Planet Ignis | Ch. 3

...the first one taught in the simulators.

We teach it early on because it summarizes our way of life. We burn our lives away for the sake of others. It is not a matter of exchanging our survival for the tribe’s comfort. It is more a matter of trading our comfort for the survival of the tribe. Therefore, I propose that we slightly change the wording of this truth from ‘Burn the heat for the greater warmth’ to ‘I burn my warmth for the greater heat.’ The change to the first person will also make this truth resound more strongly with the people. Another possible implication of this...

From “A Proposal for the Review of the Nine Truths” by Trother, the Wise

The evaluation of reds consisted of four steps. First, the incubator reports. Second, burst efficiency. Trother had done the latter yesterday when he inspected all his students’ bursts at the rekindling. The former had been done during the first years of the life of the children and transcribed to the metal tablet in Trother’s hands. It contained the reports of each of the students. This report featured data provided by the AI and, in some rare cases, comments from the blue king himself.

Every inch of the metal slab was inscribed with Ignian script, the most space-efficient alphabet known to humankind. Trother allowed himself a prideful smirk. They had invented it right here, in the Burrows.

It was time to start with the third evaluation step: physique assessment. As usual, one nanite was spared for the evaluation. The little metal sphere had come rolling into the classroom at the precise moment that the assessment would begin. Trother had already seen several little nanites going back and forth in the tunnels as he went for his morning walk. The central AI commanded them, ensuring the distribution of the scant tech according to priorities. Such was the scarcity that even one single nanite, limited in its processing power and utility, could only be temporarily loaned, even to Trother.

“Welcome to the Collegium, children,” welcomed Trother. The children looked curiously at Trother. Most people in the Burrows were much younger, so they seemed fascinated by his lack of hair or the wrinkled traces of age on his face. “My name is Trother, and I will be your lit. Let me ask you: Have you ever wondered why we you don’t call us teachers? Why does the tribe call us lit?” He looked at the reactions of the reds. He could see most children looking at him curiously. None of them had thought about this before.

“There is much to be learned from the origin of a word. We are called lit because we aim not just to teach you knowledge. We will do that, but we will also help you understand your place in the tribe. We want to shed light on your lives.” He paused here to give them a moment to absorb the dimension of what he was saying. “We want to enlighten you on an emotional level. At an existential level. We want to help you become bright and happy adults. Please, from now on, do not hesitate to seek me out if you need anything. If you are feeling sad or confused, talk to me. My door is always open.” Trother cleared his throat. He had become a bit emotional in his opening statements. “Now, we will proceed with your evaluation. Please, step forward as I call your name.”

Trother immediately started to call a red at a time. He asked them to extend their wrists. The nanite, shaped like a tiny sphere, smaller than the nail of a child’s pinky, rolled over to the wrist of the first girl called and painlessly extracted one blood sample. It then ran a series of tests. Shortly after, a tiny light on the nanite glowed a bright orange.

“Next,” called Trother, repeating the process. One after the other, children had their physiques analyzed by the nanite. Most got the orange grade. In some, the orange was darker, nearing a brownish red. Yet, in other cases, the orange was much brighter and had a lighter shade.

Halfway through the line, one freckled blonde, green-eyed girl got a bright yellow result. Sylar, who was not on battery shift, let out an appreciative grunt. Sywel spared a glance and mimicked her husband before going back to focusing exclusively on bursting. Trother looked pleased but only allowed himself the quickest nod, not letting surprise hinder him from speeding along the rest of the line as fast as possible. At the end of the line, only the boy Trother had noticed the day before, at the rekindling, was left. Trother looked down at the thin slab of metal on his hand, confirmed the boy’s name, and called him.

“Eli, step forward.”

Eli nervously walked towards Trother. Eli’s skin was brown, his hair black as darkness. There was something about the boy that reminded him of his wife. It was in the way he walked. Instead of calling people’s attention to him, it made it difficult for others even to realize he was there. Trother stretched his hand and beckoned the boy to show his wrist. Eli did, and the nanite fell on him. It collected a sample and examined it.

