SYNAPTOGENESIS

15 years later

A queue of more than a hundred long greeted Yara as she headed towards the Barrick mapping centre. Young children, still half asleep, clung to their parents’ coats for warmth, while the older ones buzzed with anticipation. It was truly a momentous day – the launch of the Australian Government’s Education Equality Initiative. This generation was going to get four free neural maps a year until the age of fifteen.

Four free maps a year…I could’ve been a map developer by now with that, instead of struggling to get to a senior education specialist position. Yara sighed. There was no point in dwelling on the past. She was going to get there soon enough. And with the queue stretching two blocks down, there would be plenty of opportunities to demonstrate her skills and prove she deserved the promotion.

The pretentious red vehicle in the car park caught her eye. Of course, Landon was already in. Yara would have beat him here if things had gone according to plan this morning, but alas…the story of her life. The thought of him hoarding the good cases quickened her steps. 

As she neared, the voices of two young boys circling the red car drifted over. Their drab clothes and skinny bodies suggested they weren’t from a good part of Barrick. Not that there were many.

“I’m getting me a Heliox Prime like this one day. No, even fancier,” one of them said.

“Like you could ever get that kinda money,” his friend scoffed.

The first one pushed his chest out, standing tall in his faded jeans with rips in them – not the retro, fashionable kind, but ones resulting from overuse. “When I’m a doctor, I’ll have buttloads of money.”

“Ya need like a hundred maps for that!”

“I’ll get the four free ones this year, and then next year, and by the time I’m fifteen, I’ll have like heaps!”

That one still doesn’t have his arithmetic map, Yara determined as she strode past.

They weren’t the only ones with lofty expectations. Many had their eyes glued to the electronic displays that filled the entirety of the mapping centre's windows. An advert for the Education Equality Initiative played on repeat. Lights sped across the surface of the glass dome that was Melbourne’s infamous Synapse Inc. Headquarters, mimicking neurons connecting inside the brain. Images of education specialists in bright white uniforms, state-of-the-art equipment, and a waiting area with entertainment options that could rival an arcade flashed across the screen. The slogan ‘No more mapless’ splashed across the bottom.

Next to the glittering advert, the cracks webbed across the three-storey Barrick mapping centre’s façade and the peeling paint on the sign stood out even more. But the children didn’t seem to notice.

They will notice soon enough. Yara stepped into the reception area, the door sliding shut behind her. The scent of surface sanitizer from the bots cleaning around the cheap metal chairs hung in the air. Digital codes for different mapping career pathways covered the wall like symbols of hope, while two entertainment stations stood in the corner, waiting to disappoint the children with their out-of-order signs.

Mei sat behind the reception desk. With the neat bob framing her perfectly made-up face, she was the one thing in the waiting area that looked as polished as the advert. Yara tugged at the worn edges of her jacket sleeves, its colour long faded from red to a rusty orange.

Mei smiled and waved her over.

“Good morning.” Yara smiled back. Despite their differences, Mei was always a welcome sight.

“He’s with Mallory,” she whispered.

Yara could have hugged the woman. Mei often dropped a hint for Mallory as soon as Landon arrived, and he would get called into the manager’s office for a quick chat. Who knew what they were talking about? Since Landon was the prime minister’s son and Mallory was obsessed with climbing the corporate ladder, Yara imagined it was a lot of fawning and ass-kissing. Not that it mattered. All she cared about was that he wouldn’t beat her to the good cases.

Yara took the elevator to the third floor. A few of the other education specialists were already there. Though there were twenty-five workstations, the Barrick mapping centre only employed ten specialists. Most of the workstations near the elevator didn’t function properly, but given the surplus, Mallory hadn’t bothered replacing them.

Mackie and Sina, two of the seniors, were chatting by the window. They weren’t an issue, always going for the simple cases and first out the door. Yara straightened up when Kenshin looked over from his workstation, giving a nod of acknowledgement before returning to what he had been doing. So diligent and here she was, showing up after Mackie and Sina...

She headed straight for her workstation in the middle of the room. Sliding into the chair, Yara carelessly shoved her bag under the desk. Once her station fired up, she switched on the privacy barrier. The opaque virtual screen muted outside sounds, giving the illusion of a quiet space.

