird dream or maybe she'd tell 9.

Yes, 9 wouldn't tell anyone. She could keep a secret. She was someone Lucy could totally trust.

9 had lived in the same village as Lucy when she was young. They both grew up in Fields with their parents, but no siblings. Every family had only one child. It was 7th Quarter policy, to drive population down to a healthier level for the planet. In Fields everyone was pretty much of the same age, no elderlies, no grandma or grandpa to be seen, no teenagers either.

Fields was actually an enormous country and it had to be. This is where the crops and forests for the whole planet were grown, simply because plants had stopped growing in Cyclopia and on the 7th Quarter. There was also another part of the planet where no one lived—Desert. As the name suggested It was a large unforgiving desert.

9 and Lucy had a normal childhood. They both went to kindergarten till about age six and then started helping with chores in the household and when they were strong enough they helped with harvesting, sowing, fertilizing and any other farming work. 9 and Lucy didn't go to school: Skilex had replaced learning. A simple download of skills on Skilex made anything possible, from flying a drone to understanding complex maths. Schools and universities were made obsolete with this single piece of technology.

9 was very attached to Lucy. She remained her friend after the accident, even when other kids stopped playing with her. They were both happy when they were assigned to the same site on Cyclopia.

"Wake up."

Lucy gasped heavily as if she was recovering from drowning.

"Are you okay?" said the nurse.

"Yes, I'm good," said Lucy, "I had a great sleep. What time is it?"

"6 am. You'll have something to eat and you can get back to work in an hour or so. You're good to go."

9 came in and gave Lucy a big hug.

"How are you?" signed 9.

"I'm great, but I have something to tell you."

"Later, our drone is here, and we have to go now."

"But I'm hungry."

"Hurry up."

Lucy reluctantly put her uniform on and walked out to catch the drone with 9. They clipped their hook to the drone and off they went

There is something quite appealing about Cyclopia but in a weird way. The horizon is not broken by any landmark, mountain, or building. It feels like it goes on forever. It seems that life has left Cyclopia, but Lucy likes that empty feeling. She loves stepping on a pile of wrecked cars to look as far as she can. She would then close her eyes, open her hands wide and let the heat and humidity soak through her pores. She would fill with the energy of the place in a few minutes. In these moments she felt special and unique.

Cyclopia is majestic and grand. There is no wind and although there are some random clouds, it has not rained for the last twenty-seven years. If you stood on top of a pile of gravel or other rubbish you would see the sun rays bouncing off swathes of plastics, steel or glass, which mixed with the radiant heat from the rubber tyres creating mirages. Some days when the sun is high, and the heat pierces your clothes you can see in the shimmering distance water filling the troughs. Cyclopia enthrals you. Day after day it creeps deep into your body and mind like a parasite would. Resisting the attraction to this bare and nauseous landscape is futile. Cyclopia insists on a reciprocated love. The fools that resist never last very long.

Today was one of these days. At 6 am it was a balmy 28 degrees. A normal day for Lucy and 9 was to go into the tunnels to repair robots, add support frames to tunnels and sometimes recover rare metals or valuable metals to recycle.

Rubbish and recycling materials from the planet are sent to Cyclopia and are now treated immediately, but in the past it was just dumped there and very little was salvaged.

To recover rare metals, tunnels are dug, and robots sent to retrieve precious recycling material. Most metals have been mined from the planet and it is now cheaper to recycle everything than mine.

9 turned around to face Lucy "What did you want to tell me?"

"Well, I had the strangest dream."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it wasn't a programmed dream, it felt like my memory was hacked, I dreamt of a little girl who wasn't part of my usual dreams."

"That's weird, you're not supposed to do that. Is your Skilex okay?"

"Yeah, it was scanned and no issue there. Please don't tell anyone, 9."

"Promise," said 9, smiling.

They were flying towards the control centre when suddenly the drone changed its course.

"There's a robot to be repaired in section 14 it's a 5th generation digger stuck in a tunnel," said Zet

Lucy was frustrated. "We don't have our equipment."

"I'll fly it there."

"Bloody section 14," signed 9. "I hate it, it always collapses on you."

"Tell me about it..."

9 and Lucy arrived at Section 14's launchpad. Soon after that their equipment arrived by drone.

Lucy opened a huge circular panel in the ground. She looked down and could see a fifty metre long ladder that led to a maze of tunnels. She knew every single step by heart, but she was always scared to descend in the darkness.

Lucy and 9 started to go down the ladder. It was dark and so humid. Water was dripping and they could barely see anything. After a few minutes they reached the bottom of the ladder. They knew section 14 really well as it was the oldest part of Cyclopia but also the most dangerous. It held the rarest metals.

At the bottom of the ladder was what looked like a big cave, an enormous cave with seven tunnels going in all directions. It was the dispatch area where all the metals were picked up by the robots and then shipped through the main tunnel to section 1.

The place was quite busy with robots digging and shipments being airlifted.

"Zet, can you tell me where the robot is?"

"It's in tunnel 5."

"Tunnel 5 again..."

"Yep."

Tunnel 5 was where Lucy slipped in the well yesterday; she wasn't very keen on going back there.

"Be careful this time," said Zet. "You got lucky yesterday."

9 and Lucy rolled their eyes.

Zet was the only older person in Cyclopia, she was like a mother to everyone, but a mean one. She'd make everyone work super hard. Some say she was a droid, but someone saw her bled after cutting herself. I guess that didn't mean much, some droids had red liquid in them.

The story goes that one day she fell from the ladder in Section 14 and smashed her Skilex so badly that she stayed in hospital for a couple of weeks. After her fall her light went black for a few seconds, but she recovered. Initially she was sent to Fields, but was then sent back to Cyclopia after ten months. They provided her with nice accommodation, but Cyclopia for a lifetime wasn't what she wanted. She was overly dedicated in the hope that one day she could return to Fields or the 7th Quarter.

"Let's go, 9."

"Okay."

They were walking slowly down the tunnel, the lights were off so they were using a torch.

"Bloody rats," said Lucy, kicking and zapping them.

"Apparently they're pretty nice with BBQ sauce," signed 9.

"No sign language, I want to know what's going down there." said Zet.

"Okay, but I hate that voice," said 9 using her computer-generated voice. "I sound like a robot."

"Don't worry about it," Lucy signed in defiance.

"Here's the robot, it's completely stuck in the middle..." signed 9.

The robot was about three metres high and looked like a giant circle. It had teeth to dig a wider hole and to also hold the tunnel. It was normally operated by a droid, but the droid wasn't there. The robot was also on the ground instead of holding the tunnel. You could hear the walls cracking slightly without the robot holding the weight.

"Hey, Zet, the droid is not there, it's weird."

"Find it."

9 and Lucy started to walk slowly down the tunnel, the slope was increasing, this is where Lucy fell yesterday so she was super careful. Suddenly she saw a light shining on the wall.

"The droid must be there," signed 9.

"Let's go, but slowly, I don't want to fall down that well again."

9 and Lucy were walking slowly, and as they turned a corner, they saw a droid right in front of them with its foot stuck under a large beam; it couldn't move.

"Found the droid, Zet, it's stuck under a beam," said 9.

"Chop its foot off, we'll fix it at control centre."

"That's disgusting, I'm not doing that."

"It's a machine, just a machine."

"Urrgghh."

"Just switch it off before you cut through its foot."

9 found the Skilex at the back of the droid's head and switched it off. The light turned black.

9 pulled out her electric saw and started to cut the foot. The flesh looked like human flesh, some red liquid came out, it was disgusting. 9 felt like cutting a human's foot.

A she finished cutting its foot, the droid started to move. The light was blue.

The droid stared at 9 "You cut off my foot"

9 couldn't say anything. The droid got up. It was more than two metres high, it grabbed 9 by the arm and through her a few feet away. It was now holding Lucy, who was trying to zap the droid, but she was too small to get away. The droid was holding Lucy high above ground while walking towards the well.

"I need support, Zet, this droid is going to kill me, CAN SOMEONE HEAR ME?"

Zet could hear Lucy but she wasn't doing anything about it. She was waiting to see how this was going to unfold. The droid shouldn't have gone from a black to a blue light. This was odd. 9 was now waking up, her head was on the ground, and she could see the silhouette of the droid holding Lucy in the air. She could barely move, but Lucy's life was in danger... She got up, grabbed her zapper and set it to the highest voltage, enough for the droid to collapse instantly. The droid was now only a few metres from the well and about to throw Lucy in, when suddenly 9 lunged and zapped the droid. It dropped to its knees, Lucy fell to the ground but started to slip rapidly towards the well.

Lucy was fearing for her life. "NO, NO, NO," she screamed.

She grabbed her ice axe and with all her strength hit the ground.

She stopped her fall, but only momentarily, the rubbish couldn't hold her weight. She was now sliding quite rapidly.

"9, throw me your axe," screamed Lucy.

9 threw her ice axe, Lucy caught it and she was now frantically clambering up the littered slope. As she passed the droid, she saw its light turning to blue again.

Without thinking, she quickly unclipped the droid's Skilex and slid it in her uniform pocket.

"Push the droid, 9, push it."

9 pushed the droid and it fell down the well.

"That should be the end of it," said 9.

"I hope so."

"What happened," said Zet.

"We had to get rid of the droid it had gone mad and tried to kill us," said Lucy.

"Not possible. Come straight back to Control Centre. I'll send another droid to take care of the digger."

Lucy and 9 were now walking back to the surface, up the ladder and back on the drone. They were shaking, this kind of thing had never happened before. They almost lost their lives only weeks away from going to Fields. They were escorted to Control Centre where Zet was waiting. She was the only human there amongst twenty-five or thirty droids who were monitoring each section of Cyclopia. There were large screens, masses of computers, and loud, consistent; background noise, an incredibly hectic atmosphere.

"So, what happened down there?" said Zet.

9 started to sign.

"Stop signing, use your computer."

9 hated Zet at this very moment.

"Well, a droid attacked us, and its light went from black to blue." said Lucy.

"Not possible."

"Yours did, didn't it Zet?" said 9.

Zet was furious. "Who told you that?"

"Everyone knows," said 9.

Zet was furious and angry "Send them to isolation for the night, that'll teach them,"

The droids grabbed Lucy and 9 and threw them to isolation for the night. They were both in different rooms and had to wait alone until the next morning. The rooms were like jail cells, with only a bed, a toilet, bare walls and no windows.

Zet lived in Control Centre. She went through her compact apartment and was now on the balcony. It was a beautiful sunset, there were no clouds, the sky as blue as a Lapis Lazuli rock seemed to extend itself to outer space, slowly pressing down, it was almost touching the ground.

