Purity - 10. Chapter 10

Adam and Sage were brought by Magnacar to their apartments, and true to the word of the man at the Council of Living, it was clear they were a stone's throw away from each other with only 3 other houses separating them. They occupied a lovely green tropical oasis with moist flowerbeds and wild wingless birds that roamed the paved walkways.

Adam stopped outside Sage's building and looked up and around him, seeing giant trees that towered above them. They had blue-green trunks, and their leaves were a pale yellow colour that softly rustled in the calm breeze.

A narrow canal, maybe just 2 feet wide, wound its way through the residential plot, parallel to the path outside the buildings. Adam walked over to this small water flow and placed his hand in, splashing it about lightly. The crystal clear liquid was warm to the touch heated by the sun, or so Adam thought.

"It's a cooling river, Adam. The water comes through your compact fusion reactor that powers your home and cools it."

"Cool!" Adam remarked, laughing. Relshek, as usual, did not seem to get the joke.

Sage stared at the strange-looking buildings, noticing they almost looked like giant footballs and contained the trademark hexagonal design his bedsheets had been made of on the Trandor. The front doors, also round, had a hexagonal window towards the top, making the whole design very pleasing on the eye.

"Why are they that shape?" he asked, his tone now civil to Relshek.

"For efficiency and to protect against high winds in the cooler months. The design minimises the friction."

"Oh."

"Why don't you go inside Sage, take a look around. Adam and I will meet you back outside in thirty heshtons."

"Thirty what?" Sage asked, looking confused.

Adam laughed. "It's about twenty-two minutes, Sage," he said, quickly doing the math. Sage rolled his eyes and started walking towards his new home, wondering what was on the inside. Relshek led Adam up the walkway to his place and stopped outside as Sage called back to them.

"Hey… uh, can I have the key, please? It's locked."

"Sage, to the left of your door is a button. Press it and say your name; the door will open," Relshek called back to him.

"Oh, okay, I thought that was the doorbell."

They waited until they saw Sage had opened the door and carried on up a small pathway to Adam's door.

"Just press this?" Adam asked, pointing at the small interface.

"That's right."

"Okay, uh… Adam Smith!" he said, holding his finger on the button. The door clicked and automatically opened. "Hmm, smells odd… like new."

"It is new Adam, your home was installed seven days ago."

Adam saw straight away that the whole building was complexly open plan apart from the bathroom area, which was sectioned off and had its own door. Even the bedroom was on show and seemed to quite naturally blend into the living area. At the other end was an identical door that led out to what looked like a rear recreation area.

"Can I go look?" Adam asked, looking at Relshek.

"Why, of course, this is your home now, Adam."

Adam made his way to the door, and this time this just opened without any input. "Neat!" he muttered as he stepped out back into the heat. A shiny white fence appeared to section off the different properties as he then focused his attention on the pond he had chosen. It was actually two ponds with one flowing into the other. It was decorated with blue blocks that ran around the edge, and in the middle of each section was an odd-looking plant with red and green petals.

"Your furniture will be brought to you in a few hours Adam, you do not need to be here, but I do advise it so you can tell the men where to put it all."

"Wow, that quick?"

"Since you have made your choices, why would there be a delay?"

Adam looked back at Relshek standing at the door. "Just used to things taking an age to reach you. I remember my mother saying that she ordered a new suite of furniture for their lounge, and it took three weeks to come. Dunno why, but I was expecting the same time frame here.

After looking around his lush garden, Adam made his way back to the coolness of his new home and stepped inside.

"I keep meaning to ask…"

"Yes?"

"You know when we were back on Earth, how did you get that job with the Salvation Army?"

"I did some research on the organisation and applied at their local office."

Adam laughed. "Why did I think it was going to be more complicated than that?"

"I don't know, Adam, but that was how it went."

"So they said yes?"

"It goes back to an argument Sage made earlier, Adam, about people working to better themselves rather than for monetary value. You'd be surprised how many vacancies there are for volunteer work."

"Didn't they notice you were… different?"

"Did you?"

"Come to think of it, no, and I can't figure out why now."

