Injecting the Masses

 

Katherine awoke as sunlight flooded over her face and warmed her arms. Drowsily she lay enjoying the soft embrace of her pillow and sheets before shoving them aside and springing from the bed onto the gently yielding carpet.  Behind her the pillows instantly fluffed themselves and the topsheet and quilt stretched taut back over the bed and the edges folding tightly between the mattresses. The moment her feet hit the floor the sound of water spraying into the tub met her ears.  She marched contentedly into the bathroom, hung her arms out over the laundry shoot, and waited as her bra unlatched itself and slid down her arms into the shoot, disappearing down into the laundry room in the basement. Briefly she remembered the days during her childhood when her mother “did the laundry,” washing their clothes, moving them over to the dryer, and then folding them up or ironing before hanging them up in the closet.  Now the entire process occurred through the use of various electrical appliances, all without her supervision. She shuddered at the thought of personally cleaning the laundry her family went through each week. 

At the same time as her bra dropped off her arm, the elastic in her panties loosened and they fell to the floor. Undressed, Katherine stepped over to the bathroom mirror to examine herself for any imperfections, noting the small bruise on her knee where she accidentally banged it against the bed post stumbling in from a night of drinking. She usually avoided heavy consumption of alcohol, but when the Speaker of the House kept buying drinks she could not refuse. Terry planned to retire next year, and many people expected her to replace him, a perception she worked hard to maintain.

            Behind her, Katherine heard a familiar buzzing sound and when she turned back to the shower and stepped inside her panties were gone from the floor. The water washed away the remaining drowsiness from her body, clearing her mind for the day ahead. She placed her left palm under the soap dispenser and a small stream poured out into her hand. Most homes these days came with showers that performed the entire bathing process, but she still preferred the simplicity of bathing herself. Something about letting machines paw her body bothered her.

            She was meeting her parents for breakfast in an hour, and then Tom expected her in the office at nine-thirty to discuss their plans for the GPS bill to modify the CID chips. She hoped the meeting ended by lunch time. Brad had taken the kids skiing for the weekend, and she longed for an afternoon of relaxation. She needed to call Jennifer a little later and see if she could send someone over to give her a massage that afternoon. After that she intended to ask Bridget if they could move dinner back to seven. The vet told her Frith would be ready at five, and by the time she picked him up and got him home, fed him, and then changed for dinner, she doubted she could be ready by six, especially as they were eating at Delluca’s across town.

            The water cut off from the shower and a gust of hot air blew over her, drying her in a few short seconds. Kat stepped out of the tub and re-examined herself in the mirror, looking once more to the small bruise on her knee.

            “Heal,” she commanded, and immediately the bruise began to recede until all signs of the bruise were gone. She swore she felt the nanos working under the skin to clear away the blood and repair tissue, but the doctors assured her the bots worked without disturbing the nerves in her body.

            “Green eyes,” she commanded, and her brown ones started to change color until they were a dark green. She grimaced at the new color and declared “blue eyes.”  Her eyes quickly altered to a crystal blue. It was amazing the possibilities nanos opened up. She lacked any knowledge of how exactly they worked, but they did.

            “Light blonde hair,” she commanded. Beginning from the roots, she watched as her hair transformed from a light brown to the shade of blonde she wore all through college.  Someone, she forgot who, had remarked on a few gray hairs dotting her scalp the night before, which irked her. Her mother’s hair had nearly all grayed by her mid fifties, but Katherine felt repulsed by the gray. To her gray meant old, and she refused to consider herself old yet.  Not these days when people regularly lived to a hundred and twenty or a hundred and thirty.

            She stepped over onto the scale and one hundred twenty-five flashed back at her in red. She expected this. Eating Chinese or French cuisine all week long and you were bound to gain a few unwanted pounds. That large fudge brownie on Thursday was the worst. The warm icing dripping over the heated brownie and washed down with a glass of milk had been too much for her. She really only wanted half when she ordered it but had been unable to stop herself from eating it once she started.

