The Paradisus Chronicles Book 1: Vengeance

The worry and thrill that I could feel in the air was more intense than I had ever felt in my life. That was because today was the day where I was going to go through my race's coming of age process known as The Klitron.

Through the Klitron I was supposed to unlock my dormant talent. Whatever kind of talent I would have would determine my role in my life as a citizen of The Terran Collective.

"Now remember son if you fail to discover your talent during The Klitron Process then you will become a casteless individual. We have not had a member of our family become a casteless in over four generations" my father said to me as he and my mother walked me to the main entrance to the train station that I was going to use to get on the train in order to make it to the government district of my home world of Yalluter.

My father was right. I had heard stories about what happens to people who failed to unlock their talent at The Klitron; it is said that they can only become casteless since our entire government was based around those that have talents fulfilling their purpose which maintains balance in our society and government.

The buildings that surrounded me were made all out of brick with frames and support beams made out of a very cheap metal. Most people would look down upon this type of architecture because it is very simple if it was compared to the high-tech skyscrapers that I had heard that the upper districts of the many worlds that the Terrans lived on.

Despite that I was used to the simple designs because I was born into a family of crafters. In The Terran Collective we use a type of caste system where someone's talent will determine their role in our society.

As someone of the crafter caste I was used to being bullied and constantly insulted by the members of the warrior, science, and government castes. There are two very rare castes that reign above the rest. The rarest castes were the healer and specialist castes.

If I was lucky the best I could hope for was to become a healer because of their rarity they were treated almost like gods. The healers of our race always helped save our valuable medicines for the direst of situations.

No matter how much I wanted it I could never become a specialist. That is because they are bread to be our leaders in the current four-way galactic war that our race is in over a rare mineral known as Paradisus. They also are the only caste of humans that have two talents.

Whatever fate had in store for me I was going to have to embrace it for the rest of my life since the talent that a human was born with were totally random, and you never knew what it was until you went through The Klitron because whenever you are from the government plant a chip in the very back of your neck to block your future talent.

Now I wanted to go through my Klitron hoping that I would get a useful talent and not bring any unnecessary sham to my family.

I then got in line for the main gate of the train station, and I waited until I was at the front of the line.

As I made it to the front of the line, I saw a large iron gate that was being guarded a member of the warrior caste that was only allowing one family in at a time.

"If you want to get past here you will have to let me scan your identification number. This speedy train station that leads to the other districts of this world" a tall male human that was wearing a full set of dark blue body armor that covered his entire body as I was pinned to the ground by his heavy boot.

I could see that both of my parents were worried about me while I was being pinned to the ground. My father had his right fist clinched as if he was trying to contain his anger.

As soon as I saw my father make the fist the warrior let go of me and he started to walk over to where my parents were standing.

"Did someone of the lower ranking crafting caste just make a move of aggression at me as a member of the warrior caste?" I asked my parents as he pinned the both of my parents down to the ground and spit on my father's face.

"Here just scan my neck to get my identity. Whatever you do please leave my parents out of this. All of your rage should be focused at me" I told him as soon as I noticed that he was starting to beat my father in the face.

"You will learn your place as a member of such a weak caste. You belong at my feet begging for me to show you mercy." He said to me. "Now do as I command and beg for me to show your parents mercy."

I did not want to do what he demanded of me, but after what I have seen people get killed for by people that were of a higher caste I needed to do whatever he asked if I wanted for both of my parents to survive.

"Please…. let them go. My parents did not mean to insult you at all." I said to him after I got onto my hands and knees and started to crawl towards him with an expression of sadness for him to clearly see.

"That is what I wanted to see! That look of desperation it suits someone of your weak caste.

You can go onto the train now. I have had all of the fun that I can with you." He said as he let my parents go, and he walked away with an expression of joy on his face.

I helped my mother up to her feet, and I saw my father rise up on his own briefly after that.

I walked into the station as the speed train approached knowing that my fate was most likely going to change after I got onto the train.

