The Invisible Planet

Part 15: Surrogate

Content Warning: This chapter contains graphic content.

Angeline lay on the pile of furs in the cave, letting her mind drift. It felt like it had been weeks since she'd seen Midelian. Months, even. Just a few days ago, she was in a comfortable living room doing homework with Benji. The idea of lying hungry and alone in a cave on a magical planet wasn't even fathomable.

She was at the top of her class, but it hardly felt like an accomplishment when she had the advantage of extra years. She was lucky, Charlotte had told her — smaller than the other girls her age, both in height and weight. The original caretaker opted to not fit her with the ComWatch, positive that she wouldn't be picked within the next few years and that they would be better off keeping her as a surrogate.

Babies were in high demand on Midelian. A mandated birth limit of one child per family had been imposed on most of the people of Azuri for decades in order to put a dent in the intergalactic overpopulation crisis. The orphan farms on Kespan sprang up as a result, capitalizing on the opportunity to sell hand-picked children to families who could pay.

The ComWatch itself even integrated this practice, injecting a regular dose of birth control that rendered those who wore one incapable of natural or artificial conception without an expensive add-on. This meant that Kespan's constant supply of new orphans had to come from inside. For this reason, ComWatch installation was delayed until the age of 16, and those chosen as surrogates — anyone left over the age of 16 with a functional reproductive system — were never fitted with one. They were kept to produce more 'stock' via artificial implantation.

The infants, often genetically modified to be more appealing to adoption agencies, were taken at birth and immediately advertised to the numerous agencies on Midelian. Not all would be picked, of course, and eventually a number of them would age out and continue the cycle.

Most agencies either wanted the fairest skin or the darkest, and they nearly always wanted the youngest. Being of a middle skin tone and a higher age put Angeline — and a good half of the other orphans — at a disadvantage. At the ripe age of fourteen, she was enrolled in the surrogate program.

A few weeks after her first implantation, the branch's old caretaker was killed in a tragic accident. As the eldest and most qualified surrogate, Charlotte took her place. She took a liking to Angeline immediately.

"I'm not letting them turn you into a surrogate, alright? We're going to get you adopted," she'd said.

Angeline didn't have the heart to tell the woman she was already pregnant. Instead, she took the matter into her own hands with a stolen bottle of whiskey and a firm bit of metal wire.

The process was harrowing, messy, and incredibly painful. Each failed attempt hurt worse than the last, but she refused to give up halfway. She was resolved to either end the pregnancy, or die trying.

One of the other girls discovered her unconscious in a puddle of her own blood, but it was Charlotte who saved her life — both by calling for immediate medical care, and lying about why she was injured. The punishment for terminating a pregnancy on Kespan was death.

Part of saving Angeline's life meant lying about her age. Charlotte destroyed the records herself and swore to the medics that the girl was only eleven, and therefore couldn't have been a surrogate. It was an unfortunate accident in an inappropriate game with one of the older boys, she'd told them. Whether or not they believed her, they thankfully didn't argue.

On her fifteenth birthday, Angeline was legally registered as twelve years old.

"Never tell a soul," Charlotte warned her. "They'll kill us both for that. Understand?"

Most of the children were put through school like normal: educated, taught how to be polite, and trained in the best methods of being picked by a good agency.

"You'll have to be smarter than the others," Charlotte told her. "You won't get picked unless you stand out in a good way."

In addition to regular schooling, Angeline underwent special training: how to lie convincingly, how to talk like she was from Midelian, how to fool a ComWatch into thinking her emotions were steady, and how to defend herself from an attacker.

When her registered age reached fifteen, she was fitted with a ComWatch. There was no going back. After that, Charlotte had to keep her distance. There was no telling when someone was watching, and only legal adults could shut off the watch for privacy.

Another year in the orphanage went by, and Angeline spent the time studying everything she could get her hands on. She hatched a plan in secret: should she not end up adopted, she would sneak onto one of the Kespan transporters and hijack it. She memorized the layout of several popular transport ships in preparation.

Once she had the ship, she would cross into the Andromeda galaxy where Azuri's laws couldn't reach her and send the ship back on auto-pilot. With the ship returned on its own, unharmed, they wouldn't even be able to say she was a thief.

Shortly after her second sixteenth birthday, a representative from Gareth Calloway's agency on Midelian picked her for their adoption pool. Picking an older child was rare, but not entirely unheard of. It was her last hope. She was registered under their roster, and only a few weeks later, she was adopted by Ted and Heather.

"I'm so proud of you," said Charlotte, giving her a tight hug goodbye. "They're a good family with a good reputation. They'll treat you well." It was a bittersweet farewell. She would miss Charlotte terribly, but nothing was worth staying another day on Kespan.

But then, everything went wrong. So, so wrong. Sitting alone in the cave, she began to wish more than anything that she had found a way to bring Benji with her.