Appointments for the day displayed on the screen. Despite the queue outside, Yara’s eyes widened when she saw every slot for the day was filled. In all her five years at the Barrick mapping centre, that was a first. Most of the appointments had a yellow tag for a first-timer, and several had a second red tag to show they were older than the initial mapping age of five years.

Yara pulled a multi-tagged case from each appointment block into her work list. It was going to be a hard day, but this was the perfect chance to show Mallory she deserved the promotion to senior education specialist. Landon might have more maps, but no one beat her at mapping efficiency.

She opened the case in her first block. Kael Park, an eight-year-old getting his first map. The baseline reading would take a decent amount of time, and he would likely require several alignment fixes for the misinformation picked up over the years.

The shrill wail of the greeting button on her pod broke Yara’s concentration. Before she could respond, the last face she wanted to see was hovering through the privacy screen.

“Why bother knocking if you’re going to barge in?” Yara grumbled, switching off the privacy barrier. The rest of him joined his head, towering over her.

“Can I have the Park case?” Though he phrased it as a question, the way he said it made it sound like a demand. It made Yara’s hackles rise.

“Why?” She immediately regretted asking. ‘No’ would have been a better response.

He leaned against the pod, the pose pulling his uniform tight, making it look like a tailored suit on his lean frame. “I was called into Mallory’s office, or I would have taken it when I came in.”

Though he was a respectful distance away, the scent of his cologne knew no boundaries, creeping into her space and polluting her surroundings.

Yara pushed her chair back as far as she could. “I’ve started looking it over. There are still plenty of dual-coded cases left.”

“I already looked it over when I came in–”

Yara cut him off. “Without taking it onto your work list? You weren’t trying to cherry-pick by any chance?”

It wouldn’t surprise her if he was doing exactly that. He was always going on about his first time doing this something or how he’d gotten to practice that something again. It happened too often to be a coincidence. The other specialists did it all the time too, but Landon doing it was somehow extra irksome. 

“I was checking something,” he said, crossing his arms.

“Oh, really? Care to share?” Yara turned back towards her workstation. Why did he want it so badly? He was practically begging. She wasn’t attached to it; she just hated it when he acted like a condescending prick.

“We are juniors. I was only making sure it wasn’t a complex case requiring a senior...”

Yara scoffed. Of all the dumb excuses…the Synapse neural mapping system was designed so if there was anything a specialist couldn’t figure out, their patented AXON AI would take over. How it worked was a mystery to her, but supposedly technicians monitored AXON twenty-four seven, ensuring it could deliver an immediate solution. So there was no need to involve a senior specialist.

Before Landon showed up six months ago, no one else wanted to touch the coloured cases. She didn’t mind, though. With the number of complex cases she had handled, she almost never required AXON’s assistance these days. But now she had to rush in every morning to have any chance of getting them.

Looking at the file more closely, there was nothing particularly interesting about it. She played along. “What parameters would qualify as requiring senior specialists? Would you say something like a child being older than usual for their first time?”

It had been an offhand remark, but Landon straightened a little too quickly, looking away.

Yara put two and two together. “You think he’s the oldest child ever to be mapped?”

A flush crept up Landon’s cheek, and she couldn’t help grinning. She had guessed right. He thought he would make history by mapping the boy.

“What’s so funny?” Landon’s shoulders stiffened.

“Sorry. I mapped a thirteen-year-old getting his first map last year.”

Landon’s eyes bore into the top of her head. “You haven’t mapped a thirteen-year-old first-timer.”

“No, really. The baseline reading took almost forty-five minutes.” Yara wasn’t lying. The older children had more complex neural networks, usually misinformation, that took a long time to correct.

Landon sighed, “You don’t have to make things up if you don’t want to give me the case.”

Yara shook her head. “Why would I lie about that? I’ve even mapped adults for the first time. If you really want the case, I’ll give it to you, but you have to explain to Mallory why I picked it up and put it back.”

“No, why would anyone wait that long…” Landon’s confusion was damn near comical.

