Selective Breeding

Special thanks to Richard McCluney for certain concepts in this story, and Ed Garner for editing.

There's a tendency for some people to openly despise certain others "just because," feeling "life would be so much better if only it wasn't for THEM." In America, it almost always stays just that, talk. Elsewhere in the world, however, it can get beyond ugly. Makes one wonder how Humanity would be seen by any others out there.

In this day and age where one single lunatic can kill dozens with a machine gun, hundreds with a car bomb, and potentially thousands with a nuclear explosion, there are questions how society should respond. Can we go on as before, can we go on but only by changing cherished values, or is Humanity genetically hard-wired for a simpler existence?

With this in mind, what would life be like in a world when the concept of "all men are created equal" is not only a mere historical footnote at best, but in many places not even remembered?

My early childhood was not much to brag about. It was the simple life of a village farmer.

Typical of my days was waking up to the sound of a rooster crowing. I would open my eyes to a room in a simple wooden house lit only by the dim light of the crack of dawn. My bed: a straw mattress and coarse wool blankets. I would get up and dress in my handmade clothes, which usually had a patch or two in the trousers. Then after brief greetings with Mother have breakfast, usually a bowl of plain oatmeal.

After breakfast I would go with other children in the village to do assigned chores, from tending animals, preserving food, fixing clothes, etc. with the potentially more dangerous work reserved for older kids, as well as the fields with the adults. Younger children had a break in mid-morning for an hour of school lessons, a break for lunch, a break in mid-afternoon for another hour of school lessons, then dinner at sundown.

Sundays were different, with only caring for the animals in the early morning. At mid-morning was the Good News at church services, which lasted until lunch. Sunday afternoons were my favorite as I got a chance to play some with the other kids. Then there were the holidays, which were much the same, aside from some not having church.

A simple life.

Most of the children lived in families with brothers and sisters, and sometimes with one or more of the parents' parents or aunt or uncle. There were a couple others whom like me were without siblings and only one parent, Larson who lived with his father and Alyssa who like me lived with her mother. We three became close friends. Unlike most other boys, Larson and I accepted Alyssa with no trouble. Our parents became close friends with each other as well. I eventually noticed one thing, they didn't have many other friends or as close. And they usually acted a little more restrained in public. In fact, at times they seemed sad. Of my own Father, Mother told me he had passed away. Alyssa was told the same about her father and Larson his mother.

I never left the village to go to another. There were others, but kids never went there. My entire view of the world was limited to that tiny village and the land within eyesight of it. The adults only occasionally went elsewhere to trade for something, and would usually come back complaining about being cheated. Most people saw those in other villagers as not to be trusted, and sometimes as evil. Once in a while, I would see adults returning from a trip with one looking beat-up. Or I would see a stranger getting beat up, and if someone got a rope and the stranger was being dragged to a tree, Mother would order me inside. Whenever I asked what happened to him, I was told not to worry about it. Once, a couple with a toddler moved in. Although accepted, they were looked on with suspicion for a long time. My Mother tried to talk to them, for reasons I didn't know then, but they would not talk to her. I did hear a story about a "happy time" when people didn't get sick, lived much better, and didn't have to work as hard, but it came to an end when some other village made a deal with demons.

I liked to read, but the village had only a small selection of books. Most homes had a copy of the Good Book and some had a handful of old farmers' almanacs and maybe a few children's stories. There wasn't much else, and very little on the outside world. My questions about why to adults almost always got responses along the lines of "who knows?" "Why should we care?" and "You shouldn't be asking such questions." Occasionally there would be references to "the city" and "the enforcers" in hushed and fearful tones, but whenever I asked I was always told to keep quiet and to forget what I heard. But of course I never forgot.

Once when Mother was in the woods gathering berries and I was trying to find her, I heard her and Alyssa's mother whispering about "their time in the city" before they spotted me. I was then told not to ask about it or even mention a word of it to others, otherwise bad things could happen to her, her friend, and me. I wondered just what she meant by this, and why this "city" was so feared.

.....

One day, some strangers came to town unlike any others I had seen before. Their clothes were in a style completely unfamiliar to me, symmetrical and without a tear or patch and didn't have a speck of dirt. They wore things over their eyes that reminded me of the blinders on a riding horse, and their duffle bags were hard with corners. Their skin was pale like they weren't out in the sun much. They acted different too, not showing much emotion, and the way they talked seemed, careful.

The adults were nervous around them, even fearful. And when children like me approached out of curiosity, our parents would run over and drag us away. I of course asked why everyone was frightened of them, but was told to keep quiet. After some time, however, a farmer came to Mother and I, and explained they ordered all the children gathered in the schoolhouse for testing.

I expected her to be afraid, but instead she seemed full of hope. She told me to run over there and follow every direction given to me. So I did. A couple of the strangers were there, and they gave us a number of quizzes on paper with all sorts of questions. They seemed particularly interested in me and my two friends. Eventually the tests ended, and we were told to go home.