            “Lose five pounds,” she declared and watched as both her cheeks and her hips narrowed ever so slightly. She still marveled at the way the nanos removed excess fat from the body, depositing the extra fat cells with the waste to be flushed from the body when she used the bathroom. Even after fifteen years she found the process incredible.

            She walked into her closet and examined her clothes. Her dresses were on the outside section of the rack, but she felt like wearing a business suit today. She pressed a button on the wall, and the rack slowly rotated, bringing her suits to the front. Jealously she thought of her brother’s computer which chose his daily attire for him. He bought it for Christmas a couple of years back, and now refused to show himself in public without its expertise. The program determined his wardrobe a month in advance, and all he had to do each morning when he stepped out of the shower was hit “Today” on his clothing computer and his clothes were issued forth. The perks of being a CEO of a multi-billion dollar recycling company! 

            Katherine picked out her new purple suit she bought a couple of weeks ago when out shopping with Sara. Now that Sara had started college, their shopping trips were few and far between, but when Sara came home for her holiday break they had managed to find several sales going on that weekend. Katherine quickly donned the suit before returning to the bathroom to fix her hair and apply make-up.

            Twenty minutes later she strolled out the kitchen door into the garage, crawled into the Honda 35ZTwin Brad bought her as a birthday gift. She typed in the address for Glengette’s and sat back as the garage door raised and the car backed out of the garage. Katherine dropped the folder onto the little table in front of her and began to pour over the polls and expert opinions they gathered concerning addition of GPS to the CID chips. The chips, implanted in the right cheek of every legal resident, already contained each individual’s complete identity – social security number, bank information, criminal record, family members, etc. Now the new bill proposed adding GPS capability to the chips. Through the use of satellites, authorities could determine the exact location of any person on the planet. So far, the opinion polls were heavily against the proposed GPS capability. The public viewed this as an invasion of privacy. However according to a report from Dr. Short, if the bill was written with stipulations guaranteeing the GPS was only used in cases of emergency, such as aiding in the search for kidnapping victims or to locate a lost hiker in bad weather, the polls became evenly split on the issue. If citizens felt confident the GPS capability would only be used in emergencies where no other method sufficed, they would more readily agree to the capability. His report also claimed the word tracking should never be used in association with the bill. It gave a bad connotation. Emphasizing the ability to locate missing children needed to be their selling point to the public. Nothing touched the heart of voters like the story of a missing five year old. If they showed the public that the GPS could quickly help authorities locate a missing girl kidnapped from, say, the mall, the public would unquestionably agree to the bill.

            Before she had time to further examine her files, the 35ZTwin pulled into a parking space at Glengette’s. Katherine closed the folder and climbed from the car. She knew her parents were waiting inside. Her father always arrived fifteen minutes early to any occasion. He attributed the habit to both his time in the service. He preferred to familiarize himself with the location ahead of time, in case of trouble. She aspired to her father’s ideal, but often found herself so consumed with work that she lost track of time. She rarely arrived late, but seldom managed to pry herself away from a present task in order to arrive early to another engagement.

            As expected, her parents sat waiting at a small table in the corner of the room by a window. Her father sat facing the door, as always, and her mother sipped from her coffee while studying a couple in the middle of the room. Her father noticed her first, nudged her mother, and they both stood to greet her.

            “Morning Kat,” offered her mother with a gentle smile.

            “Morning mom, dad,” she replied, hugging her father tightly, and then giving her mother a gentle embrace before taking a seat across from her mother.

            “How are you enjoying your weekend of freedom?” asked her mother pleasantly.

            “It’s wonderful,” she replied smugly. “Brad and the kids left yesterday afternoon. The kids have been begging Brad to take them on a ski trip. They’ve read the snow has been amazing this year, and so now that their fall semester is over, he agreed to take them out there as a reward for their grades. 

