The Emigrants

Chapter Two: Armida is Chosen

CHAPTER TWO: ARMIDA IS CHOSEN

I wake up to my alarm going off as usual, except this time I'm late. I'm never late. I had such trouble getting to sleep last night because I was so nervous for today. I work for the government. Well, more specifically, I specialize in Earth studies. We can't watch Earth, as we don't possess the technology yet, but we study its past and discuss plans to visit. Some of our astronauts have passed by it to see if it was safe for landing, but they say it's too dangerous with the state it's in. I wonder what happened to it.

Today is the 100th anniversary of when my ancestors left Earth to travel to Psidon and set up a new colony. We celebrate this day as a joyous occasion with parades and parties. However, in my department especially, we wonder what happened to the people who stayed on Earth. Obviously the astronauts said it was dangerous, but they didn't tell much else. Just that it looked unsafe. I get ready and go to work.

"Armida," my boss shouts as he walks into my office, "we have a meeting to get to."

"Right," I say. I had almost forgotten. We were discussing what we were going to do about Earth with the senior executives. We wanted to know what happened to Earth, but it was too dangerous to stay on.

"Maybe we just take a quick scan," someone suggests.

"No, we need to know what happened to Earth. No way we'll know that unless we talk with the people there," my boss says. Our original plan was to land on the North Pole, which is uninhabited, and take boats to other countries. Then we were to pose as normal Earth citizens and find information about the last one hundred years on Earth. However, because it was deemed unsafe, we can't stay very long. Then I get an idea.

"What if we just take one person from Earth. One random person that we pick, and then we interrogate them, sort of. We ask them for all the information that they have on Earth."

"And if they don't cooperate?"

"We take them back. We are no secret to Earth. We have nothing to hide. We go down, asking for a random citizen of our choosing, and take him or her up with us to Psidon."

"Then what do we do with them after the 'interrogation'?"

"We offer them a life here, or we take them back."

"What if Earth is upset with us taking one of their citizens?"

The room fell silent. I hadn't thought of that.

"Well," my boss answered for me, "we will talk to them first. We need to choose a citizen anyway. Meeting dismissed."

I walk back to my desk, feeling somewhat proud of myself for the idea, but also a little nervous. Who knows if this idea will even work? My boss, Mr. Gali, comes into my office again.

"Nice work today, Armida."

"Thank you, sir."

We try to communicate with Earth, but it inevitably fails. They decide to go ahead and take a ship there, asking for one person. Once they arrive on Earth, they go to a public records office and choose a random citizen: Ethan Carlisle.

He is the one chosen for investigation, and in a few days time, Ethan would be here and someone would be chosen to interrogate him. For now though, I am going to get some rest.

*        *        *

As I suspected, Ethan is here and is taken into 'custody'. I walk into work to hear people talking about it and staring at me. As I walk in my office, my boss is already there.

"Armida, guess who's been chosen to interrogate 'Earth-boy'."

By the looks on my co-workers faces, I knew it had to be me.