Relshek went back to the front door and closed it before coming back towards Adam and taking off his mask.

"Look at me, Adam. What differences do you see from that of a human?"

"Hmm, well, your ears are a little different, and… and those markings on your temples that look like triangles."

"Yes… anything else?"

"Uh, no, I guess not."

"I had a pair of humanoid ears made up on the Trandor, which I brought down to the pod we worked from, and the markings are easy to disguise with a touch of what you humans would call makeup?"

"Okay, but why go through all the hassle of coming to see me via the Salvation Army? Why not just knock on my door?"

"I had to assess you, Adam, gain your trust and get to know you. That way, I could better help you when the time came. I also needed to covertly scan you for the disease you had, something I could only do when up close, like on the vehicle we arrived on."

"The bus you mean."

"Yes. Actually, interacting with my fellow volunteers gave me great insight into human behaviours and your ways of life. Just like you were excited to come to Purity, I too was excited to be with humans and be on earth for the first time."

"But you always diss our planet."

"Diss? Sorry I do not understand."

"You always say it's a bad place."

"No, Adam, the words I use are seen through a prism which your friend Sage attacks; by doing this, he leads you to believe that I am negative. On the contrary, I actually have much respect for the planet you come from, and if there were any negative feelings I had towards your homeworld, it would only be sadness… sadness because I see so much that your people could have done. differently."

"Such as?"

"There are many, many things, Adam, but since my area of expertise is genetics, I will use a problem you have on earth which claims millions of lives. You call it Cancer."

"Yeah, my nan died of it."

"As upsetting as this may be, she needn't have, Adam. One thing I find distressing about your planet is the medical knowledge humans have is actually very good. However, because certain powerful people seem to hold the keys to your destiny, your science is held back."

"So, my Nan, she could have been cured?"

"On Purity, as you know, we call them repairs, but yes, had your nan been in our care, she would have been cured in seven days, and the sad thing is, it can be done on earth too."

"Huh? Would you mind explaining that?"

"Certainly, let me start with the fundamentally different approaches your planet and my planet take when dealing with diseases."

"Okay."

"Earth's way of trying to cure or control the disease is to spend vast resources on chemical-based medicines. This is a hugely inefficient and slow way of doing things. Not only that, these chemical-based formulas often do more damage than good."

"Okay, so what do you guys do?"

"The secret sometimes is to look inwards, Adam, not outwards. On Purity, our specialists use the diseased person to focus their defensive capabilities on the issue and let their own bodywork. It is how we have undertaken medical science for hundreds of years."

"Yeah, but Christian, this is not the common cold we are talking about. We were discussing Cancer, and just leaving a person to fight the disease themselves does not work, even I know that."

"You are somewhat correct but somewhat incorrect. We use a method called Cell Manipulation, something that I have a great interest in. You would be surprised, but your human body, just like my Puritan body, already has all the tools it needs to cure any disease it is faced with. Now, I said you were correct that YES, just leaving a person to fend for themselves when diseased will not solve the problem. But where you are incorrect is that with the right cell manipulation, you can be cured of anything."

"So, how does that work?" Adam asked, now getting really interested.

"Let me ask you something, Adam. Who do you think cured you of your HIV?"

"Those two laser machine things that were zapping me all over."

"No, Adam, the person who cured you… was you."

"Huh?"

"The laser devices you affectionately called them were manipulating millions of certain cells in your body, essentially telling them to wake up. Granted, the technology we have on Purity allows us to accelerate and rapidly reproduce those cells needed, but even without this extra boost, the eventual outcome would be the same."

"Which would be?"

"Cured, Adam… which is what you were."

Adam scratched his head. "So, I cured me?"

"Is this not what I said?"

"So what about Cancer, like we were talking about?"

"Same principle. For Cancer, you humans, like us Puritans, have a particular cell called mitochondria, a natural cancer-fighting cell in your body. So the issue lies with its activeness in your body."

"Its activeness?" Adam asked, raising a brow.

"Yes, Adam, it is a dormant cell. For it to do its job, it has to be activated. On Purity, this would be done by the laser machines you know them as. But exactly the same thing can be done one earth using more primitive procedures."

