The kids all left the classroom, a few sneaking in a few hugs on Mara as they did. She returned all the hugs. Once all the kids were gone, Hillary came over. "Sorry about that, they're always so happy to see you."
"It's fine." Mara replied. "The feeling is mutual. So, how did today's lesson go?"
Hillary gave a rather sarcastic snot, pulling back her long red hair as she did. "You mean my 'Trust the Union if you want to live' lesson I have to give every Rhea Day week. It went very well. Very well, indeed."
"Oh, stop it." Liz chimed in. "It didn't kill you did it?"
"I would have preferred it did."
The three women then made their way to the cafeteria, where all the children were gathering for dinner now that the day's classes were done. The other tutors in the orphanage worked patiently to get them into an organized line to grab their dinner. The food wasn't really anything special. It was called 'stew' but it was mostly just a bowl of slop. It was made mostly of artificial ingredients to give the orphans the basic nutrients they need to survive. Most of the kids had gotten used to it but they were always overjoyed when they were actually able to eat something delicious.
Mara sat herself down at one of the tables and chatted with several of the kids. Mara loved kids, she found it relaxing to sit down and talk to them. They would always share what they were learning about in class, the art projects they were working on, and what they hoped to do once they got out of the orphanage.
"When I grow up, I'm going to be a pilot." One of the boys said.
"Are you?" Mara asked.
"Yeah, I'm going to join the Union-Security force and fly fighters."
"Well, I'm sure they'll be happy to have you."
One of the other boys stood up from the other end of the table. "I would never join Union-Security. I'd rather join the 'Hoods'!"
"The hoods aren't real." One of the girls at the table shouted back."
"There are so. I heard that they rescue people with no home and take them to the rogue-sectors to be free from the Union. I heard that they steal from the rich and give to the poor. I would join them in a heartbeat."
"Oh, would you?" Liz stated playfully. "Well, then you better sit down before I report."
The boy at the end of the table sat down as responded. "Go ahead, I can take them."
"I'm sure you can."
Mara laughed at the whole along with several of the other orphans, but she had heard of the 'Hoods' before. They were as real as the Cyber-Underground though she had never met a hood before. She often considered finding one to take her away from the Union when she was growing up in the orphanage but the stories about them became a lot less romantic once she went out into the adult world.
"I don't want to take it." Mara heard another boy say. She turned to see one of the other tutors, Martin, talking to the boy, she thinks his name was Kenny, who was refusing to take all of his pills.
"Look, you have to take it." Martin diplomatically said to Kenny.
Kenny shook his head. "I don't like that one, it makes me feel weird."
"And what happens when you don't take it?"
"I get hyper."
"And what happens when you get hyper?"
"I use up all the oxygen and we all die."
After that Kenny relented and agreed to take the final pill. The scene put a pit in Mara's stomach. It was one thing to require pills to fight off the kind of vitamin deficiency that life in space can lead to. But the Union had a standard on how people were supposed to behave, on what was 'normal'. Any deviation was considered an illness to be treated and United-Pharmaceuticals took great pride in their ability to help people 'Become Better'. Mara remembered Liz being resistant to the policy while she was growing up in the orphanage, but that clearly didn't last. The Wakefield Administration probably threatened to fire her if she didn't comply. Liz would do anything to protect the kids, but she would sometimes have to bend to keep herself in a position to help her. So, Mara decided to keep her mouth shut and trust Liz's judgment.
Mara continued to sit and chat with the kids at her table for about another half hour before Liz and a couple of the tutors wheeled out their surprise. Suddenly, just about everyone in the room was singing 'Happy Birthday' to Mara who turned around and saw not one, but 4 large cakes out. Mara had a big smile on her face. She had completely forgotten that today was her birthday, she had just started thinking of herself as 24 without much care. Her birthday wasn't really a day she was fond of celebrating anymore. But she couldn't help but be touch but what Liz had organized for her.
When the song was done, Liz announced to the room. "Everyone who had a birthday this month gets first slices."
"Yes." Mara yelled to the room. "But first they're going to get a special birthday hug from me."
And that was exactly what she did. Mara stood up from the table and proceeded to give all of the birthday kids a hug before giving each of them a slice of cake before treating herself to a slice. There were 11 kids with a birthday this month. One by one, Mara exchanged 'Happy Birthdays' with each of the kids. One of them was a little girl she had tutored before named Joanne. "Hey, Joanne. How old are you know?"
"I'm nine." Joanne answered.
"Are you?" Mara said playfully. "What did you do for your birthday."
"My friends all made me a card and Hillary set up a party in the classroom."
"Oh, that's sweet."
"Do you remember what you did for you're ninth birthday?"
Mara paused for a moment, struggling to maintain her smile. "No, I don't."
That was a lie of course. Mara remembered exactly what she did for her ninth birthday...
...Mara could remember being woken up in the morning by her mother, Marissa Hardsand. "Wake up, sweetie. We have a big day for you."
That was certainly the case. Once the young Mara got herself up from bed, she went down to the kitchen where her parents had prepared a big breakfast for her. It was big pile of pancakes, Mara's favorite. She didn't have to worry about food back then. The Hardsand Family lived pretty well back then in the higher levels of the Central-Station, back then the Hardsand family was 'respectable'.
Both of her parents were respected journalists in the Wakefield Press, though they were very different kinds of journalists. Marissa Hardsand was an opinion-journalist, often giving stern critiques of the actions of the Government. Mara's father, Javier Hardsand, was an investigative-journalist, constantly digging to discover the truth. The Hardsands came from a long line of reporters dating all the way back to Earth. It was actually a Hardsand who originally broke the story that Humanity's oxygen supply was beginning to drop. A fact that the Union Government initially tried to cover-up. It wasn't a mystery why Mara's father chose the field he did or that he ultimately ended up marrying a fellow journalist after he did.
