You are worker $workerNumber at the TechHorizons [[constructor plant]] in [[Lower Meadowview]]. Employment opportunities are spotty and you're glad to have any job at all.
You don't really know what's in store for you as you walk through the automatic gates that open as you approach, briefly flashing your number and face. You applied by simply giving [[TechHorizons]] temporary permission to your semi-public file in a single click, and then accepting the job a week later with another click.
Your [[sleevemate]] buzzes, directing you to cube $cubeNumber, which isn't hard to find with the lights that dynamically guide the way for you as you approach them. The door to $cubeNumber slides open as you approach. A female voice welcomes you as you sit down.
As soon as you sit, your machine automatically opens up a video that begins playing.
[[Watch the video.]]
Meadowview is a bit of a misnomer, as the view from most of Meadowview is the Horseshoe mountain range. There are no meadows to speak of, though historians point out that most of the industrial area in Lower Meadowview used to be grassland.
Nowadays, Meadowview is divided into two very distinct areas. Upper Meadowview encompasses the hillsides that lead up to the higher mountaintops and is dotted with large houses and lavish malls. Lower Meadowview is composed of neat rows of factories alongside the towering Meadowview Apartment complex, where you live.
As machine learning got better and the manufacturing cost of robots fell, more and more of the duties that humans had been doing for centuries started to fall under the purview of automated machines of some kind.
In the late 23rd century, there was a kind of tipping point, where machines took over almost all occupations. The only ones that remained were ones that required subjective judgement or where paying for human labor was somehow still financially advisable. Even in those cases, though, it was often a single human overseeing a score of robots or computers.
Constructor Plants popped up everywhere. These factories were to mass manufacture robots that could be used, with the right programming, almost everywhere. For those that hadn't been lucky enough to be in one of the richer families during the automation transition, there was low-paying work to be found in these factories.
TechHorizons (motto - Expanding Our Horizons Through Technology) was one of the earlier automation companies, and as such, got a head start on the competition.
They are now the single largest employer in the United States and have helped several young students instantly join the Leisure Class with their annual programming contests.
You're lucky to have bought a broken sleevemate a while ago from a rich Leisure kid and fixed it up.
The screen has many of the more advanced functions, plus the hardware is biometrically locked and has extra security features, meaning losing or having it stolen isn't a real worry.
With sleevemates being mandatory for most jobs nowadays, as well as for handling most official financial transactions, not having one or needing to lease one from TechHorizons would be a real burden.
You tap the monitor.
A well-dressed, well-groomed, clearly affluent man sits in a chair that probably costs more than your yearly rent. It's TechHorizon CEO and founder [[Lars Pemberton]].
He leans forward and starts talking, complimenting you on your choice of employer, reminding you that you're an important part of the TechHorizon family, thanking you for your potential contributions.
The video then cuts to a still image of a few surveillance images of seemingly random TechHorizon employees, all in a grid on the screen. A voiceover informs you that you have joined the TechHorizon security team, and that you are to infiltrate a budding revolutionary group within the company.
Their leader is one Paul Hemsley; the image shows a young man with parted hair and glasses. The voice tells you to make contact, gather information on the plot, and to report the findings through your workstation.
You soak it in for a moment before accessing Paul's dossier on your machine. He doesn't seem all that different from you - an unlucky kid from a middle class family that lost it all when the middle class vanished before their eyes. He has two cats. Still, it's clear he is the ringleader behind a subversive group within the company.
[[Infiltrate the group.]]
[[Find Paul and warn him.]]
Holding the title for greatest net worth for nearly a decade now, Lars Pemberton is the public face for TechHorizons and the Pemberton family.
This spry 50something founded TechHorizons while still in school, shepherding its incredible growth. Because of the phenomenal success of his company, the Pemberton family is the largest and greatest of the Leisure families, both in numbers and influence.
Lars himself continues paradoxically to work as much as he did in his youth, despite the fact that he has admitted multiple times that he could automate his own work for a minimal cost.
