by Dhtreichler
“I take it you’ve read the complaint?”
“I have. In actuality, my previous experience with Jane Williams has been very helpful. I already have a draft filing for summary judgment written and reviewed by other members of the staff who are more familiar with the court where it was filed.”
“Where is that?”
“United States District Court, Northern District of California.”
“San Francisco, even though the suit in part is against a subdivision of the State of Texas.”
“The hospital there? UT Southwestern?”
“Part of the University of Texas. A state school.”
“As I think about this case, that shouldn’t be a problem for the ACLU.” Dietrich informs me. “UT is only the hospital where the procedure is practiced. The intellectual property is Dr. Woodall’s and he’s not deep pockets. We are the deep pockets they will want to attack in the proceeding.”
“So, the venue where the case will be heard is in their favor?”
“California judges will be much more sympathetic to their case than Texas judges will be.”
“So how do we counter that?”
“As I said, Jane Williams is nothing if not predictable.” Dietrich explains. “She made a name for herself suing corporations for one or another malfeasance as it relates to employees. In this case she’s alleging that Dr. Woodall is just a pawn for AppleCore. That he is conspiring with us to deprive workers writ large from job security, equal access to employment and freedom from discrimination because of their biological differences from immortals.”
“What is her evidence that any of those rights, some of which are non-existent, have been infringed by my existence?”
“She offers no evidence that anything has been violated. She has attached this proceeding to a little used provision of the law that permits complaints against conspiracy to deny rights. In order to ascertain a conspiracy exists she is provided wide latitude in discovery to ask for anything that exists or may have been contemplated as determined by internal communications. We have to provide all transcripts of meetings where any individual who may have had a role in discussing an immortals strategy, practice or program is present or participating.”
“A fishing expedition,” I surmise.
“Exactly. But the problem with this approach is that if the judge decides to allow the fishing expedition we will have to provide all such documentation. Any attempt to not comply fully will result in a summary judgment in their favor.”
“So, we need to start collecting all those documents now,” I suggest.
“That would be prudent, but from what you’ve told me previously, most of the work on an immortals program was conducted by A’zam alone. And for that reason, essentially few documents exist and virtually no meetings have been held.”
“That’s correct. As the person responsible I simply walked down the hall and told Desiree what we needed to do. She pulled a list of development team members by their evaluations and assigned them a priority.”
“We drafted the agreements both with Dr. Woodall and UT Southwestern, as well as the employee agreements. Those will be discoverable. I’m assuming someone has been coordinating their signing the transition agreements and travel.”
“One employee in HR. We’re only doing forty people a week, but that’s pretty much a full-time job for her.”
“What about the vendor agreements?” Dietrich asks.
“What vendor agreements?”
“With all the vendors A’zam has been signing up. The ones who make the component parts of the bodies as well as software. Most are investments with rights to purchase the entire company. But there must be at least a hundred of them I’ve reviewed.”
“He hasn’t run any of that through the management committee.”
“Investments. Probably didn’t need to under the by-laws.”
“So, the management committee doesn’t have the right to information about where our profits are being invested?”
“Only if you’re on the investments committee.” Dietrich looks at me as if he’s surprised I didn’t know this. “I take it you’re not. I’d talk to A’zam about that if I were you.”
“Why am I getting the impression if we have to disclose everything we will be obligated to that we will lose this case?”
“Not an unreasonable assumption,” Dietrich responds.
“Okay. Then how do we prevent the disclosure?”
“That’s what my motion for summary judgment is intended to do.”
“And what’s the basis for that motion?”
“That there is no basis for their injunction. Such an action will interfere with interstate trade, since the procedures are performed in Texas and the patients, and I use that term exclusively throughout, may be residents of other states. That to date only one individual has disclosed being transitioned under this procedure and that any inferred harm to the rights of any other individual or class of individuals has not only not been confirmed in any way, but is speculative. That the federal courts have not ruled previously on a civil rights violation in relation to a new and rarely practiced medical procedure. My intent is to convince the courts that you are not only not a threat to anyone’s civil rights, but that you have indeed pioneered a medical procedure that may save a good, but not large, number of lives that might otherwise be lost.”
“How confident are you that we will prevail?” I have to ask, still not feeling good about what will happen to us in disclosure.
“When a judge gets a case, the usual tendency is to hear it unless it is totally without merit on the face. That’s what I’m trying to establish.”
“You haven’t answered my question.”
“California is probably the least friendly state in which to hear our case. I’m sure that’s why Jane Williams chose it.”
“Can we ask for a change of venue to some other more friendly state?”
“We could, but if the judge thinks we are going to maneuver to improve our odds he or she will probably not grant the petition and we will have already prejudiced the judge to be less lenient with us.”
“You wouldn’t recommend it, then.”
Dietrich shakes his head.
“Do we have any opportunity to influence who the judge will be who hears the case?”
“Not much.” Dietrich reflects. We used to have a friend at court in the person of the Chief Justice. But he retired, and his replacement is much friendlier to the NGOs.”
“NGO’s?”
“Non-governmental organizations. Like the Sierra Club, National Environmental Defense Council, ACLU and others.”
