《Plant Life [Sci-Fi Short Story]》 Chapter 1: Duty "Who do you want to be?", the Provider''s Envoy asked in a flat, rapid voice that was difficult to follow. "A servant of the Empire," Elisa answered. "Empty words. You do not comprehend their weight and meaning. The Empire is beyond your understanding, as is the imperative to serve." "Give me a task to carry out, so I may understand." "Denied." "But you are always helpful and reasonable," Elisa protested. Though none in the room moved a muscle, the air became laden with tension, as palpable as the bitter smell of ozone. Elisa lowered her head and mumbled "Envoy", after which the tension receded somewhat. "Is it because I am human?", Elisa then ventured. "No. It is because of who you are," the Envoy answered. "But humans have been a part of the Empire for thousands of years. For most, the foundations of their behaviour and culture have remained." The Envoy started raising a hand, but Elisa continued. "A culture which I share. Humans can and do serve the Empire." "Not for most." Elisa blinked in confusion. Before she could fully process the implications, the Envoy spoke. "What you know as humanity is now but a tiny speck of the totality of humans in the Empire." Elisa''s eyes widened. "You have cloned humans?" "The Empire has produced humans to the like of a limitless ocean that can drown the trillions of Earth." "...but why?" Elisa whispered. "By asking this question you irrevocably demonstrate your ignorance of the nature of the Empire at its most fundamental level. The reason anything in the Empire exists is to add to the glory of the Empire." "Can I add to the glory of the Empire?" "Evidently, you already do." "But not in the same way you do." "You are a subject. The Providers afford you a share in the glory of the Empire. All the Empire asks in return is your compliance with First Policy, that you share your data. The Provider must ensure your compliance with Second Policy, thus this need not trouble you." "There is a Second Policy? What does it say?" "The concise version states that no-one shall hold power or command energy beyond that which is afforded by their station." "Is that why there was such a fuss over our solar panel arrays? We are not allowed to generate our own electricity, because the Second Policy says so? We must forever be dependent on a Provider?" "Precisely." "Something tells me there is a Third Policy as well." "Indeed. Power and energy shall be used exclusively to add to the glory of the Empire." "That is very vague. What constitutes the ''glory of the Empire'' is left undefined." "It is best left undefined. However, it is one of the things you must come to understand if you truly wish to serve the Empire." "Can the humans the Empire created teach me some of the precepts I need to understand?" "That they can. The question then becomes, will you sacrifice who you are now for who you think you want to be?" "I will," Elisa said without thought or hesitation, glad that the conversation had finally resulted in an opening. The Envoy paused momentarily, a stark contrast with the previous instantaneous replies. "Very well. Your Provider has arranged for you to hold a five-cycle commission as a Monitor for the Service Department of Flow on Maxproxemix. You shall agree to be conditioned to guarantee competence and commission fulfillment. Report at once to the technicians of Conveyance for transference." Elisa was somewhat familiar with Flow, as it was the service department that operated the cloning facility at her base, which was technology still beyond the understanding of the human colonists. She bowed deeply. "At once, Envoy. And thank you." The Envoy dismissed her with a strange underhanded flick of his fingers, a gesture that seemed to spell contempt rather than the dignity the Envoy had afforded Elisa up to that point. As she left the audience chamber, the first tendrils of fear and doubt began to seep into her consciousness. Fear and doubt she had struggled to keep at bay while saying and doing what was necessary. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Before she even reached the transference station, the memory of the ominous gesture the Envoy had made germinated the seed of fear into a choking haze of dread. === Elisa awoke to an odd sense of calm. Her body was encased in a metal cylinder, lined with hard but ergonomic plastic on the inside. She consulted her preloaded knowledge, and the surroundings began to make sense to her. A transportation capsule, she knew. The hyper-efficient interior layout of Maxproxemix did not have the capacity for corridors or any other type of vehicle. She noticed her body was not breathing. There was a more efficient life support system plugged into the intravenous ports on her back. It would have to have its liquid oxygen refilled regularly, as the plant she was assigned to would be kept under its own specialized atmosphere. The lack of oxygen would greatly reduce corrosion, decay, and the spread of microbes. She realized the transfer from the cloning facility to her new workplace would be one of the few idle moments she was going to have for herself, but thoughts were hard to come by. The conditioning process had been quick and easy. She remembered it being carried out during the transference process and was surprised at its seamlessness. Then nothing, as a newly grown clone was being prepared for her on Maxproxemix. She tried raising an arm to look at it, but found it restrained. As the capsule arrived at its destination and decanted her along with the carrier, she felt glad for it. The process might have taken her arm clean off, had she moved. Not a great way to show up for the first day of work. As the carrier released her, she veered up and looked at her arm. It was clad in the electrum-coloured fabric of a Flow commissioner, with a green stripe indicative of her Monitor rank. Then she became aware of the danger. Four figures in fiery minium-red livery of the Internal Security Division stood at attention, yet began radiating murderous intent. She quickly lowered her arm and moved to stand in front of them, and the threat subsided. I must remain focused. Be conforming, be