Читать книгу A Splendid Future - Lippi Daniele, Daniele Lippi - Страница 7

CHAPTER 2

Fred entered the, two-by-two meter room, where there were two chairs and a small desk separating them. Closing the door behind him, he saw a hanging mirror. Instinctively he looked at himself. Long disheveled hair. Unshaved beard. Stiff dark blue duster-style coat made of compressed bioplastic, under which he wore black jersey and brown trousers. He stared into his own dark eyes surrounded by deep dark circles “I look like one of those zombies, damn!”

“Welcome Alfred!” suddenly exclaimed a bright and joyful voice over his shoulders.

Fred turned and he faced a low-quality mono-chrome green semi-transparent hologram of a chubby man dressed in the typical large suit of the executives. “Fred, just Fred, thank you”.

“Excellent, Mr. Fred Just!” said the hologram, laughing at his own joke.

It took Fred a moment to understand it, but he didn’t laugh.

The hologram sat on the chair against the wall and gestured him to do the same on the chair on the other side of the desk.

Fred looked around before sitting down. It was normal to deal with holograms of executives or clerks who physically were who-knows-where. Security reasons, they said. Fred had never been enthusiastic about it, but it was still better than dealing with a robot.

“So, Fred, may we talk on first-name terms?” said the hologram, enthusiastic as ever, winking at him.

Fred nodded.

“Of course I can!” exclaimed the official “You’re so young, you could be my son!”

Fred didn’t answer, but he was wondering if his son would ever need to show up in place like this, hoping for a miracle.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Fred, I am Martin Arese, so tell me, young man, why are you here?” continued the officer hologram, or the hologram officer, whatever “Tired of your usual life, aren’t you? Yes, I understand you, it’s difficult to drag yourself everyday towards something you don’t like, come back home to eat something with barely a touch of plastic taste, then in case go out and drink a beerotch at the usual pub where you meet the usual acquaintances (because you can’t really call them friends, can you?) and then come back home half-dazed, watch something uninteresting on the virtual-TV, end up falling asleep on the couch and without even realising it you start it all over again, don’t you? Yes, I understand you.”

Fred stared into those translucent and transparent eyes.

He must have got that information from his chronicle, there was no other way.

The hologram raised his hands and the features of his face took on a grimace of deep regret “No, I’m not kidding you, but don’t worry if I’ve guessed right, it’s the normal life of a normal young man of your age who drags his nervous existence in this ungrateful society.”

Fred instantly got depressed, whispering “I’m nothing but a zombie too.” he told himself.

“Pardon?” asked the hologram, resuming his previous jovial tone.

Fred shook his head, motioning him to go on.

“I see you’ve already paid the fee for the genetic investigation, well; before going on, do you want me to explain you again how things are?”

Fred nodded.

“You are a man of few words, aren’t you? I like you!” exclaimed the hologram, laughing “Things are like this: now we’re doing a genetic test on you, to see if you’re fit for the drugs and vaccines needed to survive, live and work on the FartherWorld asteroids in geostationary orbit around Mars.” The image of four huge asteroids orbiting around the red planet and its colonies appeared on the wall behind Martin. “Are you following me so far?”

Fred nodded, nothing new, so far.

The hologram went on explaining “If you pass the test, and you have no objections, you’ll start your journey to the FartherWorld orbital colonies, where other people like you, between one work shift and another, live (not just survive, but live) and enjoy, all at the company’s expense. Isn’t that great?” the image behind him rotated slightly, showing a glossy white sphere, then the view zoomed in and entered it, showing a city made up of tiny houses, built around a huge shopping mall enclosing restaurants, spas, gyms, swimming pools, virtual arcades and so on and so forth.

Fred nodded and this time he was about to open his mouth, but the hologram noticed it and hurried on speaking “FartherWorld, in addition to paying for your board and lodging, will pay you a monthly sum of two thousand currencies. Yes, yes, I understand this may not seem much, but think, when you come back in ten years, you’ll have had fun, helped mankind with your work, you’ll have a lot of spendable experience and, most of all, there will be two hundred forty thousand more currencies, plus a productivity bonus up to 10%, waiting for you in the bank.” He stopped and laughed loudly “Tell me, Fred, have you ever seen so much money all together?”

