by P P Corcoran
Elena began to turn, as if to run away. This can’t be happening. But she couldn’t think of what to do. The law was the law. Where could she go that the government couldn’t track the chip embedded in her skull?
She turned back to Agent Ferris. “Yes.” Her voice sounded like a croak. “I understand.”
“I am required to take you to a Federal Reassignment Center for processing.”
Elena closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Back in the house she could hear Henry and Cory trying to quiet Marta.
“You have to say the words, ma’am.”
“Yes, yes, I understand,” stammered Elena.
Agent Ferris held out the tablet. “Just press your thumb here, please.”
Elena raised her right arm, watching as if it belonged to someone else as Agent Ferris grasped her thumb and pressed it to the sensor.
Henry came to the door and stood behind her. “You can’t take my wife!” He strode toward the door. The two guards took a step forward, their boots clomping in unison, hands on their weapons.
Agent Ferris raised one hand, stopping the guards. She shot the two civilians a nervous glance. “Think carefully about your next move,” she said to Henry. In a lower voice she added, “Your family needs you.”
Henry stopped, made a rough anguished sound, and went back to where Cory stood with Marta in his arms. He put an arm around his children, and tears pricked Elena’s eyes.
Agent Ferris stepped to one side to give Elena room to pass. “We have to go now. Come with me, please, ma’am.”
“Can I bring a few things?” Elena knew she should have packed a go bag and kept it by the front door, but she’d relied on the exemption to protect her. Besides, doing that had made the possibility of this day seem too real, too immediate.
“Not necessary.”
Elena looked upstairs. “I have to get my medication.”
“Not necessary.”
“My coat?”
Agent Ferris nodded. Elena hesitated between her good wool coat and the old down jacket. Ferris murmured, “Wear the old one. They’ll just take it away at the Reassignment Center.”
“Will they give it to the poor?”
“There are no poor people.”
Shrugging on the jacket, Elena kissed Henry and hugged Cory. Marta, shrieking, held out her arms, but Elena didn’t dare take her. She would never be able to pry those warm clinging arms from around her neck. Instead, she kissed each one. “I love you,” she said to them.
“You can’t go, Mom,” Cory said with a voice choked by tears.
“It’s the law,” Elena replied. “We’re law-abiding citizens.”
“But it’s wrong!” His face was twisted with anger. “The law is bad. You have to fight.”
“We don’t get to pick which laws we obey, Cory,” Elena said. “And we can’t ignore the laws we don’t like.”
“Yes we can!” Cory shouted. “Don’t go with them.”
The two guards behind Agent Ferris lifted their weapons in one motion.
“That’s enough, Cory,” Henry said in a hard voice Elena had never heard before.
“But – “
“Stop. Now.”
Elena could hear the panic in his voice. She knew the guards wouldn’t tolerate any resistance. She had to end this right now.
“I’ll be doing important work in space,” she said to her family. “Think of me when you look up at night.” Elena forced what she hoped was a smile. “Besides, I’ll get superpowers.”
Turning her back on her anguished family, she walked down the front stairs and across the lawn. Frosted grass crackled under her shoes. The guards lowered their weapons and followed, one on either side.
“Can you tell me where I’m going?” she asked.
Agent Ferris replied, “As I said, you’re going to the Reassignment Center for processing.”
“I mean…after.”
“No. I can’t say.”
“Oh. Not even where...?” Elena looked up at the night sky.
“No.”
A black bus with tinted windows waited on the street. The outside held no markings of any kind, neither an official seal nor a commercial logo. Agent Ferris stood aside so Elena could board the bus, then stepped up after her. A row of seats at the front looked like those in a normal bus. A Plexiglas barrier separated them from benches that lined both sides of the vehicle, with a low rail on the floor in front.
Other detainees sat on the benches with their wrists in restraints. Three or four in the back were hunched over and fastened to the rail. They looked like they’d been in a fight.
Elena halted, unable to take another step. This can’t be happening to me, she thought. I’m an educated woman. I’m a manager, a professional. I have a respectable job.
Not anymore. Not since she’d been called into a conference room and found a human resources supervisor facing her with a wireless printer on the table and a tablet next to it. She had taken Elena through the layoff process and made sure the right signatures went in the right places, along with an official thumbprint on the last page. Finally, she’d handed Elena a formal statement of separation from the company.
My death warrant, Elena thought. Only I didn’t know it then.
“I’m sure you’ll find another job soon,” the supervisor had said in the complacent voice of someone who was still employed. “You’ll be fine.”
But there were no jobs, not for people, not anymore. Kiosks, robots, touch screens and AIs had replaced humans in even the simplest positions, especially the easy jobs. You needed at least an MBA to be considered for the few non-automated positions left, and the competition was fierce. Elena had been too busy with her family, and working long hard hours to keep the job she had, to even think about getting a graduate degree.
Agent Ferris took her by the arm and guided her to an empty spot on the bench. The bus smelled of sweat and fear. Elena sat down. She watched, stupefied, as the guards put restraints on her.
“That’s not necessary,” she said.