A week later, you find yourself at your fourth revolutionary meeting. It's a bit of a mess, since the group is fairly large but has to find meeting space within the TechHorizons building that isn't monitored. They've settled on the men's gym locker room, despite the protests of the female members of the group.
People arrive over the course of several hours as to not arouse suspicion. You drew an early lot today, meaning the first hour of the meeting is mainly composed of sitting quietly on a bench.
You've learned a small amount during the past week, which you've been slowly feeding to the powers that be through your workstation, but what has been clear from the start of your involvement has been the power of Paul's charisma.
Not only is the brains behind the operation, most of the tired-looking people milling around the locker room wouldn't be here if someone else was giving the speeches and secretly evangelizing the movement.
Finally, the meeting begins and Paul stands on a bench, elevating himself above the crowd below. His quiet delivery is at odds with the message and his clear excitement. The revolution will happen in three days. In three days, the working class will have their rights restored to them.
Later that night, an urgent message flashes on your sleevemate from the head office. They've authorized the use of deadly force against Paul Hemsley, though they leave it up to your discretion when to pull the trigger, so to speak.
[[Take Paul out now.]]
[[Wait three days.|Wait until the strike.]]
It's not an easy choice, but it's not the hardest either. Looking at the picture of Paul reminds you of everything you've been through, everything your family lost in the past decade.
You're sure you can feed some vague information through the system to keep your job. In the meantime, you still arrange to "infiltrate" the revolutionary group, except your end goal has changed.
You want to help Paul now. You truly want to be a part of whatever he's planning.
A week later, you've made yourself Paul's right-hand man, mainly by giving him every bit of information about your job that you can. You're fairly sure he trusts you completely, which is why he's brought you in early today.
As you both sit on the benches in the men's gym locker room - as good a place as any unmonitored area to meet - Paul confides in you that he plans to set a plan in motion that will result in the murder of Lars Pemberton when he visits the factory in a few days.
He wants someone he trusts to execute the plan, and so has decided to offer you the chance.
[[Volunteer yourself.|Volunteer.]]
[[Volunteer someone else.|Stay quiet.]]
Waiting seems foolish.
Paul is clearly ready to act and has a plan that he hasn't revealed to anyone - or at least not to someone as new to the "revolution" as you. Waiting any number of days could mean that the plan would be set in motion with or without Paul. It could mean the economic destruction of Lower Meadowview and another few years searching for a job or, even worse, having to search for new housing the job market in Meadowview evaporates.
You look around as your cube door slides open. The halls are quiet save the hum of a few maintenance bots; no one hangs out at the factory after working hours voluntarily.
On your desk lies a company handgun. As you grab it, you catch a glimpse of your workstation monitor that came to life as soon as you stepped into your cube. One of the factory cameras shows a security bot on its nighttime patrol.
Sure, Paul needs to be stopped as soon as possible. But a gun? How quaint. Why not just send a bot to do the dirty work?
[[Do it yourself.|Take Out Paul Human]]
[[Use a bot.|Take Out Paul Bot]]
As much as you'd like to have all of this over and done with, you decide that the smarter thing to do is wait until the plan is clear before acting.
Two days of investigation later, you have both a newfound appreciation and fear for the way Paul's mind works. You've managed to get close to him by volunteering for the most dangerous parts of the plan, which puts you in an interesting position.
So, the plan:
Lars Pemberton is making his annual visit to the factory to give his state of the company speech. After the speech, he dines with a select number of employees of the company through a random lottery - a lottery that Paul has rigged in your favor. During the meal, you will kill Lars. Simultaneously, the other revolutionaries will destroy as many bots as possible and take over the factory.
It's ambitious with many points of possible failure, and you intend to be the biggest and brightest.
You type up a report, submit it through your workstation, and start putting together your own plan to take out Paul. With the details you've provided, you're sure the company can take care of the rest of the revolution and Lars can take care of himself.
One last decision, then: go after Paul yourself or sit back and use a bot?
[[Do it yourself.|Wait Human]]
[[Use a bot.|Wait Bot]]
Of course you'll do it. You're a part of this now, and you can't think of anything more important than being at the center of what will likely be a historical event.
