The morning light filtered in through the window and fell across her face just like every morning before. But unlike every other morning, she was already awake, having had a difficult night trying to sleep while tossing and turning with a mixture of excitement and dread. The future always stretches before you bright and scary at the same time. New truths and the mysteries of the world opening up before your very eyes.
Across the now brightly lit room, a panel in the wall buzzed softly as a small silver ball the size of a marble detached itself and flew to the bedside of the girl that lay starfished on her bed. From the small ball a projection was shown with the time and date, while a small soft voice chirps brightly "Good morning Arden. Happy 18th birthday. Everything's been packed and your parents and friends are waiting downstairs in the living room to see you off. Would you like me to tell them you'll be down soon?"
Arden Silverbloom turned her head and looked at the small ball without moving so much as a finger otherwise. "Please give me 5 more minutes. Once I get up I won't be back here for at least a whole year." Then turned her head towards the window and sighed as though a heavy weight was pressed on her chest. "Today everything changes and I'm not sure if it'll be a good thing like everyone says. I feel as though something's coming that'll change the whole world."
The little ball buzzed around for a moment more then settled lightly on her outstretched palm, a soft warmth emiting from its shiny orb body. "No matter what happens, you will do brilliantly. You were accepted to intern at 3 of the top 10 science firms, 2 of the top 10 law firms, and 7 various other top firms from different professions. You have more offers than anyone else in sector 8 of The Countryside and are in the top 10 yourself. And that's without going to the top academic institute in The Countryside in sector 1 like the others did."
Arden sighed again and smiled lightly. If she'd known that tinkering with the halo ball that's normally just used for communication and entertainment would make it be able to think and have it's own conversations, grow it's knowledge and develop a whole personality, perhaps she wouldn't of messed with it 3 years ago. She had just intended to create a better system that would take more information from the control panels inside every room and adjust to the needs of the owner. Now she felt less like an owner and more like a friend to the little ball. Mother hadn't let her actually present the changes to her school's improvement fair.
According to history the improvement fair is much like science fairs used to be, except the things offered don't have to just be scientific advancement or experiments. Someone could show an improvement to the way something simple like juice tastes and win an award just as easily as someone could improve the way the machines that that plow the fields outside wins. In fact Arden had won those awards for both of those reasons before. A few students had thought it was crazy and that she received special privileges when she won for improving the taste of the juices that were offered at school with their meals. But when the new tastes had been distributed everyone had realized it really was an improvement, and was cheaper to produce and somehow healthier than before. She hadn't even wanted to show that particular improvement at the fair but mother's warning about the little halo ball being 'more dangerous if people think it can think for itself' had made her just pull something quickly through at the last minute.
Most AI had limiters on them, built into their very codes, that prevented them from growing their intelligence. It was a idea that had grown from many generations past, before the Great War that caused the world to shatter and need to be rebuilt. Arden had been younger and hasn't thought that it would be needed for her halo ball. She still didn't and is thankful that she didn't do so because of how her ball had grown over the years, helping her expand on the ideas that she already had, coming up with more improvement to itself at simple suggestions that Arden threw out. Mother had warned that though it wasn't a law or rule to have the limiters, many would be scared of the little ball that could think for itself and seemed to almost have its own emotions at times.
Arden had named her ball Comet, had fixed its battery life so that not only could it charge by docking at the wall panels but also gather energy from many other means, including heat, sunlight, and even the small electric currents flowing through a human body. Though to gather the energy from a human body did require a small bracelet type of charging dock that Arden had developed and now wore at all times. Comet typically chose to hangout on the bracelet dock and observe the world as Arden went through her day. Thankfully the changes Arden had made, and Comet "herself" was hidden from everything else. The scanners at school never picked up Comet as anything except a bracelet, the wards and other security things never expelled Comet either.
"Arden it is time to get up and go to The City. We wouldn't want to rush saying goodbye to everyone that wants to see you off." Comet buzzed softly before rolling from her left palm to settle securely into the bracelet dock with a small hum that seemed to be off satisfaction. "Besides you know you're excited about this. Interning with the best scientist in The City is your dream, it's best not to disappoint him by running late."
Arden sighed once more as she rolled over and threw off the dark purple blanket. Normally she would turn immediately and fix her blankets and sheets and pillows, making her purple themed bed look as perfectly put together and inviting as if it had come from a magazine. But today her mother had told her to leave everything so that it can all be cleaned and fixed for when she comes home next year. She looked down at her toast brown toes with their bright purple polish that matched her fingernails and wiggles them in her black, silver, and purple shaggy carpet with a giggle. Her mother said that her style seemed to match that of a teenager in what was termed "the 70's" before the Great War and Downfall. Though much was lost in the Downfall, technology and information was kept safe and sound in The Vaults. Pictures of the 70's did indeed inspire Arden when she was remaking her room years ago. Purples of all hues, beaded curtains on the doorways, shag carpets, stylized photos and posters on the walls, and even the furniture followed the much much older style though mostly it was of course made from the synthetic materials they used now days that was cheaper and healthier for the earth than harvesting the life giving trees or mining the earth for metals that would eventually run out. Admittedly there was some wooden furniture in her room, stuff she'd found from artists and carpenters. Though the laws prevented anyone from harvesting trees before their life ended, the ones who fell from old age, the storms that pushed them over, or the occasional sickness that needed to be stopped before it spread to the other healthy trees, those trees were all given freely to the ones who could turn them into something.
Arden walked into her closet and got dressed, a simple jumper of dark grey with light purple flowing flowery designs at the cuffs, and along her neckline and shoulders. As she slipped on the her black boots and attached the black cape around her neck, she looked around to ensure she had everything packed that she needed to take with her. She was wearing her favorite outfit and boots, had packed everything that she thought she needed, but she was still worried that she was missing something.