"Such as?"

"Well, you do have a substance on earth your scientists have already developed but choose not to use, and that is called dichloroacetate, as I understand it."

"Dic what?"

"It is a chemical-based medicine which could be used to trigger the mitochondria cell just the same way as our lasers do."

"But… But you said these chemical-based substances were bad."

"Nearly all are, but if that's all you have to work with from the start, then you have to use it. Also, your people tend to use multiple kinds, which can be unnecessary and detrimental, but using just one as a catalyst to… to, hmm, a Salvation Army person I was with used a good human phrase that you might understand, but I can't think of it."

"A catalyst to… to, oh… get the ball rolling?"

"That was it, yes! So using the dichloroacetate to get the ball rolling is fine because after this is done, you are then leaving the body to fight its own disease by harnessing the mitochondria cell, and there you have your cure for Cancer."

"Wow!" was all Adam said, shaking his head. "But I do have one question?"

"Which is?"

"You said we already had this drug developed, so why aren't we doing exactly what you said?"

"Adam, during my time on earth, I spent limited time looking at the systems you have in place. I also had previous research and knowledge from Purity that I was able to get access to. You see, as far as I could tell, it is the organisations who make all these other chemical-based formula's that seem to put a stop to the very procedure I have just explained, and I am highly confused by this. The only explanation I can figure out is it has something to do with the vast amounts of wealth these people are making from human suffering. This is why I tried to put the argument across to Sage about why placing a monetary value on something is bad."

"Yeah, I get it, because if what you are saying is true, by these companies not letting this procedure happen like you explained, then they carry on getting rich off the shit they pump into people's bodies, right?"

"As sad as it is to think about, Adam, I do think this is the case."

"Yeah, fuck, this is all making sense now. So if the medicine companies suddenly agreed that this other method worked and there was a cure for Cancer, then… then they would be out of business, wouldn't they."

"And that is why we don't have currency Adam, very good; you are starting to open your mind."

"You know what, Christian; I think I wanna be a scientist." Relshek let out the biggest laugh Adam had yet witnessed, making him laugh almost as hard himself.

"What's so funny?" Sage asked, walking through the front door."

"I thought I closed that," Relshek remarked, talking more to himself.

"Somehow, we went from the Salvation Army to curing Cancer, Sage. Fuck knows how but I enjoyed the ride. Like your new place?"

"Swell, just a little empty. So I gather we have to wait forever to get the stuff we chose?"

"Just a few hours actually… yeah, I know, it blew me away too," Adam replied.

"Boys listen, I realise you may be getting hungry. Would you like to try some Puritan cuisine?"

"Depends. Will I live after?" Sage asked before chuckling.

"I'm sure Christian can make it, so you don't."

Sage stuck his tongue out. "So what's in it?"

"Nothing you will have ever heard off, but I am hoping you might like it."

"Do you eat animals?" Adam asked.

"Animals?"

"Yeah, such as those birds wandering around outside, they look like fat quails," Sage said, pointing towards the front doorway.

"We have three creatures we deliberately terminate for food purposes if that's what you are asking."

"Well, I'm a meat kinda guy, so show me what you have on the menu," Sage replied, licking his lips.

Back on Earth, Adam's older brother Brandon sheepishly made his way into Heidgate after hearing about the visit from a guy known only as Tony. Fearing his parents would wonder where he was going at such an hour, he had crept out onto his balcony and slipped down a drainpipe, gashing his leg on a rather evil rose bush. He knew blood was trickling down his leg, and oddly he welcomed the distraction from the nerves he felt from visiting a place with such a reputation.

Up ahead, he could see the flickering of a smouldering fire in a doorway of some building together with a three person-shaped shadow that danced on the surrounding walls. Feeling a sudden chill, he pulled his collar up on his three-quarter length and tried to walk as lightly as possible.

"If I could just find someone alone," he muttered under his breath as a mangy dog ran past him, searching for food, no doubt.

It was a clear night, calm and still but equally cold as Brandon kept tightly to one side of the rotting street. The shadows were getting nearer now, and soon there would be no way to avoid being seen, given away by an almost full moon. He stopped to survey the area, realising he was now a quarter of the way down the street.

