The Gravetless train finished the last of the Ssential campus stops and continued along its path to Thrive. The first Thrive campus stop was an imposing hospital structure that seemed to float above the ground, even though it was planted firmly on four massive pillars that rose fifty feet high off a marble courtyard and above spraying fountains. Thrive was the human well-being brand. It specialized in health, fitness, machines for doctors, human production units, life-support training, and much more. The emerald-green-branded Thrive employees shuffled off the train to their home campus. In addition to the huge floating hospital, there were many other buildings and domes with the Thrive T displayed in green. David had resided on the Thrive campus as a teen, living and growing up in the Human Upbringing Division, which occupied a secure corner of the campus. When the stock market called for them, perfected Productzens would be manufactured here. Furthermore, all stock babies were trained here until age sixteen. The Human Upbringing Division was secluded from the rest of the population so that there would be zero cross contamination, diseases, or bad influences on the future of Xchange. Usually an equal amount of human product was purchased and branded by each of the major companies. Graduation day from the Thrive campus was always a joyous festival as the new products were brought out with their brands to much music and dancing in the CGB Festival. Despite his struggle with the paper, David smiled thinking of the holiday week that had passed.
“What are you smiling and frowning at, young man?” David had failed to notice the other employee who had settled beside him. David tended to zone out when thinking. “Zone-Out Kid” was a nickname of the past.
David paused reflectively, then said, “Just remembering my own graduation day, product, eh, eh?” And then David noticed that this old man was not a Nnect employee but a man with sleeves. A Self-Purchased without a brand?
“What about your graduation day?” the white-haired man said.
“Uh, ahh.” David stammered in fear as he comprehended the fact that a free person was talking to him on the commuter train. Nnect communications seminars had taught him that it was appropriate to stare up and down a person to figure out what their company name was. It was considered rude if you didn’t acknowledge a free human as such. “Excuse me, and my sincere apologies, sir. I did not realize you were an S-Pee—I mean Self-Purchased—excuse my slang. I will report myself to QC for a rebuke if you wish.” His fearful words caught on themselves and tripped out of his mouth. “I did not mean to objectify you.” David looked at the man, who was in his late seventies or eighties, with long white hair. It was unusual for a Self-Purchased to let their hair turn white. Most men shaved their heads or colored their hair to distinguish themselves as free men. Also, age was an inconvenient disgrace to the productive human-doing; it was best ignored until death, or so the philosophy of the day went.
“Nonsense, my lad,” the friendly gentleman said as he leaned back with a confident but grandfatherly smile. “Stop stammering as if you’re some unintelligent tool. I never went to that horrible institution of Thrive Upbringing that you were born at.” He smiled kindly. “Tell me the truth. What is that in your hands, and why are you trembling?”
“I’m writing a letter to someone I met.” Ashamed, David continued, “But it’s been more than a decade since I’ve handwritten anything. I hardly know how.” Honesty was his best bet here. “She wrote me a letter.” It seemed that managers and S-Pees always knew everything anyway. Confusion filled David’s tired mind. Why was this man even riding the Gravetless train with the commoners when he probably owned his own flying car, or a fleet of fast shiny flyers?
“You’re a human too. Damn system has you stammering like I’m some demigod. Since you ask, I prefer the Gravetless. Makes me feel human when I ride with normal people. I grow tired of the lifeless halls of the pompous upper crust. You would do good to think for yourself, son. Give yourself some self-respect.” He took the paper. David did not dare resist. “For a lady friend? Here, I’ll help you write it. What do you want to say?”
“You would help me?” David responded with genuine shock. “‘Gayle-25 of Thrive. Can we be a thing?’”
“Too awkward.” Instead the stranger wrote a short letter of introduction to Gayle. David watched the wrinkled fingers move confidently. “Miss Gayle, I would be honored to meet up with you one of these days to continue the relationship you have begun with your thoughtful handwritten letter.” David was ecstatic at his unexpected fortune.
As the man watched David’s reaction over the letter, a knowing look of joy creased the ancient face. The man touched David’s brand as he handed him the note. David was so ecstatic about the letter, his fingers shaking, that he did not notice the odd touch.
“Young man, here is another potential gift for you. Here is an opportunity for freedom.” The man looked serious for a moment, but David did not have a clue what he was talking about. “A blessing, hmm, if the bloodline flows in you. Could I get lucky?” the man said to himself. He then handed back the ink and pen. Before David could stop him, the old man pulled up David’s right sleeve and attached something that clicked mechanically and wrapped around his forearm.
“What have you done?” David froze at the unexpected action. He felt a metallic grip on his forearm, but before he could look at the invasive device, the Gravetless jolted to a jarring, and unscheduled halt in midair between two boarding stations.
“God in heaven, it worked!” the stranger gasped in elation.
“What worked?” David managed to mutter as the emergency alarms flared, and the doors to the Gravetless hissed open from all sides. David fell onto his knees, and the letter fell out of his hands, skidding across the floor. Her letter! Before he could reach for it…
The electronic voice of the train computer beeped and spoke. “All products get into the safety position while the QC police perform a routine inspection.” The boots of the QC military police marched onto the train. The gait of justice was swift, confident, and intimidating. From his kneeling position, David saw the imposing military men with deadly stun guns and dark-blue digital camo vests in the reflection of the windows.
