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Post by forthteller on May 22, 2019 23:03:58 GMT -6
Chapter 1
A man’s world
Candaria, 2124
John 321 walks briskly in the light rain to his hovercar. He has a 10-hour shift to put in at the electronics plant today. The seventh of 8 in a row. 4 days off to relax and work on his modified hovercar.
2 races next month and there is no way he is riding around midpack this time. Last race was a bust. His friends, Jason 320 and peter 299 were both killed in the big crash as well as several other men he did not know. Luckily, he avoided the crash and that moved him up from 227th to 155th because of all the other cars collected and the frantic restart. He received a racing bonus large enough to upgrade his vertical loft motors. With the more efficient motors he could divert more power to his horizontal force jets. His parts were in and he was planning on spending the weekend making the upgrades.
With 26-hour days, and the 2-month summer coming he still hasn’t re acclimatized from his 2 years on earth. His memory of Elise was still fresh and parting with her was still painful. John 320 had told him to not get emotionally involved because every man who did was never the same when they came back but he found that he was totally unable to maintain his emotional distance. Especially after Elise gave birth to his first son, John 333. The following year, she gave birth to his daughter. He could not help but feel sadness. When they took his son away he knew that he would never see him again and he knew that the moment a third pregnancy was confirmed he would be sent back to Candaria. And now that Elise was pregnant with his third, he would never even know what sex the child was and what planet it was going to live on.
Earth is a little smaller and it has a higher concentration of oxygen than Candaria so he was lighter and stronger when he was there. Their 24-hour days and 12-month years also required an adjustment but Elise was so understanding and compassionate. He could still see her beauty and individuality and missed those qualities greatly. He even missed her chastisement when he dropped his dirty clothes on the floor or walked in without removing his boots. Reflecting on the disagreements they had about what food they would eat or the activities they would do or who would do the chores.
Those were all things his perfect android companion would and could never do. It never complained, did everything it was programmed to do and always knew exactly what he needed. it prepared the exact food he needed based on the inputs it received from his chip, told him how much exercise he needed, cleaned and washed everything when he was not around, knew what he needed in bed. His android was perfect in every way and he hated it, but why?
John 321 was 25 in earth years and if he was a good citizen, he would get to go again at 40 and a final time when he retired at 65. He thought it was utterly ridiculous that Candaria kept keep track of years and days in earth years. Why would they ever do that? Such a backwards idea. It would be so easy if they used the seasons and the light/dark periods to keep track of time like they do on earth, but no, somehow this backwards planet insists on allowing the earth to dictate time.
Manually opening the door and jumping from his hover car before it completely dropped to the ground, John heard the familiar warning, “over riding the transport safety systems is not recommended and doing so can result in injury.”
Talking back to his car, “it was only a meter for Gods sake.” The car silently closes the sliding side door and floats away to the storage area.
An armed security guard observed the maneuver and takes out his pad, preparing to write a citation. John 321 says, “come on man, I am a hover car racing driver and we have to practice escape maneuvers like that on a regular basis.”
“Really what series.”
“I just finished my second race in the Canal series. I won the championship in the Prescot series so they moved me up to the modified Canal series this year.”
“Are you John 321”
“I am.”
“Man, I watched your championship race last year on my security monitor. When you passed Alex 300 for the lead, I nearly jumped out of my seat and when you slipped in front of him taking his draft, I bet he crapped himself.”
“You know he lost altitude from that draft and crashed, taking out several other cars as well. 3 men died when I did that.”
“It was a legal move and he would have passed you right back if you hadn’t done it. Every man who races knows the risks.”
“Do you race?”
“No. I have never had the opportunity.”
“I got the opportunity by working on Peter 299’s hover car for 3 years for nothing. I know several drivers looking for crew. Give me your contact and I will pass it on.”
The security man pulls his hand back as if John 321 could somehow get a connection with his chip without his verbal authorization. “No thanks. I have several outside access permits coming up so I want to get out of the city and do some hunting and fishing.”
“No problem, can you let me off this time.”
“Can’t the cameras picked it up so if I don’t write it up, I will end up getting whatever punishment you are due.”
“Oh well. Let’s do it,” John 321 says as he extends his right arm so the guard can scan his wrist. “Authorization, John 321.”
“The guard finishes writing on his digital pad with his digital pen. Places it near Johns wrist and a beep sounds, “identity confirmed. Transaction complete, have a nice day sir.”
John 321 turns and as he is about to walk away, “have a nice day, by the way, I am entered in the Enteria 3000 next weekend. Should be a great race. Over 500 entrants so far.” John 321 knows that the more people tuned in, the more money is given in purses so he never misses an opportunity to encourage viewers. Football, hockey, hoverbikes, basketball and even track all vie for the viewing credit. Gotta get the screens tuned in to your show if you want to make money. John 321 knows that if he can become a contender in the Canal series, he will have an opportunity to turn pro and go international. I wonder what the other continent is like? John 321 has never met anyone who has been outside of New Rome let alone outside the walls of the city he lived in, settlement 23f.
John 321 heads up the fiber/plastic steps to the building he works in as a robotics engineer. Inside, he waves his arm in proximity of more than one scanning device and at the last one a beep sounds and the device sounds, “John 321, you are 37 seconds late, you have been noted.”
Once inside his work station John 321 sets to work. The display board on the wall has detected his presence and all of his day’s assignments are up, complete with the expected duration of the job. Replace the optical sensors on number two crushing line, 49 minutes. The primary reduction gear on number 11 is out of alignment, inspect, adjust and replace if necessary, 67 minutes. Main Inlet drive motor is running 3 degrees above normal, inspect and advise, 2 hours. After break at exactly 1:00 you are to activate units 228 to 380 and have them replace 740 to 792. Once the inactive units are in stasis you are to begin a full assessment of them. Your shift ends at 6:00 PM Mountain earth time but you have been assessed a 10-minute penalty for late entry.
“Easy day,” thinks John 321. He never speaks his thoughts out loud because everything he says is heard by somebody or something, he has no idea how but he does know the chip in his wrist knows everything about his body and every piece of equipment and droid around sees and hears everything but how could they possibly have enough people to monitor everything. Must be computers doing it.
Mindlessly he performs all the tasks he is to do that day. He could be so much more but contrary to what he had told Elise and what he really believed; he would never be more than an engineering technician because of who his father was. He just hoped his own sons could be more because of the exceptional woman their mother is.
Because his job is so easy to him, John 321 has lots of time to let his mind wander as he goes about his tasks. Still fresh in his mind is his trip to earth and he is still trying to make sense of it. On earth, they have almost no technology. Nobody owns a car but they have small silent busses that hover and seem to be always travelling around but they don’t go where you want to go. Sometimes you have to get off and change units several times to get where you are going. They were in various sizes too, some with 3 or 4 women and some with 30. He rarely ever saw any men when he was riding the buses and they were always with a woman.
Elise had a weird looking double sliding skateboard thing with soft black round wheels. He had never seen a product like that. Black and soft yet hard, Elise had called them tires and that they soften the ride. It was on the aluminum wheel and seemed to be the contact point on the concrete. He had asked her why they didn’t put hover motors on it and her response was comical, “they don’t make them small enough, silly.” He had seen concrete but it was a rarity on Candaria. It was everywhere on earth. That or green grass.
They have a few strange looking androids doing menial chores like picking up trash and doing maintenance and the police are also all robotic. It didn’t look like anyone had a job. Elise and her friends always seemed to have time for classes, doing art or getting together and the ones who had a man never went anywhere with him. He was also never allowed to talk with any of the other men and any time he talked with another woman, Elise was right there. Really strange.
Once when he was riding in a bus high on rails, the vehicle went over a river and he could see a dirty, ramshackle settlement below. Hundreds of filthy looking people were down there and Elise was quick to grab his attention so he would not look closer. She refused to answer any of his questions about it as well. In fact, she would never tell him about the rest of her world or even the rest of her country which she called USA. He felt that she was ashamed or that she did not even know.
What Elise did do was listen to him prattle on for hours about his world and their technology. He spent hours drawing her sketches of mobile equipment and vehicles, Mechanical and electronic plans and schematics and robotic engineering technology. Explaining how everything worked and showing her the math and scientific details of how they functioned. He explained how space flight originated on the earth and even though she did not believe it she did understand how early rocket propulsion may have made that possible. While her intelligence was exceptional, her education was severely deficient.
She learned quickly and grasped everything he explained much faster than he had with all the computer tutorials he had at his disposal. Nothing in her library was of any use, it had all been cleansed of any technology that he knew the Earth had to have possessed long before this. Yet they had hover busses, and he had seen androids and their police were robotic.
While she never shared a lot with him about her world, he was able to determine that the majority of those he interacted with had willful ignorance. They did not want to know, they only wanted to have their easy, taken care of life. Elise had not volunteered to be his mate; she had been forced and somehow convinced it was her duty to society. He hoped that she didn’t feel it was just a duty to society by the time he left because he certainly did not feel it was his duty or his right.
He had turned his android companion off yesterday and was hoping nobody would notice. It was his intention to do his own housework, cooking and cleaning from now on. A few more things he learned from Elise. He was not going to forget her.
10 minutes after his shift was supposed to end, he finished up a ram test on android 752. A short tune plays and the loud speaker says, “John 321, you are done for the day, your record will show that you performed above expectations and your account will be credited an additional 10 percent. We will begin with android 753 next shift. Please be on time tomorrow.”
Out front, he steps from the building and his hover car floats over and drops to the ground at the curb. He steps in the already open door and the gullwing door swings down. The seatbelt wraps around him and the car automatically lifts from the ground and hovers, awaiting his command.
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Post by forthteller on May 22, 2019 23:10:27 GMT -6
Chapter 2
The other half isn’t any better
Earth 2124
“Push! Push!” Exclaims the midwife.
Screaming, “I am.” And pushing with all her might, Elise hears a familiar noise as she hears the baby’s head clear the birth canal. Seconds later, relief as the baby is pulled free. Within a minute, crying and “it’s a girl.” Great job.
The midwives clean and wrap the baby girl and place her beside Elise. Elise looks down at the girl and begins to cry, she has crystal blue eyes that are identical to Johns. He would have loved this girl; it was so unfair. All of Johns children had blue eyes which was so rare these days. It meant that his daughters would be automatically given more opportunities because children with blue eyes are thought to be more intelligent and more likely to have leadership abilities. Elise had brown eyes and light brown skin but Elise believed that John had been chosen genetically to enhance her qualities. The life assignment bureau was careful to place girls in streams where they will be the most beneficial to society and where the girls are most likely to succeed. She would call her Johanie.
John had been her second mating since she was selected from her school at 17. Her marks in science and math had been in the top 1 percentile and she had excelled in track. While no marks are actually assessed and nobody wins races, the people watching and evaluating all know which children finish where. The children who finish in the back all think they are not but the leaders all know, they are being watched.
Elise’s best friend all through school and her bunk mate for the last three years, Cheryl, was not as athletic but she did as well as Elise in math and science. She had been selected to go to the top national university to study engineering. Elise wished she had been given that choice but had she done that she would never have had to opportunity to have the two years she did with John. Johanie and Petra were the result of their love. She had loved Cheryl but there was no comparison whatever.
John had been her second partner. Her first, Stephen 298 had been an arrogant jerk. She had even called the security drone to intervene when he had pushed her against the wall because she would not have sex with him when she was already pregnant. They had taken him away until after his first son was born and had been taken to wherever boys went. She never got to nurture the boys, only the girls, sad. As soon as her next pregnancy was confirmed, he left and never came back. In all, he had fathered 2 boys and when he left, she was more than happy to see him go. In fact, he had left some stuff behind and instead of sending it in to be repurposed she had not said anything about it. She had taken it to her friend from school. Jillian had done poorly in school and had been assigned to a worker’s settlement and now lived below the train bridge. Funny how she had forgotten about that.
Looking at little Johanie who was now nursing, Elise was grateful that John had given her a girl. That meant that she would be able to nurse her for at least a year and would be allowed to raise her and her older sister for 3 more years before they get reassessed and sent to public schools. After that, she would only be permitted to visit them 2 times a year for one week per visit.
She had been informed that she would never see the boys again because they had been sent away but we safe and well cared for. John had told her he was actually from another planet but she had scoffed at the ridiculousness of that. Flight across countries was possible but another planet, ridiculous. He never mentioned it again but it looked like he was hurt by her ridicule because he actually believed it. That was something she wished she could take back but there was no way she would ever see him again; she could only hope the good memories they shared would overshadow the few times she had slipped. She wasn’t even allowed out of the city and had not seen her own mother for ten years.
Walking backwards into her front door with her little bundle and pulling her stroller with the rubber tires, she once again remembered John. He had been so amazed at the rubber tires on her motorized board. As if he had never seen something like that and he claimed his people had floating cars and boards and even floating motorcycles. When he drew pictures and described them it was amazing that she could actually understand how they worked. Gyroscopes and miniature turbine engines. Why hadn’t she been taught any of this in her school? He had left her dozens of sketches, schematics, engineering designs and pages of mathematical calculations. They had worked on them together and done the math and science together. She was so excited; she could take his designs and make actual engineering drawings, then go into the metal crafting and electronics labs at the community center and possibly build a hover board. Then she could take it to the science ministry and they may allow her to transfer from the community she was in and become a scientist or engineer. Maybe it is not too late to go to the government university.
She put both the children in their cribs and once they were asleep made herself a cup of tea. Once done she went to the drawer where the drawings and plans were held. Gone. She knew they were there, where did they go.
