“Aspirations Academy is a newly established...” Stone tuned her mother out and interfaced with her father’s database.
Faster than her mother could finish the sentence, Stone knew all about the school, its policies, and the full reason her father specifically wanted to send her there. Apparently the school had a policy of anonymity. Her father wanted to send her there because of the notoriety of her parents. They were a long established independent factor team. Her father, Jacob Stone, was the template for the most advanced multimorphic suit design currently available. Her mother was Bianca Stone. With Jacob, Bianca prevented a rogue AI from taking over half the universe. They were among the most prestigious factors in all the Preserve. Her father must have correctly calculated that Stone would be judged compared to them rather than on her own merits.
“I think father is correct. The theoretical anonymity of the school leaves me open to more opportunities.” Stone stated.
She detected her father’s agreement, but when she analyzed her mother’s posture and other nonverbal cues she found resistance. Stone pushed herself to probe for the reason and suddenly she could feel her mother’s motivations as well. Her mother was torn and confused about Stone’s rapid development and she was not certain she was ready to cut the proverbial umbilical cord. Her mother apparently didn’t even sense Stone’s telepathic presence in her mind, “Jacob she isn’t even a week old. Should we really be discussing sending her away?”
“Mother, I will always be your child, but developmentally speaking I cannot remain the way I am,” Stone argued.
“She must be allowed to grow up,” Jacob backed Stone’s statement.
“But, I haven’t even gotten used to being pregnant, let alone a mother. How am I supposed to handle her becoming virtually an adult?”
“Mother, I have slowed my development for you, but I will still probably reach puberty by the end of the week. Every second seems like hours for me mother. My mind moves very quickly compared to yours or even father’s. I am the best combination of both of your capabilities. I need… space to explore what that means,” Stone stated.
Her mother eyed her, “But shouldn’t you start small?”
“Mother, I do not understand how primary education such as that could benefit me. I can already read and write virtually every known language, and I can perform mathematical calculations with more ease than I experience eliminating waste products from the consumption of food.”
Her mother nodded, “But you don’t have experience with social interactions...”
“Mother, I promise if you allow me to go to this school, I will put an emphasis on interacting socially,” Stone ran through the multiplication tables for the first million numbers in the back of her mind. For her that was like when humans crossed her fingers. After all there were no legal precedents for a three-day-old entity being declared emancipated, and her physical appearance would not be a flag in her favor.
Stone’s mother pursed her lips and rubbed her palms on her hips. She looked from Stone to Jacob. “You two are in agreement?”
Both Stone and her father nodded.
“I will want weekly progress reports from you and your instructors! And pictures! I want to know what you look like every inch you grow, and I won’t have you leaving until you at least look the proper age to be sent there,” Stone’s mother stated.
Stone felt a flush of explosively positive emotions. Her mouth formed its first uncalculated and unsimulated smile. Already, Aspirations Academy was helping her emotional development. She went to the food processor and ordered a meal which would allow her to accelerate her maturation enough to be mature enough to enter the school by the end of the week, when the first term began.
- - - - - - -
Milo and Millie Daniels were an interesting organism. In the womb their embryos came from the equitable division of a diploid egg which was fertilized by a diploid sperm. One received male genes the other was female. They shared the same amniotic sack within their mother. After the womb, not much changed. They were connected by a bond that made them more than twin siblings and less than individuals. By the morning of their twelfth birthday, Milo and Millie had begun to have a few separate thoughts, but their synchronicity made it hard for the pair to determine who thought of what.
Together, at the simulated dawn, Milo and Millie awoke. Neither could properly accuse the other of waking them. They blinked their eyes, each sharing their view of their mirror image bedrooms with the other. They entered their Jack and Jill bathroom together. With no privacy of thought they didn’t see the point of concealing their physical forms. They took turns showering and using the toilet. Then they stood at their individual mirrors and combed their hair. Millie had long red wavy hair, and Milo’s red hair was close shaven on the sides with a slightly longer buzz cut on top. If they had their way they would both wear their hair somewhere in between. Though they each carried opposite halves of their parents’ DNA and thereby technically shared no DNA, Milo and Millie were very remarkably nearly identical.
After hygiene, Milo and Millie returned to their rooms and independently chose matching outfits which were as similar as their parents would allow. Milo was dressed two minutes before Millie was because she took longer to dress. It was not an instantaneous process for her to bind her budding breasts. Once they were both ready for the day, Milo and Millie walked out into the hallway in unison. Milo was on one side of the hall and Millie on the other. Their parents had purposefully placed the hallway between them in an effort to force them into separating into individuals.
Milo and Millie marched down the hallway, mirroring each other’s movements. They passed the room where their parents' home schooled them, and the exercise room, before entering the kitchen.
Millie began their greeting when they saw their parents sitting at the kitchen table. Their mother had red hair shading towards gray at the temples. Graying was unusual for briaunti. They could be five thousand years old but look twenty. Something had aged her, Milo and Millie didn’t doubt it was her years of service as the chief of Sanctuary and the factors. Their father was wound less tightly than their mother and only had a few minor laugh lines to show for his actual age. He still sported a full head of brown hair.