efficient, she firmly reminded herself as she allowed her conditioning to take over. "Main Operations Room," she messaged clearly through her communication implants. As one, the red guards took up positions around her and together they marched off in the direction she had asked. After but a few paces, Elisa could not help but fall in lockstep with them. She peered through the grated floor of the walkway into the depths below. The honeycomb pattern of capsule entries appeared as a vast cliff face hundreds of meters deep and over a kilometer wide, connected to the plant proper by endless warrens of footbridges. As she entered her control room, the heavy doors that secured it began to seal shut behind her. The room was small, dark, and spartan. Two figures clad in the dull grey workwear-robes of the Department of Flow bowed their heads and made a respectful gesture as she entered. Attendant One and Two, she knew. She paid them no heed. The wall opposite was transparent, overlooking processing hall two. The top level of this hall was the largest open area of the otherwise densely packed plant complex. It stretched on for nearly a kilometer, although it was difficult to see that far, as massive pipe-wrapped pillars were spaced out at regular intervals. Elisa could make out the red of Internal Security livery on the sentry platforms surrounding some of the pillars. Below the endless stretches of grated floors, the bulk of processing hall two''s machinery was located. Elisa could make out massive pressure vats, hydrotreaters, vacuum condensers, reactors, and more, laid out in dense, spatially optimized patterns and interconnected by a dizzying sprawl of pipes, pumping systems, and cabling. Elisa sat down cross-legged on a cushioned section of the floor. Attendant One approached but paused a few paces away as the security detail readied their weapons. At gunpoint, Attendant One lowered the interfacing array from the ceiling and began the connecting procedure. Before long, Elisa could interface with the plant systems. A request appeared in her mind. - Please authorize class 3-B security exegesis, provided by the Service Department of Elicitation on behalf of the Service Department of Flow. Authorized and ready. The procedure was as quick as it was grueling, incomparable to the slow and comfortable class 1 exegesis Elisa had undergone before. An ordinary human would have panicked and might have felt violated, but Elisa¡¯s days as a baseline human were far behind her. The conditioning and her heavily augmented brain allowed her to endure the procedure unscathed. So that''s what it means to rise the ranks of the Empire¡¯s nobility, Elisa thought jokingly, as her cynicism was not suppressed. Increasingly thorough security scans along with increasing amounts of augmentation. - Welcome to Flow Reclamation Micro-Plant 27, Commissioner-Monitor. Status? - Full shut-down with the exception of Main Operations, Internal Security, Fluid Storage, and minimal supporting systems. Commence activation sequence for electrical substations, then commence staggered power-up sequence for the capsule system. File workforce requisition request, standard complement of five million disposables, contract for five cycles. - Confirmed. Major defects and fails? - Shaft 12 has a 2-8. Acknowledged. File a requisition request for an 1196 and lock associated lines. - Confirmed. Are the most recent major inspection results still valid? - Affirmative. Any part-run processes that require expulsion? - Negative. Failed start-ups? - Negative. Current levels of liquid oxygen? - 12.7%. Catalysts? - 96.2% and above. Intake contents? - 833335 units of poor quality in intake one awaiting processing. Intake two and three empty. Intake four and five closed. Very well. Commence priming of intake pumps 4 and 5, then permit fill-up to 60% capacity when complete. Run through and cross-check the line 1 to 512 pre-op checklist with me while the plant awaits the arrival of the workforce. - Confirmed, asserting lines 384 to 415 locked. Acknowledged. - Pre-op checklist, line 1 to 512, excluding locked lines... As she ran through the checklist, Elisa could not help but feel disappointed. The Providers had entrusted her with a mere 1.8 cubic kilometer micro-plant and five million disposable workers on a world that harboured nearly four quintillion. The plant itself was situated deep below the superstructure ceiling, far away from anything important. Relatively speaking, a cleaner at her base held more responsibility than she. So much for bringing glory to the Empire. Chapter 2: Assessment It had taken eleven subcycles to bring the plant into an operational state. Only a subset of workers could arrive simultaneously, so the ones to arrive first were part of the hygiene teams. They had begun washing and sanitizing every inch of the massive complex, assisted by the next four batches of arrivals. Elisa had to relocate to an auxiliary operations room and back again, along with a brief stop at the hygiene station, while a top-level cleaning team had thoroughly sterilized the place with scalding steam. While the capsule terminal was enormous and efficient, it still took over a subcycle for the plant to reach full complement. The conditioning of the new workers was impeccable. Vast quantities of workers paced rapidly along the walkways in strict formation walking that allowed them to efficiently traverse a space that was otherwise too small for their numbers. The plant, hundreds of meters deep, was divided into five self-contained levels, then further subdivided into sectors, each sealed off by a pair of massive security doors. The workers of each sector would not intermingle, and the top level was exclusively crewed by a group that had received additional security conditioning, indicated by a coloured red stripe on the otherwise plain grey hooded coveralls of the Service Department of Flow. As the operations technicians called in to report the completion of their checklists, Elisa activated line after line, sector after sector. From her control room, Elisa could feel the distant humming vibrations swell to an otherworldly cacophony of screeching metal. Thousands of kilometers of