Yara loaded the cases onto her datapad, not bothering to remove the Park case. Now that it was no longer a ‘prestigious’ case, it had clearly lost its shine as far as Landon was concerned. “Not everyone has maps laid out in front of them like a free-for-all buffet. In these parts, people barely have enough to put food on their table. They have to choose between mapping their child or mapping themselves to progress their own career. Why do you think this initiative was necessary?”

She picked up her datapad and left the speechless Landon behind. It was amazing how a high mapper like him could be so clueless sometimes.

#

“Kael Park,” Yara called out. The waiting area was brimming. Children sat on the floor, huddled in little groups, talking in hushed whispers as though the centre were a sacred place. The parents were a different story. They kept to themselves, their eyes either locked on their phones or the electronic display on the window.

 “Me.” It was the boy from the parking lot who wanted to be a doctor. His friend was with him, along with three other kids, all looking at him with awe and giving him a thumbs up.

“Mom, I’m up,” he hollered. A woman in a floral dress and heavy jacket stood up, glaring at him to hide her embarrassment when several eyes turned towards them.

Kael wasn’t bothered. Winking at his newly minted friends, he strode over to Yara, anticipation glowing in his eyes.

“Hello, Kael. Ms Park,” Yara greeted them with a smile.

“Laura is fine.” Kael’s mother stood stiffly, her fingers fidgeting with the strap on her backpack.

“I’m Yara Relyk. I’ll be your education specialist for today.”

Yara led them to the elevator. Her mapping room was on the second floor with the other junior specialists, even though there were plenty of empty rooms on the first floor. Another one of Mallory’s attempts to create the illusion of hierarchy. Such a waste of time.

Kael was practically bouncing with energy the whole way. When they entered the mapping room, his eyes were drawn to the recliner in the centre. It was identical to the ones in the promotional videos, from the lights threading its seams to the leather finish. But it was all for show. The true mapping device was the plain headset hovering above the chair.

Yara directed the mother and son to the consultation desk on the side. Kael was more fixated on the mapping area – Laura practically dragged him away. He reluctantly plonked down on the metal chair next to his mother’s.

His file was already open on Yara’s screen. “What’s your date of birth?” she asked to verify his profile.

“30th May 2074. I’ll be eight next week,” he declared proudly.

“Happy birthday in advance. Since it’s your first time, Kael, we need to see how your brain is wired before we add anything new,” Yara said. “Do you know what will happen during the process?”

The boy nodded enthusiastically. “You hook me up to this tech-y headset, and there are pictures and sounds and zap – I’m smarter!”

Yara smiled. “Correct.”

“He’s a smart one.” Laura spoke for the first time since coming inside. Pride tinged with sadness, the regret of not being able to map him earlier shining in her eyes. “Started talking before he was one.”

So many parents lamented not starting their child’s mapping journey earlier, but Yara knew better than most that starting early didn’t mean much if you couldn’t afford enough to map consistently. “We’ll start him today with a literacy map to help him read.”

Both Laura and Kael shook their heads. “He can read. When you do that, what do you call it, when you scan the first time–”

“The baseline,” Kael helped out.

“Yes, that, thanks, dear. You’ll see he doesn’t need reading. The one he needs is this.” Laura pulled out an old notebook from her backpack, laying it open in front of Yara. Inside was a painstakingly drawn career pathway for a nurse, along with timings and costs. It was missing all the basic maps. The career pathways glossed over those, but they were the foundation on which the other maps were built.

“This is a very elaborate plan,” Yara began carefully. “Since Kael has basic literacy skills, the mapping device will recommend a higher level to improve his existing skills.”

But Laura shook her head. “That will put him behind. He can read and write fine. What he needs to get is the level one pharmacology map.” She jabbed at her notebook to emphasise her point.

Yara nodded, not wanting to upset the woman. Explaining that the basics were necessary foundations would likely only annoy her further. “I understand what you’re saying, but the policy for the Education Equality Initiative is to start with the literacy map. It will help with grammar, sentence structure, nuances of the English language – you wouldn’t want him to be lacking in those areas, particularly if he is aiming to be a nurse.”

“No, I’ll be a doctor,” Kael interjected.

“Yes, dear. This is where you need to start,” Laura said. She was being more practical that Kael, but it was still going to be a longer journey than they were expecting. 