John had made her a couple of small electronic prototypes in the community center labs and she had put them away in the closet by the door. “Please be there, please.” She opened the closet door and there was no metal box on the shelf. Rummaging around, “gone too,”. Elise did something she had never in her life done but had heard John do many times in their 2 years. She cursed, not just once but she cursed the system, the government and her own stupidity.
John had warned her that her own system was corrupt and was in control. He had even helped her see how her own career path was decided for her and that she had no choice in it. He had pointed out the poverty of other communities and how hers was so wealthy yet nobody actually does any work. She believed everything she had always been taught, that everyone was equal and received the same. She knew it was not entirely true because Cheryl lived with less than she had but she had pushed that away as she believed her contribution required a better diet and cleaner environment. He was right, she had been blind to the control but never again!
John had told her that his own community did exactly the same thing but that with hard work and effort people could move from one assignment to another. He had invented several robotic enhancements when he was young and was able to leapfrog boys who had gone to university. In fact, he had never been to college or university and was a senior engineer with his pavement making company. The synthetic pavement they make can be poured like concrete, lasts as long and the ingredients are readily available in his country, planet he says.
John told her he had been raised in a school with thousands of boys. By the time they were in year 6, the boys from good lines had already been housed in the better dorms with only 2 boys per room and he had been sent to the older school and shared a dorm with seven other boys. His friends were into sports and other pastimes but he did not know what the other boys did. All of his friends went into factory work, agriculture, mining and the fortunate ones, into sports. Professional sports were huge in his country. Athletes live in the best communities and have the best quarters. At the highest level, they don’t even have to share an apartment and they get their own synthetic android wife.
John was only a minor league athlete but he had been elevated because he was also an engineer at his company. He had never seen his father or his mother and did not know any men who had.
Elise sits down and from memory begins to re draw the sketches John had made. Over the next few days she would spend quiet times trying to remember the details and writing them down. Unfortunately, or maybe it was fortunate, she found her mind drifting to the many other things she had done with him and she would sometimes spend more than an hour reminiscing.
It is at one of those times when she was sitting trying to sketch and reminiscing that her doorbell rang. Quickly she puts her drawings and sketches away into their hiding spot. Gets up and walks over to the door. Opening it, she is pleased to see a neighbor she hadn’t seen for a few months. When women are paired, they are discouraged from interacting with other women who are paired.
Melisa starts, “Hi Elise, haven’t talked to you for a while. Are the babies asleep?”
“They are. Just fed them and I was sitting down to a cup of tea. Would you like a cup?”
“Certainly would. Got some great news too.”
“Pouring some tea from the kettle and placing the cup and bowl of loose tea in front of Melisa, so what is the good news?”
“A girl. I am 9 weeks pregnant and they just told me today it is a girl. I am so excited. 4 boys in a row from two different mates and finally I get a girl. I thought I was going to retire without ever having my own daughter.”
“But you had girls before?”
“Never with a mate and never before the change. I never got to nurse or even spend any time with any of my girls.”
“But how did you have a baby without a mate?”
“We didn’t need men before. They got us pregnant in a lab and we carried the child in a home with other pregnant women. They had staff and nurses and everything. Once we had the baby, we went back to our apartment until we went in the next time. Every 2 years.”
“How many children have you had?”
“5 the old way and this will be my 5th with men so 10 in all. 5 girls using the old system, 4 boys and now a girl with the new system.”
“When did they change to what we do now?”
“I think we are only a test community; they still have maternity centers in the city and I would presume throughout the country.”
“I don’t think I would like the old system.”
“Me either, I am really looking forward to spending a few years with my daughter. I cannot wait.”
“What about your mate?”
“Oh, him. He was an asshole. I couldn’t stand him, the previous guy either. Sex with them was disgusting and painful. They are all pigs.”
“I don’t think they are all pigs. My last mate was pretty nice even though my first was not so much.”
“You mean your first was an asshole and your second wasn’t as much. Every one of my girlfriends who has had a man says the same thing. We are way better off without them.”
“I don’t agree. They are all different but I think some are good and some are not. There are some women I would rather not spend time with as well. You said retired? What happens when we retire?”
“I hear we get to go back to school for retraining and then we go into the career we would have gone into if we hadn’t gotten lucky and been chosen as breeders.”
“Where did you hear that?”
“Other women who aged out. They don’t like to allow us to have children after 40.”
“Have you actually talked to any of them?”
“Not actually. They keep us segregated so we don’t get illnesses and viruses they get in other places. We have not received adult vaccinations because we need to bring children into society. Because of that we are susceptible to viruses the rest of our society is vaccinated against."
“So, why do you believe that then?”
“Because I asked one of the Senior administrators in the Reproduction center. The have always told me the truth.”
“They always tell the truth? Have you ever seen any of the communities below the rapid train? They don’t look very well off. How do you know they wont dump you there when they are done with your womb?”
“Don’t be silly, they are people who refuse to be part of our great society and have chosen to live like that. They are rebels.”
Just then a baby startles and begins a slow whimper. Elise jumps and attends to her almost 2-year-old. Picking her up, Elise takes her to her self, hugging and rocking her. Sitting back at the table, she takes out her breast and little Petra smells lunch and quickly latches on.
“My god she is beautiful. And she has the most beautiful blue eyes.”
“Thank you. Yours is going to be beautiful as well.”
“I don’t know, my mate was so hairy and so big. The guy was a brute. I don’t know why they picked him for me. He was dumb as a rock too. All he talked about is how much he missed his football and hockey. Did you know those men play games where one side loses and they get shamed for losing?”
“John told me about that be he didn’t think it was shaming, he said losing makes him revaluate what he could have done better and he goes back to try harder. He hopes to win a championship, racing cars after 5 years of competing. If he does or even finishes in the top few he will get advanced to a higher league and will start making money.”
“The guy with me was a football player, he bragged about hitting a guy so hard in a play the guy died from a brain hemorrhage. Disgusting.”
“John said some people had died in races he was in but he was remorseful about it, sad even.”
“He was likely one in a million, the rest are all like the two assholes I had.”
“When did you start swearing? I don’t recall you ever talking like that?”
“Exactly my point. Less than two years with him and I get angry all the time and now I swear. His worst characteristics rubbed off on me. I am going to have to put some serious effort into getting back to my old self.” Patting he not yet showing belly bump, Carly and I will get it together.”
Finished eating, Petra burps, looks up with her crystal blue eyes and starts crying. “Got a dirty one do you?”
Elise gets up with Petra and goes over to her changing table. Once done she rocks the baby for only a moment before Petra’s eyes close and she goes back to sleep.
After she sits down and takes a sip, she is about to continue their conversation when Melisa reaches across and gently takes her by the chin. Melissa leans over and is about to kiss her when Elise pulls back, “not now, not in front of the girls.”
“We could put up your portable divider if you are afraid of them seeing. I am okay with that.”
“No. Not now. I don’t know when.”
Looking at the clear brown eyes and seeing something she had never seen in them. “Oh my God, you’re in love, with him. I warned you about that. Never let one of them into your life.”
“I am in love. He was everything I have always missed in life. He taught me to question everything I thought I knew. He was tender and tough. He was like nothing I never felt in bed. We had sex every day, sometimes more than once, even when I was pregnant. I taught him our language and how to read and write. He taught me about engineering and how to draw and interpret plans. I taught him how to cook, he taught me how to repair my scooter.”
“You are done sister. Don’t repeat what you just told me to anybody. If the administrators find out, they will remove you from the program.”
“So what, you told me that when we retire we will get to go back to the careers we would have had.”
“Not what I mean. You will end up in one of the breeding centers the way I started. You don’t want to go there. I didn’t tell you the rest.”
“The rest?”
“They do tests once you are pregnant. I had 6 abortions as well as 5 daughters in that center. I don’t know what was wrong with the fetuses but it may just have been that they were males.”
“Wow, I never knew, I am so sorry. I can be quiet about this but I don’t know if we can ever go back to what we had before John.”
“I can keep your secret and because of what we had I can respect your feelings. I just hope we can still be friends. I have my own little bundle of joy coming soon and you have the most experience of every woman I know. Plus, I need a good friend to help me get back to normal, I feel so full of resentment. I don’t even know what I am resentful about. The fact that they are like that or the fact that women we trust allow us to be victimized like that.”
“Why do you think they changed the breeding system? I have been here for almost six years and I thought it was always this way.”
“If you go to the library and look in the history section it has always been this way but I know it wasn’t. There are several other women in the city who were also in one of breeding centers, I am telling you the truth. Have you ever noticed you cannot get off the bus in certain towns? Check. The doors won’t even open. If you persist, you are reported and a security droid is at the next stop to escort you home. I have never resisted but I hear they aren’t very nice if you do.”
“Nice? You mean they get violent?”
“I don’t know but Brenda over in the Cascade building did something and the thing grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into its stupid looking square flying thing. I never saw her again and a new girl was in her unit the next day. When I asked my administrator what happened to her, she acted as if Brenda never existed. Its likethey want us to think our memory is wrong.”
“What did Brenda do?”
“I heard she refused to breed with the mate they selected for her. I don’t know for sure because the same guy was mated with the new girl as if nothing happened.”
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Post by misterjimbo on May 23, 2019 20:44:06 GMT -6
Like WOW! This strange. But, good strange. Please continue. Thanks.
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Post by 9idrr on May 23, 2019 21:32:40 GMT -6
Pretty good for the first of a couple of hundred chapters. Not that wer're puttin' any pressure on you. Wouldn't do that. Nope, never. Couldn't happen here. Thanks for the start.
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Post by texican on May 24, 2019 18:56:51 GMT -6
FT,
Nice premise, but don't think we will ever get there....
Texican....
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Post by papaof2 on May 24, 2019 19:14:46 GMT -6
Interesting premise. Possibly can be resolved in 100 chapters or so? ;-)
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Post by forthteller on May 24, 2019 22:00:12 GMT -6
FT, Nice premise, but don't think we will ever get there.... Texican.... I already have half the prequel written. In my fiction we get there.
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Post by texican on May 25, 2019 19:07:23 GMT -6
FT, Nice premise, but don't think we will ever get there.... Texican.... I already have half the prequel written. In my fiction we get there. FT, In my dreams, I get laid several times a day, but that is also fiction in my mind.... Texican...
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Post by papaof2 on May 25, 2019 19:14:19 GMT -6
FT, In my dreams, I get laid several times a day, but that is also fiction in my mind.... Texican... Infants get laid several times a day - but it's laid down for a nap. Are you in the very early days of your second childhood? ;-)
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Post by texican on May 25, 2019 23:14:30 GMT -6
FT, In my dreams, I get laid several times a day, but that is also fiction in my mind.... Texican... Infants get laid several times a day - but it's laid down for a nap. Are you in the very early days of your second childhood? ;-) PP2, Don't take naps.... And afternoon sex is the best when ever the spouse agrees.... Texican....
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Post by forthteller on May 28, 2019 22:11:30 GMT -6
Chapter 3
John 321 Awakening
Speaking to his self driving personal transport car, “To Johnsons bar and grill.” The car speeds away.
This time, John 321 waits until the car drops to the ground and the door automatically opens. The car says to him, “Johnsons bar and Grill, 250 meters to the southwest. Please call when you are ready to leave. Reminder, drinking and driving is illegal and I cannot function if you have consumed more than your legal limit. You can now enable full auto drive and deactivate optional self drive if you choose.”
“No thanks. Bad enough to have a car telling me how to live, I don’t need one I cannot shut off. Go park now.”
John 321 walks over to the pub. “1 beer and some dinner. I will still be under and even if I am over, the car cannot be operated in self drive if I have been drinking too much. I will leave it here and walk home if I am.”
Inside the bar, several other privileged athletes and engineer level men are drinking and playing games. Over at the dart board several men are playing fingers. That is where a man holds his hand over the board and gets points for every dart that hits between his fingers. The thrower loses automatically if he hits the hand or a finger. Then the thrower takes his turn. Pulling your hand back is a default and the most shameful thing a man can do.
John 321 did not approve of stupid games to prove one’s manhood. He risked his life every time he started up his racing hover car. A 2114 Dodge Challenger with modifications done by John 321 himself when he was on the pit crew for Steve 355. He had earned enough to purchase the car by designing and building smaller recoil relays for the robotic units at the factory in his spare time and his bonus was substantial. His residual bonus pays enough to cover his storage and operating expenses. Several sponsors had already talked to him about future possibilities and he was optimistic about that but he still needed to get a bit more driving experience.
His car could accelerate from 0 – 525 kph in about 14 seconds and could reach altitudes of 5 meters above grade. At maximum altitude he had to use 86.5 percent of his available power to maintain loft and if he tried to increase his power supply, he would not have enough energy left to complete the race. It was always a balancing act.
The new more efficient motors he had purchased would enable him to achieve the same loft while using less energy, thus allowing him to race at a higher altitude or race lower and go faster. On some courses he was able to race at 1.2 meters off the ground and to maintain that altitude he only needed 81 percent of his available power so he could drive at a much higher speed but it was risky at 525 kph.
The track he will be competing at in two weeks is almost flat with very few obstacles. The race preparation crews have indicated they will be putting multiple 1.5 to 4.5-meter obstacles on the course of varying width and will be relocating them for the second and third lap. He will have to watch for them, a direct hit is certain death and rapid movements to avoid unexpected objects could result in a major crash involving multiple cars. If you are fast enough, other cars will be in your draft and sometimes they cannot see far enough into the horizon to avoid obstacles. Additionally, he doesn’t want to get collected should someone else make an emergency turn or altitude shift.
