Her Brother's Keeper: A Story of Alpha Centauri

A Long Day at School 1

The following day Christiana was typing away on her desk at school. It was the middle of history class and the instructor was droning on and on about events from over two hundred and fifty Colonial Years in the past. Both children were disinterested in the lecture because the womb-mates had already read everything that they could find about the First Wave. After all, the duo had direct connections to the colonists of that era because they were gee-emms. So, to stave off boredom, the girls were having a lively text chat over the school's network.

While the administration locked out the chat feature for the students during class, this didn't stop Christiana and Haruhi-nee. Beginning a few grades prior, not long after they began applying themselves in school, the two siblings had competed to see who could break the network's security the fastest. Plus, teachers only updated the passwords at the beginning of every grade. So once the girls were in, they had access to the texting function for the rest of the Year.

This Year Haruhi-nee had achieved victory by breaking into the system well before the end of second period. Meanwhile, Christiana had cracked it during the break just before third period. Of course, it wasn't as if they had wagered creds on who would win. Instead, the winner got to have bragging rights over their womb-mate for the rest of the Colonial Year. Since she had given Haruhi-nee grief the previous Year the black-haired girl had been highly motivated to beat her younger sibling. Needless to say, the elder child had reminded her of who had won daily.

In order not to be reprimanded for their illicit activities, the schoolgirls had agreed to never give out the passwords to their friends after they got them. The duo tried their best to hide their chat sessions by claiming that they were taking lots of detailed notes. However, since the system was becoming harder and harder to breach each Year, both girls worried that the network administrators had discovered their hacking. As a result, the children worked hard to cover their digital footprints every time they used chat during class.

'I wonder how they could have caught on to us,' she pondered while waiting for a response from her Sister to her last message. It wasn't as if better anti-hacking software had been developed recently. Unlike on Old Earth, they did not develop computer software and processors in an accelerated fashion. To put it bluntly, the advancement of information technology was not all that important to the survival of the colony.

Instead, the government directed all of its resources for technological development into two fields. The first was the improvement of terraforming techniques. The second was 'bot improvement. While the initial reason was obvious, the other was not. The lack of insects on Cooper's World forced the colonists to use robots for plant pollination. Since pollination was a key step in growing crops, the more efficient the machine, the more plants that farmers could grow per parcel of arable land. They also used automatic devices for planting and harvesting the produce so 'bot development was very important for food production.

The voice of her lecturer startled the girl out of her musings.

"Hello Christiana, are you in there?" asked her history teacher, Mrs. Dyke.

The laughter of all of her classmates quickly followed, including Haruhi-nee's distinctive giggle.

"I am sorry, ma'am, but I was deep in thought," she replied meekly.

"I could tell," the sensei responded. As usual, the educator appeared to be in a foul mood because she had a slight grimace on her wrinkled face. Meanwhile, the graying light brown hair which framed her frowning countenance swayed in the air conditionings breeze. Suddenly, a malicious smirk grew on the aging sensei's visage. Mrs. Dyke continued, "Now since you were not paying attention to my lecture, I want you to come up here and tell the class all about The Chosen."

'Oh, that's easy,' she thought. 'The question is, where do I begin?'

As she walked up to the teacher's podium, she did her best to organize the information that she knew concerning The Chosen in her head. Upon reaching the front of the lecture hall, Christiana turned around to face her peers.

There were twenty young ladies in the classroom, and all of them wore different expressions. Since she was somewhat popular, most of the children were smiling at her encouragingly. Of these the most conspicuous was Haruhi-nee, who was not only beaming but who was giving her Sister a thumbs up. However, there were a handful of girls who had neutral looks, and two who were wearing frowns. These were the kids that always took lectures seriously and who tried to compete with the Sisters for the top grades in the class.

Taking a long, calming breath, she started speaking. "The First Wave was made up of the best of the best that the Sol system had to offer. Millions of people replied to advertisements concerning commercial colonies in deep space, mainly because of the high pay that was offered. The list of colonists was made up of female Earthers, Marsies, Lunarians, and Spacers most between the ages of seven and twelve Earth years old. Over six months, they reduced the register to just five thousand applicants. Those left were the smartest, most athletic, and well-adjusted of the candidates. The parents of the remaining aspirants and the girls themselves later underwent several additional tests and interviews. Of the five thousand, they selected only one thousand eighty for the secret trip between the stars, the rest being sent to establish a colony in the Solar system. "

"During the twenty-four Earth year voyage, they educated the children in many fields by using instructors traveling on the two ships." Christiana then continued after taking a few breaths, "Later the crews of the starships tested each of the pilgrims when they reached their early to mid-twenties. They did this to see if they could act as crew during the last few years of the journey. The colonists' educational performance, areas of study, and general aptitude were all assessed. From this, the ship captains selected only about a third of them to work as members of the team."

She paused yet again, this time examining each of her classmates. All the girls were giving her their undivided attention, even Haruhi-nee looking absorbed in her mini-lecture. The only one with a sour look on her face was Mrs. Dyke. After all, the teacher had asked this question to punish and humiliate Christiana for not focusing on the sensei. Instead, the class was more interested in the girl's speech than they had been the teacher's.

'Serves her right,' she thought uncharitably as she resumed her speech.

"Upon reaching Cooper's World, the commanding officers chose three individuals to become full crew members and to return with them to Earth." The child went on, "These people were Keiko Kayashima from the starship Destiny, with Christy Harris and Emma Evans from Hope," Christiana continued. "The trio who we now call The Chosen were the finest of the colonists who were already the best of those selected from a pool of millions. "

She added a touch of excitement to her voice before continuing. "Thus today, two hundred and fifty-eight Colonial Years later, these three have become almost mythic figures within our society. Many view the Chosen as the pinnacle of humanity, a goal that all women must strive to meet. Some even see them practically as demi-gods, people who have the blood of the Divine coursing through their veins, only pretending to be mortal. However, this is something that I do not believe. Because if that is correct, then The Chosen are at a level that we mere mortals can never reach. If this is true, then what is the aim that we, as females, should work towards?"

To her surprise, all the girls in the room started clapping. "I didn't think that such a 'boring' subject would be so well received," she thought as she walked back to her seat and sat down. Clearly perturbed by her knowledge of the past despite her lack of attention in class, Mrs. Dyke asked, "Christiana, why do you know so much about The Chosen?"

She proudly replied, "It really comes down to our family history."

"How so?" the instructor retorted, a scowl plastered on her face.

"Both Haruhi-nee and I, myself, are gee-emms from the First Wave. Our geneMothers were intimately connected to The Chosen," Christiana said while wearing an enormous smile.