Oct 09th, 2336
Skodj had tuned out his surroundings, listening to underwater bagpipe bands and playing a soothing random light pattern behind his eyes. Returning to his natural senses, he glanced around furtively, looking for Amrite. One of her favorite lieupons was slowly melding back into the floor, indicating that she had just left.
He was short, barely 140 cm. His height was loosely designed by genetic manipulation at conception. He had been made strong by spending the first 16 years of his life in 3gs. His then-thin frame was a combination of genes, exercise, and training, all combined to ensure that when he transitioned from the Maturation to Labor stage of his life, he'd be perfect for exploring and exploiting asteroids.
However, his work environment and routine had conditioned him to absorb or eat whenever and whatever was available. Now, 21 cycles into the Family stage, he had not completely curbed this habit. Combined with the usually lower gravity, much less exertion, and unlimited access to sustenance, he had slightly more than doubled his girth and mass. Not that this bothered him, not in the least. It was not a health issue; there was little the machines swimming in his blood could not fix, so health was almost an unknown issue. And his wives and husband were perfectly happy with his appearance. Had it been otherwise, he'd have had Janice take steps to correct the matter.
He looked much like a short, recently retired lumberjack of Earth. He had a thick twist of dull red beard and a shaved head except for small spires of curled black hair above the ears; one of the current styles for men in their 50s. He had some of the lightest skin in the coalition. Technically second-generation as his father was one of the immortals, his genes did not possess the gray hues and passive features common after centuries of miscegenation. Some days this made him insecure. Other days, like now, he rebelled against those feelings and dressed only in dark colors. Today he wore a featureless charcoal gray sring, a square with a hole in the center for one's head, worn which hung across the front and back, coming to a point just below the waist and cinched loosely, on each side, by a single cord. Below the waist, he wore a knee-length kilt. Another way of proclaiming he was MacNaomhán's offspring. Like most, he was barefoot.
His eyes made one last sweep of the room. Katja and Linda chatted, propped up on opposing ends of a shared lieupon. It looked comfortable enough but plain without a drop of whimsy. Clearly Linda's summoning. Katja was always more artistic. Otherwise, the room was mostly white and empty, primitive and cave-like; no one had been in the mood to even straighten walls or use a preset. One edge was straight with a minimalist door. Someone, it had to be Amrite, had crafted a separate room. Most likely, she was lying down. He relaxed a little. All morning she had been spoiling for a fight, and not suited for diplomacy, he rationalized that any other member of the pod would be better able to shoulder that task and so had been ducking verbal traps all morning. It was tiring.
* * * *
Marn and Katja were much taller than the rest, leaving Amrite next in stature, standing just half a dozen centimeters higher than Skodj. While Earthers would disagree, by either Belt or crater standards, she was the prettiest one in their pod. With moderately oversized dark red eyes and lengthy matching hair, medium gray skin, firm small bosom, and long slender fingers, she had had many suitors. However, she found everyone too similar. She didn't care about looks, and with Janice practically supplying their memories, opinions, and thoughts, if you didn't actively work at thinking, rather than simply relying on Janice, you were interchangeable, as far as she was concerned. Amrite loved thinking for herself, and naturally, she treasured it in others.
Not podded, a woman remained in the Labor stage until 35, just like a male. But podded, she can move to the Family stage at 30. Thus, most women choose to join a pod soon after becoming eligible. So from the moment she turned 29, she pulled up the pod info for everyone she saw. That was easy. If she glanced at Katja right now and thought about her pod info, suddenly she would 'remember' this information:
The Rand208 Pod
Name Age Stage Field
Skodj 56 Family Sculptor
Marn 66 Family Scavenger
Linda 51 Family Philosopher
Katja 62 Family Botany
Amrita 31 Family Mother
Progenitors Sibling Age Stage Function
Marn + Linda Ao 20 Labor Filtration
Skodj + Linda Whrendran 15 Labor Recycling
Marn + Katja Theodia 29 Labor Farming
Skodj + Katja Jeje (male) 33 Labor Maintenance
Amrita (unity) Khalla 0 Maturation Ambassador
And she could remember anything about any member just by searching her memory for it.