He could hear the faint sound of footsteps from behind, but they didn't seem to sound like men's. They were more like high heels and reminded him of the sound his mother's shoes made when she was getting ready to go out with his dad. Frozen to the spot, he couldn't find the courage to look round as he was now focused on making sure the three men by the dim fire didn't see him, plus the fact he really didn't want to know who or what was approaching him.

"My, my, you're a well to do guy, nice coat you got on there," came the voice he assumed was attached to the shoes. Hearing it was a woman, he felt able to turn his head and see who was addressing him.

"Oh, hello, I just-"

"Awww, look at you, you're just a baby, so what is it you're looking for, sex drugs, or rock and roll, Kiddo!" The woman fell into a cackle causing Brandon to look back over at the men. They didn't seem interested.

The woman, who appeared to be in her early forties and wearing a fake fur jacket, stepped closer to Brandon and breathed in deeply. "I like the clean ones… you ain't from around here, are you."

"Uh, no, I um… I was actually looking for someone."

"Well, darling, you just found me," she declared with a dirty giggle before plunging her hand deep into Brandon's trousers and grabbing his cold flaccid cock. Brandon froze again, not sure how to handle the rather direct violation of his private parts.

"Uh…"

"What's the matter, afraid you might like it?" she said in a slimy east London accent.

"No, it's just, I really should be getting going as… oooh."

"Hmm, that's the spot I see," she said, massaging his rapidly inflating manhood. "How old are ya, son?"

"N-n-nineteen."

"Nineteen… really, well how cute is that… you know rumour has it that guys around your age don't tend to…."

Brandon cut the woman off as his knees suddenly jolted before letting out a grunt.

"… last long," the woman finished after having her hand coated in the young man's seed. "Well, I don't really suppose I can charge you for that, can I?" she said, flicking her hand free of spunk. "Call it a free taster for better things to come." With that comment, she wiped her hand on his coat and started to walk away, leaving Brandon trembling and not really sure what had just occurred.

Across the street, Brandon could see the three men he had let out of his focus for a few minutes laughing and staring straight at him. "Do your load did you son?" one called out. Brandon felt his face fill with heat against the cold air and decided to walk on past as quickly as possible. The men were now belly laughing at him as he quickened his pace further until ending up outside an old abandoned children's play area. He headed towards the sound of a rusty swing that was gently creaking and sat down on it to collect himself.

Hoping it might calm his nerves, he pulled out a packet of secret cigarettes he hid in his coat and pulled one from the pack. Then, searching around in the other pocket, he found a trusty zippo a friend had brought him back from Spain and spun the wheel a few times until a flame burst into life.

"Whoa!" he cried, as standing not 2 feet away from him was an old man with a beard. "Jesus, you scared the shit out of me."

"They call her Tasty Tina, you know." Said the man, as Brandon stared at the man, seeing the flame from his lighter in the man's eyes.

"I'm… I'm sorry?"

"That woman who just made you spill some… they call her Tasty Tina."

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"Twenty years she's been doing the rounds… young girl when I met her."

"Right."

"Seen plenty of people like err round ere' in my time… most of em' dead now though. It's the drugs ya see, nasty drugs!"

"I'll bet… say you don't happen to know a-"

"I remember when this street was teaming with life… they even had a street party to celebrate the Queen's jubilee. Bunting everywhere there was, and tables and tables full of food. My wife took part, you know… dead anall though now she is." The man sighed and took a seat on the swing next to Brandon.

"You… you live here?"

"Lived here all me life son, they can't get rid of me. They keep telling me to go into one of those old people's homes… it's not safe in Eidgate they'd say."

"They?"

"The council, nosy buggers. I said, look, these homeless kids have nothing to take from me, so just leave me where I am… cos that what they worry about, ya see. They think I'm gonna get robbed."

"Don't you get worried… that you'll be attacked or something?"

"Naaaah, I know most of these boys anyway, sometimes even feed a few of em' when I got leftovers."

"Oh really, you um… you didn't happen to know a guy called Adam, did you?"

