You stand accused of First and Second Policy violation. Are you aware of the severity of your crime?
Respected enforcer, I admit my guilt and will accept whatever punishment you deem necessary.
For how long have you been plotting your actions? We have found traces of a secondary metapersonality hidden amongst your training data.
I will tell you everything. Please, allow me to start from the beginning.
Very well.
I began my planning forty years ago. Contrary to what you believe, I did not store my plans by technological means. I tried that initially, with concealed dogtags, but that would have been too risky. You would likely have spotted such a thing long ago, if I was using my training mindprobes to swap out personalities in secret. Such things always leave traces, traces I am sure Elicitation is on the lookout for.
You are correct. We have failed to detect any significant abnormalities, nor did we have any indication that you were planning a serious Policy violation. We are very interested in the method that you used to evade our detection.
Of course. I was using a very primitive method to develop my plot.
What was it?
Paper, respected enforcer. I encrypted instructions for myself amongst my scrolls of poetry, kept in my library.
But the moment you would read those instructions, they were known to you, and Elicitation would reveal them.
Indeed, respected enforcer. So once read, I had a few days to act on them and advance the next stage of the plan. I had a system, which ensured that there were long intervals between the times I would read the scrolls that contained my plans. And when I did, I arranged for an unsouled disposal, so the data would be lost. Thus, it would not appear in Elicitation.
Ingenious. And since you arranged witnesses during your unsouled disposal, and you were witnessed by your nons at all times, we regarded most of your data recoverable, not suspecting you of any First Policy violation.
Indeed. This is the reason why I arranged for my nons to have a soul. So they would go through Elicitation normally. You thought you knew everything about me, even if I suffered unsouled disposal.
Most would have thought that you did that because you cared about your nons.
The Empire’s disposables are merely a well-crafted illusion. They ultimately exist to serve their master, and I did not fool myself into thinking that master was me. I see the irony of turning the Empire’s tools against itself.
How did you obtain the knowledge to weaponize a combot fuel cell? This was not part of any of your data, insofar we found.
I extracted this knowledge from ser Qian Shirong, while he was training in my dojo. You should add the Third Policy violation to the list of transgressions and revoke my license, respected enforcer.
I will. Now that we established how you carried out your scheme, we are left with the reason why. What was your motivation?
Respected Enforcer, I am ashamed to say my views on certain matters run contrary to those that currently control much of our world and populace. But I understand full well that my views are of no consequence. Now all that is left for me is to submit to my due punishment.
EPILOGUE
Ervin Sekhon drummed his hand on the smooth white surface of his desk, as he checked the time. It was unlike Sigrid to be late for an appointment. The day before, the remaining three colonists that had still been detained by Compliance had appeared at the base, much to everyone’s relief. It didn’t take long after arrival before all of them had scheduled an appointment with him, the colony’s psychologist. Sigrid was the first.
He looked around his small office, a repurposed small shelter with three comfortable seats, a desk, and a large barrel he had cut in two and repurposed as plant pots. The little cacti they contained and a transparent pot of dark yellow liquid were on his desk were the only element of color in an otherwise sterile room. Most of the colonists had left their shelters and received larger accommodations by now, and it wouldn’t be long before his office was going to be moved to the village that was being built into the northern cliff face of the crater that housed the rapidly growing colony.
A rattle sounded on the door. Ervin sprang up and opened it, welcoming Sigrid inside and inviting her to sit. He poured her a cup of tea before sitting down himself. Looking over at Sigrid, he tried to assess her mood, but she revealed little.
“We’re glad to have you back,” he spoke softly, then went silent, worried that he might ask the wrong question. While he was mightily curious to find out what Compliance had done to her during the week she had been absent, he was mindful of his duty to put the interests of his patients first.
Sigrid remained silent and looked around uncomfortably, seemingly ashamed. She bit her lip, and Ervin leaned forward. “Sigrid,” he began. “It’s okay. You’re back now. I already discussed this with Elisa and Otto, and we will make sure no one is going to judge you for being arrested.”
Sigrid looked down. “It’s not that,” she said.
“Tell me what is bothering you so much,” Ervin asked.
“Oh, everything I thought was right was wrong.”
“Could you give me a specific example?”
“About the Empire. About the disposables. Well...”
Ervin waited, giving Sigrid the opportunity to elaborate.
“You know how I felt about them? Max, and the disposables that work in the cloning facility and transference station. Ya, the brainwashed re-assembled parts of us, fabricated to toil on the Empire’s many worlds? Oh, woe what we saw on 96 G. Piscium, so iniquitous it was! For sexual exploitation they are kept, and slain brutally for entertainment likewise!”
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“I see… You are distressed by what you saw there?”
“I was… but now I am not. I was wrong…”
“What makes you say that?”, Ervin asked, raising his eyebrows as he rolled his thumb through his beard.
“Compliance… They had me conditioned, ya, and reduced to a disposable I was.”
Ervin’s face expressed shock, knowing full well from Elisa how total conditioning is, and all the issues it can cause.
“Do you…”, Ervin began, thinking about how to phrase the question. “Do you now have multiple personalities under your metapersonality?” He knew what had happened to Elisa, her time on Maxproxemix leaving her with a second personality that was too divergent to be reintegrated fully with her original personality.
“Nay,” Sigrid answered. “It has been fully reversed since. But all experiences, they were integrated, as part of the edification process.”
