Chapter One:
As I looked out the window at the stars, I thought of stories. Each star has its own view point and compilation of events, and yet, when certain stars and planets get together, only then can a story be told in it's entirety.
Back when I started my education, I had trouble with literature. Not because I was stupid by any means, but because I had trouble imagining the unfamiliar surroundings and foreign, concepts . What are clouds? The concept is confusing. What is transportation? Again, hard to accept without being there first hand, but when I saw old pictures and learned more about human's heritage, that was when the dots started to connect. Like when you find the stars that make up Orion's belt.
I am a human. Apparently humans used to live on earth. It's hard to separate truth from over-the-top lore since the last earthians aren't alive to tell the tale. While things were going awry on earth, meanwhile the martians were having similar issues. So a human from earth and a martian made a deal. They'd co-share a planet with no inhabitants. Yolen. I know, weird name right. Not the human's choice I assure you. I think it was named after the martians wife yolandax-5421, but whether that is truth or a folk tale, we never will know. What made developing on Yolen a problem is that it is invisible. So no one would know it existed if not for the martian who was going on vacation to Jupiter and stumbled upon it.
Martians in those days used to identify themselves with numbers. The martian in question was MA-5881, and the head honcho for the humans was a man by the name of Alex Pone. They covered the planet in skyscrapers and underground tunnels.
The only problem was the small detail of breathing. Martians breathed carbon dioxide while humans breathed oxygen. This would work smoothly, if not for the population difference. Mars was a very small planet, so their population was considerably smaller. The building would have a surplus of carbon dioxide and not enough oxygen. MA-5881 was all for leaving some humans on earth, but Pone put an end to that thought. They thought and thought. Until BAM! An idea hit them. Why not freeze oxygen and carbon dioxide? Then they decided to put them into pill form. This pill is in a capsule that slowly allows oxygen into the blood stream. The air would last for six hours. The capsule technology took a very long time to discover, and by then MA-5881 had passed on. Alex Pone barely loaded earth's and mar's residents on to the multiple spacecrafts before it was to late.
Can you tell I'm a history nerd? After I learned about all of the history of Earth and Mars in my elective class Ancient Planets, I was really able to understand literature better. My favorite? A classic called Harry Potter. I don't understand all of the words, but I like the story. The language is hard to understand because its sooo old. I take an elective class called MarTia. That's the language the Martians came when they came over.
There is some controversy amongst the humans and the martians. The humans aren't too happy that MA-5881 wanted to leave some humans behind, and the martians aren't too happy that they are outnumbered and that Alex Pone is considered the creator of Yolen. It was proposed Yolen was even named Pone Planet, but the martians shot it down. Meshing together the entire Yolen population was very difficult and still causes some tension. People now mostly speak a mixture of both languages and mix together both cultures. They've been closely intertwined for so long that it's hard to tell which traditions came from which planet. We all consider ourselves Yoleniens, but there is some racism amongst the martians and us. One good compromise is that the humans and Martians are both good at 80'F. So that's a start.
I live in the Pone ward. The pone ward is the Southern section of the planet. The northern section of the planet is called the Rewink ward. Most of the humans live in the Pone ward and most of the martians live in the Rewink section. But that's pure by coincidence. The government gives everyone a place to live. Anyhoos, I live in the H1 sector of the Pone ward. If you ever want to send me mail, you can send it to this address:
Marnie Gar-007
Suite 7 H1 Pone
I never get mail anymore. Now teleporters are the big thing and hologram messages are the norm. But I like it. It's more special waiting for the mail. In an emergency though, it really helps. Especially when the ambulance pops out of nowhere via teleported. But otherwise I want no part of that instant gratification crap. Me and my grandpa really get along. He is the only person who gets my fascination with old fashioned things.
Grandpa Billo. He likes to stir up trouble. His first marriage produced my dad. 100% human. It's a pretty common occurrence on Yolen. We stick to our people, they stick to themselves. So, what my Grandpa did next was divorce and marry a new wife. She's a martian. It was shocking, my dad didn't agree with gramps, but what could he do. Grandpa Billo and me have always been on the same wave length. I like Grandma Xyllz too, even though she's a martian.
Don't get me wrong, they are totally fine, but humans are just slightly more intelligent. It's just logic. All of the kids in the pone ward teleport every morning to the education center. I'd prefer to walk, but we'd have to walk to the west section and that's too far away. It's hard to get exercise with all of this teleportation, but I try to fit walks in. It's one of the only things me and my brother have in common.
Kleak and me are like total opposites. He's a total technology geek, while I prefer learning about ancient tools. I tried to get him to buy an antique cell phone so we could have our own way of communication (they run on the same waves as hologram watches), which he eventually bought. I think he just bought one to humor his little sister, and we never even used them, but I appreciated the thought. It's hard because we have 5 years between us. We are both much closer to our little sister, Via. Via is four. She's sweet, yet incredibly sassy. I'm the middle child at the ripe age of 16. I'm a little odd, but I prefer to call it unique.
Back to the education center, I am almost done with the learning process. Merging together the martian learning systems with the earthian learning systems was tricky. In the end, the original leaders decided to have the knowledge sent into our brains via "learning waves". So you don't overdose, they do it bit by bit for a couple of hours every morning, every-other day. It's more efferent than the old, earth way of learning. Humans can't tolerate as much of the waves (since they are so potent) as the martians can. The martians used to go through the entire process with no breaks except to eat for 3 years straight. The idea of breaks to let the info set in hadn't occurred to them. So this is a compromise. Once I turn 17, I get a three years off, then I have a week to choose a job before I take a weeklong training course. Then, I work until I am 40. I get a two-year break, then I go back to work until I turn 63. The rest of my life is spent in the pure bliss that is called retirement. But why am I thinking about this? I need to get some sleep for tomorrow. It's already 24:00 and I have to be at the education center between 4:00 and 6:00. Great.
