On the occasion in question, Halcyon arrived for work at the exact right time and performed ver duties in the exact right way. Everything to specification. No small detail overlooked. Today, of all days, Halcyon could not afford to make a mistake. There would be a new conception today, the first since the new regulations had standardized the process industry-wide, and Halcyon had been asked to attend for the very first time. It was not an honor that ve had been expecting, but ve could not let ver superiors down. A conception was an event that was for the good of all. If Halcyon made an acceptable contribution, ve might yet become a permanent member of the conception team, doing the real and substantial work of building and shaping the next generation. Ve might even earn the most sacred position of caretaker.

 

As a child, ve had dreamt of just such a moment, constantly peppering ver first caretaker, Old Bumbas, with question after question about the great work ve did that Halcyon must take up when the time came. "Bumble," ve would ask. Ver first childish attempt to form the old caretaker's name had stuck and become a warm endearment. "Who was your favorite conception?"

 

"Why, you, of course," Bumbas would reply with that jolly, patient smile of vers. "My greatest achievement."

 

Old Bumbas had indulged Halcyon's every curiosity, taking ver to museums and monuments and grand places of learning. But the best had been their frequent excursions into the natural wilds beyond the strict, gray complex of the metropolis. The great green living world that was shrinking by the day. There, the sunlight had pierced through the usual slaty cloud haze, casting prisms of riotous color in the air around them, and Halcyon had been truly joyous at the sight. Ve could not help but imagine the colorful light solidifying into physical form and coming home with ver and Bumbas, a new companion that would brighten the dreary corners of the ver life such that ve would feel that same joy evermore.

 

After Bumbas joined the ancestors in the great pool of souls, Halcyon's next caretaker, Thip, had quite a difficult time reining ver in. "Bumbas certainly made a wild creature of you," Thip would often say. The grim, flat words had never seemed like praise, but Halcyon had secretly loved the idea of being wild. Untamable. Free.

 

But those were dangerous thoughts that Halcyon had learned to bury deep down in the darkness where no light could ever find them. And, nowadays, Halcyon was a model citizen. Thip had seen to that sure enough. Long hours spent poring over the old war holographs under Thip's watchful eye had taught Halcyon that individualism had almost been the doom of their people. Even now, the continued widespread sterility of the populace remained as a dark legacy of those selfish times. Collective conception had saved their species. Coming together as one was essential. Dissension could not be tolerated. Conformity was the way to survive. The only way.

 

After lunch, and at precisely the correct time, Halcyon made ver way down to Floor Zero. The Conception Chamber was a perfectly square theater divided into four perfectly triangular rows of seating which led down to the perfectly square staging platform at the center. The platform was empty at present. Everyone was still taking their places. Halcyon took the seat assigned to ver with a thrill of anticipation and placed the mind-sync device there upon ver head. The four thought leaders already had their devices securely in place, and they had taken up positions around the square platform, each standing at the center point of one of its four sides.

 

"You have all been invited to take part in a new conception," Thought Leader Jal said, soft voice projecting into all the mind-syncs in the room at once.

 

"For the past week, you have been exhaustively briefed on the being we will create here today," Thought Leader Bezt continued placidly.

 

Halcyon knew the being down to its last freckle. It would be a Humanoid with skin as pale grey as fog and with colorless eyes and hair. The thought leaders had not left any small detail to chance. The new company line was that this would be one of their department's greatest conceptions to date. A new default upon which to base all future conceptions worldwide. Privately, Halcyon thought that if they were truly creating the building blocks of what civilization as they knew it would from here on out, variation seemed more likely to increase potential for survival. But Halcyon knew that those thoughts were unworthy. Ve knew that if ve even whispered them in the wrong company, ve would never be allowed to participate in a conception. Ve might even be cast out to the fringes with no friend to call ver own. Halcyon hid a shiver by straightening ver posture. No. Conformity was the way. The only way.

 

"It is a great honor to be part of a conception," Thought Leader Fawe reminded everyone.

 

"Think well," Thought Leader Vhayr murmured the company motto as the overhead lights dimmed and a bright spotlight lit the platform. "Begin."

 

Halcyon threw every bit of verself into thinking one, singular thought: the lovely grey being that would become the standard of the future. The being would bring about a new age of collective strength and would be created right here in these hallowed halls. This being would change the very face of the world, bringing them all closer together as a people. Halcyon could not wait to be a part of building the new world. It was all ve had ever imagined when ve had been just a daydreaming youngster wanting to alchemize insubstantial light into physical form.

 

Halcyon was brought out of ver sweeping exhilaration by a collective gasp that wove its way through the gathered crowd. Ve opened ver eyes, not recalling the moment ve had closed them.

 

"Who did this?" Thought Leader Vhayr spoke first, voice sharp with displeasure as ver hard gaze darted around the room. "Whose thought was this?"

 

Halcyon was almost too afraid to look, but ver curiosity had always won out over ver fear. There, at the center of the platform, where there should have been a little pale grey being of perfectly precise form, crouched a blazing riot of color. The being the assembly had created shone with an iridescence that made ver skin gleam and spark in a thousand different shades of brilliance. It very nearly hurt to even look upon the being.

 

Another shiver zinged along Halcyon's nerve-endings. If ve was not mistaken, the being on the Conception Chamber platform very much resembled light given physical form...

 

"If the perpetrator of this...this violation does not step forward now," Thought Leader Vhayr went on. "Then we will have no choice but to treat this being as an aberrant and dispatch it forthwith."

 

Halcyon felt as though the air had been punched right out of ver. Ve knew that aberrants were strictly not allowed unless claimed by a creator. Unclaimed, the being would be treated as a failed experiment and sent to the incinerator.  Halcyon could not help but think of Old Bumbas in that moment. Of how ver jolly old caretaker had never scolded ver for dreaming of things that only existed in ver imagination. How ver dear Bumble had always insisted that Halcyon was ver greatest achievement. Halcyon's strength flooded in with a sudden fierceness. Ve knew, without a doubt, that ve was the only one who could, or would, save the tiny iridescent being.

 

Halcyon stood up.