Prized possession.

Part one.

Mate day was always a busy mess in the colony.

The pod door sliding open followed by the flash of a green light awoke Lyra from her slumber.

She could swear that only recently she had closed her eyes and she was still exhausted.

She reluctantly slid out of the bed and put on some plain white pants and shirt, the usual clothing worn by every female procreator in the colony.

She then proceeded to file out of her pod and follow the other females into the mess hall.
Lyra could smell the food from a mile away, she was a big foodie and always enjoyed a good meal. Unfortunately, in the colony most meals are stale but nutritious.

Lyra walked over to one of the many scanners in the hall, she lifted her wrist band up to the machine. It beeped, verifying her identity and platting out a nutritional meal designed just for her.

She looked down at the food in front of her, in one section of the plate there was dried apricot to boost her iron levels, two slices of whole grain bread to lower her cholesterol and finally a cup of some sort of vegetable smoothie.
With a sigh Lyra made her way over to the tables in the mess hall, in the far right corner sat the only people she would consider as friends in this cruel place.

She sat down, dropping her plate on the table which created a bang, startling her friends around her.
To her right was Cygnus, he was a year older than Lyra but you couldn't tell, if anything he acted like a 5 year old. He had short dirty blonde hair and he was rather tall.

next to Cygnus was Mensa, Lyra's girl best friend. They were almost inseparable except from when they were in their pods. Mensa was the complete opposite in appearance compared to Lyra. She had short platinum blonde hair and blue eyes, her skin fair. Even though they looked nothing alike, they were the perfect pair. They shared interests and traits and have been friends for as long as Lyra can remember.

Finally, Orion.
He sat in front of Lyra, they hadn't been friends very long but they had hit it off. Out of the group he looked the most like Lyra but they had very different personalities. In looks, they both shared grey eyes, dark hair and a similar height. However, Lyra was very athletic and spoke different languages whereas Orion was artsy and a mathematical wiz.

"What's bothering you now?" Mensa leaned over to see Lyra.

"This food, it's absolutely boring!" She moaned, placing her hands under her chin.

Orion chuckled, filling his mouth with lentil soup and bread.
"I mean mines pretty nice"

"Of course it is! I don't even know why you get the food stuff?" Lyra snarled.

"I clearly have low cholesterol and iron."

"So do I!" Lyra was sulking now more than ever.

"Let's just stop moaning about our food okay?" Cygnus rolled his eyes.

In the colony we are all named after constellations instead of having real names. I think it's a way of making us feel less humane and different to those workers with casual names.

Lyra scoffed down her food as well as she could without gagging at the mere taste of it.

"Well happy mate day!" Mensa sighed.

"It's unfair" Lyra blurted out her mouth full of bread.

"It's no so bad, maybe you won't be chosen this time?" Cygnus tried to reassure her.

"I'm always chosen, you know I'm the most expensive model in our unit."

" talking yourself up." Orion sniggered.

"What, I am!" She raised her voice at him. "If I had a choice I'd be as mediocre as the rest of them"

Finishing their plates the group began to tidy theirselves up and prepare for mate day.

Mate day happened once every 40 weeks, it's a usual event here in the colony where every model was put up for auction.
Rich couples view our profiles and decide who they want to 'produce' their baby.

I've been auctioned 3 times, each time I've been chosen and each time I've had to bear a child. It was hard to give someone a part of me that I had carried for 9 months but colony rules, you can't keep your offspring.

"Can unit E please go to the Auction room, thank you" a voice came through the speakers located in each room around the colony.

"Well, I guess we should go?" Mensa shrugged with a frown.

Nobody was excited for mate day, we were forced to have intercourse with someone not if our choice to create a life and yet we couldn't keep the life we created, it was given to a stranger.

We all walked to the auction room, Lyra walking as slow as she could to put off the auction.
She knew very well she was going to be auctioned, why wouldn't she? She was genetically perfect, and with another perfect person that child would be something no one would ever have seen. It would also cost a lot of money, which made the owners of the colony extremely fond of Lyra, well not of her, of her genes and the generations she provided.

After scanning their wristbands to get access to the room they all sat down in assigned seats.
The seats decided by how much you cost.
Mensa and Cygnus were a row behind Lyra and Orion, followed by at least 3 other people.

"It's going to be okay" Orion whispered into her ear, he must of noticed the look of hurt and worry on her face. I mean who couldn't?

"Okay, model 318" the voice from within the speaker introduced Lyra to the auctioneers hidden behind the one way mirror in front of them.

Lyra sighed "Here we go again" she thought to herself.