Unipsi, lovely entity
chapter 72c: sweet
The control room was filled with computers. They had a peculiar appearance and, to a certain degree, reminded Scilla of ISAG. From the room, they could observe the magnitude of the farm in all its beauty and cynical horror. Scilla kept thinking about the images the HBE showed her. People stuck in tubes being experimented on. To her it felt the same. What prevented them from doing the same with animals or intelligent creatures? Then it clicked.
Wait… I have eaten meat for more than a week now. It was fresh, not preserved… where the fuck did it come from?
“Iris my dear, can I ask you something?”
“of course babe, what is it?” replied Iris ironically.
“just this lunch we eat fresh meat… and so I did the days before… where did it come from?”
“a meat farm where else?”
“but is it like… this one?”
“sort of. We don’t really grow animals….”
“oh, thank god”
“we grow only what we need from them”
“ah shit”
“what?”
“nothing… go on with... your explanation of the farming or growing process”
“are you sure? You don’t seem to appreciate it. I mean does it gross you out?”
“the process itself, not so much. The ethical insanity behind a lot”
“fair. Well farming animals is kinda boring and painful. You know you can get attached. They could catch some illnesses and whatever. Nature is a bloody mess. To ensure better underground suitability and efficiency I know that we tried with synthetic meat. Guess what?”
“the Federation tried that too and it turned out that it was far more resources consuming than just keeping an animal alive”
“same for us. So we decided to improve our farming techniques. But it didn’t help much. The surface is painfully hostile and making grass expanses underground too expensive. So initially they started with intensive farming but enhanced. Are you familiar with the concept of lobotomy?”
“smashing the brain of people believing it would have cured mental illnesses but instead just broke them?”
“exactly, but applied to animals. They didn’t use an awl but gamma rays. But it’s not important. They achieved farming animals totally incapable of doing anything but passively living. Need more, you breed them. Need food you kill them. Machines kept them alive. However, it was deemed too pointless. Too primitive. So they moved to brain electrical interference. Basically brainwashing and directly using their own body. This way they would believe to be elsewhere and in a constant state of joy. So they were more productive…”
during her lengthy explanation, Scilla sat down and so did Iris who, while speaking, was also using a computer. Scilla didn’t know why Iris was telling her so much but she resisted her urge to speak up against such disregard of living creatures.
“and that was more or less until my closest sisters were born. We have a 7 years difference. They were fed up with inefficiency. Why waste time and nutrients to grow the entire animal when you can just grow only what you want at command? It’s basically the same you are seeing with plants. Deep and long studies to allow us to basically made machines but with plants or flesh. Their attempts were mostly ineffective with flesh. But once I took over things got better and I can now confidently tell you that all the meat you eat was ordered and build using my invention.”
“well… I’m… I’m impressed by your dedication and achievements. Frankly never thought I would believe what you just told me. But I stand in one of those farms. So I guess it’s real”
“real and efficient. This one just… recently broke down. Well, something broke down. I’m still figuring it out entirely.”
“Impressive...”
They were clearly on different pages and to avoid conflict Scilla distanced herself from the conversation leaving it to die. However Iris, not seeing Scilla’s look of disgust while focused on the control computer, kept speaking.
“How do your people make food?”
“well normal farming? I mean just fields with plants and fields with animals. That’s about it… well, there is intensive farming as well but I… I don’t have to eat their shit anymore”
“I agree that if done incorrectly it’s food pumped with shit but why did you eat it… before?”
“kinda told you. I was poor as fuck. Shit food is all you can get if you don’t have money. But with the war and after it I made big money and changed my priorities and views”
“is war profitable?”
“it depends. Most of the money I made came from after the war cause I became I scavenger”
“you are a tech stealer”
“well… kinda. I mean you are not but 511 was one and was way better than me”
“I guess I would steal advanced tech too. So how much money do you have?”
Scilla was taken aback by such comment. She didn’t expect Iris to even care about money and in fact, she didn’t. Her purpose was different.
“I… well considering that I’m probably considered dead. Nothing. It should all went to my sister. But I was around 33 millions.”
“oh. That’s a big number. Where do you keep all of that? Can you swim in it?”
what the fuck?
“what? My bank keeps it. Are you sure you meant to say swim?”
“yeah. Isn’t money like a piece of colored paper? This bank must have massive rooms to keep 30 million sheets of paper around. Still if they have them can you just go there and… well just jump in them?”