Zet looked as far as she could as if she was capable of seeing further than the horizon. On hot days when the heat blurred the horizon, she convinced herself that she could see the first hills of Fields. The sun's rays were still stinging, and the heat was lingering, even though the sun was close to the horizon; like a volcano about to expel its last lava blow. In only a few moments, Venus would appear signalling Antares, the Southern Cross and the Milky Way to shine and light up the profoundly dark Cyclopian nights.

A tear ran down her cheek and a few goose bumps appeared on her arm. Zet panicked and looked around, luckily no one saw this. The Skilex was supposed to remove deep emotions so people didn't get attached and also didn't ask too many questions or rebel against 7th Quarter.

The first time she saw her goose bumps was after her fall in section 14. She hid her secret easily on Cyclopia because everyone wears a uniform or protective gear. But the day she gave birth in Fields, the droid nurse saw the goose bumps and reported her. The 7th Quarter didn't want people with malfunctioning Skilex in Fields or in the 7th Quarter so as soon as she gave birth to her twin daughters, she was sent back to Cyclopia. She wasn't even given the time to hold them. Even though the girls were not identical twins, they had the same birth marks between one of their toes. Zet thought about them every single day and cried every single day. Being able to feel that much emotion was a gift because she felt alive. But sometimes she wished she could be numb again. She wished her Skilex functioned properly.

It was now almost 11pm and time for sleep. She programmed her favourite dream and scheduled to be woken up by 5am, just before sunrise, in preparation for another long day. Zet's favourite dream was simply her playing with her kids, the two young daughters that she never got to hold.

A few floors below, underground, Lucy and 9 were sleeping and Lucy was convulsing again, arching, screaming. She could see a little clearer who was in her dream, but not clear enough to work out who it was. She started panicking and wondering what was happening. She didn't want to stay on Cyclopia for the rest of her life like Zet. It was 3am and couldn't go back to sleep. She was inside a glass capsule and couldn't reach the sleep programmer. She was wondering where 9 was and if she was okay. They were born a week apart and grew up together. They became really good friends, always trying to do work together in Fields. Their mums also got along well. In two weeks, they would finally go back to Fields and have a child of their own. Just one though.

Lucy and 9 couldn't wait for this. They remembered how cute the kids were and how much fun the family was in Fields. They couldn't wait...

She heard the door slide and pretended to wake up.

A droid came in.

"Lucy, get ready to go to work."

The glass capsule opened. Lucy was exhausted; she had not slept because of the weird dream. She got dressed and went out into the hall. She saw 9 standing outside here room. She looked tired and distracted.

"Hey, 9, are you ready?"

9 yawned. "Yep, although I'd rather go home and have a nap."

"I had another one of those dreams."

9 signed, "Must be your fall the other day, it will go away surely."

Zet came from behind.

"What weird dream?"

"Oh, I just programmed something different for a change."

"Okay now, today you'll be introduced to what you need to do in Fields"

9 switched on her computer voice. "I am so excited, I can't wait."

Then without any warning Zet pushed 9 back in her isolation room and closed the glass door. 9 fell back on the floor.

Zet signed to her, "You're not going anywhere, you're staying here."

9 stood up and started to bang on the door. She was screaming, yelling.

Lucy tried to hit Zet, but a droid was holding her. She was shouting and gesticulating. She was desperate, her best friend wasn't coming with her.

Lucy was screaming. "Why can't she come?"

Zet signed, "She'll be a danger for everyone, she can't speak."

"But I'll use my computer voice," signed 9 desperately.

9 was now on her knees as if the world had collapsed. What would she do in Cyclopia for her whole life...

Zet started to walk away but turned her head. "That's my final decision. Lucy, go upstairs and get ready, we're leaving tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

The droids dragged her to the drone station. She clipped herself to the drone, the drone took off. This was the last time she'd see Cyclopia. She was distraught because her friend was not coming, but excited to go to a better place. As she was looking out across Cyclopia, she felt something weird under her uniform. She pulled up her shirt sleeve and could see goose bumps on her arms. She panicked. She had to be careful from now on.

The drone turned west instead of going to her house.

"Where are we going?"

"To the holding camp," said the drone.

"But I haven't said goodbye to anyone. To my house drone! TO MY HOUSE."

"Route can't be overridden; final destination is the holding camp."

The drone flew another fifteen minutes. Lucy could now see the holding camp. There were about fifty to one hundred drones flying from every direction to the holding camp. From there, the Cyclopians would go to Fields where they would be split again. This should have been a happy day for Lucy but not going with her best friend 9 was devastating.

The drone had arrived, and Lucy was hoisted down. On touching down, she was directed by droids to the main holding area. There were hundreds of people just waiting. She didn't know anyone. No one from her village was there. The holding camp was in the middle of a desert. A couple of hills were breaking the horizon and maybe half a dozen small bushes had survived. It was windy and the red dust mixed with the sweat created some kind of thin crust of mud on your skin. You either fought the heat or, like Lucy, just learned to surrender to it. The hot north wind had shaped her and maybe this explained her calmness that day. Even though she was losing her friend, she had a nagging feeling that things would get better.

The holding camp looked like a gigantic airport, with drones flying everywhere and cars and buses going from one place to another; the place was loud and hectic. Lucy had not had a chance to get changed. The sun was blasting, she was feeling very hot, very sweaty in her uniform, but she was too scared to remove her long sleeves just in case her goose bumps showed.

She was walking slowly in the middle of a group of about one hundred other women. Everyone was about the same age, all looking forward for a better life in Fields. The droids were directing the group to a large rectangle on the ground.

"Stay still," said a few droids in unison.

A loud beep beep sounded and then an alarm started. The ground started to move. The rectangle they were on started to move down like an elevator. Lucy looked up, and she could see Cyclopia's blue sky, maybe the last time she'd see it. The elevator was now going faster, it felt cooler, the sky was now just a little dot, it was so dark.

The elevator slowed down, and a large door opened, another loud alarm pierced the air and the droid started to push everyone out to a large room. The place looked like a gigantic cave, with blistering lights, beeps and alarms and people yelling, screaming, shouting and murmuring. People were pushing each other; some were falling it was chaotic mess. Suddenly someone came out onto the balcony and yelled, "Silence," through a microphone. Lucy recognised the voice; it was Zet.

"Silence," screamed Zet again.

Next to Zet was 9. Lucy's heart started to beat faster; 9 was too far for her to see Lucy.

"You will depart to Fields tomorrow at 6am. People on the left go to tunnel 5. People on the right go to tunnel 2"

Zet left and behind her 9, turned back momentarily and waved towards Lucy.

Lucy pulled her sleeve down again. Lucy went down tunnel 2 which led to a large canteen where a few hundred people were gathering.

"Lucy, Lucy."

Lucy turned around but couldn't work out where the voice was coming from.

"Lucy, Lucy, behind you."

It was Tegan and Isa. They gave each other a big hug. It was so good to see people she knew. They all sat together to eat dinner.

"I'm so excited, no more digging rubbish, it's like going back home really," said Tegan.

"Apparently there's boys there too," Isa said enthusiastically.

Lucy responded with an emphatic, "Whatever," rolling her eyes.

"Is 9 with you, Lucy?" asked Tegan.

"Nope."

"Is she coming soon? She's our age, isn't she?"

"She's staying here because she can't speak," said Lucy.

"WHAT?" yelled Tegan and Isa.

"SShhhh... Zet said that she couldn't go, she'd be a risk to others if she couldn't speak."

"That is so sad," said Tegan.

A loud voice came through the speaker. "Dinner is over. Go to your quarters through tunnel 4. I repeat, go to your quarters though tunnel 4."

"Woohoo, our last night in rubbish land," said Isa.

The three girls took their trays to the bins and slowly made their way through tunnel 4. It was about a hundred metre walk to the dormitory. Each girl was assigned a bed.

A voice through the speaker said, "You have fifteen minutes to get ready and set your dream, fifteen minutes. Wake up time is 5am. I repeat, fifteen minutes to get ready and set your dream, wake up time is 5am." The voice sounded a lot like Zet's.

"Skilex, set my dream and wake up time to 5am," said Lucy.

She could see all her different dream options, but didn't pick Iguazu falls as she was scared that it would bring up that weird dream she had the other night. She thought the Greek Island dream looked safe. She said, "Greek island," lay down and closed her eyes. While she was waiting for her sleep to kick in, she was thinking about 9 and how she was going to miss her.

They'd known each other since childhood and lived together in Cyclopia. A tear drop was running down Lucy's cheek. It was dark in the dormitory so no one could see it, so she let it run. She loved that she could let her emotions run free without fear. She felt lightness entering her body. She rolled onto her side and closed her eyes.

"Hey, 9, let's go to the playground."

"Okay, I'm going on the swings," said 9 loudly.

"I'll push you," said a little girl.

"Yeah, as high as you can, up to the sky," screamed 9.

"To the moon and back."

Both girls laughed.

9 was now on the swing and going quite high.

"Higher, higher."

"Is this high enough?" said the little girl.

"That's good," said 9.

But the little girl was pushing higher.

"Stop, I'm scared," said 9.

She was pushing even harder.

"STOOOPPP," 9 was yelling.

The little girl pushed one more time, and 9 flew from the swing, hitting her head on the monkey bars a couple of meters away. 9 was unconscious.

The little girl was shaking 9 to revive her, but nothing was happening. After a few moments of panic the little girl decided to seek help. She was now running through the forest to her village.

"Mum, Mum, Mum," yelled the little girl.

"What's happening?" said the mum.

"9 fell off the monkey bars and she's not moving."

They were now running back through the forest to the playground. The mum looked at 9's Skilex and the light was purple.

"It's fine, I'll call a drone, and she'll be transferred to the hospital." said the mum.

While she was calling the drone, 9 opened her eyes, she was trying to speak, but nothing was coming out of her mouth.

"Can you speak?" said the mum.

9 tried again but again nothing.

9 started to become agitated, she was trying to scream but only managed to produce a faint sound.

The little girl said to 9, "You fell from the monkey bars, 9."

9 seemed surprised.

The drone arrived, the mum and 9 hopped in.

"Now go back home," said the mum to the little girl.

"You did a great job, Lucy," said the mum.

Lucy suddenly gasped. She arched on her bed and screamed. She looked around. A couple of girls moved in their beds, but no one woke up. She was distressed and panicked. She just realised that she was the little girl who pushed 9 and it was her fault that 9 couldn't speak. She wished she could fix it. It was 4.57am, she had three minutes to calm down.

Lucy was breathing heavily; she was sweaty and shaking. She couldn't believe that she had hurt her best friend.

It was now 5am, the lights came on, and everyone got up and got ready with a big smile.

This was the day they were waiting for.

"Proceed to the exit tunnel, go through security and get on your plane," said a voice through the speakers. Everyone was unusually calm and disciplined. There were a few people ahead of Lucy. She could see Isa and Tegan in the distance, but Lucy wanted to stay on her own. She was trying to behave normally and not be the centre of attention.

