by A. S. Anand
He was lead to a small room with six bunk beds and a projector that threw up an image bigger than the six beds combined. He was worried that the film options would all be science related, but the hard drive contained the entire film collection of the newly fashionable director Andrew Johnson, so he happily watched three of those films, two of which he had not previously seen.
He was also fed a hearty steak (he had not been able to afford such expensive meat for three years) which calmed his nerves and allowed him to enjoy a small nap through the third of the films.
“Good evenin’ sir.”
“Greetings, have things overrun slightly? That is not a problem at all, you can continue for as long as you want.”
“No siree, we woz done a while ago, we’ve jus’ been talkin’ bout how we take things forward.”
“That sounds rather ominous, am I to take it that she did not impress quite as much as she did on the tape. Give her time; she must have had a few nerves; after all she is still a young girl...”
“Are ya’ kiddin’? Yo’ lil’ girl woz forty goin’ north!”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“My bad, space crew talk that; she’s the most impressive thing to step through our doors...maybe ever, well, least since anybody here can think.”
“Fantastic! This will mean a great deal to her, oh what a day for this family.”
“We’re so darn’ impressed we’ve started her trainin’ now.”
“Now? I thought that normal...”
“These ain’t no normal times and that mos’ certainly ain’t no normal girl. We lost a helluva lotta good people on November 30th. God knows our future lies off this hellhole, and yo’ daughter could be, nah, I can’t lie, will be one of the pioneers of our programme. What I’m tryin’ to say is that she’s now a part a this team and’ll be stationed here from ‘round two hours ago...”
“This is absurd, preposterous; completely unacceptable! Most importantly it is against the law and tantamount to kidnapping of a minor!”
“’Fraid not sir, emergency laws passed by the Global Government allows us to enlist any persons that we can prove is capable a doin’ a good job, and befo’ you cut me off there ain’t no mention a age limits, and that’s on purpose.
“And if age ain’t no thing than yo daughter is so damn qualified for workin’ here you got more chance a givin’ birth to a stopwatch than tryin’ to get some fancy lawyer to take her back. Alsoz, I gots the proof all here so you can holler all yer want but it ain’t gonna make no difference. If you can see the light you’ll realise this the best damn thing to ever happen to your daughter and if you abide by the rules we set we’z gonna pay for them courses yo’ daughter told us about and a whole lotta other goodness.”