PROJECT SNOW (A Science Fiction Fairy Tale)

Part 1

It begins with a prick, the sharp sting of pierced flesh.

Amara gasps as her blood bubbles up, glossy and red on the tip of her finger, ready to fall like a piece of ripe fruit. A slight squeeze; the drop lands in the collection tray with the tiniest ping of a splash, the tray slips into the analyzer with a much louder hiss.

"Analyzation commencing."

The words echo around her in that digi voice so pleasantly bland, it sounds ominous. The lab's aetherscreen hums to life, an iridescent swirl of symbol and text and soft rainbow light tainting her reflection a ghostly hue.

Amara eyes the glass wall in the back, scanning past the lush swathe of green that separates Tower from City, a twinkling mirage of domes and spires amid snow-covered peaks. She hunts out the spire that tops the Lyceum, the sterile school compound where most City kids live until confirmation. The school Amara would have grown up in as well, were she not a royal daughter confined to the Tower.

Sixteen years is simply too flooding long to be quarantined from the world with only her sisters and staff for company.

Not that it matters now, not with her prelim today. No more giddy-sick waiting for immunity to finally, finally be confirmed. Just this last prick of the finger, then she'll be authorized for her confirmation medscan.

"Analyzation complete..." The digi voice fills the room with Amara's prelim results, all the proteins and minerals and other engineered things that make up her being.

Her heart thumps faster now. She'll be confirmed soon. And after that: freedom.

The attending doctor emerges as if peeled from the wall, a chiseled brown shadow in a stark white coat. Attached to the coat is a clear badge that reads: Bannerjee.

Dr. Bannerjee taps quickly at the psi-pad held in his palm, his long brown fingers a flurry of motion. He pulls up a holo and gives it a spin, watching a micro Amara twirl in his hand like fluttering ribbons of brown and black. Real Amara leans in, mesmerized by this small vision of her that wields so much control of her fate.

Before mini Amara can stop spinning and full-size Amara can parse what she sees, the doctor stops the holo abruptly, squashes it out of existence with his free hand. He stares hard at the quartz aetherscreen, a small crease forming between his two perfect brows.

For one endless second, his mask of composure falls completely away, revealing a truth hidden there: Surprise. Confusion. But mostly alarm.

Amara's heart thumps faster still.

"Is everything okay?" she asks, her voice made small by the sudden heaviness of her tongue, the inexplicable lump in her throat.

She receives no response.

Her heart squeezes tight in her chest. Unwanted thoughts push up and out through her blood like a venomous flower in bloom.

What if I can't get confirmed?

What if I'm already infected?

What if I'm stuck here forever?

What if --

"You're all set," Dr. Bannerjee says with a brilliant white smile, his face such a picture of calm certainty, Amara must've only imagined the look. "Your confirmation medscan is tomorrow afternoon, giving us just enough time for this." He holds up a small, opaque envelope. "It will help us see what's going on inside you so we can map you from within."

Inside the pouch, Amara finds a tiny silver pill. She holds it on the tip of her finger, marveling at how it fits right in the center of her bio-mark, the unique identifier that looks just like a whirl of lines on her fingertips.

Amara gulps the pill down, dissolving her poisonous thoughts with it. She has only one thing in mind now.

Confirmation. Tomorrow.

As Amara leaves the medlab, she hums the word in her head, repeats it fervently like an old cherished psalm: To-mor-row! To-mor-row! Confirmation, to-mor-row!

It's all she can do to contain her excitement, requiring every bit of will she possesses to walk and not leap down the halls of the medlab sector. When she passes beneath the first of the lotus-shaped chandeliers, the urge to jump up and touch it is simply too much, so she does. Naturally, she must dance a small jig when she lands, exulting in the staccato tap tap of her bar-strap heels against the marble floor. Imagining all the dancing she'll do at the confirmation ball, and later, in her newly confirmed life in the city.

"Princess. Ahem." Dr. Bannerjee's voice floats up behind her, startling her back to the now. The lacy black mesh of her filtration veil hangs from his outstretched brown hand. "You've forgotten your filt."

"Oh. Thank you, doctor." She takes the veil, feigning the proper abashed look. She waits for Dr. Bannerjee to disappear from her view before placing the filt on her head, fastening it in a rush without so much as a glance in one of the shiny plaques that label the doors. For once, she doesn't care how she looks; that she's getting confirmed tomorrow is all that matters now.

She conjures the dream she has of herself post-confirmation. When she closes her eyes, she can see it all so clearly, like a holo dancing on the backs of her lids.

Instead of the medlab, she traipses down glittering sidewalks and confetti-filled streets. Instead of exam rooms, behind the frosted glass doors are the clubs she'll get into, the fancy balls she'll attend. For the briefest of moments, the access tube programmed to keep her confined to the top five of the Tower's twenty-five floors becomes the City's zip train, darting mid-sky through glass and steel buildings in whatever sector she'd like. And all the people she'll meet! People who aren't related to her-and aren't servants or scientists, either.

Yes, she can see it. Two years at Uni in her very own loft, an ace life in the City and not a care in the world, all her dreams come true at last.

#

The girls before her had similar dreams.

There were others, you see. Enid and Amrita, sweet little Zee. No one speaks of them now; no one remembers they ever existed. No one but the queen.

Queen Zoya never forgets.

How could she? The soul and blood of the others run through every inch of her. A mother never forgets.

***

Thank you for reading! If you liked this, you can get the complete story for free here:

https://instafreebie.com/free/6adxX