Uniform. Happy. Undivided.

***SPECIAL NOTE: This story takes place in a society that uses gender-neutral pronouns Pi/Prime instead of him/his or her/hers where pi is a personal pronoun and prime is possessive.***

Karma zipped up the back of prime suit. Pi tucked a stray piece of muddy hair behind prime ear before placing the protective hood over prime head. Thick, black rubber covered Karma’s entire body to keep out toxic dust containing gamma radiation. Pi flexed prime fingers in the gloves pi wore. “There,” pi thought, “all ready.” Karma looked like everyone else in the world.

Uniform.

Happy.

Undivided.

Karma’s heart dropped to prime toes. Someone was knocking on prime door. A quick barrage of knuckles and then silence. Pi waited…five seconds…ten…then two more swift taps followed by the sound of a hand jiggling the knob.

Pi let a small smile come to prime lips and then rushed to the door, recognizing the knock Valor used whenever pi arrived. Opening the door wide, Valor stepped over the threshold. Karma went to pull prime tablet from prime pocket to type Valor hello but Valor stopped pi, placing prime hand over Karma’s. Valor gave Karma a small shake of prime head.

Karma got the message: no one was to know Valor was here. Tablets left an electronic trail that was too easy to follow. Karma nodded in understanding and returned the tablet to prime pocket. Prime stomach gave a flutter, hoping the secrecy meant what pi thought. Had pi finally unlocked it?

Valor had found something a little over two months ago while surveying land for the construction of a new city. The high council had approved the birth of ten thousand citizens but there was no room for them in Providence.  

Valor was checking the moisture of the soil to see if it was suitable for farming when the thing caught prime attention. It was a flash of sunlight glinting off the glass surface. Glyphs were carved on the back, crusted with years of dirt making them hard to read. Pi could tell it was ancient. Pre-reconstruction and maybe even before WWIII.

Protocol was to report it to your supervisor as a recovered object where it would be reviewed by the high council. From there, it would be either destroyed or put on display in the old-world museums. Valor had every intention of doing just that until prime hands pocketed the device.

No report was made. It was not reviewed by the high council or put in a museum. And Valor refused to let it be destroyed. Pi had rushed home and locked the door. Pulled the curtains tight and skipped work the next day, the thrill of what pi had done rushing through prime veins. But pi was also scared. It was just a chunk of metal. It meant nothing. Probably just trash. But there was a bug in the back of prime brain, picking and gnawing. Taking the thing was forbidden. More than forbidden. It was a threat to the high council and that would not be tolerated.

But Valor didn’t care. Didn’t want to care. And neither did Karma. From the moment Karma found out, pi had been just as intrigued as Valor had been. Inquisitive and analytical, pi had delved into the arduous task of figuring out what it was. How it worked. Where it even came from.

Immediately, Karma noticed that communicating was difficult. They couldn’t use their tablets like usual. No one could know what they had done. Not yet, at least. So, just a week after finding the object, Valor did another forbidden thing"Valor spoke.

It was clumsy at first. Their voices weren't accustomed to being used. Prime throat scratched against the noise and quieted the sounds, hushed by trepidation and a whole new wave of emotions. Something like panic and ecstasy.

With your lips and teeth and tongue you could express so much more. At first, Karma and Valor held conversations for hours just so they could hear the sounds of their own voice. Experimenting with the pitch and volume. But, even when speaking they had to be careful, so they spoke through tablets unless absolutely necessary. When they couldn’t risk watchful eyes decoding what they had to say.

Now"now was a moment of secrecy. I anyone found out what they were talking about…

Karma interrupted Valor’s thoughts by tugging on prime arm. “Have you done it?” There was a light behind prime eyes that Valor couldn’t’ see, but could sense in the way Karma held primeself. The eagerness in which pi spoke.

Valor removed the hallowed glass from prime pocket, the artifact they had given their souls to, argued about, dreaming and wondering. Was it nothing or was it everything? Mountain or molehill; the idea clashed against all reason, doubt bringing joy and depression both at the same time. And now was finally the moment that would tell them which to act on.

