Heir Of The Deceased

The Gift of A Tragedy

20 years later. I am 32, a full adult. Only set to live to a thousand years, I begin my training for whatever occupation I should be suited in.
* * *
I look up at the massive building staring down at me. I swallow and force myself through the sliding glass doors walking into the International Coding and Positioning Office for my suit. Today I would learn who to become.
I scan around the room coated in precious minerals and ores. I'm gaping at the beauty of the room when a woman, a Krytonian Positioner, calls my name off of her wrist com. "Last name: Vrsa!"
I snatch my head around with a brilliant smile and walk over to her. "Hello!" I greet her happily. Why on earth years, I would only have the competence of a 15 years old.
She nods her head, "Follow me this way please." She notions for me to walk close to her. I watch her walk for a moment before I jump in place and follow her.
"So, were you nervous whenever you were getting your occupation?" I say eagerly tilting my head trying to catch up to her side. She doesn't answer until she brings me to a silver door in a black hallway.
"In here, please? Your suitor should be in any minute." She looks back at her wrist com, then to me, "Are you waiting on anything?"
I'm smiling like a getty child, "No ma'am! I just want to say you have the most beautiful silver and blue locks in all of the Krytonion Empire!" Her smooth, calm, icey-blue skin darkens in her cheeks indicating that she was blushing. She had to have been quite old for the silver in her hair to show, but not enough for all of it to turn. She was beautiful, truly.
"Thank you." She smiles and opens my door for me.
"Nice meeting you!" I say merrily. She nods in return, still painted with dark cheeks, smiling.
In the room, there is a table, two chairs, a dusty plant in the corner and a device sitting upon the table. It looked as though to go around your wrist and measure your heartbeat, but even so, how was that any help to my future.
I examine it instead of sitting like I should have. The suitor comes in with a wrist com. on him as well. I snatch around and greet him, then take my seat. He types something into his wrist com.
"Good afternoon, Ms. Vrsa."
"Afternoon to you as well, sir. How have you been?"
"Alright well let's start with the first test, shall we?" He looks up at me, and I nod my head, "Put the wrist of your dominant hand in The Pulse."
I look at him, then down at it, and place my right wrist in. Four pins prick each side, and my eyes fade to black. "Good," he says, "now, can you please picture a scenario in which you feel the strongest and most comfortable?"
My eyes open into a different world where I wear a uniform, and I am fighting amongst a war, but with nothing ever seen before. I was holding something like a chemical gun bouncing from place to place ecstatically maneuvering enemies' bullets. Then, his voice kicks up again, "Ms. Vrsa, how did you make that weapon?"
My eyes shut in that world, then again open to where I am standing in a lab coat huddled over a microscope seeming to manipulate genes & slides of bacteria. "Good, good," he says. "You are capable." My eyes shut again, and I wake to the current reality.
His tired eyes look at my bright and young eyes darting across the room, unsure of the situation. He puts a pen to his lips, scanning over me, "Alright." He says finally, "I have your suit of occupation."
I smile nervously as I did not wan to become a pipe cleaner as my sister had. He looks at his wrist com, then back at me, "You are a bio-genetic engineer. You will work for the government creating a new virus." He sits back in his chair, crossing his arms.
I am still speechless, until I find these words, "When do I leave?"
He presses on his wrist com, muttering the words, "Found her." Seconds later, two tall Krytonian men enter in, each escorting me to the door.
"Wait.." I say turning back to the older man with crystal white hair. He was a quite old Voulnic. "What will the virus be for?" I ask cautiously.
"You'll see. But I do have some advice before you go... Embrace who you are and make the best of those you surround yourself with. Never give up on a person." He smiles a thousand year old smile, revealing lines in his face which were not present before.
I give a shallow smile, "Thank you." The men escort me out and upstairs onto the roof where a Turn-Blade V1 sits. I smile and begin to job in it, "Do I get to ride in this?!" I yell over the immense winds; one man turns to the other and smirks.
I smile once more, as they catch up and seat me in. I'm given a headset to talk, "Welcome to The Bird, young lady! We're gonna take you to the big job!" A young man, probably older than me, says. Within seconds we are lifted off of the ground, into the air, and we are passing over the capital of Voulnic.
Minutes later I find myself passing through a force field into a concrete confine. "Huh." I say looking down on the world; "Guess I'll be working here."
Then the man's voice driving chimes up again, "When we drop you, pull the string on your pack!"
"What!" I say wide-eyed, then my seat gives out from under me and I begin to fall to the building. There's a small hole in the roof that I GUESS I'm supposed land in. I pull the cord. It breaks. I begin spiraling in mid air, "No, no, no.." I reach for the back up, finding just in time. My hearts are racing as I drift down.
I fall into the building, tumbling into the floor. My parachute catches the hole and blacks the room. I tug on it, no give. Then, a hologram starts up explaining to me my job as a bio-genetic engineer. Even as the lights switch on, and I walk over to my work station after getting out of my parachute and into my uniform, I still wonder: what is the virus for?