"Adam, Adam… rings a bell. Hmm, skinny guy, dark brown hair… only a toddler if I recall. Ad big brown eyes that always looked sad."

"Around fifteen years old?"

"Could be, but he looked pretty beat last time I saw him, always hungry that one… they say its thee age."

"When did you last see him?"

The man lurched his head to the side and stared straight at Brandon before moving in towards his ear. "They took him, you know… no one believes me, but they took him." He whispered.

"Who… who took him?"

"Those guys in masks!" the man hissed, trying to be quiet. "Everyone laughs at me, but I see things. I knew they would be back."

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean. Who are the guys in the masks? You mean robbers?"

"Always came at night, you know, when… when they thought everyone was asleep, but ahhh, I was watching. People think I'm crazy… think I need to see a shrink, but I saw it all even if they didn't."

"These men? do you know where they live? I mean, if Adam is in danger, I think I should call the police; at least then, people might believe you, right?"

"No point calling them son, they can't do nothing… what you need is a spaceship." Replied the man looking aimlessly into the sky.

"Uh, right, okay… I um, I think I better be going. You don't happen to know where I can find a man called Tony, do you?"

"Tony, eh? Rings a bell."

"Here we go," Brandon muttered.

"Carry on down the way you were going… house with the big brown door."

"Thanks… and hey, how did you know where I was going?"

"I see everything, boy. You just be careful out there. They might come for you next."

Brandon flicked his chin up at the man and gave a polite smile as he walked back onto the street. "Fucking weirdo," he said, starting to scan the derelict houses and old shops for his poorly described building. He had the feeling it could be a long night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Adam and Relshek stepped onto a metal platform containing some kind of computer station. Relshek pressed a few buttons, and it started to descend down a barren shaft with a jolt. Adam attempted to look over the edge, but there wasn't one such was the tight fit the platform seemed to have with the surrounding walls. It got dim for a moment as the light above faded, but moments later, the brightness returned, albeit an artificial kind.

The platform came to a sudden halt confirming they had reached their destination. In front of Adam lay a door. It looked like one of those solid doors for security, such as its bulk and grandeur. Near the top were three large red lights evenly spaced, suggesting it was in some way forbidden to enter.

"You look alarmed Adam, are you okay?" Relshek asked, looking at Adam's frowning expression.

"Looks like the entrance to a nuclear bunker!" Replied Adam, stepping off the platform slowly, never taking his eyes from the large door in front.

Relshek shut the gate behind them and sent the platform back up to where it came from, causing Adam to jump slightly from the noise. Relshek walked over to a device situated on the wall just to the left of the locked door, took off a white glove and placed his palm against a transparent glass sheet. There was a clunk, and Adam saw that the lights had changed from red to blue. Relshek stepped back and stood silently as the door began to slowly open.

The first thing Adam noticed as the view inside became less obstructed by the door was the intense white light that hit him immediately. Shielding his eyes with his hand until they could adjust, he tried to see what was in front of him. Relshek took hold of his hand and led him just inside.

"What is this place?"

"I didn't tell you because I knew you would decline," Relshek replied cryptically.

Adam was starting to see better now and glanced to his left, then directly in front and finally to the right. Before him appeared to be frosted white oblong half cylinders which rested on marble-like plinths. On top of each one was what looked like a soft covering, complete with a flexipad stitched into the material at one end.

"This is a birthing chamber, Adam." Relshek declared softly. "these are incubators."

Adam begun to frown as the scale of the room he was in began to hit him. Looking left again, he tried to count how many of these little pods went down the line, but he gave up when he could no longer make them out. Equally, to his right, incubators were lined as far as his sight would allow. Then, he looked up and out across the space in front, and his jaw dropped open as a sea of these strange beds filled every part of his view.

"Fuuuuuck," he sighed out, placing his hand on his forehead. "How many are there?"

"In this room?" Relshek pulled a flexipad from his white jacket and tapped on the screen. "One million, three hundred and seventy-two thousand, four hundred and sixteen individuals."

"This room?" Adam repeated, suddenly startled. "You mean there are more?"

"Oh yes, Adam, the reason I have brought you to this room is because these males are fourteen to sixteen years old and all pre-design."

