"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 behavior 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.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
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-colored 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 startups?
- 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 harbored 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.