The next day, one of the men showed up at my house. After greeting Mother, his words were, "Congratulations. Your son passed." Mother then became more ecstatic than I had ever seen her. She then asked when the two of us could leave, and the stranger answered it would be better if it were shortly after they did "so not to arouse suspicion ... we'll leave instructions where to go."

After some more talk that I didn't understand, the stranger left. Mother then told me to go pack my things and get ready to leave. I of course asked why. She just told me to do it and would explain later, expressing her hopes my other two friends made it as well. So I packed, wondering what was going on. Once we finished, we went to Alyssa's house. She was just finishing packing, and her mother was ecstatic with glee.

Checking with Larson however, no one there was packing and none of the strange men had come by. His father had been anxiously waiting, and the mood of the three adults went from giddy to sad. "I'm going to have to spend the rest of my life in this mudhole!" I heard him say. We three kids went off on our own while the three adults talked. We knew we would be parting ways, maybe forever, so we did our best to say goodbye.

It was all too soon that my Mother and Alyssa's mother told us it was time to go. So we left, carrying our few sacks of belongings, leaving our friend Larson and his father behind. Then we were leaving the village itself behind, the only home I had ever known.

We went down the road, and it wasn't long before we were well away from the village and caught up with the strangers. They were next to something that looked very vaguely like a cross between a cart made of metal, a greenhouse, and a windmill facing upward. The strangers asked us to get on. Alyssa and I were very nervous, but our mothers insisted it would be all right. I was even more nervous when the windmill blades began turning, making a much louder noise than they should. I clung to Mother in fear when we were lifting off the ground! But she had no fear at all, only happiness, "We'll soon be in our real home." Eventually, fear turned to fascination as I could see all the land I have ever seen from above! And we flew on, to where I had no idea.

After some time, I noticed what looked like a wall of vegetation, a huge, tall hedge going across the land. It was forty to fifty feet high, and almost as thick. Behind that was a wall almost as tall as the hedge made of stone, with some sections crumbling a little. Then there was a wide river, followed by another taller wall. Behind that, there were a few towers spaced very far apart along the wall, with shacks on top where a few men stayed, watching the river. Alyssa asked what they were doing. Her mother told her they were to make sure no one crossed the river without permission.

On the other side, things were different. There were still trees and grass, but the roads were different. There were a few dirt ones, but all that saw much travel were covered with some kind of stone. The wagons traveling down them did not have horses pulling them, but moved on their own and were made of metal. Buildings themselves were sometimes made out of metal or stone, and occasionally much larger. I soon noticed a group of buildings larger and taller than I could imagine a village could be. Then I saw a still larger group, then one even larger.

It was a completely different world.

Eventually, the flying machine came to some field of stone and slowly came down and landed on it. Mother had to take hold of me to get me to leave as I was still in awe of it all. As we walked into a nearby building, we passed a couple men. One remarked to the other, "Here come the new Mulungens." My Mother gave him a nasty look but remained silent. Alyssa asked her mother what he meant. She answered, "Nothing you have to worry about."

We walked into the building, and through some hallways. All this time I noticed more people in strange, new clothes and strange new smells. Some looked at us with curiosity or revulsion. Most ignored us. We were taken to what one called an "office" and made to wait outside in some chairs. After some time, we were invited in. Alyssa's and my Mother had some words with a man behind a desk, signed some papers, then were handed bags made of some material that could been seen through like glass with some dresses similar to what we saw some other women wore, shiny leather bags, and some shiny cards. "Congratulations," he told them, "Welcome back to society." Then he turned to us, "Welcome to the civilized world. You'll find this is a much more exciting place than the farming village you came from. You won't have to worry about going back as long as you behave yourselves."

After that, our parents took a few minutes to dress into their new clothes in a private room. Then they took us to a nearby building, what they called a "store," one filled with more clothes than I had ever seen, and so many colors, so many varieties, and so NEW! They felt a bit strange, but I was so fascinated by it all, I didn't complain. After that, we got on a carriage-like machine Mother called a "bus." It went down streets of stone, occasionally stopping to let more people on or off. All those people, so many buildings, and how *tall* some buildings could be. I continued to be amazed by it all.

Finally, we stopped at a group of buildings, each which looked a little like it as a number of smaller buildings with their roofs stripped off and fitted together. Alyssia's mother and mine promised to meet up the next day, and we went our separate ways to two of these "apartments" as they called them. Mother and I walked up some stairs in the middle of one of these odd buildings, she used a key to open the door to one, then we went in. Instead of lighting an oil lamp, she lit up the place in an instant with a small switch on the wall. The place was bigger and better than our old home. It had separate rooms, furniture that was a world apart with highly polished tables, chairs with soft material on them, etc., and a cooking room that would have been the envy of anyone back there.

"Here we are," she told me, "we're finally home."

The rest of the day, I became acquainted with the apartment and what was inside, the beds with spring mattresses instead of straw, showers, the stove, the washing machine, and some books on the shelf. She also mentioned something downstairs called a "telephone," and "radio" that was in some public places. I did ask, "That man, who handed you the keys, he told you 'welcome back.' Why did you leave?" She told me she didn't want to talk about it right then, and that was that.