"Son; I hope that you will end up getting a much higher ranked talent than your mother and I did so that you don't have to put up with this kind of harassment anymore."

"Father I cannot explain how, but I have a feeling that I will be getting a rare type of talent. When I get done with my Klitron I will be more than I am right now." I said to my father as I shook his right hand.

"Good luck Danny." He said to me as I walked onto the train.

As soon as I made it into the express train I felt as though I had stepped into an entirely different world.

The inside of the express train had a black rug running down the open center all of the way from one end of the train section to the other. On both sides I saw of the rear area of the section I saw a set of round tables that were made out of a blue colored metal. These tables had plates of exotic foods that were quickly being consumed by the people as soon as they entered the train.

I chose to sit down in one of the black metal chairs that were located towards the front of the section. Where there were very few people.

As the train started to move through the city, I was seeing the world evolve in design and detail the closer that it got to the end of the journey.

The train stopped at each of the stations along the way, and a large group of young people got inside a separate section along the way.

When the train reached the end of the journey, I was being pushed against the glass wall by all of the other young people that were here to take the Klitron. I understood that today was going to become either one of the best or one of the worst days of our lives as people of The Terran Collective, but there was no need to rush this because it would not change what our hidden talent is.

Then after most of the people were out of the train, I made my way out, and my mouth slightly dropped open as I stared at the building where I was to have my Klitron.

The train had stopped at a massive building that had massive blue letters on it. They read government which told me that I was in the government and law section of the city. This section was normally only able to be accessed by people of this caste. That meant that I was most likely not going to ever see this section of this city ever again after today.

As I walked closer to the government building, I saw that there were at least two hundred other people that were here to go through the Klitron today which let me know that I was heading towards the correct buildings.

"Get into line! We will have order on this day; we are not wild like the Demetra that we kill in this current war." I heard a guard exclaim as he hitting people that were running wildly towards the government building with a stun stick that I saw had a small electric charge.

After the guards started using force, I noticed that everyone around me got into lines that were divided by caste.

I saw that at the front of the building there were five different symbolic statues when I had made it to the front of the line for the crafter caste. The statues were of a pair of hands, a rifle, an open bottle, an open book, and the final statue was of a hammer and an anvil. These symbols represented the different factions that were lived in as a citizen of The Terran Collective.

Each of the statues had white barriers around them that were all connected by blue gateways. These gateways, and barriers were in place to protect the statues and the government building from the occasional protest or riot that the Terran citizens would have to tell their government officials what they thought of current state of things.

As I entered into the building, I saw that the entire inside of the structure was painted almost entirely white which blew my mind away. The inside was massive and in the center of the lobby room I saw a small pond that had a variety of small fish swimming through the water. the room was mostly bare except the glass windows that looked at the outside of the building, and a long hallway that was in the back where I saw many elevators that were on both sides.

I noticed that the elevators each had symbols that matched the statues outside of the building which I took as a sign that the elevators were each meant for the members of each caste to get into separately.

Most of the people that I saw here for The Klitron were suddenly amazed at the appearance of the building, and they al started to run around the lobby as if they were creatures of the Demetra.

"Go into the correct line that is meant for your caste. If you cause a scene; you will be immediately deemed as someone who is unworthy of becoming a member of our society and you will become a casteless". A medium pitched female voice said over a set of speakers that were hanging from the walls of this structure.

Ater the female voice spoke I noticed that all of the other people started to line up into lines that divided the people by their caste of origin. Then I saw that everyone started to move into their elevators one at a time.

As I waited in the line that was reserved for the people of the crafter caste, I could see that each of the different castes had on a different type of clothing, the crafters all wore a simple t shirt that was covered by silver padding over the chest area. They also had utility belts on their waists.

I noticed that to my right the members of the warrior caste were all lined up in single file. Unlike the other caste they were all lined up as if they were wound up very tightly as if they were here to follow every rule. They were all wearing armor that was similar to the armor of the guards that I had seen when I was at the express train station for my caste earlier today except their head were not covered by a helmet.