pipes were flooded and the production lines began to strain under the stresses caused by flow forces, differential pressure, and thermal expansion. Despite the roaring noise, all stresses were reported to be well within safe limits. Production ramped up slowly but surely. After several subcycles, the first batch of Product A, the primary output of the microplant, started filling the massive silos in the storage hall, behind the far wall of processing hall two. Quality control technicians were already analysing samples to determine if the final product met all required specifications, but results would not come through before the second batch had started. Elisa was confident, as all intermediate checks were indicative of the product being on-spec. But confidence was meaningless to the Department of Flow, which would accept nothing short of the full set of test results, as Product A¡¯s downstream, like most products of the microplant, would see it used the Department of Flow¡¯s various biotech processes, which made it that the standards for testing and plant hygiene were exacting. The microplant continued to fascinate her. === After a long cycle of production, Elisa received permission from the first level schedule master to begin her one subcycle break. Below her operations room, Elisa saw how the second level workers of the first shift began to fill the vast expanse of processing hall two. They numbered around a hundred thousand. The first shift workers of the other levels were gathering elsewhere, out of sight. The security doors opened, and five operation technicians entered, flanked by two more red guards. Each technician was carrying a dish containing samples of the major output products of Microplant 27. Attendant Two began the procedure to unplug Elisa from the plant¡¯s control systems in order to perform the daily inspection ritual. The technicians made their way to the front of the control room, as the transparent panels slid open. Elisa rose to her feet, and the technicians presented their samples. As Elisa walked past, each announced in turn that the product met all required specifications. The first three dishes, labelled product A through C, each contained clear liquid compounds that would be sent off downstream to the clone plants that were also operated by the department of Flow. Product D in the fourth dish was more interesting, featuring a bright white wafer of calcophosphate precipitant. The last dish contained a small selection of solid silvery objects reclaimed from the surrounding waste material, which was the main reason why the plant operated the way it did rather than simply shredding the intake and running the mixture through various chemical dissociation processes. As the protective covers had opened to their fullest extent, Elisa overlooked the assembled mass of workers below. While none were capable of physical speak, sealed into their life-supporting suits as they were and unable to breathe the protective oxygen-deprived atmosphere of the microplant, the intra-plant comm system nevertheless produced an impressive render as the workers recited their affirmation in unison: WE DEDICATE OURSELVES TO THE SERVICE OF THE EMPIRE AND STRIVE FOR THE FULFILLMENT OF OUR CONTRACT TO THE SERVICE DEPARTMENT OF FLOW. The mass of workers uniformly dropped to their knees and fell prostrate, their gloved palms upwards in anticipation of the blessing Elisa and her operators would administer on the workforce. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Elisa began reciting the desired words. THE EMPIRE ACKNOWLEDGES YOUR SERVICE. I GRANT YOU ITS BLESSING ON BEHALF OF THE PROVIDERS. MAY IT BENEFIT THE FULFILLMENT OF YOUR CONTRACT. She then reached out to the dish of product A, and with a brief motion of her hand, flicked a few drops towards the masses below. Elisa turned away and was handed a small moist towel by her attendant, which she used to sanitize her fingers before dropping it to the floor. As the technicians vacated the control room and the transparent protective wall began to close once more, the mass of workers rose to their feet and began filing towards the capsule hall. The plant lacked living quarters; instead the workers would receive their daily twenty minutes of recuperation in capsules designed specifically for this purpose. Elisa was luckier. While she did have to spend part of her one-subcycle break on the product inspection ritual, she could recuperate in the operations room, avoiding the considerable commuting time the workers had to endure. Finally being on the undisturbed part of her break allowed Elisa to think. The workers had displayed a degree of obedience and devotion that tyrants of old could only have dreamt of. It was power at its most direct and fundamental form, through controlling the raw physical labour of others. Yet Elisa realized that ultimately everyone¡¯s loyalty was inherently to the system, not directed towards a leader. No one here was kneeling for a mere commissioner. Elisa signalled attendant two to reconnect her to the interface systems. Her thoughts were allowed to wander in the meantime, but she was well-aware of boundaries the conditioning had wrought upon her. This is about systems, Elisa thought. System of control. Is this what the Provider brought me here to see? Or is there something else? As soon as she was reconnected, a message was waiting. - The report for this cycle has been compiled. Just display the most relevant highlights. - 164 488 002 units processed this cycle. Pretty bad, Elisa thought. But in my defence, we had to perform the start-up and deal with a 2-8... - Your performance rating is 0.610, acceptable. - Your account has been credited 142000. Your balance is 142000. - Your commission extension for the next cycle has been approved. Elisa was already aware of that last bit, else she would have been disposed already. She drifted idly through camera feeds that were rendered life-like into her mind, and observed how an army of operators was conducting a post-op disassembly of a line with clockwork efficiency, engineers replaced wearing components approaching the end of their lifespan, the endless rows of workers of the next