Valor clicked the button at the bottom for the thousandth time since picking it up. The motion felt familiar. Ritualistic. Charged with electricity because this time it did something. This time it worked.

The screen flashed to life.

Karma gave a small gasp and reached to grab it. Prime gloved fingers brushed against the surface. The picture underneath shifted. Intrigued, pi took hold of the thing and slid prime finger across the bottom. The glass went blank, and for a mind-shattering second Karma thought pi had broken it, but a moment later a new image was displayed. It was vibrant and glowing, covered in neat rows of squares.

“Touch one,” Valor urged, almost reaching out to do it primeself.

Karma tapped one in the upper left corner, a white box with a rainbow on it. The screen changed to one composed of tiles. Wonderstruck, they stared at the images. Vivid, brilliantly detailed. The images varied from something that was small and furry with black eyes and a lolling tongue to flowers in shades of pink and red and blue. Another picture was blue from top to bottom, a gleaming sun over the biggest expanse of water Karma had ever seen. And something else. Vaguely familiar, like reflected distortions in a far away window.

Valor touched the picture and it expanded to fit the screen. In it was what might have been a person. They had a nose, two eyes, a mouth; all the essentials. But their face was more narrow than Valor’s. Delicate. The nose thin and pointed and the eyes large. Most startling was the skin, smooth and shining and oddly colored, like rich soil. Coffee beans. Leather.

Valor was confused and shook prime head. “Why is pi like that? So dark. People don’t look like that.”

Karma didn’t know what to say. Valor was right, pi did look strange. But that went against everything pi had ever been told since they were children. The same mantra on buildings, banners, flags:

Uniform.

Happy.

Undivided.

But Karma didn’t look like this picture either.

“Valor,” Karma started, prime throat closing around the thought. This was crazy. There should be nothing to worry about. The High Council wouldn’t lie to them, didn’t need to lie. But still it persisted. Growing, forming on prime lips. “What do you look like?”

Valor’s mouth wouldn’t move. Wouldn’t confirm what was running through prime mind. This can’t be right, this can’t be right, this can’t be--

Karma slipped off prime glove. The skin underneath was pale and freckled. Normal skin. Pi was not different, pi was uniform. Pi was happy. Pi was undivided. Right?

Hands trembling, Valor tugged the glove from prime fingers and let it drop to the floor. Prime hands were tan, the skin stretched taut over the knuckles. Tendons flexed beneath the flesh.

Neither of them spoke. They just stood, looking from one hand to the next. Valor held prime hand against Karma’s. Karma’s was smaller in size but with a longer palm and thin fingers. They were soft compared to Valor’s. Valor’s were roughened by calluses with bony fingers and even bonier knuckles.

They reveled in the feel of it. The sensation of skin resting against skin. Something sharp and warm passed between their palms and spread down their arms. Valor’s breath was rapid and shallow, matching Karma’s. Their hearts beat faster, a quick thumpthumpthump and the rushing of blood in their ears.

And then Valor slid prime fingers over and bent them, locking prime hand over Karma’s. Their fingers knit together. Karma took a step closer, wanting to see through Valor’s glasses. Look into prime eyes and know if they were different, too. Karma wondered if it would even matter.

Neither of them noticed the door glide open.

The rhythmic tap of boots clacking against the floor.

The click of the safety being flicked off.

Council member Bliss shook prime head, wishing pi didn’t have to do what pi had been assigned. Maybe they had misread the messages. Maybe the ‘strange noises’ were something else. Maybe…

Maybe…

Maybe…

But at the sight of their interwoven hands, creamy white against golden brown, pi lost all hope. Sadly, the council was right. Always was right. Valor and Karma were a threat.

Pi gave the signal and all four guns went off at once.

Valor and Karma hit the floor, hands still interlocked, matching now only in wounds. One to the head, one to the chest.

Bliss stepped forward and picked the glass and metal device from where it lay abandoned on the floor and tucked it in prime pocket.

“A shame,” pi thought. “But for their own good. For the good of us all.”

The high council couldn’t risk others finding out about this. That they were, in fact, not all the same. Not exactly.

It would destroy the uniformity.

Bring an end to happiness.

And birth in all a new sense of individuality.