But at the new age of nine, Mara didn't care about any of that. She didn't think much about the Oxygen-Crisis, she didn't understand most of what her parents said to each other when they 'Talked Shop', and she didn't think much about family legacy. She did care about where they were going for her birthday though. She scarfed down her breakfast and she led the way out of the home. Mara's parents teased her a bit about whether or not they were still going but she was not having any of it, she wanted to see it. She had to.
Finally, her parents dropped the games and left the home with Mara who was basically bouncing for joy during the Transit-Car ride. She was so excited, none of the other kids in her class had been able to see it yet. They were all going to be so jealous of her. Her parents could hardly contain her when they arrived at the Wakefield Observatory. The Observatory had always been a popular destination, young couples would go there and look out among the stars. But, on the day of Mara's ninth birthday, it was the hottest place to be.
Ever since the discovery was made after City-Stations of Humanity had made their most recent Light-Speed jump into the sector, it was the only thing anyone wanted to see. And, in the week before Mara's birthday, when the City of Wakefield had finally moved into a position where it could get a good glimpse of it, the waiting list at the Observatory had become months long and was only getting longer. But Mara's father had an in at the Observatory, an old friend who was able to get the Hardsands to the front of the line for their daughters birthday.
Javier thanked his friend who greeted them at a side entrance to avoid the crowds and led them through the facility. The Wakefield Observatory was huge, home to many telescopes of various sizes and purposes, along with many platforms with seating where people could look out at the stars. Mara had never seen the stars before, they were beautiful. The giant red cloud was massive and enchanting. She could've just stared at them all day and been satisfied, but the stars weren't the main event. The Nebula wasn't the gift her parents had taken her there to see.
Her father's contact took them up to the Observatory's primary telescope. By far the biggest of them all, the telescope was twice the size of an entire Transit-Train. On the platform where the viewer was were several computers meant to study the signals of what the telescope was looking at. Javier's friend double checked everything before motioning to the Hardsand to look through the viewer. "Fourth dot from the star."
Mara's father looked first before his wife and then back to her father. They went 'ooh' and 'awe' to tease their daughter who was bouncing up down with excitement. "Oh, just let me see. Let me see!"
"Ok." Javier picked his daughter and held her up to the viewer. "Do you see it? Remember, the fourth rock from the sun."
Mara held her right eye on the viewer of the telescope and looked at the star system it was pointed at. It had a beautiful blue star and, around it, there were about nine dots. Nine Planets. In her head, counted out the planets starting from the blue star and going out. One. Two. Three. And four. There it was. It was just a dot in the telescope but it was still the most amazing this anyone had seen. Mara smiled. "That's it? That's Terra-Nova?"
"Yep," Mara's mother answered, "That's Terra-Nova."
It was the only thing anyone was talking about. After over three centuries in space, Humanity had finally found a planet they could live. A planet they could call home. For a girl who had known nothing but the sterile environment of outer-space, it was the stuff of fantasies. But, for Mara, there was a chance that fantasy could come true. "How long until we can move there?"
Javier's friend answered. "Not for a while. Based on the readings, the planet's atmosphere is nearly identical to Earth before it's decline. Mostly Nitrogen, with a mix of other gasses but there is one thing missing. Oxygen. But the Union has already launched the first wave of the terraforming. Machines that can convert it's CO-2 to oxygen, begin planting algae, and pumping water particles into the. It'll be many decades before any human could hope to live there but the early signs seem promising."
"Your father and I will never be able to live there, Mara." Marissa explained to her daughter. "But, if everything goes well, you might be able to build a house for your children."
...Needless to say, things did not go well. Terra-Nova was long gone. It was nothing but a fantasy. And, as happy as Mara was back then, Twenty-Four-year-old Mara didn't like to think about that day much. She would much rather just sit down and eat cake with all the kids of the Wakefield Orphanage. She wished could remain at the orphanage forever and chat with the kids about their days, about their art projects. It was always much better than going back out into the adult world, which cast off so many children into the orphanage to be forgotten about. They deserved better than that.
"Let me see that bowl." Mara heard Liz say. She turned and saw her speaking to one of the kitchen staff who was taking the dinner bowls back to the kitchen. Liz looked at one of them. "She needs to eat more than that."
"I don't know what to tell you." The kitchen hand responded. "She takes a few bites and then she just sits there."
Mara looked around the cafeteria and soon spotted the kid they were talking. She was sitting alone at a table in the far corner. Mara didn't recognize her.
"Alright." Liz conceded to the kitchen hand. "We'll give her a slice of cake and see if she eats. But then I want a fresh bowl of stew in front of her. The girl is far to thin."
"Of course." The kitchen hand returned to the kitchen as Liz stood there and shook her head as Hillary went over to talk to her.
Mara excused herself from the table she was sitting at and joined them. "New arrival?"
Liz nodded. "Yeah, she showed up here alone a few days ago."
"What's her name?"
"We don't know. She hasn't said a word since she got here. She had no ID, and had nothing but the clothes on her back and a bag make-up products. Probably stolen."
"Make-Up?"
"It's cover-up make-up." Hillary explained. "She has it all over her face and arms. She's not letting anyone see her."
Mara's heart dropped as the realization hit her. "Somebody beat her up?"
"She's certainly traumatized." Liz answered. "She wouldn't even bath the first day she was here. I had to guarantee complete privacy for her while she showered and reapplied her make-up while Hillary stood guard outside the bathroom. And, even after that, she still won't say a word."
"Maybe she's mute." Hillary suggested.
"Maybe." Liz thought about. "Mara, why don't you give some cake and try to talk to her? You have a way with kids."
"Of course." Mara grabbed a piece of cake and walked over to the new arrival.
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