The Heart-shaped Lockets of Alpha 4

Charmaine

Fatima and her friends were commiserating at an observation deck overlooking Alpha 4, considering their new home and the realm of possibilities. Below the observation deck, the children were jovial, chasing each other after an intense morning of botany, mathematics, and civics. As Fatima sipped her tea, a pungent mix of dried leaves from Earth and new berries engineered by her friend Ari’s lab, a general announcement by Captain Katja sounded across the ship:

“Please continue preparations for settlement onto Alpha 4. Disembarkation expected in three days’ time. Please remember to wear state-sanctioned colors for to tonight’s festivities.”

The children began to chuckle as Captain Katja’s thick Odessan accent reverberated around the dome’s surfaces. Fatima had walked to the dome’s panel, setting the temperature and weather to Marquette, MI August 2019. The climate-controlled dome could be set to any environmental condition that had been chronicled on Earth from 1815 to 2096. The facility became a place of comfort for some, a means of escaping the sterile environment on the ship. Educators often used the facilities to immerse children into the environmental conditions that had influenced decision-makers on Earth before the Great Migration. For many refugees, like Fatima, the facility provided a space of reflection and remembrance of the homes they had left twenty-two years ago. Charmaine shivered as the temperature dropped to 23 Celsius.

“Gah, of all the conditions you could choose, why Michigan? Why not lost paradises like South Beach, Bali, or Seaside Heights?” said Charmaine in a thick Trentonian accent.

“My grandparents always talked about that summer before, before…” said Fatima. Fatima was more invested than many of her friends in the great calamities that had followed her grandparents’ summer of love in 2019. She had archived their life story and listened to it from time to time. She always hoped that she’d find love like they did, but times had changed.

“It is much better now, we control everything,” said Charmaine. As Charmaine talked, she touched her tungsten charm necklace of heart-shaped lockets, faravahar, and state emblems. The charms dangling between her bronzer-stained breasts. Charmaine wore silk dress donning the blue and white colors of the federation. The straps of her dress slightly covered the tattooed crest of the city-state of Trenton on her shoulder. As a Mother of the Federation, she had the distinct honor of five heart-shaped lockets, which she used in all state-sanctioned events to gain exclusive backroom access, providing her with mounds of gossip to disperse to her friends. Despite knowing Charmaine for the better part of eight years, both Fatima and Ari were perplexed by the gaudiness and flamboyance of her many lockets. They had never seen who had been memorialized in her lockets tarnished by the oils of her skin and the caked powder that had cascaded from her chin.

“How long until you two ascend?” asked Charmaine. Charmaine turned from the view of Alpha 4 and looked down at the children playing, catching a glimpse of her daughter, Esther, lifting the children into a play fort. Esther, an engineer in the Builders Guild, donned a uniform smeared by grease and sweat. The Builders Guild were contracted to construct a docking apparatus planet side, thus settlement on Alpha 4 could not commence until they had finished. Esther always confused Charmaine, despite her best intentions Esther did not follow in her mother’s footsteps. She was a spitting image of Paul, an Atlantic City fling before the boardwalk was swallowed by the ocean. Charmaine thought of him briefly “useless piece of shit,” but then touched her lockets, which had become keys to the state’s resources. “Well, perhaps not completely useless,” murmured Charmaine.

Fatima and Ari looked at each other perplexed. Both exclaimed “How?”

“Soon enough, you’re both mothers and both fertile. If only I could get Esther to join you in motherhood,” said Charmaine.

Fatima and Ari stood up and joined Charmaine at the railing peering down at Esther and the children. Ari saw her son, Min-Jun and smiled. Min-Jun had just turned twelve on his last name day, becoming one of the oldest males on the ship. Min-Jun was sharing a snack with Fatima’s children Zana a boy of nine and Zarina a girl of eleven.

Ari

Ari and Min-Jun walked to the quartermaster on level 6. As a coxswain, Ari would be among the first to enter Alpha 4 airspace in the next few days. Rushing to the quartermaster after her shift, Ari was still wearing fatigues painted with federation blue and white tiger camouflage. Her son, Min-jun was thrilled. He was wearing an Incheon Prefecture shirt having waited months to eat bulgogi and watch archived footage of World Cup 2034, a match between South Korea and the New California Republic. Upon reaching the quartermaster, Ari was surprised to receive only six credits.

“Pardon me, ma’am, but I think there is a mistake. I received only six credits and not the usual…” the quartermaster cut off Ari. “Thank you for your service coxswain, but could you please step aside...a Mother of the Federation approaches.” Charmaine stepped up to the quartermaster. Despite currently being unemployed, she received nearly four times that of Ari and Min-Jun.

“You may approach, coxswain,” said the quartermaster. The quartermaster looked down at Min-Jun, “you know, coxswain, there are better ways to receive credits,” nodding toward Charmaine.

Ari and Min-Jun sat down at their VR booth, teleporting them to Incheon before the Great Migration. At the forty-third minute an alert sounded that interrupted all telecommunications on ship. “Alpha 2 has been destroyed,” followed by a collective gasp among the refugees. Upon the cataclysm facing Earth in 2096, four expeditions were planned as a means of extending the lifespan of the human race through colonization. Alpha 1 and Alpha 2 featured a social makeup similar to that of Earth before the cataclysm. Within 10 years, Alpha 1 had declared war on Earth, accelerating the extinction-level event. Alpha 2 was destroyed by interstate and intrastate warfare as colonies began competing over finite resources until strategic capabilities were mobilized. Alpha 3 was almost immediately embroiled in an intense civil war between different corporate entities and an authoritarian government.