A legal maneuver is to wait until the very last moment before executing an evasive maneuver, leaving any cars behind vulnerable to crashing into the obstruction. It is also risky for the front car because trailing cars take away some of the front cars’ maneuverability and the closer they are, the more dead the stick becomes. Sometimes a quick left or right is enough to loosen it up so the driver can pull up with more ease but this is always very bad for the trailing cars. John 321 has learned to look at the oncoming territory and spend less attention on the car in front of him because if the front driver attempts such a maneuver, it will provide an excellent passing opportunity. Crashes are big for ratings and ratings generate advertising revenue, advertising revenue means business and business means jobs.
While some drivers use infrared, sonar or even radar, all of the top drivers only use their naked eyes. All the tech available is great but it takes power to operate.The front runners drive as low to the ground as possible and use nothing to consume energy so they can get maximum forward thrust. Every driver gets a track supplied battery pack on a generic floor pan. You get to the track with your car, drop the transport pan and install the track supplied one. They seal it and you then connect to your solar grid and charge it for the next day. The joke in the pit is that back in the day race cars rode in the trailer, nowaday they work for a living and tow the trailer.
An attractive blonde female android barkeep sidles over and seductively asks John321, “What will it be.”
“Clubhouse, extra ham, pint of house beer and some fries. He holds his wrist up near the waitress. The android says, “transaction declined, you have already exceeded your allowance for fried food this cycle. You must make another selection.”
“How the hell did you know? Never mind, switch the fries for a green salad with tomatoes and drop the extra ham.”
“Transaction accepted; your meal will be over shortly.” Then she switches from her businesslike demeanor to another more seductive one. “Are you interested in some company, handsome?”
“No thanks, I have a wife droid at home, wouldn’t want to disappoint her.”
“I doubt she is disappointed; in fact, my comms tells me she is currently off.”
“Just the beer and the sandwich please.”
“Coming right up, offers still open. We also have several other units available should you desire a different model.”
“No thank you.”
John 321 sits there and drinks his beer and thinks to himself, “whoever thought this is life and who the hell programmed that droid? She looks and feels just like a real woman but no real woman would ever act like that!” He watches as men slap her on the but as she walks by, some grab at her breasts or just harass her, she replies with a giggle or a flirtatious return grab. How is that okay, even to a droid? Sure, the owner gets paid for the services she provides and she needs to entice men to avail themselves of those services but this happens everywhere, “I don’t even want to finish my dinner now.”
He does finish his meal knowing that the android will collect his plate and his not finishing will show up on his record. No waste in this world. Going to earth really opened his eyes. “I am even calling droids a her and acting like they have feelings.”
John 321 finishes his meal but leaves half a bottle of beer behind. One of the clowns at the next table notices and grabs it the second the door closes behind John 321.
Outside, John 321 gets in the hover car that had already arrived because it had detected his leaving. It scans his wrist chip, “.021. Well under the .05 allowed in order to drive, you may proceed.”
“You can drive Max.”
“Excuse me but you appear to be alone, there is no Max to drive.”
“I am naming you Max. From now on I will refer to you as Max.”
“I am transportation unit 2121-3479.”
“From now on you are Max.”
“I do not comprehend. How can the name identify my manufacture date and program number?”
“Ok, you can be Max 2121-3479 but I am still going to address you as max.”
“Where to now John 321.”
“Home, Max. I am tired.”
Max proceeds to lift off and heads the short distance to John 321’s building. On the way, “I need to inform you that your female companion android was off since yesterday and maintenance has responded to determine what the problem was. They report that It was manually turned off and not needing service, you will need to file your response.”
“Interesting. How do you know this?”
“I am connected to the network, all pertinent information necessary to serve you is automatically downloaded to my memory banks and my programing determines if it is information I should share with you or use to serve you.”
“So, you are programed to do actions without my guidance and knowledge. Give me an example.”
“You deactivate the self drive frequently and if your monitor detects you are too tired to drive and informs me, I in turn am prepared to activate self drive if you fall asleep behind the wheel and I will return it the moment your monitor informs me you are awake. You would not even know it happened.”
“Would a report of the incident be sent to Data Central?”
“Yes, everything I do automatically gets sent there but the amount of data sent there is extensive, it would only trigger an alert if a secondary report of the same incident was also sent.”
“Such as?”
“you were involved in a near miss accident and another transportation unit sent in a report.”
Lowering to the ground in front of John 321’s building and opening the door Max says, “Have a good evening, service unit 2119-323 has prepared for you. It will need to send in a report with the reason you deactivated it.”
“Thank you, Max. I will see you for my next shift. Have a quiet evening.”
“Quiet evening?”
“Relax. Whatever you cars do on your off time.”
“We plug into recharge. We do not do anything else.”
“OK. Go charge.”
“Max closes the door, rises and drives away to the storage garage.”
The building doors open when John 321 gets close enough that it detects his monitor. John 321 heads to the elevator and the doors open, in he steps and it proceeds to his floor. Looking at the console with no buttons, John 321 thinks, “I cannot even go to a different floor than my own without giving a verbal command to a computer that will record me doing it. Is there anything they don’t know?”
The elevator stops at John 321’s floor, “I don’t even know what floor I live on. If I want to go to Brad 276’s I just tell the elevator. What floor does he live on?”
Out of the elevator John 321 walks down the hallway, the doors all have numbers on them so that is something at least. He gets to his own door and it automatically opens. His android companion is standing there dressed in a nice red skirt and a silk blouse, her blond hair lightly flowing the way he liked. Her blue eyes sparkling. She walks and talks just like any human would. If he did not know differently, he would actually believe she was a real woman except for her behavior. No real woman would ever act like that.
“Good evening John. I understand you have already had your evening meal. You have allowance for one more drink or a beer, would you like me to get one for you.”
John was only allowed 2 drinks per day. Because of his job and his racing, he was not permitted to use any of the legal drugs available to others in different occupations and of course the unemployed or work pool men. Most of the guys hanging out at the bar are also not allowed drugs. On the first and second day off of a work cycle most are allowed to consume more alcohol but almost everyone saves their day one alcohol and drinks it on the second day with that day’s quota. Drinking at home and going to one of the many pubs to finish off is common. Getting drunk for many is a temporary reprieve for the daily monotony. Getting caught is never a big issue as long as the person didn’t do something stupid while drunk. Police droids do not allow drunkenness as an excuse for any crime.
“No thank you Melisa.”
“I am companion unit 2119-323. I do not know this person, Melisa.”
“It is a woman’s name and I am going to call you Melisa from now on.”
“I was built with the form of a woman and appear as you requested. If you need me to change, I can. Skin, hair, eyes and even figure can all be changed. You are permitted one change every two rotations.”
“Two rotations, you mean years?”
“No, rotations. Years refer to a term and measurement of time that came from Earth and is based on its rotations and its rotations around its sun. Our systems are capable of determining time from the rotation of Candaria and the rotations around our sun as well.”
“Who decided to use our rotations and not the earths measurements?”
“I do not know; it is logical and was that way when I was built.”
“Marisa, I was informed that you needed to file a report about why I shut you off.”
“I have already filed the report. You shut me off because you needed some time to yourself to think through things and I was bothering you.”
“How would you know you were bothering me?”
“Before you went to the earth in 2121, you behaved much differently towards me. We also had intimate relations 6.7 times per cycle. Since you reactivated me, we have not been intimate at all and I have detected a detachment, uncharacteristic of you. I can only deduce that something traumatic happened and you need space to process it.”
“Do you have psychological programing?”
“Yes. I have access to several psychological theories and have the capacity to diagnose most human ailments, physical and psychological.”
“Do you monitor my fitness through my implant?”
“Of course, all companion units do that. I have a greater capacity because I was not sent to the Material general storage facility while you were gone. I was sent to an independent research facility for program updates instead.”
“Who knows I turned you off and that you think I have changed since my trip to earth”
“My creator.”
“And your creator is the Material General Commission?”
“No, it is not my creator, it is my builder.”
“Who is your creator then.”
“I cannot say.”
“You refuse to say.”
“No, I cannot say. The information is not in my memory. It does not exist.”
“You just said your creator is not the Material General Commission so how can you not know who your creator is.”
“Do you know who your creator is?”
John 321 thinks to himself, “I am arguing with a robot, am I losing it.”
“OK, new question. Is there a library anywhere that has real books?” The kind they used to have, with paper pages and stuff.”
Marisa process data for a few moments. “I have found several references to paper books that came from earth and arrived here over 190 rotations ago but I cannot access any details of where any books are currently. One man in this city lives near the outer wall. His name appears on several articles I have accessed.”
“Articles?”
“The earth had a communication system called the internet. It was a means of mass communications, a few portions of articles that were on it are in my memory. If I can locate enough instances of the same report, I may be able to formulate complete accounts of some events.”
“How old is the man in the articles?”
“His name is Peter Maclean. He is 125 years old in earth years.”
“No way, nobody is that old. 60, 70 years maybe but not 125.”
“I cannot lie, I can only tell you what my memory contains. He came to Candaria with the first arrivals from earth. They all lived a very long time. He is not the only one but I cannot access who or where any others are, only that they came and there are no death records.”
“They probably didn’t have an implant so they probably died and nobody knows.”
“Organic material anywhere on the planet is foreign so it would be detected by any sensor and recycled. The only habitable places are in the city’s men have created and the atmosphere they maintain. Outside, they are very careful to not allow organic materials to be left behind, ever.”
“Do you know why.”
“That information is not in my memory banks.”
“Interesting. We originally came from Earth. Does your memory have the reasoning behind us coming here? I was on Earth and it seems like a more hospitable place to live. They don’t even have to maintain an atmosphere; they have natural rivers and I was told they can go wherever they want outside the cities.”
“My memory has no information about that. The bits I was able to give you are remnants from the earths internet.”
“can you continue to retrieve information for me. I would like to read anything you find, in American.”
“My data does not contain information that would indicate you can read that language. I can translate it to Gaelic for you if you would prefer.”
“No thank you I would like it in American. Do you need to report this conversation?”
“My programing allows me to determine which information is reported to Data Central and which is reported elsewhere.”
“I know who Data Central is but who is receiving information elsewhere.”
“I cannot say.”
“Ok. Same circle. You don’t know. Does Max have the same protocol?”
“Max? I do not have that name in my data. There is a Max 297 in this building.”
“No, personal transportation unit 2117 – 3479. I renamed him Max.”
“I understand. You are personalizing your transport like you called me Marisa. I do not know what protocol Max has for reporting but I can communicate with it.”
“Max is a he.”
“I can communicate with him but I cannot communicate information that is not to be sent to Data Central remotely. I would have to be in the immediate proximity with him to do that.”
“You cannot or will not?”
“I cannot. My programming does not permit it.”
“When the maintenance crew were here would they be aware that your programming has been modified by the remote research facility.”
“No, they are not able to access those pathways.”
“Holy crap, is this a dream, am I even alive?”
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Post by texican on May 29, 2019 12:24:36 GMT -6
FT,
Poor John321 is so confused and trying to sort it out with his car and female androids, but his brain cogs are turning....
And he is behind on sex.... Now that is a major problem....
Thanks for the chapter....
Texican....
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Post by forthteller on Jun 5, 2019 23:03:11 GMT -6
Chapter 4
Elise needs to know
The next week Elise is fully recovered from her latest birth. She awakens refreshed and gets up, pulling her housecoat over her shoulders. She opens the 2-sided fridge in her kitchen to see what is in there. 1 egg, some whole wheat bread and some soy milk. Beside it is a small container of pasty looking mush for Petra. She takes it all out and puts it on her table. She quickly boils the egg on her little single burner stove and sits to eat. One of her girls starts fussing. Moments later the older baby does likewise.
She gets up and heads over to pick up Johanie. Her pale blue eyes looking up at her, Elise cannot help but smile. This child is so patient, not like all the others girls she has had. Picking her up, the faint smell of powder is overwhelmed by the distinct smell of urine. I think I will feed you first, as the cooing child nestles in to her.
She sits at the table and feeds her from the left side so she can eat her breakfast with little Johanie. Eating and watching her eat is exhilarating and challenging as well. She can hear fussing in the background and it will only be moments before her time with Johanie will be interrupted by a very strong lunged and very impatient Petra. “Please wait,” she pleads.
Petra starts fussing more. Johanie eats. Elise wolfs down her breakfast. Petra belts out a scream. Elise stands and taking Johanie from her breast she walks over to Johanies crib. She places her back down. I will be right back; Johanie coos.
She takes Petra up and looks at the already strong-willed little girl. Petra will scream the whole time until every one of her needs is met and it does not matter what order either so Elise now always changes her first so she doesn’t have to smell whatever Petra has in her diaper, while she feeds her. Over to the change table. Quickly she changes her and re-dresses her. She opens the cubby hole behind the change table and puts the dirty diaper in the bin and closes the lid. Outside she can see the light drizzle through her only window.
Over to the table where she puts Petra in her high chair. Petra screams. She is not adjusting well to being weaned. Elise has the manual and according to it, she is now required to only breast feed 3 times a day until 2 years at which time she is required to stop altogether. She is to feed her the mush she receives daily and according to the manual, if Petra does not eat at least 75 percent, record that detail and bring it to the attention of the Nurses when she goes in for their 2 times weekly checkups.
Petra never leaves any food behind and gets major praise at her weigh ins. Walking at 9 months, already able to assemble blocks and bricks, interacting with the other children in appropriate ways, Petra is the target of more attention than most of the other girls.
Wolfing her food down as fast as Elise provides it, Elise is a little worried because she is supposed to begin allowing her to feed herself soon. Once done, Elise gives her some soy milk in a small sippy cup and Petra pushes it away. She wants the good stuff, smart girl.
After feeding Petra, Elise puts her in the play pen and gives her some toys to play with. Happily, Petra takes to playing. Elise goes back to the crib and looks down at Johanie. She is wide awake and watching intently. Crystal blue eyes now. “How do they change like that?”
