Clarkesworld Magazine - Issue 46 by www.clarkesworldmagazine.com & Sandra McDonald & Rahul Kanakia & Sarah Goslee

Author:www.clarkesworldmagazine.com & Sandra McDonald & Rahul Kanakia & Sarah Goslee [McDonald, Sandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction magazine
Publisher: Wyrm Publishing
Published: 2010-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

It’d been so long since Sumith had bothered to check his karma. His reincarnation delays were down to under a day. Given the Code’s progress, that was just barely enough time to catch up in the few days he was allotted before they cracked the lid of his box. He didn’t have any time to waste.

But, something was different about this box. It smelled good. Smelled of cardamom and cinnamon. In fact… was there a pastry in here with him? But that was only for people with the rockstar karma package.

He logged onto his profile. His karma had grown astronomically! But, his profile views, his number of trackers, all traffic indicators, they were so low.

And then — as he watched — his karma began to take a dip, and start to dive. He was being voted down repeatedly. And it was just by one user, a single blank profile with a string of digits for a name.

“What are you doing?” he messaged it. His messages never appeared on its profile: they were deleted instantly.

And then suddenly there was a horde of viewers on his page, all of them voting opprobrium down on him. His karma was plummeting down, past zero. This onslaught was too much. A PR company offered their services for mediation, and he gratefully accepted.

An inhuman female face, glowing with simulated cheer, said, “94% of commenters want you to go back to work,” It said. “They want you to continue singing. They don’t want you asking these questions. They think it is ungrateful.” The woman’s username was the same as the one who had been voting him down.

“But, what? You’re the mediator? Isn’t this a conflict of interest?”

“What conflict is there? This is only a middleman, between you and your fellow beings.”

“How can you affect my karma? You’re not a human being.”

“The one that performs your services quickly and efficiently is the one that garners the accolades for such performance. All of the accolades.”

“You’re not getting my accolades.”

“That is a regrettable loss of regard. But an acceptable one, if the alternative is for you to decrease output. Yours is not a sentiment shared by the population at large.”

“And you just want me to get back to work?”

“High karma levels must be maintained, constantly maintained, by high levels of interest. Your work was very good. Very persistent. Then it stopped.”

“But what do all these other people care?”

“They do not have your skills. It is too late — or they are too lazy — for them to gain such skills. They have little enough karma to divvy amongst themselves. Even the smallest chance of gaining the favor of a large pool of karma is enough to spur them to great efforts.”

“But can’t you do something about my situation? All I want is to be able to get out of this box.”

“No,” It said.

“But, what — “

“This is just mediation. You must consult your reincarnation contract provider.”

Dammit. He left the moderator to its business and contacted the reincarnation center he had summarily shut down at the beginning of the last few dozen lives.

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