December 25th 3014

He stood inside the vast expanse of the sphere, engulfed in blue. Outside the giant vermillion fronds of kelp undulated in the filtered water. Billions of tiny pearls of oxygen rose in clouds, to be trapped and recycled in the outer dome. Only to be captured and forced under pressure into the reservoir.

His father Castro had told him that their ocean once was filled with millions of creatures. Now they were extinct or annihilated to make way for the spheres and the kelp farms. The family owned Pacifica and all of the spheres contained within. They were oxygen producers, their pipelines traversed every ocean: they were the highest of the high.

Nolan, his given name, was to be a priest. He had completed his studies at Med. There he had been shown the original Green Book and witnessed the ancient recordings of the martyrdom of the Gad. The holy one had amassed a great fortune; he had subdued the lower orders, as was right and proper, and for this they slaughtered him: Nolan shook his head and prayed.

He had reached maturity and the time had come to don a skin and travel to the surface. Nolan had picked a male skin on his last trip to the tannery. The final fittings were now completed, and the circulation activated with coolant and neurosensory contacts.

Amina his father’s personal bodyguard would accompany him along with the trappers, skinners and nerve croppers. This was his first season; he would tour the deserted cities, see the deserts and make his first kill. The primitives still worshipped an old god and at this time in the season they gathered in the deserted cities. They came out of their warrens en mass and were easy to find and take.

He had been taught about the significance of this day at Med. In ancient times the surface dwellers would drive themselves on in a frenzy of consumption. Any trinket that could be purchased would be. The primitives had digestive systems that could break down proteins, cellulose and fluids; they would gorge themselves until they bloated.

Nolan had no need of a skin whilst in the sphere; the organ required far too much energy to be sustainable. The pressurised moistened atmosphere did the job admirably. He looked at his musculature; his veins and arteries; his nerves; the ulnar nerve his particular favourite. He sat and watched the afferent and efferent stimuli flash around his system: he smiled.

Their celebration on the 20th October had passed. Next year he would conduct the ceremonies; read from the green book; light the sphere. For the first time he would open a pod which contained the New Year’s child. But now, his Christmas day hunt on the surface lay ahead of him. He wanted replacement eyes and optic nerves; a larger set of pectorals and biceps and most of all: a soft pale skin with blond hair.

© Stephen Pullman 2011