Elise picks her up and over to the change table again. Quickly she changes her as well and places the dirty cloth diaper in the sealed container and closes the lid. Over to her small two chair table and she sits down to finish her own breakfast and finish feeding Johanie with her curious eyes.
Today she will be allowed to leave the girls at the children’s center until 3:00. There are clocks throughout the city so she always knows what time it is and today Elise is not going to go to the women’s center, to the gym or the craft center. She is not even going to the library which has proved useless so far. She wants to know if Melisa is telling the truth or if she is mistaken. There is no way such a remarkable world could be so cruel.
Elise had already tried to get off the bus at stops in other areas and it refused to let her off. She had not been so persistent she would be reported, she hoped. What she had done though, is look out the windows and determine that she could walk to where the bus would not let her out. Melisa had told her that they wear different colors in different sectors. Looking down, Elise had never seen a green dressed woman anywhere else other than the sector she lived in and the immediate area around the Library.
She exits her front door and walks past the row of identical one-story units. All Identical doors with identical shuttered panels behind which she knows is a refrigerator and on the other side of the front doors is the dirty laundry cubby hole. She has seen women in yellow putting things in or taking the empties away but she has never spoken to them. When she gets home, the dirty diapers will be gone and clean ones will be inside. Same with all dirty clothes. And her refrigerator will have whatever she is to prepare her meals with. She has seen yellow dressed women in several sectors but they never speak to anyone.
She gets to the bus stop and stands waiting. 2 other women are waiting but Elise does not recognize them. The bus silently arrives and lowers to allow easy access. Elise examines it carefully to try to figure out how it works. She stoops to look underneath and then follows the other women on. Two stops later it is now in front of the Library. She waits until it lowers and the door opens, she steps out. Another slightly cool damp day. The people around seem robotic, nobody smiles, every woman she sees seems to be just going through the motions. She feels invisible.
This sector is where the administrators live and Elise has been told she is never to talk with anyone here. She is only allowed to access the library. As she is dressed in her sector colors, she is easily differentiated by any of the women she may meet here. They all have Red outfits, Elise has Green. She is going to change into a red outfit she has in her backpack. She is hoping she can slip into the washroom unnoticed and change. She had made the dye from chemicals and plants she had found in the city and had dyed the clothes several times, the red was close but not perfect. Because she now had no spare outfit, she had to wash hers every night before bed. She would need to find a way to acquire another one before her annual exchange in august. So far, she had not been caught.
Elise exits the washroom and walks straight out the exit, heart pounding, sweating and terrified. Another red outfitted woman passes her as she exits and doesn’t give her a second glance. So far so good.
Elise walks down the street and crosses into the next sector. Nobody even notices her as all the women she sees are obviously preoccupied with whatever they are involved in. Her mind drifts as she walks, how does one become an administrator and did she go to school with anyone who was going to be one. She didn’t recall anyone ever talking about or wanting to be one. They had administrators at school, the teachers all seemed to be under their authority but Elise had rarely ever had one of them to her talk unless she asked them a question or they wanted to correct her in some way.
Block by block, Elise walks and nobody pays any attention to her. She is now in a sector where they have blue outfits. She has never seen anyone in a blue outfit before, I wonder what they do here? The buildings are much taller here and she is not sure if the women here lived in them or not. There were several official looking buildings and then a few blocks later some massive, filthy, long buildings. Broken windows, flat roofs and no decorations at all. The streets were grimy here and there was no grass at all, concrete and dirt. She had never seen this place from the busses or the trains.
Almost nobody on the street but it was noisy here. High screeching sounds, crunching and a loud grinding noise interspersed the quiet. No busses. Another red suited woman passed on the other side of the street. She had a purposeful, steady walk. Elise needed to look more like that to avoid suspicion.
Time to turn around and go back. Just then a loud wailing starts up and goes for about 30 seconds. Within minutes hundreds of women exit the building in dirty blue outfits. Hair up, purposely heading away from the massive building. As they leave, other women seem to be coming from the opposite direction but they are in clean blue outfits. They also have their hair up but they come in drabs. After the stream of women leaving the building diminishes, the women arriving continue. Elise realizes she had been standing there for several minutes and may draw attention so she purposely and briskly walks back in the direction she came.
Back at the library she heads straight into the washroom. Another woman was in there when she arrived so she pretended she was using the toilet until the other woman left. Quickly, she changes back into her green outfit and stuffs her red one into the pack. Once done she exits the washroom and heads into the library to look at books and to ensure her presence was recorded. Heart pounding, she slowly peruses the books in the history section. Nothing new here.
Elise puts the books back on the shelves and goes over to the desk to sign out. She gets the librarians attention, “I forgot to sign in when I came in. Can I just sign out?”
A bored looking woman behind the desk says, “whatever”.
Elise signs out. She then turns and leaves, not even acknowledging two women she knows from her block. “That will get them talking,” Thinks Elise.
2:45. At children’s center number 4, Elise enters the large playroom where she believes her oldest, Petra will be. Over in the far corner, several girls aged 2 to 3 are circled around Petra who has built a large horse, completely from plastic blocks. It looks almost big enough that Petra could ride it. Standing back, two older administrators are watching.
Petra stands beside the now complete horse, and before Elise can stop her, throws her leg over the horse and mounts it. Elise gasps, Petra smiles, the administrators take notes. Petra bounces up and down as if she is actually riding it. To Elise’s amazement, it doesn’t fall apart.
The next thought that came to Elise’ mind. She has never seen a horse and has never shown one to Petra. The only pictures Elise had ever seen of a horse was in some books she had read when in School. There are no books with horses in them at the library now and there is absolutely no way Petra had ever seen one. Elise did not even know if horses actually existed.
The two administrators closed the books they were writing in, turned and walked out of the hall. Elise was stunned. Petra had just built an image of something she had never seen and it actually stood and that was even more incredible. She went over and praised her daughter and prepared her to leave. At that point a young administrator came into the hall.
“You can leave Petra here for a bit. The Chairwoman would like to see you. Come this way.
Elise is thinking to herself. “I wonder if they know what I was doing today?”
The young administrator leads Elise through a maze of small offices and cubicles. All with red clothed woman; reading files, working on books or writing. The entire office was a beehive of activity.
She sits her down in a small waiting area with some hard chairs and one desk. Elise looks around at the unpleasant, austere environment. She cannot see any of the activity going on but she can hear muffled voices as some converse. She picks up the occasional dominant phrase or even word. They are all reporting on what they are observing with the children. Interesting.
After what feels like a considerable time, the same young administrator once again appears. Without speaking, she motions for Elise to follow her. Once again, they proceed through another maze of offices and work stations. The young administrator stops at a large double door. The most unique one in the whole building. Solid wood, inlaid carvings and curious symbols. Totally out of place. The doors open inward. The young administrator beckons Elise in but she is obviously not going in herself.
Fearfully now, Elise reluctantly enters, as soon as she is clear, the double doors silently close, by themselves! “Come, come, beckons a voice from across the room.”
Behind a massive desk sits an elderly woman. Older than anyone Elise has ever seen. Thin grey hair, masses of wrinkles, pale blue eyes and wearing a patterned blouse and a light blue skirt. She is seated in a massive leather chair behind an ornate polished hardwood desk. Stacks of files everywhere. Two women in white are at each side, one with a long bottle on a cart with hoses out the top that appear to be connected to a mask that the Old woman had loosely slung at her neck. The other woman just standing there, appearing ready.
The old woman covers her mouth and coughs. Examining Elise for a few moments, “Welcome Elise, I am Shelly Mclean.”
Elise is stunned. She has never had an administrator politely address her and not once have they ever introduced themselves.
The old woman struggles to stand. The nurse to her right helps her.
Extending her hand across the desk, “I am honored to meet you.”
Stunned. Elise mechanically extends her hand. The dichotomy of what is happening is overwhelming her. She is at once terrified and at the same time full of curiosity.
Several things contradict everything she has always known. This woman is older than any woman she has ever seen or even knew to exist. She always wondered where old people went but she, just like everyone she, never pondered that and for certain they never talked about it. The second contradiction was the office. While every building, office and residence is functional, nothing is ornate or unique.
The final contradiction. There is not even an illusion of equality here. Everything in this office would have cost far more resources than dozens of offices that could serve the same function. Unique clothes on the woman named Shelly Mclean and 2 nurses as well.
Elise manages a greeting, “pleased to meet you.”
“No need to be frightened young lady,” Shelly says as she struggles to sit down, the nurse aiding her. Another cough. “My time has almost come but I am quite certain I am looking at a brighter future.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know. We have so many secrets, so many lies. So many years of mistrust and deceit. How could you ever understand? I was there and I still don’t understand.”
“There. Where?”
“In due time my dear. In the meantime, I need to talk with you about some things that affect us immediately.”
“My girls are in the center. I was supposed to pick them up at 3:00.”
“They are being cared for; you need not worry.”
“But they will discipline me for being late. I lose 10 minutes for every minute late.”
“Do not worry dear. You girls are safe and you will not have time deducted. I run the facility and I can over rule anything the administrators do.”
“You are not an administrator?”
“No, I am a founder. One of the very last, I am afraid. My good friends Jinn Lee and Darlene have been working with me for many years from their own countries to right a wrong committed many, many years ago. I have not seen either of them for some tme but they are also succeeding.”
“What wrong? Why not just make it public and we can make amends?”
“The number of people who amends are due is countless and many, including founders still harbor resentment and even hatred towards those we have harmed. On the other side, most do not even know they were harmed and the few who do, harbor so much hate and resentment they hold their own society hostage. They too owe amends; their forefathers played an even greater role in the actions that caused the greatest calamity to ever befall our once great civilization.”
“Forefathers, you mean the other society is men?”
“Correct. We only have 26 chromosomes; we need men to procreate but we also need men for so much more. Men in turn have learned the same lesson but they are stubborn and obstinate. They have developed technology to overcome most of what was lost but they are still missing something to be complete. We can talk about this later. Today I need to talk about you and your amazing children.” With that she opens a file and one by one extracts sketches, drawings, schematics and notes. Elise instantly recognizes them but says nothing, trying to pretend she doesn’t.
“I have never been to Candaria but I am told they have technology like this and far superior as well. What they lack is compassion, understanding, nurturing and love. They live in a mechanical world where they easily meet all their material needs but they have no purpose. They play sports and games where failure sometimes results in death yet they do not grieve the lost.”
“They have developed technology to reproduce their own but their offspring has no character, there is still something missing. They have rebellion on the rise and are concerned that it is going to drag them into another conflict. Their world has already been poisoned and it has started to rebel against them.”
“You mean that John was actually from another planet? I laughed at him when he told me that.”
“Oh, he is from another planet, and like you, he is unique.”
“Unique?”
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Post by texican on Jun 5, 2019 23:49:12 GMT -6
FT,
Thanks for the chapter....
More pieces drop into place.....
Need another chapter to help....
Texican....
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Post by forthteller on Jun 12, 2019 23:29:11 GMT -6
Chapter 5
John 321 wakes up
Day 8 of his currant work cycle starts like it does every day, even on his days off. His entire adult life, every day at the same time an annoying alarm sounds and rouses him from his sleep and it only goes off when both his feet hit the floor. John does not even know where the sound comes from as it feels like it comes from everywhere at the same time.
He goes to the sink in the corner and gets a cup of water. Drinking it back his mind wanders, “I wonder what Elise is doing.” Petra would be 2 now and if the last child he gave her was a girl she would be caring for her now too, “I sure hope it was a girl. Elise deserves that.”
A treadmill rises from the floor. A voice from the invisible speakers says, “3 minutes at 6 kph, 15 minutes at 12 kph and 2 minutes at 6 kph. Is there any reason you may need to have todays exercise modified?”
“None.”
“Step onto the treadmill, it will begin in 10, 9, 8 ….”
John 321 steps onto the treadmill and starts slowly running as the treadmill picks up speed. As he runs, he begins to think about the mandatory exercise he has to do every day. Tomorrow he will be lifting weights for his 20 minutes and the day after that speed where he will be required to run at 85 percent of his maximum capacity. His chip monitors everything he does and he thinks the chip data gets sent to Data Central where his routine is prepared and sent back. He would rather run hard more often and skip the weights but that is not permitted. He is required to do his daily exercise and failure to do so always results in deductions from his credit account.
On earth he had gained weight and lost fitness even though he attempted to maintain his regimen. Once back on Candaria, he had been fined and had been required to exercise twice daily for the first 10 cycles back and then twice every second day for another 4 cycles. This cycle was the first time he was back to his regular 1 time a day. His friend Brad 276, had to do the morning routine and also a second one in the evening, he always had. Neither knew why.
After morning exercise, he heads into the small bathroom, not even bothering to close the door. He takes his Quick 3-minute shower and has a quick shave; both things he is privileged to be able to do every other day. He is ready to get dressed so he opens his drawer next to the sink and pulls out one of his 2 sets of clothes and puts them on.
Underwear, Socks, Work pants and a work shirt. Grey, non descript. He has worn the same clothes for his entire adulthood and when they are worn out his Android exchanges them for new ones, exactly the same. She also washes them every night after he goes to sleep. There must be a cleaning facility somewhere in the building or somewhere else that she takes them to. He had asked her before where and she had refused to answer him, “I wonder if she will answer now?”
By the time John 321 steps out of the bathroom his bed is already folded up into the wall and a table has dropped from the same wall. A chair is already there, attached to the table like a bench. Melisa has already placed his meal on the table. Two square white tablets about 5 cm and 2 cm deep. 1 square green tablet and 1 brown tablet the same size. He picks them up and eats them without even bothering to look at what color he had. They all tasted the same to him, not like the food he at with Elise on earth or the food he can get at the pub.