It was time to go through security. The droids were there watching on to make sure everything was going smoothly. Everyone was scanned as they were walking towards the boarding gate. People's faces and names were appearing on multiple screens as they were going through security. As Lucy was passing through, her name flashed in red and a loud alarm rang. Lucy jumped, surprised that she couldn't pass security. All kinds of thoughts were going through her head. What if they know about my dreams or my goose bumps or that I pushed 9? Her heart was racing. Four droids grabbed her and escorted her to a separate room.

In that room was Zet and 9.

Zet was seething. "You better be quick; you have two minutes."

She left the room and left 9 and Lucy on their own. The droids left.The girls hugged each other, a tear ran down Lucy's cheek. She was about to remove it when she saw a tear on 9's cheek, they lift each other's sleave and both had goose bumps, they laughed.

"I had that dream again," signed Lucy.

9 put her finger on Lucy's lips and said. "Sshhh."

But Lucy had to tell 9. She couldn't leave with the thought of what she'd done.

"I had that dream again and I pushed you. I pushed you on the swing and you hurt your head on the monkey bars because of me. That's why you can't talk," signed Lucy.

"I know," signed 9.

"How do you know?" said Lucy loudly.

"I had the same dream as you, Lucy."

"When?"

"A few years ago," signed 9.

"And you said nothing, why?"

"Nothing could be changed, and I didn't want to hurt you. I love you too much, you're like a sister to me," signed 9.

"You're like a sister to me too," signed Lucy.

Zet came in. "It's time for you to go, Lucy. Goodbyes are over."

They hugged each other one more time. Lucy left to board the plane, and 9 went back with Zet.

Tegan and Isa were on the plane looking concerned.

"What happened?"

Lucy shrugged and avoided eye contact. "Oh, just a glitch."

Fields

Everyone was now seated and fully secured. It wouldn't be a long trip to Fields. The plane would go into the mesosphere and get to Fields in four hours. The engineers were now able to harness the power of the sun to fly anything from the smallest drone to large rockets. Lucy had a seat by the window, sitting next To Tegan and Isa; they were both chatty, talking about their new life in Fields. Lucy could see the blue of their planet. Both poles were now blue too. The ice had completely melted, and some parts of the planet were in a permanent state of cyclones making them unhabitable. Lucy had an eerie feeling watching how the planet had changed from a flourishing ecosystem to a planet that had been flensed by previous generations. Some cities had been submerged underwater, while others had been protected by using large walls. Everyone had to adapt to this new climate and live in new places, eat different foods, learn to be more caring and share what was left. People were forced from their countries to start new lives on other parts of the planet. Fields was the only suitable location to grow food. Cyclopia and the 7th Quarter were the only other areas of the planet deemed habitable.

To keep the population under control the government decided that women could only have one child, and as life was quite harsh, people were only living until they were about sixty-five.

Tegan and Isa were peppy about going to live in Fields, they were also excited about having a child. Fields was quite a large area where crops and trees were grown. It produced enough food for the planet. It was also where kids were raised before going to Cyclopia.

Lucy had some memories of her childhood. She was really looking forward to having a kid of her own.

The plane was now flying over Fields. The three girls hoped to be sent to the Pine district where they grew up. This is where trees were grown. The work wasn't too hard there. The climate was perfect, the air was pure, but most of all it would be a nice place to raise their kids.

The plane was passing over large fields of cereals, fruit trees, grapes, and vegetables. Lucy noticed a small village that was plain against the crest of a hill. Oriented to the south, they would feel the warmth of the winter sun. It had meandering streets, and what seemed like a village square in the middle where a market was taking place.

This part of the planet was so beautiful. So diverse in its shapes and its colours. Hills led to plains that were irrigated by rich rivers. Large rectangles made by cereal crops neighboured flowering apple and pear trees while the yellow of a canola fields contrasted with the green of lettuce fields. Some areas that used to be barren and cold were now habitable and fertile. After half an hour of flying over the northern side of the Crop district, the landscape started to spark childhood memories for Lucy, Teagan, and Isa. They knew that beyond the mountain range ahead was a sea of green, much larger than what once was the Amazon. The airport was at the foot of the mountains on the other side and it was not long before the plane landed. Everyone was now exiting the plane onto the tarmac. There were a few robots there to escort people to a dispatching area.

"I'm so happy to be back here," said Tegan.

"Me too," said Isa.

Lucy was quiet. She was still thinking about 9; she hoped one day she'd see her again.

Another plane arrived from Cyclopia, full of boys. It was the first time the girls had seen boys since they left Fields fifteen years or so ago, but there was not much excitement on either side as the Skilex was regulating their hormones, their memories, and in essence their emotions. It was more a sense of curiosity than anything else, that they might possibly see some of their childhood friends.

Tegan was high spirited. "Aren't you happy to be here, Lucy?"

Lucy didn't respond.

"Lucy?"

Lucy was in a sullen mood. "Mmmm...what?"

"We are in the Pine district, aren't you happy to be here?"

"Yes I am."

"Well, it doesn't look like it."

Isa was up on her toes, trying to see above the crowd. "Look, I think I can see Callum and Peter."

"Where?" said Lucy.

"Just to the right of the group."

Tegan couldn't recognise anyone. It had been fifteen years since she'd seen them, but she could recognise Callum's very red hair and Peter's very curly black hair. "Yes, it's them."

Tegan was waving at Callum and Peter, and they responded. But they seemed confused.

They grew up together and were good friends, so it was nice to see familiar faces. Hopefully they would be in the same village.

The groups were now boarding a train to get to their village. It would be another couple of hours before they reached their destination. They had been on this train once, but to go to Cyclopia. This trip would be far more enjoyable. The three girls sat next to each other. The seats were quite comfortable. You could easily see the landscape and when you looked up, you could admire the blue sky above. The train was like one giant window, made entirely of glass like material. A flock of birds flew above the train and started to follow it, as if they were playing with the train.

"Look over there," exclaimed Lucy.

"Where?" said Tegan and Isa.

"The deer, over there."

"They are so beautiful," said Isa.

They were now crossing a wildlife park, where many species had been saved from extinction. Unfortunately, only a minority had survived. Most species had disappeared; including the koala, the beluga, the polar bear, the elephant and the rhinoceros.

Some of the girls and boys would be stopping at the beginning of the District but some would go further. The train could travel for hours before it reached the other side. It was larger than Cyclopia for sure.

The train stopped. Isa, Tegan, and Lucy were holding their breath; they didn't want to go any further, as the further you went, the colder it got and most of all, they grew up in the Southern part of the Pine district. The front carriage door stayed shut, ready to go further into the Pine district, the back carriage's door opened. The girls were holding hands, filled with trepidation.

"Come on, come on, open the door," murmured Lucy between her teeth.

The girls were in the middle of the train in carriage 7, waiting and waiting.

They could now hear a vacuum like sound coming from the door. The door started to move and was now slowly sliding.

"Carriage 6, 7 and 8, please wait for further instruction," said a voice through the speakers.

"What's happening?" said Isa.

Both Tegan and Lucy turned around and rolled their eyes at her. Isa could sometimes be annoying.

"Carriage 6, 7, and 8, you can exit the train."

"Finally," said Lucy.

Everyone got out, there were about a two hundred people standing outside.

Lucy looked up and all she could see were the tips of the pine trees. The trees were at least three hundred years old, towering at more than seventy meters high. There was a light wind, so the tip of the trees was oscillating slightly like the wings of an Albatross. Lucy took a deep breath and could smell that humid forest smell after the rain. It had something quite comforting and quite reassuring about it. She pulled her sleeves up, a shiver was going down her spine, and she had goose bumps all over her body, she was home. The group was split in two and everyone was now walking through the forest towards the village. The path wound through a couple of hills before getting to a small bridge over a river where a few kids were playing. This brought a smile to Lucy's face. She waved to the kids and they waved back. She moved her red hair from her face and pulled it back in a lose bun; the wind had picked up. The group turned a bend and you could see a few large homes not too far away. Lucy was the last of the group, while Tegan and Isa were at the front walking quite fast. Just after the bend, Lucy saw another group of kids playing in the distance. She stopped and started to breathe faster and faster, she was panicking. This was the playground where 9 and Lucy played. This is where she pushed her. She started to feel dizzy, so she dropped to her knees and tried to calm down.

Tegan and Isa couldn't see Lucy and were now wondering where she was.

"LUUCCCYY."

"LUUCCYY."

"I hope she's okay. Let's check that she's fine," suggested Tegan.

Tegan and Isa were now running towards Lucy.

"Are you okay?" said Isa.

"Yes, I just feel dizzy," replied Lucy.

"Do you want us to get a doctor?" suggested Tegan.

"No, I'm alright, it has been a long twenty-four hours and I just remembered that 9 and I used to play there when we were kids, so..."

"Let's have a lie down, we deserve it," said Isa.

The three girls lay on the ground, their heads were touching each other, looking up towards the sky.

A family of squirrels was going from branch to branch and a woodpecker was digging its nest. They lay there for about five minutes without a word, breathing slowly, absorbing every single atom of the forest, anchoring their roots in the soil. They thought that despite the gigantic task that restoring the planet's environment was, they had to maintain the hope that one day they would build a better world. Being responsible for your future was not an option, but an obligation.

Lucy had a few leaves stuck to her clothes. She also had bits of wet bark on her skin. She loved that feeling; as if she was one with the trees, the soil and nature.

Lucy brushed herself off. "I think we'd better go. They might think we've escaped."

"Last to get to the meeting point cooks dinner," said Isa.

Isa, Tegan, and Lucy started to run. Isa was the fastest, Lucy arriving dead last.

They arrived just in time as their names were called.

The three girls were assigned to house 7. These were large homes split in four levels with three dorms levels, one for the boys, one for the kids, and one for the girls plus a common living area where people would cook, rest, and socialise. The home could fit more or less eighty people. There were already a few people in house 7. They had finished work that day and were getting dinner ready. Lucy, Tegan, and Isa checked out a big board where all the chores were dispatched. Lucy was on cooking with Peter. Tegan and Isa had to go out to get all the kids back home in time for dinner.

Everyone got together for dinner around several tables in the large common area. People were talking about life on Cyclopia, life in Fields and the future in the 7th Quarter. Some women were pregnant and were due to give birth soon. Some kids were due to go to Cyclopia in the next few days too and parents would then go to 7th Quarter. The atmosphere was quite jovial and people seemed happy. It was time to go to bed, everyone set up their dreams on their Skilex. Lucy was anxious as usual about going to sleep. She was scared about that dream again.

Lucy woke up, it was 5.30am; her night went well and no scary dreams this time. She figured that talking about what happened with 9 cleared her mind.

She had to prepare breakfast for everyone else. It was not completely dark in the dorm. The moon was shining through the windows and Lucy could see enough that she didn't need a torch. She was tip toeing through the dorm and was now going down the stairs. The steps were cracking slightly; some loudly, some softly.