After months of endless blandness, one day her work as a recycler crossed her path with Skodj. His father was one of the immortals! What a childhood he must have had. The stories he must have heard. Over the next few weeks, she studied his pod. Few pods changed makeup once formed, but his had already done so once. Maybe they would again. And she saw one possibility: their last child would be entering Labor this year, moving the pod on from Family to Student. Some longed for and cherished this, some dreaded it, but some felt nostalgia for Family. And as you could only have one child per pod partner, adding a member was the only way.
She had Janice tell her of his locations so she could accidentally cross his path repeatedly while she thought of several methods of machinations. In the end, she just laid out her thinking and proposal to the pod, hoping the ideas, intellect, and affability would carry the day.
Deliberations went on for months. There was no reason to rush. At least the idea had not been rejected out of hand. In the end, it was the idea of a unity baby that tipped the scales in her favor. In unity, Janice picks the best genes of each member of the pod and creates a genome. In essence, each member is the parent.
A sharp kick pulled her from her revelry. She shifted uncomfortably. At 8½ months, the beast in her belly was just about 10% of her body weight. Thankfully, only craterists gave birth naturally anymore. Amrite was cranky – Linda and Katja were adeptly giving her space while simultaneously remaining only seconds away.
Looking at her three possible opponents, she was suddenly overcome with a resigned wave of tiredness. She thought of standing, and suddenly gravity shifted all around her, floating her up, straightening her out, and positioning her to standing, leaving her at a third of a g. She smiled at the thought that none of the others got this treatment. Then again, they didn't need it.
As Amrite maneuvered her swollen form lightly across the room, Janice inquired, at a level of consciousness so low she was hardly aware of it, whether she was coming back soon. She informed Janice she was going to take a nap. Behind her, the situpon began to dissolve into the floor. Linda and Katja had no need to pause their conversation to inquire after her – Janice would relay any needs as they arose.
* * * *
When Marn was away, Katja always felt like a tree among shrubs. You weren't supposed to pick favorites, but it had been Katja and Marn for a few years before expanding the pod. Then they met Skodj and Linda, and everything just clicked. Then 14 years later, last year, Amrite.
She stopped listening to Linda. Janice would catch her up instantly and alert her if her input was needed. It was a tell that she fingered the jagged, Y-shaped scar that ran up the right side of her face stopping just short of her eye.
Traditionally, Labor function is planned at birth, and if the pod consents, the genome is subtly altered. As the genome is known, and the environment can be predicted, the adult form is, within some deviation, known at conception. However, even with all of Janice's foreknowledge and logistics, the future does not always conform to planning. Katja, fated to be a food server to the miners, found herself through need, skill, passion, and ambition working as a tunneler scout. Spending a fair amount of her time weightless increased her height by around 20cm over original projections. Already crafted to be tall and wiry, she was a full head taller than Marn, nearly 210cm. Few, except stockers, were taller. She looked elongated, like someone had stretched her in childhood.
Her skin was mottled, dark gray, and even darker, almost black, patches distributed heavily all over. This was radiation protection, now vestigial. Her wide-set eyes were as dark as her pupils, giving her the impression of being interested regardless of her true interest. Her head was exfoliated except for two twin hedges of pure white, almost twig-like hair near the top of her scalp, about 10cm high, running from the forehead halfway down the neck. Her lips were thin and often set in a determined line.
A strict regime of martial arts training kept her strong, toned, limber, and poised. Her movements were always precise and graceful. Requiring more time for Amrite, she had been slacking off her routine somewhat, and she felt herself missing it: body and mind. She had had Janice increase her g's, but it just wasn't the same.