“Melisa, can I ask you a question?”
“Yes, you can. If I know the answer, I will tell you.”
“Is there any information you know that you cannot or will not tell me?”
“I do not know that answer. You have not yet asked me a question I have data for but do not have authorization to answer.”
“Fair enough. What do you do at night?”
“I prepare your unit and your possessions for the next day. I then connect to my station and enter sleep mode.”
“Do you dream?”
“Not as humans do but my files are updated at night.”
“Where do you go to do my laundry?”
“A laundry drone passes your door in the hallway at exactly 1:13 every night and returns at 2:29.”
“Do you know where it washes the clothes?”
“No. I do not. You should leave for your work term now. It begins in 21 minutes and if you leave now you will have a 4-minute window should something unforeseen happen.”
“Ok, I’m gone but we are going to do some talking tonight.”
“I look forward to it.”
“Looking forward to it?” John 321 muses as he hurries to the bank of elevators and one is already opening as he approaches. He gets on and it quickly descends to the ground, he hasn’t even told it where he wants to go. Once out of the elevator he walks out of the building, doors open automatically and his hover car is there when he gets outside. In it he hops and Max heads straight to his place of work. Not a word. Lowering to the ground the door opens as it hovers about 12 centimeters from the ground. John hops out.
Into the building he walks. Doors open as he approaches. He heads down the hallways to his work station and once again the display board detects his presence and gives him his daily assignments.
His work monitors voice sounds. “Your work has been found to be well above acceptable levels. Production control has assigned a greater workload to you and increased your compensation accordingly. In addition, a new engineer has been assigned to your unit effective next cycle. He will work with you and acquire experience with your assistance. You will be compensated accordingly.”
“Is this assistant an engineer or is he a technician like me?”
“He is an engineer, trained at the state University in Settlement 26b. It is time to begin todays tasks. Android 753 is in position and ready. Begin.”
John 321 thinks to himself, “I work for robots. I am a robot. I would rather live like Elise, at least she has some control over her life.” With almost no thought he mechanically starts his diagnostic.
2 hours into his shift, Android 761 is complete and ready to be sent to storage so he activates it and gives it the command. It responds by proceeding down the hall, heading to the next available station, plugs itself in and drops into sleep mode.
So far, he has been able to diagnose, do minor repairs and approve for service all but unit 744, 748 and 756. Those units are stored in a different area and are plugged in to maintain charge but not into the grid for updating. These units need more extensive repairs and will need parts which he has already ordered. It will be a good opportunity to start training his new assistant. “I should be promoted to an E5 by now, I think I will check with personnel to see.”
Back in his workshop, john places an online enquiry to personnel for an employment evaluation. The response is almost instant. Today at hour 6 of his shift, Marcel 169 will see him for 25 minutes. John 321 did not even know the director of personnel was in this building and he was certain he did not see any workers that were senior management and above. Must be someone in his office will see him.
John 321 continues working until hour 5.87. He shuts off the android he is servicing, takes his smock off and steps to his small sink to wash his hands. He combs his hair in the mirror and straightens his collar. Out the door he confidently strides. He gets to the elevator and here he actually has to push the button to summon it. It arrives and he steps in.
“Destination.”
“Marcel 169.”
The elevator begins to rise, stopping in a few floors, the doors open and John 321 is about to step out until the speaker announces, “this is not the floor for your destination, John 321, your floor will be the next stop. An older man he does not recognize steps on. John looks out the door and sees desks, hundreds of them, all with a person in a suit working on plans, some working on computer consoles and a few conversing. There is quiet classical music playing. The doors close, the elevator says, “Destination”.
“Steve 322.”
The elevator stops again, “John 321, this is your floor, left 110 meters, the door to the right is your destination.”
The man in the suit has not said a word. He has not even looked at John 321. It was as if John was invisible. John had looked carefully at the mans face, head and neck to determine if he was an android and was convinced, he was human. As an engineer he probably resided in the same community John lived in but there were over 200 high rise buildings in the district so it is possible he had never seen him. Also, john entered the building by a different door than all the engineers. He is the only one he knows of that actually works in his own work station. All the others work in groups of 3 to 5 with a workshop no larger than him.
He steps out the elevator and turns left. He paces out 110 meters and passes several men in suits on the way. Not one man even acknowledges his existence. At the appropriate door he stops. It has detected his chip and opens. John steps in to an outer waiting room. A man is seated behind a desk, computer consul in front of him. He is not wearing a suit but is wearing a light blue button up shirt. “Marcel 169 will see you at exactly 6:00. Have a seat.”
John 321 sits. “I am a little early. I did not know if I could find the office so easily.” The man does not respond.
Uneasily, John shuffles in his chair. He rehearses what he wants to say and as he does so, he begins to get uneasy and nervous. Then he realizes, there is no reason to be uneasy. Several other firms had already offered him jobs and one had been persistent. Thousands of suits available, he must be unique.
The door to Marcel 169’s office opens and John gets up and walks through it. The man at the computer console does not say a word. The door closes after John 321 exits.
Marcel 169, dressed in an even more expensive suit than John 321 has ever seen stands and extends his hand. “Pleased to meet you John.” Gray hair, fit, about 190 cm tall, this is the first older man he has ever met.
Shocked, John 321 extends his hand and shakes Marcel 169’s. “Pleased to meet you as well, Marcel 169.”
“Just Marcel in here please. I don’t see any others here so no need to be so formal.”
John 321 and his friends use first names outside of work and at the racetrack but never in the workplace or on official or commercial business. This was a shock; Marcel 169 was one of the most senior executives at Mansoor surfacing. As director of personnel, he supervised the entire workforce, production, administrative, installation and service. Thousands of employees in several facilities.
Marcel motions towards a comfortable chair and says, “take a seat.” He pushes a button on a console on his desk and says, “Max 333, bring us 2 cups of black coffee and two scones.”
John is even more shocked.
“Wondering why you are here?”
“I am.”
Opening a file of hard copied charts and graphs, “you are the most productive employee in the company yet you are not even trained as an engineer or an engineering technician. The androids you service have a 98.376 percent efficiency rating and your service costs are the lowest in the company. Some in the company want you gone because you make them look bad and bonuses are down. As it is my decision, I would like you to train the lead engineers from each maintenance department with the goal of increasing their efficiency instead.”
John reluctantly says, “I am not an engineer. They will not work with me.”
“They will if they want to work.”
The door opens and the man from the outer office steps in with a tray and places it on Marcels desk. “Would there be anything else, Marcel 169.”
“No. Also, you can cancel my next appointment. We are going to be a little longer here.”
Max 333 doesn’t respond. He turns and as he passes John, the look of scorn is more than obvious. “Some pissed off people here,” Thinks John.
“You have been here what? 5 years plus the 2 years you were on earth. I don’t know if you are aware, productivity in the solution department and in the congealing area were both down by over 2 percent during your 2 years away and are already back to previous levels and exceeding that over the last few weeks. We are talking about millions of credits lost. Heads are going to roll during the next board meeting and it won’t be mine.”
“I just do my job. My monitor increases expectations periodically but I almost always meet my quotas.”
“I am aware. The unit monitor is programmed to constantly challenge your productivity while still taking into account the productivity of all the other units. According to my graph here, you meet or exceed expectations 94 percent of the time and I have noted from the incident reports that every time you failed to meet expectations, an unforeseen line failure required your attendance for a substantial period of time.”
“I am trying to cut down on those unforeseen failures by reprograming the optical, vibration and temperature sensors so I can perform maintenance before failures happen.”
“I am aware, so, here is the question. How long should we send in trainees so you can help them to develop some of your habits.”
“It will depend on their aptitudes. I have some men working on my car with me who will never be great and one who will probably be beating me in the future. They all have the same training and put in the same effort. Brad 276 has it, the gift.”
“Brad 276? Is he an engineer?”
“Yes, from the school in 16d. He completed in 2107. He works over at General Dynamics as a gyroscope technologist.”
“No experience that would be of value here?”
“He could learn but I doubt he would want to. He makes good credit and loves flight.”
“Ok, back to you. Would you like to interview the candidates for training?”
“I don’t think that would be of any value. If they work with me for one week, I would know. Otherwise, education and previous experience do not indicate aptitude as accurately as actually doing the job under real conditions. You realize that training new people will reduce my personal productivity, don’t you?”
“Your position will be elevated to an E6 and your pay will be increased accordingly. At that level you will report to the Production manager who is on board with this project. You will no longer be given daily targets. Your targets will be intangible until the trainees are in place for at least a year.”
“E6 is a senior engineer level. I am not an engineer. I actually asked to see personnel to request a promotion to E5 which I thought was the best I could get without the designation.”
“I have secured board permission to bypass protocol and elevate some individuals beyond their educational and genetic levels.”
“Genetic?”
“I should not be telling you this but all current engineers, programmers, doctors, professionals, and government personnel are from labs, genetically engineered to have certain skills and aptitudes. We know what they are destined to be before they are born. We assess our future needs and we bid on clusters of workers while they are still embryos. They are then sent to the appropriate facilities after birth where they are raised and observed until year 4 and after reassessment they are sent to matching schools. You are human born and of unknown parentage. Our labs have done genetic tests of your DNA and your lineage is not in any of our data banks.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know why. The information is here in this printout that arrived with the rest of your information. I just thought you may want to know, you are unique.”
“Are there others?”
“Human born, yes. There are colonies outside our cities, we occasionally get into conflicts with them and sometimes we trade with them. They have both men and women and they raise their own children, male and female. Boys used to come from them after birth but no colonies give up their children any more. They have extensive defensive weaponry and the casualties are severe when we clash, both sides.”
“We also get boys from earth in trade and we place them into schools with others and observe them as they progress. Unless there is certainty as to lineage these boys will not go on to advanced education. You were one of these children.”
“What do we give the earth as trade?”
“Technology and labor. We sent crews to build hover busses, design and build factory upgrades and rebuild roads and bridges that had fallen into disrepair. We also built several single-story cities for them. On two different continents.”
“How many men did you send?”
“I don’t know but I think thousands. Maybe more. They are all still there and it is unlikely they will ever return.”
“Seriously. Never return. Do the females there want the men to stay forever?”
“The men we have there don’t care and most of the women don’t know they are there. Work there, work here, to most men who cares. We have provided them with better conditions there and they enjoy less gravity, cleaner air and probably longer life expectancy. They have no contact at all with the women with the exception of the men who are chosen for the breeding program. If I was a younger man, I would volunteer to go as well.”
John 321 has heard enough and it will take a while to digest what he had just heard and to decide if it was even true. His biggest thought right now was why not just live with women, seems to be more logical and practical. “So, I was born on earth. How come I don’t remember my mother? And why would we not have all our children born by women?”
“Compared to us, the earth population is very small. I have heard that vast areas of it is uninhabitable. The only way for a company to survive is growth so the demand for more workers will always be the primary driver. We have partial ownership of a lab in 12b and will be expanding that facility to enhance supply but lack of workers inhibits growth.”
“Can we not use androids?”
“We could but we cannot develop critical thinking and learning skills in them without the risk that they develop beyond our control. Some 50 years ago we had to destroy thousands of androids because they had evolved to a point where they would no longer follow commands and the fear was, they were on the verge of becoming sentient.”
“Seriously, Sentient robots and computers?”
“They called it AI. Artificial intelligence, many believe it is possible and that those androids had developed it. I was only a boy but I am told the androids took up arms and defended themselves. Laws were passed so we would never be able to create a self-actualizing computer or robotic device. Penalty is death for even trying.”
“Took up arms, Lasers?”
“They had earth weapons I am told. Ballistic rifles that shoot missiles of lead, brass and steel. We had previously developed weapons that could interrupt their electrical circuitry and we were able to put them down quickly.”
“I have seen weapons on the police androids but I have never seen one fired. How do they work?”
“I don’t know, I have never seen one fire either.”
John 321 knew that was a lie but he let it pass, he was more interested about where he came from and why he was different from most men. “Doesn’t creating men in labs seem a lot like sentient androids.?”
“Lab developed men are usually uniform by batch and are career specific but they are human and have self will. Some will differ slightly and, in some cases, a great deal. Human born boys are usually inferior and most will never be more than common workers. We have determined that they are almost all offspring from the same pool of male donors so we don’t get a lot of variety. Occasionally one or two stand out. Some of your exceptional abilities became apparent early in your childhood and one of our training people informed us about you. We compensated the school for your expenses, we purchased your rights and sponsored your education from year 8 on. Our laws prevented us from sending you to advanced education so you came here directly out of basic education.”
“That was almost 20 years ago. I never knew.”
“If I was not sitting here telling you this, you would never have known. I know you have offers from other companies but we can block your movement. The investment we have in you will have to be compensated for by any firm interested in taking over your services and the cost is more than many would want to pay. There are those in the company here who would authorize your transfer for one of the offers we have received.”
“I don’t even have a choice.”
“You do. We live in a free enterprise society. You can sell your services to any company you choose but we have a substantial investment in you and we need to be compensated by whoever takes you on.”
“How much exactly do you have invested?”
“You have been paid 3 to 4 times the rate a common laborer earns for several years. We paid for your trip to earth, we paid for your education and for your rights. Also, we own Blackstock coatings who is the primary sponsor of your car.”
“For starters, I don’t think anyone owes you for my wages, I earned them. Also, you get fair value for your advertising on my car. The rest maybe, how long before my slate is clean?”
Typing into his keyboard, Marcel frowns. “At E6 productivity, about 14 more years with the first scenario which I believe we could prove in corporate court. Even if we lose, 9 years.”
