"Congratulations, Class 62-00..." Amidst the boom of his voice, Professor Găunn's oversized white coat swept across the floor like a pocket rag. "On your _first official assignment._" Selah joined her colleagues in a round of cacophonous applause. Today she and her classmates would be transitioning from Brighteners into Catchers, the ultimate promotion for a first-year. While a Brightener, there'd been no urgency, no importance. Brighteners only ever wiped data. They cleared unpaired Mind Links until there was nothing remaining but bright white code. It was considered simple, busy work in the labor force. A mandatory stepping stone. But Selah knew it was the Catchers who made a difference to Humanity. Catchers were their Doctors. Healers. _Change-makers_. Rather than brightening mundane digital code, Catchers worked hands-on to ease the Mind Links of Humanity's troops. They'd be _helping_. Catchers made the world a better place, and bettering Humanity is why Selah had become a Laborer to begin with. That gravelly voice continued, "From here, you'll begin your work as a Catcher. You'll receive your assigned Shipman and spend this next incubatory period monitoring their Mind Links." At this, twelve decorated Shipmen flanked the Professor's sides. In contrast to their massive, uniform-clad bodies, Professor Găunn looked a bit like a scampering mouse. Where he was small and pudgy, the Shipmen were all height and brute strength, blades forged for ferocity. They were the Brow's first and last line of defense, after all. "My name is Commander Yaw, and your class will be tending to me and the Shipmen of my Ward." This time the veteran Shipman to the Professor's right spoke. Selah noted his familiar features, dark skin like her's and locs that twisted down his back in muted shades of grey. "As you know, Catchers clear the accumulation of Scum that corrupts Mind Links during incubation. This phenomenon has always disproportionately afflicted Shipmen. We suspect that the violent work we do may be causing some kind of Scum overgrowth. And so, while most Laborers may go their entire life without experiencing Scum, Shipmens' Mind Links require daily Catching." Shipman Yaw's eyes scraped across the room. "And if you are asking yourselves how _vile_ overgrowth can really be..." Selah's blood ran cold when his black saucers landed on her own. "I can assure you that even the _worst_ missions we've experienced don't compare to the agony of even five minutes with a corrupted Mind Link. For most, even a speck of Scum...It's nothing short of a... a death sentence." Another Shipmen with yellow eyes and slicked red hair added angrily, "Shipman Elsa took her own life due to a corrupted link only _last week_! Make sure to do your job well or-" Shipman Yaw hushed the whistleblower with a single hand, and Professor Găunn used the silence to step uncomfortably forward. "Class 62-00, I will leave you with this. During your trial week as Catchers, there are only three rules you _must_ heed, for the **sake of Humanity**. **One**... Under no circumstance during incubation should your Shipman awake. **Two**...Be sure to only extract the Scum from Mind Links, not the mind itself. And **three**..." As the Professor spoke, Shipman Yaw's eyes seemed to burn a hole into the side of my head. "Should your own Link somehow get caught in the Scum during extraction, remember that _it is _**_not real_**_._" ... _"Our m-Mind... Minks can get maught in the Mipmen's m-Mum?"_ A young Brightener asked between bites of fleshy meat. "Yeah, this is the first I'm hearing of an extraction risk...why wouldn't they mention that earlier?" As her colleagues fretted over the Professor's warning, Selah's eyes remained glued to the colossal Shipman posted at the Feasting Quarter entrance. Shipman Yaw. "Selah, what do you think? Are you ready for tonight?" After another beat, Selah's reluctant eyes dropped to her anxious roommate. "I don't have a choice now, Marley. We _have_ to be prepared. Don't you feel ready?" Marley's usual tell gave her away as long painted fingers scratched at her chin. Her other hand dug into a bag of meat, popping a thick cube between her lips. "W-Well..." Selah nudged her playfully. "Marley, you've got the highest Brightener rating of a Laborer in decades. You're the single-most qualified Catcher in our class. If anyone is ready, it's _you_." Selah reared back, forcing a silly expression until Marley doubled over in laughter. "Who's your assigned Shipman, anyway?" At this, any traces of Marley's emerging smile flattened. "That's the problem, Selah...I-I've been assigned to _Commander Yaw_." Selah's eyes darted back to the sizeable guard at the doorway. He was deep in conversation with the fiery yellow-eyed Shipman from earlier, but she bowed quickly when his gaze shifted in her direction. "_Commander Yaw?_" "I've heard rumors that he doesn't even allow his Mind Links to be wiped...that I'll have to adjust procedure for my...own protection." Selah lifted her eyes again slowly, grateful that the Commander's intense gaze was back on the Shipmen. From this angle, the Commander's profile was puckered by deep, cavernous scars. With every spoken word, the gritty lines of his face would sharpen. "-_one would_ s_witch_..." "_Huh_?" "Selah, what's got you so out of it, today? I said I wish I could switch assignments with someone. But who would want to catch Commander Yaw's-" "I'll switch." "**_W-what?"