Ryan's hands shook slightly, nearly dropping the red envelope he'd just picked out of the mailbox. It was an unmistakeable sign - he'd been selected for the regeneration program. He wasn't exactly surprised that he'd been selected. Entering the regeneration program, or at least being signed up in the pool of possible subjects, was a requirement to enter college these days. Most of his graduating class out of high school were already in the program on a two-year "tour of duty". What bothered him was the feeling of helplessness about his fate.
He knew enough about the program from people who had been in it. On its face, it was rather simple - if you got an envelope, you were required to enter the program for at least two years, with an option to extend for anywhere between two more years to life. Of course, how difficult the program was depended greatly on what species you were ultimately assigned. You could wind up working as a breeder for endangered species, working on a farm.. or in some cases (usually with those assigned to be horses or other large animals) in transport. The only good news was that slaughter was ultimately out of the question - that had been one of the biggest objections in passing the Regeneration Act.
It took him the better part of ten minutes to calm down enough to open the envelope. Inside was a single card, printed in black ink. The top half of the card contained his personal information, while the bottom half consisted of an address and phone number for the nearest regeneration center. Underneath that was a single line with a species of animal written in. Written on the line was...