“It’s required,” Agent Ferris said. “Standard procedure.”
The cold bands chilled her. They told Elena she’d gone from a wife and mother to a prisoner. She stared at them, wondering how this had happened to her when she’d always obeyed the rules. Elena couldn’t understand how the country had come so far from the way it had been only a few years ago.
The guards went to the front, closed the Plexiglas door behind them, and sat next to Agent Ferris.
“That’s the last pickup in this sector,” Agent Ferris said, resetting the automated drive controls. “Let’s head back to the center.”
The bus pulled away from the curb and accelerated. Before Elena could think to turn around for a final look, her house had fallen behind, along with her family and her old life. The vehicle reached the town’s commercial area and turned toward the highway. Elena looked at her fellow passengers. Suburban homeowners. White-collar workers. Conscripted. Condemned.
They were a lot like her. Clean, well-dressed, and intelligent, all with the same stunned expression that she felt on her own face. Men and women alike, they looked straight ahead, as if at something outside the bus and far away. Only a black man in a three-piece suit and tie sat with his arms on his knees and stared at the floor.
Too frightened and nervous to sit quietly, Elena asked of no one in particular, “So where do you think they’ll send us?” A few heads looked up, but no one spoke. “Building out the Mars colonies? Mining on Enceladus? Underwater exploration on Europa?”
An Asian man in glasses and gym clothes turned and stared at her. His eyes focused slowly, as though he needed a moment to process what she’d said. “I don’t think it will be any of those,” he said.
“Why?”
He shrugged. “Mars is full up. They won’t need new humechs for at least a year. A shipment just left for Enceladus, and that fills their quota until the next launch window. Europa didn’t file for any new humechs.”
“How do you know that?” asked a stocky man in a red plaid shirt and jeans.
He looked familiar. Elena knew she had seen him around town on weekends, in the coffee shop or maybe the market.
The Asian man shrugged again. “I am – was – director of the science museum. I read all the latest news NASA sent us, and blogs from people in the in-system colonies. I kept up. At least, until the state legislature cut the funding.”
“I remember that,” said a short man with a goatee. “They said it wasn’t productive, a waste of funds. My kids loved it there, though.” He paused for a moment and scanned the other detainees. “I’m Leo, by the way.”
Elena felt better, as if she had made a friend. “I’m Elena,” she said. “But I’m confused. The whole reason for the Full Employment Code – and creating humechs – is to provide the in-system colonies with people to expand them and find untapped resources.”
“That’s what they told us,” said Leo. “But it’s not true.”
“Then what do they want us for? Why not just leave us alone?”
Leo shrugged. “Who knows? But I’m sure there’s a reason.” He gestured toward the black man. “At least Sami over there thinks so.”
“Does that mean we’re going to stay on Earth?” Hope flooded Elena. “Does that mean they won’t turn us into humechs?”
Sami looked up and snorted in amusement. “Wouldn’t that be fine?” he said. “There’s nothing like being converted to slave labor as long as you’re on good old Earth.”
“At least we’ll be on the same planet as our families,” offered Elena.
“Not that you’ll know, once the process starts,” Sami replied. “Or them, either.”
He was right. Elena felt her eyes tingle with tears, but swallowed hard and worked to keep her composure. Fear froze her, but she had to stay strong. After a moment, she murmured, “Maybe if the economy was better.”
“The economy is in decent shape,” replied the man in the plaid shirt. She remembered his name: Martin Gardner. “Good shape for the people on top, that is. They’re raking in the profits.”
“But we have food shortages and ration cards. The power goes off every night. The news says we’re in a recession,” blurted Elena.
“Government news tells you what it wants you to hear,” Sami said. For the first time he raised his head and looked directly at her. “They want us to believe that there are no jobs, so we’ll go along with all this.” He spread his hands as far as the shackles would allow. “That’s because they want humech workers instead of real people.”
“The government?” asked Martin. “You think making humechs is the government’s idea?”
Sami looked annoyed. He sat up straight. “Well, yeah, dude. Who else? Congress passed the full-employment laws, created the Reassignment Agency in the Department of Commerce, used NASA to start the in-system colonies, and funded the humech program with the Department of Defense. That’s all government.”
Leo looked to his right at a thin woman in a tailored suit and heels. “Full employment is a pipe dream. Just ask Meredith.” He clasped his hands so tight the knuckles were white.
The woman nodded. “The government and the corporations are just two sides of the same coin.” She gave a short laugh. “If there are any sides. Private enterprise gets people elected, and the government passes laws that give the companies what they want.”
Elena shook her head. She’d read about all the government’s new off-world projects and how important the humechs were. She had seen the videos of them working in the colonies – people modified specifically to work in adverse conditions. Both things couldn’t be true. The shackles on her wrists told her she’d believed the wrong story. Her stomach churned.
“But the country needs us,” she said in one last protest. “They told us we’d be exploring off-world for new colonies, mining for the resources we need, manufacturing zero-G products.”
Leo snickered. “Believe that if you want to,” he said.
They all swayed to the right to keep from toppling over as the bus turned abruptly, then leaned to the left as it rounded a corner in the other direction.