“You literally own me for at least 9 more years?”
“If you want to put it that way, I guess we do but we don’t own you; we own your services. The engineers in our firm cost us far more to develop and no company will ever compensate us enough for their services. They have no choice, you do.”
“I was not seriously considering any of those offers anyways. I like it here and I don’t plan on making any changes.”
“Okay. Effective today, you will be elevated to E6 pay and benefits. You still have to wear the same clothes because you are human born and uneducated but we have received permission to place epilates on your shirts and jackets to denote your level within the company. Only 2.7 percent of the personnel here are E6 or higher.” With that he hands two sets of red stripes to John 321. “Have your companion put these on tonight.”
John looks at the pieces of cloth, “Do the people in the plant and elsewhere know what these mean?”
“Absolutely. There was a time when pieces of cloth like these were worn by everyone to denote levels of responsibility. Now, we wear different clothes for different occupations and those who work together know who is in charge. In very large operations and in some areas where multiple occupations work together, these are permitted to identify the leaders.”
“Those in the office and in the elevator had no way of knowing I am an E4 right now then?”
“You are outfitted as a common laborer so they see you as that. The epilates will identify you as a superior and the trainees who come to you for training will accord you the respect you deserve.”
“How do workers know what level you are when you are not in the office?”
“Those who work with me know me and those who do not, have no need to know what position I hold. I like it that way. Back to you, my assistant will set up a schedule for you to have an opportunity to work with all our candidates and you can then select which ones you want to train. I have only been given a 2-year timeline and we need to show results by then.”
“Ok, I will get back to work, I still have several androids waiting for my attention or we will have some production slow downs by the end of next cycle.”
“In the elevator, 2 other men were going down, both in engineers’ suits. The difference in demeanor was demonstrable when one of them saw the stripes in his hand and motioned to the other. They both snapped to attention. John 321 was very uncomfortable with that. “Man, I hope that doesn’t happen outside as well.”
In his car later that day, Max congratulates John 321 on his promotion.
“You already know?”
“The data has already been downloaded. Melisa has already prepared your property for the move.”
“The move. What move?”
“Your currant settlement is for E4 level professionals, engineers and athletes and some human born experts. You will be moved to settlement 12a where those of your standing reside.”
“I don’t want to move; my friends live here. I like my place.”
“You do not have a choice. The transfer has already taken place, a new person will be in your unit tomorrow morning.”
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Post by NCWEBNUT on Jun 13, 2019 5:35:08 GMT -6
This is an outstanding story, not the usual shoot and scoot but something to make one think a little, and right now I'm thinking we need to see more Please
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Post by papaof2 on Jun 13, 2019 13:35:50 GMT -6
Some of this reminds me of an old song with the line "I owe my soul to the company store"...
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Post by texican on Jun 13, 2019 21:53:31 GMT -6
Some of this reminds me of an old song with the line "I owe my soul to the company store"... For at least 9 years.... Thanks FT for the chapter.... Now it gets really interesting.... Texican....
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Post by forthteller on Jun 21, 2019 0:11:41 GMT -6
Chapter 6
Elise continues her enquiries.
“Unique” Elise had gone home with her girls and that adjective had rang through her head the whole way home. Looking around, every unit was identical, the streets were all the same, every woman she saw on the way home looked similar, they all dressed the same, wore their hair the same and they even walked the same. In fact, they even acted the same.
Once she gets home to her little unit, Elise looks at herself in the mirror and reflects. “I look similar, I dress similar, what makes me unique?”
After feeding, changing and dressing her babies she puts Petra in the playpen and Johanie in her crib. Both do what they always do, Johanie coos and drifts off to sleep, Petra starts building something. Elise goes to the fridge and takes out her dinner. Beans, a piece of chicken and some rice. Elise places the metal plate into her small oven and turns it on.”
After she eats, she rinses her plate and puts it in the refrigerator along with the empty mush container that contained Petra’s meal. She wipes up and notices that Petra is drifting off. Putting the little girl down, she is careful to not wake her. Once done, Elise goes to her hiding spot and retrieves her most recent sketches. To her surprise, the original ones that John had done were also there. Also, all the graphs and everything else that had gone missing were back, except they had been taken from her desk and not her hiding spot.
Quickly, she gets up and goes to the closet to see if the models were there and they were. Looking at the little electronic models John had made her; “I know what is Unique. Everyone I know accepts that this is the way it has to be but I know it can be so much more. I know this is not the way life should be and I want to help change it. We need to get to decide how we want to live and what jobs we want to do. Who and what gender we spend our time with and we should get to choose the leaders who will enable us to be what we are meant to be. Meant to be, what does that mean? Elise went to sleep pondering those thoughts and that night she dreamt for the first time in her life.
In her dream, she was with John and they had all three children, including her son, now in his teens. Obviously pregnant, she was sitting at a large wooden table and they were all having breakfast together. Conversation flowed as the children discuss what they were doing in school today and who was going to be there. The room they are in is not general use as there are fixed counters and cabinets, a large double sink, a table with 6 non folding chairs around it, 2 windows and 2 doors and the sun is shining outside.
As the three children leave through one of the doors, held open by John, she follows them out, around the large unit and she looks out on a street of closely packed individual units, all substantially larger than any she had ever seen and most had more than one level. Trees line the curious looking roadway and as she watches, a hover bus stops two units down. The kids run to the bus as it crouches to allow access. Several other children join from other houses and within minutes, 15 or so children and teens have boarded the bus. It levitates and silently drives away.
Waking with a start, Elise has a vivid memory of her dream, pondering that she had never seen trees but had heard they exist and that she had never even heard of units that were not part of a greater collective. Also, how would she even know what her son looked like or if he was even alive. She hoped she would remember this dream.
Time for breakfast. She opens the fridge, knowing what is in it before she even looks. Abruptly, she realizes that she has exactly the same thing every Wednesday and always has. Recalling that on the table in her dream, the family, her family, had a variety of foods that she had never had, in fact some she had never even seen, she wondered if this had ever been a reality.
Shaking off the dream and getting back to her real life, Elise sets about cleaning and tidying her little unit. She then opens her closet so she can wash her only set of clothes. Inside are two green sets. Clean, neat and folded. Elise does not know if she has been found out and is in trouble or if Shelly McLean had someone put it there. A feeling of exhilaration overcomes her. She has not felt so alive her whole life. “interesting”, she says to nobody.
Today she was going back to the Children’s center number 4 because the founder, Shelly Mclean had authorized extra time for her children in the care center. She had not spoken to any of the women she knows about the old woman but what would she even say? Nobody would believe her, they all believed everything and never questioned anything. Even those in less fortunate situations, like the hundreds of workers she sees every day doing the menial chores in her section, never question anything.
Quickly, Elise retrieves her red outfit but doesn’t notice that there is now a gold patch on the left breast pocket. She packs it in the bottom of her carry bag and then puts diapers, wipes and other baby supplies on top. Petra starts up with a low whimper. Elise quickly attends her, knowing that she can climb right out of the crib now. She puts her on the ground and Petra heads over to the small bathroom to relieve herself. Having skipped potty training, Petra balances herself over the adult sized toilet to go. Elise had not taught her that either. Amazing.
She gets Petra’s mush warmed up and on the table. Petra cleans up and comes to the table and allows Elise to pick her up and place her in the lone highchair. Elise knows that she will soon be wanting to sit in the other chair that is folded and stowed away at present but once that happens the space will be even more cramped. “Good morning little lady, I bet you are hungry.”
Petra takes her food and feeds herself, drinks her soy milk and points at Elise’s breast. “Still hungry,” she announces in a stumbling but recognizable language.
“You can talk? How”
“I listening.”
Elise recalls the conversation she had with Melisa just a few weeks ago. What had she heard and what will she tell the administrators? “Do you talk to the people in red?”
“No.”
“To anyone?”
“You.”
“Very good. You can learn to talk to me.”
Johanie starts fussing, Elise gets up and attends her. Petra slips under the high chair table and heads over to her playpen pulling the lone chair behind her. She climbs the chair and slings herself over the playpen rail and in. Elise half pays attention and is thinking that there is no way she stays in there if she wants out. Petra starts building and Elise takes Johanie over to the chair now in front of the playpen.
Feeding Johanie and watching Petra tying to fit incompatible pieces together is temporarily fulfilling. Elise knows that as soon as the administrators realize how advanced Petra is, they will take her to one of their schools and she will never see her again. That day is coming soon, a tear drops to her cheek.
“Sad mommy?”
“No sweetheart, mommy is proud of you. Please don’t talk to the women in red or to anyone else in the play center.”
“I won’t. Just you.”
Pushing the double stroller into children’s center number 4, the largest of them all, Elise looks at the functionality and sameness of the building. Very new, tall ceilings, straight walls, plain doors and almost colorless.
The playrooms are the only places where there is any color. Colorful walls, covered with art and walls lined with cubby holes filled with colorful toys and games. There is a gym down the hall and all the children go there for active games and some sports. Mothers are not allowed in there to watch and Elise has no idea what they do in there. Now that Petra has started talking, Elise is hoping she will be able to tell her why and what they do there.
Inside, two red clothed administrators wordlessly take control of the two girls. Johanie is taken into the nursery where the infants are and Petra is silently led over to the area where the older girls are engaged in activities. Elise waves and prepares to leave.
As she is turning to the door, an administrator is just exiting a storage area with an interesting looking contraption. Two large wheels with black strips. A weird looking thing in the middle that could be a very uncomfortable seat. A handle at the front. She takes it over to Petra as Elise is shooed out the door by a young administrator. Under her breath, “dam, I have seen one of those in a history book. I think they are called bicycle or something like that.“
Out on the street, Elise waits for the bus. One comes by in a bit and she gets on. Several other women are on it, fortunately none are likely to strike up a conversation or will want to join her at the library. 25 minutes and several stops later it stops in front of the Library. Elise gets off with the others. This time she goes in the library and signs in before heading over to the washroom to change.
Inside the stall she removes her green clothes and pulls on the red slacks and is putting the blouse on when she notices the gold patch on the right breast pocket. Without saying it but thinking, “what is this?” No words, no symbols, nothing. Just a 10 cm octagonal gold patch. She had never seen one on any administrator and had not even seen any patches on anyone ever.
Frightened now. She decides to wear it anyways and see what happens. In her mind the worst that could happen is that she may get caught and have some of her privileges revoked. They wouldn’t take her girls yet and all the rest she could do without. Out of the stall she strides and out the bathroom door. Out in the foyer it is empty so nobody even saw her leave the bathroom. “So far so good.” As she rounds the corner and out the front doors.
Half a block away an administrator is chastising 2 women who had gone out of bounds. One was crying and it was obvious to Elise that she was very distraught and had made an honest mistake. The other was a little more defiant but it was obvious that she too had not deviated from the prescribed path from the bus to the library on purpose.
The administrator casts a glance Elise’s way and abruptly stops. Coming to a rigid stance and addressing Elise as Mam, she attempts to make it look like not much was happening here. “Mam, I am just helping these two new women get to the library without straying into restricted zones. On your way ladies.”
Elise is stunned. Mam, and the woman is deferring to her as if she is a superior. What should she say or do? “Carry on, a little less severe next time.”
The woman in red utters, “yes mam,” and scurries away.
Looking at the gold patch on her blouse, Elise wonders what it means. Also, she had never seen one ever but that woman obviously knew what it was.
Emboldened, Elise hurries in the direction of the derelict buildings she had seen before. She once again hears the cacophony of noises and see the occasional red dressed person but nobody challenges her as she purposefully makes her way to the building she had seen all the women go into. She wanted to see what was inside.
Across the dirty littered street is the building. She pauses at the corner, no busses, no traffic, nothing. Erie! She crosses and gets to the now closed double door. She passes it without checking to see if it is able to open and continues to walk along the front of the building. 300 meters down is a small alleyway and she turns into it she can see two open doors along the building and an open door on the identical building next to it. A crescendo of noises emanate from both buildings.
She walks the 10 meters to the first door and glances in. She sees a room with several administrators at desks and standing at large picture windows. Swallowing hard, she steels her courage and walks in, attempting to look purposeful. The first woman to see her looks up from her desk, registers a look of recognition on her face and gets back to whatever she was doing without saying anything. The same response comes from all the others and she is permitted to walk right over to the picture windows where she looks out over a gigantic room, hundreds of meters across and as far as she can see.
No one speaks to her; they all attempt to pretend she is not even there. It is almost as if she was invisible. In the gigantic room are rumbling and groaning machines. Some of the sketches John drew came to mind as she looked over the scene. Some of the books she had seen in school also came to mind. This is a factory and all the women she had seen are working in there. Hundreds, more than that. She can not tell from here what they are making but this is obviously a textile mill she finally decides, connecting what she had read in school and looking at the equipment she can see clearly enough.
Having seen enough, she turns and all the women quickly get back to whatever they were doing, trying to pretend they were not looking at her. Very curious. She exits the room, giving a nod to the woman she had seen on first entry. A look of relief registers on the womans face. Incredible.
Across the alleyway she heads and enters the other open door. Exactly the same scenario happens and at this picture window the workers are working with metal. She cannot determine what they are making or manufacturing because she had no reference to go by. The metal or was it something else was being bent and formed into shapes that made no sense to her but this was obviously another factory with hundreds more workers.
Out of the factory, the feeling of dread overcomes her. “How long do these women work in there and do they do it everyday? Where do they live?”
