Prologue
Eyrie
I am Eyrie and I am human.
My parents got my name from the word aery which was from ‘aerios’ meaning high in the air. I found it remarkable that my uninteresting parents would name me after such word. Moreover, it was quite a wonder how they came up with it after living in this mundane place in space. There couldn’t be any higher than space, right? But just to satisfy my curiosity, I asked GenAI to tell me all about it. (By the way, GenAI was the artificial intelligence in this ship.)
Eyrie, aery, aerial, aero were just a few words that pertains to air. There was even one machine built called aeroplane. Or was it airplane? I was not certain with the name but I could picture the somewhat oblong-shaped metal that had two metal wings and propellers. It was said to be used for flying and transporting people from other countries. Country was another word I was not familiar with. We don’t have countries anymore. We had districts, routes and blocks but not a country.
In space, we were in one category - Human. The population was categorized into four classifications: the machines, the clones, the humanoids and the humans. The lowest being the machines since they were incapable of thinking. The next high category was the imperfect clones. They were merely replicas of our own - a substitute but a decrepit substitute. They last not more than twenty years and after that, the owner shall have the decision either to a clone transfer or termination. Higher in category from the clones but lower than human were the humanoids. They were the humans, who due to some accident or innate physical defect, they were part machine. Humanoids were used to be humans until a part of them was already been modified in order for them to survive.
You would think that humans with our weak stature would be regarded less than humanoids. It should have been the case except that when a human becomes a humanoid, he or she will be injected with a serum that contains Nano mites. These nanomites would cling to their nerves and blood vessels. They were like ticking bombs that once a humanoid would misbehave or would act in contrary to the law, it would be activated and be released to their system. It shall spread into the host’s environment in a matter of seconds killing every humanoids and machine in a five meter radius. So any humanoid acting strange would be shut down or a whole route or block shall be contaminated. Humans, of course, were immune to such nanomites. This was how humans protect themselves. This was the caste system in space.
In human history, caste system was about the difference between humans standing brought about by wealth and social stratification. But after several centuries, it had modified itself into such differences.
I don’t approve of it. But I have no choice.
As I am only Eyrie and I am only a single human.
