“Maker, no.” Her melodic voice restored danced upon her ears with new tones, making her sob. Between tears she begged, “I don’t want to die.”
And I don’t have to.
The future. She could see it a little. In time, she would become better. Time, she needed time. How to hide?
The room brightened as her morning wakeup chimed. Vixen hadn’t even noticed her room had still been in night-time mode.
The change had taken her at night. It never took people at night. Only adults. Only daytime. Only with others around. Only in the few days after space travel. And only on a planet. Everyone knew that. Which was why people either traveled all the time, like her father on his judge’s circuit, remaining in space for years on end. Or stayed put after immigrating to a new world. No one wanted to become an Unnatural.
Because mankind had decided they did not want Unnaturals around. The first one had tried to overthrow the empire, the second destroy it. Billions died. After that, every planet had a cleansing team to be activated the minute an emergence was detected. Located near the space port, since nearly all changes happened around that hub, after all space travel was a key trigger, the teams usually completed a cleansing within an hour of report. Which was important, as Unnatural grew more powerful every minute of existence.
She had emerged by herself and no one knew. Nineteen minutes and counting. Reaching out a hand, she touched her mirror image. Twenty-two minutes since dawn.
(Words 259; first published 4/5/2014; republished new blog format 10/6/2019)