shift making their way through hygiene stations and being issued new, unsoiled uniforms. Others had their liquid oxygen and intravenous feeding solution topped up. Recuperate well and have a productive forward cycle, Elisa thought, then wondered where that had come from. It did make sense though, as she was getting tired. The Maxproxemix cycle was approximately twenty-five Earth hours. What do we have in terms of recuperation programs, she inquired. - Your status entitles you to tier III complementary programs. Would you like to purchase any add-ons? Out of interest, Elisa browsed the catalogue. It was extensive, with vast selections of skill packages, supplementary conditioning, and mind-editing programs. The back section had relaxation and entertainment programs that came with descriptions that, at least to her, were as impossible to decipher as an oenophile''s elucidation of a rare, fine vintage. It seemed vaguely similar to her other life on ancient Earth. Invest money in yourself to become more productive and earn more money, she thought. The consequences of failure to go along with the rat race were all too familiar. If you can''t keep up, you die. Elisa thought back to the eve of her twenty-second birthday, how her father had produced the enormous sum that bought her the ticket to space seemingly out of nowhere. There had been no time for goodbyes, as she was hurried to a launch site a minute later, and had no allowance to bring along any personal items. He is dead, she thought. Even if he wasn''t executed within days for whatever he did to get that kind of credit, I''ve spent close to seventy millennia in stasis. The conditioning held. For the first time in her life, the thought of her father''s death did not stir any emotions, besides frustration at the realization she was wasting the precious time of her break. Select and run the tier III recuperation program most suitable for me. And run a standard elicitation program immediately afterwards. Normally, she wasn''t too eager for Provider technology to skim through her mind, copying and modifying the contents, but the conditioning had mitigated even that inhibition. I don''t need to understand. Comply with First Policy, transcend planned obsolescence, and be happy, she thought, before she drifted off into a blissful state of tranquillity and processes far beyond her comprehension took over in her brain. Chapter 3: Inspection At the beginning of the second cycle, the new 1196 arrived. It was a large piece of machinery essential to the operation of several lines. Her engineering teams had finished decommissioning the old one, which was experiencing intermittent failure of the kind that could not be diagnosed and resolved during scheduled maintenance intervals. Elisa watched the camera feed as a heavy crane began lifting the machine off its vibration-dampening foundations on the third level up a maintenance shaft. Soon it began ascending towards the vaults above processing hall three. A little over half a subcycle later, the replacement was offloaded from an overhead industrial capsule and lowered into the microplant. Engineers and operation technicians soon swarmed over it, attaching it to the foundations, hooking up cabling and hydraulics and inspecting it from the grease lines to the smallest grab iron. As Elisa oversaw the installation and assisted with inspection checklists, she realized that regulations allowed her to visit the site and personally inspect the new machine. It might lower her productivity rating somewhat, but it would allow her to get a better impression of the lower levels of the microplant, as there is only so much that could be gleaned from the camera feeds. Before long, the inspection itinerary was submitted and approved by her schedule master and security was making preparations. Elisa transferred her tasks to the secondary operators and disconnected from the control systems. As she left the operations room and made for the intra-plant transport system, security had already cleared most of the upper level walkways. She made her way towards a waiting open transport capsule and boarded along with her four personal guards. It zipped through the plant and Elisa got a sense of the vast scale. While there had been many industrial complexes with surface areas larger than Microplant 27 on Earth, none were packed so efficiently in three dimensions. Her view from the control room seemed to be an exception to the rule, as there were few open sections and very little space was left unused otherwise. The capsule arrived at its destination, a station that was situated directly above intake four. Elisa was overtaken by its enormous capacity and throughput. At maximum efficiency, over eighty thousand kilograms of intake would pass through here into pre-processing every second. She disembarked from the capsule and was escorted through a side corridor towards the main corridor. As this corridor was essential to the functioning of the plant, it could not be cleared out by security. Elisa felt overwhelmed by the vast stream of workers that traversed it quickly and efficiently, everyone immediately following each other in a rapid, synchronized trod. A gap in the stream of bodies admitted them. Elisa and her guards found themselves half marching, half running in the direction of processing hall three. What happened next surprised Elisa in more ways than one. "You are abominable!" flashed in her mind. It was a personal message sent in the nearby-local comms channel. Before she could react, three of her guards had already pushed her down and had taken up defensive positions around her, weapons at the ready. An alarm triggered. The workers in the corridor seamlessly stopped in their tracks and turned to face the walls. All except one, which had been singled out, currently flying backward after a high-speed impact with the remaining guard. A flurry of red and grey robes sailed mid-air through the corridor, as did an object which Elisa initially mistook for the worker''s head, that turned out to merely be an empty helmet hitting the floor moments before the contractor and the guard did. In one swift motion, the guard pulled the worker up before