t 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 colored red stripe on the otherwise plain gray 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 analyzing 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, labeled 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.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
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 labor 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 signaled 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 defense, we had to perform the startup 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 catalog. 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 tranquility and processes far beyond her comprehension took over in her brain.