Success or failure, an assassination attempt on Lars Pemberton will send shockwaves through the media and will clearly illustrate that the growing divide between the Leisure families and working individuals like Paul and yourself is a serious issue.
You spend the next several days working out some of the logistics with Paul, though he ends up leaving the actual details of the assassination in your hands. This partially keeps the plan more secure - only you will know exactly what is happening and when - but you sense that this also helps Paul stay behind a wall of deniability should anything go wrong.
The next morning, your workstation informs you in a chipper voice that Lars Pemberton will be speaking on the factory floor in the afternoon. You know that he will be walking from the executive suites precisely 20 minutes before the speech, and that it is the single moment of the day when he is least protected.
As 1:40 approaches, you close your eyes and take a breath. You go over the plan in your head one last time.
You will...
[[Do it yourself.|Volunteer Human]]
[[Use a bot.|Volunteer Bot]]
While you appreciate the offer, you demure and suggest another revolutionary named Thomas - a young, fit man with a dangerous kind of fire in his voice and eyes that points to a life so far of disappointment.
Paul agrees - Thomas is a natural choice. When he arrives, the two of you bring him up to speed, and he eagerly takes the assignment. It's clear that for the first time in his life, he feels important.
A few days later, you're watching through a personal security drone as Thomas walks off the elevator on the executive floor, gun in hand, sweating and panting. Killing a person is enough to make anyone nervous.
There he is! Lars emerges from the last office in the hallway and stops as he sees Thomas at the other end. He touches his sleevemate and begins striding purposefully toward Thomas.
Thomas raises the handgun but doesn't fire. Can't fire? Won't fire? It doesn't matter, as a moment later, Lars is on him. He works quickly, disarming Thomas, taking the pistol and shooting Thomas in the head before you can even react to what's happening.
He turns to the drone, grabs it out of the air, and looks directly in the camera. His face covers the entire screen.
"You're next."
[[Get to Paul.]]
[[Leave the factory.]]
This is on you, and you've got to see it through. As ironic as it may seem, given Paul's entire platform for wanting to overthrow what he jokingly calls "our robot overlords," you don't trust a bot to do the job here.
The job being murder, of course. You shake your head, trying to dislodge that thought, somehow remove the very real fact that you're about to kill another human being. Tonight.
As your hand picks up the gun, Paul's home address flashes on your sleevemate. You walk quickly out of the factory and start jogging through the uneven shadows of the partially working streetlamps towards the address.
And for what? For a job? Has it really come to this? The gun feels heavy, tucked into your waistband (that's where guns go, right?) and your breathing gets faster.
The house is up ahead, a light on in one of the rooms. Strange. Paul must not be doing so badly to be able to live in a single-family house. Most of the employees are in the apartments, and you'd have imagined that based on Paul's rants on wages...
Trying to puzzle things out, you take a step and trip on a wire that's nearly invisible in the darkness. You tumble onto the ground, getting a face full of gravel. Before you can pull yourself up, floodlights fill the area. You struggle to your feet, blinded, when a shape tackles you back down to the ground. You feel the gun slide out of your pants.
It's Paul, who's stronger than you expected for a man of his size. He sighs when he sees your stunned, somewhat scared face. He gets off of you and picks up the gun that ended up a foot away.
"We had such high hopes for you, #$workerNumber. What a shame."
He points the gun at you and pulls the trigger.
---
(if: $workerNumber<4815)[
It looks like you've died.
[[Try Again?]]
]
(if: $workerNumber>=4815)[
[[Wake Up]]
]
To be honest, it wasn't like you were relishing shooting another human being. While you do believe Paul is dangerous and that his removal is the best course of action, it'd be nice if you could keep your hands relatively clean.
You push the sidearm aside and sit down. With a few keystrokes, you have the current security bot roster up and at your disposal. There are a few bots coming out of maintenance that haven't been put on the line yet. You choose one of the newer makes - a SEC-X99 - and give it new instructions.
A few more inputs - Paul's address from his dossier, the authorization of deadly force, and an employee signoff from you - and the bot rolls out of the factory and heads for the address.