Hopefully she would not wake anyone. She was now in the lounge area and could see properly as the moon was shining through the large, glass sliding doors. She opened the door to go outside. She could only hear the trees soughing and a few birds singing. On the horizon she could see the colours starting to change. The darkness of the night was changing to lighter shades of blue and stars were disappearing. In a few minutes only Venus would be visible. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, she felt a caressing breeze on her arms, her face, and her hair. At this very moment she felt alive.

"Isn't this beautiful?" said Poppy in a contemplative voice.

"Oh, you scared me."

Poppy smiled. Poppy was in her fifties and had always lived in the Pine district. She was one of many men and women that had been chosen to look after each house. She made sure that everything ran properly, that people did their chores and went to work. She was house 7's grandma.

"Yes, it is stunning. I love mornings, everything is so peaceful and calm. I love watching the colours change softly. Time seems to stop."

Poppy nodded. "Shall we start breakfast?"

"Oh yes, it's almost 6am, we're going to be late," said Lucy.

Peter had already started cooking the largest pan of scrambled eggs ever. Lucy was slicing the bread and Poppy was squeezing some oranges. Everyone would be up at 6.30 to go to work at 7am. It was the same routine every day.

Tegan and Isa were already awake and started to give a hand to set the tables.

"I am so excited to go to work today," said Isa.

"What's your work today?" Tegan said.

"I am flying a drone to check if there are any fallen or damage trees in the forest."

Isa had her arms out pretending to pilot a plane. "Me too. Maybe we can race our drones. that'll be fun."

Tegan frowned. "I don't want to get in trouble."

"Don't worry. No one will know," Isa said cheekily.

Through the speakers Lucy's voice could be heard. "Breakfast is ready, please come down to the dining room."

Everyone was now having breakfast. A lovely brouhaha could be heard. Poppy was in the kitchen overlooking the dining area. She was smiling. Lucy came from behind Poppy and was now standing beside her. She looked at Poppy gazing at the dining room. Poppy was so absorbed by the moment that she didn't see Lucy.

Lucy looked down and saw that Poppy's arm was covered in goose bumps. She immediately looked up, acted as if she didn't see anything and asked Poppy, "Where do I put the leftover bread?"

Poppy jumped and pulled her sleeve down. "Just in that bottom drawer, Lucy."

"Thank you, Poppy." Lucy smiled. Lucy put the bread away and gazed outside through the large, glass window.

Lucy could now understand why she felt a connection with Poppy; she was one of them. But how many of them were there? She didn't know. But one thing for sure was that she was not going to share it with Poppy or anyone else. She felt lonely in that moment. She felt different but couldn't share her difference in fear of repercussions. She was just going to enjoy that difference and keep that inner joy for herself. Lucy breathed heavily and went upstairs to get changed. It was now time to go to work.

Everyone was going through a body scanner to get their Skilex uploaded with the skills necessary to work that day.

Lucy was going to cut down any fallen or damaged trees that had been found by Tegan and Isa. That should be fun. Lucy had to ride some kind of large quad motorbike to find and divide the trees. Robots would then drag them to a place where drone would pick them up. It was quite a physical job, which Lucy liked.

Tegan and Isa were all suited up and looked like fighter jet pilots. It would be a fun day up there flying their drones. They hopped on the drones, did the checklist and took off vertically. They felt like they had done this their whole life, The Skilex was connecting to their brain and telling the brain what to do. It was like a second brain really.

Tegan and Isa had taken off and were at the same level at about one hundred meters above the ground. They were waiting for the go ahead from the ground tower. The drones were the size of a small helicopter. They used the planet's magnetic field and also had an electric engine for propulsion. They could break the sound barrier, but they didn't need to go that fast today.

"You're good to go, Tegan and Isa. Just head north at five hundred feet. Your flight plan has been uploaded. Just stick to it. Your batteries can be changed during lunch at the drone port A5. Have a great day."

"Okay tower."

"Let's go, Isa, on the count of three, ready one...."

"I'm not ready, just wait."

"Is everything okay?"

"Yes, ready now, was it on the count of three?"

"Yes, one, two..."

Tegan was counting two, but Isa took off. The acceleration was phenomenal, nothing like the drones on Cyclopia.

"You cheated!" exclaimed Tegan.

"I can't hear you," said Isa with a big smile.

Isa was now going at about 800 kmh.

"Isa, this is tower, your speed should not exceed 100kmh for you to spot trees, please slowdown."

"I can't hear you," responded Isa.

"This is tower, slow down your drone."

"Still can't hear you."

The drone suddenly slowed, and Isa was almost thrown out of her seat.

"What the heck?"

"Isa, this is tower, your drone has now been capped at 100kmh."

"WHAT??"

"Next time don't go that fast."

"Hahahaha." Tegan was laughing as she was passing Isa doing 110kmh.

"Yeah that's funny," grumbled Isa.

The two girls were now flying over the forest. There were pine trees as far as the eye could see and beyond the mountains was the Agriculture district.

Below were workers; some were planting trees and others were cutting trees. The wood was used in buildings and also as mulch or to make biochar. Trees were not burnt as it released greenhouse gases. Any activity that released greenhouse gases had been banned. Only solar and wind energy were allowed on the planet. The air was getting cleaner year by year but there was still a long way to go to get back to good air quality.

Tegan and Isa were now hovering over the forest and could spot a couple of damaged trees that had fallen down.

"Lucy, do you copy?" said Isa.

"Yes, copy," answered Lucy.

"There are a few damaged trees in section B7."

"Okay, roger that. I'll head to B7."

Lucy was on her large quad. The tyres were as tall as her. It looked like a big truck with a small saddle on top and was powerful enough to tow large trees. Lucy was having fun...

A group of three quads arrived at section B7. There were about four large pine trees damaged. One old tree had fallen and taken three others with it. The group took large chainsaws and started chopping the tree into ten-meter chunks. Lucy pulled out a chain and with the help of the group she aligned the pieces of wood ready to be airlifted.

"Tower this is Lucy, can you send drones to pick up the trees?"

"Roger that, Lucy, sending them now."

Within a couple of minutes drones were hovering over section B7. Lucy tied the chains to the cable that was coming down from the drone.

"Drone C66, you can now lift," said Lucy.

The drone was now lifting the chunks and taking them to the factory to be processed. Lucy would be there for the next couple of hours doing this, pretty much until midday.

At lunchtime, the ground and air crew headed to B7 to recharge drones and quads. The crews plugged in their equipment. It would take just a few minutes to charge them. There was a large trunk as wide as a table on the side of the B7 landing strip and both crews sat around the trunk to eat. After a short break the crew kept on working for the rest of the day and then went back to House 7 around 4pm. Lucy got there a little earlier to help with diner. Poppy was there.

"Hi, Lucy. How was your day?"

"Pretty good. I loved riding those big quads. They are so much fun."

"Yeah, I loved riding them too, but drones were my favourite. I could fly for hours and watch the landscape for hours, I never got sick of it. I felt alive up there."

Lucy could relate to what Poppy had to say. "I can't wait to do that too," she said. "So, do you get to go back on the drones at all now?" enquired Lucy

"No," Poppy answered, showing Lucy a large scar behind her ear.

"I had an accident. There was a bug in the code when they uploaded it to my Skilex, and I had to engage the eject seat. The drone crashed, my parachute didn't open properly, and I landed badly. I went to the hospital and they realised that my Skilex had been damaged. They saw that I had goose bumps and couldn't contain my emotions, so they kept me here."

While Poppy was telling her stories, Lucy felt butterflies in her stomach, adrenaline was pumping through her legs and she felt a tear slowly reaching the side of her eyes. She also felt goose bumps, and her heart was racing. Lucy didn't care, she felt that she could trust Poppy. Poppy slowly wiped Lucy's tear with her thumb and looked her in the eyes.

"I won't say anything, I promise, but it's going to be hard to hide. Always wear long sleeves, that's all. When did this happen? "

"I fell like you and believe I damaged my Skilex, but it wasn't detected at the hospital."

"That happens, there are a few of us out there but the government at the 7th Quarter won't allow us to move there."

"Why?" said Lucy.

"They are scared of something, but I'm not too sure what?" whispered Poppy.

Tegan and Isa ran into the kitchen.

"Is dinner ready, we're starving."

"Yeah it's coming," replied Lucy.

Isa grabbed Lucy's arm and dragged her out of the kitchen.

Poppy smiled. "You can go, I'll finish."

Isa was excited. "So, I was flying at 800 kmh."

"And the tower stopped you, hahaha."

"How do you know?"

Tegan and Lucy winked at each other.

Isa slapped Tegan gently. These three definitely felt at home. They went to the board to check what they were doing the next day. Tegan and Isa were back flying, but Lucy and a few others were scheduled to go to the hospital. Apparently, it was just a routine check, but Lucy was freaking out because of her Skilex. Tegan, Isa, and Lucy sat together for dinner and although a few other members of house 7 were having dinner with them, they kept on talking to each other.

The night went smoothly, no bad dreams to report. Lucy got up at 5.30am as usual.

It was raining that morning. Quite a few girls and boys were waiting at the drone port. About fifty of them were getting ready to fly to the hospital.

"Are you suffering from anything?" said Lucy to a girl she didn't know.

"No, why? Are you? Do you know why we are going there?"

Lucy shrugged her shoulders "I'm not sick and I have no idea why we're going there."

"My friend went yesterday, and she said that they inseminated her to get pregnant."

"WHAT? But I don't know any of these guys," said Lucy in a panicked voice.

"Don't worry there's no contact."

Lucy was confused. "No contact? What do you mean?"

"It is now boarding time. Get to your seat and fasten your seatbelt," said a voice through the speaker.

"You'll see. It's no big deal," said the girl.

"What's your name?"

"I'm Cel."

"Lucy."

They arrived at the hospital; it was quite small. Only accidents and injuries were treated there. The human DNA had been modified and no one died from cancer or any other illness. Modified DNA had its advantages, but also some disadvantages, especially at the start of the experiments many years ago. Many babies were born with certain deformities or mental instabilities or lived only to their thirties. But things were now in order it seemed... The boys went to the right of the hospital and the girls to the left.

Lucy was freaking out. She didn't know what was going on.

A nurse called out to Lucy, "Hey, young lady, come over here."

"Who, me?"

The nurse rolled her eyes. "Yes, you."

"What's happening?"

"It is super simple; remove all your clothes, have a shower, and wear this gown. I'll meet you on the other side."

Lucy was impatient. "And after?"

"I'll explain on the other side."

Lucy was wondering why no one had explained to her what was happening. Maybe she didn't upload her Skilex or missed some info. It took her five seconds to take off all her clothes and ten seconds to have her shower. She then put on her gown and was out the other side pretty swiftly.

