“Where do babies come from?” -A story set in a gender-neutral community.

Carey shared a nervous glance with the other members of its squad. Carey couldn’t decide if it felt more eager or scared.

Their captain, Alei, folded the note it had just read and gave each of them a probing look. Carey felt the brush on its mind that meant Alei was checking in. Alei gave Carey a curt nod before looking to the next squad member. Jossi gave Carey a wide-eyed look.

“Like I said before, we’ve been released for easement, effective end of day. You must decide what role you will participate in during this easement. Jossi, Carey, Mit, and Kevell, this is your first easement. I know you have questions. I have participated in all roles, but one, and will answer to the best of my ability, understand?”

They nodded quickly.

“We have one last training before we leave for the easement grounds. Get ready.”

Carey sprang up and started gathering equipment. It threw heat guns, knives, rope, clips, and breathing apparatus into its pack. They took off at a jog, every member of their squad running in unison without thinking about it.

Carey’s mind drifted as they jogged through the stone tunnels. Battalion members trained as if it were the battle field. That meant they trained with complete and utter concentration. It was easy, they just had to enter the hive-mind. That was when they were so connected to each other’s feelings, emotions, and thoughts that they could almost predict what squad members were going to do. They instinctually knew what each battalion was doing.

But they weren’t in the hive-mind yet as they jogged to the training field. Carey had time to think.

Carey only had one question, the most important one. What role to choose? Easement wasn’t about giving battalions a rest from active duty. It was about helping in the production and development of future battalion generations. Carey was physically able to do all but one role, that of donating.

The other options were production of new battalions, caring until age 2, rearing until age 6, and teaching or training until age 16. Easement lasted one complete year and came up once every ten years for each squad.

Carey was twenty years old, which made it old enough to participate in production. But that didn’t feel like the right fit this time. Nor did caring or rearing, or anything related to the very young.

Carey wanted to teach or train, but those were the toughest roles to get. There was no way it would get those roles, especially during the its first easement. Carey wondered if Alei had been able to participate in production or donation. It was a fleeting thought because it didn’t really matter. Who cared anyways?

Carey was forced to pause its thoughts as training arena B came into view. With three years of experience, it was easy to enter the mental hum of the hive mind. Carey felt the mental warmth as each battalion entered and tuned together.

Training arena B was currently set up as an obstacle course, though it wasn’t as big as the one on the planet surface. It was hot, since they were close to the planet surface, but the scorching wind that scoured the surface was absent here underground.

Carey pushed itself harder than ever to maneuver the obstacle course without mistakes. Blistering heat darts streaked by from every direction. Carey avoided them easily, since it was tapped into the minds of those shooting. Jossi slipped on a patch of dust, its legs skidding out from under it. Carey jumped lightly over it and stopped short. It extended its hand to Jossi, bringing the squad member to its feet before taking off again. Battalions valued teamwork over personal achievements, without exception.

That’s why everyone participated in the production and development of future generations. Not only was it a civic duty, it was a chance to cultivate the ranks of their future squads. They never knew who would join their squads in the future.

Carey could even produce a battalion that joined its own squad someday. Battalion administration would be the only ones who knew. They treated all battalions who joined as their own flesh and blood. Bonds between squad members were stronger than any coincidence of biology.

Carey finished the course by sliding backwards on its knees, while aiming the heat gun at the first of four targets back in the obstacle course. With half a mind on the target and half a mind on avoiding its squad members, Carey shot each target in rapid succession. It stopped sliding right at the moment its heat dart slammed into the last target, its timing perfect.

The squad members who’d already finished, clapped Carey on the back, making it smile with pride. Carey turned to congratulate Jossi as it finished next. They all did that every time, until all twenty-five of them had finished.

The last to slide to the end was their squad captain, who had already finished. Alei had run back to the beginning, to go through the course again. Alei’s performance was always like a dance of perfection, despite always doing twice the work. Carey strived every day to make Alei proud.

Carey suspected that Alei had participated in every easement role with the sole purpose of advising squad members on the options. That sounded like the kind of consideration Alei would give, as a captain.

As Carey watched Alei hit each target twice, right in the middle, it decided that it wanted to be like Alei. Carey would participate in all roles. How else would Carey be able to advise its future squad members if it became a squad captain. And Carey wanted to become a squad captain, more than anything.

The squad leaned in, shoulder to shoulder, in a circle. They were still connected by the hive-mind. Finishing a task together, even a simple run through the course, gave them a feeling of ecstasy.

Then they lined up, ready to go through the obstacle course backwards. Alei took the lead without question.

Carey smiled, no longer feeling nervous about easement. They would go through easement together and that was what mattered. Carey felt what could only be described as love for its fellow squad members. It was a love that it would share with new generations, whatever role it was allowed to participate in.

And that was what it meant to be a battalion. Nothing more. Nothing less.