I had dinner with Terry and Linda last night at Lauriol Plaza. We stayed a little longer than I would have like, but it was nice. Breakfast will have to be short I’m afraid, I have to head into the office for a meeting, but I’m planning to leave before lunch. Tom wants to discuss the polls and opinions we’ve gathered on the new GPS bill we’re working on for the CID chips, but I still want my weekend of freedom.”

            Her father’s jaw tightened momentarily, but he chose not to comment. She knew her father’s stance against the proposal. She tried to convince him the goal of the bill was to improve public safety; to help those in need, but he thought differently. Her mother smiled faintly at the comment. She paid little attention to politics despite the fact that her husband had served two terms in office. She simply voted as he did.

            Katherine pulled up the electronic menu on the table and selected coffee. Her drowsiness had returned so a little caffeine was in order.

            “Have you talked to John lately?” asked up her mother.

            “Last weekend,” she replied. “He said they hoped to hear back about expanding their business out of the country, but I’m guessing nothing’s been finalized.”

            “No,” her father confirmed. “He heard from Mr. Wardlaw this week that the expansion proposal was still being contested, but he believes it will be accepted before the end of next week. Either way it will be early next year if not almost spring by the time they’re able to open the new plant.”

            “What about Rebecca? I haven’t talked to her in almost a month.”

            “She claims she obtained a part in a movie that begins filming in January; something about the death of rare animal species in the Congo due to snow,” said her mother with a roll of her eyes. It rankled their mother to no end that one of her daughters became an actress, and not only that, but a third world activist as well. She supported any cause providing aid to the Middle East and India, and every time she came home she railed incessantly about the evils of Israel, the U.S., Britain, and Japan.

            “Fifty years ago they preached global warming and how we were destroying the environment. We discover a solution to deal with deterioration of the ozone, and now they’re claiming we have blocked out too much of the sun’s rays, causing colder temperatures to ruin the environment. The world’s climates is simply in a time of change.”

            “Here is your breakfast,” cut in a young waitress, setting plates of scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage, and biscuits on the table for them, and then placing a plate before each of them. She also picked up a cup of coffee and a glass of water and placed them before Katherine. “Can I provide you with anything else?”

            “No thank you! This will be fine,” answered her father with a friendly smile, and the waitress disappeared.

            “All I can say is thank God that John and Nathan discovered how to make fuel from landfills,” said Katherine expressively. “I can’t imagine the cost of heating our house in the winter using electricity or gas.”

            The rest of the meal was eaten in silence, another custom her father instilled in them from earliest memory. He believed it improper to speak while food was being consumed because most people failed to chew properly when speaking, therefore he refrained from discussion at all during the meal. Chewing with your mouth open was a fatal flaw as far as he was concerned. The imposed silence gave her more time to plan for the meeting a little later. She looked over the file extensively the day before, but had found little time to process it all in her mind. Suddenly it dawned on her that she left the recorded interview from last nights Rick McCartney at home. He had brought in a dozen random guests last night to discuss the CID bill, and she wanted to play that at the meeting today. It showed what they were up against in convincing the public to accept the new GPS upgrades. When she pushed her plate away and leaned back, her mother broke the silence.

            “We’re having lunch at the house tomorrow afternoon, would you like to join us?” her mother asked. “You’re Aunt Lilly and Uncle Mark are coming, as well as Nancy and Jim, and Fred and Pat.”

            “That would be nice,” Katherine replied. “I haven’t seen Nancy and Kim in quite a while. It will be good to catch up.”

“They sold their house in New York a couple of months ago,” informed her mother. “Nancy told me they rarely traveled back their anymore. Jim wanted to buy a new one in a warmer clime. They’re looking for something in South Florida, perhaps Naples.”

Oh, I loved that little house,” said Katherine sorrowfully. “I remember spending summer holidays there growing up.”

“We haven’t been there in years,” said her father, momentarily lost in his memories.  

“I wish I didn’t have to cut this conversation short, but I need to swing back by the house on my way to the office. I forgot some of my work at home and I need it for the meeting. Thanks for breakfast dad.”