.....

The following day, Alyssa's mother and my on took us to a school building. Once again, larger than any other I had ever seen. We went to another office, and after some time someone came for Alyssa and I. Our mothers told us goodbye, told us to wait in the library after school until they returned, then they left. We were taken to what were called "catch-up" classes. The other students in these classes were friendly to me and Alyssa. It turned out that they all had also been raised in villages. When recess came however, the other students ignored us. Once, I thought I heard some kid mutter that word again, "Mulungen." Asking the others later on, they told me the word was an insult, "It's their way of calling us dummy." Bringing up when some adult mentioned it, I was told they did sometimes as well.

Alyssa and I spent the day learning things that were never brought up back in the village. This "city" was part of a much larger and more complicated world indeed. After school came the library, and we looked over the books. Alyssa found some books on "geography," places in other parts of the world that we never imagined in the village, and history, in the village there was little talk about the past, so in the books we found a sense of time that was very new to us. A quick view of the timeline mentioned something about "The Great Cataclysm" in which the world nearly came to an end, but we had so much to learn, we never got to it before our mothers came.

Our mothers told us they had gotten jobs and were working for money that could be exchanged to buy food and clothes or whatever else was wanted. Alyssa asked her mother why they didn't simply give her the food and clothes, and her mother simply smiled and told us with more people here things were a little more complicated.

Alyssa's mother had a folded pile of paper, and when Alyssa asked what it was she called it a "newspaper." In it were stories about sports games, a vehicle crash, and something about a statement by "Our Leader." In class, before lessons there had been a "pledge" to "Our Leader," and we faced a picture of a man and recited a promise to follow his rules. I didn't think much about it then, but now I asked Mother about him. She told me he as the ruler of this city and many others, and set the laws for everyone. I asked if there was any kind of public meeting for rules, like when adults in the village had a meeting to decide things like who did what chores. She told me no, the rules were either made by Our Leader or men and women he chose to manage cities for him. I then asked how Our Leader was chosen. She became uncomfortable, and told me to stop asking questions about him. And so the talk ended.

The next day at school, Alyssa told me her mother suggested we check out history books from the library to find out more, and so we did. Once at home, I read away at mine. According to the books, there had been a time when everyone lived in small farming villages or wandered about hunting animals for food. Over time, people began living in larger and larger villages, then towns, then cities, doing things other than farming or hunting. Unfortunately, some jealous hunters decided it was easier to attack these settlements and steal their stuff instead of trading for it. Once in a while, it became bad enough for everyone to slip backward into just trying to eat and protect themselves, a "dark age" the book called times like that.

After guns were invented however, no longer did the cities have to worry so much about hordes of tribesmen, and civilization grew and spread. Eventually, millions lived lives of plenty and with nearly everyone having amazing toys that their ancestors could only have dreamed of. However, as the book put it, such lives of plenty led them to become "soft," they abused their system of choosing leaders given to them by their ancestors by bringing into power weak leaders who thought nothing of borrowing from future generations to keep themselves in power, and ignored the places where backward people refused to change and looked upon them with greedy eyes. Sometimes a band of them would strike out and kill a few civilized people. Occasionally some in the civilized world would get mad enough to strike back and stop them for a while. But eventually they would get tired of watching and forget about them.

Then one day a band of them made a kind of bomb. It was fired into space, and made to explode over the most prosperous group of civilized people. The result was all their machines and toys stopped working, and the "Great Cataclysm" began. Many old people and children died, and they came under attack from raiders. Finally, the first of Our Leaders arose. He organized everyone to fight the invaders and punish those who sent the bomb over. Eventually, the backward peoples and everyone who stood in the way of Our Leader was beaten.

Our Leader decided that he could not just simply just walk away and let another band of backwards build another bomb to destroy everything all over again someday. First, he gave everyone in the cities a set of rules to live by so they would not get soft again. Among these rules, we couldn't have many of the fancy toys we once did. Second, those who would not or could not live by these rules were sent either to hospitals or sent away to backward areas. Third, backward areas were stripped of all but the simplest machines and books that could help make them, then walled off so those inside would have a hard time coming over to hurt us. Fourth, backward areas were always watched. If villages began banding together or someone began making machines, Our Leaders' men would take care of them.

After some time however, it became obvious that not everyone in the cities acted very civilized. And on occasion Our Leaders' men came across someone from backward areas, or the "Badlands" as they became to be called, who was not so backward. So began the Intelligence and Aggressiveness Tests. Over here, babies were carefully watched as they grew. If they seemed to be not smart enough or too aggressive, they were to be sent away. Usually they were accompanied by their parents, or just one if only one child of a family had to leave. In the Badlands, Our Leaders men would visit each village once in a while and give children of certain ages tests of their own. Those who passed were allowed into the city with one or both parents, depending whether or not they had siblings that didn't pass, but watched.