No, he’d never seen it, damn, and it was a hell of a lot of currencies.

“Fred, Fred, Fred …” went on the hologram, in an almost epic tone “Tell me, Fred, isn’t it the perfect chance? When you come back, thirty-six years old, you’ll finally be able to start the life you’ve only dreamed of so far, that has always been denied by fate and bad luck… the moment has arrived to defeat it and take your life in your hands, Fred! You owe it to yourself! Don’t betray yourself!”

Damned hologram, Fred thought, they’d never told him those things could read your mind, “See, Martin, I’ve already thought about it all and I’m almost persuaded, but there’s just one thing I don’t understand: what’s your gain in all this? In short, where is the catch?”

Martin the hologram stared at him, sincerely hurt, then he smiled paternally “Fred, I’ll be sincere with you, don’t think FartherWorld is a charitable institution, of course we have our profit as well.” he explained “See, our problem is that the asteroids rich with Ambrongold, that our space drones have discovered throughout space, have such morphological features and geological composition that make them unproductive to be dug by our existing mining robots and, according to the computations of our analysts, it would be too expensive and too long to build new ones suitable for this purpose; therefore, we need old-style manpower, we need miners, thinking miners, miners who are fit to face and bear the tough conditions of the space and the asteroids.”

Fred listened closely, everything made sense and it was consistent with the information he’d been able to get; according to the Ambrongold quotations, just one kilo would have paid for at least one hundred miners like him and for sure, on the asteroids Martin had shown, there must have been hundreds of kilos, or maybe even of tons “If I prove to be fit, what happens?”

The hologram rubbed his hands “Well, my lad, look forward, always, this is the right attitude!”

Fred smiled, this Martin was so enthusiastic that he resulted ridiculous. A splendid caricature of the typical salesman.

“Now, it’s very simple.” continued the hologram “Let us suppose you prove to be fit for the job, and you’ll know it by tomorrow night, then you’ll have…” he made some quick computations, glancing at the holophone he wore on his wrist “a week of time to prepare, set up your belongings and show up at Zurich spaceport where you’ll board on the shuttle…” another look at the holophone “Triton-23, that will take you on the spaceship Enterprise 7, which will finally land you on Mars after only 12 months.”

Fred widened his eyes “A year’s journey?”

“Have you ever been in space?” Martin asked him back, at the peak of his enthusiasm.

Fred shook his head.

“An exhilarating experience, especially the absence of gravity, you’ll see how nice!”

“But…” said Fred “one year? Nowadays it takes even less than two weeks!” he protested.

“Yes, yes, we save a little on the transportation, but don’t worry, you won’t even notice, I mean, you’ve already been cryo-sedated, haven’t you?”

“No!”

“Ah, well, that’s another reason to do the genetic test.” Martin answered calmly “You see? No problem.”

Fred was already nervous thinking about the space journey, but now he was even more, knowing he’d have to be cryo-sedated.

“Any other questions?” asked Martin hastily, glancing at the holophone.

Fred shook his head.

“Perfect! Well, very well!” continued the hologram “I see you’ve already paid the fee for the genetic analysis, so if you agree I’ll call our Nara who’ll proceed and do it.”

Fred was perplexed “Not a hologram or a robot?” nowadays only in specialised private hospitals could one be assisted by a nurse in flesh and bone.

Martin laughed, sincerely amused “Nara is a robot.”

Fred was disappointed “And you gave her a name, as well?” he complained.

“Still better than I12-A16 or Nurse Aid Robot Assistant, don’t you think?” he laughed before continuing with the same jovial tone, pointing at a small window on the table that rotated and lifted up, offering a contract on a crypto-parchment and an electro-biometric pen. “In order to proceed, you just need to sign at the end of the page and then you’ll be all for Nara.”

Fred was about to start reading, but then he thought “Damn it, be whatever it is!” and whispered in a low voice “My life will be better than this.” and with a deep sigh he signed.