She found herself alone in a room big as a bedroom. It was bright white and had a chair that looked like a dentist's chair. The nurse came in and asked Lucy to sit on it.

The nurse started to explain the process, "The boys are here to donate their sperm. It will then be mixed, and its DNA will be changed to avoid any malformation, cancer, disease, etc... Also, you are not going to receive sperm from one of the boys that are currently here. You will receive older sperm that has been frozen, and you will have one child only."

"How is it inseminated, and why just one child?"

"You will go under a quick anaesthesia and the needle will go through your belly and inseminate you. Very simple. As for the one child thing; it is 7th Quarter policy. There are too many of us on the planet."

The needle was quite thin and about 20cm long. Lucy did not like needles.

The nurse put a mask on Lucy's face and after three seconds she was out.

After a couple of minutes Lucy woke up, feeling fine. "Is it finished?"

"Yes, that's it. You'll come back in a month to see how you're going."

After a month Lucy went back to the hospital. She had not felt any changes in her body like the other girls had.

She took the drone and sat next to Cel again. "Hey, Cel, how are you? I haven't seen you for a month or so..."

"I'm feeling fine apart from the vomiting and the nausea, "What about you?"

"Me? Nothing whatsoever."

"Yeah, that happens, some girls don't even feel they are going through pregnancy so you must be one of them."

Lucy smiled from one side of her mouth with her lips tight and nodded.

"Yeah, I must be one of them."

The drone arrived and everyone knew the drill; off to get changed and have a shower.

Lucy weirdly liked it there. it was a little bit quieter and more peaceful; she had her own space, and someone looked after her. Back in House 7 it was too busy for her, too many people. She was lucky Poppy was there. She could talk to her and she understood her; they were good friends.

Lucy walked into the room, the same room that she had walked in a month ago. She sat in the chair; it was comfortable. She closed her eyes and listened to the silence; she was nervous. What if she couldn't get pregnant? What would happen? Would she be sent back to Cyclopia?

Would she stay in Fields? Her heart was starting to race so she tried to clear her mind and to breathe slowly just to calm herself down. She now could hear footsteps coming down the corridor. They were approaching fast. Lucy opened her eyes, put her sleeves down and sat up.

The nurse arrived in the room.

"Good morning Lucy, how are you?"

"Pretty good, but I haven't felt any changes in my body over the last month."

"Yeah that happens. Let's go to the scanner."

Lucy lay down in the scanner. A thick bar as wide as her passed above her body. After a few seconds the nurse told her to get up. She walked towards the computer to have a look at the results.

"So, Lucy, you are not pregnant."

Lucy was panicking.

"What is going to happen then?"

"I'm going to check your DNA for any possible error in the sequencing."

"And then?"

"If there's an error in the DNA, usually you are sent to the 7th Quarter, otherwise we'll try one more time."

"Is the DNA often faulty?"

"Yes, our DNA is not 100% perfect, there are still people who have small defects, but let me take a hair sample that won't hurt."

The nurse took a hair sample and inserted it in a machine.

"How long will it take?"

"Just a minute or two."

Lucy was wiggling on her chair. Every second felt like hours. The screen connected to the machine started to pour out results; some were in green writing some in orange or red.

"So, the results are in."

"And..."

"It looks like there's an error in your DNA and you won't be able to fall pregnant."

Lucy froze and couldn't say a word.

"So, Lucy, what I have to do now is file a report. You will go back to House 7 and tomorrow you will move back to Cyclopia or to the 7th Quarter."

Lucy was in shock. "I don't want to go back to Cyclopia, it's horrible there."

The nurse in an understanding voice agreed, "I know but I don't make decisions here. Get dressed and get back to the drone."

Lucy stood up and went to the dressing room to get changed. What would she say to her friends, to everyone back at House 7? What if she went back to Cyclopia? She could see 9 again, but she couldn't stand the smell and the landscape. Anything was better than that.

Lucy was out quite quickly. No other girls had finished their appointment. She hopped on an empty drone to go back to House 7.

On the way she was thinking about what to say to everyone. Saying the truth or lying? If she was to say the truth it would be too emotional, she couldn't deal with all the goodbyes and hugs and goose bumps. If she was to lie, she could enjoy the last day as normal and not have to deal with all the emotional stuff.

Lucy arrived during lunch time at House 7. A few people were there, some eating lunch, some working outside; Lucy was walking towards the house when she heard.

"Lucy, Lucy, how did it go?" It was Tegan and Isa. They were on farming duties when they saw Lucy landing.

"Pretty good," said Lucy.

"What do you mean pretty good?"

"Well, I am actually pregnant."

All three girls were yelling pretty loudly and jumping at the same time, especially Isa.

Lucy stopped. "What about you two, when are you going to the hospital?"

Isa rolled her eyes. "Apparently, it's next week, but they have cancelled twice already. But hey, no complaining because once you're pregnant, no more playing with drones."

All three laughed loudly.

"We better get back to work, Tegan."

"See you later, Lucy."

The two ran off to farming duties, and Lucy was now walking back to House 7.

Poppy was inside preparing food for dinner, a couple of boys were cleaning and setting up tables, everything looked normal. Lucy didn't want to talk to Poppy, it was too hard. She started to hurry towards the stairs, avoiding eye contact with Poppy. Poppy saw Lucy though.

"Lucy!"

Lucy had only climbed a couple of steps; she thought she'd avoided Poppy, but she hadn't.

"Yes, Poppy?"

Lucy climbed down a couple of steps, walked towards Poppy and gave her a big hug. They both said nothing. It lasted about ten seconds. Lucy then stopped the hug and went back upstairs saying nothing. At that moment Poppy knew that a good friend of hers would leave soon.

The evening went well. Lucy didn't speak much. Isa did the entertainment as usual. Tegan and Cel were also at the table with a couple of boys and girls. Everyone was laughing. Cel was sitting next to Lucy, she put her hand under the table and grabbed Lucy's hand. She squeezed it gently and looked at Lucy with a soft smile. Lucy replied with a smile too. Maybe Cel knew, maybe she didn't, but it didn't matter, this was such a nice evening. Her last evening with her friends.

It was now late and time to pack up, clean, and go to bed. Lucy set up her wake-up time to 5am just in case they came early to get her and so she could enjoy one more sunrise.

Lucy had nothing to bring to her new destination, everything would be provided there, uniforms and all. She looked in her wardrobe and went through her uniforms. In one pocket she felt a small thing. She was surprised to find something, what could it be?

She picked it up and smiled, it was the Skilex she took from the droid in Cyclopia. She then put the Skilex in the uniform she'd wear tomorrow. She had no idea what she could do with it, but she kept it as a souvenir from Cyclopia.

"Hey, what are you up to?"

"You scared me, Tegan. I was just getting my uniform ready for tomorrow. I like to get up early."

"Can you wake me up? I'd like to see the sunrise too."

"Well, I wake up at 5am..."

"Maybe not then, Lucy."

"Another time maybe?"

"Yes, another time, another time," said Tegan in a sarcastic tone.

They both burst out laughing.

"Good night, Tegan, good night, Isa."

"Good night, Lucy."

Lucy hopped in her bed and started crying quietly. She felt so hopeless and lost at this very moment. She set up her Skilex to dream about memories she had of House 7.

It was now 5am, the Skilex woke her up slowly. She got up quietly, went to her wardrobe and grabbed her shoes. She went down the stairs and the same steps were cracking. She heard a couple of people turning over in their beds, hopefully she had not woken up anyone; she didn't want to say goodbye.

She went through the dining room, opened the large glass doors, stepped out, and made sure to close the doors quietly. The morning was magnificent as usual. The sky was dark blue turning purple and then slightly orange towards the horizon. In the distance she could see a couple of lights blinking; she knew the drone was coming for her. She was now walking towards the drone port. The drone was programmed to find her,

It was now approaching almost silently towards her; fifty meters, twenty meters, five meters, it then landed. Lucy hopped in and the drone took off. Lucy looked out the window and couldn't see anyone; she was relieved. She wiped a tear from her cheek. She was wondering where she was going. She asked the drone, but no answer. She stared outside towards where House 7 was and wondered what everyone would think. Maybe she should have said goodbye, she thought that they'd understand.

Poppy was standing outside; she could see the blinking lights of the drone. Beside her was Tegan, Isa, and Cel, all standing silent, watching their friend go away. They all grabbed each other's hands. The wind was now blowing slightly, the sun was just emerging from the horizon.

Tegan was lost for words. "Why didn't she say goodbye, why?"

Isa responded with a tight throat. "She knew it would be too hard for us, it would be too sad. She wanted the memory of us to be stamped in our hearts like a perfect picture, as if time had stopped."

The four girls went back inside, people were starting their day. Some would notice Lucy's absence, some wouldn't, but the day had to start and reluctantly Tegan, Isa, and Cel checked out the board to know what they had to do that day.

The drone was flying towards the train station. On arrival the drone told her to board the last carriage. There were a dozen people boarding the train, boys and girls. She hopped on the last carriage. She was alone and slightly anxious to be on her own.

The train started to move. After a couple of kilometres some carriages were splitting to go in different directions. Time was going quite slow; the train was still going through Fields and Lucy still didn't know if she was going back to Cyclopia or to the 7th Quarter.

It was now late afternoon and Lucy was exhausted. She fell asleep. When Lucy woke up it was the next morning. Her carriage was travelling alone. Every other carriage had diverted to other destinations. The land was bare, it looked like a desert, not a tree in sight, not a single form of life, no water. Lucy was starting to hope that she was travelling towards the 7th Quarter, otherwise she would have caught a plane. The train was heading towards high mountains, she could see a tunnel, hopefully the 7th Quarter was on the other side.

The 7th Quarter

Lucy's face was stuck to the window, her mouth was wide open. "What the..."

A sea of buildings, factories, roads, trains, and drones was surrounding her. The train was now on a bridge and below her were tall buildings, as well as houses, gardens, and parks. It looked like the centre of the city was quite close, but it would take another hour to get to her final destination. During all that time she stayed motionless just staring at the constant activity around her. The 7th Quarter was divided into 6 districts with the 7th being the centre, but everyone called the whole region the 7th Quarter. Each district had its own factories, towns, villages and were connected to each other by trains. From the sky, it looked like a large circle with the districts scattered evenly on the perimeter. Initially the 7th Quarter only consisted of the centre but as the population grew, more districts were added. In recent times though, the population had decreased and one of the districts was almost empty.

"Thirty-five, thirty-six, thirty-seven...." Lucy was counting the number of carriages passing her train. The train was carrying food from Fields to one of the districts. Nothing grew here but artificial trees were scattered everywhere to create a softer environment. The whole city looked like a giant metropolis.