And so society continued, years turning into decades, then centuries. Perhaps not quite as exciting or as fun as before, the book read, but there was no danger of having it all taken away again. Some people missed the fancy toys and the way their world slowly changed over time, but they died out and those afterwards knew how to live without either. In the Badlands, initial anger against Our Leader was put aside due to fear of what we could do and that nothing could be done about it, and due to simply trying to survive with what few tools they had and sometimes against each other.

Reading what I had, I pondered for a while about what all this meant. Then I went to Mother, and carefully asked her about this. Tears came to her eyes, and she told be how as a toddler I suddenly stopped talking and after the second month one of Our Leader's doctors decided to have me sent off. Because of my Father's job, Our Leader would not let him leave, so he and some brothers stayed while Mother and I went. It was a similar story for Alyssa. She and her Mother hadn't really gotten jobs yet, but had been asking around where her father might be. Some of my older brothers were located, whom were living with an uncle, but not my oldest brother, Samuel, or Father. Alyssa had been an only child and her father had somehow disappeared shortly before they were sent away.

.....

And so, I went on with my new life, as did Alyssa. Our mothers got jobs and we went to school. We both soon caught up with what other students our age knew, and then excelled. We didn't spend all our time in the city. On occasion, we took a train to somewhere. We had to get permission from Our Leaders men first, but still compared to our little world we left behind, limited to one tiny village, it was a big improvement.

Alyssa and I were eventually moved to other classes, but some students never accepted us as equals. And once in a while when no one else was around I would get called that name again, "Mulungen," which was what they called Badlanders. I of course wanted to punch them out, but simply answered words with words, calling them things like brain-dead and the sort.

Once during lunch I as confronted by one student. He was from one of the regular classes and lately had been flunking test after test. Seeing me, he openly ranted about why should a "Mulungen" like me should be in special classes? Irritated, I told him if there was a "Mulungen" around it was him, and turned away. He then knocked me down, and proceeded to hurl more punches at me. As I was beginning to fight back, teachers came and took him away.

Some days later, it leaked out what had happened to him. Ironically enough, he had been ordered sent away to the Badlands. Neither one of his parents were willing to go with him, which probably spoke something about why he was doing poorly in school. In any event, his life would be truly hard and possibly short. At least for me, I never heard the term "Mulungen" directed at me again for the rest of the year.

I did hear about goings-on in the Badlands from the newspapers and people talking about them. There was never a day without an article of people from one village attacking another or some inventive or artistic soul being killed by his fellow villagers for working with "forbidden magic," or rather trying to make a machine or fanciful painting or sculpture. Reporters never seemed to tire of poking fun at the superstitions of various villages such as the one that never built bridges for fear of angering "water spirits."

The putting-down of Badlanders went beyond these news articles. Occasionally I would see in advertising a picture of a cartoonish, dirty-looking Badlander with the caption "Don't be a Mulungen, buy (our product)." And comedians were always making "Mulungen" jokes, sometimes practically questioning their humanity.

I of course was unhappy about all this, but never showed it in public and never talked about it except with Mother and Alyssa and her mother. On the other hand, I could understand why Badlanders had such a bad reputation. The Badlander wasn't just some other person living a simpler existence in some other land, but had become a symbol to those in the cities of the dark side of humanity.

I sometimes wondered. With his desire, if not need, to make himself feel better and smarter by reminding himself of someone else's inferior condition, was the average "civilized" person really better than the "Mulungens?"

.....

Time continued to go on. I met my brothers, but we never became close. Alyssa and I entered high school, and graduated with honors. Because of my high grades, my obligatory service in The Guard was suspended and I joined Alyssa in college. Due to our high grades, we were able to attend special advanced classes, as well as able to access a section of the library off-limits to other students.

College was sometimes uncomfortable as students seemed to be watched more than ever, especially advanced ones such as Alyssa and myself. On the other hand, we occasionally saw tools used by the faculty that resembled some of the "toys" I read about in the history books, including bookshelf-sized machines called "computers." Of course, we were ordered not to discuss them with anyone, or else.

Still, we were able to hear rumors of things and stumble across some secrets in the restricted access section of the library. Among them, that Badlander villages didn't always attack each other or kill their eccentric geniuses on their own. Sometimes men from the government would engage in "psychological operations," using props and ventriloquism to trick more superstitious and antagonistic Badlanders into doing their dirty work for them. It was relieving, yet disheartening at the same time. They were capable of bettering themselves, but we were not going to give them the chance, "better safe than sorry."

Studies were not the only thing on Alyssa's mind and my own. We had always been friends, but in high school and college we felt ourselves growing closer. We might have felt more free to pursue our feelings and desires, but for our upbringing. Would marriage and a child lead to the baby being declared "unfit" and the three of us thrown out back into the Badlands? And of course there was our studies. So we kept our feelings in check. We resolved to postpone things until after graduation, feeling each of us with degrees would be enough to shield any child of ours from doubting doctors.

And of course we thought of her mother and mine. We were headed to relatively comfortable jobs, while they were stuck in their factory jobs. We took time to visit them during weekends. Occasionally, the issue came up, but they told us not to worry. Mother once commented her worst day at work was better than her best day in the village fields. Alyssa and I resolved to do something about it, someday. For the moment, all we could do was concentrate on our studies.