Next to them I saw the members of the caste for scientists where everyone had on a t-shirt and a white lab coat. They were all talking about theories that I had never heard of before about traveling faster than light by using our hyper gates to get around space. They discussed things about how the cyborgs ships had built in warp drives, and how much more technologically advanced they were compared to us.

Then to my right I saw a small group of less than thirty humans that were all wearing a dark blue robe. They all looked away from everyone else as if they did not think that anyone from the other castes was even worth a glance from them. This told me that they were all members of the healer's caste.

I did not see anyone of the specialists here for The Klitron which told me that the specialist caste is on an entirely different level than the rest of us as if they were the direct children of our deity.

This god of my race has many forms and names. It differed from household to household in The Terran Collective because each house believed that their god was the true one of our races. In order to keep each of the houses in check I was told that the chancellor that runs the entire Terran domain passed a law stating that each of the different gods that our race worshiped were different forms of the same being.

It only took a few months for the law to become excepted as a law of my people because this current chancellor had a very solid reputation for his many successful mining and historical artifact businesses that gave him a great amount of influence before he went through his first campaign for office.

When it was my turn at the front of the line for the crafter caste I walked into the hallway where I saw the set of elevators, and I entered the elevator with symbol of my caste on it.

The inside of the elevator was clear white, and it had a semicircle glass window that made it to where I could see all of the simply designed cleaning robots that were cleaning the glass window as the elevator started to move up to the floor where I was going to be having my Klitron.

As the door opened up, I saw a medium height elderly man that was bald. He was wearing a white suit, and he had a large roll of tickets between him in the wall to my left. The elderly man handed me a fresh ticket as soon as I walked to where he was standing.

"Here is your ticket whatever you do make sure that you do not loose it during your Klitron. If you ever lose it, you will no longer be allowed to participate in this process ever again, and you will become a casteless".

I took the ticket from the elderly gentleman and walked through the double door knowing that the next few decisions that I was going to make past this door would end up shaping my destiny.

When I entered into the room, I saw that I was now in a prestation hall. There were three tows of seats that had wooden stairs in-between them. Against the rear wall I saw two doors on the far sides. Above the doors I noticed that there was an electronic eye that was moving around as if it was searching for someone or something. Lined up with the center of the rear wall I saw that there was a stage.

I also noticed that there was a middle-aged man that was looking at everyone that entered into the room.

There were guards that were wearing the armor of the warrior caste standing against the side walls observing the area around them as if they were paranoid about everyone that was near them had something to hide. I am hoping that I do not end up a member of the warrior caste.

In the room I saw that people were all siting down as if they were here waiting to hear what the middle-aged male was going to tell them. Since the system that we Terrans lived by demanded order I chose to sit down in one of the seats in the back without causing a scene.

It took about ten minutes for everyone to get into the room so that the adult could start explaining exactly the Klitron was.

After everyone set down, I saw that the guards started to go around asking for everyone's ticket. When they got to me, I showed him mine, and he passed by me without even glancing at me.

"Ticket please" one of the guards said in the row that was two in front of me.

The male that he was asking had clothing for our scientist caste. when he could not produce the ticket, the guard picked him up and started to carry him out of the room as he tried to claim that his ticket was stolen.

"I had my ticket right here in my pocket. Put me down I am not meant to become a casteless".

"The rules of our society are absolute. Not a single human including you are immune to them." The guard said as he walked out of the room.

"Well, I guess I do not have to explain what happens if you lose your ticket. You know that no matter how many times that I do this process there is always at least one of you that has to leave before I have the chance to explain the Klitron to all of you young people." The middle-aged male said as soon as the boy was carried out of the room.

As soon as he started speaking I turned around to pay attention to what the man said to me. Knowing that whatever this man said to the entire room would possibly have an impact on my future.