(New Story): The Immortal Saga 2173 words

Their school day began like one people would remember reading about on the old earth. Kids playing a scrum of sports before the school day starts. The regimine of classes and order. Its not like that on earth anymore, nor in the oldest planets settled in the Commonwealth of Mankind. They like the species of aliens and other creatures use computers to pace and discipline children for the education thats to come. The colonies that are younger allow this wild privilege for a most practical reason. They know that children are the future and if you want the communities to be real and the community of the planet to be real you need to tie them togther here. In Lathean, a mid tier city on the planet Aedan, they centered their community on the public square. Schools, Government Buildings, Libraries, Churches, museaums, and other buildings such as that all find their home along the edge of Lanthean square. Big public rallies and events are held in the square and children play their rudementary sports there. The problem is children playing sports in the square aren't always playing under some fundemental rule or principle of a leauge. Usually there is a way for kids to sort out these sort of disputes but this day the children don't find any such disputes resolved. "Look the kids are over there playing tennis, ask them to leave they've been here an hour" a young man wearing his pads and holding his helmet points in the direction of the kids playing badmitten, and not tennis. "Handball isn't football anyway" evokes the leader of the soccer mob to which Athyn shakes her head "Are you 12 or just stupid?" She remarks wondering why she got herself into this. He quickly retorts "I am 8." she sighs at this revelation more and pushes foward. "Look, we have 15 minutes left before we have to head back for our classes. You primary and middle school students have another hour before your classes. Don't be senseless children and let us finish our game." The football children scream out in agreement with a mighty yalp worthy of some mongol horde. The kids however are unable to come to agreement with the young adults. But the dispute is able to be resolved by the high school lacross team coming in. Central Lanthean High School needs their team practice to start and this is their first class. The children are many things but not one to get in the way of a teacher doing his job. Thomas Sabato was not a man of much imagination which was why he became a school administrator. His job is to manage the children so they achieve the educational outcomes their parents, city, and colony will need while making those outcomes agreeable to the children themselves. He has to manage the teachers expectations of pay and work conditions so they work to their maxim without bankrupting the school. And all the while he has to deepen the ties and traditions of the school. So when this generation of students come to replace him the ideas he has helped build will become part of the ties binding the colony togther. Like his father before him Thomas was a believer in the virtues of the colony. And like most colonial men he has never seen a commonwealth government agent in his entire life. But this was the day was the day which broke his long streak. His AI buzzed him. "Thomas" The AI spoke in a voice like a sexually idealized version of his wife "We have agents of the Genome here to see you." A man walked in a white tunick and pants with a long black jacket. The man had a completely shaven head. He was joined by a woman with a very tight cut of hair in a similar attire. They both flashed their badges. "I am agent Dane, this is agent Zala" the male agent spoke designating his senior status. With the predominence of Psionic traits in the X chromosone a male senior agent was a unusual scene. "Do you have a moment to pencil us in?" Thomas grimaced a little bit. He did that in part because he knew his Ai told him that he had the time. "Agents? How may I be of service to you today?" Agent Dane pulled out a think data pad "Under General Order 2 of the Commonwealth of Humanity I am conscripting your full and total cooperation." The Commonwealth of man was something of a misnomer in scope. It was a confederacy of planets that worked togther on mutual issues with the ultimate issues being resolved commonwealth wide under a list of general orders, constitutions, and laws of the Commonwealth. General Order #1 was about preservation of the human species and its right to exist. General Order #2 focused on the existance of psychics and their regulation by the state. This is the second oldest part of the commonwealth's government which predates its formation. Thomas knew the consequences of his not cooperating. "I see, and what do you agents need of me?" This was going to move several of his scheduales off kilter. Thomas was not pleased by this at all and viewed this mean from the commonwealth as a burden to his work in building the colony. But he would rather not be held in one of the many prisons the genome has the right to manage people who violate general order #2. "We are doing a data pull and it won't take long. I will when its done need some students pulled from their classes and need your school nurse to work the blood machines for me. That way we ensure the process is fair and transperent." Administrator Sabato nodded knowing the stories of the Genome and its overzealousness in selecting some people that lead to horrific mistakes. Athyn had a deep distate for Galactic History class, but it was one that many human students hated. "The Council came to start their era of peace and civility about 6000 years ago by our reckoning of calanders. Or as we would know it the dawn of recorded human history. In a central battle that defined the founding of the council that was key to preserving the council who were the 300 Spartans?" One of the students