CHAPTER TWO
-Kuno-
Kuno was born on the 75th floor of Karachi-7, a Oikopolis-tier Cloudpiercer of 3 million inhabitants, to two Kappa parents, Kai and Vashti 75-223. Kappas, or adepts, were unique within the Cloudpiercer population for living in monogamous couples and raising their children in families instead of sending them to the Crèche during the juvenile years. A Kappa actually has parental and familial ties to his children, and would be personally involved in their education growing up.
The vast majority (nine-tenths) of the people living in the building were Rhos, or regulars, people with no discernible skills who lived mainly to experience sensual pleasure and reproduce without limit. Every floor on the building would have the same number of people (in Karachi-7, thirty thousand), so the surplus population was sent away to populate new buildings in other places on Earth. Meanwhile, the Kappa population was kept static through a two-child policy, with extensive 'state' intervention for the purposes of eugenic manipulation, to ensure Kappas were suitably disposed for their cognitively-demanding occupations.
Kuno lived with his parents until the tender age of twelve, when he was sent to University on Floor Ten. The first nine floors were dedicated entirely to educating Rho's, or Regulars from birth to eighteen, while the tenth floor was for Kappa education, which lasted eight years. During this time, he underwent constant performance evaluations and aptitude tests, the results of which were sent to the City-mind database. By Year Two, he was sorted into the Civil Electrical Engineering Phylum, in the Signal Processing Genus. His Genus, or class, consisted of 300 people, the Dunbar's number for Kappas, and he knew everyone in it by name and face. Thanks to extensive calculations, there were exactly 150 men and 150 women in each Genus, and all would be paired with a partner upon the end of University in a dual-purpose graduation and mass marriage ceremony around twenty, the legal age of consent for Kappas.
The cold logic of the City-mind did not leave room for personal attraction and love when it arranged marriages between the Kappas. Yet love undoubtedly blossomed within the close confines of the Genus, where students ate the same food, breathed the same air, and shared the same hopes and dreams. Only the rare few had the privilege of marrying the person they loved. Most had to make do with loving the person they married.
Kuno was a late-bloomer like his fellow Kappas, so he spent his first four years primarily concerned with his studies. It helped that the sexes were kept strictly segregated, and were only together during periods of instruction. They were kept completely separate during showers, meals, physical education, and they retired to different quarters at the end of the day.
At sixteen, Kuno's testosterone levels spiked up, leaving him almost incapable of pursuing his studies until he discovered masturbation. After relieving himself, he would have a few hours of sanity in which he could concentrate again. His thoughts always turned toward the most beautiful girls in his Genus, and eighty percent of his fantasies were about Yorda, a violet-eyed platinum blonde whom he only had a few, limited interactions with.
Her features adhered almost completely to the Golden Ratio, and her delicate head rested atop a set of narrow shoulders. Her eyes had a disturbing allure to them; she never seemed to be looking at a person, but instead seeing through them. Her gaze was cold and distant, and whenever guys from her cohort tried to speak with her, they became so desperate for her attention she would always cut the conversation short and depart. Kuno avoided approaching her for this reason; he could not bear the pain of her rejection.
In reality, Yorda was simply unused to male attention and didn't know how to deal with it. Kappa girls blossom even later than the boys, and if they were attracted to the opposite sex, it was always in an idealistic and platonic way. They could 'get their rocks off' reading romantic teen literature, or following their favorite boy bands. To Yorda, it was frightening when a boy approached her, and she didn't know how to let him down easy. She adopted a cold and uncaring persona, hoping this would cause them to stop chasing after her, but it led to more than one instance of having 'bitch' and 'cunt' screamed at her. Far from being insensitive and aloof to boys, she would hide in her room and break down crying. She spent many nights longing to be back with her family and friends.
Some time in the last few years before graduation, Kuno and a few mates decided to sneak out and spend a night with the Regulars, to let some of their evil out before returning to University. They had had enough of spending their weekends studying and being virgins, and they had found a floor (66) which was holding a three-day Carnivus at the same time. Kappas were allowed a little bit more privacy than Regulars, so they didn't have to worry about their every movement being tracked, but the trip still took an enormous amount of planning.
Carnivus was a secular adaptation of historical festive seasons. In those times, events such as Carnival, Festelavn, or Mardi Gras, preceded a period of fasting and self-reflection like Lent. In all cultures, such exultant and revelry holidays were days when the normal social rules were suspended, and people could engage in abnormal or even taboo behavior. Such celebrations tend to lose significance in permissive societies which don't place restrictions on people's lives, so for Carnivus to have the significance it has for Regulars, a floor-city would suspend even its already lax rules governing social behavior.
