KETTY'S SUBDIVISION Wattys2017

Chapter 1-Part I

KETTY'S SUBDIVISION

Sitting in history class, Ketty daydreamed about the dense star pack surrounding her Subdivision of space. She knew the jeweled balls of fire were a mere quarter light year apart from here towards the Galactic core, making a trip next door about a three-month affair. She could make it in her small light-drive ship, if she ran away from home. Her parents would never let her risk the depths of near space. A trip like that, to Argon 23 could be suicide since there were no lifebuoys between systems.

Still, she imagined herself out by the last planet of her solar system, in the nether regions of space, where communication died and a star ship was on its own. If there happened to be a pirate sloop hiding, she may never make it home, captured as a prisoner, she would be used for whatever sordid purpose the vagabonds deemed necessary.

There was a place, deep inside, where no one had ever ventured, that made her a bit excited at exploring the unknown. She had the faraway look of a dreamer which made her the most attractive girl in the Subdivision, yet she was grounded in the reality of life as a teenager.

There was only one thing which would make her run away, and that was her favorite bot named Boondock. If she wasn't allowed to keep him, she would give up everything and take him away to Argon 23. No one would miss her because on her homeworld of Karabellum, she wasn't as popular as the other students. With a touch of the throttle, she could be on her way and no one could catch her until she made it to the nearest star. But, she had a job to do. There were a hundred families who depended on her next year. There were a hundred baby robots that needed to spend a year in training so they would meet their owner's expectations, which meant she had a hundred opportunities to show how good she really was.

Her family name was Mc'kee. Legendary in robot herding, they had a reputation for bringing up the most successful Artificial Intelligence in the Subdivision.

Why a Mc'kee bot? Because it was a rare citizen who didn't treasure the thought of bringing home a beautiful new robot, with a promising pedigree. Ketty knew the buyers had a deep interest in receiving their bots after the introductory work necessary to make it considered for bragging rights. This was where robots turned into family. This is what made them capable and unique. This was how her family made a living, and it was her passion.

Training a bot to a high level of performance required commitment on her part. Instilling citizenship and competent field performance was an arduous process. Day and night, they required constant attention in order for the bots to reach their full potential. Her family produced two distinct levels of AI's, finished, and started.

The bell signaling the end of class rang and she cursed Deity for limiting her options to travel outside her solar system. Despite all their ingenuity, humans could only approach ninety-nine-point nine percent of light speed while traveling in space. Granted it was fast, almost 186,000 miles every second, but nowhere near instantaneous. Compared to space travel, life here in high school was lethargic and painful.

She turned to one of her friends as they braved the mad rush of students. "Rayleen, do you remember your last vacation, when your family took you to the Capital planet?"

"Oh, Maker, it was so amazing." Despite the genetic perfection of the students, they still had to fight their way down the halls, pushing through sweat stained bodies while enduring the excited chatter of the crowd. "We saw the government in action, but my favorite part was the concert at the coliseum."

"I know, The Satellites were there, but tell me how long it took you to get to Solaria Prime on the Fault-line?"

Rayleen scowled while trying to recall the actual trip. After a long delay, she said, "About a day, but we had two layovers when we switched lines. Who cares, Ketty, you're such a geek. The Satellites had the most outrageous costumes, they flew around stage and the light show reached clear out to space. You would have loved it Ketty, it was like a musical space adventure."

But Ketty's mind was focused on a journey outside the solar system. What if she had to run away to save her favorite bot, Boondock? The Fault-line was a subway type of space travel that followed lines of force scattered throughout the Subdivision. It was the key to commerce between worlds without aging due to what was known as time dilation. When a person travels close to the speed of light, their clock in motion slows down, so when they returned from a vacation, the people on their home world would have aged significantly more. The Fault-line allowed a person to travel to another star system and not return to a family who had aged significantly more.

"Your retarded robots come in from Parsing 11 on the Fault-line." Rayleen said. She saw the hurt on Ketty's face and instantly regretted her words. "What I meant was, you should know these details," she back pedaled.

"Why the sudden interest in space travel?" asked her other friend, Lindy, who deftly tried to navigate the awkward moment.

Ketty let the comment go. She knew Rayleen's family wasn't wealthy enough to afford one of the robots she trained, and they spent most of their money on worldly things like fine genetic breeding and beauty pageants.

"I want to go on a vacation, without my parents," said Ketty. "There are times when a person just needs to get away from it all."

Lindy's face brightened. "I'm going to Solaria Prime for camp this summer, you could come with me."

"You know I have to finish training the herd for graduation, but thanks."

Note about book 1 "The Subdivision series."

If you have any questions message me and I'll answer them. The entire 105,000 word novel is being released here on Wattpad, or buy the e-book for 99 cents on Kindle. I will not be doing any editing, but your comments and votes are highly appreciated. My hope is you will want to read book 2, Deadwalker Subdivision when you're done reading this book.

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