On The Surface Tension by Dietrich Biemiller

Author:Dietrich Biemiller [Biemiller, Dietrich]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Biemiller LLC
Published: 2019-05-30T22:00:00+00:00

—6—

Chris Springs, now known as Carla 23, sat at her console at the orbiting Xylol manufacturing facility and performed her job. A large, spherical bin of liquid chemical appeared from her left, attached to a conveyor chain. The chain at that point was in zero gravity, as it was in the center of the large rotating cylinder that was the factory. The chemical reaction at her part of the process required this, while later on the chain moved closer to the rim of the facility and even beyond it, where the artificial gravity was required to be stronger. The console in front of her consisted of exactly two buttons.

Chris waited until the technician inspected the chemical batch and inserted a feed tube into it. The technician gave her a hand signal, and she pressed the first button. A pre-measured portion of some kind of chemical was injected into the spherical batch bin, while the technician watched. When it finished, the technician gave her another hand signal, and she pushed the second button, sending the bin off down the chain to the next station.

Tough job, she thought.

She wondered again why this could not just be automated, like most of the rest of the facility. The reasoning escaped her, but it did provide her with the opportunity to plan the sabotage of the mind-controlling drug and the eventual destruction of the entire orbital manufacturing plant.

For the first week of her new job, Chris trained under the woman she was replacing, Kim 12. It was a challenge for Chris to remain composed, because the training consisted of being shown how to press the two buttons for hundreds of repetitions. After the first few hours of this, she was able to open a communication line to Elanor through her praying mantis familiar.

“Don’t get impatient,” Elanor pleaded. “I’ve checked her status: She has been re-assigned to the grinder.”

“What do you mean, ‘the grinder?’”

“You’ll see,” Elanor had said.

After the week of training, Chris was on her own to push the two buttons when Kim 12 retired. Around mid-shift, Elanor had called through the familiars to tell her an address to type into her computer terminal. Chris typed it in and was shown a security camera feed.

“Where did you get this?” she asked.

“I know how to poke around on the computers and keep secret about it,” Elanor answered. “You have no idea what there is to see on these cameras.”

Chris watched what looked like a crowded hallway in the City of God, filled with ordinary people in their papery coveralls. The crowd all seemed to be going down a certain wide hallway after being checked in by a row of people behind desks with computers. They were waiting in line, which was barely moving.

“Oh look, there is Kim 12. She’s just leaving the check-in desk.”

Chris watched her as she entered the line that funneled the various check in desks into the hallway.

“Ok, so what are they waiting on?” Chris asked.

“They don’t know,” Elanor said. “They were just told to report there now that they are retired.

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