“By the stock, by the stock.” He crossed himself with the sign of Xchange, an X. He was scared of these men. It was rumored that QC would take a defect Productzen and bring them straight to Orns to be processed, and many of his fellow citizens had lost all hope of ever becoming unbranded if that happened to them. A boot from a QC agent stomped hard on David’s fluttering letter before marching on, leaving the letter stamped with a thick brown tread mark.
“Stop shaking, son.” To David’s disbelief the Self-Purchased was kneeling beside him with his forehead to the seat, his knees on the ground and his hands behind his head, just like all the other commoners on the train.
This was unheard of and not appropriate. “What are you doing, sir?” David-23 whispered frantically. “You do not have to follow protocol; actually, it is disgraceful for a Self-Purchased to be seen kneeling among us.” As the guards circled back and came closer and closer, David began to worry that they might find this man next to him and chastise David for not treating him with more respect. David’s active mind conceived an even worse situation where David would be accused of forcing the old man to act like a basic human. What should I do? David’s mind whirled as he thought about his options.
“This is just a good old-fashioned game of hide-and-seek. These police guys are always pissed off when I try to mingle with normal people. It’s as if it’s beneath them to have one of us talk to other humans. I used to play this game as a kid. Hide-and-seek—have you never played it, David?”
David froze. So the Quality Control officers were looking for this old man. And David’s precious letter was just in the aisle. What to do? If he was caught next to the man, David might get in trouble, and his whole career plan would crumble. But what if the kind old man got in trouble when David turned him in? David could not make up his mind. And then the boots stamped toward the two of them. This was his l
ast chance to be a cooperative citizen. Sweating profusely from the pressure of the decision, David stood up and shouted, “QC captain, sir, Productzen David-23 has something to report. I believe this free man has been tricked into riding on this train.” As David called the agents, his hopes of retrieving his letter were dashed. The decision was correct, and he was rewarded by a small sense of pleasure that ran along his arm and spine and into his heart.
The whistles and yells stopped, and the four closest armed officers marched quickly to David’s position and stood silent guard as an officer with a white beanie, distinguishing him as a captain, took charge of the situation. “Sir,” the captain respectfully spoke to the old man. “The CEO is worried about you again.” A guard punched David in the stomach, forcing him back to his knees as the captain addressed the old man. The captain continued, “He requests that you do not ride the common air rail because of the obvious safety hazards and potential health contamination. Please return with us.” The voice of the officer was strict and meticulous. He had a close-cropped black goatee with a premature gray streak through it. He must have been in his late thirties. And he was built with brick-like, blocky muscles. David recognized him as the captain from the Nnect Branding Week overseeing the rebranding.
“Jonathan, my boy! You found me. And no help to your rigid robotic followers at all. I think this has been our longest game of hide-and-seek ever. I would venture to say that you did not expect me to give you the slip by going over the Purview wall this time, did you?” The old man with his strange white hair whistled and smiled secretly as he walked past David. He pulled out an old-school pipe, of the type that David only saw in historical commercials. The man lit it on the spot before gracefully sauntering after the escort of soldiers, but he performed one final kindness by kicking the fluttering handwritten letter safely below David’s seat. He winked at David as he disembarked and quietly encouraged him, “Be your own man.” With that the stranger was gone.
“Sergeant, escort Freeman Jacob back to Freedom Purview.” Captain Jonathan clicked his heels together, calling David to attention. “Get back in the safety position, Productzen.” He continued in a kinder tone now that the issue was resolved. “I will personally post an approving recommendation to your managers at Nnect. You should receive an award of twenty freedoms for your usefulness today.” He pulled out a QC electronic pad and tapped away for a moment. “There you go, Productzen David-23. Enjoy your freedoms.” David was elated at his turn of luck. Bonuses were amazing. Suddenly a solid fist grasped David’s collar tightly. “And Productzen 23, forget anything the old lunatic said to you.” The cold, stern warning resonated through the entire cab as David stared into the serious eyes of the law. After his warning was delivered, the captain left in an organized march with the patrol.
David sat in shock, contemplating his bonus of twenty freedoms, the strange experience, and his letter. My career is protected, he thought.
The electronic voice of the train operator came online again. “Please resume normal activity. An emergency late pass has been issued to each employee present so that your owner appreciates the nature of your tardiness and how it was outside of your control. Have a productive day.” The entire group sighed in relief.
David shifted back to his seat and pulled up his sleeve tentatively to look at the metal device that was locked onto his forearm. “Shit human stocks.” He cursed and shivered in fear, spasming twice. The device on his arm looked almost identical to CEO Saul’s armband of power. David pulled his sleeve down to hide the device. He looked around self-consciously to ensure no one was spying. Taking a deep breath, he tried to put the armband out of his mind. Instead he thought about the incident with the old man. He could not help but muse on the odd situation that he had witnessed.
