Chapter 1

My name is Gideon Sawyer. I guess you could say that I was a normal kid, raised in a small town on Earth. But, like most folks at the time, we were dirt poor. For most of my life, I barely had enough to eat. I never knew my Dad. He took off long before I was born. Mom wasn’t all that great either. But because the government paid her, I had value to her. So, she at least made an effort to raise us.

My life took a, not unexpected, turn when my high school class was given notice of a job fair that was being held at the end of the month. The district president, Dr. Campbell, advised us that, while attendance wasn’t mandatory, He reminded us that the guaranteed job laws required gainful employment within six months of graduation.

There were two ways to avoid employment, temporally. One was College. If you were accepted into a recognized college, university, or even a trade school, the job requirement was waived until graduation. But College or university was outside of my reach. All of my graduating class had no hope of entering College. The cost was a significant factor. There were a few of my classmates that could afford the tuition costs. But the unspoken requirement was fame or prestige. And nobody in New Hope, Southwestern District qualified as famous or influential. The Trade Schools were even worse. They were Invitation Only clubs. You had to have already proven a vocation or ability to get in. There had been several New Hope school district trade school attendees in the past, but this year’s crop was not so blessed. Certainly not by my friends or me. We were average, everyday kids.

The only thing left was to find a job. If you couldn’t or wouldn’t find a job, the government would find one for you. But I had no desire to spend the rest of my life cleaning radioactive waste in the middle east. The pay was low, the health care plan non-existent, and there was no room for advancement.

I could have tried the route that my friend Donk was trying for. Donk was the muscle man in our group. His main claim to fame was Rugby. A rough and tumble sport held over from the old Great Britain district. After American football was outlawed, it was gradually replaced with Rugby. It was second only to Soccer. Donk was excited by the job fair news. The rumor was that several sports scouts were in the area and looking for potential players at the fair. Since the prohibition against high school recruiting had been outlawed, the college requirement was no longer in force.

When I arrived at the gym, an FN Marine was at the entrance. The rumor was that it wasn’t a real Marine. Just a recruiter mockup. There was no way to tell if it was a mockup. The combat helmet visor was shielded, and there was no flesh and blood showing. He was dressed in full battle armor and carried a riot control baton. A nasty-looking 6-foot metal and plastic rod. One end was a foot-long metal club, and the other was a high voltage shock baton. The shock baton could be dialed from Pay Attention tingle to Bar-B-Cue.

I had my doubts about this being a mockup. I walked behind Donk and Larry Martin and noticed that the helmet slowly tracked Donk when he walked by.

Larry was a quiet boy. Slight of build, which hid the iron in his muscles. They were like steel cables. There had been several bullies in our younger days that had mistaken Larry as an easy mark. They learned quickly and firmly that they had made a serious mistake. Larry never permanently harmed anyone, but their recovery took longer than Band-Aids and casts in several persistent cases. Finally, when four antagonists had decided that there was strength in numbers, they came at Larry in an attempt at revenge. Donk and I, independently, decided, at the same time, that we needed to even the odds. Even then, four against three didn’t scare Larry’s attackers off. Donk walked away with a broken finger. I had a bloody nose. But if you hadn’t have seen it, Larry looked like he was headed for a Friday night date. Only one of the four was left behind. The other three limped off when it became obvious that they had seriously misjudged the situation.

If it hadn’t been for the CCTV video, the 3 of us would have been in deep trouble. Instead, the other four were removed from school and transferred to a disciplinary battalion for a year.

My job fair plan was to start on one side of the gym and make a quick loop past all of the exhibits. There was an almost carnival-type atmosphere to the event. Barkers and front men were at most of the booths. Their spiels were loud and enticing. Several upped the ante and had included some young and attractive dancers. They were dressed in the bare minimums that were allowed.

The food court and beer garden were on the far side of the gym. Two of the local constabulary were there to check IDs. But they seemed to be much more interested in checking out the servers. The government was paying the bartenders. So, they didn’t care if someone had too much. But they also knew that getting somebody drunk or belligerent would end a good thing. So, they kept a close eye on who was drinking what.

Myself, I wasn’t a drinking person, so I avoided the beer garden. Instead, I picked up a burger, fries, and a chocolate shake and sat down at an empty table when Larry Martin joined me. He had a tofu dog and herbal tea.

“Mind if I join you, Sawyer?”

“Sure, thing Larry. Find anything to interest you.”

“That’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about, Gideon. But, you see, I didn’t need to come to this thing. I’ve already been recruited.”

“Really? Who with?”

“That’s the thing, Gideon. Outside of being an agency of the Federated Nations. They don’t have a name. You see, they came to my parents about a year ago. They told them that they had selected me, and when I graduated, I would be trained and go to work for them.”

“Sounds mysterious. What will you be doing?”

“I don’t know. My Dad asked and was told that it was none of his business. Dad got mad and kicked them out of the house. The next day, when he came home from work, He was scared, really scared. He took Mom into their room, and they talked for about an hour. When they came out, I could tell that mom had been crying, and both of them were really frightened.”