Earth 2788 Read Online Free

pointing to the right,
and a corridor that ended in a red door. I waved my hand at the door release,
the door opened, and a combination of heat and bright sunlight hit us as we
went through it. We’d escaped!
    I stopped and
shielded my eyes with one hand as I looked around. We were standing outside a
massive building, its grey flexiplas wall dotted with small doorways and
windows. At the far end of it, I could see some much larger doors, and a huge
sign saying “Earth Europe Off-world”. If we wanted to, Issette and I could come
back when we were 18, go in through those doors and see those ten chunky
portals again. What we couldn’t do, what we could never do however old we were,
was walk through one of the portals.
    I knew exactly
what would happen if we did, because Hospital Earth allowed its wards one
attempt at portalling off world when they were 14, to prove there hadn’t been a
mistake in diagnosing them as Handicapped. I’d been one of the very few fool
enough to try it. I’d portalled from a hospital rather than an Off-world,
arrived on an Alpha sector world, collapsed into the arms of the waiting
medical team, and been thrown back through the portal. Things were a bit hazy
for a while after that, but I remembered enough pain to make me absolutely
certain I never wanted to try it again.
    Interstellar
portals were for the norms, not for me and my friends. Whether you called us
the officially polite but sneering word, Handicapped, or the open insults like
throwback and ape, didn’t change anything. Every other handicap could be
screened out or fixed before birth, but the doctors couldn’t do anything about
this one. There were over eleven hundred inhabited planets spread across six
different sectors of space, but we were imprisoned on Earth. Any other world
would kill us within minutes.

Alpha Sector 2788 - Dalmora
    Danae, Alpha sector, June 2788.
     
    I’d had a new sari for every
birthday, and they’d all been beautiful, but the one for my eighteenth birthday
was truly breathtaking. It was floor length, in my favourite white and
burgundy, and covered in intricate, shimmering, embroidered patterns. I twirled
round, my waist-long black hair flying around me, admiring myself in the twin
full-length mirrors in the corner of my bedroom, while my three younger sisters
sat on my bed watching me with awe.
    “You look dazzling,
Dalmora,” said Asha.
    “Absolutely
lovely,” said Sitara.
    “Totally zan!”
cried Diya, far too loudly.
    She instantly
slapped her hand over her mouth, and we all turned to look at the door, holding
our breath in case Mother had been close enough to hear that. After a couple of
minutes, the bedroom door still hadn’t opened, so we all relaxed and collapsed
on the bed in a fit of giggles.
    I finally calmed
down, and guiltily remembered I was about to become an 18-year-old. Here on
Danae, no one was considered fully adult until 25, but 18 was an important
first step in growing up. The sari I was wearing, that of an adult woman rather
than a girl, symbolized that. I’d be able to stand at my mother’s side at her
formal parties, welcoming the guests. I’d be able to apply for courses at
University Danae. I’d even be able to vote, though naturally my vote would only
count for half as much as a full adult.
    It was totally
wrong of me to encourage Diya by giggling with the others. I should be setting
her a good example and helping my mother teach her the correct standards of
behaviour. “You really must stop using slang, Diya,” I said. “You know how much
Mother hates it.”
    She pulled a
sulky face. “It’s not fair. The children in the vids I watch all use slang, and
nobody nags at them.”
    I frowned,
wondering if I should ask exactly what vids Diya had been watching, but decided
it was better if I didn’t know. “I expect those children live on very different
worlds to ours. You mustn’t get into the habit of using slang, Diya. It’s not
just that Mother doesn’t like it;