Drugs like Buzz, Retarded (cuz that shit gets you retarded, son), Bhang, Soma, and Delirium were freely distributed to the thirty-thousand strong populace, and to visitors from other levels, which was capped at ten thousand. Kuno and his friends Quintus, Gyula and Pons had long ago paid four Regulars to borrow their identities at the Floor 66 Visitor Checkpoint. Quintus and Pons had met a black market organ craftsman who specializes in cloning perfect copies of a person's fingerprints, making skin caps that could be worn on top of one's real fingers for use on any scanner. For eye scans, they saw a different specialist who designed fake contact lenses that trick the laser into reading the desired retinal pattern. These specialists hired themselves out to the same black market connections that also brought the boys into contact with the four Regulars whose identities they would be assuming that night.
It cost a lot of credits, but Kappas didn't spend their money that much anyway. And the four boys had paying apprentice jobs and relatively wealthy parents.
Getting onto Floor 66 already took some deception. Each of the boys would first visit their home floor to ostensibly visit home, then put on the fingerprints and contacts to go to Floor 66.
"Good luck," wished each conspirator to the other.
Kuno stepped into one of the hundreds of smaller elevators for individual and small group use. He pressed his finger on the touchpad. The screen lit up blue and presented him with an on-screen number pad. He pressed 7, then 5. From Uni to home were 65 city-floors in between, each one tall enough to house a three-story building. Even with mag-lev technology and the fact that he paid for his 'shuttle' to make no other stops, the journey up would take six minutes.
Six minutes alone, to contemplate his decisions. Could he really go through with this?
Getting caught would fuck his record up with the equivalent of being dropped a whole quartile in his class. He was an extremely gifted student who would most likely move to the 98th floor after graduating. A higher level was linked to higher social status, and people in the nineties were practically gods to those lower down.
Caught, he would be downgraded to 73rd, not too terrible, but worse than where his parents were. They both worked so hard to climb up six floors after graduating to raise their children in a good environment. Was it all worth it just to bust a nut?
DING
The elevator doors opened to the seventy fifth floor. Even the magenta and gold color scheme of the signs and walls flooded Kuno's brain with childhood memories. The Welcome! sign oozed with personality and charm, of hard-working, humble people who managed to achieve some small amount of success in life.
Tears threatened to well up in Kuno's eyes as he still stood in the elevator, looking out into his old world. He bade his heart be still as he stepped out. He had a mission to do.
He briskly made his way through security, hoping his Red University bodysuit didn't draw too much attention. Kappas were the only people who wore clothes, and at most, they made up ten percent of the population. The security guard Adepts gave him a respectful nod before letting him through.
Cleared, Kuno hurried to a public lavatory, trying not to get bogged down with nostalgia at the smell of street food wafting in the air, or at the lantern lights which cozily lit up the crowded streets. He rushed inside an empty dome-shaped stall, and pressed the button to shut the door.
He quickly removed his leotard, but not before removing a small pouch from one of its two pockets. The pouch, if full, was the size of a quail's egg. In it were two contacts in a liquid-filled container, and six fingerprint caps.
Kuno pressed a button on his leotard, which shrank it to the size of the pouch. He took the contacts and print caps out, and put his leotard inside. He and his friends had practiced this many times. It was now time to apply the fake identity.
Putting on the contacts was a bit uncomfortable. He still had to hold his eye open with his other hand as he brought his finger to his pupil, praying to God he wouldn't drop it. With some pain and and one pink eye, both contacts were securely in place. The fingers were easier to do. On the inside of the caps were the labels LM, LI, LT, RT, RI, RM, for left middle, left index, left thumb, right thumb, etc. Once he slid them over his fingertips, all he had to do was wet them with water and a chemical reaction would bond them to his fingers.
Kuno looked closely at his fingertips. 'Amazing,' he thought. 'You can't tell they aren't mine.'
The sight of his flaccid penis between his hands reminded Kuno that he didn't have the leotard on anymore. Without pockets, the only place to keep his pouch was in his rectal cavity. Another part of the plan was not to eat anything the whole day. It was 5 PM, and he had to endure hours of having nothing but sugar-water and NutriMilk Lite to keep him tided over.
Without aplomb, he stuffed the pouch uncomfortably up his anus with his pinkie finger, not wanting to risk losing his precious print in his own ass. He looked at the mirror one last time and started breathing deeply.
"Okay, here goes nothing."