raised his hand but the teacher called on Athyn she spoke without acknowledging him "The 36 Immortals." The teacher smiled. "Correct. Which is why the Council while largely devoid of the powers of government grants under Section 36 of the Council Accords, signed by humanity after the first contact war, the right to have 36 special agents with broad powers to act in the name of the council for broad issues of galactic order." The student who raised his hand continued with a proud and unauthorized boast. "Lt. Col. Hawk was the first human to join the Immortals." the students laughed and the teacher turned his face on the eager student. "Thats not even history yet, thats just an old current event." The other students laughed. Athyn saw a flash across her screen. She eyed it and tried to ignore it but her teacher being a cyborg with a stickler for duty had other ideas. "Athyn we can pretend my implant didn't see it or you can make it to the confrence room double time missy." She got up but was not going to make her way their double time. She wondered what was sufficent to yank the chain on the principal to call her in like that. Athyn was a good student, but not a great student at the school. She was in clubs and even in some authorized school activities but nothing to stand out in her record at the school. She took pride in not standing out from the crowd. She also when she wasn't at school would hang about her family homestead to much. She was viewed as antisocial by most of the true believers on the colony but she didn't care much about that nor did her folks. The colony was divided between the true believers who represent the old families on the colony and those who have a passion for the colonization and the people from the later waves. Athyn's family came in the 3rd wave and they tended to settle a planet when it was civil enough and left when it got to civilized and advanced. One of the students in the Lacross team joined her. Tyrus wasa large young man built with a almost mythological purportions worthy of Hercules or thor. His curly main of blonde hair even evoked a bit of the mythological thor. His family was old colony and some people said they were exposed to the planets gravity longer so they have mutated differently. Athyn was a farmer's daughter who was thin and well proportioned as one would expect a 16 year old to be. Her red hair and grey eyes stood out as two of the common mutations found here on Aedan which made those traits more common then they should be. She is wearing a basic tunic and pants with a tri-weave in a floral pixel color. He was wearing a jump suit for his engineering and mechanics class. "So get yanked out of your class for no reason to Athyn?" He said to her knowing it was most likely so. She tied her hair behind her and nodded. "So what did you do this time Tyrus?" Tyrus was usually the type to have done something. "I don't know, I do a whole lot of things around here that would get me in trouble and you do all most nothing at all." he laughed and beat his chest "So you have to ask yourself, what did you do to be as much of a bad guy as me?" His laughter helped relieve her tensions. But she couldn't help but feel a sense of dread as she and Tyrus met a few other students being called at what seemed like random to the same confrence room. 'That which seems random, rarely is random when government is involved.' was an old axion of her Grandfather's that her father was known to repeat. She wondered on the truth of the axion right now as she marched into the unknown with her fellow students. The VI greeted her and the students. It took the form of a tall 20 year old human female. Her hair was green to give off one of the many subbtle abnormalities VI's had to make humans feel more comfortable with them. The Hologram opened up her hands. "We can dispense you some food and maybe even some beverages. We have almost confirmed everyone is here so we have time for snack and drink orders." The students mostly complied with the request and began the process of trying to normalize the abnormal. Meetings at this school and classes were to well organized and to well reasoned. Administrator Sabato was a man who loved his efficency a little to much and the students had an expectation this meeting couldn't meet. Athyn however had a feeling growing in the pit of her stomach and it was growing stronger and blacker. Tyrus felt the same pain in his guts and into the depths of his person. They couldn't place the source of their bad feeling but they both looked in each others eyes and saw the feeling was shared. Agents Dane and Zala entered with the school nurse. None of the other students knew what was going on but Athyn but she grew 30 shades of pale. When Agent Dane saw her he whispered something to the school nurse before he addressed the students in the confrence room. He eyeballed the faces of the students and Athyn gave off the most obvious reaction. One Agent Dane was planning to use when he needed it. "Most of you don't know what I am, and none of you know me. My name is Agent Dane and I am a member of the Psi-Corp of the Psionic Genome. As part of general order 2 we are a policing force for wild psionics and we have reason to believe that some one in this school is a pre-active psionic. We have the ability to catch them now and refocus them into the Genome and into things like Psi-Corp where their gifts will become a tool for the betterment of mankind and the commonwealth." He was waiting for Athyn to react but she didn't. If he wasn't working this would have made him smile. She was on the red list so far as Aeden is concerned but she was being remarkably civil and calm about all of this. He would have time later to ask her about all of this before moving forward. This provided a prolonged pause in his presentation. He let the pause go a bit longer before he went to ask questions from the audience.