Free Fledge by J.A. Huss

I spot Ashur. He waves to me and laughs. I wave back.
    "Feeling better now?"
    "Yeah." I nod. "Wow, you're pretty intoxicating. That could come in handy."
    "Yeah, if you spend your life babysitting, it's great."
    "No, I mean with anyone. You're like a little drug factory. Controlling people is quite impressive."
    "Yes, well, it only works on the Aves, Junco. No one else is affected. Besides, self-healing like you've got is a lot more practical."
    "I can't self-heal. I can't do anything." I let out a little sigh and look at the bottom of my drink. "How the hell can I get another one? And a cigar?" I look up at her and wait for an answer.
    "Here," she says, taking my finger and moving it towards the pad at the edge of the table. "Press there."
    I do and a display pops up. I flip through it and choose a beer and a cigar. It beeps and shuts down. "Did it work?" The words are barely out of my mouth when the servos arrive to deliver my goodies. "Damn, that was quick." I gulp the beer and shake the cigar out and strike it up. I puff slowly and look back at Esta. "Like I was saying, I don't have any powers."
    She smiles and I know what the children must feel when she's about to gently correct them. "All warriors can heal, Junco. And you're dressed as one, so I'm assuming you are one."
    "No shit? What else can I do?"
    She shrugs. "I'm not sure. Typically you get the powers associated with your Cluster, then whatever special talents you have."
    I nod and puff on the cigar.
    "Anyway, as I was saying to Ashur back at the conference room…"
    My mind drifts again, I'd forgotten all about Lucan.
    She snaps her fingers in front of my eyes. "Junco! Over here, dear. I'm talking to you, please pay attention."
    I laugh.
    "I'm so glad to finally have another Sibling here, it's been awful. I only want to read the history, Junco. And Lucan refuses–" She crinkles her forehead and half a dozen furrows appear.
    "Wait, what? You're unhappy?"
    She lets out a large breath of air as Ashur walks up. "Feeling better, Juncs?"
    I nod. "Yeah. Esta is unhappy."
    He pulls back as he looks at her and she covers her face and turns away.
    "We gotta get going, Junco." He puts his hand on Esta's shoulder. "She has to fight tomorrow, Esta. She needs to get acclimated. You can walk with us if you want, let me just get a couple stims to go." And then he smiles at me and goes back to the bar.
    I can tell she's struggling to hold it together, so I grab her hand and pull her up and lead her back over to Ashur.
    She holds my hand all the way to the dorm and when we finally get there, she's even talking again. The stims help keep her chemicals at bay. How fucking horrible to have this effect on people. I mean, it would be cool if she could control it, but just leaching that shit out all over probably breaks a lot of deals in the Aves Cluster.
    The dorm is a huge building far out in the middle of nowhere. I'm still not sure how the habitat is laid out because I've never seen a map, but we had to take two trains to get here. And there is literally nothing, I mean nothing, around the building except the train stop and a few benches in front of it.
    Ash leaves to check me in and do whatever it is people do when they report for Fledge while I sit with Esta. "So, what was your Fledge like, Esta? Did you do this one?"
    She gives me half a smile and shakes her head. "No, the mothers have their own special Fledge. Everyone does, actually. The General Fledge is like a last-ditch attempt to save your life. It's all pretty fucked up."
    "So what did you have to do? Take care of kids or something?"
    She looks away but the words come out with practiced clarity. "We had to cull them."
    "Cull them? You mean kill them?"
    She nods. "Yes, the Aves Cluster has specific requirements that must be met by age five. If they don't meet them they must be culled. The Fledging mothers do the culling for a year."
    "Holy shit, that's awful. I'd rather kill grown-ups at least." In fact, I find it revolting