Beth watched with wide eyes, and jaw hanging forgotten, as her ancestor told their clan’s story. The ancestor, Jones was standing on a raised dais at the center of the community hub. Three concentric rings of benches surrounded the dais in an imitation of the city emblem.

Her siblings crowded around her on the bench in spite of their smug superiority at having heard the story before. Beth was required to be here but the hub was open to anyone who is of age.

“There was a time when people lived on the surface” Jones began “and we weren’t alone. We shared the planet with a multitude of living beings.”

His hands rose and a globe of blue and green sprang into existence above him.

“It was the farmers who nurtured this life. The life, in turn, provided sustenance to humanity and for a time, this balance was maintained.”

The orb shifted to a uniform brown color.

“Now our job is even more important. At the advent of the cataclysm, we harvested all the organic material we had space for. Continuing to nurture and maintain the species of the old world proved too difficult. We took genetic samples in the hopes that someday, we will walk among them again. For our own survival, we left them to the surface and adapted new methods of producing nutrients for humanity.”

The orb elongated and became semi-transparent, revealing the easily recognizable diagram of GRAINS complete with the colorfully labeled organelles.

“Our work resulted in the Genetically Restructured Artificially Induced Nutrition Source. The miraculous artificial life-form which converts waste material back into vital nutrients. This led directly to the first population boom in the City’s history and the enshrinement of the Farmers among the permanent clans.”

The spectating Farmers burst into applause at this statement. The cavernous amphitheater rebounded the sounds until it sounded like a thousand people were cheering.

Jones smiled but raised his hands for silence. When the noise died down, he continued.

“It is your duty to maintain the flow of waste into useful material. Without the Farmers, there is no food. Without food, there are no citizens. Without citizens, there is no city!”

The hologram above Jones pulled back into a sphere and displayed the city logo. The outermost ring flashed as he finished his speech.

“Make your ancestors proud, support the city and join us in Arcadia where your true life awaits!”

With that Jones turned on the spot. The glowing point at the center of the city expanded forming a portal. Beth gasped at the undulating golden carpet that extended on the other side of the portal. She had never seen so much open space. A green wall sprouted from the edge of the golden field at what must have been a hundred meters and above that, A sheer blue seemed to go on forever.

Jones stepped through the portal which collapsed behind him into the city emblem again.

An excited murmur rose from the crowd. It was loudest at the outer edges of the hub where the youngest members of the clan sat and tapered out towards the center. Now that the hologram was gone, Beth saw aunt Tabitha on the other side of the dais. She sat in reverent silence among her excited relatives. She would be moving on in less than a week. Her husband and siblings had already entered Arcadia.

Beth waved excitedly and caught her eye. Tabitha smiled and rose from her seat, working her way across the cavernous room. Beth met her halfway and they exchanged an extended hug.

“Hi Tabby.” Beth said.

“How did you get to be so old so fast Elizabeth? It feels like only a month has passed since you were delivered.”

Beth pushed Tabitha away, crossed her arms and huffed.

“When are you going to stop treating me like a baby Tabby? I’ve already been a citizen for three years.”

Tabitha wrapped Beth in her arms again, foiling Beth's attempts to wriggle free.

“Only when you stop being so cute” she teased.

Beth’s older siblings came to her rescue. She could always count on Theodore and Madeline. They really stepped up when their parents had crossed over to Arcadia and she was glad to have them even if they could get a little overprotective at times.

“Hi Aunt Tabitha,” Theodore said, “care to join us for some lunch?”

“That would be lovely Teddy, thank you for asking.”

The distraction was enough for Beth to slip free and she quickly danced out of reach. The hub was emptying out so she had room to vault over the nearest bench before sticking her tongue out at Tabitha.

Maddie shook her head saying “and you wonder why she treats you like a child?”

Beth just stuck her tongue out farther and waggled it at Maddie.

“Why don’t you come to our place?” Theodore suggested.