Her carriage had slowed down and was entering the centre. Lucy could now clearly see people's faces, the streets, the shops, the buildings, but only for a moment. The carriage entered a tunnel, and after a couple of minutes it stopped. The door opened, making a kind of hydraulic sound.

A soft voice over the speaker announced, "Please disembark the carriage. You have arrived at your destination. Make your way to door 4."

Lucy disembarked slowly. There were only a couple of neon lights here and there in this huge train station. She could barely see anything. She started to walk slowly to what seemed like a row of doors. Suddenly she heard a clunk, clunk, clunk noise followed by a row of neon lights that switched on one by one, showing the way to door 4. Lucy was intrigued and started to freak out. She was walking slowly, but then started to scuttle, then run for no particular reason. Door 4 opened. She stepped into what seemed like an elevator, and the door closed behind her. Two out of the three lights in the elevator were barely working and flashing randomly. The elevator started going faster and faster. Lucy's heart was pounding, she could barely breathe when suddenly the elevator stopped at level 15. The door opened, and Lucy stepped out to a giant canteen full of people having their lunch. Everyone stopped for a second or two, looked at Lucy, then went back to chatting and eating.

She started to walk towards a first or second generation robot that was standing at the back of the room. "Where am I?"

Although it was a first or second generation robot, it answered in a very human voice, "The canteen, obviously."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Very witty... I have just arrived. What do I do?"

"Get something to eat, then you'll be assigned to your work."

Everyone was looking at her and she was wondering why. They all looked normal, but were wearing different uniforms, she couldn't figure out why. She went to get herself something to eat and sat at a table. Lucy started to eat alongside a few other people.

A woman in her forties with a few wrinkles asked her, "How come you are here? You are younger than everyone else."

Almost instantly Lucy realised why people were looking at her. "I couldn't get pregnant, so they sent me here."

"Well, I didn't have a child either, yet I came with everyone else, not at your age."

Another woman interrupted her. "You actually did have a child, we lived in the Pine district together in House 7."

Lucy was excited. "I also lived in house 7. Did you meet Poppy?"

"Poppy, of course we were best friends," exclaimed the first woman.

The second woman interjected, "So she did have a kid, but I think her Skilex got damaged and a whole lot of her memories were wiped in the process. She can only remember certain things."

The first woman was still surprised. "I thought that with the DNA thing they could make everyone perfect."

The second woman raised her eyebrows and pinched her lips. "Well, obviously not. She's here and there has been other younger girls coming here lately. More than usual I'd say. I think they are playing with the DNA too much and perfection is a dangerous thing."

Everyone at the table agreed. They spent the dinner reminiscing about the Pine district and House 7. Lucy was missing her friends. She was wondering what they could be doing at that moment. Lucy was daydreaming and smiling when thinking about Isa and Tegan.

"New arrivals to scanning door 6," yelled a speaker.

Lucy stood up slowly, took her tray, shrugged her shoulders, and smiled. "That'll be me."

She walked to the bin, dropped her tray, and moved towards door 6. There were only about ten people including one other young woman. They smiled at each other from a distance. Everyone was lining up, waiting to be scanned. Lucy was wondering what the scan was about. A droid from a recent generation came over to talk to them. She knew it was a droid because of the uniform, otherwise it was impossible to tell. The skin, how it walked, talked, and expressed itself was similar to a human.

The droid had a name tag—17/89—it was from the 17th generation and 89th made.

It cleared its throat. "You will all be scanned and then assigned a place to live and work. Simply stay steady when you go through."

The process was quite quick. Each person would step on a slightly elevated round metal step then a semi-circle at head height would circle around the head four or five times. When this was over, you'd step down and a screen would tell you where you'd live and work.

It was now Lucy's turn, her knees were slightly shaking, she was looking straight through and when the circle was passing in front of her, she could see a few led lights shining. She stepped out of the circle and her scan appeared. She'd work in coding, her Skilex was showing that it wasn't damaged, and she'd live in the centre in building 77 close to where she'd work. She was directed to a small buggy that would drive her to where she had to go. She looked behind to see if the girl her age was going in the same direction. She wasn't. Lucy was wondering why she was here. Maybe she had the same issue as her and couldn't fall pregnant. Lucy got to building 77 and settled in. It was like House 7, but on a much larger scale. People would share large apartments, kitchens, and living areas. There were people from age forty till about sixty or so; everyone seemed fit and healthy. It was now quite late in the day, and Lucy was tired. She went to bed and set her alarm to 5.30am. Her work was to start at 6.30, just a block away.

Lucy got up and tried to make no noise. The place was covered in carpet. She tiptoed outside of the room she was sharing with two other girls. She arrived in the kitchen where someone was already having a cup of coffee.

"Hey, what's your name?"

"I'm Lucy, you?"

"Abbie."

Abbie tried to smile, sculled her coffee, put her cup down then paused, looking Lucy straight in the eyes. "Nice to meet you, gotta go."

Lucy stood there not too sure what to make of this interaction.

Abbie was walking towards the exit door. She turned around. "Help yourself with coffee, see you later."

Lucy grabbed a cup and helped herself to coffee. She walked towards the large glass window. It was glass floor to ceiling about forty or fifty metres long. She stood close to the glass to check out the view. The apartment was almost at the top floor and the view was amazing. She could see quite far away, but only factories, high rises and a couple of parks made with fake trees filled the view. She finished her cup of coffee, cleaned the cup, and went to have a shower. Only a couple of people were awake when she left the apartment. She said a quick hello and headed downstairs. As work was only a block away, she walked there. There was a large mix of people, robots, droids, and drones moving around the city; it was quite hectic. She followed other people to get into her building. A scanning machine similar to the one she saw yesterday was at the entrance. She stepped on the metal circle and a small hydraulic door opened to let her in. She saw her face on a screen saying, "level 22—tower 2." She proceeded to the tower 2's elevator and pressed the 22 buttons. Only a couple of people were in the elevator, but everyone was silent.

The elevator announced, "Level 22."

Lucy put on an embarrassed smile and talking through her teeth mumbled "That's meee."

No one answered.

At the entrance was a droid receptionist and he directed her to a desk where the computers were. There were three rows of three computers on each side of an alley. She sat at her desk, the computer was on and a welcome screen was saying, "Welcome, Lucy, press any key to start."

Lucy pressed a key, and a message instructed her to do some basic coding. She had never coded before but it all seemed familiar. She then remembered that her Skilex would have been uploaded with new skills after she got in the building. She noticed a small plug next to her computer. It had two holes and was in the shape of a half moon. On her desk were a few Skilex with instructions. Some said, "wipe memory, person died," or "upgrade to droid 17th generation."

Lucy plugged in the first Skilex that said, "wipe memory, person died." She uploaded all the information onto the screen and could see the person's whole life from when she was born to when she moved to Fields and finally came to 7th Quarter. There were pages and pages of her life. Lucy scanned her history,

Her name was Helena, she had one boy, his name was Eric, and she had worked as a coder as well. Lucy could also read the code except for about a dozen lines. The last two lines particularly caught her attention. One had the number sixty in it and another one had a mix of numbers and letters that didn't make any sense.

She kept on reading and found Helena's story so fascinating that she decided to keep a copy of Helena's Skilex on her desktop before wiping its memory, ready to be recycled. She then went on with her job upgrading and wiping a number of Skilexes. She spent the whole morning doing this then paused to have a snack. Lucy loved chocolate so she grabbed a chocolate bar from the machine in the corridor and went back to work until the early afternoon. It was 1pm when she left the office. It was a beautiful afternoon, so Lucy decided to stop and sunbake for a few minutes on a street bench. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the heat from the sun; she felt peaceful.

"Hey, neighbour."

Lucy opened one of her eyes and was squinting with other. "Abbie, mmm, how are you?"

Abbie was glowing with joy. "Fantastic, today was a great day." She sat next to Lucy.

Lucy wasn't quite sure what to say. "Mine too, mine too."

"What did you do?"

Somewhat diffident, Lucy answered, "I'm doing coding, it's fascinating, so I did...mmm, stuff, like coding stuff."

Abbie was intrigued. "What do you mean?"

Lucy tried to remember what she did, but she had trouble recollecting what happened that day as if her memory had been redacted.

She felt embarrassed and put her hands in her pockets; she felt something gooey.

She removed her hands which were covered of quasi melted chocolate. Lucy was surprised. "What is this?"

"It looks like chocolate to me," answered Abbie.

Lucy was stunned, almost in panic. "But I didn't buy any chocolate today."

Abbie lifted her eyebrows and whispered, "So you think."

"What do you mean so I think?"

"Well, you see, Lucy, because you work in coding, they don't want any information to get out of the building, so when you leave work, your Skilex is partially wiped. So, you can still remember stuff, but not enough to make sense of it all. It is random, so there'll be days when you remember your lunch or snack and others where you didn't."

"But no one told me that."

"Well, get use to it, weird things happen here."

"Like what?"

Abbie moved a bit closer to Lucy; she was looking straight ahead as if there was an infinite horizon. Not looking at Lucy, she said, "Look around you and tell me what all these people have in common."

"They all have a uniform."

"Yes, but what else, be a little more inquisitive, Lucy."

Lucy squinted her left eye, moved her nose and her mouth to the right, and paused. "They are all older than me?"

Abbie opened her eyes slightly showing a little surprise. "You are getting warmer, I like your thinking."

Lucy opened her mouth, breathed slightly, and paused. She then looked around everywhere. She slightly got up, put one knee on the bench and was gazing everywhere as if she'd seen a white elephant.

"So, what's the verdict, Ms Lucy?"

In a slightly scared voice, Lucy whispered, "There are no elderly, everyone is maximum sixty or sixty-five."

"Bingo. They said that it could be because of the DNA mutation. They made us perfect, but it has some side effects. Like dying at sixty."

"I would have thought that it would be the opposite."

"Me too, Lucy. Hopefully they change the mutation so we can live longer. Anyway, I gotta go, see you back at the flat."

"See you later, Abbie."

Lucy went back to the flat and had dinner with everyone. She enjoyed life in 7th Quarter.

The next morning, she went back to work. It was repetitive work, but she didn't mind. She enjoyed the routine.

She reopened Helena's file and started reading her story again. Some parts of her life made sense, but not all of it, as parts of Helena's memory was missing. An original file with all her memories intact was on the computer but couldn't be accessed without a password. Each person had all their memory and life backed up in a separate file but only droids could access it. The 7th Quarter didn't want humans to see them.

Lucy checked her work file for the day and could see that all her activities and all her skills were on there, but as soon as she'd leave the building, part of her day would be erased. She was wondering how she could keep all her memories. It was now the end of the day. She went back to her room to put on new clothes. She saw her old uniform and remembered that she had a spare Skilex in the uniform. Lucy paused for a second with her Skilex in her hand and thought.

What if I could swap Skilex and keep my skills and memories day after day? But what happens when you remove your Skilex? she thought.