As the bot rolls toward Paul, you sink back into your chair and watch the camera feed. A sudden chill runs down your spine as the SEC-X99 bumps its way along the dirt path outside the factory. You feel alone and awkward and evil, and not in a good way.
Your fingers type out an abort sequence into your workstation, but something stops you from executing it. And then it's too late because Paul's house comes into view and it takes your breath away. As your hands raise to cover a gaping mouth, you try to work out how Paul can afford to live in a separate single-family house.
You can't, of course. Something here doesn't make sense, but in the next few moments everything falls apart. The bot's camera goes haywire and the SEC-X99 falls to the ground, showing nothing but night sky once the camera readjusts its focus. Paul appears, shaking his head.
"Sending a bot? To kill me? And I had such high hopes for you, #$workerNumber. What a shame."
The door behind you slides open and you turn to see a revolutionary, a gun, a flash, then nothing.
---
(if: $workerNumber<4815)[
It looks like you've died.
[[Try Again?]]
]
(if: $workerNumber>=4815)[
[[Wake Up]]
]
This is on you, and you've got to see it through. As ironic as it may seem, given Paul's entire platform for wanting to overthrow what he jokingly calls "our robot overlords," you don't trust a bot to do the job here.
The job being murder, of course. You shake your head, trying to dislodge that thought, somehow remove the very real fact that you're about to kill another human being.
You open the top drawer in your cube, pulling out the handgun that's been secreted there for the past few days. As you pick it up, your sleevemate buzzes, informing you that you should now have access to Paul's cube. You sigh.
And for what? For a job? Has it really come to this? The gun feels heavy in your hand and your breathing gets faster. You approach Paul's cube and the door slides open as you get close. You jump into the cube, gun aloft, pointed at the chair.
The trigger feels tight as your finger squeezes, then releases suddenly as the chair turns around to reveal Lars Pemberton in the seat.
"What..." you exclaim under your breath, confused, and lower your gun. Lars opens his mouth, as if to speak, but stops, nods at you (or at someone behind you?) and suddenly you've been knocked to the ground, the gun wrenched from your hand.
You roll over and Paul is standing above you, the gun now in his possession. He shakes his head, looking a bit sad, a bit resigned.
"We had such high hopes for you, #$workerNumber. What a shame."
He pulls the trigger.
---
(if: $workerNumber<4815)[
It looks like you've died.
[[Try Again?]]
]
(if: $workerNumber>=4815)[
[[Wake Up]]
]
To be honest, it wasn't like you were relishing shooting another human being. While you do believe Paul is dangerous and that his removal is the best course of action, it'd be nice if you could keep your hands relatively clean.
With a few keystrokes, you have the current security bot roster up and at your disposal. There are a few bots coming out of maintenance that haven't been put on the line yet. You choose one of the newer makes - a SEC-X99 - and give it new instructions.
A few more inputs - Paul's cube number, the authorization of deadly force, and an employee signoff from you - and the bot rolls out of the maintenance bay and into the factory hallways.
As the bot rolls toward Paul, you sink back into your chair and watch the camera feed. A sudden chill runs down your spine as the SEC-X99 shoots its way through the pneumatic tube taking it to the right floor. You're trading one life for another, and while you don't think Lars Pemberton deserves to die, you're suddenly not sure if Paul does either.
Your fingers type out an abort sequence into your workstation, but something stops you from executing it. And then it's too late because Paul's cube door slides open and you gasp. Paul isn't alone in his cube. Lars is with him, and the two are clearly sharing a drink.
None of this makes sense, but you don't have a chance to figure much out. Lars, an amused expression on his face, touches his sleevemate and the SEC-X99 goes into standby mode. Paul kneels in front of the bot, squaring his face to the bot's camera, shaking his head.
"Sending a bot? To kill me? And I had such high hopes for you, #$workerNumber. What a shame."
The door behind you slides open and you turn to see a revolutionary, a gun, a flash, then nothing.
---
(if: $workerNumber<4815)[
It looks like you've died.
[[Try Again?]]
