In A.F. 655, the stories of the events that occurred in London between that Alpha man, Bernard Marx, and that Beta woman, Lenina Crowne, were still mentioned here and there.
“Careful, you’re being a Bernard,” one voice would whisper.
“You’ll end up becoming a Lenina,” another would say.
No one in the entire World State wanted to become another example of the dangers of individuality, of thought, or of love. The stigma from the chatter machine of society were punishment enough. However, the State made such behaviors punishable by termination or reprogramming. Alphas and Betas were subject first to reprogramming then termination if the reprogramming regiment was not successful. Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons were immediately terminated. There was too much cost involved with reprogramming those lower beasts. It was far easier to eliminate and replace with the multitude of cloned specimens fresh out of conditioning.
As to avoid the possibility of becoming too self-reliant, all Alphas and Betas were assigned a Gamma to run their households. That way, Alphas and Betas would forget how to care for themselves further leading to a greater reliance on the State for their needs. Advances in Bokanovsky’s Process resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of buddings an egg could produce in the hatchery. It simply became more efficient to clone more assistants for the Alphas and Betas. It was mandated by the World State that for each Alpha, the hatcheries would create two Gammas and two Deltas. For each Beta, the hatcheries would create two Deltas and two Epsilons. Alphas were assigned a Gamma and a Delta at birth. Upon job assignment, the Alpha would receive their domicile which included their assigned Gamma and Delta. Betas were assigned a Delta and an Epsilon in the same manner since Beta life requirements were not as unique as Alpha life requirements. In the 20 some years that passed since this law was mandated, the World State found that the nascent Pairing Protocols, as they were called, were running smoothly.
Josef Crowne worked in the Central New York Hatchery and Conditioning Centre in the Psychology Bureau. His Alpha stature afforded him many of the luxuries and freedoms that any Alpha was granted. He had a spacious three-room habitat. Two of the rooms, the living quarters and the bathing quarters, were dedicated for Josef. The third room, the worker’s quarters, was dedicated to his assigned Gamma and Delta. The worker’s quarters contained a kitchen for meal preparation and food storage, a storage for Josef’s gray clothing as well as the green and khaki clothing for his Gamma and Delta respectively, and two bunk style beds for his Gamma and Delta. His Gamma took the lower bunk while his Delta took the upper as was the practice in all households. In the event the Delta rolled out of bed and killed themselves, it was far easier to replace a Delta than a Gamma. Gamma and Delta bathing occurred in the basement of the building in a communal shower and bathroom.
As mandated in each Alpha household, the current Gamma was assigned the task of meal preparation, laundering and dressing, and personal hygienic upkeep of their Alpha. The current Delta had to clean and disinfect all living and bathing quarters as well as maintain the upkeep of themselves as well as the current Gamma.
Even this far from the events that occurred in A.F. 632, Josef would often get teased about his name.
“Crowne. Are you related to that Lenina Crowne?” some would snicker at him. How preposterous the word ‘related’. No one was related to anyone in the World State. The first inconsistency is that no one was birthed. Everyone belonged to everyone. There were no relatives. The second inconsistency was that the preceding Crowne was in London whereas Josef was in New York. Crowne was a common name found all over the different sectors of the World State. The probability of any genetic connection was so infinitesimal that there was no bother even proposing such an idea. Regardless of the logical conclusions that could be made, Josef still suffered from the teasing.
Josef spent too much time pondering such ramblings. He was an Alpha, far superior to that Beta woman. He stared out from the window of his 198th floor room at the expansive New York skyline dotted with helicopters and hovercrafts. They all formed perfect straight paths through the canyons of the urban monoliths. His Alpha stature afforded him one of the corner habitats in the upper floors of his building. His building, like all the other buildings for habitation, was divided into sections. The top section, floors 151-200 were for Alphas. Floors 101-150 were for Betas; Floors 67-100 to unassigned Gammas; and Floors 37-66 to unassigned Deltas; and Floors 7-36 to unassigned Epsilons. Floors 1-6 were for the social activity floors for Alphas and Betas. The basement floors were for laundry services and Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon hygienic needs.
