Chapters Beta Academy Chapter 2
Meanwhile, Amy still lay in her bed waiting for her turn in the showers. Flexing her right hip over and over, fidgeting, she took another sip of water, waiting. She knew the selection was randomized, but Amy had been near the end of the line the last three days in a row. It just wasn’t fair, and neither was that damn alarm! Her hip muscle twitched again and again. Oh, come on, a hall full of senior Betas, how long could it possibly take? She knew how long, but that didn’t help one bit. But all these concerns were distractions, blissful distractions from the pressing matter of the day: the Math test results.
It hadn’t been an important test for anyone else, anyone not on academic probation, but Amy knew that if she failed any more she would be marked as a lower Beta at graduation, and who knew what would happen then? She probably wouldn’t be able to fulfill her Purpose, and then what? She would let her country down! She would be worthless! Fifty-two graduates this year for the entire Cascadian Protectorate, less if you exclude the two girls already marked as Low, unworthy; it wasn’t fair, none of it was!
But being a lower Beta didn’t necessarily mean exclusion from the Purpose. Amy watched Cathy from two beds over get picked up and whisked overhead to the showers, her small body stiff like a doll. The two girls weren’t as close as they had once been, Cathy having driven everyone away well before she lost her voice, but even someone like her might still be fulfilled, she had just been a bad girl, lazy, rebellious; but Amy knew failing academically was far different. She wasn’t choosing to misbehave, she just couldn’t keep up, not bad behaviour but bad genes, and that gnawed at her.
Barely holding back the floodgates, Amy looked upward and blinked fast to quell her feelings, just as her old friend Mister Pick-Me-Up came into view and descended to unpeel her from her sleeping cover, before whisking them both off toward the showers.
After Amy was clean, dressed, short golden hair arranged in tiny pigtails just as she liked, and secured into her chair, she took a moment just like all of her sisters; to shuffle her round hips into the gel seat until comfortable, until she could feel it conform to her butt and press up against what lay between, and ready her right shoulder at the controls. Then she took off down the hall toward the cafeteria, at the fastest speed she could manage without automatically alerting a supervisor, looking for her best friend, Jessica!
From what the Betas’ driving teacher had told them in class before the mobility test way back when she was twelve, their chairs weren’t like the old wheelchairs from before the war, no, those things looked ancient! Amy’s chair was mass-produced and provided by the United Nations for use solely by Betas in their Academies and Future Centers, and it was more like a scooter than one of those antiques.
No arms to push wheels? No manual wheels. No legs left, not even thighs? Give it a slimmer seat. Betas falling and hurting themselves? Lower the seat to the floor and strap them in for good measure. Batteries running out all the time? Power them from the floor. Amy wasn’t quite sure how that last one worked, it just did, and she loved it! Jess had mentioned once that the bottoms were weighted so none of them tipped over, and Amy used that to her advantage as she ripped around a corner, feeling every little bump in the polished floor vibrate up through the seat to her hips, biting her lip.
Though they knew it by heart, the Academy was a giant institution, raising and supporting around fifteen hundred Betas like her at any one time, from babies until they all graduated to the Future Centers or other placements. Still, large as it was, Amy managed to get over to the South Cafeteria fast enough to catch Jessica just about to start breakfast, and luckily there was an open spot beside her at one of the feeding stations, which Jess nodded toward.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say the central computer is picking on you.” Jess said with a grin.
“I know, right?! Fourth day in a row. Luckily you’re such a slowpoke I didn’t have any problems catching up.”
Jess scrunched her face at that, “Hey! I am not! Not everyone here has your touch for the controls, and let me remind you last month when I beat you to Biology.”
Amy rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah, you really showed me! Bail that harshly again right in front of a Super and they’ll put you on autopilot like a kid.”