_** Well, the truth was that Selah's curiosity had betrayed her. There was something about the Commander she couldn't put her finger on. Something about him that made her braver than she'd even been. Something screaming at her to... To _help_ him. "Let's switch." She repeated, more assured. After all, Selah had _become_ a Catcher to help people. _Hadn't she?_ "Let's switch, Marley. I'll do it." ... After Feast, Selah and Marley devised a lucrative plan to switch their assigned Shipmen. They'd met in their bedroom quietly, deciding that they'd use the downtime before incubation to exchange room keys. "I bumped into Professor Găunn on my way here. H-he confirmed it, Selah." Marley had whispered. "It's like the rumors said... Commander Yaw stipulates his Mind Link not be cleared. I'm not even supposed to _touch_ it. All you should do tonight is ensure his incubation goes well. You're **not** to Catch **_anything_**. It's an order." Selah recounted the earlier conversation in her head as she stood in Commander Yaw's Incubation Room, door locked behind her with Marley's assigned keycode in hand. Commander Yaw, as fierce and intimidating as he was, looked more like a child during incubation. On the table, the Commander's enormous body lay clad in an ill-fitting Incubation gown. The hard lines of his face had softened into round planes and long lashes. His nostrils fluttered softly, dipping with every relaxed exhalation of air. _You're not to Catch anything. It's an order._ The instructions had been clear. _But..._ With a shaky hand, Selah connected Commander Yaw's Mind Link to the the Brow. The machine lit up in a whir, glowing red as it processed the build up of uncaught Scum. Then, against everything Professor Gaunn had heeded, everything she'd been taught, all that she'd pledged her life to only this morning, Selah connected her own. ... The feeling of being in someone else's incubatory mind was nothing the training could've ever prepared Selah for. It was indescribable. The hot and dry and brightness. The tangy smell of spice that hung in the air like a song. She wondered what Commander Yaw must've seen on his journeys to create a world so starkly different from the Brow. And so full of life. Or perhaps, as they had warned, Scum was just more clever in its temptations than she had anticipated. Selah's body felt like it was floating as she wandered through this unspoken world. The taboo of it made her all the more entrance. The giggle of children. The sear of sizzling allium, so different than the food she knew from Feast. And then, after walking for sometime, a little girl and boy who tripped into her path. Selah kneeled to the beautiful brown children, reminding herself that they were only illusion, when the small girl pointed in her direction. **"Sviii cucth ê!"** _They're coming!_ __ __ **_"Mndi avôo!"_**__ __ _Help me!_ __ __ Selah reached for the children as she called to them, **"Tvee cucth ê? Tvé?"** _Who is coming? Who?_ __ __ She was there to help. Even if this were nothing more than Scum. That's why she had come. But..._that language? Had she known..._ Just as Selah began to rethink her position, the sounds of giggling and jovial children descended into madness and screams. The brightness of her surroundings dissolved into clowds of sickly orange, and that chemical scent that reminded her of the Brow. Two soldiers stepped from the dust, dressed strangely in the attire of a Shipman. And as Selah braced to call for help, two shots rang out, and the childrens' screams filled her ears into the world shook and her body lost feeling. **_"Mtch u!"_** _Mama!_ **_"Vf u!"_** _Papa!_ __ __ Selah couldn't believe what was happening. A Shipman could never hurt someone. This was the work of the Scum. Nothing was adding up. _"Demu le viii si voĩ Selahi?!"_ _What are _**_you_**_ doing here, Selah?_ The hard lines of his familiar face momentarily shielded Selah from the scene of blood and fire. Yaw recognized her. He could see her. His mouth was moving. "Fi ou ka tibin" _You weren't assigned to me._ _You're here much earlier than expected._ "What is going on?" "Oh, good. You can still speak Kouaive." "What?" "I didn't want to just _assume_ you remembered. I was going to try and build you up to this..." "Kozs a be." Selah reminded herself silently. _This isn't real._ _"It is real Selah. They lied."_ __ __ __ Selah shook with the new realization that she wasn't just in Commander Yaw's head...he was also in her's. "What we're in right now isn't Scum, child. It's they took you from..._us_ from...our home planet. _Vestia_. This is the memory I live with. It's all I have left from when we were children. We were neighbors and friends." _This isn't real._ __ _Kosz a be._ "Listen, carefully. I may not get another chance to show you all of this. The Brow...they lie. That Scum...these dreams...they're not just unfounded terrors. They're the keepers of memory, replaying over and over again what they did to our parents. How they extracted us as their slaves. Brow civilation relies on us all to forget. You Brighten happily. You do the bidding of those who eradicated our tribes..." _Kosz a be._ __ _"Selah, let me show you. I won't rush. Let me show you the memories I've protected._ It's time to go back home. ... "What happened to Selah?" Marley cried to herself as the Shipmen crowded her old roommate's bed. "That Shipman's Mind Link corrupted her on the first day. They both went missing -- probably threw themselves into space. I'm sorry to say so. You shouldn't have traded Links, you were warned of the risks." Marley's head sunk into her pillow as another Shipman raised a palm to the sullen girl's shoulders. "Ah...Catching isn't for everyone."