Since Laura didn’t seem entirely convinced, Yara added, “When he applies for any job, he will need to show the basic maps on his record.”

“How is that fair?” she grumbled. “You didn’t have to show you could read back in the day.”

It was a common argument, often from those raised during the 2040s when Australia was transitioning out of the school era into the mapping one. Apparently, some people had thought it was a phase and had chosen to homeschool their children instead. They couldn’t have been more wrong. At twenty, all Yara had ever known was neural maps. “Unfortunate, I know, but necessary.”

“That’s how they win.”

Yara suppressed a sigh. There were always those who thought Synapse was out to get them. By the time the career pathways were relevant, the kid should have had the basic maps anyway.

“I want the first doctor map!” Kael interjected, tired of being sidelined.

“The literacy map is the first one you need on your record if you want to be a doctor,” Yara said, hoping that would be enough to sway both the mother and son.

Kael looked at his mother, his nose scrunched up in concentration. She gave a slight nod. “Okay, Map Lady. I’ll get the lit-ur-racy map.”

“Great. Would you like to get in the chair?” Yara barely finished before he jumped out of his seat and dashed over.

“You can wait in the hallway,” Yara told Laura.

She hesitated, eyes flicking to her son, before stepping out of the room.

Kael was already lying on the chair, eyes closed. His hands absently stroked the leather.

“Ready to start?” Yara asked.

He nodded.

Yara pressed the button to lower the headset and recited the instructions as she checked the fit. “Any questions for me?” she asked after she finished.

“No, ready to map,” Kael said.

“I’ll be with you the whole time.”

Yara returned to the desk and turned the lights down to reduce any unnecessary visual and audio interference. She initiated the baseline reading. On the screen, the hollow outline of the brain began to fill with the intricate web of neural pathways that made up Kael’s mind. It took twenty-five minutes to finish the baseline reading, but the boy’s attention only wavered slightly. Yara was impressed.

When prompted, she selected the literacy map. After ten minutes, the screen displayed:

Completed: 46% match.

Yara frowned at the low match rate. AXON always overlaid the new map, identifying the existing pathways and building new ones to fill the knowledge gaps. Since every brain naturally created unique associations whenever it encountered new information, there were always some red zones indicating incorrect associations. It was her job to manually align the remaining pathways. But this was the highest number of red zones she had ever seen. It took Yara twenty minutes to get the match rate up to eighty-two percent – any further wasn’t possible without significantly disrupting other aligned zones. She marked the session as complete.

“How are you feeling?” Yara asked as she removed the headset.

Kael blinked a few times, his eyes cloudy. “I feel…the same.”

Yara smiled. “I’m going to check what you’ve learnt. Can you read this for me?” She turned her datapad towards him.

“Tom kicked the ball across the yard,” Kael read the displayed sentence.

The cadence of his voice was smooth, with each word enunciated correctly. It was a good start, but the next sentence was Yara’s favourite part – that realisation that they knew something new.

“The committee reached a unanimous decision after lengthy deliberation,” Kael read.

Yara frowned. He hadn’t stumbled over any of the words, but there was no reaction to the words he was likely unfamiliar with. There was also a stillness about him – the way he was sitting there, staring straight ahead made her uneasy.

“What does unanimous mean in this context?” Yara prompted.

“A group of people who are in complete agreement.” That same monotonous response. 

“That’s absolutely right! Well done.” Yara injected extra enthusiasm into her voice, hoping it would break through his indifference. Still nothing. “Please read this last one for me.”

“Hope is a candle that keeps burning in the dark,” Kael read.

“Can you tell me what that means?”

“Hope helps people stay focused during difficult situations.”

He was giving all the right answers. His vocabulary and grammar had levelled up. But something was off. How could she check?

The blinking light on the corner of her datapad caught her eye – she was late for her next session. Yara glanced at Kael. The most likely answer was that his brain was taking longer to adjust to the map since he had to unlearn so many things. Technically, he had passed the assessment…she couldn’t afford to fall behind.

Yara closed the file, but not before adding a little flag to it – just in case. “Be sure to engage in reading and writing. If you don’t use the map, you will lose it,” she recited the mandatory centre policy.

Kael nodded, still silent.