The nanite took much longer to analyze the DNA this time. After half a minute, it displayed an intermittent array of colors. Gray, blue, gray, blue, gray, blue. Trother heard Sylar gasp. Sywel opened her eyes, momentarily distracted by her husband’s uncharacteristic grunt, and scanned the room to understand why. She followed Trother’s and Sylar’s gaze seeing the flashing colors. When she saw the color blue, her bursting grew careless and erratic. Near the center of her arm, flashes of orange and even traces of a dull dark yellow mirrored her shock.

Trother sensed wasteful fluctuations coming from Sywel. When she saw the color blue, her bursting grew careless and erratic. Near the center of her arm, flashes of orange and even traces of a dull dark yellow mirrored her shock. Trother shot her a warning, furious glance. She gulped, blushed, took a deep breath, and calmed down to a steadier output. Occasionally, some slips in the shade of red in her bursting still revealed the aftershock of surprise, but no orange or yellow appeared again. Great Hearth! Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency, Trother thought. What a terrible example for the children on their first school day. None of the youngsters had seemed to notice the exchange, though.

The involuntary gasp of Sylar and the unusual colors in Eli’s results had sparked a buzz of murmuring and curiosity in the children. Trother soon hushed them into silence. He spared a glance at the reason for all the kerfuffle, Eli, and was surprised by the look on this boy’s face. Instead of the expected look of pride or curiosity at prodding a blue light from the nanite, he glared at Sywel, mimicking Trother’s earlier fury. Trother, surprised, nodded approvingly.

“Go back in line, Eli.” Looking at the rest of the students, he added: “Everyone. Please stay in line and give me a moment to take notes of all your results.”

After ensuring that all children, Eli included, were quietly standing at attention, Trother called Sylar, took him aside, and spoke to him in a faint voice, outside earshot of the children.

“Sylar, would you be so kind as to ask the nanite for the individual parameters of the evaluation instead of the final average?”

“Of course, sir,” said Sylar hurriedly.

Sylar focused his attention on the nanite. He activated one of the three types of bursts, perception. His eyes began warming up, and his pupils lit bright red. Then, he flashed them at a frequency greater than the naked eye could follow. The nanite replied similarly. The whole exchange lasted less than two seconds, but an entire conversation in Ignian had just occurred between Sylar and the nanite. Trother witnessed the exchange, unimpressed. Any orange was capable of using perception or of speaking in Ignian.

Screens wasted too much power, and so lits taught this language between man and machine to all children. This was far more efficient when one compared the expenditure of longevity from doing this with feeding the Hearth and then having the Hearth feed screens. There was only one exception. There was one screen in the Burrows, which was in the Throne Room.

“Sir, here are the parameters:

Body mass – gray

Height – gray

Metabolism – blue minus

Predicted IQ – blue

Predicted EQ – gray

Sir, this is a blue! A genius!”

Trother raised his brow to remind Sylar that there was a reason why they were having this conversation in hushed tones. He came back down to a more acceptable volume. “Sir, isn’t it true that there hasn’t been anyone with a blue grade since Brodnir?”

“There hasn’t been a final average blue since Brodnir became king. However, blue grades in individual parameters of the evaluation are not all that uncommon.” Trother himself had a couple of blue grades in his file. “Still, it is always impressive and hints at great potential.”

Sylar frowned. “But gray? This is my first time seeing gray, sir. What does it mean?”

“Ask the bugger for a full report on body mass, metabolism, and predicted EQ. I don’t want a simplified color scheme. Transcribe the full report to this slab,” said Trother handing him the metal tablet he’d been using with the list of the students.

“Don’t you need the sheet anymore, sir?”

“No,” said Trother, “I have already memorized all their names and incubator reports. As for the other reds, only transcribe parts of their general reports that the nanite deems noteworthy.”

Sylar looked surprised and managed to stammer: “O-of course, sir. But what does gray...?”

“It means,” said Trother smiling brightly while catching Eli from the corner of his eye, who looked curiously at them, “that the Fahrenheits got themselves a diamond in the rough. Now, don’t just stand there; please, get down to it. I need the report in my hand by the end of the interviews. Tell the bugger to roll to Faren and transmit the physique evaluation of this class so that it may be sent on its way for its next assignment.”

“Yes, sir!”

Sylar hurried off to the side chamber annexed to the theater, the teacher’s room. Shortly after entering, a faint phantom warm red glow showed traces of a lightning-fast conversation in Ignian between man and machine.

Ch. 4