.....

One day, one of the faculty came to me and Alyssa. He told us due to our high grades, we were qualified to take additional tests that would help determine what kind of jobs we would get after graduation. In the room we and the other selected students took them, things looked different. I saw what looked like computers, but they were about the size of books and looked like them too with the substitute for the glass screen appearing only when you opened them. It came as no surprise the instructor asked us not to talk about it to anyone, though it seemed odd that he didn't want us talking to other faculty either.

Some days later, Alyssa and I were approached by a man wearing some odd clothes. I asked him whom he was, and he smiled and answered, "Did Mother tell you about anyone named Samuel?" He was my missing older brother come back! I of course found it hard to believe so soon, so I asked questions only someone close to Mother was likely to know and he answered them. Amazed, I asked where he had been. He only answered by telling us to get our mothers and meet him outside college in the back that night at a certain time, "If you thought your arrival in the big city from that village as something, you haven't seen anything yet!"

We got permission to leave, and told our mothers. They found it hard to believe, but they came along. As asked, we waited behind the college building at night. At a certain time, we noticed something coming down. Our first thought was it was a helicopter, but it wasn't making a sound. As it came closer and was illuminated by the light, we saw it was definitely not a helicopter. It was disk-shaped, and had no rotor or any means of staying up that we could see.

The craft touched down, a door opened, Samuel appeared, and he called on us to get aboard. We did, and he lead us to some seats behind his own at the controls. Looking the craft over, it all looked so strange. In places were beams of light that were as thin as harp strings. In others, images that looked real, but were in fact made by some kind of projector.

From the windows, we watched as the ground was further and further away. Then the view was illuminated as if we were seeing it at dawn instead of night! We rose past the clouds, then the sky became darker again, and the horizon became curved. The artificial light effect was then turned off, and we saw the horizon become a thin blue line. Then the sun appeared in a spectacular sunrise.

We weren't just flying, we were in space!

We continued to rise above Earth, and soon the craft turned and it was no longer in our sights. We felt our speed pick up, and we were on our way.

We had two questions for Samuel, where were we headed and where had he been? He told us he would answer both by telling what had happened to him years ago. He had been in college making top grades when he had been given the same tests Alyssa and I had, then told later on by the one who gave it to him to meet him at a certain place, and he had been picked up by a craft like this, "We're going to a space station around Jupiter," he told us, "You'll be able to live without that Leader looking over your shoulder all the time, live better than even the people just before the Great Cataclysm, and do things you never imagined!"

We had other questions on our minds, but what we asked next was if he knew what happened to Father. He became sullen, saying he was able to take him with him, like Alyssa and I were able to get my Mother and her mother. Just after we left the Badlands, he went back to try to contact us and was caught by government men. Before anything could be done, he had been sent away to the Badlands, with no clue as to where he was.

Hearing that, our excitement turned into depression. The rest of the trip was a quiet one until we got to the station. It was a spectacular sight that rose my spirits somewhat, a huge structure of multiple circles and disks that resembled a fancy sculpture. Our approach slowed, and we entered some kind of hangar bay.

We then got up, left the ship, and walked across the bay. On the way, we saw a startling sight. There was a group of three, but one was clearly not human. He was about four feet tall with leathery grayish skin, a large head, a small mouth with no lips, and large solid black eyes. He wore thin silklike robe and had only three fingers on each hand, including a thumb. He looked just like the "bug-eyed aliens" in stories I'd heard. Alyssa's mother and my Mother nearly panicked, but Samuel calmed them down, saying they were a people who called themselves "Primes," and were friends.

The two humans were dressed like Samuel was. One looked our way, and gave us what looked like an expression of contempt. The other gave us a passing glance, but didn't seem to think much of us.

It was a scene that reminded me of those two at the airport so long ago.

We reached what looked like a glass tube elevator but with no car. Stepping in, we found we didn't need one! Carried seemingly only by air, we rose until Samuel told us to get off. We did, and went down a brightly colored hall with odd lights and other fixtures that gave it a most unearthly appearance. We saw a few more people, some human and some alien. Most were more of these small gray-skinned ones, but one looked reptilian.

We were taken to a door, Samuel opened it, and we entered an apartment. The apartment's furnishings were at least recognizable as chairs, tables, and shelves, and weren't quite as alien-looking, but still different. I also saw what looked a little like one of the computers from those exams.

This was where Samuel lived, and he told us we could stay here as long as we needed to to get used to life in the station. He then began telling us how everything worked, such as the food processor and the sonic shower. The computer would be particularly useful as with it, we had access to a huge library of stories, articles, reports, and files. He mentioned the holorooms down the hall which could be used for both entertainment and tailor-made educational classes. But we could also take classes over the computer as well if we wished. As it turned out, the humans here spoke a different language, but he gave us smaller portable computers for translating.

Our mothers were clearly nervous, but Alyssa and I were thrilled. Another door had been opened to us revealing a whole new universe of opportunities.

.....

