[ WP ] While in a very important meeting , your interviewer pulls out a bottle of rare and expensive real water .

She places it slowly on the table. In the dim light of the waste oil lamp the condensation on the glass bottle catches your eyes. The impulse to reach out and take it is overwhelming but you do n't do it. There are armed men in the room that would not hesitate to end your miserable life for it. 
 
 Then the Prime Minister reaches out again and uncorks it. She pushes the bottle towards you. Your throat seems drier than ever. You look at the guard to her left. He isn ’ t looking at you, he ’ s studying the rips and patch work on his gloves. 
 
 `` Go on,'' she says gently, bringing your attention back to the bottle. 
 
 You hesitate but obey her command. The bottle is just as cold in your hand as you imagined it would be and though years of conditioning to savor water demand that you do just that, you ca n't help but take gulp after gulp once it touches your lips. 
 
 She reaches over the table and takes the bottle out of your hand. She replaces the cork while you sit ashamed for having taken so much - the bottle is half empty now. 
 
 `` Do n't worry about it,'' she says. 
 
 Why is she wasting this precious resource on you? Even the Prime Minister must pay the same rate of credits for real water at the Primary Resource Centre. They do n't even ration it at all any more. If you ca n't pay, you are not entitled to fresh water, just the recycled waste water infused with synthesized electrolytes and the daily, dry All-Loaf. 
 
 `` We have a proposition for you,'' she says. 
 
 You shift in the metal chair. It's heavy enough that your moments do n't make it shift across the metal floor. Everything is metal or glass or hardened materials except that water in front of you and it makes it all the more precious. Even in the poor lighting the moon and stars just outside the window are n't as beautiful. 
 
 She continues, `` You're aware of the increasing shortage of natural resources on the Station.'' 
 
 Everyone is aware. It dictates everyone's daily life and their every thought. Work placements and after-hours activities are n't enough to distract one from the simple reality that death is knocking on the space station door. 
 
 `` Even our ability to repurpose used waste water is becoming more and more difficult. We have been forced to find an alternative solution. Fortunately the head scientist at the Recycling Plant has invented a new way of extracting water from a secondary source, however the waste water is too impure.'' 
 
 You understand half of what she is saying. Your work placement is in the Bakery. Your purpose is to sort through edible and non-edible materials and place them in the correct bin for processing. 
 
 The idea of what she is saying is n't lost on you, though. A new way of extracting water - this would excite you if it were n't for the grim expression on her face. Her pause is long while she stares down at you. You're sitting in the only chair in the room. 
 
 She speaks again. `` No one expected that we would be stranded here, Baker. Until Migrate Station 01 returns we have nowhere to go. Earth is long dead. We must persist until we are salvaged.'' 
 
 You look away and down to the floor. This speech is unfamiliar but it opens a deep, gaping pit in your stomach and your worst fears seem to seep up from it. She's asking something of you that has nothing to do with an expansion on the Resource Centre, which is what you thought you had applied for. 
 
 `` Migrate Station 02 is experiencing more than one crisis and we believe we have found a common solution. The new extraction process, if you understand what I am trying to tell you, will do three things. First it will provide water that is closer in quality to the little water from Earth still in our reserves than the waste water ever could be.'' 
 
 By this point you've come to understand that. You wish she had skipped bothering telling you that and would just ask bluntly what it is she wants you to do. You think of your pregnant sister. An awful feeling obligation is overcoming you. 
 
 `` As you may have noticed, we are also running low on edible materials. The second is that it will reduce the demand for food product-'' 
 
 The unprocessed bins do seem to have less and less in them every day. It has been this way for over six years, and it's been a gradual decrease, but you have noticed it. It is an undeniable consequence of being on an overpopulated and malfunctioned Communal Interplanetary Station. 
 
 `` - and that is because the third thing the new extraction process will do is reduce our population.'' 
 Education is minimal on the station but you do remember some of what you have read in the slow-circulating biology books. The human body is mostly made up of water. 
 
 `` Our records indicate that you have no immediate family. No wife or children, your parents are deceased. You provide only for yourself. If you accept the position offered to you, we will ensure that your sister receives compensation. She will be entitled to a certain share of the new water resource.'' 
 
 Miscarriages are common the station due to malnutrition but not common enough. Contraception is incredibly hard if not impossible to come by since three decades ago when the Pharmacy announced they could no longer ration it as a free resource. The supplies have dwindled since then. Even if your sister does lose this baby, her husband could give her another. They have a real family. 
 
 She is also right about you providing for yourself. You work for yourself and take for yourself. Your only purpose is to work in the Bakery and even that position can be filled. There are citizens who pick up work where they can because the permanent positions are all filled. 
 
 You do n't need that work placement. You do n't need the water or the All-Loaf. You feel even guiltier for the water you just drank. It then occurs to you that that may have not been Earth water. It tastes and looks so much like it and the value of it is inarguable. 
 
 You look her in the eyes. She stares unwaveringly back at you. You know what you just drank but a life of silent desperation makes it impossible to care. The other citizens wo n't care. Everyone is just waiting for Migrate Station 01 to take them to their new home. 
 
 You say, `` OK.'' 

