Monday, 4/22/2216

KB:2178:MO;GOVT:6714 AWAKE

“Hey, wake up babe.” Ami said.

“Ughhhhh.” I was already awake, just not trying to move. She knew that.

“You gotta go to work, coffee’s in the kitchen.”

“Ughhhhh, work?”

“Yeah, you’ve got a new job, remember. Seitaro’s gonna come pick you up.”

“Oh… yeah.” I remembered, I was just trying not to. She knew that too.

“Are you ok?” She asked.

“Yeah.” I groaned my way out of bed and stumbled towards the kitchen. “News summary.”

“Ok, um, well, they’re saying a large group of terrorist were apprehended in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn.”

“Nope, stop, skip that.”

“Ok, sorry. Possible missile targets include—”

“Nope, skip that too. Actually, is Aarin Chapeau on anywhere?”

“Yeah on Live News.” He had been getting really popular recently.

“Ok, I’ll just watch that.”

Main menu, select neural network, select media, select Bosawas Prime streaming app, select Live News 4/22/2216, select play.

The feed came up in my vision.

“… when it’s so obvious that what we need at this critical time is a unified front against the Martians.” Aarin was saying.

“There are a sizable number of people who believe that earth and mars are actually working together to depopulate the earth.” The indistinct pundit ghoul who’s show it was said. “Now, I believe this has all the hallmarks of martian propaganda, but I’d be interested to hear what you think.”

“Yeah, ok, well, it’s a very interesting phenomenon actually,” Aarin began. “The phenomenon is, people are prone to believe conspiracy theories when they feel isolated or disenfranchised or scared. Certainly the breakdown of talks and now waiting for the missiles to land has got people rattled, and some people, well you don’t want to call them weak minded, but they’re particularly vulnerable, so I do have some sympathy, I have a lot of sympathy actually. I just never thought I’d see the day where our home world is attacked, right? Attacked, by a hostile entity, and a sizable chunk of the population wants to root for the other side.”

Ok… I can’t do this.

Main menu, select neural network, select media, select Bosawas Prime streaming app, select Live News 4/22/2216, select off.

“Well, I guess it’s time to go”

. . .

Seitaro picked me up in an Orange ’16 iCar. I guess he couldn’t keep driving the Edison. The office he brought me to was in the same building by the C train that had been a war zone just a couple of days ago. I would’ve probably been shocked, if I could still be shocked by anything.

“I requisitioned this building the other day, after we drove by. They gave it up right away.” He explained.

When I didn’t react he dropped it and the elevator took us up in silence.

The space was big, pristine, and empty. The windows had clearly been recently replaced and the whole interior had been painted white. A few bullet holes had been filled in too, I didn’t doubt. There were three brand new office services drones waiting for tasks to be assigned to them.

“Nice huh?” Seitaro said, “At first I got an Ami for the—”

“No.” I said.

“Ok killa, relax, I was just about to say I wasn’t running her cause you might feel a way.” He said in conciliatory tones.

“Good.” I said. The last thing I would want was an Ami at the office working as a government tool. It would cheapen my experiences at home.

Seitaro pointed at two workstations facing each other in the middle of the space. Two of the office services drones jumped into action and placed a sterile white coffee cup on each of the desks, filling them with coffee.

“That’s mine, that’s yours.” He said, pointing at each workstation in turn. “EarthGov is taking direct control of all munitions producing plants in the tristate area, 29 of them I believe. There’s a hefty wartime premium being charged for rent, but its taxpayer money anyway so don’t worry about it. You’ll be doing the same job, but for me now.”

“Ok,” I responded flatly. In truth there were many logistical questions I should’ve asked, but I didn’t feel like asking them. There was only one that came to mind.

“What are you doing?”

Seitaro smiled. “I’m managing the whole region. It’s wartime now, and there aren’t as many government employees as you would think. Everyone got promoted.”

“Oh.” I said.

“That includes you too.”

“I know.”

“They’re gonna swing you the big bucks for this bro, enough to do whatever with.”

“That’s great.”

“Don’t say I never did anything for you.”

“I wouldn’t.”

“Ok, well, get to work I guess.”

“Ok.”