For Humanity’s Sake

| YEAR 2699 |

| Concord City |

| PLANET GALATEA |

Noah walked on the footpath with a canvas bag slung over his shoulder. He kicked a stone to the curb. It bounced on the asphalt and banged into a utility pole. He hit the pole on his first try and looked around for appreciation from bystanders. There was none.

It wasn't very crowded on the 7th street of Area G, one of the eight human settlements of Concord. Shabby-looking people went about their gloomy lives, paying no attention to his pole-hitting feat. The ramshackle buildings on either side faded into the shadows of the evening.

Loud noises were forbidden after 6 P.M. An occasional enforcement vehicle went by with its flashers blinking.

Noah was headed for the evening classes of his final year at Synergy High. The school was open both in the early and the late hours. Not that anybody could tell the difference at the time of the year.

It was three weeks into the eclipse quarter when the Zort cloud passed between planet Galatea and the suns. The world was in complete darkness for three months. Galateans could still see the stars, but the four satellites- Galos, Tela, Plena, and Egel were no longer visible in the night sky.

The Zort cloud was a dense layer of icy objects that obscured the binary stars, Rusus and Afel, for a quarter of the year. Energy was conserved in power plants during the sunlit months to make reserves for the eclipse quarter.

The highlight of the period was frequent meteors streaking across the sky. It was more intriguing to watch the Deviant Objects Mechanical Exterminator (DOME) wiping them off the sky as soon as they entered the atmosphere.

Noah wasn't in the best of his moods. He walked on, reflecting on the afternoon's events.

"Why don't you just send him back to the colony orphanage?" his foster mother had asked his foster father after lunch, well within Noah's earshot.

"What do you mean by 'send him back', woman? Do you think I have a choice? The government assigns orphans to families. If we decline, not only do we break the law and risk punishment, but the allowances will be discontinued as well. I'll kick him out when he gets a job."

Noah scoffed. The orphan well-being allowances that Child Services wired were never spent on him. He lived in the garage and ate leftovers.

Well, not that the government really cared about human children. It was all a charade for public approval.

His foster parents were greedy and doted on their natural children.

There was Cory, his foster brother. He was fifteen years old and was a freshman at Synergy High. Even though he was three years younger, Cory was taller, athletic, and treated Noah with disdain.

Lia, twelve, was his little sister. She was enrolled in the colony's community middle school. Lia was the only person in the world who cared about him. It was Noah's eighteenth birthday, and nobody except her had wished him yet.

The boy rounded the street and took a left towards Synergy High's postern gate.

The school was technically within the Sanctum, the restricted part of Concord where the upper classes lived. Most of the power reserve was diverted to fuel the advanced technology of the Sanctum. The colonies were allowed technology several centuries old with a negligible share of electricity.

Seven years back, after the Moulin amendment of the Covenant government was passed, students from all races, including those in the colonies, were allowed to attend the trade schools. Apparently, centuries of favoritism and nepotism had led to a human resource crisis. The workforce from the colonies was hired for technical jobs again after being educated in Sanctum schools.

However, students from elite families were given differential treatment. Those from human colonies, especially housing the weakest race, had to bear the brunt of the neglect.

Humans, cyborgs, hybrids, and clerics from all non-sanctum settlements met at Synergy High's rear gate and entered the school.

A sixty feet high wall running across three hundred miles separated the Sanctum from the lowly colonies.

Humans were under a lot of restrictions, primarily for their own safety. Common knowledge was that they could be easily overpowered, robbed, raped, or killed by offenders of superior races. While everyone from the colonies was bar-coded, entry into the Sanctum was permitted for humans only under exceptional circumstances.

The weakest race had representatives in government, of course. Still, they had to toil to possess vital skills and barely ever made it to the top through promotions.

Noah reached the gate and pulled down his hood. An armored guard took scans of his face and the barcode on his wrist.

The device beeped in recognition.

| Reading… |

| NOAH SHEPHERD |

| Race: HUMAN | | Residence: COLONY G. |

| Student ID: 100266 | | Citizen ID: 1354837 |

"Go ahead."

Noah pulled up his hood and entered. He could hear the guard murmur behind his back. "No idea why they let in the humans, especially measly ones like him. I say it's a horrible waste of resources and time."

Noah completely agreed with the guard. He was five foot six, pitifully skinny, and had pale skin, making it appear as if he perpetually had the flu. The boy was malnourished, and if it were not for the weekly vaccines and meals provided at Synergy High, he would be bedridden.

Noah kept his hood pulled up most of the time as he did not want to be noticed. It was better to be invisible than end up being made fun of and bullied. He had to somehow get through the final year at Synergy High.

The hologram of Headmaster Malcolm flickered over the school building's entrance, playing on a loop.

< UNIFICATION OF ALL RACES IS THE ONLY PATH TO MAKE CONCORD CITY AND GALATEA PROSPER… >

'Yeah, right!' Noah thought. He had learned to ignore the empty promises of race unification and equal treatment. The school had full-credit courses on the subject, yet both the staff and the stronger races treated humans like scum. Even the wealthy humans living in the Sanctum looked down on the colony residents.

Invalids like him suffered the worst.

Noah was short, weak, non-athletic, and showed no promise in studies. The only thing he was good at was playing video games. He borrowed Lia's gaming device every night and, over the years, had developed a formidable gamer's presence.

The MMORPG game KNIGHTS OF REGIA was his favorite.

Noah's only friends were online. They knew him as LoveLord15. It was a random, tacky choice of a pseudonym. Noah had stuck to it for no particular reason.

GoulagSlayer13 was his best friend and partner in most gaming campaigns. He couldn't wait to return home and play Knights of Regia. GoulagSlayer13 was probably another measly kid like him, escaping reality.

Noah skimmed through the crowd of students with his head down and found his locker. A bar code scanner identified him and opened it for him.

He returned to the wave of students and finally found his classroom.

Noah preferred to be a backbencher, but the teachers always made him sit in the middle. It was school policy to tutor the beleaguered ones strictly.

The entire arrangement made him claustrophobic. He would be happy to finish his final year at Synergy High and perhaps work as a gadget repairman in the colonies. Noah had no skills or talents, but he knew his way around primitive technology.

Students filed into the classroom. He recognized a few faces.

There was Cory James, the Class President. Six feet tall, rakishly good-looking, and very popular among the girls. He was a hybrid.

Alice Harper entered with her girls' entourage. She was the campus belle, voluptuous, and most desirable. Another hybrid.

Piper Lee, a cyborg, sat in a corner with two reading devices. He was a nerd of the highest order and spent most of his time on his online gadgets. Noah suspected Piper was an avid gamer like him.

Students were forbidden to showcase any abilities in school unless they were asked to for evaluation or experiment. However, it was not difficult to figure out a student's race once you put your mind to it.

Mrs. Samantha Gosling, the Deputy Headmistress, entered the classroom and asked for silence. She was a tall, red-head cyborg in her early thirties.

"Today, we have a transfer student from Symbiosis High."

Symbiosis was an elite school in Harmony city. It was one of the top trade schools in Galatea. Valedictorians from Synergy often transferred to Harmony. It was surprising to see the other way round.

"Class, please welcome her to Synergy."

The transfer student entered on cue and stood beside Mrs. Gosling. The class let out a collective expression of wonder.

She was gorgeous, with blonde hair and an athletic body that would put the school champion to shame. Even Noah pulled down his hood to have a better look.

The girl raised her doe eyes to the class.

"Hi, everyone! I am Eve Trinity."