《Qi & Code》


 A Long Night

    Kaelon Xylar sat facing his reflection in the window. His gaze swept out across the blocky techspires that jutted up from the crowded streets below. You couldn¡¯t see the crowds, but they were there: a mottled colouration so far away you couldn¡¯t really tell if there was movement. It was all people and stalls, and the worst place to be after curfew.


    Drawn by movement, Kaelon¡¯s gaze ran up the face of techspire that was as dark as his hair. Between each techspire wove endless streams of hovercars that vanished into the distant. The fog was a constant in Sector 11 where the air carried the metallic taste of electrovapour compression. He sighed, his breath fogging up the glass. Turning his gaze away from his window, Kaelon laid back on the blue and grey sheets that matched his eyes, which swept the cluttered shelves of the cubicle he called home. They held countless machine parts scavenged from the streets. Things he had once regarded as treasures.


    I don¡¯t know why I wasted my time taking them apart and putting them back together again, he thought.


    The only space that wasn¡¯t cluttered was the ceiling. Instead, it was a tangle of cables and pipes. He frowned. Raising his right hand, Kaelon made a pinching gesture. A pair of silver-white rings, embedded in his thumb and pointer yet flush with his skin, flared to life with a digital ping.


    An azure projection manifested in the air before him, it resembled a wheel interface to one side and a menu of icons on the other. Several graphs and diagrams popped up on a rectangular interface window between them, which actively simulated a live stream of data. Kaelon¡¯s eyes flicked about as he took in the data.


    ¡°Research model beta nine,¡± he stated. ¡°Dialogic mode three two one . . . execute.¡± He waved his left hand about rapidly tapping the air, which filled the air with telltale dings in response. The next tap he made was a small field that specified fifteen as his age. He tapped it to sixteen. The data rippled, increasing slightly in complexity. With a grim expression, he triggered several buttons. His eyes sped through streams of holographic text that popped up in a myriad of smaller windows at just the right distance from his face for him to comfortably read. Pausing in his reading, he turned his head to the side and looked out the window that showed no reflection of the holographic projections.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    The lights of hundreds of windows all flickered to life in a growing patchwork. They were cubicles just like his. No one in Sector 11 got special treatment. Everyone had the same amount of space, ate the same nutrient cubes, and wore the same issue of clothing. He turned his head and stared at the lightbulb amid the ceiling pipes. It had blown a year ago now, but his folks had not done anything about it. He had reminded them quite a few times until he had realised the futility in asking. The lights outside told him it was getting close to curfew. Even the hovercar traffic was waning. His heart picked up its pace and he furrowed his brow. Turning back to the holograms, he swiped through windows now skim reading them instead.


    I must know this. I must! If I fail the test . . .


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to be assembling machine parts for the rest of my life!¡±


    A countdown timer appeared off to the side. He was running out of time. Tomorrow was The Exam, and he would only get this one chance to show everyone that he was meant for so much more. It didn¡¯t seem fair that one test decided your entire life.


    Kaelon hands shook slightly. He had to force them to remain steady. Taking a deep breath, he willed himself to drink in as much information as he could.


    Beta nine. Alpha four. Capacitor ratios. Curfew. Scrap. Data quotients. What if I fail? I can¡¯t fail! Alpha nine¡ª


    With his mind racing gaze, Kaelon went out of focus, and he had to shake his head to refocus them.


    I have to stay awake.


    His limbs grew heavy, lowering slowly as his gaze became vacant. As his eyelids closed, the projections blurred and winked out as sleep claimed him.