The Other Earth

by Amber LaShell

  She reached out and took Brandon's package too, setting it down on the table as she opened mine. She pulled the papers out and read the top page for a few seconds. She looked back up at looked at me for a few seconds before turning her head and looking at Brandon again, and then she looked back to me.

  "Are you two related?" she asked.

  I shook my head, "No we are not" I answered.

  She sighed, "Well you see here is the thing. I don't know your history, and I don't care, but with you working with the marriage programmer, you will have to be unmatched. The only way you can validate your living in the same house as a member of the opposite sex would be if you are related. Seeing as how you two look to be about the same age, my suggestion would be siblings" she said, still looking back and forth between the two of us.

  I looked over at Brandon for a few seconds before looking back at Flora, "What do you mean marriage programmer?" I asked.

  Flora tilted her head and looked at me with an odd expression on her face. My heart started to pound as I worried that I had said something that should be universally known and therefore giving away that I am not from here.

  "How long have you been underground?" she asked.

  I looked at Brandon for an answer, "I was born there" I said quickly looking back to her.

  She nodded, "Yes you do seem unaware. Well, while I get this document ready for the photo I will tell you a story." She said.

  She pointed over to the smaller sofa that she was not sitting on and I walked over sitting on the farthest end, giving Brandon room to sit next to me. He sat down, making sure to keep enough distance to not arouse suspicion of our true relationship.

  "About one hundred years ago, people were running wild, having sex with anyone and everyone, having way too many babies that had disabilities due to inbreeding when a war broke out. There was a group of people that wanted things to be of a more orderly state and so there was war" she said, as she slid the first of the documents into a machine that resembled a scanner.

  "So I would assume that they won that war" Brandon stated.

  Flora nodded as she pointed to an area in front of her that had a small stretch of gray wall. I walked over to the spot she was pointing at and saw a small x painted onto the floor that I had never noticed before.

  "Just stand with your toes on the x and look straight ahead to the camera without smiling dear" she said, going behind the camera. I looked right at her until she pulled her head back out from behind it.

  "So, once they won the war, they created the government. They have full control over everyone. They created these sectors for people to live in. Most of the sectors are just normal everyday people, working ordinary everyday jobs. Only sector one and sector five are specific." She said, pulling out another document and placing it in the scanner like device as she pulled out the previous one and set it on the table next to her.

  "James told us that sector five is for the university and that this sector is the scientific center" I said, trying to contribute to the story.

  Flora nodded, "Yes that's exactly right. This sector also houses the government itself. They are on the other side in a large building. There are a section of houses right around that building where they all live."

  I looked over at Brandon and saw that he was frowning, "So what exactly is the relationship programmer and why would that force us to pretend to be siblings?" he asked.

  Flora held her finger up, "I was getting there. You see, with all of the unnatural births, as they put it, they decided that they needed to fix our race. So they created a machine that will match people together, depending on a few things. The first is looks, the two people have to be matched in attractiveness. The second is a determination of their fertility." She put another of the documents into the scanner as she pulled the second back out and inspected it.

  Deeming it good she nodded and set it down on top of the other one, "When you hit a certain age, you are examined to see if you are capable of pro-creating. If you are shown to be unable to conceive in some way you are sent to an area with other infertile people. The third and final thing they check for is a determination of what your children would be like. They try to create a race that is beautiful but strong and only allow people to marry who would create these types of children."

  I shook my head, "So it doesn't matter if you are in love with someone?" I asked.

  Flora smiled, "Love is only something that someone in the underground would ever consider. You marry who your government tells you to marry and have at least one child with that person. If you do not, the punishment is death" she said, pulling out the last document and inspecting it.

  "That still doesn't answer the question of why we have to pretend to be siblings. Can we not pose as an already matched married couple?" Brandon asked.

  Flora smiled at us as she shook her head, "No, you see Randi here is going to be working with the main relationship programmer. She is basically the person who runs the data through the machines and matches couples. Anyone that works in this area is ineligible for marriage. They would not allow someone to be able to choose their own partner, and as they don't want to mess with the machine, they appoint someone who is unable to have children to the job most of the time and are told they cannot marry." She said.

  I shook my head, "Okay. I don't really understand, but I will tell anyone that asks that Brandon is my brother" I said.

  Flora smiled, "Good girl, just act the part until your mission is completed, and then you can go back underground with the inside information for the coalition to finally take down the government and bring the planet back to the people of Terra."

  Brandon gasped next to me. I gave him a quick look as I knew that the entire last sentence Flora said hit way too close to home.

  "Okay, you are next Brandon. Go ahead and step up and get your picture taken" Flora said.

  I bit my lip, eager to get back upstairs to my journal so that I could process all of the information I had just learned.

  ***

  "So what do you think about all of what Flora told us?" Brandon asked me when we stepped back into my bedroom.