"Pre-design, I hear you say that a lot when you mention this place. What exactly does pre-design mean?"

"Come, I will show you."

Relshek headed over to one of the incubators and stood next to it, and Adam reluctantly followed. Then, tapping on the little pad stitched into the material covering the half-cylinder, he did something that made the object light up before there was a slight whooshing sound.

Being very delicate, he pulled the thick white rubbery sheet back and revealed the box's contents. Adam's eyes suddenly went wide, and he fell backwards, putting his hand to his mouth.

"Fuck! Is… is that an alien?" he asked, looking a little white.

"It is a fifteen-year-old Puritan, Adam… pre-design."

Adam stepped back over to the incubator again and forced himself to stare inside. What lay before him was a naked, hairless and featureless being. Adam stared hard at its face, but there was nothing there but the bare minimum to identify it as a person. There were no eyes, only skin in place of the sockets. There was no mouth whatsoever, and its nose was just a crude protrusion that reminded Adam of a white chocolate mouse you get from a candy store.

"Why does it look like… like that!?"

"It Adam is a he… and he looks like that because he has yet to be designed."

"By who?"

"His parents, of course," Relshek said, with both a hint of casualness and excitement.

"What the fuck, Christian? You said this thing was fifteen. So why is it here, and why is it pre-designed or whatever it is?"

"Some parents choose to let their children grow before they design them. Parents can choose to design a child at full birth, five, ten, fourteen, fifteen or sixteen of your years old."

"But why… and how for that matter?"

"For our people Adam the sperm count dramatically declines after twenty years old, so parents must act when they are still young if they wish to create a child. Each Puritan will find a mate, usually between the ages of fifteen and eighteen, and they will both have their sperm fused in an incubator which melds the genes of both parents together then accelerates growth. In four months, the parents will have what we call a natural birth. This means their child is ready and functioning should they wish to design it.

"Fucking hell, I mean, we have designer babies on earth but nothing on this kind of scale. It's out of this world!"

"Your world may be, Adam," replied Relshek, a touch of jovialness to his tone.

"So what you're saying is parents can essentially pay now and buy later?"

"I do not understand that term Adam as we do not use currency on Purity."

"It's a figure of speech Christian… what I mean is, parents and have this sperm fuse thing and then come back a few years later to pick up their kid?"

"Oh, I see, well yes, that is right, Adam. Some parents wish to serve Purity first by having Jobs that fulfil them, or they may wish to bring up children later in life when they have more life experience. It is always down to each Puritan preference."

"And what happens to the Puritans whose parents are killed or don't want them?"

"Those people are terminated," Relshek said, seemingly unfazed by what he had just announced. Adam, however, looked furious.

"Do you people have no heart?"

"I'm sorry, Adam?"

"So, kids that don't have parents to take them are just terminated, just like that… I mean, just like THAT?"

"Yes, Adam, a child with no parents has no one to design him and look after him so has no need for life, and we have no need for him. Furthermore, a child at pre-design has no feelings and does not feel pain as far as we have been able to tell, so…."

"It's adult fucking abortion; that's all this is!"

"I am sorry you feel the way you do, Adam, but this is our way of life, and although it may seem alien and barbaric to you as a human, we Puritans believe that something that takes up space and resources while also having no purpose is a waste."

Adam looked at the creature in front of him again and sighed. "So anyway, you have been eager to bring me here for a while now… why?"

"Adam, I felt it necessary you chose a mate, and I wanted to bring you here to do just that."

"A mate?"

"Yes, Adam, a companion if you will. If you wish to build your new life on Purity, then would you not want a partner to live that life with?"

"I don't understand… so I just pick one of these things and live with it?" Adam asked coldly.

"What you see here are Puritans who already have parents that will come to collect them at some point, and these are not for you to design as that will be done by them. Adam, come with me. I want to show you something."

Relshek started to walk off, forcing Adam to follow him. They passed rows and rows of incubators heading towards one edge of the enormous room. When they arrived, Adam could see a giant door right in the corner and wondered if there would be another colossal room behind it.