They both shuddered at the thought of losing that treasured privilege, and the pillar-like machines came to life just as Adam arrived and took his spot at his own station in the far corner. Amy saw Jessica’s bright eyes falter and dash as her and everyone in the room tried to ignore him, but she tried her best to submit to the urge, and kept looking. She absently asked how Jess’s head was doing after that fall… but she wasn’t listening, she was still looking… still looking, still—
“Earth to Amy!? See, don’t make fun of me anymore for not going over to talk, that blank stare is exactly what I end up doing and I just embarrass myself, or worse.”
“But you said you liked him!”
“I said Adam had a nice voice in class, don’t put words in my mouth.”
“Yeah, sure, the first class after the trade with the Californians. That was over six months ago, Jess! What have you done since then? You should go get to know him before we all graduate.”
“You’ve been watching too many pre-war films.” She scoffed but her eyes drifted over to the subject of discussion nonetheless. “I still can’t believe he was worth all of the graduates last year.” Forty-five or forty-six, Jess couldn’t remember, but as a simple Beta who had grown up inside these walls her whole life, it made her head spin to think of all of those girls so far away. Jess couldn’t even fathom how far that might be, wouldn’t it take weeks to travel all the way to the Californian Protectorate? And all for Him?
“Stop changing the subject. You’re into him, and it’s not just the Purpose talking, I can see it.” Amy cooed.
Jess’ face hardened. “Yeah, ok, maybe! But how would I even know if that’s true when it’s talking so loudly? I mean I can’t even think straight when I see him. Is that love or programming?” Jess lowered her voice, “Tell me you aren’t wet after looking at him directly for that long.”
Amy had no retort for that sorry truth.
“He has his Purpose and I have mine, maybe he can fulfill me someday in some Center we cross paths in, but there’s no way we can have a relationship like Alphas do. What are we gonna do, Amy? Flirt? Buy pretty plants for each other? Engage in illegal monogamy? Put shiny metal rings on each other somewhere? Find some suburb that isn’t abandoned and settle down? That’s inefficient, old-world nonsense and you know it. Maybe a real man could make it work, but…”
The girls both looked over at Adam sucking his meal from the feeding spout all alone, and a mix of programmed submissive pleasure and resounding pity took over, before they averted their eyes back to their own feeding spouts to distract themselves from the confusing feelings. Amy knew that Jess, while usually light-hearted and polite, could argue her way out of anything with an airtight defense if pressed too hard. Amy thought she would’ve made a good lawyer if she were an Alpha, but the food was ready and she had made her case.
Amy took a sip of the fruity nutrient slurry from the spout, mixed and portioned individually for her body’s needs based on data from her implants. It tasted really good, as always, and the new machines only fed her as much as she sucked from the thick straw, so there was no need for those embarrassing bibs like back when they were kids. That said, she had to eat it all eventually. The nutrient calibration meant none of them became overweight or malnourished, and Amy hadn’t even had an upset stomach in years, but only because she trusted the system to treat her right, so she ate up. Provided for, Amy was left to think as Jess and her ate quietly, sucking away, left to fantasize in a way Jess’s uptight smarts couldn’t, or wouldn’t, it didn’t matter.
The last thing Jessica had said was insensitive, callous, and both girls were glad Adam hadn’t overheard them. Just because Beta boys were a thousand to one, that didn’t make them more than Beta girls, and no one could get past the law. Boy or girl, no Beta could claim ownership of the clothes they wore nor the box they slept in, never mind a life for themselves outside the Academy system, and that was for the best! How would Amy even survive in the world outside? Rare stories had spread about powerful men using their influence to buy Betas from various protectorates and colonies around the world, but Jess always said those were just ridiculous stories, and that made sense to Amy: Betas were way too valuable, too special. Their lives might be simple, predefined, but they served an important role that was essential; unavoidable.
But still, it was nice to dream. A man all to herself, who picked her, just her, Amy 312, over a real woman with arms and legs and things and stuff. She sighed longingly, chewing on the tiny fruit bites from the spout. Alphas probably didn’t even have to take stupid tests.