The Earthen Olkag

I

Modern Eboracum, AD 3000

"Today I am Uben Jussum," Gianna Alvarez declared. "First man to land on Pluto and create atmospheric temperature regulators that allowed others to follow in his footsteps."

It was true that normal fifteen year-olds usually didn't play make-believe, but some days Gia let herself pretend she was not just a normal teenage girl.

. . .Because she was destined to live her life out in the same confined jobs that her parents and grandparents and great grandparents underwent. . .

. . .Because she did not want to continue with Intergalactic Retailing Incorporated.

IRI was a family business that had been passed down from generation to generation. Sure, when Gia was a kid, she was fascinated at the idea of packing boxes of supplies for astronauts and intergalactic travelers to explore the further regions of space. Who wouldn't be? But after Gia realized she would never be one of the space explorers that her family provided necessities for, the vigor had drained out of her. She could not stand to listen to her mother or father come home from work and declare their everlasting love to that one brand of sticky tape that held together a box of space suits.

The morning bell rang, jolting Gia out of her thoughts. She sidestepped a hover dropping some students off at school and made her way into Einstein High. The high school was named after one of the most famous ancient scientists of all time, rivaling discoveries of even Uben Jussum. Without Einstein's theory of special relativity, pushed aside by humans until the mid-30th century, they would not have discovered how spaceships could warp the fabric of the space-time continuum and allow intergalactic travel.

Gia deposited her iTexts into her locker, glad for the temporary relief of the tugging straps of her backpack. Even though her textbooks were in electronic form in digital tablets, they were still an uncomfortable weight she didn't want to carry around all day. After closing her locker, Gia spun around . . . and ran face-first into someone's torso, dropping her iTexts and digital pens all over the floor.

Without having to look, Gia recognized the person she had collided with. Embarrassed, she looked up into the attractive face of Gabryl Montez.

"So sorry," She muttered, bending down to pick up her textbooks and keeping her eyes glued to her feet. She did notice out of the corner of her vision that the dark-haired sophomore's eyes crinkled at the corners as he responded.

"No, that was my bad," Gabryl said, surprising her as he smiled and helped her pick up her textbooks. "I've been pretty distracted lately. I have an exam for my History class and I've been studying forever, but I'm probably still going to bomb." he chuckled. "I lost my study sheet, and who would've thought the Fremde Theory would be so hard to remember?"

"You mean the theory German scientist Lukas Fremde theorized, stating that aliens might possibly once had coexisted on Earth in human disguise in the late 21st century?"

Gia cringed and looked at the floor again, her face reddening when she realized what she'd blurted out. She knew most Edison High students didn't think fondly of the geeky science kids. Gabryl was a part of the popular sophomore group, and Gia . . . was not.

Gia glanced up hesitantly to see Gabryl staring at her in awe—something nobody had ever done to her before. "Nebula—I'd heard you were smart, but . . . wow. How do you remember all that?"

Gia blushed at the praise. "My parents work around astronauts in the Intergalactic Packaging department. I pick up a bit here and there."

That wasn't the full truth, though. Gia was so fascinated with science that much of her free time was spent studying science and history on the web, since much of the past millennium had intertwined the two subjects.

"Thanks—I remember it now." Gabryl said, running a hand through his wavy, dark hair and grinning. "I've got to go take the exam. . .maybe you could teach me a bit more later?"

"Um—I mean—that'd be cool. Sure." Gia said dazedly, sounding like a cleaning bot on the fritz. She returned Gabryl's wave as he ran down the hall and ducked into a classroom, watching his receding back and nearly fainting as she realized she'd actually talked to one of the cutest boys in school. She, Gia, had held a conversation with him, Gabryl. Talented hover-board racer, stunning grin, popular Gabryl. And he'd heard that she was smart. Where did he hear that from? That meant he must have noticed her before.

Gia floated down the hall to her class, barely noticing the small, rectangular metal object that had attached itself to her sneaker.

* * *

"And now class, turn to page six-hundred and seventy-two in your iText, and we will recount the Great World Partitioning. Please read from 672 to 678 and take the self-quiz on page 680 to prepare you for our in-class Midterm next week."

Gia had suffered through English and Phys. Ed—which had mostly consisted of the athletic people showing off on their hover-boards and the non-athletic people standing off to the side and frantically studying their i-Texts for their next exams—and now it was her time to shine. Gia skimmed over the pages that she had already read and memorized last night. It was still heartbreaking and astonishing at the same time.

The Great World Partitioning had shattered Earth's colonies a mere few hundred years ago, and the broken continents were still trying to put back together the pieces. The huge world war had broken out a few years after alternate dimensions and time travel had been discovered. Gia's personal opinion was that if a few great scientists had been a little more inclusive in their work, the huge war would not have broken the world's unity in the first place.

The world leaders had declared a worldwide war after one continent had concealed the groundbreaking discoveries of time travel, which led to many people fleeing countries and trying to find remote places for refuge. Many leaders had different opinions on time travel and the space-time continuum, and the war had gone on for a long four years—one of the longest wars in history. Finally, on March twenty-second of 2901 AD, the countries had called a cease-fire and agreed to use the discoveries for all of the nation's benefit. Shortly afterward followed the Era of Invention, as many great scientists put the discoveries to use.

With all the new, modern technology that had erupted from that era, Gia was surprised that barely any of Earth's neighboring planets had been fully explored. Her fingertips quivered against her iText at the mere thought of finding all that new land . . . and possibly, possibly . . . new life forms.

Not even the great spaceman Uben Jussum had discovered even a trace of life on any other planet aside from Earth, despite the well-known myths and children's tales of extraterrestrial creatures. If Gia had a say in her life, she would devote it to unearthing the tales of aliens and exploring undiscovered planets. For now, though, she had to satisfy herself with history, technology, and science fiction iTexts.

The whirring of the cleaning bot dusting tables in the back row brought Gia back to the present. She looked around to see all of her classmates bent over their desks, hard at work on the pop quiz. Mrs. Benson, the History teacher, raised an eyebrow. "Please start your pop quiz and stay on Earth with us, Miss Alvarez," Mrs. Benson said. She said it with a smile though, indicating that Gia's teacher knew she would ace the pop quiz.

She always did.

* * *

Gia's parents worked late at IRI, so after picking up her schoolwork from her locker, Gia started the trek home.

It wasn't very far, and all Gia had waiting for her at home was schoolwork, so she lingered on the sidewalk up to her house. It was fall, so the leaves were slowly changing to reds and purples and browns. It would have been a bit more breathtaking if it still happened naturally and wasn't AI generated to produce the fullest amount of Oxygen for the humans to enjoy, but it was still pretty all the same.

Gia was enjoying the whisper of the fall breeze—one thing that technology had yet to enhance—when they came.

If she had to explain later, Gia would have described the feeling like a pin stabbing her in the ankle. As the sedative wore into her, Gia heard muffled voices and saw dark shadows falling over her fluttering eyelids. It all sounded like rubbish to her. The last thing the teenage girl heard before collapsing onto the sidewalk was one particularly grave voice.

"If Her Highness had escaped this far, she must be guilty of treason—and that is a capital offense."