[ WP ] The year is 2284 . The United States officially recognizes every person over the age of 65 to be a worthless sponge of resources . Tell the story of a smuggler who makes a living by concealing the elderly .

Shamiso Nguyen was born in 2264 to an Earth Alliance Vice Admiral father and the Earth diplomat to the Avia home world. 
 
 His mother had been a kind woman that spent the earliest years of her life growing up in Metroplex Zeta-2, just inside what would've been the border of Old Zimbabwe. She was assassinated by an isolationist radical when returning from one of her diplomatic excursions to Avia. 
 
 Shamiso's father had enlisted in the Earth Alliance Naval Academy when he was sixteen years old, leaving behind his home in Under City 12, an absolutely gargantuan city made of tunnels and large carved rooms buried beneath the entirety of what had once been Ho Chi Minh City. He had been recycled on his 65th birthday, leaving Shamiso to live as ward of the Unified People's Government for three years before his coming of age. 
 
 Shamiso had experienced the standard education that a ward receives. He was fluent in three alien languages ( excluding the Unified Standard ), combat trained, and could perform basic tasks in a plethora of unique and practical areas. His critical thinking abilities had been honed sharply, his physicality and athleticism had been emphasized, and his father's legacy had almost guaranteed Shamiso a position in the EANA. 
 
 Shamiso, however, had no love for the Earth Alliance Navy. Shamiso had no love for the UPG, the government that had euthanized his father and made him an orphan. The UPG, upon its foundation after the First Contact War, had ruled that persons over the age of 65 were too much of a strain on the government to maintain. Due to their inability to contribute, the UPG had decided to painlessly euthanize the elderly and use their bodies for medicine, science, and other `` worthy'' pursuits. 
 
 The only human beings in the galaxy over the age of 65 were those brave enough to attempt to colonize new worlds, and those that hid. Four times the Unified People's Government had sent colony ships into the interstellar abyss. Three times resulted in failure, but one attempt had seen a modest colony that had lasted long enough for one of the citizens to celebrate his 66th birthday. That left a single legally living elder in the eyes of the law. Shamiso chose to make his living dealing with those that lived illegally. 
 
 ____ 
 
 Shamiso sat in the bar with his back to the wall, sipping from a cup of carbonated water, pretending to be intoxicated. He ran his hand through his hair, feeling the pointed ends of his buzz cut scratching away at his palm. He ran his eyes over the room again, trying to take in as much as possible through the low light before things got under way. The bar to his left with the Avia bartender, a beautiful woman with pink skin and long, sky blue hair. Sat at the bar were two men, complaining loudly about their drinks and generally causing a ruckus. To Shamiso's right was an older woman sitting alone in a booth and nursing what appeared to be an entire bottle of Alcosynth. This must have been his mark, 64 year old Haley Abramowski. 
 
 Shamiso moved to sit across from her, sliding in to the booth and turning so that he could keep an eye on the bar's other inhabitants. He rapped three fingers in quick succession on the table, drawing the woman's attention to him instead of her bottle. `` Abramowski?'' he asked, cracking a small smirk when her eyes lit up. 
 
 `` Why... yes, yes. You must be... Redux, was it?'' 
 
 Shamiso laughed, extending his hand across the table. `` Well,'' he began, `` there does n't seem to be a need for a pseudonym, now that you've seen my face. Your family is trusting me to keep you safe, I need you to trust me even more than they do. It's Shamiso, but you can call me Iso.'' Haley reached for his hand, shook it, and said `` Well, it's really a pleasure to meet you. Have you been doing this long?'' 
 
 `` Smuggling?'' asked Shamiso. `` Sure, sure. I've been of age for three years, now, so I've been at it... probably two or three.'' 
 
 Haley's wrinkled eyes opened wide, and she wondered aloud, `` Wow, you must've smuggled a lot of elderly. How many do you think you've helped escape? Where do you take them?'' 
 
 `` I have smuggled one hundred and eighteen elderly people. Where I take them, however, I would n't be able to tell you, Mrs. Abramowski.'' 
 
 Her brow furrowed. `` Why not, Iso? Wo n't you be taking me there, as well?'' 
 
 Shamiso laughed, slapping the table to emphasize each sound. `` Absolutely not, Haley!'' 
 
 `` And why is that?'' She asked, crossing her arms in front of her. 
 
 `` That, my dear, is because I know when the UPG is on my tail. I am always, *always*, a step ahead.'' Shamiso stared into the old woman's eyes, hoping to see any indication that he was correct in his suspicions. Somewhere inside of the fields of blue that he was studying, he identified it. Guilt. 
 
 Shamiso quickly reached down to his left leg, drawing a compact Irradiator and touching it to Haley's knee under the table. `` Do you know what I'm pointing at you?'' he asked. 
 
 `` Y-yes.'' 
 
 `` Do you know what will happen to every cell in your body, should I pull this trigger?'' 
 
 ``... I do.'' 
 
 `` Good,'' Shamiso said, standing up from the booth and turning towards the old woman. He quickly glanced behind himself so that he could confirm the other inhabitants of the bar were cut off from the old woman's point of view, then he leaned in. `` I know who you are. I know who you work for. And now, I know that they know everything that I wanted them to hear. I picked up your transmitter wavelength before you even got to the bar.'' 
 
 Haley coughed, choking on her words with tears welling up in her eyes. `` It's the right way, Shamiso. The government is the only way to assure the structure and success of our species, and you're trying to dismantle it. Undermine it. *Poison* it. Please, let me take you in. You're not a killer, you're a smuggler. Compliance could only make things better for you.'' 
 
 `` Unfortunately,'' Shamiso spat angrily, `` I have a group of elderly, kind, good, contributing citizens to transport.'' His gun briefly glowed, made no noise, and then he walked out of the bar whistling to himself. 
 
 In the booth, there remained only a smoldering pile of radioactive ash. 
 
 _____ 
 
 
 ( So, this became *really* long because I got kind of caught up in world-building. I have n't written in the longest time, but let me know what you think! ) 