After some sleep, Samuel took us to some kind of automated tailor where some machine shinned some of those "laser" lights on us, and from a slot came some clothes in those odd styles but as least were a perfect fit for us. Once we had them on, he wanted to take us to some holorooms. Over there, we ran into a few more locals, all human. They paid us little attention, until Samuel greeted them. The majority seemed coolly friendly after that, but one gave us a less than pleasant look and walked away.

It was more obvious like before not everyone appreciated our being here, albeit more subtle about it.

So with the help of the classes in the holorooms and computers, we were able to learn more about our new surroundings. Naturally, among the first things I looked at was the history. I expected there might be a somewhat different telling of Earth's history, such as democracies doing much better than what our public libraries suggested, but what I found was a shock. For one thing, what we called the Great Cataclysm was described differently in these databanks. Although a nuclear explosion in space did cripple the most dominant country, it's democratic government remained in control and limited it's response to only the country responsible. Afterwards it recovered and went on, though it's people had a lesser standard of living for years.

Some years later, probes were developed that could travel to nearby stars in decades instead of thousands of years. One of the first ones encountered another probe sent by the Primes. The Primes then sent a contact team to Earth, whom then told the humans they had certain plans for them.

The Primes were the oldest known intelligence, having achieved it millions of years ago. More group-minded than humans, they lacked innovation and inventiveness. So they developed technologically at a glacial pace, almost never making anything unless they needed it. They only achieved faster-than-light travel when encountering a civilization that progressed at the rate humans did. However, the two races differing natures led to trouble. The Primes found humanoids to be wildly emotional and dangerous, and the humanoids found them cold and robotic. After a nuclear explosion in a Prime base caused by humanoid terrorists, the Primes and their neighbors went to war.

The Primes eventually won and stripped their opponents of higher technology on the grounds they couldn't be trusted to handle it. They began doing the same to any more "Irrational" races they came across, the occasional world that suffered collapse due to nuclear war or some other disaster further reinforcing their view. The Primes hoped their subjects would eventually become more rational over time. But this didn't happen. Either the races lost hope and fell into stagnation or continued to resist in any way they could.

Eventually, one world the Primes came across offered a compromise that got their acceptance. A few of the population that was smarter and more rational than the rest would be allowed continued access to technology. All others would have it taken away. The Primes did make the condition of supervising the tests. Although the planet naturally had a great deal of trouble adjusting, the results were not as bad in the short run under the old Prime policy and over time the Primes were able to deal with these more rational humanoids now that their irrational brethren could no longer cause trouble. Since they were still the same species, the more rational population still had some throwbacks born, and the less rational population still had some cooler heads born every generation. So both populations were carefully watched and screened, with those found in the wrong side taken to the right one.

The system worked so well from the Primes' point of view, they began applying the "Selective Breeding" program, as it became to be known, to further races they contacted. Some resisted, but eventually all accepted.

When the Primes contacted Earth, the news of their program did find some receptive ears among some philosophers, but most were naturally hesitant to adopt it. Governments negotiated with them to try and work out a better deal. They did secretly persuade the aliens to allow some technology that otherwise would have been taken away for the exclusive use of people who worked for them.

Making people take the tests was no problem for governments that allowed their people few freedoms, and not much of a problem for those of freer but poorer countries where people either couldn't afford high-tech goods or confident they would pass the test. In the more developed nations, however, people were reluctant to take it. Most saw little to gain and were hoping the aliens could be persuaded to let them be. When the Primes began pressuring their governments, they made taking the test a requirement to receive government-funded health care, vote, use credit cards, etc. Most then reluctantly took the tests. A small minority continued to refuse to, and some took their governments to court. A few dissidents won their cases, but none of the involved governments accepted the verdicts.

Putting the program into effect resulted in economic decline across the world, especially what had been the more developed regions as what was able to be done by most fell into the hands of a small minority. The "Approved" continued to do well while the "Unapproved" often generally lived lives with most of the comforts they once took for granted gone and living on food rations and public housing from the governments. The reaction of the Unapproved there turned from anger at the Primes to depression, many feeling they weren't just stripped of possessions but their self-worth. Then anger began to return to more and more, but it was directed not at the aliens but at those they were still letting use technical items. Denounced as toadies and even traitors, the Approved began to find themselves under harassment and then assaults. It wasn't long before bands of Unapproved began robbing the homes of Approved, killing them, and sometimes both.

Soon, the Approved began living in their own separate communities away from the Unapproved. Governments began declaring martial law and the Unapproved essentially lost what rights they still had, only those submitting to the government getting help. Many Unapproved became so bitter, they began moving away from cities and suburbs to country towns and farms here they didn't have to deal with Approved. The Approved also began leaving, feeling trapped in a safety cage on Earth and seeing their future in the stars.