            “We’ll see you in the morning then,” said her father, and Katherine quickly stood up from the table and marched back out to her car. She said “Home” when prompted by the car for directions. Fortunately, few cars were on the rode for the day so she ran all the lights, a luxury now that cars drove themselves. 

When she arrived home ten minutes later, she hurriedly climbed from the car, strode to the front door, and placed her hand in the security lock to open it. She was through the hallway and nearly to the dvd player before she sensed someone else in the room.  She froze and then spun around towards the dining room. At her kitchen table sat a man and woman, both appeared in their early forties. On the table next to the man lay a small, automatic handgun. Impulsively she fled back towards the door at sight of the gun, but a third man entered the room from the hallway, blocking her exit. Her pulse raced inside her and her mind thought of nothing but escape. She raced toward the stairs hoping to get downstairs and out the back door, but the man guarding the front door hurried to block that exit as well.  With all escapes block, she turned back to the man at her table as he stood up and approached.

            “Good morning, Mrs. Thompson,” said the man casually. “I’m sorry we are meeting in this fashion. I hoped to avoid frightening you, but I doubted you would meet me any other way.”

            Katherine’s eyes flickered fearfully to the gun still resting on the table and back to the man standing before her. Suddenly her mouth felt really dry, but she stood up rigidly, hoping she looked indignant at the intrusion.

            “If you don’t wish to scare me then why do you have a gun?” she asked. Her voice quivered slightly.

            “I’m sorry, but it is necessary for our security. We carry them wherever we go.”

            “What do you want?”

            “First let me introduce our little group,” he said with an encouraging smile, attempting to soothe her apprehension. “My name is Nicholas. This is my wife Susan,” gesturing to the woman who stood up from the table, picked up the gun and approached as well, and then he gestured to the second man blocking any escape. “That is William.”

            “I didn’t ask who you are!” she hissed angrily. “I asked you what you wanted.” 

The man and woman continued into the living room, causing her to back up fearfully, and they sat down on the couch. Susan dropped the gun into Nicholas coat pocket as they sat.

            “Please, sit down,” he said, gesturing to the chair off to her left. She momentarily resisted the invitation as an act of defiance against him, but she tossed the idea aside as a childish ploy to gain control. He knew she was at his mercy. She sat down in the chair, pulse still racing. Tom did not expect her in the office for another fifteen minutes, and it would be at least thirty before he called to find out why she was late. Brad and the kids would not call until they got in from skiing later this evening.

            “We’ve come to ask you to abandon work on your new bill,” began Nicholas briskly. Katherine’s eyes widened in surprise. She expected people to react strongly against the bill in the beginning, perhaps even make threats, but never in her worst fears had she expected someone to break into her house and hold her hostage to demand she stop her work on the proposal.

            “Your bill represents another infringement by the government upon its citizens, slowly removing one right after another in the name of security.”

            “We are not trying to infringe on people’s freedoms, we are trying to protect them from harm,” she protested. “Have you heard what sort of support the GPS could provide? What if your wife was trapped in a snowstorm while traveling? Wouldn’t you want the police to have every possible means to find and rescue her?”

            “I would personally lead the search myself,” replied the man vehemently. “But not by the means you are proposing. By attaching a tracking device to the citizens of this country, you enable the government to observe the actions of its citizens at all times. In the twentieth century, such a device was called an ankle bracelet, and it was used to keep track of criminals on probation. Are you now declaring all citizens little better than criminals?”

            “I would never,” Katherine replied, coloring in anger at the question. She never understood how people thought so backwards. They hated change, and refused to see the good that came from change. They focused only on the potential hazards, no matter how unlikely. But the government’s responsibility was to ensure the safety and well-being of its citizens. 

“This bill is not proposing a tracking system by which the government can essentially spy on its citizens as you claim. The modified chips simply provide a measure of security, a means of aiding those in danger.”