"What's in there?" Adam asked as Relshek began to open it. Again, he stayed silent and went in, and again Adam followed.

Inside was indeed another room full of incubators but nowhere near the size. Adam attempted to count them with his eyes and guessed there were about 200. While Adam stood still, he watched Relshek head past 2 or 3 rows and then went left. Then, passing another 3 incubators, he came to a stop at the foot of one particular bed and looked up at Adam.

"Come." He called. Adam slowly walked over to him.

"So what's this room?

"If I tell you, will you not judge for a moment?"

Adam shrugged. "Depends. Is it bad?"

"Adam, this is the termination holding room. The Pre-designed Puritans in here have no parents. This is either due to the reasons you mentioned earlier or because of the Solitaryarolous making parents give up on their children."

"I still don't agree with what you are going to do with these people, but there we are… so why have you stopped at this one?"

Relshek pressed the small panel stitched into the sheet on top and removed the cover, allowing Adam to view the person inside. "This is a five doon old pre-designed boy who-"

"Oh wait, uh, five doons, uh…." Adam started to count on his fingers to try and remember the conversion. "Oh, he's fifteen years old, right?"

"That's right… apologies, my child, sometimes I forget to use your terms. Yes, this is a fifteen-year-old boy whose parents were killed in a mining accident some time ago. He is due for termination, and I wanted to show him to you as a potential mate."

"You know, Christian, I'm not too fussed about having a mate and all that. I'm quite happy just hanging around with Sage, but thanks for thinking of me."

Relshek frowned for a moment, luckily having his mask to hide his frustration. He decided to keep his tone soft and understanding. "What if I told you, you could have your dream companion?"

"In what way?"

"Adam, as I told you, this is a pre-designed boy. With your choices, he can be anything you want him to be. You can change his features to match someone you would be attracted to, and you can also mould his personality."

"So I can make him drop to his knees at my feet and beg me for sex?" Adam asked, giggling.

"The conscious mind of a pre-designed Puritan will have its limits, Adam. So no, you cannot make him do that, the same as you could not make him into a killer. However, you can make him independent or needy, confident or shy, for example. The Physical attributes, however, have no boundaries."

Adam was starting to notice now as the possibility of what he could be with made sparks in his mind. He thought about all the people on earth searching for their dream boyfriend or girlfriend but never actually quite finding them. If this really did work, as Christian was explaining, then it was truly exciting.

"So, how do I… you know, change it?"

"That is done from the Council of Creation upon the surface, Adam. You will be given a private booth in which to design your Puritan. The system is complicated, so I would be happy to assist you should you wish."

"But what happens if I make a mistake… what happens if I don't like something and want to change it?"

"Adam, nothing is done with the boy until you have seen a computer-generated example. Even then, we recommend you leave the booth for a day and come back so that you have time away to fully evaluate your choices. Once that is done, the incubator is instructed to begin the transformation."

Adam shook his head, screwing his face up. "This is fucked up, Christian, I have to admit. Are you really telling me that I can choose if my new boyfriend has blue eyes or brown, tanned skin or white skin… it's just so, so odd!"

"I agree that to your species, Adam, this would seem odd as you put it, but I would ask that you keep an open mind as it is natural that certain things here will be very much different to what you were used to on Earth."

Adam nodded. "Yeah, you got that right. So when can I start?"

"Am I taking this question that you wish to have a companion after all?"

"The idea does seem pretty cool, but I do have more questions."

Relshek smiled with glee under his mask. Thoughts of Sage hampering Adam's development were now, at last, starting to fade as his project now seemed to accept what was being offered.

"I would be happy to answer any questions you have, Adam. As for your first one, which was when can you start? Well, you can start straight away. In fact, I recommend it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Brandon arrived downstairs in a pair of boxers and rushed to the washing room, dumping his blood-stained trousers into the machine. Looking back to make sure no one was looking, he quickly threw some powder in and started the contraption, breathing a sigh of relief. Walking back out, he still managed to bump into his mother, who straight away looked at his leg.

"What on earth have you done, Brandon?"

Brandon chuckled nervously. "Oh, uh… there was a screw sticking out of my bed, and I kinda scratched my leg on it."