"What're you thinking Lucy?"

"You scared me Abbie."

Lucy put her Skilex in her pocket and asked Abbie, "Have you ever tried to remove your Skilex?"

"Yes, look." Abbie put her hand behind her right ear and unplugged her Skilex.

Abbie's eyes started to flicker, she flipped her head forward, her long curly hair was hanging. Lucy could see her light going purple. It would go blue in a second. Abbie's hand reached behind her ear. Lucy heard a click. The Skilex was back on. Abbie stood up, shook her head, her hair was covering half her face, but she could see that her eyes were closed. Her eyelids were flickering quite fast, then slower and finally her eyes were wide open.

"The only thing is, you have to put it back within five seconds."

"Or what?"

Abbie inclined her head slightly to the right, frowning. She then put her hands on each side of Lucy's head and in a slow motion mimed an explosion.

"I actually don't know, some say you die, others say you can't move... I won't try, that's for sure. Now let's eat some chocolate."

The next day Lucy had her spare Skilex in her jacket. She couldn't wait to use it. She walked into the building with her original Skilex plugged in so that it would load with new skills and capture her day's memories.

When it was time to go home Lucy swapped to the spare Skilex before leaving the building so that the original Skilex would not be erased.

When she got home, she nervously removed the spare Skilex and replaced it with the original. She was able to remember everything that happened that day!

She jumped up and down silently screaming "it's working, I can remember everything, it's working, I can remember everything"

Every day Lucy used new coding skills to see if she could crack more lines of codes. After a couple of months Lucy had picked up almost all the coding skills available and was able to read everything except the last two lines with the mysterious numbers. One afternoon she opened Helena's file and was able to read the last two lines. She read it again and again and couldn't believe her eyes. Helena had left a message to whoever would do coding in the future. Lucy had just been given the instructions on how to get into the main file. With it came the password on how to get in.

She logged on, entered the password, and could now see people's entire life, not just the redacted stories. She went to Helena's file to see if she had any further instructions.

Lucy's breath suddenly stopped. She kept on reading the same line over and over. Helena had done the exact same thing that Lucy did. She swapped Skilexes every day, but was stopped short at age sixty-one, not because of ill health, accident, or old age, but because the 7th Quarter had decided so. In everyone's Skilex is a code that sets your dying age—which is between sixty and sixty-five—Helena tried to change it but wasn't able to do so.

The code has to be changed from the main frame in an unknown location. It was now clearer why there were no people older than sixty-five in 7th Quarter. This was the first measure that the 7th Quarter introduced to reduce the amount of food needed; reducing people's life expectancy reduced population on the planet rapidly.

Lucy went to her file and loaded her own life onto the Skilex, she plugged it in and started to see memories she never had before. 9 was there, as well as Tegan and Isa.

She was going back to Pine district when she was a child.

She was also reading 9's file as she was going through her memories and suddenly stopped.

9 and Lucy were both born minutes apart not a week apart and from the same unknown mother. 9 and Lucy were sisters without knowing it. 9 had to know this, but how could she get to her? Communications had been cut a long time ago and leisure travel wasn't authorised between other parts of the planet. Lucy had some thinking to do, but it was already time to go home. The computer had to be shut down in five minutes.

Lucy swapped Skilex and went home. On her way she saw Abbie and wanted to tell her everything but couldn't. What if she told someone?

Lucy waved. "Hey, Abbie!"

"Lucy, how was today?"

"You know, just coding."

"Hahaha, you are so the sharing type. I would love to do that job. You can change people's lives, you know."

Lucy shook her head slightly from left to right. "Well, at the moment it's a bit boring..."

But then she stopped and turned her head to face Abbie. "What do you mean change lives?"

"I work in an office and this guy had a stutter that started after his mother died, it came out of nowhere. He waited a bit to see if it would go, but it didn't so he asked to have his code looked at. First your mob, the coding guys were not keen, but eventually they were able to fix it. And the funny thing is that he also got a whole new bunch of memories with it. How weird, huh?"

"It would be so good if I could do that for my sister, she can't talk."

Abbie stopped. "You have a sister? That's not possible. You know the one child rule."

Lucy gasped as she had been found out, but regained her composure. Her heart was beating at a thousand miles per hour. "I mean, she's like my sister."

"Ah okay, what's her name?"

"9."

"Like the number 9?"

"Yes, exactly. She was left in Cyclopia because she can't talk. They said that she would have been a danger to other people and to her child in Pine district."

"Pretty dumb decision, but now at least you can fix her. Just ask to go back to Cyclopia."

"How do I do that? I'll just call the Oracle I guess." said Lucy sarcastically

But Abbie had an answer for her, and she smiled, "Yes, twice a year there's a hearing and there is one in a week."

"Me speaking at the Oracle! You're joking right?"

"I'll help you sign up. Not many people put their name down so you should be fine."

In the next few days Lucy did some research to present to the Oracle. She found out how the guy with the stutter was "cured" just by amending some of the code on his Skilex.

She went back to 9's main file and compared it to the most recent one. Every Skilex was updated every day, at night while the Skilex generated dreams. All this information was stored where Lucy worked in 7th Quarter. Lucy checked out what 9 had done on Cyclopia over the last few days. Life was still hard, but she was now working in the control centre. That meant that she didn't have to dig for rubbish and wear those stinky astronaut suits. It looked like she was happy there.

She went through her recent code and compared it to the one when she was able to speak, before Lucy pushed 9 on the monkey bars. She put each code on a separate screen and matched them, the computer was now going through the code and matching it. After five minutes she could see a couple of lines that were blinking on her left screen. Lucy could now see the difference between the two codes, and it was definitely related to her inability to talk. She was one step closer to get 9's speech back. 9 might even be able to join her on 7th Quarter.

Lucy had applied to talk to the Oracle, and the response was supposed to come today. What if they called her to present? She was so scared. She went to work as usual. Her mind was elsewhere. She had problems concentrating so she went for lunch early and almost forgot to switch Skilexes. It was now 1pm when a message popped up on her computer.

Her appointment to talk to the Oracle was at 8pm tomorrow. A tear ran down her cheek and she felt a few goose bumps on her arms. She pulled her sleaves down to her wrists.

The Oracle was composed of six humans, three men and three women, presided by a droid. The droid was there to take the best decision for the planet and for the humans, but putting the planet's needs first. After the wastage years, the planet was a mess and even though humans were already using droids and their artificial intelligence to make decisions, more change was needed. The countries that were left got together and decided to create the Oracle. The second decision that the Oracle made was to split the planet in three with Cyclopia, Fields, and the 7th Quarter. Frontiers and countries were abolished. From there on the planet's interests came first and the humans' second.

The Oracle had done a great job in the first one hundred years since its inception and the planet was recovering slowly but there was still a long way to go.

Lucy had been thinking about her appointment the whole day. She couldn't wait. She asked Abbie to come with her as support, not knowing if Abbie would be allowed in the meeting with her. It was now 7pm and they were ready to go. They left the apartment and waited for the drone to pick them up. They didn't know where the Oracle was meeting. The drone arrived, Lucy stepped in, and the drone verified her ID. She asked, "Can my friend Abbie come too?"

Drone was silent for a few seconds; he was scanning Abbie as she was outside.

"That is fine, she can come, but she won't attend the meeting."

Very softly and between her teeth, Abbie said, "Yesss."

The drone took off and was flying over the 7th Quarter; it was completely dark, except for the lights from the apartments.

"How do you imagine the Oracle, Lucy?"

Lucy took a moment to think. She had seen some photos of palaces in history books and thought it would look the same. Lucy started to make large movements with her arms to explain what she could see. "It must be some kind of grandiose place with marble and lights, with guards and large pillars, something big, something huge..."

Abbie was looking at Lucy, her mouth was slightly open, she was absorbing what Lucy was saying. "Same, I think it will be..."

"Luxurious," Lucy said.

The drone was now slowing down to land on top of a building. Another drone was leaving.

Abbie and Lucy were not saying a word. The drone landed on top of the building. They hopped off the drone. A robot was there to guide them down a flight of stairs. Lucy and Abbie were quite surprised, they expected a grand entrance, maybe further down...

It was dark with only a couple of lights in the corridor. Lucy couldn't even see her shadow.

They went down two flights of stairs. A robot was there showing the way to an open door.

It looked like an apartment. Lucy and Abbie looked at each other, bemused. The Oracle couldn't actually meet there...

The hallway was quite short, and it led to a large, open plan lounge. All the curtains were closed. There was a large table with seven chairs, but no one was sitting at the table. Just opposite the table was a single chair. A droid was there, and it instructed Lucy to sit down. Abbie was taken to a different room as she was not allowed to attend the meeting.

Lucy was waiting and wondering why she was sitting in the simplest of apartments to speak to the most powerful people on the planet. A door suddenly opened. She stood up. A man came in, then a woman, then a few more, and they all sat next to each other. In the middle of them was someone that looked genderless, it was hard to say if she was a man or a woman droid. It had no particular distinctive features. One thing that Lucy noticed is that they had a Skilex on each side of their heads, probably to store more information and skills. They were wearing simple outfits, pants and some kind of shirt or blouse. They were now talking softly to each other, but Lucy couldn't hear them. The genderless person then nodded to the right and the left.

"Good evening Lucy, I am Sarti, the chair of the Oracle. I am a droid from the 29th generation and we will be hearing from you tonight."

Lucy was sitting there, with a dropped jaw; she couldn't say anything or move.

She was looking blankly to Sarti. A few seconds passed.

"What would you like to say?" rephrased Sarti.

"My sister..."

Sarti cut off Lucy, "You have a sister?"

Lucy couldn't believe what she just said. She was red and felt like the ground was removed from underneath her feet.

"Noo, no, no, I mean she's like my sister."

"Aahh, okay," said Sarti, "Continue."

"So, I have this... friend. We grew up together and she can't talk and can't leave Cyclopia, so I was wondering if we could amend her code so she could come to 7th Quarter."

Lucy joined her hands and squeezed them so tight that they became white. She just wanted to leave the room and run.

Then all the members started to talk to each other, whispering, and Lucy couldn't hear a thing.

"And what makes you think we can do that?" a woman said.

"I live with a friend in building 77, and she said that a colleague of hers had his code changed because he was stuttering."

"Never heard of that," said a man.

"It did happen," Abbie had just entered the room without authorisation, a robot was now holding her by her wrists.

"It did happen," she repeated.

"Who are you?" said Sarti.

"Abbie Deverdon, I live in building 77 with Lucy."

"So, someone had their code changed because they were stuttering?"

"Yes, his name was Dyatt Fertemin."

"Let me check in our system," said a man.

There was now a horrible silence. Lucy was furious, but silent. The man was checking on a tablet.

"Yes, it's been done."

Lucy was now smiling. Abbie was glowing.

