Valeria stopped abruptly and walked away to the wall of the campus corridor. Feet have become wadded, and dizzy.

- Breathe! Breathe!

Lerka took a deep breath and noisily inhaled the sterilized air of the academy. When the faint state passed, she looked at her ID again. No, this is not a hoax. The panel clearly displayed a message from the Ministry of Health.

Valeria has long been waiting for him, tormented by assumptions about the content. Indeed, so much in her life depends on what will be in this standard notification. If there is just a date there, it means that she was selected! So, she has a very big chance to be among the chosen and happy women of the planet. If there are lines of text, then the path in this direction will be closed for it forever.

Every girl on the planet wants to get an invitation from the Ministry of Health as soon as possible. The names of those who are lucky enough to pass the selection and be realized, they know and admire them. They are jealous.

Lerka with a naughty hand touches the screen and activates the message. Making a sound informing about the activation of an important state message, the ID opens the letter. On the standard for all official communications template, with the symbols of the Ministry clearly visible numbers. From excitement, Valeria cannot immediately disassemble, but then she clearly sees: "05/21/555..11.00" Then she cannot read, as her eyes fill with tears of joy and happiness.

- Yes! Yes! She missed! She is invited to the procedure!

This, of course, still does not completely guarantee a cloudless and happy future, but the chances are very high. Only two girls from their stream have received such invitations at the moment. The rest, who passed the examination, came refusal. Now you can please the guardians and is fully prepared for the ritual and further role.

From early childhood, boys and girls are prepared for their future life. A very small part initially has a chance to join the elite of the planet. The majority is doomed to be human resources. Right at the time of the birth of children, they are labeled and classified into one category or another according to system analysis.

Those who have the letter "A" are the happiest. They will be provided with the best living conditions, they will live in their childhood with their mother, and not with their guardians. Owners of the letter "B", this is the second grade. There is a chance to get a ticket to the elite part of society, but it is so small that only one out of 10 boys and 1 out of 100 girls manage to pass the final selection. Those who at birth will receive the letter "C" no chance at all. They are doomed to be attendants, the working class. Lerka received the most nasty letter “D”. All the vileness was that representatives of this category were subjected to frequent and very tedious medical procedures. Often they were lost for months in the institutes and laboratories of the Ministry of Health, returning exhausted and exhausted. And the second side of this category was the ghostly hope of receiving an invitation to the procedure. The chance is so miserable that only the most desperate optimists could hope for him. Valeria was one of those. She passionately dreamed of getting this right - to have children.

Most of the girls and boys from her group were with the letter “C” and underwent a sterilization procedure. They can never be moms and dads. They could have sex, but the result of such an action is only pleasure. There were several students possessing the letters "B", but only the boys have so far retained the chance to become fathers. All girls in this category were also sterilized after the exam test. She somehow thought how many of them were left, who still had a chance and got 7 girls from 400 students from her course. And only she is alone with the letter "D". One for the whole academy, one of 3000.

At the end of the 21st century, humanity faced a new threat to it. Overpopulation The number of people on the planet was approaching 15 billion, and the world was plunging into the chaos of wars for resources. The heads of the developed countries decided to reduce the number and control over the birth rate in the whole World. The latest advances in pharmacology and genetic engineering were used. People from third world countries, developing countries, have lower status than elite ones, under the pretext of vaccines against an imaginary deadly virus, drugs intended to inhibit the function of reproductive sex cells in both women and men were sticking to it.

In the first decades, it gave the desired result, and the population began to fall. But already in the third generation it turned out that in developed countries, the population is dying out. Not as fast as in the countries where the program was implemented, but the dynamics are negative. After another 10 years, it became clear to all that humanity is degenerating. It was worse than the virus, more dangerous than natural disasters. It was impossible to win with medical procedures and drugs then, and it is impossible now. The name of this horror, destroying humanity with the speed of the bubonic plague of the Middle Ages is a mutation.

Man-made gene preparations and procedures, self-developed and began to spread throughout the planet uncontrollably and unsystematically. Externally, the mutation is not always manifested. Frequently, genome-prone people died after some time. Even in 10 years, 99% of births had such strong mutations that they died within 3-4 years. Those who were lucky enough to overcome this period, also had mutations, but retaining the ability of the human body to live. And only a very small fraction of people managed to keep their genome unchanged.

Naturally, the world community began to fight this phenomenon. But too late. The human species has degenerated. Entire states and cities disappeared. Mutants though could reproduce offspring, but it had even stronger mutations and in most cases died before birth, the rest died in the first days of their life.

When the threat of degeneration was realized by everyone, the law on Amphimixis was passed, which was popularly called the “Law on castes”. He acted on the territory of the then World and was obligatory for all states. The meaning of the law was stated in several major tenets.

1st - all must be tested for mutation.

2nd - all those who are “clean” are subject to immediate isolation and maintenance in elite conditions.

3rd - mutants are forbidden to have children, and they are subject to sterilization.

4th - "clean" should ensure the restoration of the population. Their main task - the birth of healthy children.

These measures gave the proper result. Although not without protests and even wars. Many people died, defending their right to have children, on the one hand, and the right to save humanity - on the other.

Mutants were not three-handed or with scales instead of skin. No, they looked like ordinary people. But here inside them existed, very different from the "clean", cells and even organs. Not all mutations killed their carriers. There were those who allowed a person to show beyond ability. For example, there will be people with increased muscular strength. Their myofibrils had greater strength and contraction power. There were those who were not sick at all, since their immune systems had unique properties. Mutants were affected by mental abilities, whose genome changes affected the brain.

Such mutants were subjected to compulsory testing procedures and allowed to fertilize and bear children, if their mutation was deemed useful. There were whole institutions that study and control the mutation.

Lerka was born in the quarantine zone, on an island in the Pacific Ocean. Where the air was the most pure, and the harmful radiation had no such force as on the continents. Mom Valerie was a woman, absolutely pure, and the father was a man with "useful" mutations.After birth, Lerka was tested and the mutation was identified, but could not determine its effect and degree of danger. She was different from the one that was with her father. For this reason, she was given the letter “D” and sent to ...