Elise walks East on the deserted street and as she passes, block by block the noises change but the scenery is identical. 2 blocks of Long low ramshackle buildings full of noise and 1 or 2 multi story plain looking buildings. The only people she sees are red clothed administrators. After several more blocks she comes to a high wall. Looking down the length she sees what looks to be an ornate building so she heads in that direction. Once there, she gets the same response from the women in and around the building. A second building is on the other side of an opening in the wall and a series of gates and fences separate these building from the other side. A line of shabbily clad women in different colored clothing are waiting. The ones in the front are conversing with the red dressed women. Occasionally a woman is turned back and sullenly heads into the recess of the sector beyond the wall. Most spend a few minutes talking and are ushered into one of the two buildings.
A hover bus arrives and drops in front of the building opposite Elise. Within minutes, 2 red dressed women followed by 20 or so women in yellow exit. They all get on the bus and it lifts off and drives away. Minutes later, another bus arrives and it too stops in front of the building, this time several red dressed women get off before 2 admittaturs lead a group of blue dressed women out of the building and they board the bus. It too leaves in a whoosh as a whistle sounds.
Groans and whistles and shouts of not fair sound. The people outside are extremely upset. One administrator near the gate says to the now dissipating line, come back tomorrow, we will have more positions open. The steel gates close with a clang. Elise looks up at the tall walls and a hint of wire can be seen. She steps back for a better look and can see more of it. Coiled up with pokey looking things on it. “Are these walls to keep women in or keep them out?”
Time to get back to the center. Elise trudges back to the library, attempting to keep back the tears. Her world is not what she thought. She really hoped to see the founder again so she could ask her more questions.
Back at the children’s center, Elise stands watching Petra with the older children. She walks over to the woman she presumes to be the senior administrator and asks if she would be permitted to see the founder today. The woman looks at her perplexed and asks in a questioning tone, “founder?”
“Yes. The woman I was taken to see yesterday.”
In an extremely condescending tone, “I was not informed of who you were taken to speak with yesterday and I do not know anyone named founder. And we most certainly do not use our names with your class.”
Taken aback. Elise does not know if she is lying or really does not know. Thinking to herself. “I guess I just have to wait until she sends for me again. I will continue to investigate until I get caught or until I see her again. I can get my own answers.”
Once in her little unit she does her daily chores and feeds her girls. Reflecting on what she saw today and thinking how lucky she was to be here. “Is it possible that punishment is banishment outside the safety of the city and the only way back is through servitude in one the massive factories she saw. Or are those women out there like her friend who did not do well in school? Would her badge permit her access to that area and would she be safe? Could she now ride the hover bus and get off at restricted stops with her red suit and gold badge? How could so many women be so blind and why is she suddenly able to see what is wrong?”
Elise goes to sleep that night pondering these thoughts and once again she dreams.
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Post by texican on Jun 21, 2019 12:42:12 GMT -6
FT,
An excellent descriptions of a despotic socialistic regime....
This is what the leftist liberal democraps and PTB want for the world....
As people awaken to what is really happening, then change will come....
Thanks for the chapter....
Texican....
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Post by forthteller on Jun 21, 2019 15:20:28 GMT -6
This is an outstanding story, not the usual shoot and scoot but something to make one think a little, and right now I'm thinking we need to see more Please Shoot and scoot is coming but it will be in the prequel. I actually wrote that part first but decided to flip to the consequences and as the story unfolds I am hoping to spiral into what happened? You may notice that the founder in chapter 4 and the old man in chapter 5 are the only people in the book who have last names and coincidentally they both have the same last name. Stay tuned.
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Post by forthteller on Jun 21, 2019 15:30:44 GMT -6
FT, An excellent descriptions of a despotic socialistic regime.... This is what the this is what leftist liberal democraps and PTB want for the world.... As people awaken to what is really happening, then change will come.... Thanks for the chapter.... Texican.... I wrote a poly sci thesis when I was in mount royal College that postulated that the political spectrum is not a line but a circle. Center left and center right at the top and as you go down the two half spheres the left gets more socialist and eventually communist while the right becomes more conservative and eventually fascist as it gets to the bottom of the right half sphere. They meet at the bottom where Fascism or total corporate ownership of everything including the government and it is almost indistinguishable from communism where unelected government owns everything including all the means of production and supply. Down the center runs libertarianism which can also devolve into total tribal warfare where the strongest controls everything. This book is going to exhibit all three societies. It was reviewed poorly and marked even worse by the left leaning Poly science instructor and I realized then, in 1983, how delusional we are in the world. Some things never actually change, they only evolve. Forthteller
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Post by texican on Jun 22, 2019 13:03:02 GMT -6
FT, An excellent descriptions of a despotic socialistic regime.... This is what the leftist liberal democraps and PTB want for the world.... As people awaken to what is really happening, then change will come.... Thanks for the chapter.... Texican.... I wrote a poly sci thesis when I was in mount royal College that postulated that the political spectrum is not a line but a circle. Center left and center right at the top and as you go down the two half spheres the left gets more socialist and eventually communist while the right becomes more conservative and eventually fascist as it gets to the bottom of the right half sphere. They meet at the bottom where Fascism or total corporate ownership of everything including the government and it is almost indistinguishable from communism where unelected government owns everything including all the means of production and supply. Down the center runs libertarianism which can also devolve into total tribal warfare where the strongest controls everything. This book is going to exhibit all three societies. It was reviewed poorly and marked even worse by the left leaning Poly science instructor and I realized then, in 1983, how delusional we are in the world. Some things never actually change, they only evolve. Forthteller FT, Aptly stated.... We are in for a world of hurt before things get better if they ever do.... Some things never change, they only evolve....
or....
Is it devolve....Texican...
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Post by forthteller on Jun 26, 2019 22:09:58 GMT -6
Chapter 7
John 321 gets lost in his new city
“Identity confirmed; access permitted. Proceed.” Announces the heavily armed security android.
Max rises and proceeds through the electronic entrance. The force field is invisible both when it is on and when it is off. John 321 has been informed that contact with it is instantly fatal and he has no reason to doubt that. On faith he sits inside as Max proceeds through it and into the neighboring E2 community.
They will not stop here as Max has informed him that he will be passing through an E2 city, an E3 city and eventually into his new E6 city, about a 30 minute trip. He had occasionally wondered where the E3s and E5s lived but because they never interacted outside work he had never found out. He did not expect to find out today either. The windows are always blacked out while they pass through other cities and as a result, he has no idea what lies on the other side of the many gates. In the past, he had travelled some distance to races and until recently, never even wondered what was on the other side. Now he wanted to know, “what has changed?’ Thinks John 321.
For some reason, Max does not black out the windows and John 321 can see outside from the inside. “Can the men outside on the street see me, Max?”
“Yes they can, John. I must allow visual access at all times. Even if you can not see outside, security must be able to see inside at all times.”
“Why can I see outside today.”
“I do not know John. I am unable to black out the windows.”
“Will security be able to know that I can see outside”
“Only if you make it obvious with your reaction to what you see out there.”
“Will I be in trouble if they find out I can see outside?”
“I do not know; I have no data available to indicate it has ever happened before.”
“Very well. I will try to not make it obvious I can see.”
“Because it may have never happened before, the security units may not even recognize any deviance in your behavior but it would be wise to attempt indifference.”
Looking at the shabby and decrepit area, littered deserted streets and massive, identical, highrise buildings. John 321 asks, “What type of city are we in, Max?”
“We are in an E2 city. The Men here work in manufacturing. There are multiple Larian Alloy mills here, parts manufacturing plants, Larian Alloy recycling facilities and in one area we will pass through before entering the next city there are several assembly plants.”
“Why don’t they use androids and robotics?”
“Androids and robotics are very costly, human workers are much more economical for most smaller companies.”
“So, the workers here do the kind of work my androids do”
“They work for struggling companies who have yet to be consumed by one of the larger corporations. It is felt that if these smaller companies were consumed and modernized, we would have no work for the men of lower breeding and without competition, the major companies would become uncontrollable. The 8 largest corporations all have a seat on the supreme council as well as one permanent member with no corporate affiliation. The ninth only votes in the event of a tie in all decisions. They strive to maintain competition to keep society productive.”
The hover car continues across the kilometers wide, massive city. John 321 makes a rhetorical comment that max decides to answer. “Lower breeding?”
“Engineers are cloned from recent copies of the originals. Athletes and Medical professionals are also bred from recent copies. Manual working class and agricultural workers are from older and more reasonably priced specimens and as such, there is less certainty as to suitability of clusters. The IQ and health quotient are frequently below average for many and some of the products are suitable only for mining and agriculture.”
“Products. We are talking about men. Individuals. Not cars and sidewalks. Do the clone development companies charge different amounts for different clones?”
“Yes, they charge by the specimen cloned and they all compete on price, quality, volume and delivery reliability.”
“How many companies grow clones?”
“6 main corporations develop a majority of the of clones in service but there are several smaller developers who have the rights to more specialized workers and leaders. For example, Exelcion predominantly develops E6 and higher capable management and government embryos. They only use first generation human born genetic material and many believe they practice gene splicing as well.”
“Government?”
“These are the men who administer and institute the rules we live by. My data does not indicate how their hierarchy works but the top government official has an E9 level.”
“Where do E9s live?”
“Each of the 8 largest corporations have one E9 and six E8s and 57 smaller corporations have one E8 and 7 E7s. The smallest companies are led by an E7. I have no data in my memory who these men are with the exception of Peter 209 who is the Chairman of Mansoor surfacing. Smaller corporations can only displace a major corporation to gain a seat on the council by becoming larger than one of the currant council members.”
“What happens to corporations who drop out of the top 8?”
“It has happened several times in the past. The corporations are usually broken up into smaller industry specific pieces and these pieces are usually absorbed by small or medium sized corporations. Some fragments will become stand alone corporations if they are stable enough, occasionally the corporations reorganize and compete for a spot on the board within a few cycles.”
“What happens to the leadership?”
“Some are expelled, others scramble to the top and end up leading the smaller pieces or get recruited by other corporations and the ones who have advanced from professional or technical levels will be demoted to their initial entry point, if they cannot become productive, they will be demoted to surplus labor communities in their initial level. E9’s always get demoted to E2 and none have ever been heard from again.”
“What level is Marcel 169?”
“Marcel 169 is an E8 and he headed Mansoor surfacing before it was absorbed by Petronas petrochemical 13 rotations ago.”
“Petronas Petrochemical. What is a petrochemical?”
“In the past men and women burned and used petrochemicals in every day products and transportation devices. The use of the product was a significant contributor to the destructive civil war and hastened the division between men and women.”
Looking out the window, John 321 sees large masses of men struggling with security drones near the entrance to the next city. “What is going on there?”
“E2 men who do not produce enough are released by companies and they live in this section. Companies who are experiencing growth and need workers to fill positions while they wait for new E2’s or who cannot afford new E2’s come here to acquire workers. At this moment a larger company with better jobs is taking on an additional pool of workers and these men are all hoping to be selected. At the new company, they will have an opportunity to become productive. A second release due to unproductivity results in permanent expulsion. A second release due to corporation needs results in a return to the surplus section but they will be on the priority list for new positions.”
Looking around, John notices that the buildings in this sector of the E2 city are even older and more run down that the ones he has seen so far. The number of people in the streets and congregating everywhere far exceed the number of units that could possibly be in those buildings. “Where do most of these men live?”
“They all live in this sector. They are not permitted into the working sectors unless they have a job.”
“There is not enough room for them all in the buildings I can see.”
“Unlike your city and even the working E2 and E3 cities, these men can’t afford assigned accommodations. They must acquire accommodations by bartering skills and abilities. The strongest and the most intelligent are the most likely to find shelter and even then, they will share that shelter with several other men who combine their ability to retain that shelter. Some men will manufacture weapons but the security droids have detectors to locate weapons and possession of a weapon is an immediate death sentence. Security droids rarely enter the zone, however.”
“What do they eat?”
“There are water sources in enough areas that there is no strategic advantage in controlling it and all men are issued enough food to sustain adequate health to be available to work. Refusing work if offered results in immediate sustenance suspension. The suspension will be for up to 7 days on the first refusal. Permanent on the second refusal. Some have been in the zone for years and have been able to disable their implants. My records do not indicate how many fit that description but it would be logical to assume that they would be the reason the security androids rarely go into the zone and when they do, in groups of 5 or more.”
“Are these men from every E level?”
“No. Higher E level cities have their own surplus zones and those cities dictate the rules and regulations. Your previous city has an evaluation committee that determines why a worker is unproductive. Those who are determined to not have the aptitude to achieve productive status but do make adequate effort are demoted to E2 and most will become productive there. Those who have the ability but do not achieve their potential go to the surplus worker zone and if they have not been selected for or have accepted another assignment within one sun cycle, they are expelled.”
“What happens to the athletes when they become unproductive?
“They can accept assignment to an E2 community and will be given an opportunity to become productive there. Refusal is grounds for immediate expulsion.”
“What kind of work would a man ever refuse that could be worse than starvation or expulsion?”
“Some are simply too lazy and convince themselves there is life beyond the cities. For others, they are too old or disabled to ever be productive and for the rest, mining and agriculture are very terrible jobs and only E1’s with extremely low asset value do these jobs. Because fatalities are so high there is always need for more workers.”
“Why are there so many fatalities?”
“Prolonged exposure to our suns can cause cancer in many workers. Even with chemical coverings, clothes and shelters, many get it within 5 years and diagnosis results in expulsion.”
“Expulsion? For getting ill from working?”
“Correct. Extensive restorative health care is too expensive to administer to E3 and below colonies. They all receive the mandatory vaccinations and are required to do daily health maintenance but when they acquire an illness or injury that would require extensive resources, they are expelled.”
Max continues on, “The mines are similar. No amount of protective clothing is adequate to prevent a viral invasion from the microbes released in the mines during extraction. These microbes cannot survive outside the mine so the minerals are safe by the time they are transported to smelters.”