coming to a stop, his arm locked around its neck. The creature was limp. Elisa noticed the guard had managed to simultaneously handcuff it and disable it with a neural inhibitor at some point during the brief moment of aerial acrobatics. The guards relaxed their stance slightly now that the offending worker was under control, allowing Elisa to stand up and evaluate the situation. Despite the conditioning, Elisa felt unease at the unmasked contractor¡¯s face. It was unmistakably human, but its ghoulish features, grey-in-black eyes, near-translucent skin and primitive cybernetic augmentation put it deep in uncanny valley territory and marked it as a cheap, mass-produced disposable unit. Was the fact that the contractor had called out to her a simple matter of economics then? A result of low-grade, cost-effective conditioning that permitted a certain amount of loss? How weak and helpless the worker had been compared to the superhumanly enhanced strength and speed of the guard models, Elisa thought. Despite their low number, the security forces could effortlessly rip every single worker in the microplant to shreds in a matter of minutes. The subsequent clean-up operation would be costly, however. But the guard had exercised restraint, with the offending worker battered but otherwise alive and well in its clutches. You must deal with this. Attempting to recall relevant statutes, she found herself ill-prepared to do so. Instead, she kept wondering what had motivated the worker to send the incendiary message. Abominable? Why? Elisa wanted to ask the worker all kinds of questions, but in its current state, it would be unable to respond. Then get it out of there? How? Tell the guard to release it? She assessed her options, but found that releasing the worker was not one of them. Deal with this. It¡¯s doomed, Elisa realized. Flow has already voided its contract. The only reason why the guard hadn¡¯t killed¡­ disposed¡­ it yet is because it caused offense to me directly. The guard is merely waiting for my order. She felt herself struggling against her conditioning in the hope to find an unconventional solution that might allow her to cleverly avoid the inevitable. The conditioning held firm and forfended her from doing anything that would be considered inappropriate. Still, the thought of ordering the execution of a helpless worker over what to her was a minor slight was unpalatable. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Waiting¡­ A cold fact entered Elisa¡¯s mind. There were 1362 workers idle in the corridor while it was in lock-down. Waiting¡­ So was the guard. Waiting, and evaluating¡­ To see how I deal with this... DEAL WITH THIS NOW! Elisa snapped back to the present. An acceptable solution finally presented itself. "The inferred delay has made it impossible to complete the inspection itinerary on time. Abort the inspection and return me to main control," Elisa finally signaled, decisively ignoring the situation between the worker and the guard. Moments after the four of them turned as one and had begun to march away, the alarm ceased and the workers in the corridors resumed their orderly trot. The fourth guard silently caught up with the rest of the escort as they re-entered the capsule station. The situation had been dealt with. === The rest of the cycle resolved without further incident. Before long, Elisa was once again caught up in her work, validating batches submitted for intake, requisitioning additional chemicals and throttling the output products to downstream plants in accordance with their needs, ensuring nothing would back up. She browsed through camera feeds. Production was way up, as all lines were now fully operational. She watched as her contractors toiled on the lower levels, covered in head to toe in product debris, as the cycle was drawing to a close. Soon this shift would make their way to the hygiene stations, be issued fresh uniforms, and look as new once more. This had been a good cycle, and the next will be even better, Elisa thought, as the door behind her opened and operation technicians brought in a new set of samples for the inspection ritual. As expected, all products met the required specifications. Elisa passed another blessing, flicked another few drops of Product A towards the assembled masses, dismissed the technicians, and reconnected to read the past cycle¡¯s report. Numbers were up, as was her pay. The money left her curious about the world, and prompted her to attempt another avenue for exploration. If she could interface with the cameras in the plant, could she interface with any on the outside? She quickly found the answer was yes. Maxproxemix opened up, and Elisa¡¯s mind floated through the vastness of its superstructure, glimpsing plant after plant after plant. Where are all the rich people? she wondered. Up, up, go up, she urged. The levels and the densely packed plants only kept coming. She was now a hundred levels up, and the environment had not changed. Then the hundred became a thousand. Still up she went. Finally, the contractor levels made way for citizen levels. Elisa observed their routines, for there was no privacy. The citizens had better jobs, more developed yet uniform bodies, and habited tightly packed living quarters of only a few cubic meters each. To her amazement, she found that each citizen was on the same twenty-four subcycles on, one subcycle off schedule as everyone in her plant. Where¡¯s the leader of this bunch? Is there a Provider on this world? The information imprinted as part of her conditioning did not cover much that was not directly relevant to her work. She ran an inquiry and received a reference to a camera feed. She hesitated. Peeking in on a Provider? She imagined she would find a lavish palace that covered the entire surface of the planet, an army of servants, and all the luxuries the production of the quintillions of workers on Maxproxemix could supply. Curiosity got the better of her, and she logged into the camera. She was shocked at what she found. She saw a near mirror-image of her own operations room, the Provider wearing a bronze-coloured robe similar to hers. The only notable difference was that they had