The Delmarian Influence

Chapter Three

3.

4100 O.E., Septam 18, 07:55:40.08

Habitable Planetary System of Delmar

Delmar I, Continent of La Gordia, City of Essix

“It’s not that I don’t think the current government doesn’t work, it’s just that I think we should have a bit more freedom,” Dania Gamber said as Garett wheeled her into the classroom. “I mean, we never hear much about the Confederate, except what is filtered through the papers.”

Garett hated when she got into one of her moods.  They were friends since the moment he was chosen to be her Legs. They were both ten when they met and Dania was paralyzed to the wheel chair even then, her body unable to become accustomed to the gravity on Delmar I.

“Dania, we live within a dampening field. No outside communication is going to get through to us, especially in La Gordia. The papers have to do what they can from the message torps that come through every two years,” Garett repeated his argument for maybe the hundredth time since they had known each other and learned about the Great Dampening.

“Do you want to go to Old Creek after the test?” Dania asked suddenly, flipping her long dark hair back to meet his eyes.

Garett smiled at the green-eyed girl. “What will your parents say?”

“I wrote them a note,” her lips twitched as she said this. She always had trouble doing things that were not quite right.

Some doctors said it was a leftover from the Great Dampening. Nanites that controlled moral conditioning remained in some and the shadows of their existence were sometimes written directly into people. There was not a person in the known universe that didn’t have nanites whether they were Human or Delmarian. The technology didn’t exist in La Gordia to remove them, and, to Garret’s knowledge, no one had ever tried.

“Well?” Dania demanded as he put the wheel chair next to others in their station. The decals for The Gastions folk band marked Dania’s wheel chair as unique in comparison to the heavily painted others with dragons or thunderbolts or to her great displays of artistry.

“Well what?” he lifted her from the wheel chair and she threw her arms about his neck.

“Look, I brought some Greelian brandy, and I know you have a few smokers left. I saw you roll them yesterday.”

He placed her in the wooden desk next to his own, surveying the classroom as others took their seats. He lowered his voice as the sun dipped behind a cloud, darkening the room for a moment as he spoke.

“You know those aren’t good for you.”

“Consider it a send-off before you leave for the great unknown. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“You could compromise—“

“My heart?” she finished for him. “Garett Tylin, how many times have I done that after a smoker and a little brandy?” her lips quirked again.

“Dania—“ he whined.

“Garett,” she whined back.

“Fine, but we’ll share one.”

“I—“

She didn’t finish what she was about to say as Mr. Felstein entered the classroom, setting down his brief case and sitting at the edge of his desk.

Students that were standing at the windows soon took their own desks and waited. Most of them were curious to know what Mr. Felstein had readied for their last class of Government Systems.