It wasn’t really a question. Tabitha ate with us most days now. Beth and her siblings agreed to have Tabby over for meals whenever they could. None of them liked the idea of her being alone all the time. It was no secret that Tabby and her husband didn’t get clearance to raise children. Beth didn’t know why but she knew better than to ask and in the end, she didn’t care. Tabby was a great aunt and that was enough.

The four of them walked up the aisle between the benches, following the flow of traffic into the corridor outside of the community hub.

If you could somehow look through rock and view a Farmer community from above it would look like a massive wheel with the community hub at the center. Corridors radiate out from the hub like spokes and the spaces between these spokes are hollowed out for living space. Beyond the outer rim sprawls the recycling level where the Farmers tend to vats of waste, turning them into viable foodstuffs and potable water.

When Beth’s parents passed on and her family shrank from five to three, they moved closer to the hub where the living spaces were smaller. As a result, they didn’t have far to walk before Theodore palmed their door open. There wasn’t much to their home but they would never have all fit into Tabitha’s.

A screen wall was fitted into the wall opposite the doorway. Four sleeping nooks were embedded in the walls with two per side.

Each of the little group palmed their way into the small hab unit and took seats on the ledges jutting from the lower sleeping nooks. “What will it be today girls?” Theodore asked, hand hovering over the control panel.

“I want strawberry!” Beth exclaimed

“How can you eat that stuff?” Maddie asked, making a face. “It’s gross, get me a kiwi Ted.”

“You think strawberry is gross but you like kiwi?” beth asked incredulously. “You’ve got no taste.”

“Original is fine, thank you Teddy” Tabby added.

After a quick command from teddy, a rattling sound announced the arrival of their lunch. Beth slid open the covering to the pneumatic tube, removed the canister and distributed its contents to her family.

“Can we call mom and dad?” Beth asked.

“Sure,” Theodore said he paused to type in another command and the screen wall flashed to life. The city logo pulsed, outer ring most prominent as always while they waited for a response to the call. Beth took the time to pop open her nutri-tube and started squeezing the cloyingly sweet strawberry flavoring into her mouth. She wondered absently what strawberries were while the rest of the family sucked down their respective flavorings.

The center point on the emblem flashed and expanded in a portal similar to the one Jones exited from. Beth couldn’t make out any details on the other side of this portal. Everything besides her parents faces were distorted beyond recognition. The result was pretty regardless. Her parents smiled out from a pool of swirling colors.

“Hi Kids!” they exclaimed

“Oh, and hi Tabs” added Beth’s mom, waving at her sister. “How nice to see you.”

“It’s been too long Margret” Tabitha agreed “how is Herb holding up?”

“Oh you know him, he’s useless without you. He spends his days pining away. Hurry up and finish up your duty. If I have to hear his moaning for much longer I don’t know what I’ll do” Margret winked at Tabitha “You really should see this place, you’re going to love it. Just yesterday we shhshshshsh and then shshshhshhssh. It was spectacular!”

“Moom, we can’t hear you” Madeline said rolling her eyes.

“I saw it today!” Beth exclaimed. “It was yellow and green and blue and so big! What was that yellow stuff? It looked soft. How big are the rooms there? What was that blue stuff?”

“Woah, slow down Beth. You know we can’t answer that.” Her dad interjected.

“Can you at least try?”

“Okay, but remember this next time you ask questions about Arcadia. That yellow stuff you saw is probably shhsh, it is soft and shhshshhs, the rooms shhhshshshhs and the blue stuff is actually shshhssshs.”

“Yes! I knew it was soft!” Beth pumped her fist in victory forgetting the nutri-tube and squirting some of her lunch on Madeline by mistake.

“Ugh! Beth!” Madeline squealed.

After a few stern words from her parents about wasting food and a few shrill ones from her sister about how big of a pain she was, Beth finished her meal and excused herself. She hurried down the corridor toward the vats, eager to get back to work. She would have to be a good citizen if she wanted to get to Arcadia and touch that yellow stuff after all.