"Co'ol. What are you going to do with your life?" High Priest Awe asks me.
"They want me to join the military," I answer.
The Priest taps my chest.
"What do you want?"
"I want…revenge?" I say and point to a picture of Yahflay.
He turns around.
"He didn't care if he lived or died. Do you care if you live or die, Co'ol?" The Priest asks me. I don't respond immediately. The Extraterrestrial mahogany floor creaks as his foot steps on it.
"Get out of the temple," He points out the doorway. "Go on. Leave. Only Aheia can guide you."
He pushes me out of his office; the Templars in their red robes guide me out. They remove the white turban from my head and replace it with a black one, one signifying I've been banned from the nearest temple.
On the way out, I place three bottles of Syreline in my bag — I've never had an entire bottle of Syre in my life.
They told me this had some type of magical property. I don't believe in it. Or believe in Aheia — she's meant to love and protect all of her followers — and sat there and watched Yahflay die. She doesn't care, and if she did, she wouldn't have let him die.
Sure, he was a dickhead, and sure he bullied, assaulted, and hurt people his whole life, but who blames him? In his shoes, wouldn't you do the same?
The thing about being homeless on Opranus is different than anything else; you're not actually homeless. You get a home. Those are free, provided to you, you don't want those homes. Those homes are heavily patrolled by the government/police. When you live there for too long, they kick you out into a new home. Using technology, they can just burst all of your appliances. Your hologram television is scrambled, your personal at field is destroyed, and your toilet is rearranged into an android that disassembles other toilets to make more androids.
They're replacing Jenti with androids. I could've been a great technician if it wasn't for them, and sure they've been around for over 40,000 years out of the Federation's 60,000 years, but only in the last 5 years have they become so invasive.
They were only used to enhance space travel, make constructing new colonies, and terraforming easier.
When we went to war with the Nalara, we snatched their tech in robotics, and now we broke one of the core laws of the constitution.
The elites are probably planning a second war, and Opranus will be right in the middle of it.
A'roll drives in front of me while I'm walking on the street.
"Co'ol! What's up! You tryna get active?
"Nah, man —" He takes out his weapon and draws it towards me.
"We're gonna party, damn it — get in the back seat."
"A'roll. The book says whatever goes around comes right back around. Do you think we're ever gonna get revenge for Yahflay?" I ask A'roll, tapping on his shoulder.
He turns around.
"Fuck no! I hated that kid. Why would we avenge him of all people? We could've avenged Stefer; we could avenge my grandma."
A'roll reaches into the glove compartment and places around a kilo of koudzl in his mouth.
"We're going to the Graduated Stellar Federation recruitment center. They have a huge party every time a class graduates. My girlfriend's there."
"You're telling me you didn't care about Yahflay; you cried during his funeral!" I exclaim.
"I was crying because he was my pusherman; he sold me kod for cheap! A'roll doesn't cry. My eyes just water. Remember that." He points to my face.
I look down on my Aheian handbook. I flip to a random verse and begin reading. It describes the story of a boy who accidentally releases a demon that devours the first empire of Aheia.
Poorly written mess, I can't see how anyone would ever believe in this shit.
They branded me, and now I have no choice but to act as I believe in Aheia.
A'roll stops his car abruptly.
"We're here." He says, putting on a pair of designer sneakers, laying his work boots on the seat next to him.
"What do you mean?" I look up from my book and point to the massive traffic jam.
"We're getting some cardio in. It's only a mile away — and we have a hovercar."
I step out of the car and look out to see a massive caravan of people. There are food trucks, there are androids, there's everything. Aliens, Jenti, animal people, sentient animals, everything you name it.