Eventually, all over the world, the Approved had left the planet aside from a few who were helping the now-unified military government behind the scenes, as well as making sure the Selective Breeding program continued to watch over new generations. Trusting only the people within the cities which it could still watch and control with the technology it kept, the government lost all trust in those who lived outside their authority. They, as well as their urban subjects, soon began treating them as inferiors as the Approved looked down upon them, calling them "hicks" or "Mulungen." Paranoid, the Earth government continually made preemptive raids at the slightest rumor or reason, even for simply having a technical book around. Slowly, all traces of civilized live disappeared outside the walls the governments erected to keep villagers out. The villagers being unable to fight effectively against the government's men began turning against one another.

As for the Approved, within a few generations they lost the attachment for Earth they once had. They saw themselves as the only "True Humans," viewing "Earthers" as dull-witted and motivated mainly by fear and sexual desires. Like the Primes, they saw them as not rational enough to handle higher technology, at least not without help from them, and concepts such as democracy were wasted on them. They still kept up the Selective Breeding program as genetic engineering proved too unreliable, and even the most prejudicial space-dweller felt there was an occasional True Human on Earth that had to be brought to where he could act to his true potential and they themselves had some "rubbish to throw out." Over time, the Earth government took on part of the program and screened its toddlers, the spacers doing their tests on college age urbanites, no longer bothering with villagers.

The Earth government had full control of the media, and eliminated all public records of contact with the aliens. It gave it's own version of events why things were the way they were. As the generations passed, the few history books the villagers had turned to dust and the oral traditions passed down replaced aliens with demons and the Approved with rival villages.

In space, Humanity had slowly grown in numbers over time, spacers tending to have few children. Although it's rate of technological development slowed, it continued. Hibernation ships, then faster than light travel was developed, and humanity took it's place in the stars. Those on Earth, prevented from developing further, stagnated.

All this had happened over a thousand years ago.

I spent many hours in the holoroom, stunned by what I found, yet eagerly looking for more of the story. When Samuel went to check on me, I realized I was dead tired, and went to bed.

The following day, I discussed what I found with Alyssa, whom had also been researching it. While we were talking Samuel came over and cheerfully asked what we thought of life here and if we had any questions. I told him, "Most everything here is pretty great. Everything so bright and shiny compared to back home, if you want something just push a button there it is, and a lot more to read."

Samuel smiled.

"But," I added, "there's been people looking at us like Alyssia and I back on Earth after we got to the city from the villages."

"Oh, don't worry about them," Samuel assured.

"Maybe I wouldn't, but I had a long look at the history files yesterday."

"Not exactly the same old propaganda." Samuel seemed pretty confident.

"No, but what I found ... Humanity was getting along until it ran into these Primes, and then we broke apart."

Samuel's smile faded somewhat, "It was a short pause in a long history of conflict. Eventually it would have started up again, and it would have ended up far worse."

"I'm not really blaming the Primes," I sighed, "It's just that for a moment I thought I was getting away from all this. Every time I turned around, someone was making a Mulungen joke or there was some story in the paper about 'stupid Mulungens' fighting each other. Now I come here, and it's the same story."

"Well, where would you rather be, here or there?"

"Here of course, but ... " I sighed again, "It just seems that it never ends, Humanity's great talent for dividing each other up and people putting down those they see as different from themselves."

Samuel shrugged, "That trait's always been a part of us, perhaps always will. Maybe if we didn't have it, we wouldn't be human. But we do. Question is, do we just sit and complain about it, or now that we have the chance to make something of ourselves do we take full advantage of the opportunity?"

.....

And so I went on. We soon got the hang of life here and moved into our on apartments. I took full advantage of the vast library of files and the means of viewing them, and learned things I scarcely imagined back on Earth. Despite my late start in learning the advanced sciences available only here, I was able to become a researcher and get a job in a lab. Alyssa became a researcher as well, doing as much good as myself, if not more. My Mother and her mother also did some study and research, but felt happier doing art. Despite that many "True Humans" disliked us Earthers, many of the best artists, poets, authors, and singers either were born on Earth or their parents were.

We didn't just work, but took some time to relax as well. The games available to us we couldn't even imagine back on Earth. And the travel available, oh the sights we saw, the worlds we visited. We had the time of our lives.

As always there were those who wanted nothing to do with "throwbacks." We also heard some debate about the program on Earth. Some wondered if it should still be continued, that "True Humans" didn't need any more new blood "contaminated" by "backward" Earth, and that toddlers not up to their standards would be better off institutionalized than sent there. Others wondered that with spacefaring society continuing to grow if Earth could keep on handling it's rejects and that more worlds should be set aside for them. Sometimes the remarks and talk got to us, but we reminded ourselves of what we now had and put it aside. As for the Primes, although they considered themselves superior to humans, I never heard an ill word toward me. Same with other races.

There was one incident in particular that stood out. I came across a certain gadget that looked a little overly complicated, and so I set about trying to remake it with fewer parts. The gadget's inventor found out about my attempts, and made an announcement in a very public area in the computer databanks, calling it another example of "Earther folly" that anyone could think his gadget could be improved on. Maybe his dare encouraged me, but I succeeded.

