Arbya

Bettina Czékus


It’s the year 2450. The Earth is totally damaged, but that means no problems anymore. Humans have moved to the planet Arbya.

Social interactions have nearly disappeared. Relationships are about interests, not love. Children are taught to make a career as young as they can. At the age of four, kids are put in groups according to their knowledge. Until they are ten, children learn from home; after that they’re forced to leave their homes and live in dorms, where they meet other kids with the same interests. They leave the dorms when they turn eighteen. At those establishments the teachers are robots, so they don’t have feelings and treat students equally.

There’s only one government for the whole world. Politicians are drawn from the smartest people, and the polity is super secret, so no one knows what percentage of humans are controlled by them.

Nobody can be whatever they want to be. Everything is controlled, and the media only shows films and series, so people aren’t able to find out what is going on in the world.

It worked well for over 260 years. But nothing lasts forever….

In 2430 Ella Anderson was born. When she turned four, she was able to get into the smartest group. At first the teaching wasn’t different from the others’. By the age of ten she managed to get into the best dorm, where politicians studied. She had amazing talent but never enjoyed what she was doing. Her dream was to feel fulfilled, but she never know how. Her roommate was Kathy, who got into that dorm by cheating. Kathy was a rebel inside, who always found a way to cheat on her exams and to get good results, while teachers noticed nothing. Only Ella got to see the real rebel, who wanted to change the world.

They were best friends. They planned together that when they got out of the dorm, they were going to become presidents and take the world to a new level.

That day came. They both were working at the parliament and were so close to becoming the presidents. They were just a step apart from being the most privileged person in the world, but somehow other government workers noticed that they had planned something. Before anything could happen, Ella and Kathy were caught and put in prison, where others like them ended up.

But the government never thought that they could escape one day.  And that is a day no one will forget.