  I shrugged my shoulders, "I don't know. It's a lot to take in so quickly. This planet is run like one of those old dystopian novels that were popular at the beginning of last century. I have a feeling that things aren't going to be able to stay this way too much longer. This coalition seems determined to overthrow their government" I said, sitting down onto my bed and grabbing my journal.

  Brandon nodded, "Yes I agree. Did you notice that she called this planet Terra?" he asked.

  I shook my head, "I don't think I got that part. I was too busy balking over her calling this our mission. It was too close to the truth in my opinion." I said.

  He laughed, "Yes I caught that part, but after that she called this planet Terra, which is completely odd" He said.

  I nodded, "That the name of this planet that is so similar to our own is a Latin word that means Earth? Yeah that is weird" I said.

  "They speak English here too, just like most of our world. I wonder though if they speak other languages in other sectors though" he said, rubbing his hands over his face that already had a shadow of a beard.

  "It's unlikely" I said.

  He looked at me, "Why do you say that?" he asked.

  I shrugged, "It just seems as though their sectors are very small and quite close together. Also the government seems hell bent on controlling everything and I can't see them letting someone speak a different language than their own." I said.

  Brandon nodded, "Yes, I see your point. From what we saw in the ship, it looked as though there was quite a bit of empty land around these sectors. I wonder how much of it is housing large underground cities like the one they think we are from?" he asked.

  "I don't know, my guess would be at least ninety percent though" I said, opening my journal to the last page I wrote in.

  Brandon patted my leg, "Okay, I am going to go and get some writing done too, and l
ook through my packet and try to memorize everything that I can before tomorrow. I'll see you at dinner okay?" he asked, leaning in as though to kiss me.

  I jerked back, "I don't think we should be doing that, you never know who could be looking in these windows or spying on us here" I said.

  Brandon sighed, "Yes you have a point, even though I don't like it. I'll see you later" he said, sulking off through the bathroom to his own room.

  I sighed and started to write in my journal, trying to wrap my brains around this strictly controlled planet.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I took a deep breath as I walked into the large government building that I would be working in. Brandon had been able to walk with me halfway until he had to turn and head toward what I assumed was the official entrance to this sector to enforce codes, whatever that meant.

  I looked down at myself, making sure all of my gray was worn properly, opting for a button up dress shirt and slacks for my first day on the job. I pushed the door open and walked toward a large desk in the center of the room. I look around the vast room in awe. There was nothing here that was gray, not even the desk, which was a beautiful clear glass desk. The walls were painted an inviting baby blue with many colorful paintings on the walls.

  "Hello ma'am, may I help you" the lady at the desk asked me.

  I looked over and saw a plain woman that was dressed nearly exactly like me, and was surprised to see her wearing colorful makeup to go with her plain gray outfit.

  "Yes, I am here to start work with Vanessa Wilson" I said, handing her the papers that Flora advised me that I would need.

  The lady smiled as she took the papers and looked down at them. She nodded, "Yes, these seem to be in order. Vanessa will be delighted her assistant has finally been hired. What you need to do is go through these doors on the right" she said, pointing to a set of double doors to her right that had a keypad next to it.

  "I will buzz you in today, and Vanessa will provide you with your badge that will scan you in to the door. Your badge will only work in places that you have been granted permission to enter and it will be logged if you try to use it somewhere that you should not be. Now, once you go through those doors, you will walk to the end of the long hallway and take a left. This is the wing where you will be working. The first door to your left should be Vanessa's office, and she will give you the rest of your instructions" she finished, handing me back my packet of papers.

  I smiled at her as I took them and headed to the doors that she had pointed to. I waited until I heard a buzzing noise and pushed the doors open, walking into a large hallway that was surprisingly bright. The walls here were painted a light lavender color, and the hallway had white marble tile on the floor. Again, there were many bright paintings on the walls throughout the hall.

  Once I reached the end, I turned to my left and saw a door that was open to my immediate left. I slowly looked in and saw that it was empty but decided that since these were the instructions I was given it would be in my best interests to simply wait here for my new boss Vanessa.

  I sat down in a chair and looked around the office, trying to compare and contrast it with offices back on earth. Though the government building seemed like it was determined to decorate their building the complete opposite of what they allowed their citizens to have, her new boss was just fine with plain.

  The desk was a small one that was not much larger than the large computer monitor that sat on it. The monitor looked very similar to what was around on earth back when computers were still new to the public. I looked around and was surprised to see that the walls were painted gray, but a shade that was more muted then the shade I had seen everywhere outside of this building.

  Besides that, there was nothing much more to see. There were no windows in the room and there were no paintings or any other decorations at all on the walls. The only other thing in the room was the odd shaped machine in the corner. As I studied it I wondered how I would be able to describe it in my journal.

