Getting to Know You by Marusek David

Getting to Know You by Marusek David

Author:Marusek, David [Marusek, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780345513434
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 2008-12-29T21:00:00+00:00


I awoke lying on my side on a gurney in a ceramic room, my cheek resting in a small puddle of clear fluid. I was naked. Every cell of me ached. A man in a militia uniform, a jerry, watched me sullenly. When I sat up, dizzy, nauseous, he held out a bundle of clean clothes. Not my clothes.

“Wha’ happe’ me?” My lips and tongue were twice their size.

“You had an unfortunate accident.”

“Assiden’?”

The jerry pressed the clothes into my hands. “Just shut up and get dressed.” He resumed his post next to the door and watched me fumble with the clothes. My feet were so swollen I could hardly pull the pants legs over them. My hands trembled and could not grip. I could not keep my vision focused, and my head pulsed with pain. But all in all, I felt much better than I had a little while ago.

When, after what seemed like hours, I was dressed, the jerry said, “Captain wants to see ya.”

I followed him down deserted ceramic corridors to a small office where sat a large, handsome young man in a neat blue uniform. “Sign here,” he said, pushing a slate at me. “It’s your terms of release.”

Read this, Henry, I tongued with a bruised tongue. When Henry didn’t answer I felt the pull of panic until I remembered that the slave processors inside my body that connected me to Henry’s box in Chicago had certainly been destroyed. So I tried to read the document myself. It was loaded with legalese and interminable clauses, but I was able to glean from it that by signing it, I was forever releasing the National Militia from all liability for whatever treatment I had enjoyed at their hands.

“I will not sign this,” I said.

“Suit yourself,” said the captain, who took the slate from my hands. “You are hereby released from custody, but you remain on probation until further notice. Ask the belt for details.” He pointed to the belt holding up my borrowed trousers.

I lifted my shirt and looked at the belt. The device stitched to it was so small I had missed it, and its ports were disguised as grommets.

“Sergeant,” the Captain said to the jerry, “show Mr. Harger the door.”

“Just like that?” I said.

“What do you want, a prize?”



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