2112
CHAPTER 1
I was born, just as the others were born. I was taught. I was told that I was being taught well, and I believed. I believed as I was taught to believe in the Priests. The Priests decided all, and have always decided all. However, it was not always this way. I had always wondered what it was like before the reign of the Priests. What was it like to be independent? What was the experience of deciding for oneself what he may or may not do; that which the Priests had deemed sinful and horrid?
In this present time, the Priests had made it clear that thinking for one; that acting in a way that would only please oneself, and not Man as a whole, is greedy and unfit in their ideas: the Plan. The Plan was that which was meant to be the way the world was forever. The Plan plotted out everything and everyone. The Plan decided who was and who wasn't, who could and who couldn't, and told what was to be deemed glorious apart from that which was to be deemed wretched.
But it was not always this way.
The Priests had spoken that the time before them, the time I wondered about, was a horrible time. A time when man killed his fellow man, a time when evil reigned, a time when lust and avarice ran amok, causing man to turn on his fellow man. They taught that they watched this horrible time, until they finally decided to take action. In the year 2062, they teach, the Priests had built up enough followers to engage in a war against the evils of the old time. The Priests won, and the world gave way to a new beginning, one which obeyed the Glorious Red Star. All planets were united into one single union: the Solar Federation. They all listened and obeyed as the Priests announced their plan, they watched with calm eyes and unmoved hearts as the plan was carved into marble and laid in place of great monuments which man had enjoyed once upon a time. The Priests say that Man of this time was grateful for their gift of peace. They say that Man bowed willingly, that only the evil and the greedy fought back. They explain how the evil was silenced, but they explain in great vagueness.
The Priests handle everything now. Greed is washed from the earth, and no man even considers committing crime against his fellow man. However, the Plan does not allow for the sickly, the deformed, or the "unfit" to exist in harmony with the "normal". They say that these "unfit" ones are gateways to the world bowing down to evil and falling back into an eternal hell. Many times I have wondered, how can we deny our fellow man life? But to question the Priests' actions is punishable by horrible means, so I have never spoken my questions aloud. I have always sat in silence in the corner.
I work just as my fellow man works. We work everyday from one hour after sunrise to one hour after sunset. This is our day. We work continuously, repetitively, and without question. After your years of learning, you are sent to work. You do not question your work. You just do your work. To question is to sin greatly. And as you work all your life, you grow old. And once the Age of Fulfillment is reached, you are brought behind closed doors, and are personally decommissioned by the Priests themselves. This is a great honor, as few get to meet the Priests face-to-face, and only one male every ten years is chosen to begin training as a Priest. He will train until he is a mere ten years until the Age of Fulfillment, but he is never decommissioned. A Priest will work his whole life in his demanding job, and that's the way that it is. That's the way it has always been. That's the way it will always be.
The Priests do will it that way.