Millie began their greeting, “Good morning mother….”
“...And father. What is...” Milo continued.
“...For breakfast?” Millie finished.
Their parents looked at each other seriously. Milo and Millie could sense they had been deep in another discussion of the twins before they detected the children’s approach.
“Good morning Milo. Good morning Millie. You can order whatever you want from the food processor,” Their mother greeted them.
Milo and Millie froze. They tossed back and forth the conclusion that their parents had made a decision neither child would like. The only time their parents allowed them totally free access to the library of possible molecularly reprinted foods presented by the food processor was… well, not even their birthday could explain it.
“Are you,” Milo began.
Millie finished with, “...Quite certain?”
“Milo, Millie, we have something we need to discuss,” Their father stated.
Here it came, the decision they had been dreading. Their parents had been threatening separate boarding schools for years in an attempt to force the twins into acting independently. Milo and Millie approached the table settled into the certainty of this fate. How horrid that their parents would choose their birthday to tell them.
“We are ready to hear what you have decided,” Milo and Millie stated in unison. They reserved speaking together for times of extreme stress.
Their mother looked at their father. He nodded. She spoke, “Millie, Milo, we have come to the conclusion that we are woefully out of our league when it comes to deciding how to best handle encouraging your development into individuals. So, we have decided to send you...”
Milo and Millie both interrupted their mother t
ogether, “We really will try to be individuals! Don’t send us to separate schools!”
Their mother closed her mouth and frowned, “You know, a lot of parents would be overjoyed if their son and daughter could manage to get along with minimal fighting. We would just like to hear a complete sentence out of each of you that didn’t express your sibling’s thoughts as well.” She sighed and scrubbed her face.
“Angie, I’ll take this,” Their father laid a hand on their mother’s shoulder supportively, “Kids you are both going to a new boarding school called Aspirations Academy. It is fairly exclusive and there are many children who are going there with unusual situations. The policy is strict anonymity. You will be expected to change your names so that not even the teachers can determine your parentage. We don’t want to burden you with our reputations. You will be leaving in a couple of days. As far as we are aware you will be placed on the same dormitory level as one another. The school headmistress is not as disconcerted by your synchronicity as we are. She seems to think it should be encouraged...” Their father faded out as though he lacked conviction about that determination.
Milo and Millie were shocked about the statement. They were being sent away… together? “Why can’t we stay with you?”
“The chief field factor has requested we take on lower ranked factors and go out into the field as a working team. We are afraid it might be too dangerous for you,” Their mother stated.
“We did...” Milo began.
Millie continued, “...Not know that the….”
Milo came up to the table, “...Portal to the...”
“...Outside omniverse had been...” Millie scooted onto the bench at the table.
“...Opened for travel.” Milo sat in the space his sister had left him.
Their father smiled, “It hadn’t really come up. We weren’t planning on going back into the field. We hated taking the shelter out with you in it at the end of the last omniverse. Most times we left the shelter connected to a surrogate portal in The Preserve and went out without it.”
Millie blinked hard, they had suspected that they might end up orphaned by the end of the last omniverse, “We thought...”
“...That the trip...” Milo reached for the tablet on the middle of the table and began tapping out their breakfast order for the food processor.
“..To Eden was...”
Milo finished the order and rose to retrieve it, “...A one of mission.”
Their parents nodded in unison, “We did too.” They stopped realizing they were doing just what they were bothered by in their children’s behavior.
Their mother held up her hand to their father, “Your father came home and we discussed that mission. That is when we decided we missed doing it.”
Milo delivered his sister’s plate and sat next to her with his identical plate, “We agree to go...” Milo stuffed a forkful of hash-browns in his mouth.
Millie put her fork back down, “...To this school, as long as you agree...”
Milo swallowed, “Not to orphan us.”
“It’s a deal,” Both their parents affirmed at once.
- - - - - - -
Goru Oshido awoke to yet another dismal morning in a life of disappointment. He quietly used the bathroom down the hall. He couldn’t tell if his sisters were awake, but that was as it should be. He washed up catching his face in the mirror. His shoulder length chestnut brown hair, ice blue eyes, and facial structure spoke to his ancestry, but that wasn’t necessarily of benefit to him. He looked far too much like his father and great grandmother to get through life in their infamous shadows. He wasn’t ashamed of his father, but Natto Oshido was infamous for a very short, bloody coop which led to him becoming Chief Factor of Refuge. In that position, Goru’s father had allegedly done some abominable things, including the near genocide of an entire sentient species across every parallel universe.
Goru splashed water on his face and finished up in the bathroom. His nearly identical sisters waited silently just outside of the bathroom. Goru nodded at them and returned to his bedroom, where he dressed in his least threadbare outfit. Then he stepped up to the shrine to his father he had established across the top of his dresser. There were pictures and a shirt which had once been his fathers. There were also candles and incense burners. Goru knew that his was probably the only shrine to his father in existence. His father was not a popular man when it came to the assembled people of The Preserve. Mae Amante, the leader of the Preserve had villainized him. Goru lit some incense in memory of his father.
