A novel set in a future society where the rise of population forces people
to live in close communities. Devi, a successful student selected from her community for her grasp of strategy, starts to make her journey to the SupraTerra. An outer space managing station that keeps the peace in the communities. On her way she meets a hair stylist desperate to escape secret threats, a former singer famous for her elaborate stage performances and special effects, a bodyguard turned wedding planner, and a mechanic with an old ship that is her only way of leaving earth. Morality is challenged, and safety is uncertain when long-kept secrets are discovered.

In this novel all the galaxy’s a stage, and men and woman merely drones and keepers of secrets; under protection of a government with the biggest secrets of all.

    It was only when I realized my journey was upward, that I began to panic. Before then my mind had floated listlessly over the simple details, like what I would pack, or how many photo ops there might be. The realization made my knees week, and I dropped the pot of geraniums I had been placing beside the front door. It didn’t shatter like it would have 17 years ago. Instead, it just sort of bounced there on the hexagon tiled road. I picked it up once it had stopped bouncing and hugged it to my chest. My journey is upwards, and I’ve never even been on a plane. Heck, I’ve probably never been higher than 40 feet... Why did I decide I could live hundreds of miles above earth?
The reason was because it was an honor. Children practice and study all their lives to get an opportunity like this. Most of the time to no avail. I had been one of those children, but everything came naturally to me. I was extraordinarily good at strategy. I always saw the fastest way to to achieve the goal, whether it was getting from point A to point B, or deciding where people would need to be relocated in a flood. That was what was valued these days. Strategy. How to manage things the best. If you wanted to work at SupraTerra you needed to know how to manage people.  It all made sense me, it really did. SupraTerra was the station resting peacefully in outer space, watching over all the Communities, taking complaints, keeping the peace. They want people with minds that understand that. The fact that they choose me to be sent up there should be astounding to me, but maybe I had always expected it. Maybe because I always saw it there in my future. Work hard in school, get noticed, be sent up to SupraTerra, work as an intern, then get a job, get promotion after promotion until I’m basically ruling the whole entire world.
The last bit might be a bit of a stretch.
But you never know.
They keep SupraTerra quite mysterious, maybe so students will work harder to get there. Dad said when he was little Grandpa told him they showed videos of what it would look like to live there. Grandpa would tell Dad how it looked terrible up there, like a prison. Or he would insist all the videos were just lies and propaganda to get people to throw away their lives and head to the stars. Maybe Grandpa was right. Maybe I should stay on earth. Then again Grandpa also insisted once you got a home in there stars, aliens would move to your home back on earth and impersonate you while also eating all the cats they could find. It’s safe to say I’m not going to trust everything Grandpa said. I still wish I had gotten to meet him.

    “Devi?” My mom’s voice shook me out of my absorption in my thoughts.
“Are you out there? Devi?” I took a deep breath and set the geraniums down beside the front door.
“I’ll be right in, mom.” I took a long look up at the night sky, at the scattered stars, and the sliver of a moon. By this time next week I’ll be living up there.
At the time I didn’t know how I wrong I was.

    The next morning brought more uneasiness. Maybe because I found out that I was the only student out of my Community that was selected to leave earth. I wouldn’t know a single person there. It’s not that I had any friends that I was hoping to see, I was just really hoping for a familiar face or two. I have no friends. Let’s make that clear. Too much work for me. Unreliable. Also I’m shy.
“Oh dear...” My mom had said across the table to my dad after hearing the news.
“Does that mean that nice girl Kira didn’t make it?” Mom looked over at me when she said it.
“I’m afraid not... Only Devi. We’re so proud,” he smiled at me. “We really are.”
“Dear... Yes... We are... I just feel terrible for Kira’s family. She really wanted that job,” mom said sympathetically. I knew for a fact Kira didn’t want anything to do with SupraTerra. She had a dream to be a famous singer. Apparently they still have those now.  They aren’t famous world-wide anymore though. More just from Community to Community. Kira had confided in me years ago that she wanted more than anything to leave. I couldn’t understand why, it’s beautiful here. Our Community had been modeled after quaint French streets, with tight cobble roads meandering through blocks of buildings with flower boxes overflowing with tiny fragrant flowers and herbs.  Kira didn’t agree with me on that. She had heard from old relatives about other Communities with bright lights, and stages where you could stand there and sing your heart out. I could tell she truly wanted that. It was something about the way she described what she wanted I could tell she truly believed she could achieve it.
There had been problems with her plan, one problem being that people were required to live in there communities for their whole life. But at the time I had little heart to tell her that. She’d seemed so determined.
Unfortunately mom had only heard what Kira’s parents wanted. They had lived their lives as farmers. Just as their ancestors had, and they were desperate to continue their lineage in the stars. I felt bad for them, Kira was their only child. She was their last chance.

    Next came the fussing. There was lots of it. What to pack? What to wear? How much food to bring? Dad fussed the most. Mom would give me long looks, her eyes sparkly with tears. Both of them were genuinely happy for me, but they agreed that they would miss me more than anything.
“Do you think you’ve packed enough clothing” Mom asked. I didn’t need to pack too much clothing, and she knew that.
“They provide uniforms for us there. Remember? It’s... I’ll be fine.”
“We don’t even know anything about what it’s like up there... You know, it might be terrible. Grandpa said-”
“Grandpa was mad.”
She tilted her head and gave me a sad smile. “You’ll come back and visit us, right?” I nodded, but I wasn’t sure. Maybe they wouldn’t let me come back to earth.
A heavy silence fell, and our small living room suddenly felt like all I ever
needed. Our house was small, but it was all I knew. I opened my arms and my mom hugged me. I’m sure they’ll let me visit earth. They have to.

    The information they sent me was scarce and sporadic. I never knew quite when I’d get it, or where I’d get it from. I had been walking home one day, holding a large paper bag full of vegetables, when a loud alarm went off from our mailbox. I rushed down our street toward our house, losing a tomato or two in the process. “Oh gracious! Will you shut up?” I muttered at it as I put down the bag. Mom and dad must have been at work or they would have shut it off by now. I opened up the tiny mailbox and looked inside. The colorful mailbox GUI hologram materialized in front of my face, declaring “IMPORTANT INFORMATION! IMPORTANT INFORMATION! IMPORTANT INFORMATION!” I stuck my hand out and tapped at it to try to shut it off. Nothing changed. Finally I tried to talk to it. We normally have voice activation shut off, but maybe important messages just override whatever controls you have selected? Anyway, it worked. “Shut. UP!” I hissed at it. It did so. I was quite surprised, and tremendously relieved. “Umm... Open?”  It did that too.  A message expanded to take up all of the tiny mailbox hologram screen.

Hello Devi Amita Aster,
We’ve take the liberty of mapping out the fastest route from your house to the nearest launch station. Below is a map of that route:

I scrolled down to see the map. The route looked long.
At the bottom of the message it the had the
SUPRATERRA
logo, and a tiny message reminding me of the date and time to be there.
Was that it? Just a map? I had to admit I was pretty annoyed about the ruckus it had caused. No matter, the map was important. I selected the option to create a physical copy, and rushed inside retrieve it when it popped out of our actualizer.