I had no desire to rub it in his face, simply notifying him and quietly informing the makers of his machine of the results, he would still be considered the inventor, but I would get credit for improving it. But word got around much faster than I expected. Although he used more polite language than what I encountered back on Earth, I clearly understood the note he sent me, accusing me of having another "True Human" help me out and that I would regret my "arrogance." Maybe I should have responded, but I felt no good would come out of it other than to antagonize him further.

Feeling freer to pursue our feelings, Alyssia and I became closer and closer. Finally we decided to take the next step. What a wedding it was. The two of us would always remain together. It wasn't long before Alyssa came to me with some news - a child was on the way. We were so happy, but I couldn't help but be concerned. If the child wasn't up to the standards of the spacers, we would be sent back to Earth.

We forgot all our worries the day our daughter Jenny was born. She was, of course, monitored and checked often. As the days passed, we noticed the looks from the doctors seemed more troublesome, and we occasionally heard a whisper when someone thought we were out of earshot about "bad genes." We began to worry. When she cried, we feared she would be seen as too irritable. When quiet, we feared she would be seen as too complacent.

Finally came that fateful day we were called by the doctor, and when we got there, with him were some security men .....

.....

On the helicopter ride back to the village, I thought about my life, our lives. How far we had gone, and thanks to "bad genes" it had all came crashing down. At least the spacers' men on Earth had given us a cover story and managed to slip some papers into the beaucracy about our absence. Samuel was very disheartened to see us go. The rules had stated only one of us had to return with our daughter, but we both decided we would stick together. My Mother and her mother made the same decision. It was back to the city we lived in before on Earth. How dull and drab it seemed compared to the dazzling lights of space stations and colonial cities. And of course the military government. We tried to get in touch with my brothers, but never found them.

We still hadn't gotten used to it when we were required to put Jenny through Earth's Intelligence and Aggressiveness Tests. By this time, our little girl had started talking, then suddenly stopped. This is what had done me in, and this time is did her in. Once again, only one of us had to go. Again, we all went. We could only take a few items with us, books with "appropriate" content, a bit of gold for trading, and all the clothes we took had to be the scratchy homemade variety from there, even what we wore on our backs durring the trip.

And so the five of us were taken, ordered out with our few belongings, and without so much as a wish for good luck they took out. Twice in just a few months thrown out like garbage. And for what?! For wanting a future?

Tears appeared in the eyes of all the women but Jenny. Alyssa and I hugged our mothers.

"Why?" my Mother cried out, "Why does this keep happening?" As bad as it was for me, she was going through this all over again.

We walked back to the village, wondering what kind of reception we would get. We soon walked around the bend, and saw the buildings, then people. They looked at us suspiciously, and we strained to recognize any familiar faces. I noticed some buildings were gone, some where none existed before, and some that looked different from I remembered. Some blackened pieces of wood suggested the reason why, the place had been attacked while we were gone, possibly more than once.

Then I heard a voice call my name, "Is that you?" I turned, and I saw a man smiling at us. He looked familiar and I tried to remember for a couple seconds, then, "Larson!"

He ran to us, and we embraced each other. In a sense, it was like old times again.

Larson helped the villagers remember who we were, and agreed to help us build a house later on. Until it was finished, we would be staying with Larson.

After explaining we'd have to share his house with it's other residents, we asked if his father was still around. He sadly shook his head, saying he had passed away the year before. The other people there, one was his wife, whom ironically enough had a son about the same age as Jenny, and a man whom he told us we would know.

We went to his house, on the other side of the village, wondering what he meant. Getting there and going inside, we met a gray-haired man, and he and Mother recognized each other at once! They tearfully hugged, then the man turned to me ...

"My son, I had so hoped to see you again," he paused, "I only wish it was in better surroundings."

I couldn't believe it, or say anything. I could only join in the hug.

It turned out Larson's wife and son weren't home, we later found she was with her family for the moment, so we were able to talk more comfortably. Father explained he had gotten a little too used to the freedom in space and ran afoul of the authorities a few times while he was looking for Mother and I, "They decided I wouldn't be a good boy, so they threw me out." He had gone from village to village, never accepted by the inhabitants, until coming here and meeting Larson.

As for Larson, he had heard bits and pieces about life in the city from his father after he had grown, as well as my own Father. He had been encouraged by his father to marry so the child might pass the tests and get them both out of here. He eventually married the daughter of the couple that arrived before we left. Turned out they were from the city as well.

And we of course told Larson what we had been through, the cities, life in space.

"I only wish you could have been there." I told him.

He shrugged, "Couldn't have been that great if they wouldn't keep you."

I grinned at his bravado, but he did have a point. We had been cast away by two societies, and I doubted we would get along too well with the other villagers, but at least we had each other.

And there was still hope. I was confident that our daughter Jenny and Larson's son would pass their tests in several years, and we'd be back in the city. But what then? Would the spacers take them in? Suppose the debate about doing away with the program turned into action? Would Alyssa and I be denied what we had so briefly seen, and our daughter denied completely. And what of our parents? What of Larson and his family?

But those were questions for the future. I forgot about them as I took my daughter, and looked at her smiling face.

In friends and family, I still had hope.