She continued to trace the scar with a finger. Linda was the only one in the pod who wouldn't pick up on that, she thought. Healers could have easily repaired the damage, but accidents were extremely rare, and scars were badges of interest. When anyone can recall a list of someone's cosmetic surgeries, being unaltered has its appeal. Almost no one modifies themselves after conception.
Meanwhile, her mind drifted over Belt culture.
The age difference didn't matter in pod arrangements. It was impossible to tell hardly any changes in a Belter's age from about 25 to 140. And with Janice filling in any generational cultural information and experiences, wisdom is arguably the only difference.
And 15 more years of free-form botany in her free time. She wasn't looking forward to Student. But that was the way it went. 0-14: Maturation, 15-(30-35): Labor, Join/form a pod: Family, last child leaves the pod: Student, 10 years later: Craftsman, 140: Retired. The lifespan of a colonist extends up to 200 years, all thanks to the ceaseless functioning of precision technology. This technology, which was vital to their health and longevity, abruptly shuts down at the end of their 200th year.
This way of life is a leftover from the aftermath of the second great collapse on Earth. Those calamitous events had propelled humanity into a journey that led to the formation of these colonies. Janice, an overarching presence maintaining orderly life in these colonies, has this rule of population control hardwired into its programming.
Every facet of Janice's programming intricately shapes the experience of every colonist. While it provides longevity, it also precisely determines mortality. Every citizen knows the timing of their demise, making every moment meaningful. Even the original immortals, given limitless life, found eternity unbearable, with 80% choosing to end their existence. The citizens never forgot these sobering truths backed by Janice's reminders.
Labor was the jobs no one wanted to do. Learned by doing. Your price for all the resources you would be using the rest of your life. It was long hours in usually tedious, mundane work. In truth, Janice could have handled most of these functions, but these years instilled discipline and formed an allegiance to the collective, having striven to become a citizen.
But your Craft is your passion. You get to experiment all you want, change your mind even, during your Family years. So theoretically, Student sounds great. But it isn't. It isn't really learning. Janice has all the information ready for you to remember. It is about building muscle memory, doing something so often that you can literally do it in your sleep. And being able to make the leaps of intuition that Janice can't. Adding to that great store of knowledge. In the end, wonderful. But mind-numbing for a thinker to contemplate.
Like the one-child-per-member law, it made the Belt function, and function well. It couldn't be disobeyed, Janice was their birth control. If you didn't like it, you were still young enough to function without Janice overseeing your body's function. Have your nanites removed and head to the edges of the Belt, create your own resources, and live however you wanted. Craterists.
* * * *
Linda was easy to overlook. Designed to be calming, she was short and slight, almost childlike. In Labor, she had been an empathizer. Her function was to improve morale, ease grievances, improve moods, and generally make sure the day-to-day grind ran smoother. Usually, with few being aware of her involvement in their affairs.
In the pod, she made use of that training. Everyone tended to tell her their troubles. She was easy to talk to, a natural listener. She was often mistaken for mousy, passive, and unobservant. Few seemed to notice that she always got her way.
Currently, she was sitting next to Katja, distracting her from missing Marn by recalling tales from her youth. She had had an interesting pod and was armed with many colorful tales. She was aware that Katja was not listening to her, but she would be talking when she needed her to be. Linda was the unsung glue that held the pod together.
She had auburn hair, about half as long as she was. Pulled up loosely by a gravity band, her hair formed the shape of a flame at the end of a match. This style suited her as it stretched out her round face and made her appear taller. She wore a royal purple plush choker attached to a single matching full-length sleeve that ended in a black lace glove. It was the only thing she was wearing.
She kept talking, but inwardly looked to see what Skodj was seeing. Still playing meditation lights. She was growing in concern for him, but not yet to the level of action. Amrite was dark, probably asleep. Janice did not have the ability to see dreams; one of the few areas of privacy left. Marn was watching the Earth grow larger. He would land tomorrow, she 'remembered.'