Chapter 1: Citizen Class 5
"Evaluation number 310947-5194, Slaver, Novian Druxis, step forward, the System awaits your presence in review cubicle number 112." These summons sounded from a small, black disc, hovering an exacting, and unwavering, one-hundred centimetres above the level of the floor. Its tranquil tone was barely audible over the muted, and somewhat subdued, shuffling of the hundreds of people present. Almost to a man, they greeted the intrusion with the same pained expression, waiting out the moment so that silence might return. Their desires were simple, quiet the mind and hope their growing concerns were brought to rest with it.
Through the grim intent and posturing of the assembled crowd, this place held a suggestion of posthumous regret.... (continued...)
Chapter 2: Freedom in a cage
Evus Trencher side-stepped two brawling men and then watched with a careless disregard as they tumbled across the gantry. Both the walkway he traversed, and his day as a whole, had been unusually peaceful prior to the interruption. Now, after a single foot fall, his mind was drawn away from its lazy drifting and faced with a potential situation. People would be watching, wanting to see which way he jumped. Feeding off his interpretation of the moment, they would then see how he made them feel.
Was he involved in things or just passing through?
Did the situation call for further violence?
Was it a display of weakness if he turned the other cheek?
Evus was no big noise in the Lokus Re-Evaluation Centre. He wasn't feared... (continued...)
Chapter 3: Sorry somehow
Novian lay upon his bed struggling to cope with the immobilising, limbs of lead, depression which had sought to take hold of him ever since his head first met the pillow. He wasn't trying to fight it. Being disinclined to move was no real problem at the moment, there was nowhere to go and nothing left to do anyway. Just his bed, his thoughts and a whole world he didn't want any more. Maybe he never had wanted it but reality didn't wait for a welcome, it just crashed the party any opportunity it got. Relentlessly forcing the passage of time and demanding change, it certainly had a bitter side. Visiting all who had been brought low, it sieved the fine grains of their consciousness to release the despair and drive them deeper... (continued...)
