Ella opened the door. "The board decided to remove your Marks early. None of the remaining members want the taint."

A doctor walked in with a nurse, and he opened his satchel. "This will hurt. I'll apply numbing lotion afterward, and you will feel fine. Are you ready?"

"Yes." Zeda nodded.

The Doctor used a laser wand.

Zeda screamed out in pain. "The burning sensation will be worth it."

The doctor used tweezers to pull the microchips off. He removed a plastic bottle from his satchel, slathered the minty lotion, and bandaged her arm.

The doctor closed his satchel. "Do you desire to be with this man? Prince Chaz can marry you."

Zeda grasped Quincy's fingers. "I choose to be in a cramped campus apartment until his school contract ends."

*

Inside Janice Kind's House, Two Hours Later

Quincy and Zeda stood in the middle of their engagement party. Her parents sat with Mina and her husband.

Chaz fumbled for Ella's hand, and she fumbled back.

"We have an announcement. Zeda's Mark Badges were removed," Quincy said.

"Quincy is the man I love, and we are marrying here on the planet."

Professor Alana-Hope ran to them wearing a crimson dress, and she hugged them.

*

A Month Later inside a Cobblestone Church.

Zeda and Quincy kissed across an altar as man and wife.

The next summer, they left the planet for a honeymoon in their tiny one-room summerhouse on a cliff overlooking the ocean.

When they returned, the planet became a rainbow of color with the new freedoms allowed. Love can be a different type of revolution.