Elena’s stomach lurched. This wasn’t what she’d expected. She’d had a tough enough time grasping that her body would be modified and her brain linked to a core intelligence, but she’d accepted that as her patriotic duty. Someone needed to establish American colonies off-world, and not enough volunteers had signed up. But this – she couldn’t even begin to understand what was going on, or what would happen next.
“What did you do before,” Elena asked the other woman, waving one hand to indicate the passengers, “before this?”
“I founded a small company,” Meredith replied. “A start-up. We got acquired. Big fish eats the little fish.” She took a deep breath. “I had a good settlement, thought I’d be okay. Then they passed Section 42.”
“And you couldn’t get another job”,” Elena stated. She knew how that felt. “At least, not that fast.”
Sami, who’d returned to looking at the floor, smiled.
“I had an interview today, and I thought that would count,” Meredith said, awkwardly brushing dust from her skirt with her shackled hands. “But nothing short of an offer in-hand is good enough these days.” She sighed. “God, I wish I had a cup of coffee.”
The bus turned onto the highway entrance ramp and picked up speed. Elena thought they were heading south. She wished she could see outside.
The Asian man broke his silence. “I think you’re all in for a massive surprise,” he said. He pushed his glasses up with his fists and looked around the bus. “I’m Hideki. Don’t get too upset that we’re not going to a colony. Even if we were going out there, humechs in the colonies have a high mortality rate.”
“Well, that’s too bad,” said Meredith dryly. “I really wanted to see the stars.” She tried to spread her hands in a grand gesture, but the cuffs bit into her wrists.
“But there’s lots of work to do here,” Leo said. “What with the sea levels rising, the infrastructure falling apart, and cleaning up after floods and hurricanes, we’ll have important jobs. We’ll still be doing something worthwhile.”
“Uh-huh,” said Meredith. “That’s a great story. I hope it works out that way.”
Elena shrank back on the bench. Meredith was right. They all were. “I’ve been so stupid,” she said. “I actually believed the news feeds. I never expected this.”
“Oh, honey,” said Meredith, “don’t feel too bad. None of us did.”
“I knew it would be bad,” Sami said. “But even I didn’t think it would be this bad.”
“Why do you think unmarked vans come at night?” Leo asked.
“Have you ever seen a picture of one?” asked Martin. “Have you ever seen this on the news?”
Elena stared sightlessly at the tinted windows. We have to be doing something important. It’s our patriotic duty, she thought. Why else would the government turn us into humechs?
She knew how humechs were made. Their bodies would be hardened into shells with built-in functions relevant to their jobs. AI software to suppress her identity and control her actions would be loaded into her brain and uplinked to a central core. Only a tiny piece of her individual self would exist as a passenger along for the ride, in a body so transformed her own husband wouldn’t recognize it.
“They should just kill us,” she said quietly.
“That would cause too many problems,” replied Meredith. “Plus, why waste resources? They need humechs to do the detailed work and handle the complex functions full mechs can’t do.”
“Besides,” said Sami, “slave labor is cheap. Humechs eat processed glop, work as long as the central core drives them, never complain, and don’t gossip or take breaks.”
“It’s amazing how mechs can’t handle little things like stairs or a doorknob,” said Hideki. He gave a wry smile. “I suppose we should be grateful we’re still needed for something, even if it’s only our opposable th
umbs.”
“If the government started killing people,” said Sami, “citizens would eventually fight back. They wouldn’t just go quietly like we did.”
“Yeah,” agreed Meredith. “There nothing like survival to get people motivated.”
Elena felt like she had woken up, but far too late. She leaned forward and peered through the Plexiglas barrier to see out the windshield. Options for stopping this process cold raced through her mind. “We have to get out of here,” she said. “We’ve got to escape.”
One of the men in the back, who was shackled to the bar running along the floor, turned a bloody face in her direction. He had said nothing until now. One eye was swollen shut, and dark bruises ran down one side of his head. Dried blood-marked lips ballooned to twice normal size. “Good luck with that,” he said, his voice hoarse. He tipped his head to indicate the other beaten prisoners. “We already tried.” He leaned back and ignored her.
Shocked, Elena wondered how long they had before they reached the processing center. “Does anyone know where the processing center is?”
“Not far. Just off Exit 10, I think,” said Leo. He leaned toward her. “They have regional centers for screening and the first processing stages. Then prepped people – pre-humechs – get shipped to bigger, more complex facilities for the final work and uplink to the central core.”
They all turned to look at him. Leo flinched and turned pale.
“They don’t mark the centers, just like they don’t mark these vans,” said Meredith. “So how do you know where it is?”
Leo unclasped his hands and held them up as high as he could, as if being arrested. “My consulting firm wrote the plan,” he said. “I worked on the logistics.”
Voices chorused in protest until one of the guards slammed the butt of his weapon into the partition. The hubbub died down.
“I’m sorry,” Leo whispered. He subsided into a miserable ball. “I’m so sorry.”
“Bet you never thought it would happen to you,” said Sami. It was less a statement than a taunt.