  It was square in shape and closely resembled a copy machine, but there were round places on the outside of the machine that looked as though it would fit a small vial of some sort. I ached to get closer to the machine, but didn't want to look as though I was snooping on my first day on the job.

  "Oh, hello. You're early" I heard a woman's deep voice behind me.

  I turned around and faced who I would assume was my new boss. As soon as I saw the woman standing behind me I gasped, unable to speak. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life. I tried to smile at her as she moved her jet black hair out of her face. She looked as though she could be in a hair commercial as her hair was perfectly straight and long enough to nearly graze the top of her waist.

  "Hello. My name is Randi" I managed to spit out. She smiled at me as she turned to go to her desk, her long white lab coat flaring out behind her slightly.

  "Randi, I am Vanessa. I am so glad you are finally here. They have been promising to hire someone to help me for months now, but they said that they couldn't find anyone suitable for the job" she said with a laugh, her dark almond eyes sparkling.

  I could only smile as I fought the urge to run my hands over her tan smooth skin that looked as though it was glistening.

  I shook my head slightly to pull myself out of my head as Vanessa rubbed her hands together, "Okay are you ready to get started?" she asked.

  I could only nod my head, hoping I came across as quiet and mysterious, and not like a complete idiot that was super creepy.

  ***

  I turned around as Vanessa came up behind me, "Are you all done?" she asked, looking down at the paperwork she had given me.

  I nodded, "Yes, I have everything filled out" I said.

  She smiled and took the papers from me, looking them over quickly, "Everything seems to be in order here. Good, now let me show you around and explain a little bit about how things work here" she said.

  I stood up and followed her down the hallway to a room at the other end, "This is the file room. This is where a file is kept on every person born. Once that person is noted by their physician to have reached sexual maturity, they are brought here to be tested to determine if they are fertile. This part I am sure you already know about" She said, assuming I had been tested just like everyone else on this planet.

  I nodded, "Yes, of course" I said, looking around the file room, wondering if there was a way to sneak in files for me and Brandon so that if someone where to look, they would find us there.

  "Okay, good. So once the sample is taken, we file all of the data here. If that person is shown to be eligible for marriage, they are given the option to attend the university and are helped with choosing a career path for themselves" she said, pointing to another set of files.

  "How old is the average match?" I asked, looking down at my notepad with information she had given me.

  "Well most people are not matched until they are in their mid-twenties, after they have finished school and started their career in most cases. Some people choose not to have a career and are matched at an earlier age" she explained.

  I nodded and jotted down this info onto my notepad, "What if they are shown not to be eligible for marriage? What happens to them then?" I asked.

  "In that case they are brought in to speak to a therapist, who gives them a few options" she said, pointing over to another set of files that was much smaller than the rest. "We keep all of their files here."

  I nodded, "How many different options are they given?" I asked.

  Vanessa motioned for me to follow her out of the room, "There are really only two options available. The first is they are given a list of a few occupations that require someone who is forbidden to marry to see if they would like to pursue one of those. The other option is one that is actually chosen more often than not, and one that not many people even know exists."

  We walked into a room with a hospital bed on one side of the room, complete with stirrups, and on the other side a reclining cha
ir that was set in front of a television. As I looked around I knew that I could take one guess as to what this room was used for.

  "This room here is where the samples are taken. This side of the room is used to examine the females, and this side of the room is to get a sample and examine the males." She said, pointing from one side of the room to the other.

  I nodded, "How often do you have people come in here?" I asked.

  She smiled, "Usually twice a year we have everyone that has been approved for examination to come in" she said, walking back out of the room.

  "What was the other option for the people who cannot marry?" I asked, realizing that she had not finished what she was saying.

  She nodded, "Oh, well there is a sixth sector that not many people know about, because the only people that are allowed to live there are the ones that have been shown to be ineligible to marry." She said.

  I scribbled this down in my notes, ready to talk about this with Brandon when I got back to the house later.

  "Okay, moving on. This is Alberta's office, she is the marriage therapist. She doesn't usually come in this early, so you can meet her once she gets here." She said, moving up the hall to the last remaining door, which was the one that I had first went into.

  "This is my office of course, and where the matching machine is kept. You will be shown how to use the machine, but will be unable to operate it on a normal daily basis. You will only be allowed to access is in an emergency when I am unable to." She said, walking over to the large square machine that I had noticed earlier.

  I looked over at the small screen on the top of the machine, "So how does this work exactly?" I asked, pointing to it.

  "Well, it's pretty complicated. But, the short explanation is that it matches couples together based on certain algorithms. We insert tubes of blood samples for every person that can marry. The first set of matches come from those blood samples. When a new sample is inserted the machine then gives us a list of who that person is compatible with physically." She said.

  "How is the blood matching people exactly. I don't understand how this works exactly" I interrupted her.