"Arden are you coming downstairs?" Her mother's voice trilled through the panel on the wall.
"I'm coming Momma." Was Arden's soft answer as she looked around once more, spotting the necklace that her father had given her before he had gone missing years ago. She quickly rushed over and placed it around her neck, tucking it under her neckline and hurried out of the room finally feeling as though she had completely prepared to leave for her Year.
At the foot of the stairs her mother waited for her, a soft smile on her face as she took in her daughter rushing down the stairs and almost clumsily tripping at the bottom. "Oh my beautiful girl. I will miss you so much. This Year is so much harder than all the ones before it." Arden's mother said as she tucked a strand of blue black hair behind her tanned ears, her fingers of her other hand tracing Arden's cheek before she leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on both of them.
"Come I have a surprise for you my sweet girl." She tugged Arden behind her into the living room where the rest of Arden's family and friends was gathered. "Remember everyone we don't have forever. And I hope that you were all thoughtful in the Years gifts you picked, she won't have much space to carry things as she's only allowed 2 suitcases and we've already packed everything our sweet Arden will need." Momma glared softly at Arden's best friend at the last part of her speech, knowing that she would of gotten the biggest gift possible if she could have.
Isebell Blackwood stifled a giggle and held out a small box, much smaller than any of the gifts she'd ever previously given to her best friend since birth. They were born only months apart, Arden being the oldest, but from the moment that Isebell's mother Lisel Blackwood had brought her home and her neighbor brought her own baby daughter Arden around to greet the new baby, both Arden and Isebell had been inseparable. "Mrs. Silverbloom I swear it's small and useful. Though please don't open it until you get to wherever you're going to lay your head for the Year." Another giggle escaped Isebell and Theodrrea Silverbloom rolled her eyes at the silly girl that she thought of as her own in many ways.
Arden took the small box and placed it in the half full backpack that she had chosen as her secondary bag for this Year. Then she wrapped her best friend up in a giant hug and squeezed her tightly. "I'm going to miss you so much. I can't believe we got assigned different sectors in The City." Isebell said as she squeezed back.
Arden smiled gently at her and stepped back, turning to greet her aunt and uncle and the two other friends that had come to see her off. They exchanged words of comfort and missing and love while piling her with small gifts to take with her. A new halo tablet, box of her favorite sour stretch candies, a pair of bright purple jeweled earrings that sparkled brilliantly in the morning sunshine, and a soft shaggy throw blanket in purple and blue with a hint of reds and greens thrown around was all placed into her backpack carefully. She hugged and thanked everyone and cried more than a few tears.
"Dear sweet Arden we will miss you so much. After your Year is up we will have a huge welcome home party and have all your favorite things here waiting." Her aunt said as she hugged her one final time before Arden walked from the house that had been her home for 18 years before. She turned and looked around at it, with it's soft blue shutters and doors and white walls, the flower beds with bright red roses and lavenders and bluebells and daisies. She looked around at the red barn that housed the animals her mother took care of and the fields of crops that surrounded her home.
"Arden Silverbloom, I'm not able to explain what this is, but know that one day it'll help you, far more than it'll ever help me. I can't use this but I know you can be cause it's activated by your blood just like it's activated by your father's before you. I may never know what made his disappear but I need to know that you'll come back to me one day." Arden turned to see her mother holding out a small black metallic band. It didn't look like much at all but when her mother clicked it around her other wrist, it seemed to pinch for just a moment then ease up and settle warmly against her skin while the seem to open it appeared to blend together until it became one solid piece. She had seen this band wrapped around her mother's wrist though it had always had a gap as though it was nothing more than a simple cuff. As she watched, silver geometric styled designed flashed across the surface before they faded again and the black metallic band was still once more.
"Shhhsh don't say anything at all about it. Not even to me now. Unfortunately I have no idea how this will help you so I can't give you any other clues. Just know that before your father left on his last mission for the Council, he pressed this around my wrist and told me to give it to you only when you turned 18, before you went away for your Year. Now go and come back safely. We can communicate any time you want to baby." She pressed a soft kiss to Arden's forehead and then gently pushed her forward to the transport platform.
Arden turned to say something, to ask her mother more questions, both about the bracelet and her father. But before she could fully turn her mother had pressed the button and she was suddenly miles away from her home in the middle of the town that the hover train would take her to The City would pick her up from. She almost wanted to cry as she stepped down from the transport platform but she quickly braced herself and walked into the train station, looking around the old Western stylized building.
Her first impression of the inside was that there was no way that the whole thing was made of synthetic materials, but as she got closer to the ticket booth, she realized that it had been molded to look as though it was wood, that the flaking paint was actually really wonderfully done covering, all to make the place seem as though it had stepped out of the old movies from long before the Great War or Downfall. Even the seats looked as though they were wooden and covered in natural material fabrics, though they still could be covered in said fabrics as there was nothing against making them from harvested plants as long as they were not harvested from wild plants or any type of trees.
Arden got her ticket from the halo Ticketmaster and took a seat, noticing that she was in a mostly empty room, with only a few people lingering around. She knew she wasn't the only student going for their year that would be picked up today but she might be the only one picked up from this district and this town. She gazed at her ticket and saw that she had only a few minutes til the train would arrive so she gathered her two bags and went to the doors as did the others around her.
She heard the train pull in, listened to the soft announcement "Boarding train 308970 bound for The City districts 7, 5, 4, and 1." And with that she lifted her bags and stepped through the doors and onto the train that would take her to the next part of her life.