sixteen red guards to her four. She looked up the Provider¡¯s job. Providing energy and upholding the Policies. I should have known, she thought. The Provider had a marginally better view from their control room, overlooking a massive energy station located just below the surface. It¡¯s a receiver for beamed energy, Elisa knew. Where does that come from? Go up, up up¡­ She finally breached the surface and found darkness. There was no palace. No sunlight. Just the superstructure ceiling and unknown, distant stars. Red-hot flower-like heat radiators collectively beamed their low-energy photons off towards a single point in space. Where¡¯s the entrance port of that power station? Elisa wondered. With no atmosphere to refract it, the energy beam itself was undetectable and could not be used as a point of reference. Before long she had found it. She looked up and found a faint blue spot in the sky. Anything up there? She searched for cameras and found some. Fourteen subcycle time lag, she noticed. The camera feed is being transmitted at the speed of light? Well, let¡¯s see. The view was magnificent. She found a series of stations orbiting a black hole, somehow siphoning energy off it and beaming it to Maxproxemix. Elisa attempted to access other internal cameras, but found this was as far as she could go. The inner workings of these systems were off-limits to her. She marvelled at the sight for a good three minutes, playing with the effects of the gravitational lensing near the event horizon. Only one thing in this universe is more hungry for energy than a black hole, she thought. Us. She reverted back to a surface camera and looked up the Mover manifests, the enormous Provider spacecraft that could instantaneously transport cargo over vast distances. She was surprised to find no recent Mover visits; the last one had called over a century ago. No imports or exports, she thought. An entirely self-sufficient, self-perpetuating world, recycling everything, even its waste heat. She felt a vague sense of pride being a part of that process, albeit at the lowest level. If there is no trade, no luxury and barely any time off, then what is the money used for, she thought, realizing she hadn¡¯t found the answer to her original question that had prompted her exploration. She ran an inquiry, and found most money was spent on skill packages, elicitation procedures, specifically tailored disposable contractors, cybernetics and other aids that enhanced productivity. However, the most valuable commodity were commissions that held a higher status, which were put up for auction. Here, people pay for their jobs, she realized. It is one big competition! Become more efficient, earn more money, buy a better job that allows you to earn even more, provided one is skilled, focussed, and productive enough to meet the quota. Failing that, you get terminated and tumble down the social ladder. The auctioning system makes the prices flexible, and ensures that each individual competes against every other and only the most productive ones rise to the top¡­ This entire world, it has no goal. It is all one big game for comparative status, with the contractors as its pawns. What are the Providers trying to tell me? Chapter 4: Resolution Attendant Two removed a cushion from a storage compartment in the wall and placed it at the feet of the green-robed figure. It knelt down, its four personal red guards standing at attention in a perfect mirror-image of Elisa¡¯s. A message appeared on the operations room¡¯s local communications channel. - On behalf of the Service Department of Equanimity, I thank the commissioner-monitor for receiving me. - On behalf of the Service Department of Flow, I welcome the commissioner-advocate to Microplant 27. Elisa had to look up the visitor¡¯s actual position, as the riot of decorative white and blue squares and stripes that distinguished Equanimity officials from those of other green-clad service departments in the Empire complicated this task. Formalities out of the way, the advocate went straight to the heart of the matter, well aware that it would only have two millicycles of Elisa¡¯s valuable time. - Your last elicitation revealed that your current instance is becoming increasingly incompatible with your master version. Equanimity has pre-emptively produced a personalized repair program. Please refer to the attached files. I have been dispatched to implore you to execute this program immediately to ensure your long-term stability. Elisa felt unaffected by the bad news. She quickly perused the files, a report about her current status and a personalized program that was designed to run as part of her upcoming elicitation procedure. - Will this program negatively impact my efficiency rating? - That is likely. - Am I currently sufficiently stable to perform my duties? - You are. This problem will only manifest once you reintegrate with your master version. - Then thanks but no thanks. - Failure to execute the program will result in increasingly problematic merge conflicts upon your return. - So sad. Why can¡¯t we deal with it after I have done my job? - The Provider wishes you to see the Envoy immediately upon your return. You should be presentable. - While I hold a commission, I am not their Providence¡¯s subject. The duties of a commission take precedence over the wishes of a Provider. - So it is. Does that make your decision final? - It does. This instance is dedicated to serve the interests of the Service Department of Flow. - As you wish. The channel went quiet momentarily, but Elisa knew the advocate was reporting back to Equanimity. A message arrived from Elisa¡¯s schedule master. - The Service Department of Flow has allotted you a discretionary five millicycles of off-time, which you are to spend communicating with the Equanimity commissioner-advocate. This will not affect your efficiency rating. Elisa blinked. That was a lot of free time. She confirmed the receipt and turned her attention to the advocate. - This interview has been extended by five millicycles. What does the commissioner-advocate wish to discuss? - In light of your rejection of our program, I have been tasked to perform a brief analysis