"But Dyatt was a droid."

"Dyatt was a droid? How, what? But he looked like us and he behaved like a human."

"Yes, he was a trial of the 28th generation. Successful, I might say," Another woman said.

"Can we still try?" implored Lucy.

"A droid." Abbie couldn't believe what she had heard.

"There's a lot of risks involved in this and she would be a different person after that. We would have to reset her Skilex entirely. She might not even remember you after that.

She would lose most of her identity, be a stranger in her own skin, in her own mind and soul," said a third woman.

"Can't we just change her damaged code?"

"No, it has been intertwined with her existence. That's who she is now," said the second man.

"All I want is for her to be with me. Can't she just come. She'll be fine."

Sarti was listening to everyone's discussion, nodding, pausing, processing every piece of information.

"No, she can't, Zet made the decision and we can't go against this," said the third man.

Sarti cleared its throat "The only way around this would be that your friend 9 comes here for a trial to see if this can be done, but remember that she'll be a different person after that."

The six other members looked surprised at the decision, but they knew that Sarti's decision was final.

"Lucy, we will send you to Cyclopia. You'll speak to 9 and if she agrees to the trial, you'll come back with her to 7th Quarter for the trial," said Sarti.

Abbie was so happy for Lucy.

"Thank you so much," said Lucy.

The Oracle nodded.

"Next person," said Sarti.

Abbie and Lucy left the room, went up the stairs to the rooftop and caught the drone home.

Once they left, Sarti talked to the other members of the Oracle. "Keep an eye on Lucy and Abbie. Lucy knows too much for a simple coder, something is wrong. For now keep everything normal, I don't want her to be alarmed by any changes."

Everyone nodded and left the room.

Lucy was happy at work, going about her everyday routine. It was the same for Abbie. It had now been two weeks since Lucy had been to the Oracle when she received a message letting her know that she'd be departing the next day to Cyclopia. She was over the moon, but unbeknownst to her the 7th Quarter had been watching her every move. They knew that she was swapping Skilex and that she could be a danger for the planet if she was to talk to other humans.

Lucy put her alarm on 5:30am. She was leaving for Cyclopia at 6. She packed her stuff including her spare Skilex just in case.

The trip to Cyclopia was only a few hours. This time she flew over Fields, she was wondering what Tegan, Isa, Poppy, and Cel were doing down there. She would see them hopefully when they moved to 7th Quarter in a few years.

The devastating contrast on the planet was mesmerising. It was either bare or completely flourishing. However not many places were liveable nowadays.

There were only half a dozen people on the plane. Most of them had larger Skilex than usual, similar in size to the members of the Oracle. On the plane was also a droid. He had a uniform saying 28/43. Like Sarti it looked genderless. From the 18th generation onwards, droids were 3D printed using flesh and muscles that had been grown in laboratories, they had a heart, a brain, a liver, like a complete functioning human. The body was faultless, the mind was powered by artificial intelligence. The early generation droids were used for repetitive tasks, but the latest ones were made to help humans make decisions. They were designed to be like humans because humans relate better to droids if they looked like them. After a few hours, Lucy arrived in Cyclopia.

It was now late afternoon. Everyone was just finishing work, so the drone dropped Lucy off at 9's home. Lucy knocked at the door. 9 answered.

"Good afternoon, what's up?" signed 9.

"9, it's me, Lucy."

"Sorry don't know you."

"Stop pulling my fingers, it's me."

"Sorry I don't know you, do you work here?"

"No, but we worked together in the past."

"Okay, so tell me where we worked together."

"Well you saved my life in section 14."

"Never heard of it."

"Mm... what?"

"Never heard of it."

"This is impossible... what did you do yesterday?"

"I worked up there in the office."

"What did you have for lunch today?"

"I don't know."

"Sandwich, fried rice, sushi...?" Lucy was becoming impatient.

"Don't know."

Lucy suddenly remembered how Skilexes were erased at the 7th Quarter. This must have happened to 9.

"Let's go for a walk," suggested Lucy.

Just behind the house was a small artificial garden with a few trees. They sat on a bench in the shade.

"Take off your shoe and take your sock off."

"Which foot."

"The left one."

Lucy did the same.

"See that birth mark there." Lucy was pointing to a birth mark between her toes.

"We are sisters, 9. We've lived together since birth."

"That's a coincidence."

"No, it's not."

"How can you prove this?"

Lucy knew that once memories were erased, that was it, you couldn't get them back.

Lucy had a crazy idea that she had never tried, what if she swapped her Skilex with 9, what would happen? Hopefully she could see who Lucy was in her memories. They would have to film everything to remember what happened during the swap.

Lucy signed, "9, what if we swapped Skilex, you could see who you are for real and who I am too..."

"That's crazy, you die from taking your Skilex off."

"You actually don't."

Lucy took her spare Skilex and swapped it. 9 couldn't believe it.

"Okay, let's give it go," signed 9.

They filmed everything so 9 could remember what happened and what to remember.

They both removed their Skilex and swapped. Suddenly 9 could speak, she was now going back in Lucy's memories. 9 could see herself saving Lucy, she could also see herself playing together as a kid. She was describing all the memories to the camera so that she could remember it after and in case her Skilex was erased again. She had tears running down her cheeks and goose bumps all over her arms.

After five minutes of going back in time, they swapped again. 9 and Lucy were back to who they were. 9 watched the video and finally believed Lucy.

"See 9, we are sisters, but you can't tell anyone. Tomorrow we will go back to 7th Quarter and have your Skilex fixed and hopefully you can talk again, and we can be together in the 7th Quarter, like old times. Hopefully they can also put your memory back again on the Skilex."

"I don't understand a word of what you're saying, but I trust you," signed 9.

"Let's go back inside," signed Lucy.

As they walked in, Zet was waiting for them in the house.

"You need to pack. We are going back to 7th Quarter in an hour and I am coming with you."

Lucy thought that this was strange, but she remembered that Zet did sometimes go to 7th Quarter when she was living on Cyclopia.

Lucy had nothing to pack and 9 had to grab only a small bagpack.

A drone landed close to the house. Zet, Lucy, and 9 clipped each other onto the drone. It took off. They were now dangling from the drone with their legs in the void. It was a hot day, but 9 enjoyed it. She looked around Cyclopia and its hilly landscape and hoped that she wouldn't see this rubbish, the well in section 14 and smell this foul odour ever again.

They boarded the plane to Cyclopia. There were a few droids and the same people that were there on the way from the 7th Quarter.

The three travellers sat next to each other. Zet sat by the window, 9 was in the middle, and Lucy was in an aisle seat.

The plane took off and quickly reached the mesosphere. It was pitch dark on one side and on the other, the planet was glowing, lost amongst billions of stars and planets, simply dropped here, floating like a round ball in a giant pool. The fact that this planet even existed was somehow magic, but on the other hand knowing that it was the only planet we had, created an eerie feeling.

The plane was now level, the hostess asked if anyone wanted a drink. Lucy and 9 were thirsty and had a big glass of water. After a few seconds Lucy started to feel dizzy. She stood up to go to the toilet and stumbled.

The people with the large Skilexes grabbed her so she could stand up.

One of them whispered in her ear, "I think your trip ends here Lucy. You know too much."

The tallest one pointed to 9. "You 9, take Lucy to the airlock."

9 stood up and grabbed Lucy's arm. She put Lucy's arm around her neck but could barely move.

9 used a computer generated voice. "Can I get a droid to help?"

The droid from the 28th generation stood up from its seat and started to help 9.

Lucy was dizzy and could barely move. She was wondering why her sister 9 was helping these people from the 7th Quarter. I guess she had no choice. She couldn't remember anything, and Lucy was just another person to her.

She was walking slowly to the airlock. The airlock was used to evacuate into space if there was an incident. The airlock contained about ten capsules that could fit three people. If evacuation was needed, the passengers would go through a large, round airlock door about two metres wide. They would then close the door, get in a capsule and someone from the outside would open the outside door that opens into space. The void would suck the capsule towards the planet. At the front of the plane another capsule could also separate so that everyone could be saved.

9 was now at the airlock door.

She heard a voice through the speakers. "Now take Lucy through the airlock door, leave her next to the outside door, come back and close the airlock door."

Lucy knew what that meant; she would be sent into space and die in an instant, but she couldn't move. The drug had full effect on her now.

Lucy, 9, and the droid were among the capsules going towards the outside door. It was hard to move between the capsules. They had to shuffle sideways at times.

9 had trouble holding Lucy. She asked with her computer voice, "Hey, droid, can we sit her on the capsule for a second? Her arm is slipping."

The droid helped to sit Lucy down, she was now facing 9.

"What are you doing?" mumbled Lucy to 9.

"I've got you, sis," signed 9.

"Can we switch sides?" asked 9 to the droid. "My arm is sore."

"Not a problem," said the droid.

9 put Lucy's arm around her shoulder, but that also meant that she could now reach the droid's Skilex.

In an instant, she removed the droid's Skilex and swapped it with Lucy's. She was holding the droid's Skilex in her hand.

Lucy's Skilex was now on the droid, and Lucy's body was lifeless on the ground, completely drugged.

9 turned around and signed to the droid.

"Lucy, is that you."

The droid signed, "Yes, it's me, but I can see myself on the ground."

9 signed, "I know this is weird, but we have to let you go into space."

The people from the 7th Quarter were watching through a small round glass window on the airlock door. They couldn't work out what was happening and believed that Lucy was about to be thrown into space.

The droid and 9 were now at the large round outside door. They left Lucy's body next to the outside door. 9 and the droid were walking back to the airlock door.

One person from the 7th Quarter said to the droid, "Close the airlock door and open the outside door."

Lucy, in the droid's body, was looking through the small glass window. She could see her body lying there, she then extended her arm and pressed the button to open the outside door. She was struggling to press that button.

9 signed, "You have to press the button now and open the door."

Lucy could barely move. For her to live on, she had to get rid of her body.

She had her hand on the button, her face stuck to the window. She pressed the button slowly, the outside door opened and Lucy's body was sucked out into outer space.

They walked back to their seats, everyone was celebrating. Lucy's body flew straight out, her left leg hit the back of the plane and broke in half. There was an inscription inside her bone: 29/12.

TBC

Acknowledgments

Thank you C for letting me use your artwork and feature on the cover. Thanks M for the editing and the support. Thank you T for the hidden inspiration.

Contact and social:

triadsdaughters@gmail.com

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@triadsdaughters

![Text Box 11 The Triad's Daughters is a futuristic yet contemporary dystopian novella. Set on a planet that has been damaged by multiple generations, the main characters - Lucy and 9 - are trying to create a better future for themselves and for the planet. Artificial intelligence and humans live together in a world that is manipulated by the 7th Quarter that claims to improve people's lives and the environment, but does it?
](images/image-3.png) 
  1. Chapter 1