“Perfect!” exclaimed Martin, applauding “Very good, I’d understood since the first moment that you were a smart guy!” he complimented “here comes Nara.”

Fred was about to stand up, then he asked “What kind of beer or beerotch do you have up there on Mars?”

Martin put on an unexpected serious expression “No beerotch or other stuff up there, you’re there to work and it’s a delicate and dangerous work, so you’ll have to do without it for a while!” then seeing the disappointment on Fred’s face, he added, becoming jovial and smiling again “Can you just think how good it will taste once you’ll come back and have it again? It will be like the first time.” he said, winking at him.

Fred couldn’t help but smile, this guy could sell poverty to a beggar.

Then Martin took on again that serious expression that didn’t suit him, hurrying on to state “We don’t even have lobotoxicaine and I hope you don’t make regular use of it, otherwise I warn you that it’ll be difficult to get you among the lucky ones who’ll be chosen by FartherWorld.”

Fred shook his head “I am clean” he said, recalling the last time he’d used it. He could still remember. It was the evening of his last birthday, almost one year ago. He had never loved birthdays so, to numb himself a bit, he’d gone into one of the many federal shops to buy lobotoxicaine. As per law, everybody had the right to buy a daily dose. When he came back home, he opened the tube and spread it on his temples. The effect was almost immediate and one instantly felt relaxed and uncapable of thinking of anything negative. Then he had looked out below from his window and, staring at the horde of grey people slowly proceeding in an apparently chaotic way, constantly bumping into one another as crazy balls of a congested pinball machine, he’d thought “It’s not so bad, after all.” That was the moment when he decided he’d never use that substance again.

The door opened “Here she is, I leave you for her, so farewell and… may genetics be with you!” Martin laughed, disappearing.

Nara entered. She was a robot identical to the one who met him at the entrance, except for a red cross on her chest. “Please, Mr. Alfred, follow me.” she said with such a calm and warm voice that could only be artificial “your journey towards a bright future starts here.” she announced, reciting another FartherWorld slogan, before heading into the narrow corridor.

Fred followed her into a room, even smaller than the one he’d just come from, where an uncomfortable-looking armchair was waiting for him.

“Sit down, Alfred” the robot invited him “Roll up your left sleeve”.

Fred executed.

The robot firmly grasped his forearm “Maybe I’m clutching a little too strongly, but don’t worry, it’s just to ensure you’ll stay still, it’ll be done in a minute.”

Fred stared at the robot and thought ‘with the voice they gave you, I could close my eyes and imagine without hesitation that you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen’ but he didn’t say it.

The robot lighted his forearm with a warm green light coming from her right eye, then she aimed at a certain point with a beam of very hot red light and, with a needle coming out of the middle finger of her other hand, she quickly punctured him, absorbing both blood and organic matter while cauterizing the wound at the same time.

The procedure was unexpectedly painful and Fred understood why she’d grasped him so firmly, otherwise he’d have instinctively withdrawn his arm for sure.

“Thank you for your kind cooperation, Alfred” Nara thanked him with a slight bow “you’ll receive the results and further instructions by your certified ethermail; if you don’t have one you can ask for it at the governmental bureau for privacy or at the detachment of Keepers in your neighbourhood.”

“I’ve got it, I’ve got it” he answered, rubbing his forearm. Who doesn’t have it nowadays, he wondered, it had become automatic, it was provided at birth with the chronicle chip. Actually, the chip and the ethermail were connected and the chip was the key to access the ethermail. Obviously all the important personal communications, such as bank reports, taxes, fines etc. passed through the ethermail. One more small piece of the ingenious control system by the authorities.

Suddenly a door, that he hadn’t noticed while entering the room, opened behind him.

“Please, Alfred, you can go out from here and I hope not to see you again, which would mean that your new life has already begun!” Nara the robot explained to him.

“I hope not to see you, too!” Fred said sarcastically, still rubbing his forearm and, while he went out, he heard the robot thanking him over his shoulders.