The Gravetless stopped at Tertain’s gaudy amusement park of a campus next. Flashy displays encircled the buildings, and windows showed the latest in fashion, games, sports, and really anything you could imagine filling your time with. Tertain had full stadiums, live TV shows, and all sorts of entertainment. Fans lined up outside of the arenas all night to be amused and to forget about their own lives and live vicariously through the troubles, relationships, and dreams of the fictional characters they watched.
The Tertain campus did not draw David’s attention the way it normally did. Instead David sat zoned out as he thought. A steady stream of red-branded human-doings disembarked at the consecutive Tertain portals. Now the only human-doings who remained on the morning commuter Gravetless were blue-branded Nnect Productzens, low-level government administrators, and off-duty QC officers. Nnect’s campus was next, and then the CGB portals.
Still David sat and thought. In his absentminded state, he missed his first stop, then his second stop and third stop. That old man must be someone important. He must be one of the most powerful men in the entire city if his son is a CEO. There were similarities between the old man and CEO Saul. A connection. But what on earth was the old man doing acting crazy and traveling on a commoner Gravetless? Odd indeed.
“The final Nnect campus stop.” The Gravetless voice resounded through the speakers and urged the corporate employees to disembark safely. David shook himself out of his daydream, noting that five closer stops had passed by without his notice; it would be a rush to reach his office in time now, even with his late pass. He would have to run to get to his special team assignment on time. There was nothing for it but to hurry. So he tightened the straps of his office pack and ran with an undignified speed across the Nnect campus.
David ran past video test rooms, 3D laboratories, relationship-simulating rooms, personality psychiatrist experts, Selfie programmers, computer science labs, and on and on as he hurried to his own unit. He was a research engineer with Nnect’s next-generation handheld devices. His latest area of expertise was customer appreciation and feedback engineering support for mobile devices. His team simulated how customers would use and respond to new products that his unit introduced to the market. His previous project had involved test groups of twenty live customers from each of the four large brands. The office had rented time with employees from Thrive, Nnect, Ssential, and Tertain. The project had gone well. The top four engineers from his team had been selected to participate in higher-level assignments. This was David’s first special assignment opportunity; he had no idea what it would be like.
David paused as he stopped in front of his jet-black sliding office door. The other members of his team would be waiting for him. Looking nervously at his watch, he saw it read 8:45. Fifteen minutes after the debriefing time, which meant he had fifteen minutes before the start of his new assignment. He was on time, barely.
He stared at the blue N on the door, meditating for a brief moment before entering. It calmed him, and he forgot his worry and excitement over his relationship with Gayle and the strange encounter with the mad man. He said his usual prayer: “Let me live life fully in the office. Let me be the best human-doing ever.” Peace found him, and he stepped toward the door with confidence and composure. His new brand reassured him with a small boost of energy and pleasure—not as much of a boost as usual, but it was something.
“Time to focus, David,” he whispered to himself. “Time to be the success you know you are.” He knew he needed to give himself to his work fully and in each moment. It was the path to freedom. It was his identity. His mental mantra was one of the mindfulness quotes that he had picked up in a sermon at the local Mindmonk Health Center. The N emblem on the office doors reminded David of the serious but helpful pressure of a worthwhile career life. He dismissed the fear, tiredness, and frustration. “It’s time to do.”
With this he stepped in range of the door’s sensors; the door hissed quietly as it opened. In all the excitement, the horrible gift from the old man was somewhat forgotten. It waited, unobtrusive, forgotten under his sleeve.
“Good doing to you, Kendra, Dan, and May.” David’s professionalism always came across when working. “You all look very ready to
take on this new project. Sorry you can’t join us, Bill. Maybe next time. Any idea what they have in store for us? It is the beginning of a quarter, so maybe something important is going to be developed and released, and we will be a part of it.”
Chapter 7
Episode 2: Broken Journey
The year was 25 on the Alexorian Islander calendar. The years counted from the time of the great reordering of the kingdom of the Sonz. The stone dial in the courtyard of the city monastery was rotated to mark the passing of time each spring during the festival of light.
The summer heat in the green valley by the bend in the bright-blue Laquid river was oppressive. The fish market stank from the town’s lower quarter with a pungency that would have made a skunk shrink in despair. By the wooden city gate, business noises raucously sounded.
Phel Quince and his red mare, Drabor, were happy to pass through the lower quarter quickly and without disruption. Past the gate and out onto the highway, the scene changed for the traveler. The serene emptiness of the dusty white cobbled road gave the young knight a sense of peace as he left the small but vibrant capital of the people of the Sonz. He looked over his blue-caped shoulder once at his home, Castle Bend.
He clenched his sword handle. He smiled, proud of finishing the grueling four-year training of the Sonz Guard.
“Only five of us graduated.” Phel laughed aloud to his horse. “Drabor, it is no small feat. There were twenty at the start, horse.”
The horse nickered in amazement.
“Yes, I know. It is my turn to defend the kingdom of light.” Phel shifted his weight to get a better look at the forest in front of him. “Can you believe it? A knight of the Sonz Guard!” The Sonz were the only organized kingdom on the small island continent of Alexoria. The scrolls of history told of peace and prosperity in bygone days. But the peace was over.
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