            “It may start out that way,” the man agreed. “But how long before the government convinces the public that tracking criminals using the system is a safety measure as well. People wouldn’t mind that much either would they? Police tracking down criminals quicker and locking them up. People would rejoice. After that, how long before they began to use it to monitor suspected criminals, hoping to catch them in the act. People might resist at that point, but the GPS system will have become common at that point, and slowly protests will fall by the wayside. Eventually the government will find a way to convince people everyone should be tracked at all times for the country’s well-being.  They’ll classify it as an issue of national security.”

            “That would never happen,” she protested hotly. “You’re a bunch of conspiracy theorists. The government is not out to get you. It is not trying to spy on you and control your every action. We are writing this bill to make our country a safer place.”

            “Really?” questioned Susan for the first time. She sat forward as she spoke, staring Katherine straight in the face with a piercing gaze that unnerved her. “What about the nanos? The government can control the nanos in each person’s body.”

            “That’s ridiculous,” Katherine exclaimed. Shock flooded through her system at the woman’s words, though she attempted to keep that surprise from showing on her face. “Nanos are programmed only to respond to their owner, the body they’ve been injected into. No one else can control them.”

            “That is a lie and you know it!” hissed the woman angrily, rising quickly to her feet and looking as though she would like nothing better than to beat the lies out of her. Katherine flushed a little in embarrassment at being called on the lie, but fought to control her emotions. “The voices of higher members of the government have been encoded into the nanos of everyone, allowing them control over the nanos in anyone they come across.”

            Katherine gasped involuntarily at their knowledge. How had the come by it? This knowledge was a carefully controlled secret. Not once in twenty-five years had that secret been leaked to the public at large. Who had done it? If she managed to get out of this, she would have to go straight to Tom. This posed a major security issue.

            “How far do those commands go Katherine?” asked Nicholas, a quite edge to his voice. He remained calmly on the couch, but his methodical probing scared her much more than Susan’s tirade. “Can they be used to kill? If I were injected with nanos, and you are probably high enough within the government, could you command the nanos to kill me?”

            “I don’t know,” she whispered numbly. Katherine felt dazed by these questions. Such thoughts never occurred to her before. Was it possible? Could the nanos be used to kill? It certainly seemed possible.

            “If your bill passes and the nanos have the power to kill, the government will have absolute control over its citizens,” declared Nicholas, his face begging her to think of the potential consequences. “The GPS can be used to locate any person wearing the chip, and then a government official can then order the nanos within that person’s body to kill them. Is that what you want for future generations? Do you want your children and your grandchildren to live in a world where they must fear what their government will do to them if they step out of line? Do you want your government to do that to you if you step out of line?”

            “You make it sound as though our government seeks to control every aspect of people’s daily lives,” she exclaimed. “This is not the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four or Fahrenheit Four Fifty-One. The government is not out to get you! It is not attempting to secretly dominate the public.”

            “Not yet, but we’re moving that way,” he assured her. “-with each new bill such as yours that is passed, supposedly to protect people, you’re increasing the government’s power over people’s lives.”

            “That is beyond belief. It could never happen. Would never happen.”

            “Mrs. Thompson, have you ever heard the phrase, Power Corrupts, Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely?” asked Nicholas. “How long before the government realizes the power it has over its people due to bills such as yours? How long before it decides to exercise that power for its own benefit? How long before its own desires become more important than the well-being of the citizens it was created to protect?”

            Katherine felt overwhelmed and angry at his words. She felt as though he personally accused her of such actions, and it both embarrassed and angered her. She knew their fears were unjustified, but how could she explain this so they understood?. He was paranoid and delusional. All three of them were.

            “We need you to help us,” said Susan, calm once more. She apparently realized her tantrum would not persuade her. “This bill must not be passed. It proposes a dangerous infringement upon people’s rights and freedoms. It provides the government too much control over its people. It is one of the first steps in taking away the public’s power to protest against the government’s actions.”

