First Channel s-3
by Jacqueline Lichtenberg
Romeo and Juliet with a mutation instead of a family feud. Two children on the verge of adolescence, greatly in love with each other, discover the adult world that will tear them apart. Living in a Sime world, the young man grows up to become a Sime – a mutant human who must kill a Gen every month to survive. The young woman grows up to become Gen, the human prey of all Simes. But, despite the social and physical Need to Kill, the young man refuses to Kill this young woman, his best friend. We watch this pair try to find a place they can live together. Wherever they go, either Rimon or Kadi is considered inhuman and sentenced to die. Until they find Fort Freedom. The inhabitants of Fort Freedom are the children of Gens, who turned Sime and managed to escape into Sime Territory. We see them forced to kill to live – and hating that need. Rimon and Kadi try to teach others to live without killing. Tragically, we see experiment after experiment fail – except for a very few. This community comes to call the act of Not-Killing "Channeling" – taking life from Gens and give it to other Simes – and this young man discovers himself to be the first Channel. He does not know that this has happened many times in the past. He does not know it will happen many times after his death. He dies young and in agony, a tragic figure who spreads tragedy among all those who follow him because of all he does not know about channeling.