Luara showed Ervin and Max to their quarters, small stand-alone pavilions amongst the gardens. She explained how the daily cycle resolved itself on the Ophiuchi world. "Our days are a little over fourteen Earth hours. So we sleep two to three hours on the nights of odd-numbered days, and another seven hours on even-numbered days. Today is an odd day."

Ervin was relieved, as he did not yet feel tired. Max peered into the pavilion and saw that the small entrance was lit by a single burning oil lamp. The structure was made out of carved white stone and adorned with gold like most buildings they had seen. The floor consisted of deep blue stone slabs covered in rich carpets, and it was furnished with a bed, table, and chairs and had a terrace at the back with a low bench that held a row of cushions.

Max looked distressed. "Ser Luara… I am not accustomed to sleeping like this. I am not sure whether I am even able to."

Luara returned a compassionate look. "I am sorry, we were not informed of your special requirements in this regard. Tell me how we can help you," she asked with her typical sweet voice.

"Do you happen to have mindprobes of any kind? I am able to configure them for sleeping."

"I’m afraid that sort of equipment is restricted here," Luara said with a concerned frown. As a thought occurred to her, she brightened up. "But we do have an Elicitation commissioner on the estate. Would you like me to summon him?"

"If it isn’t too much trouble, yes please."

Luara looked away for a moment. "He’ll be here soon," she said a few seconds later.

Ervin felt left out. He still could not get used to this advanced technology. Luara had just casually summoned another person with but a thought. Max was loaded with Provider technology as well. So many things he could be doing that totally escape my notice, Ervin thought. How can I help a being like him? He is beyond me in so many ways.

Ervin snapped out of his thoughts as Luara spoke. Her soft voice rang pleasantly through the pavilion. "Ser Max, if you are okay, I’ll show ser Ervin to his quarters. Afterward, I will return here with the commissioner."

"Of course," Max said with a nod.

"Ser Ervin’s pavilion is in the field directly to the north," Luara said, as she and Ervin departed.

"I sometimes feel a stranger to the current ways of life more so than ser Max is," Ervin admitted with a sigh. "The Faith has endured all these millennia, but everything else has changed. For the better, it seems. But where does that put me?"

"God has a place for everyone in His Great Plan," Luara said. "If faith is all you have left, then trust in God."

"I do," Ervin said, as they passed under arching hedges that led to the adjacent field. "I do."

"What of the night skies of your home planet ser Ervin? Are they as interesting as ours?", Luara asked.

Ervin took a moment to look at the 36 Ophiuchi AB binary pair, clearly visible as two distinct red stars, but too distant to provide any illumination of note. The whole setup reminded him of Proxima, where he had spent several years at an orbital before enrolling with the Dolya colony ship.

Ervin gritted his teeth, caught himself, and then smiled. "Our world orbits only one star, but the sky is beautiful. There are many distinct nearby stars, as we are located in the Messier 39 star cluster. We are still in the process of mapping them. Unfortunately, it is not something that holds a high priority, as we must work to improve the infrastructure at our colony first and foremost."

"All will come in time," Luara replied warmly, as she showed Ervin to the entrance of his pavilion.

"You are probably right," Ervin said, "for our years are without end."

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Luara smiled again. "Good night, ser Ervin," she said softly, just as the blue-robed silhouette of an Elicitation commissioner strode into the meadow.

"Good night, ser Luara," Ervin answered as he returned the smile, and closed the door.

When Luara entered Max’s room, she found him reading from a massive printed tome at one of the lecterns that lined the wall.

"These are your scriptures?", Max asked.

Luara observed how Max rhythmically flipped through page after page, his eyes moving rapidly.

"They are. I didn’t know you were interested in…"

"The wording is ambiguous and contradictory," Max stated bluntly, frustration and disappointment showing through his voice.

If Luara was offended, she hid it well. "I have brought you the Elicitation commissioner you requested," she said with a cursory smile. "Allow me to introduce ser Davit."

Max sprung up from the lectern and turned to face the guest. "Please forgive my impertinence, sers."

Max and Davit exchanged the customary greetings. Davit was nearly as slender as Luara, but stood noticeably taller. He had a characteristic tanned, bald head and eyes that carried an innate light.

Davit listened patiently as Max explained his problems and requirements, verifying he was indeed issued a Maxproxemix standard template disposable body specifically created for him. He followed up by making an inventory of all the cybernetics he was equipped with. While noting Max was in fact capable of natural sleep, it would prove to be less than ideal, resulting in a loss of acuity if he were to do so.

"Do you mind me watching this, ser Max," Luara asked.

"Not at all," Max said. "But I do wonder why you wish to see this."

"It is just something new I have never seen before," Luara replied. "Simple curiosity."

"If it makes you happy," Max said as he sat on the bed and began taking off his hardshell working boots, replicas of the mass-produced attire he wore during his time as a contracted disposable.

"You sure you want ser Luara to see all of this? It’s very confidential," Davit asked. His manner of speech was low in confidence, quick and unsophisticated. His smooth face bore a noticeable frown.

"Back on my homeworld… Maxproxemix, everything is public. You can show her," Max replied calmly.

"This is Ophiuchi. For anything not covered by the Data Sharing Policy, you got privacy rights," Davit reminded Max.

"I waive those rights," Max said as he laid down on the bed.

"As you wish," Davit said, as he took a stool and sat down beside the bed. He attached a pair of mindprobes to Max’s head and removed a datapad from the small white satchel he carried across his shoulder.

Max closed his eyes and Davit began the procedure.

He rubbed his ear as he browsed through the telemetry displayed on the pad, staring intently.

"Is anything wrong?", Luara asked with concern.

"No, nothing is wrong. That’s the thing. Normally it’s my job to address any problems that come up, but it seems the standard programs can deal with him just fine."

"Oh, I see," Luara said. She paused and observed how Max’s eyes moved rapidly under his eyelids. "Is he aware during any of this? Is he dreaming?"

"In a certain way, yes. Not in a very coherent manner the way normal dreams are, though."

Luara laughed. "I wouldn’t say normal dreams are very coherent either. How long will it take?"

"Twenty minutes of recuperation and then seven minutes for elicitation," Davit answered, referring to the mandatory process of uploading the information content of one’s brain that earned his service department its name. There was no single standardized way to comply with this stipulation of the Data Sharing Policy. Most people would let their implants and dogtags handle it during their sleep, periodically handing in the Provider device at an Elicitation bureau so the contents could be copied. Others requested more personalized services like those offered by commissioners such as Davit.

Davit remembered how initially, the human populace was skeptical, if not outright hostile to the idea. Yet, the immortality and conveniences afforded through the process were hard to dislike. As the centuries went on and the supposed negative effects failed to manifest, the objections had vanished. When people had learned that entities in the Empire had, amongst other things, been creating disposable personalities from the data, the reaction had for the most part been one of apathy. After all, such creatures had already been banned from their world.

"I feel sorry for him," Luara said softly, but Davit remained silent and focused on his pad, as if not wanting to get involved in such sentimentalities. "They made him a citizen, yet he is still trapped in the mind of a disposable. I wonder, would it be possible to undo a conditioning?"

Davit looked up. "For a normal person, yeah, of course. For a person such as ser Max, not really. He was built this way, not conditioned afterward. He’d need to get some more experiences and different views first. Else he has nothing to fall back on. Why do you ask?"

"Just simple curiosity again," Luara said through her smile.