“As the last remaining human colony, disembarkation onto Alpha 4 is postponed until potential internal factors are accounted for,” exclaimed Captain Katja.

“Well, I guess we’ll have to wait,” said Min-Jun.

The next day, Min-Jun reported to his usual morning classes. In botany, he learned about permaculture in zero-gravity environments. In mathematics, he learned matrix algebra. And in civics the students debated the factors involved in the development and decay of human civilization in the twenty-first and twenty-second centuries. After simulating their disembarkation and landing on Alpha 4, Ari returned home late. As she entered her apartment, Charmaine and Katja rose from their seats at the 3D printed table.

“Congratulations, you’re one of us” exclaimed Charmaine. Charmaine opened a long, rectangular box, removing a gold necklace with a singular locket. Charmaine and Katja embraced Ari who started tearing happily.

“Min-Jun will be so happy, we can afford to splurge more often,” said Ari. Charmaine and Katja looked at each other. “Open the locket, dear,” said Katja.

Fatima

After a long, disappointing day, Fatima put Zana and Zarina to bed. Fatima showered, trying not to think about her failed lesson plans. So many students were absent, she thought, wondering if the news on Alpha 2 and Alpha 3 had caused distress among the families on the ship. Weirdly, her early morning class had perfect attendance followed by exponentially declining participation throughout the day. As a botany professor, she would spend hours contemplating new ways to get students involved.

“If only Sal was here,” said Fatima. Following in her grandfather’s footsteps, Fatima became an educator and would consistently confer with her partner, Sal. Sal like many of those apathetic to the Great Migration likely perished due to war, plague, or degradation. Despite his death, Sal’s seed had given her two beautiful children and she wanted more. Fatima placed Sal into her toy’s receptacle and placed VR goggles over her eyes. She was happy to see and feel him.

Fatima was awakened by loud knocking on her door. She quickly hid her equipment and came to the door. Using a monitor, she recognized the distorted face. Ari’s face was a mix of mascara-infused tears and skin flushed in anger and misery. Fatima commanded Alexa to open the door and Ari entered.

Fatima hugged her friend. They had known each other since the first day of the migration. “Sit down, tell me everything that is happening. Did you know someone on Alpha 2?”

“That’s not it, Fatima. It is Min-Jun. He’s, he’s…”

“What do you mean, he was in Botany this morning he was having a blast,” said Fatima. Hugging Ari, Fatima felt something strange on Ari’s neck that wasn’t normally there. “You’ve ascended! You’re a Mother of the Federation,” said Fatima.

“Open it,” Ari said. Fatima snapped the lock and pulled the lever up. The heart-shaped locket opened, revealing the face of Min-Jun on one side and her former partner’s face on the other. Fatima looked aghast, “What does this mean?”

“They also gave me this, Min-Jun’s sample. Someday he’ll be used to perpetuate the species, but men are a liability. We cannot allow innocent boys to become men,” explained Ari. Earth, Alpha 1, Alpha 2, and Alpha 3 all became patriarchies, each world suffering from sophistry, war, environmental degradation, and authoritarianism as a result.

“That’s madness!” screamed Fatima. Fatima thought about her friend, Charmaine, did she knowingly kill off her sons to receive benefits from the state. She had always pestered them to become federation mothers. “Was she responsible for the deaths of five sons? Ten sons? And did she receive samples of her own children to disperse to friends on the station?” questioned Fatima.

“What about Zana? Why was Min-Jun taken and not Zana?” questioned Fatima. Ari cleared her sinuses.

“He’s not old enough to provide viable samples, but once he is, they’ll euthanize Zana too and give you a heart-shaped locket,” claimed Ari. Fatima looked at her hands and ran them through her damp black hair.

“We must resist this, maybe it is not too late” blurted Fatima. Ari gave Fatima a puzzled look that conveyed hopelessness.

“If we run, I can fly us to Alpha 4, but it is only a matter of time until they find us or we die of natural causes without the needed supplies,” claimed Ari. Ari continued, “on the other hand, if we stay, perhaps I can use my clout as a Mother to lobby for change.”

Fatima put her head in her hands, “I have to think about Zarina, too.” Ari nodded. “As well as the other families on board. There are only a few thousand of us left.

Zarina

Four years later, Fatima and her friends were sunbathing at an observation deck overlooking Alpha 4, considering the expansion and development of their new home. Below the observation deck, the children were jovial, chasing each other after an intense morning of botany, mathematics, and civics. Zarina, now a developing young woman walks upstairs and lays next to the previous generation of refugees turned explorers. Zarina takes a hit from the hookah, pulling a thick drag of the apple flavored tobacco.

Upon exhaling, Zarina asks the women “what are those lockets and why do you insist on wearing them out in public?”

“Lies,” said Ari.

“Choices,” said Fatima now donning a heart-shaped locket and glowing abdomen.

“Opportunities,” explained Charmaine now donning a sixth heart-shaped locket.

“To opportunities!” exclaimed the group of women, raising glasses of Dom Perignon recovered from Earth’s surface.

Zarina and Fatima were staying with Charmaine. Zarina went upstairs seeking alone time. Sneakily she accessed Charmaine’s master suite, opening a refrigerator of vials with names on each label. She pulled out an opportunity named “Paul.”