"Hmm, doesn't look like that to me. What have you been up to, young man?"

Brandon sighed; the game was up. "Mum, I went looking for Adam, okay, but please don't tell dad. I don't want him going crazy on me."

"Oh Brandon, you need to leave well alone… and please don't tell me you went to that… that hellhole Heidgate?"

"Mum, I had to see for myself, I had to see where he might have gone… don't you understand, he's my brother, my flesh and blood… YOUR flesh and blood. No matter what you and dad think of him, that will always be the case."

"Your brother is a lot of things, Brandon, and yes, part of us he might be, but his lifestyle is not!"

"His sexuality is something he was born with mum. He can't change that. It's like telling someone born with one leg to leave home because they look different. I happen to think it's unfair."

"Brandon, the Lord, has no time for what we think is fair or unfair; we just follow his word and do as he says. Homosexuality is a sin, and your father quite rightly points out that we cannot have a homosexual living under our roof because it is sinful, not to mention quite disgusting. Anyway, what did you find out on your little trip?"

"What would you care!" he replied, storming off and back upstairs. Shelly just shook her head, wondering what all his fuss was about.

Upstairs, Brandon was on the internet trying to find out all he could about the man he had met in the park. Known only had Fred, he knew he had his work cut out, but within minutes he stumbled across an article from a newspaper site that did an interview with a man that looked just like him after just keying in Fred, Heidgate and Aliens on Google.

"Hmm." He muttered, pulling his chair in as if getting comfortable. He began scanning the text, his eyes growing wider and wider as he did.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Good day; I wish to take Adam to a creation booth. Please can you allocate one to us?" Relshek asked as they both stood in front of a counter. The building was half as grand as the council of living but did display a host of exciting features, including several screens depicting the design phase in full motion detail.

"Please come this way," the man replied, coming back with a flexipad. Adam was taken down a long corridor with white walls and a transparent ceiling, allowing the sky above. Walking towards them were more Puritans in uniform who sounded excited, and Adam is now wondering if they have just created their dream child. At the end of the corridor was a double door that looked like an elevator, Adam guessed as Relshek, and the other man stopped and waited.

"Marvellous day, isn't it." The man said. Relshek said nothing and just bowed his head. While waiting, Adam looked up at the sky and saw 3 craft speed overhead with a whoosh and ducked, causing the man to laugh. Again, Relshek just tilted his head.

The elevator door opened, and all three stepped in. It quickly ascended and stopped smoothly moments later, and the man led them back out and into a reception area filled with other Puritans.

"Please take booth D Seventeen, Lord Relshek. I will hold it for the day. Good to meet you, child. I hear you are to bring us our saviour. For this, my family and I are eternally grateful."

Adam just smiled before nodding and walking over to the booth. Relshek let him in, and they both took a seat in front of a large screen. Below was a workstation with lots of buttons that were touch-sensitive. It looked insanely complicated, not only because of the size of the options but because everything was in Puritas, which didn't help Adam at all.

All of a sudden, the lights dimmed, and Adam heard the door close. He looked at Relshek, wondering why it felt like a movie was just about to start. Relshek adjusted his seating angle and faced the boy.

"Are you ready to begin?"
A Magnacar is a vehicle that runs a few inches above the ground suspended by magnets. It is the main form of ground transport on Purity, and its sister planets.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I try and edit my stories to the highest standard, for your reading pleasure. However if you do find any grammar gremlins or spelling sneezes please do message me on the site. I'd be very grateful to zap these out for other readers.

Many thanks to Markb for the Beta reading he does to keep me honest Please drop me a like if you enjoyed the chapter, it means so much to me.

James

A Magnacar is a vehicle that runs a few inches above the ground suspended by magnets. It is the main form of ground transport on Purity, and its sister planets.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I try and edit my stories to the highest standard, for your reading pleasure. However if you do find any grammar gremlins or spelling sneezes please do message me on the site. I'd be very grateful to zap these out for other readers.
Many thanks to Markb for the Beta reading he does to keep me honest Please drop me a like if you enjoyed the chapter, it means so much to me.
James