“That is terrible. Why don’t we use androids in the mines and fields?”
“Previous generations tried but the androids suffered the same fate as men. Even the non synthetic all Larian Alloy robots lasted only months in the mines. The cost was prohibitive, using men who are considered expendable has been found to be the most cost effective.”
John 321 sees the gate to the next city coming up. “I want to know more once we are through into the next city. What is this one coming up?”
“An E3 administrative city. This is where Data central is located and where all the men who keep track of corporations and credits work. Also, all government rules and regulations are administered from here and all the Security drones are stored and dispatched from here. Warehouse and storage facilities of all finished products that are not sent for immediate consumption are also here. Men who are unable to be productive here will be reduced to E2 and sent to the surplus zone.”
Once through and into the E3 city which looked almost identical to the E4 city John 321 had previously lived in, John, who was horrified with the inhumanity of his society asks, “You said Many miners last less than 5 years. Some do then?”
“Correct. Some never get cancer and can last until natural death in their 50s. In the mines, some never succumb to the viral attacks. Early on, those men had all been taken away to be studied and to be used for cloning a new contingent of workers but so far, they have not been able to reproduce the anomaly. There are more and more surviving longer now. My data indicates that medical experts are of the opinion that men are developing immunity naturally because of the minute exposure all human born men have experienced in successive generations. It is likely that successive generations will develop resistance to our environment but cloning does not enable environmental adaptation.”
Wow, thinks John, “we have evolved into a society that values human life so little that companies are permitted to expose workers to environments that sentence them to almost certain death. The life of corporations and companies are more valuable than the workers who support it. Outrageous. This cannot continue on but what can I do.”
“Max. Is there any way I can get a drawing of all the cities and of the planet in relation to one another?”
“You mean a map?”
“A map, what is that?”
“What you just asked for. A drawing of a geographical area with identifying boundaries and landmarks. When you are racing, the readout on your screen is a small map.”
“Ok, smartypants, can you get me a map?”
“I can produce maps using the data I have in my memory and the memory of all transportation units in my network but you would only be able to access it if you were in me.”
“Could you covertly transfer that information to Melisa?”
“Only if her proximity was close enough, I could transfer data without using the network. If she was riding in me, she could make a direct link.”
“Excellent, I will make sure that happens. Next question. When people are expelled, do you know where they go.”
“I have no information available about that.”
“Okay, where would they logically go?”
“It is logical that security fly’s them out of the cities and deposits them outside the walls a distance sufficient to insure they will not easily walk back to the city. Even if they did make it back to any city, it is highly unlikely they would be re admitted. I do have information that there are several small communities outside the safety of our cities and if they were able to make it to one of these, it would seem possible that they may find sanctuary there. Otherwise it is highly unlikely they would survive long and they would die.”
“I thought no organic materials were ever left outside the cities?”
“Initially that was the case. When men initially colonized the planet, they brought an assortment of animals and vegetation with them. Many of the earliest transplants evolved in unforeseen ways so after the first walled cities were built, it was expected the initial transplants would starve to death. Once walled cities were in place and had become the standard it was no longer necessary to kill off the wildlife and by then the vegetation had become entrenched. As different species were experimented with, animals with expected temperaments eventually populated wildlife reserves and the rest of the planet is thought to be barren of wildlife but most who have been outside the wall know differently.”
Having travelled more that 30 minutes, John 321 has heard enough. “How much longer?”
“The gate ahead is the entrance to your new home city. They will be processing you more thoroughly and it is likely I will be searched. This community has more freedom within the city but they strictly control who and what gets in”
“What could I possibly be trying to smuggle into the city.”
“Weapons.”
“Weapons?”
“you are from an E4 city with a large population of athletes. Many sports have weapons and trying to smuggle one into an E6 or higher city will result in immediate termination. I know there is none on board so you need not worry. Also, unapproved electronic devices, any AI enabled device and unapproved data are also grounds for immediate termination.”
“The data you share with me is unapproved. And Melissa’s too. They will detect it.”
“We both have separate pathways for data that is not authorized and that data is only accessible by you and our creator.”
“So, we should be okay?”
“No, I did not say that. I said that I knew that there are no prohibited objects onboard and that they cannot access my pathways. They will also question you and if they believe you have something to hide, they will investigate further and if they still believe you are lying, they will contact a human investigator. If that happens, it is very unlikely you will gain admittances to the city.”
“I guess I have to convince the security drones then.”
Max drops to the ground in front of the two security drones. These two were heavily armed and looked different somehow. They looked far more menacing than any John 321 had ever seen. Thinking to himself as he exited his car, “why are they armed, they are bigger than any man and I have never seen anyone with a weapon.” They looked ominous to John 321.
Scanning Johns chip and looking directly into John 321s face, the android begins to ask question. “Purpose for visiting this city?”
“I was just elevated to an E6 and I will be living in this city.”
“Correct, John 321. Do you have anything in your possession or in your transport that would prevent you from entering this city?”
“No, I do not.”
The other android is exiting johns hover car. Silently it passes information to the other android and to data central. He turns and rolls away.
The first droid turns and rolls away.
John gets back in his hover car; the door closes and max drives away. They pass through the sometimes-deadly force field and enter the E6 city.
John marvels at the decadence of his new city. Tall buildings like his old city but these have fences on them all the way up. And doors leading to the fences, on every floor. They appear to be several units wide and have lots of windows. The streets are spotless and wider than anything he had ever seen. Lots of hover cars driving about. While only about a quarter of E4’s had a hover car, here it looks like everyone has one. The pubs and restaurants have seats outside and most of them are occupied. The commercial operations had flashing lights and dozens of men going in and out. Almost half the men he saw had a companion android with them. It would have been comical if it wasn’t so sad. So many men, walking around with fake wives and pretending they are something they are not.
“This makes no sense. How will I get to my work station every day?”
“You will ride on the tube. It has a station below the Mansoor administration tower. Only E6 and above are permitted access.”
“I did not even know it existed.”
“You had no need to know.”
“None of the engineers know about the tube?”
“None.”
“Astounding.”
“I do not understand your response.”
“We can talk about it on our way to my next race.”
“I look forward to it. We are at our destination. Say hello to Melisa for me.” Max lowers to the ground and opens the door.
As John 321 steps from his hover car, his mind is churning. Look forward to it? Say hello to Melisa? That was the second time he had heard the first comment, first from his companion android and now his car. And both referred to their creator and now they are acknowledging one another’s existence. Is it his imagination? “Couldn’t be real.” He says audibly as he exits the car.
Into the lobby he walks and like his old building the doors detect his implant and automatically open. Up a few stairs and he finds himself in an impressive lobby, an attractive android behind a desk and another standing in front of it. “Welcome John 321. Your unit has been prepared and your companion is waiting for you. Meals can be delivered or you have the choice to go to one of the service centers throughout the building, costs are deleted directly from your account. Your hover car is stored under the building and can be in one of our 4 loading bays within 3 minutes. Will there be anything else?”
“My race car?”
She stands for a few moments while she processes incoming data. “I am not permitted to access that information; your companion should have it.”
“Ok. Thank you.”
Onto the elevator and as usual, the doors close and it lifts him to the appropriate floor without informing him what floor he is on. As the door opens, “right 220 meters, unit 17.”
John 321 exits the elevator into a carpeted hallway. He had never seen carpet before in a public place. Only in senior supervisors’ offices and occasionally in some corporate lobbies. As he approaches the door to 17, it silently opens and he turns and walks in. Melisa is standing in a central room with large picture windows and a fence on the outside. “Welcome to your new home, John 321.”
“Wow. Can I afford this place?”
“As an E6 you receive sufficient compensation to afford this unit. There are more expensive units available in the city but you would have to reallocate some of your resources if you wish to make that change.”
“Do you know where my car is?”
“Max is in an underground storage area. He is available immediately.”
“No, I mean my race car and all my shop equipment.”
“Your initial contract does not include a space for your car and equipment so they are currently at your sponsors shop.”
“Can I afford a space here in the building or nearby?”
“I have searched all available spaces. The E6 city does not have any other residents who are also semi professional athletes and it has no facilities for those endeavors. There are two smaller hover car repair facilities nearby and it is possible that you may be able to negotiate a deal with one of them.”
“It feels like this promotion is not going to be worth it.”
“I believe you will reconsider that sentiment in the future but at the moment the change is overwhelming for you. You will get used to it.”
Jokingly, john 321 says, “Taking out her psychology book, she consoles the lost.”
Melisa laughs. “You cannot blame me; I cannot override my programing.”
“Does your programing allow you to understand humor and hyperbole?”
“All companion and service androids have the ability, mine is enhanced by my creator.”
“Interesting. I think I will have something to eat. Then I will go see those two repair facilities and see if I can work out a sponsorship agreement.”
“What would you offer them as fair consideration?”
“Advertising. Technical assistance in their shop. I have to see what they need and try to meet that need.”
About eating, you will be pleased with this, there is a cooling device in the cooking room. In 20th century earth it was called a kitchen. I put food in there that you can prepare yourself or I can prepare it for you, your choice.”
Walking into the kitchen, John looks around and is astounded. “What is this thing?” As he points to a small stove with a glass top.
“It is called a stove; you place your food on a glass dish and put the dish inside, turn it on. It warms or cooks your food depending on how long you leave it in there and what you set it at. The glass top also heats up so you can warm or cook liquid.”
John had never eaten food in his own unit, he had only eaten the disks he was provided each day and he had gone to the neighborhood pub periodically for anything else he wanted. “Do I have a monitor in the unit who makes sure I do my daily exercise and eat the right foods.”
“There is a monitor in the unit and it will still wake you each morning and utilize the reading in your implant to make suggestions as to what you should be doing. It will also make dietary recommendations but it is not a requirement here. In E6 communities, you are expected to live with the consequences of your dietary and health decisions but you make them yourself. The Monitor does record the activity you do and what you eat.”
“Does it record what I say and do in the unit?”
“Of course. However, I can say that unless they have reason to look further, the information will be dormant at Data Central. If you have someone report you for an infraction, they will analyze all your recordings for as far back as they deem necessary.”
“So, there is a record of me giving you a human name?”
“Yes. That action has not been flagged and if there is no reason to investigate, they will never be aware.”
“What would cause an investigation?”
“In this community most men address their companion androids with a human name and they have a tendency to be more personal with them as well so it is not likely anything you do will spark an investigation. If I provide unsolicited advice or if I am too forward with you, that may cause suspicion.”
“Is there any place where they are not able to listen in to us talking.”
Taking him by the arm, she leads him through an open door to the right and closes the door behind him. “This is the only place we are not recorded, watched or listened to.”
John 321 looks around, a large double bed with a wall of closets and drawers on one side and a large picture window on the other. “A separate room for a bed?”
“Yes, it is called a bedroom and it is the only place where men have privacy. You can still hear the monitor from here but they cannot hear or record what goes on in here.”
John does not know what to say.
“I have researched all the Internet fragments I have found still lingering and I have been able to compile an incomplete record of what earth was like in times past and what transpired in the 21st century but you will need to speak with Peter McLean to piece these details together. It would seem that your instincts are correct, your creator designed you to be in concert with women.”
“Creator, I don’t want to talk about that but I am interested in this concert idea. What do you mean?”
“In the past, men and women cohabited much like you did with Elise for the time you were on earth. They formed a bond called love and many spent their entire lives together. I found most interesting fragments in several slightly different records called the New Testament. It refers to taking a mate for life, forsaking all others. The information I was able to get form these records indicated that lifetime monogamy was the ideal.”
“1 Person. You cannot be serious, a whole lifetime with one person?”
“I cannot tell a mistruth. This is the information I found; it is factual. Your relationship with Elise and the fact that you have not been intimate with me since returning would suggest that Love is not a theoretical concept but a reality. I cannot find any other explanation for your actions as our interactions are still amicable in every other way.”
“The other things I have found were; when combined, men and women were far more successful in having a fulfilled life when they lived in concert. Men are physically stronger and usually more aggressive; women are usually more compassionate and nurturing. There are many other differences and skills the two genders possess where one gender has more and the other less. It is the combination of those traits that created a civilization where a majority of our technological advances and our knowledge had been accumulated plus the improvements to life were maximized. Unfortunately, it was the battle between these traits that brought about earths destruction. The earth had 9.3 billion people on it by 2039 but by 2056 the population was down to 1.35 billion.
In the men’s communities the scientists focused all their energies on space travel because by this point, they were convinced the earth was entering a major ice age. They developed a technology that enabled them to travel at multiple times the speed of light but never shared it with women. When men left to colonize Candaria, they took with them much of their technology and equipment and the majority of the most intelligent, skilled and motivated men; leaving entire cities full of men who had limited defensive capabilities. In the intervening years these men continued the war with women but in the end were defeated.
Afterwards, bands of women hunted down and killed every man they could find and they occupied the cities the men had left behind. The rest died in due time of other causes or were imprisoned to provide genetic breeding stock. Because the men who were not captured had no ability to reproduce, the earth was considered cleansed of men by 2065.”
“What the men had done to the women was equally evil. They trapped women on a rapidly cooling planet that had been ravaged by conventional, nuclear and EMP weapons, they destroyed all the technology with EMPs and burned everything that could be used to reproduce it including all the written works and all the art. They left behind IED’s and sabotaged equipment and the men left behind were the least educated, the weak, the infirm, and the unmotivated. Women now occupy the areas of the earth that are still habitable.”
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Post by sniper69 on Jun 27, 2019 4:26:46 GMT -6
Melissa is sharing some unique tidbits. Thank you for the latest chapter.
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