Last I wrote to you, I described the prison escape of three strange folks. I’d love to get into all the exciting details of what happens to them next. However, before that, I think we should take a step back and make an effort to understand where these people came from.

First, it’s important to talk about the year 6969 on the universal calendar. Without knowing this moving forward, you have no context for what kind of world brought up our protagonists. That might sound like a crude joke, but this year is nothing to take lightly. It was the beginning of one of the largest intergalactic… minglings of all time.

One month in, several hospitals became run with people who contracted social diseases and received coital injuries. After two months, they were hit with waves of requests for abortions. After three months, governments and companies began heavily promoting contraception and abstinence, it didn’t stick. After four months, expecting parents became impatient and performed their own abortions, causing the unintended deaths of several hundreds of thousands on the more underdeveloped planets. Five months, doctors quit their jobs and go on strike, more death. 6 months, the economy suffers, even more death. Months 7 and 8 were spent preparing for the hell that was about to come… It wasn't enough. 

Month nine saw an eclipsing spike in both deaths and births. Numbers so large, saying what they were would do little to describe the impact they had on the following years. Orphanages flooded with so many children that few of them managed to stay open without turning them away. Whether they were raised by parents or not, this single event cemented their identity as the “Orphan Generation”.

Among them, a girl was born. A girl with strange speckled hair that resembled the vast cosmos and eyes yellow like dual suns. She was left at an orphanage in Cydonia. Her parents were unknown. One "Rayvin Stardust".

Her earliest memory was staring at the holovision set and watching a recruitment ad, promoting the Saints. Infatuated, she rewatched and memorized every second of it.

"The universe, so vast. Its people, so complicated. We strive for a new age of understanding, an age of order, and an age of safety. Do your duty. Help keep your community safe. Help understand the universe. Be in our numbers, when the Saints go marching in."

"Rayvin, what is that?" Rayvin's caretaker would ask.

"A starship! I'm gonna see the stars!" Rayvin would answer.

It wasn't a starship of course. It was a cardboard box she found outside. Wishful thinking on her part, or perhaps an active imagination. That's what her caregivers would think. But they were wrong.

It was raw ambition!

She'd sneak insects and feral animals into her room, she'd collect rocks of different shapes and sizes, examining them and writing reports about her findings. Often she went missing and was found several miles away from the orphanage exploring the city or forest. Her curiosity made her a menace.

"Rayvin, put that creature back where you found it!"

"Rayvin, stop taking apart the holovision!"

"Rayvin, stay in your room!"

The more she wanted to break out into the world and understand it all, the tighter the grip around her neck became. At some point, she realized she wouldn't get what she wanted by going against what everyone told her.

"Yes, sir."

"Yes, m'am."

This felt right. This felt easier.

"She's so polite!"

"What a nice girl!"

Nothing but praise for doing what she was supposed to.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" She'd be asked.

"I want to become a Saint and see the universe." Her curiosity prevailed.

Soon she would be of age and would be free to join the Saints. Soon she could do everything she'd ever wanted to. She trained and studied for the physical and written portions of the Saint Academy exam every single day. Until eventually, the time came to put her training to the test.

"Anything interesting come in the mail for you today, Rayvin?" one of her peers asked.

"Eh!? Th- this is-!" She saw that at the top of her inbox was a letter from, "THE SAINTS!"

Her peers gather around her anticipating the contents. She was nervous to look, but the pressure from the curious eyes was more powerful. Slowly, she clicks on the mail and begins to read it aloud.

"Dear Rayvin Stardust,

Your application has been reviewed, your exam has been thoroughly graded, and your background was put under a microscope. It is with great pride we say you're a perfect fit for-"

The rest of the words were caught in her throat, held back by joy and disbelief. Waves of tears flowed from her eyes, in the excitement of the moment, she stood up and kicked the wall, shouting to the ceiling, no… the heavens.

"THANK YOU, GOD! THANK YOU SO MUCH!"

In elation she felt like she could fly, like she was free, like she didn't have to give another damn about anything anyone had to tell her. And on some level, there was freedom in receiving this news, though only in receiving it, nothing more. The path she had chosen isn't one she could leave so easily. Nor any other path for that matter, but that's for another time.