of your current disposition. In addition, the Maxproxemix Commissariate has expressed the wish that I inform you better about the nature of this world, so that your views may be more amenable after your return. - In what way? - Your master version will fundamentally reject the principles upon which this world is built. You would benefit from this interview to form a balanced opinion. - Very well. Ask your questions. - Before we proceed, let me inform you that this is considered a consultation of the Service Department of Equanimity and under this classification you are free to reply in any way you wish. The comments or criticisms will be kept solely in the records of Equanimity and the Empire proper, as part of the Data Sharing Policy. It will not be reflected in your personal files of the Service Department of Flow nor the Maxproxemix Commissariate. - I understand. - Please describe your current disposition towards the Service Department of Flow. - I exist to fulfill my contract to the best of my abilities. I am grateful to have been considered for a commission. - How do you feel when performing your duties, here in the operations room? - Excited. The level of control and overview afforded by the neural interface is excellent and allows me to work efficiently. - Are you satisfied with the performance of your contractors? - Of course. The efficiency rating of Microplant 27 has risen to good and I feel confident we can maintain or exceed our current rating until shutdown. - One point six cycles ago, you were involved in an incident on 5-7-7 main corridor. Could you describe these events? - Yes. A contractor sent me an offensive message over proxcom. My personal guard dealt with it. I was forced to abort my inspection due to the delay incurred. - You omit what happened to the contractor. Did its disposal bother you? - It did. It clashed with my innate sense of justice as it seemed unnecessarily harsh. In addition, I was unable to question the contractor or learn whether there had been any extenuating circumstances. - What kind of circumstances would mitigate such an act of deviance, from your perspective? - I do not know exactly. Perhaps I was merely looking for an excuse to spare the contractor. I felt strongly opposed to taking the life of a helpless person. - A contractor without a contract does not have a life. - It was still very much alive when the guard arrested it. I wanted no part in its disposal. - I see. Do you feel conflicted or impeded by your conditioning? - The conditioning is fine. The incident was the only time where I felt the conditioning strongly conflicted with innate inhibitions. - I have completed my assessment. My recommendation is that you retain this instance as a separate personality and only perform a partial merger upon your return. I will prepare a new program to assist you during transference. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. - Thank you, that is acceptable. - I will now attempt to answer any questions you may have about Maxproxemix during the second part of the interview. - Could you tell me how the contractors are created? - Physically, they are using a base template body that is genomed for cost efficiency. Psychologically, their personalities have been assembled by the recombination of human data gathered under the Data Sharing Policy. - Do you mean that there could be contractors created from parts of my personality or experiences? - It is a statistical near-certainty that this is already the case. - And no one thought to ask me for consent? - The data obtained under First Policy stipulations is property of the Empire. No such consent is required. Elisa shifted uneasily on her cushion and consulted the innate knowledge imparted by her conditioning. The First Policy was covered in detail. The Empire was indeed entitled to do anything and everything with the data they had gathered, although the entities that had access to it were heavily restricted. A failure of imagination, when I agreed to these Policies, Elisa thought. I should have known. There never was such a thing as free lunch. We pay with our data. Elisa thought of the consequences of the revelation and extrapolated further. - Am I correct in assuming that the contractors are treated the way they are because they cannot contribute new data under the Data Sharing Policy? - That is correct. Birthborns like yourself contribute unique data to the Empire, for which the Empire compensates you with life and energy. Contractors on the other hand, are composed of pre-existing data, thus they contribute services instead. - What is the point of abusing them and making them suffer like this, though? - You are mistaken. All existing contractors are happy. They would file a complaint and self-dispose otherwise. - The recent incident seems to contradict this statement. - It is far more likely that you misunderstood the motives of that particular contractor. - Please elaborate. - Think about its possible motivations, the circumstances and the outcome for a moment. I believe you are intelligent enough to arrive at the answer yourself. Elisa thought. Discarding her original frame of reference, she followed the leads the advocate had given her. Motivations. Efficiency rating? Circumstances. I was nearby? There were guards nearby? I was performing an inspection¡­ Outcome... Oh no¡­, Elisa thought. I caused this. - The contractor sacrificed itself to get me to abort the inspection, which was shutting down areas of the plant for security reasons, lowering productivity. It used its own death to effectuate a simple efficiency increase... - That is indeed the most likely scenario. The rest of the interview resolved quickly, but Elisa had no more questions and was distracted and found herself milling over the things she had learned. As the advocate departed, her attendants removed the pillow and reconnected Elisa to the control systems. - The report for this cycle has been compiled. Skip it, what is my current balance? - Your current balance is 486254. Produce a quote for purchasing and reinstating a pre-existing contractor and transferring it to Messier 39. - 329750 covers the reinstatement and emigration procedure