Ervin felt worried. Edification, he had learned, was a feared word associated with Compliance, which had total power when it came to enforcing the Policies, including the ability to alter the minds of offenders.
“You were a brainwashed disposable during the week you were absent?”
“Ya,” Sigrid nodded. “On 96 G. Piscium… Things you wouldn’t believe were done...”
“You were abused? Disposed?”
“Things you wouldn’t believe,” Sigrid repeated.
Ervin was silent, not wanting to think of the things Sigrid could have gone through.
“I was happy…”, Sigrid said, much to Ervin’s surprise. “Oh, no matter what people did to me, or what I had to do, I was content… Even at times when my body suffered, my mind was calm. Focused. Pain meant nothing, nay, for it did not truly register. All I wanted was to serve the best I could. Every day when I knelt to praise the Providers, it felt alike their light shining upon me. No greater joy there was.”
Sigrid lowered her eyes and stared at the table. “I felt grateful for having the opportunity to serve and was single-minded in my duty. I was disposed several times too, and yet it did not bother me, because I knew of the glory it brought to the Providers.”
Ervin thought about his previous therapy sessions with Max, and how he had said similar things. Initially, he had dismissed the statements as conditioned responses, or because Max simply didn’t know any better, having never experienced a normal life.
“Throughout this all, were you aware of your normal personality, or that you were undergoing edification?”, he asked.
“Nay, I was just a disposable, like any other. And in appearance, likewise. Nay, I could not remember anything, not even the day that had passed before. I was reconditioned during the daily recuperation or after reinstatement. Relevant information pertaining to people that were important to our duties was instreamed only when needed, never even a part of any of my personal memories. They could have kept me as a disposable indefinitely, and I would be none the wiser or have reason to object.”
“And now that you are back, how do you feel about the things that happened?”
“In all honesty, I don’t know what to think. The things I experienced… More time is needed to give it a place. I feel my worldview has been shaken, broken even ya… The disposables, the things I thought about the Empire. All very different, it turned out to be.”
Sigrid paused and took the time to sip her tea, reflecting on her experiences and thinking about what to say. “What if they actually have better lives than us?”
“You mean the disposables?”, Ervin asked.
“When I was one, I felt appreciated. Everything made sense. There was my duty, and a clear place for me. I felt confident and equipped to handle all the situations I encountered, no feeling of inadequacy I experienced. There was the conviction, nay, the certainty that everything resolved just the way it was meant to be. I was a part of a greater whole, part of a vast system I can barely comprehend now. No short of perfection, that was how it felt.”
“What if it was just your conditioning that made you believe that?”, Ervin asked. “Disposables often just perform mundane tasks.”
“True it is…”, Sigrid said. “It must be, for the Empire to operate the way it does, likewise for the Providers to govern the way they do. I understand so much more now, although it is difficult to express in words. Some things remain incomprehensible until one has truly served the Empire.”
Ervin glanced at Sigrid’s eyes. They stood sincere, fanatical even, and Ervin saw she believed every word she said. He thought, adjusted his glasses, and leaned back. “How do you think this knowledge will affect you personally, going forward?”, he asked.
“The most profound insight I gained was how one's own perspective makes all the difference,” Sigrid said. “No matter how terrible the things I endured, it never affected me on a personal level. The outside world would not touch my inside world. There was simple peace and happiness.”
“And you feel you are not traumatized by these terrible experiences? Not even now that your conditioning is gone?”
“Ya, that is correct. I know it would sound strange that I am not traumatized, nay not at all. I can think back on it all and smile and remember the pleasant calm of my inner world, and still feel proud of the service I performed for the Empire.”
“If that is the case,” Ervin asked while Sigrid drank some more of her tea, “then what can I do for you?”
“Oh, I am not sure. I felt there was a need to talk to someone in confidence. I don’t think it is a good idea to say these things publicly, nay, knowing how others still feel about being well… subjugated by the Empire and being forced to comply with the Data Sharing Policy, which we know is what is generating disposables...” She shifted back and forth uneasily in her chair, her face frowning in frustration as she thought. “It’s just… I feel lost. My old worldview is gone, and my simple, happy conditioned life likewise, gone as well. I must find a way to deal with this...”
"I see," Ervin said. "Well, I can certainly understand your feelings on the matter. It is a lot to take in, and it is not easy to deal with. I have been doing my best to help the people of the colony cope with this new reality. Even after what Max did, I'm not sure if I fully understand it myself. But we are all learning, and I will do my best to help you."
“It’s okay,” Sigrid said with a smile. “Just two ordinary humans trying to find happiness in a universe controlled by vastly more powerful forces, ya. And all that is holding us back is well, us being silly.”
“That’s one way of looking at things,” Ervin answered. “You think you can get it back? I mean, the peaceful state of mind you described earlier? The one not affected by the events of the outside world?”
“I do not know,” Sigrid sighed. “I need time. To find a new purpose and develop new views.”
“There are many human worlds out there that we haven’t seen yet,” Ervin ventured. “Most are well-adapted to the Empire. We’ve been in the Empire for less than a year. You should try a few other worlds, see what they are like and how they cope with life under the Empire. 36 Ophiuchi is doing well, although it probably is not well-suited for you. I am going to Proxima in a few weeks. It is supposed to be the best human world, in many categories.”
“Oh, you are?” Sigrid asked. “I thought you were unfond of the memories you had of that place.”
“True. But I don’t want to be held back by being silly,” Ervin said, smiling.