gets into The Nest, no, is clearly allowed into The Nest without a chaperone. We are always told that any stranger to The Nest will be chaperoned by one of the Monos. Then the said stranger is allowed to wander around our living pod deck. Where was security at this point? What has happened to the threat of all the cameras reviewing our every move? Are they only sensitive to our Evo-signature? Or, more likely, this visit was planned and cleared by the Grand Acer and they knew exactly what The Captain was doing.
We continued to travel along the shiny echoing corridors to our edu-pod. It was earlier than usual, so the sounds were easier for me to cope with. We continued to guess the role of âThe Captainâ but with our limited experience of anything other than what they want us to know, we were sadly lacking in ideas. Lily, ever the optimist, thought it may be a system check and that the flask was just delivered by The Captain because he was coming anyway. Perhaps it was a rare and favourite beverage of the Grand Acers.
Whatever the reason for the visit, Mrs Alder was at her station and ready to lecture with gusto by the time we sidled in.
âGirls, it is with enormous pleasure, pride and no small amount of excitement that I have felt the need to bring you to attention early this fine morning,â sang Mrs Alder.
âRecently, I have received wonderful news regarding your knowledge scores. They are some of the highest on record. This allows us to apply for The Harvest early, in fact we here in The Nest, are to say farewell to you all in just three weeks! We are to be ready for the Ascension tests on October the 8th.â
Three weeks, thatâs twenty-one days! I donât think they have included me in their calculations. I will not be ready. There are no signs of my Evo-gene maturing. Not that I am expecting to grow a third arm or increase my head size twofold, but I was assuming that I would have a day when I would wake up and the fuzz about my gifts would clear. I would begin to build some understanding of my next step. At this instant in time I have but a weird dream to go on. Absolutely no one else has mentioned being told about their skills in a dream. The only hope I could pin on those dreams is that I am in fact psychic and have been interpreting my dreams incorrectly all along. Perhaps the tusked mammal is actually a representation of Mrs Alder leading me to Ascension.
âMae I donât know what is really going on in your head but can you please remove the vision of Mrs Alder as a hideous sea mammal from my head. It is most unhelpful,â communicated Lily through a stifled giggle.
There was a small whimper from the back of the room, as we all turned around like a shoal of fish. We witness the imploding mind of Summer trying to work around the new deadline for our Graduation.
âItâs really unfair girls. We have ordered sumptuous fabric from Intentionality but it wonât arrive until we have already been Acers for a week! Now what will we wear for the dance?â
Work will begin in earnest after Mrs Aldersâ announcement. Each of us will also begin checking our brain and sensory reactions for anything new. Mrs Alder says that sometimes in extreme cases the Seeder has to have their skill explained to them as it is actually new! Like another evolutionary shift. Perhaps that is what we are, my sister and I. There is no record of twins anywhere in the Seeder history. However their occurrence was quite common in the old world. So I canât see that just being a twin makes us extremely gifted.
Soon we will be able to think quicker, be able to react to practical situations or answer theoretical questions relating to our gift without having been trained.
Now that the excitement is over, lessons begin with gusto. I lock down my brain, check my watch and begin the count down for lunch.
Eight
September 17th.
Morning Craig,
How is life down in the rust bucket with the
Learning to Kill: Stories