Chapter 1: My Dear Friend

It had been 3 years since we learned about the Sa’arm and the Confederacy. I lived in a small town on the west coast of the States. My family had moved here 5 years ago when I was 12. We moved here because my family had obviously too liberal minds for the conservative government of a small country in Southeast Asia. My parents were involved in the democratic movement aiming to overthrow a king, the root of all the corruption and fanaticism of our people. But the movement was ended really quickly by the government’s brutal response. Hundreds died on the streets, thousands more perished from the purge. I did not remember it much, but back then all my thoughts were about playing video games and reading books (yeah what a nerd).

After we moved to the US, strangely enough, my parents never talked about it. I speculated that because a lot of their friends were executed and they had made lots of tough decisions, to abandon their comrades? Possibly, I will never know. At least they had some connections helping us to move here and get refugee visas pretty quickly. I had once tried to Google my parents in the news but, just as expected, the government suppressed all news to the world, and then time passed by until I didn’t care anymore.

As you may find my English might be somewhat strange, the expressions can be weird and the grammar structure might be messy; that is because I am not a native speaker.

Back to the story, where should I start? So, my parents were now high school teachers (and it was my school, so it sucks). Though they did not work as professors at the university anymore, they seemed happy with it.

My life seemed to constantly change and move forward at a pace that always makes me uncomfortable. When I was in 8th grade, just settling in with the new environment and new language, we learned about the Sa’arm and the Confederacy. Long story short, the alien species called Sa’arm were bad guys. They expanded their civilization by consuming all the species they came across. There was no way to talk or negotiate with them. Earth was on their path too, though luckily there was also the Confederacy of alien species with highly advanced technology trying to stop them. They couldn’t actually fight to protect themselves or the Earth, though, they needed humans to join and do the fighting. Their solution was to evacuate the human population to other colonies, but they could not evacuate all of us. So the CAP test system was established to evaluate the people who were very suitable to the Confederacy’s manner of life. If you pass the score of 6.5 you will become a sponsor, the higher the score you get the more slots you will be granted for your concubines. Concubines were people with a score lower than 6.5, acting as second-class citizens. Sponsors can choose their concubines at the pickup site. After they were under the Confederacy regime, a sponsor would own their concubine’s life. The sponsor–concubine system was created to boost human reproduction. So the concubine was nothing but a sex slave; livestock, baby factory, and such. You can take the test after you reach 14 and you can re-test on your birthday every year. On top of everything, this was the only way you could survive the invasion of the Swarm.

Strangely enough, my parents seemed to be pro-Confederacy even though, in my thoughts, the Confederacy’s conduct was nothing but slavery and oppression. My family had many conversations about it. I found myself condemned to a life offered by the Confederacy. My parents viewed it as just another mode of living to survive the catastrophic extinction of mankind. Everyone seemed to think like that. The person who had this idea, and troubled me the most, was Bethany. She was a half-Asian, half-white American girl, age 17, the same age as me, who had helped me a lot when I moved here.

Bethany was a girl next door. She was of diverse races. Her mother had no idea about her ancestors since she was raised in an orphanage. I was quite an expert at identifying Asians. So I speculated that she was from Far East Asian (possibly Chinese). Then she married a white American and had Bethany. Half breeds are often good-looking because of the diversity of the gene pool; they teach you that in biology class. It was quite true. This white Asian girl was stunning and charming. She was also quite smart and a good thinker.

She was my best friend. We have known each other since we were young. So, the idea that she could be my girl didn’t happen to me. For her, I think Beth stepped up to help me because I was a brother figure to her. She told me that she always wanted to have a brother. That was why nothing had happened between us.

We loved reading and thinking and were compatible. We can have hours of conversation. It was fun to talk to her because she was open-minded and always keen to talk about difficult topics. When it came to debate, it was so hard for me to win an argument against her.

Bethany was a sponsor, the first time she took a CAP test she passed it at 6.7. She re-tested every year, her final score was 7.0 which granted her 4 slaves, and yes I preferred the term slave rather than a concubine. You may see that I did not adore the Confederacy so much. I just can’t agree with the slavery system. However, I rarely compelled anyone to do anything I thought they should or shouldn’t do. So, the first time Beth told me that she was going to go for the test, I encouraged her. Even though, at that moment, I deep down felt a bit crack in my heart. Maybe because I knew that a smart person like her would definitely make it, which meant that one day, a random day, we would be parted. Luckily it had been 2 years now and she was still here.

Of course, she had asked me to give it a go to the test. She often brought this topic up lately. Like today, she just popped it out when we were in the canteen having lunch. Beth always treated me like a brother. Sometimes she acted like she was my little sister, sometimes she took the role of big sister but this time her voice was as if she was my mom.

“I just don’t understand your decision not to go, or even why you won’t take the test. I knew about your slavery thing, blah, blah, blah. But I think you would have a good shot at being a volunteer. You shouldn’t think so much about how we’re going to live in the Confederacy. They’re just our only way out; our only way to survive.”

“Come on, Beth, I told you ten thousand times over.” I put my fork on my plate. “I am totally O.K. with dying here. I mean ... what is the point of living in the first place when you join the Confederacy? All your dreams will be neglected because everyone’s job is only to fight the Sa’arm. There is no future for us anymore. For me, I can just die right now. The sole reason why I won’t stick this fork in my throat right now is just wanting to see the wicked end of humanity.”

“That’s a point! This isn’t about you, it’s about mankind. How can you just let go of the human race? Don’t think only about yourself, think bigger. Everyone should contribute to mankind.”

“Screw the human species, Beth. Why should it continue after all the problems we’ve made, the wars, and the destruction of the environment? We made over a hundred thousand species of plants and animals extinct throughout our conquest of the earth. We waged a hundred thousand years of war against our kin, the Neanderthal, and eradicated them to the last of their kind. We built our civilization on the doom of others just like the Sa’arm. Now we just happen to be on the wrong side of the table. So, this is all fair.”

“I’ll keep talking ‘til you come to your senses. This is not about the way of nature. It’s about us and what we can do. We can’t just wait to die, even though it makes some stupid sense in your mind that we should be consumed by a greater species. But I will not allow that, and whether we get help from the Confederacy or not, I think I will fight back. This is what defines us as human. We are not subjects of nature, we can just fight against them. Sometimes I wonder if you’re really a human, Nietzsche.”