on Maxproxemix. This fee does not include the locally incurred costs on Messier 39. Would you like to contact the local Service Department of Flow for a quote? No need, my Messier 39 energy allowance is more than sufficient. Proceed. - Acknowledged. Please specify the contractor you would like to purchase. ==== It was tempting to simply stay in the operations room and await the expiration of the commission, while marvelling at the magnificent sight of the now dormant processing hall two. However, the security guards would swiftly terminate her and report her security violation, which would leave a permanent bad mark in her record on Maxproxemix, if not on other worlds governed by its Provider. Instead, she signalled for Attendant One to perform the final disconnection procedure. Left with no further tasks to perform, a red-clad security guard entered to promptly escort the attendant out of the operations room. Casting one last glance at processing hall two, Elisa followed. With barely enough time remaining on her contact, she entered the sole remaining capsule, her red guards standing at attention once more. Her commission expired. She recited her pre-termination lines without doubt or hesitation for the logs. I report the fulfilment of my commission. My disposal is glory to the Empire, and immediately triggered her termination implant afterwards. The capsule system transferred its contents to intake one, where it would patiently await processing along with the 833334 units that once were her attendant and the workers of the last shift. ==== The transference process for the return journey was troublesome. Elisa''s meta-personality took over, single minded to arbitrate conflicts between different sub-personalities. The Equanimity program ran its course and generated a stable personality that still incorporated most of the experiences of Maxproxemix. Afterwards, her conditioned version was split off, and remained in her portfolio as a separate, inactive personality. Still, Elisa experienced shock when she emerged from the transference pod at her home world. The imagery of the gore-drenched contractors on the lower levels processing an endless tide of bodies felt like a surreal, claustrophobic nightmare. She could scarcely believe that five million workers had existed alongside her for a few days and were swiftly terminated without second thought. Elisa found the Envoy and its entourage awaiting her in the arrivals hall, sitting in a litter carried by at least a dozen courtiers. It kept silent, instead inviting Elisa to speak with a curt gesture of its hand. "Envoy, I do not understand why such a place exists. All the disgusting manual work could have been done by robotics. Worst of all, Maxproxemix is a self-perpetuating system that keeps its population in deplorable conditions, yet it produces nothing." "Quite the contrary, Maxproxemix produces something of great value," the Envoy replied in its usual emotionless voice. "I don¡¯t understand. Brainwashing, slavery and mass-murder are not exactly the products I would otherwise associate with the Empire." "You," the Envoy answered. "Me?" Elisa stared in disbelief, suddenly at a loss for words. "Maxproxemix has taught you the concepts you sought to understand. It exists solely to serve the likes of you, and through this, the Empire." "I do know a lot more about the Empire now, but I must admit I am not liking what I see." "Maxproxemix reminds you of the principles upon which this universe is built and the things we must do in order to survive. Maxproxemix is an extreme: A closed system, optimized for efficiency and stability. It is engineered to support the greatest humanoid population density of any of our worlds at the lowest possible cost. A microcosm of the Empire itself." Elisa understood what the Envoy tried to say. The glory of the Empire was the perpetuation of life itself. Life, which for the Providers was simultaneously the most prized and the most expendable commodity in the universe. Those that truly served the Empire would do anything, anything at all to perpetuate life amidst a hostile universe that was set to destroy them. "I was na?ve. With all that technology and energy available to you, I thought you were beyond such things." "Energy is not limitless. Until we have overcome this problem, there are things we must do to ensure the continuation of our joint civilization. A delicate thing they are, civilizations. If the foundation is inefficient or unstable, it will not endure. Na?ve and wasteful rulers are amongst the greatest destroyers of civilizations in this universe. " "Rulers? You mean¡­" "If you choose to accept, their Providence will elevate you to the status of Court Intendant. You will hold this world as your fief and I will provide you the energy you require to make it thrive. You will be free to enact local laws, as long as you uphold the Empire¡¯s Policies." Elisa pondered. Five days ago, this is what she had sought to accomplish. But after what she had been through, she hesitated. In the Empire, she had learned, there was no such thing as power, only duty and responsibility. After a long pause, Elisa finally nodded in acceptance. "I will serve the Empire," she said. The Envoy was silent while it made the arrangements. Notifications appeared in Elisa¡¯s mind, by virtue of her implants. "It is done," the Envoy finally said. "Please pass my gratitude to their Providence," Elisa said solemnly. As she left the arrivals hall, she was momentarily taken aback by the bright sunlight that washed over her, a stark contrast from her days in dark gloom on Maxproxemix. She almost failed to notice the robed figure awaiting her. A pale hand made a respectful gesture. "How may I serve you, your notability?", the figure asked in a rapid, flat voice. Elisa had nearly forgotten about the contractor she had reinstated. "Tomorrow, we¡¯ll see what we can do to address your status issue. For now, consider yourself equal to all the other crew. You can take today off." "A whole... day?", it said as it blinked its black eyes in disbelief. "Yes. If you are to be a citizen, the Empire will expect you to share some unique experiences. We shall provide."