The Commons

Ganas

Avi rose early on the day when he was due to report to Ganas for his first official tour of the colony. He had spent so long dreaming of this place that he couldn't stand the thought of being late. As soon as Logistics had published the official map of the urban center, he had set about memorizing it, tracing the streets with a stylus on his phone at night as he lay on his back, trying to imagine what they'd look like. A country built and run by the most competent, the most creative, the best. A country where things would make sense. Even the street naming system was brilliant: a three dimensional Cartesian graph with complementary English names that matched the numbers.

He stepped off the train onto the corner of Foxglove and Twain around sunrise. The streets were paved with ordinary clay, but he cherished them already, these bright, clean sidewalks that would never know homelessness. He could imagine large parades and festivals, the city alive with roaming children on Hallow Night, or celebrating a great athletic victory over a neighbor. Such a grand legacy just waiting to unfold.

Avi was due at the city center at three tenths for orientation. He arrived early, but so did many of the other government employees. This pleased Avi. For most of his life, he'd been known as someone who tried very hard at things. The image of Ganas he had built up in his mind was filled with people like himself, and this was part of the reason he'd worked so hard to make the place happen. Now he was here, excited to share his enthusiasm with other fans.

"Hello," he said to the tall man next to him on the bench in the lobby. "I'm Avi."

"I'm Adam," said the man. "Can you believe we're finally here, about to walk the Spiral?"

"It is hard to believe," Avi agreed. "I started studying for the exams five scuts ago, and now we're nineteen cycles from launch."

"I'm actually on the exam crafting team, as an analyst," said Adam proudly. "How did you find them?"

Avi wasn't sure how honestly he should answer this question. He'd scored well enough on the main exam, as raw scores went, but he wasn't sure his position was right for his skill set. He didn't want to offend Adam, but his new companion exuded serenity and understanding, so he decided to go for it.

"There was a lot of focus on the hard skills. Spatial, math, verbal comprehension ... things that are easy to test. Not much on the social skills. I was assigned the ambassador position, and I know I can handle the economics behind making good trades. But I don't have much negotiation experience or, frankly, aptitude," Avi confessed.

Adam nodded. "I'd be lying if I said there weren't practical considerations about the test format. But it tests for potential ability, and you'd be surprised at some of the starting skills we found to be almost irrelevant when we combed through the stats of similar colonies. Math and verbal are the hardest skills to acquire if you aren't born with them; most of the rest can be picked up with some practice. People are capable of more than they think sometimes. But don't get me started on neurology."

Adam smiled warmly at Avi as he finished speaking, cheeks flushed, eyes filled with an intelligent glow, an expression that Avi interpreted as a Face of Mild Romantic Interest. After a moment's inspection, Avi returned the grin.

"What if I want to get you started?" he asked.

Before Adam could respond, Olivia Sooke, executive director of Ganas, entered the waiting area and welcomed all of Phase Three to the city. The group stood up and headed out the doors to the Spiral, exactly on time.

The city was lovely. Parks, factories, shops, schools, offices, all in beautifully organized clusters. Stores and restaurants almost entirely automat, no need for exploitative labor. Color coded train system. Beautiful mural of the Eight Rascals in a postcard-worthy center plaza. Around the whole central cube wound the Spiral, a meandering path that hit all the most beautiful parts. Avi could absolutely imagine a future here: exciting career, one of those cute single family homes on the west bank of the river, grandchildren and everything. No, he decided, he'd eventually retire to a small cabin in the country, but he'd come into the city sometimes for events.