            “No,” she replied defiantly, shaking her head fervently. “No! This bill helps people. It will protect them from danger, and people like you are standing in the way. You cling to your old-fashioned prejudices against change. You’re skeptical of each new invention. You fear every new creation will be used to control or destroy. Why can’t you see that we are looking out for people, not oppressing them?”

            “The creators always have good intentions. It’s those that come after that manipulate for their own gain. You’re creating this bill to help people, but you cannot see that others following in your footsteps might not act so nobly. You never ask if such power should be available to begin with,” replied Nicholas passionately. “We must put an end to such unchecked power.”

            “You are the one the world needs protection from,” she declared fiercely. “The government passes such measures to protect people from you and others like you.”

            “I wish you saw the truth of your actions,” said Nicholas, staring at the floor as his hand slipped into his coat pocket. He pulled the gun and pointed at her.  Katherine froze, fear rupturing forth within her once more, her anger dissipating. She stood and backed against the wall. “If you refuse to stop, then we must stop you. I hoped you would see reason, but this must end. I’m the one protecting people. I’m protecting them from you.”

            Nicholas aimed the gun straight at her face, preparing to fire. Katherine reacted instinctively, yelling “hand drop.” Instantly, Nicholas’ hand slackened and the gun fell to the floor with a thud. Both Nicholas’ and Susan’s eyes widened in surprise. Susan glanced at Nicholas’ hand and the gun lying on the floor before him, then down at her own hand. Nicholas hesitated for a moment in surprise, and then lunged for the gun with his other hand.

            “Legs stop,” commanded Katherine, and she watched with some satisfaction as all three toppled to the floor, and she quickly raced to the gun and picked it up off the floor before Nicholas could grasp it. All three lay on the floor, eyes wide with fear. They stared at her as though seeing her for the first time.

            “How…?” Susan began in confusion, staring around in incomprhension.

             “I can’t commands the nanos in one individual alone. Voice commands affect all nanos within a certain radius….Except for my own of course. I temporarily disabled them.”

            “But I flushed mine,” replied Nicholas in bewilderment. Katherine saw in his eyes that his mind was trying and failing to grasp what was happening. “We all had our systems cleaned of the nanos.”

            “Have you been treated lately?” asked Katherine. “If you’ve received any blood transfusions or shots from a doctor, then your body has been re-injected with nanos. We do it as a precaution in case some malfunction.”

            Katherine saw fear and terror in their eyes as they realized what had happened. Their fears had suddenly become worse than they imagined. She had no desire to calm those fears.

            “The government has already begun control of its citizens then,” said Nicholas despairingly. “It has already begun forcing controls upon the public without their knowledge.”

            “We’re not controlling people, we are protecting them,” argued Katherine in exasperation. “And thank God we have. You’ve proved the necessity of these protections. The nanos protected me just as they were designed to do, and the GPS will as well.”

            “Please,” begged Susan piteously from the floor. She attempted to rise, but her legs remained motionless. “Don’t continue down this path. Can’t you see the harm you’re causing? This country was founded with the goal of protecting individual rights.  You are taking those away from us…from everyone, yourself included.”

            Katherine looked at the woman with pity. Some people would never understand. Without another word she marched over to the phone and dialed nine, one, one.

 

Reviews

[A LaDy NaMeD D]

I loved this. This story is like taking a look into what the future may hold if we allow our government to continue on the path that it is going. I'd rather kill myself then live in a world like that. I would love for you to write two endings to this like a five years later type of thing. One in which the bill is passed, and one in which the bill isn't. I'm curious to see what will happen if the bill is passed, and how it will affect Katherine, and if it will change her views. But another thought just came to mind, even if the citizens in your story didn't want to have the bill passed is it possible that the government through the nanos could make them vote in favor of it?

D

[O. Ragnarok]

That was brilliant.
I loved your mention of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, this book realy had the feel of the latter. In all honesty, I'd like to see another chapter or two out of this. Nothing too long or extended, but something extra.