Scilla busted out laughing. That was by far the most cartoonish thing that ever came out of Iris’s mouth and for sure was caused by her lack of knowledge.
“the fuck you laughing at? I’m serious”
“sorry sorry. You just surprised me. I guess you never saw any currency am I right?”
“Why should I have? I don’t really know even what it’s used for. But I know 2 things. When you don’t have money it’s called poor. When you have a lot it’s rich. And I know that people exchange money for work. But that’s about it. My best guess it is that it’s some kind of collectible. The more you have the more people… respect you? I’m unsure. Are they things that you collect?”
Scilla smiled widely at such an astonishing reveal. Like basically everybody in centuries she never met someone totally estranged from the concepts such as money, labor and trading. Iris was an exception, but so were her sisters. Once they purged the non Idras from Weeping Sky, they build their small paradise. A place untainted by any political ideology or economic system. Weeping Sky worked purely on 2 concepts. Science is the meaning of life and Nature rules the living. Nothing else matters. To put it bluntly, Idras sorta believed and lived taking what they wanted by force from nature applying the law of the stronger against the weaker. What you make is yours but not yours as well. Other Idras recognized their sister's works and joined them in improving them to gain mutual benefits. They lived like a peaceful and extremely closed community. They avoid falling into laziness because in their eyes any second spent doing nothing could be dedicated to science, progress or personal enjoyment.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Due to such principles, the knowledge of the outside was soon lost to time. When 608’s Idras appeared they had already forgotten the concept of trade and currencies. They accepted to be paid but never cared. Their military activity was purely driven by their own interests. Their field tests were also one of the reasons for their widely spread notoriety and infamy even among the techunion. In 608’s universe, Idras were no saints. People respected them for their work and assistance but mostly feared them.
“Well. How people… ehm… the relationship between people and money is kinda complicated” replied Scilla.
“why?”
“well… to begin with money is just a token. People collectively decided that it had value and exchanged it”
“I don’t think that I’m understanding but go on. Maybe it will make more sense later”
“so basically it allows for non-product base trade. You can just exchange your time doing a job with tokens, then exchange tokens with goods. Like researcher. They don’t really produce anything tradeable right?”
“I suppose”
“so you pay them with money and then they buy themselves what they need”
“well it makes sense to a point”
“what is not working for you?”
“the purpose. There is enough technology to automate everything you need to survive. All that is left is to do researches.”
“fair enough. But what if you don’t want to?”
“is it possible to not want to know and study more?”
“yes.”
“oh. I didn’t know that”
“well I’m the living example. I don’t really pursue anything. Just a good living.”
“interesting… I guess not all give the same meaning to life. Yet I still don’t understand why opposing biological manipulation.”
“I could ask you the same. Why even make these places? I’m sure there are hundreds more farms in this place and for what? Feed only you?”
“research and this place exist because this way we can prepare for the future. Food is processed and stored in case it will be required.”
“by whom? You and you alone as you have no means to move it around?”
“I’m working on that. I’m sure that by the time I would be 30 I would have built something to travel around.”
“and then what? Stuff cans with food and throw it at people?”
“I… I don’t know. Stop asking questions! I don’t need a reason! If you don’t like it it’s your problem”
Scilla was taken aback by the sudden loud burst of rage, but even if Iris’s voice showed rage her body was calm and still focused on her work. Almost as if she was just pretending to be angry.
“I… I’m just scared of… your approach. No morals and ethics is scary. It could lead to something undesired and…”
Now Iris got angry. She snapped and stared at Scilla.
“SO WHAT!? Why is my desire to outperform nature wrong but yours to steal tech from tombs not?!? why is my painless farm worse than yours where animals live their last moments in fear away from their homes!”
“They are stunned permanently so they don’t feel pain”
“but before that, they sense their end. They were alive but what I do is not complex living. They are just cells that were never able to think, never able to feel joy nor pain. Never able to reproduce or even think about it. They have no instinct, nothing. I give orders and they obey because they can’t do anything else. I tell them what to produce and I tell them when to release the product. Never once it was an animal. It’s more like a colony of bacteria”
Then Scilla noticed that Iris was tearing up. Only then it hit her that so far she had been shitting on the work that Iris did in the last 4 years. A work that she was proud of like any scientist would be.