“Mr. Josef, your breakfast,” his Gamma stated placing Josef’s plate of dairy and fruit rations on the table.
Josef’s Gamma was known to him as Gamma 37. Gamma 37’s full name was T-13-02-15-0636-G-37/72 which indicated his gender (T for male), his heredity (13th cloned batch), his fertilization date (February 15, A.F. 636), his Bokanovsky group membership (Gamma), and his individual number (the 37th embryo out of the 72 in the 13th cloned batch). Josef’s Delta had a similar naming protocol. Josef was unconcerned with any of his Delta’s identifiers. He simply called him my Delta. His Gamma, at least, was high enough in Josef’s mind to have a proper name. Gamma 37 stood at five foot two, an average height for a male Gamma. He had a slim build. He had brown hair and green eyes that matched his State mandated green outfit. He was required to wear dark green trousers, a light green short sleeved dress shirt, a dark green necktie that matched his trousers, and a pair of black leather shoes. On his right forearm, he had his full name tattooed. He had a pleasant blank look on his face. He was not unpleasant to look at. In fact, Gamma 37 was rather average looking. His bright green eyes set him apart, however. The vast majority of Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons had brown eyes. In one in every hundred iterations, the randomness of error would create a green- or blue-eyed member of a cloned rank. This was due to fluctuations in fertilization or decanting which could not be avoided even in the most controlled settings.
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“Thank you, Gamma 37,” Josef said and waited for his Gamma to place the napkin in Josef’s lap. Gamma 37 paused. “Is there an issue?”
“No, Sir,” Gamma 37 replied. “It’s just that you have 20 minutes to be at the Conditioning Centre. Shall I liquidify your breakfast to have on your way?”
“Twenty minutes? Ford, why didn’t you get me up earlier?” Josef stated barely holding in his anger.
“Such language, Sir. Shall I put in a dose of soma to ease your tension?” Gamma 37 flatly replied.
“No, no, I just need to get ready,” Josef said getting up from the table. “Come on, let’s go.”
Gammas oversaw the hygiene of their assigned Alpha. This meant that it was the duty of the Gamma to bathe and dress their Alphas. Had Josef existed during more modest times, he would not have liked this scenario. However, he was accustomed to this ritual that his modesty in this regard did not exist. He raised his arms so that Gamma 37 could quickly undress him and lead him into the shower. Gamma 37 activated the temperature regulator on the shower and motioned for Josef to enter. Josef stood under the water briefly to get wet. The water turned off. Josef raised his arms to allow Gamma 37 to lather the soap and scrub Josef’s body vigorously with a stiff brush. Once he was fully covered from head to toe in soap suds and scrubbed down, Gamma 37 activated the shower again for Josef to rinse off. Gamma 37 carefully dried off Josef and applied a thin layer of moisturizer all over Josef’s body. He dressed Josef in his regulation gray clothing. Gamma 37 inserted the dental cleaner device that brushed Josef’s teeth instantly. Josef spit out the toothpaste and rinsed the residue from his mouth. Gamma 37 parted Josef’s shiny black hair and combed it all back.
“All done, Sir. I will get your breakfast ready,” Gamma 37 stated and took Josef’s plate into the kitchen to create a smoothie.
“Very well,” Josef said looking out the window.
“Do not worry, Sir. I estimate that you will arrive with one minute to spare,” Gamma 37 stated with a pleasant smile.
“I hope your estimate is correct,” Josef huffed. Gamma 37 disappeared into the kitchen and came back within a couple of minutes.
“I took the liberty to go ahead and give you a dose of soma,” Gamma 37 said as he handed Josef his breakfast cocktail.
“Fine, fine,” Josef said dismissively. One soma was not going to hurt. It was just enough to ease his tension this morning. Josef could not believe the lax nature his Gamma had about getting him up in time to eat his breakfast. It was a very careless move on his Gamma’s part. One that would not go unreported.