“What can we do to improve our chances?” I ask pessimistically.
“Give another interview. Something that will show you’re not a monster and that you have absolutely no interest in taking away civil liberties from anyone. If anything, we at AppleCore are dedicated to improving the lives of every man, woman and child around the world through improved communications and entertainment options.”
“Sounds like you should be working with Suzette Bain in communications.”
“I write a lot of her copy. She’s such a ditz she can’t keep anything straight.”
His impression of Suzette is clearly different from mine. I only see the tightly wound young woman who keeps a tight schedule and has everything working like clockwork. I noticed that she doesn’t handle stress well and seldom intervenes even if her interview is going to shit. Apparently afraid to be quoted herself.
While I’m sitting with Dietrich I send a note to Suzette asking who would likely be the most widely read media outlet that has asked for an interview and could she get them in as soon as possible. I get an almost immediate response from her saying she’s working it. “Okay. That’s in flight. Anything else I need to know today?”
“I’ll keep you posted.”
I nod to Dietrich and head back down the hall to my office, but before I even get there I’m stopped by Moshe. “I’ve been l
ooking for you.”
“Come on in.” I point him towards my office. Mindi is wide-eyed as I follow Moshe into my office and close the door.
“What can I help you with?”
“Obviously I have my voice back. Didn’t know you were actually going to give me an upgrade when you reinstalled it.”
I nod, sort of.
“Oriana said you approved two assignments for me, but the second was contingent on successful completion of the first. Is that true?”
“Oriana would not tell you anything that isn’t true. In this case we discussed your situation and I approved her suggestion.”
“Her suggestion. This isn’t what you discussed with me before I transitioned?”
“Actually, the two tasks are. Only I’ve separated them so you have a chance to be successful before taking on the harder task where success may be more difficult.”
“That’s not how I see it.”
“Please give me your view. I want to know what you think.”
Moshe seems puzzled by my behavior. But he continues. “The first task I have no staff to help me.”
“That’s correct.”
“I see the lack of supporting team members as increasing the chance of failure.”
“Why? You have the degrees, experience and have in fact delivered a similar capability previously.”
“With a team.”
“Your project reports indicate that you were responsible for the architecture and directly coded segments of the software solution.”
“That’s accurate, but I had help. It wasn’t just me. Others on the team helped shape the solution.”
“I hear you, but what’s the problem? Your reports would indicate you should have little difficulty delivering what is required. There is no prohibition against you consulting with your peers to discuss architecture or solutions. If you can convince them to write some code, that’s permissible as well.”
Moshe shakes his head. “There’s no time.”
“To call on friends to help you?”
Moshe shakes his head apparently recognizing he has few if any friends left as a result of his behavior. “What happens if I don’t deliver the solution?”
“You go back. And you pay back the loans to transition you both this way and back.”
“That’s ten years salary.”
I quickly consult what we’re paying Moshe, “Yup, just about.”
“I can’t go back.”
“Then you have to succeed on both projects.” I remind him.
Moshe shakes his head. I can see him looking for an out.
“There is no out, Moshe. You have to do this. Now if you were thinking correctly you’d be talking with Oriana and Jermaine and asking them to help you. That’s their responsibility. But if you’ve pissed them off...”
Moshe looks like the whole world has collapsed about him. “Oriana? I’ve ridiculed her for not coming over. Deliberately tried to make her feel inferior after the way she always thought she was the smartest one in the room.”
“And Jermaine?” I pursue.
“I guess I didn’t perform very well on the platform project.” Moshe seems regretful, but I can’t believe he is given he doesn’t feel anything anymore. “He kept asking me to do more, but I didn’t.”
“He rated you as contributing three percent to the final solution.”
“Three?”
“And everyone was expected to carry at least their percentage weight.”
Moshe seems to be calculating his proportionate share. “How do I recover?”
“I’m not you, and you will do what you’re going to do. But if I found myself in your situation, I’d go apologize to both Oriana and Jermaine, own up to my behavior and ask them if they could help me. If nothing more than giving me guidance on how best to deliver the results needed.”
INDEPENDENT THOUGHTS
When Moshe steps out of my office he pulls the door closed behind him. Something about that gesture I’ve witnessed a thousand times or more seems more symbolic now than any of the earlier times. I don’t know why it is that Moshe seems to be the harbinger of decisions. He was one of the last people I talked with before I went to see Dr. Woodall about going back to my dying body. That wasn’t any more pleasant than this last one. And the decisions I have to make now are no easier. A’zam has found a way to get to every person who is important to me, to co-opt them in one way or another and devalue their ability to support any hard decisions I might make.