Across the room from his father’s shrine, Goru had created a wall of shame. He had images of Mae Amante at all ages printed out and pinned to his wall. They were there to remind him of the face of the woman that had effectively killed his father. Goru knew her every pore. He could identify her at any age. If by some miracle he could go back in time to her childhood, he would end her! Goru heard his two identical sisters moving around in the hallway. They were triplets. He was the oldest by five minutes.
Goru stubbed out the incense and went into the hallway. Inu and Ibu were dressed in their best outfits. Today was grocery day. They had to look presentable. Goru led them out into the kitchen. He knew they had little left for breakfast and no food processor choice allotments. He pulled the three fresh apples, he had secretly saved, out of the pantry. Then he tapped the food processor screen, the breakfast selections for the day were soy patties and pancakes for his vegan sisters and scrambled chicken eggs, toast and bacon for him. Goru hated scrambled eggs but he had no choice this morning other than the vegan menu. He ordered a third vegan meal. The three of them ate silently, none of them wanted to wake their mother from her drug induced stupor. Goru gagged down the soy patties. They held only the faintest similarity to actual sausage, but they were better than scrambled eggs. The trio washed down their breakfasts with water laced with the trace minerals their meals may have lacked. The nutritional content was sufficient, but the flavor wasn’t necessarily favorable. That wasn’t to say it tasted bad. They finished their meals and placed the dishes back in the food processor in a pile. Once he closed the door, the dishes returned to whatever limbo they came from.
Silently, the three of them gathered their shopping bags and rushed out of the front door. Once the door slid shut behind them, without their mother waking up, all three let out a collective sigh of relief. Goru took charge, “Berries are in season, they will cost less than other things. I think we need to get some of those. We are out of milk so we need that. I think this week goat is the cheapest...”
“Goru, Ibu and I don’t like goat milk! We want almond milk!” Inu argued.
“We got almond the last two weeks. It is my turn and we are getting goat!” Goru insisted. Ibu and Inu pouted. “I am not a vegetarian!”
Ibu spoke in response, “We aren’t vegetarian! We are vegan! As in no animal products!”
“If I let you get almond milk, then I get to use some of our allotment choice on beef jerky!” Goru suggested. He knew he had a strong place in the negotiation.
“Excuse me young man, would you be Goru Oshido?” A woman dressed in an up-tight tweed suit asked after she practically snuck up on them. She had reddish auburn hair and intelligent, emerald eyes..
Goru nodded, “Yes, and these are my sisters Ibu and Inu.”
“Oh good, May we step into your apartment? I need to discuss something with the three of you,” The woman stated.
Goru and his sisters exchanged worried glances, Goru spoke for all three of them, “Uh, perhaps another time.”
“This is a time sensitive discussion. Goru,” The woman gestured towards the apartment. Goru could tell from the way she set her shoulders that she was not to be refused.
Goru’s shoulders slumped. He turned and palmed open the door to the apartment. The woman was quick to enter, and none too quiet about it. Her high heels clacked on the faux wood flooring.
Reluctantly Goru and his sisters entered behind her. Out of habit they didn’t make a si
ngle sound. The woman took a seat at the economy style kitchenette table. She waved the trio over to the table, “Now, let’s discuss your educations. I see that all of you are enrolled in home based schooling through the media network. Your studies are exemplary, when you focus on them, but you only focus the bare minimum required time on them. I see that each of you spend more time earning extra allotment choices than you do schooling. This is not a pattern which will help you live up to your full potentials!” The woman’s voice kept creeping louder and louder as she began to rant.
Goru and his sisters flinched unconsciously away from the hall leading to their mother’s bedroom. None of them could help their frequent concerned glances as the woman said something in an especially loud tone. Finally, Goru could sense that his sisters’ anxiety had reached what he considered an unacceptable level. “Pardon my rudeness ma’am, but what exactly are you here to say?”
The woman stopped her virtual tirade about the lack of their educational motivation, “I am here to ask why you seem to have trouble performing to your academic potential.”
Goru glanced over his shoulder at the hallway to his mother’s room, then suddenly he decided to be honest, “Ma’am, we are more worried about keeping each other from being beaten, neglected or berated. You interrupted us as we were going to go to the market for the week’s food. If you look in the pantry and refrigerator, you will find them empty. Our mother trades most of our assigned minimal monthly allotment choices for drugs. We are in our best clothes, and we were going to use what allotment we earned last week to buy groceries for this week. The minimum allotment daily choices don’t provide much choice.” His voice became louder with each statement by the end of his statements, he knew he was risking his mother’s wrath. He was actually hoping to wake her and have her rampage out into the living area so this stranger could witness it.
He heard the squeak of metal on metal of his mother’s door sliding open. He wouldn’t admit even to his sisters that he had sabotaged it so they would have warning. “What in the hell is going on out there? I am effing trying to sleep! I swear to all that is holy that you will regret waking me you stupid brat!” Their mother stormed out into the living area brandishing the thick wooden dowel she used for minor punishments. It wasn’t until she saw the strange woman at their kitchen table that she even marginally modified her attitude. “Who the fuck are you! Goru! Who the fuck are you letting into this damn apartment when I am asleep!”
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