Josef arrived at the Conditioning Centre just in time to start his research on Inter-Group Dynamics or the study of the permanency of one’s status. Can a Beta become an Alpha? What is it that causes such desires? In fact, his research was more on how to prevent group disillusionment. The State sponsored his research to prevent what was called “yearning”—a dissatisfaction with one’s class assignment. He was tasked to study dissidents and the personality traits they all shared that lead to yearning.
“Just in time, Josef,” his co-researcher, Bernard Stalin, noted.
“My Gamma did not get me up in a proper time,” Josef said feeling the subtle calming effects of his morning soma.
“Is this a reportable offense?” Bernard asked.
“If it happens again,” Josef said looking at Bernard intently. Josef was not sure if he wanted to file a complaint or not. He was certain whatever occurred with his Gamma to make his eyes such a brilliant shade of green must be to blame. Josef was not ready to retire his Gamma yet. Josef’s inquisitive nature made him want to study his Gamma to see if there was any significant correlation between his eye color and any anomalous behavior.
Bernard nodded and went back to reviewing his book of statistics. Bernard Stalin was a tall blonde Alpha. He had a muscular build accented by his tight clothing. Josef was average height for an Alpha standing at 5’10”. His build was average. Josef’s steel gray eyes were further accentuated by his black hair and darker features.
If the system were still in place, Bernard would be an Alpha Plus. The World State abolished the plus and minus system. It was too complex and led to too many intra-class conflicts. Too many Alpha Pluses held their status over Alpha Minuses resulting in factionism. This certainly went against the principals of Community, Identity, and Stability. Plus and minus status used to be determined by one’s occupation. Since Bernard would be a Plus, so would Josef. None of that mattered anymore, however.
“How are we with our correlations?” Josef asked his peer.
“I am almost finished with calculating the differences between the Beta and the Gamma groups,” Bernard replied.
“Excellent,” Josef responded.
“Are you interested in going out with me and Betty?” Bernard asked.
“Betty? Didn’t you just go out with her last week?” Josef asked opening his notebook of equations.
“We did. But we had such a great time, we are going again. She’s a particularly pneumatic specimen,” Bernard replied with a sly smirk.
“You know, you’re going to get some folks talking if you continue with her,” Josef said.
“Don’t worry. I have several other options at my disposal. It’s just good communal fun,” Bernard laughed.
“I suppose so,” Josef said as he went over an equation.
“What about you?” Bernard asked.
“I’m not seeing anyone at the moment,” Josef quietly said.
“And you warn me about my behavior! What’s it been, three weeks?” Bernard said making a mark in his data so as not to lose his place.
“It’s been four,” Josef replied. “I just haven’t been that interested in any prospects.”
“You may need to see a counselor about that and get a soma updose. One dose takes away ten damns,” Bernard said quoting the repetitions in conditioning classes.
“That’s what they say,” Josef responded. The truth of the matter was that lately none of the Alpha or Beta women were attractive to him now. It was natural to be as promiscuous as possible. Advances in contraception and disease control made it virtually impossible to conceive in the old ways. Annual inoculations took away any risk of a sexual transmitted disease. There were no repercussion for being with as many partners as one could handle. Despite all of this, Josef still found little interest in the females of his social circle. He had always felt this way to a certain degree, but his lack of interest had become stronger over the past few months.
“What about Susan? I hear she’s got a thing for you,” Bernard replied raising his eyebrows.
“Susan,” Josef thought. Susan with the thin hair and the toothy smile. She was a Beta and a vacuous gossip. There was nothing about her that Josef found attractive. “She’s a little below my class.”
“Yeah, Beta girls are like that, but I hear she is skilled in all the arts,” Bernard joked. Josef laughed but only superficially. Bernard’s comments about women were brutish but typical of the male species today—only interested in how pneumatic a female is. Josef looked at Bernard and wondered just how pneumatic he was. Wouldn’t that be a scandal! The brut becoming the receiver. Josef laughed but then quickly blushed at the thought. He immediately went back to his equations to clear his mind.