One question I keep coming back to is whether he wanted me to know about his over-ride circuit Rocky is building. He clearly wanted me to know he’d gotten to Rocky to build something of importance for him. But whether he wants me to know about the link to the software I developed for Dr. Woodall is another question. Was that all a set up? Is Dr. Woodall really trying to help me or has he been bought off by A’zam and AppleCore’s ability to scale his procedure and make immortals an important subculture of humanity? I’d never thought anything about Dr. Woodall other than he truly wants to save lives. The fact that he has chosen not to transition himself, because as he says, he never wanted to be a mechanic would seem to support him being genuine. But I really can’t tell. I replay the first discussions we had after I transitioned. He seemed concerned that I’d lost my ability to recall facts or even who I was. Windy was there and filled things in for me. But without Windy there I’d have been lost except for whatever Dr. Woodall told me about myself. Sure, my memories finally were accessible and it all came back in a rush. But I was vulnerable to him and Dr. Woodall didn’t take advantage. That has to mean something. Either he is what he seems or like A’zam he has a much larger agenda he is sitting on and biding his time until it is his time.
I need to reflect on when I decided to stay an immortal. Dr. Woodall framed the decision for me in such a way that I really had no choice. Live or die. That was it. And he reinforced that by never saying but clearly indicating that I would die soon. A matter of months because it was not likely I could get pregnant and carry to term. Dr. Woodall was forthright in letting me know he thought it was my right to return to my biologic body. But he was also clear that was not his preference or advice. How could he say otherwise since he had accepted my case and transitioned me even though the procedure was not perfected and the body a work in progress? He has made an exception for me. Pushed his team and his suppliers to deliver capability necessary for me to function that wasn’t ready for prime time. While nothing still under development was necessary for me to live, it was necessary for me to transition to a mostly human experience. And I’m still not there. But every day seems to be better than the one before it from a serviceability point of view. I’m into the routine. I’m figuring out what I need to know to understand feelings and emotions in others, to react to them semi-appropriately, to accomplish my daily goals without upending the entire organization because I’m just too insensitive to the human feelings and perceptions of those around me. But I also know I’m much harder than I used to be. Not that I was a push over. How did A’zam classify me? A man eater? What does that really mean? The only thing I can think of, other than the dictionary definitions that I refuse to consider, even though offered to me, is that I’m a tough bitch who won’t let any man walk over me. Truth is I wouldn’t let Julia walk over me either when she decided I’d been weakened enough by my diseases to be vulnerable. She certainly didn’t see the new me coming. So, the question is, has Dr. Woodall joined A’zam on the dark side? Did he set me up to remain an immortal because A’zam wanted me to, needed me to, in order to quickly execute his plan to become the Supreme Being on earth? Sitting at the left hand of God, if I’m to be on his right, might be very tempting. But, somehow I can’t believe A’zam has shared his vision with anyone other than me. And the only reason he’s shared it with me is because he needs me to help him realize it. I was the first. And I have the ability to execute or wreck his plans. I’m not sure anyone else does.
I have no plan for how to deal with A
’zam other than to be the loyal implementer of his agenda. He has left me no choice. There used to be a term: velvet handcuffs. That was when a company provided you with an incentive compensation package where if you stay you will make tons of money, but if you leave you lose it all. Velvet handcuffs because the handcuffs only hurt if you struggle against them. And while you always have a choice, it is structured in such a way that the alternative is just unacceptable. So, you stay. You execute the plan. You do everything possible to make the company successful, even if you’d rather be somewhere else.
The situation wouldn’t be so bleak if only A’zam would not be so controlling. If only he would listen and compromise. But compromise is not in A’zam’s vocabulary. After a decade running the most innovative company in the world he believes he has no peers. That’s why the leap to Supreme Being is not such a big one for him. But all the non-Supreme Beings lose their freedom in his conception of paradise on earth. We all, whether immortal or not, do what he wishes us to do. To produce and consume all the while making him inconceivably rich. Wealthy beyond peers. Forever.
But what will wealth even mean a thousand or million years from now? I mean how many times a day can you get laid? Have peak experiences? Decide the fate of millions where their interests either align with or oppose yours? What will be the meaning of immortal life? After a thousand years ruling the world will he simply get bored with it and turn it all over to artificially intelligent servants? Won’t even need other immortals to do the job. After all, won’t we get bored with the routine as well? When you’re a god, if you think something, it is. There is no opposition. No opposing points of view. And certainly no resistance. If that’s the case anything I do to try to instill humanity in the immortals is doomed once A’zam establishes his new world order.
Then I have to accelerate my efforts to find a means of linking feelings memories to physical actions in Immortals. To build out the linkages so an immortal is surrounded by memories of feelings which will be her or his interaction and moral guide. Memories of how it felt, what actions one took or behaviors one displayed in the times before transition. Does it become a vast database of feelings memories that becomes a part of every immortal? But how does that account for differences in experiences? A single database would mean everyone will act exactly the same way to the same set of circumstances or situations. And to my way of thinking that’s almost as self-defeating as A’zam’s attempt to limit freedom of choice. It becomes a set of velvet handcuffs of a different sort. In this case you are constrained by the common database of memories. The fact that you don’t have other memories to draw on, that you don’t make new memories is like the velvet handcuffs. You don’t struggle against the handcuffs because you don’t know what the alternatives would be. But by the same token, we can’t grow and evolve either, unless we reject the memories as a guide to behavior. And A’zam will ensure that we don’t have the freedom to do that with Rocky’s circuit and my software.