“sorry I was…”
“Keep your excused to yourself and get out.”
“ok”
Scilla returned to the vehicle and waited for 4 hours before Iris got out of the farm. The journey back was at best awkward and at worst painfully silent. Scilla fucked up again. She just couldn’t keep her opinions to herself. When they got home Iris spoke.
“don’t make food for me. I have to work on a different farm. If you don’t like it so much then eat mush. It is fully artificial. There is a blanket in the wardrobe.”
“Iris I’m sorry. I spoke my mind…”
“don’t worry. I can’t nor I want to pretend that your comments didn’t hurt me. But I prefer people who tell me what they feel instead of boot lickers”
“sorry for hurting you”
“It’s what it’s. I’ll go now”
Well, it didn’t go so bad… she will return, right? I hope so.
After some thinking, Scilla decided that she had to put more effort into Iris in order to secure their friendship. Even with her dumb-as-a-rock moments, Scilla was certain of one thing about Iris. She loved the unknown. The pleasure of discovery is unique. So after some pondering Scilla decided that Iris’s surprise was going to be whatever sweet she could manage to bake. She was fairly sure that Iris never had anything akin to a cake. She tried to bake whatever she could but everything was unknown to her. There were so many flours, so many eggs, so many sugars and flavors that it took her 5 hours to make a tart with an unknown jam that she found good after baking. Then she waited and waited, prepared her dinner, and waited again for Iris to return. She looked at the tracking and it was still on and not too far. So she fixed her couch and went to sleep.
Some time later Iris returned. She crossed the garage entrance and got inside the dark living room
The hell is this smell? All that bitching but in the end she used my food.
She didn’t turn on any light. Instead, she changed her hair to glow lightly, enough to allow her used to the darkness eyes to see. Silently she lurked around inspecting the source of the smell. On the counter a circular food. She never saw anything like it.
This is not bread, doesn’t look soft or crunchy. I don’t see leftover flour around or over it. Texture looks like it may be chunky, not so refined. Liked composed of fragments held together by some force. It has a depth used to contain a now solid mixture. The half liquid maybe was some smoothie of something. It’s of a dark purple… doesn't ring any bell. There are striped of… cocked dough over it making rhombuses. A triangular cut. That’s a huge slice so this thing is food.
Curious she approached the tart and cut herself a slice. She was so hesitant that instead of biting into it she approached the sleeping Scilla. Iris got as close as possible and sniffed her. With it, she concluded that Scilla had indeed, probably, eat the missing piece. More convinced she bit into it. Her first tart in her life and basically the only sugary food she had ever eaten except made for natural sweets such as fruits and honey. She was surprisingly pleased by the food provided that she decided to wake up Scilla to ask her what she was eating.
As predictable Scilla was startled by the all ordeal because as her eyes opened she was a glowing floating mass of hair who spoke some unintelligible words as Iris was munching down on the slice.
“WHAT THE FUCK!” shouted Scilla jumping back.
“what the fuck what?”
“you scared the shit out of me”
“I… don’t detect variation in ambient smell”
“what? Ahm, no it’s a way of saying. Don’t take it literally”
“oh. Well, what is this thing that you made?” Iris glowed stronger and showed the tart slice to Scilla who in the meanwhile had sat on the couch.
“it’s a tart. A type of cake”
“oh. And you made it?”
“yes. I thought that maybe you would like it”
“I do like it… what is the solidified fluid?”
“you mean the jam?”
“oh… what’s a jam?”
“boiled fruits with sugar”
“interesting. Why did you make it?”
“just told you. I wanted you to eat it because I thought you might like it. I was hoping for you to come back sooner and taste it together but I should have expected this. It’s way more in character with you”
“thanks. I suppose. So I can eat the rest?”
“I would advise not to. It’s a lot of sugar and it could give you a stomachache if you eat too many too fast”
“got it. I’ll take it to work tomorrow.”
“are you going to sleep?”
“nope. It’s not yet time for that. I’m just going to relax for a bit and then return to work on my farms”
“emh… can I ask you a favor?”
“depends on the favor. So?”
“can you wake me up before you go to work?”
“why? Don’t you want to sleep more?”
“it’s fine. I want to send you off to work. It’s like a good luck thing. Me and my sister used to do the same anytime we could”
Iris was initially confused but then smiled.
“ok, I’ll wake you up. Goodnight”
“goodnight”