]
(if: $workerNumber>=4815)[
[[Wake Up]]
]
Paul would want it this way. The entire underpinning of the revolution is rooted in that terrible moment when the robots became too useful, too cheap, too much like you.
You run your hand over the handgun stashed under the back of your shirt, which you surreptitiously picked up this morning from the gym locker where Paul had left it.
Two minutes.
The elevator doors open and you're on the executive level. You can't be here, of course, but you also can't shoot other people, so the breach of workplace etiquette seems like a moot point.
One minute to go, and you hear the door at the end of the hallway slide open. A man dressed in the kind of suit that you've never seen in person strides out into the hallway.
You raise the gun, and point it straight at Lars, who gives you an odd sort of smile. He reaches to his sleevemate as you pull the trigger, but the trigger is stuck, is fighting against your finger and winning.
"How quaint," he says, noticing your sudden consternation. Another touch of his sleevemate and you feel a sudden electrical shock, forcing you to drop the gun.
Before you realize what's happening, Lars has his hand out in just the right place at just the right time, and the gun is in his hand. The barrel is now pointed at your head.
"We really thought you'd do better, #$workerNumber," Lars says, somewhat resigned to what is about to happen, before pulling the trigger.
---
(if: $workerNumber<4815)[
It looks like you've died.
[[Try Again?]]
]
(if: $workerNumber>=4815)[
[[Wake Up]]
]
You've never handled a gun yourself, and this moment needs to be mistake-free. Humans make mistakes. Bots don't have qualms, don't get cold feet, don't make mistakes.
You tap a few commands into your workstation and bring up the current security bot roster. There are a few bots coming out of maintenance that haven't been put on the line yet. You choose one of the newer makes - a SEC-X99 - and give it new instructions.
While you can't tell the bot to target Lars directly, Paul was able to insert into the employee database a fake person who uses Lars biometric identifiers but is considered a low-level employee with a history of on-the-job violence.
With Lars about to leave his suite, you tell the bot that this wild card worker has been spotted on the executive level, and that he's armed. The bot should be able to respond with deadly force, and you'll be at the override controls just in case.
A sudden chill runs down your spine as the SEC-X99 shoots its way through the pneumatic tube taking it to the right floor. A few weeks ago, you were collecting food rations from the unemployment office, and today you're about to kill one of the most powerful men in the world. How did this all happen?
The bot squirts out on the executive level and through the camera, you can see someone stepping out of the last office in the hallway. It's Lars, looking handsome and sharp and elegant and rich rich rich. He stops short as the notices the bot rolling towards him.
He taps his sleevemate casually and the bot stops so quickly it almost falls over. Lars walks up to it, taps the camera, kneels down to look directly into your eyes.
"Is this #$workerNumber?" he asks indignantly. "Is this really the best you can do?" He sighs.
Once again, into the camera, a bit peeved now, he says, "Paul, is this really the best we've got?" The camera goes black. Then your cube goes dark, too - the workstation, the lights, all of them go off at once.
You hear the door lock securely behind you and soft hiss of something coming through the ventilation system. You sit, unsure of what else to do, until a few seconds later, you drop unceremoniously out of your chair onto the floor and take one final breath.
---
(if: $workerNumber<4815)[
It looks like you've died.
[[Try Again?]]
]
(if: $workerNumber>=4815)[
[[Wake Up]]
]
<h2>The Job</h2>
(set: $workerNumber += (random:1560,2000))
(if: $workerNumber > 4815)[(set: $workerNumber = 4815)]
(set: $cubeNumber to (random:1,500))
[[Start|Intro]]
<h2>The Job</h2>
(set: $workerNumber = (random:70,99)*2)
(set: $cubeNumber to (random:1,500))
[[Start|Intro]]
You nearly fall out of your chair escaping your cube. You fly down the maze of hallways, trying to find Paul's cube.
Your mind races as you alternate between running when no one is around and awkwardly walking as quickly as you can when you run into a group of employees making their way to the factory floor to hear Pemberton's speech.
You don't want to die. You don't want to die. It's all you can think. You don't want to die.
You're panting when you get there, but the door slides open as you approach. Paul must have known you were coming, must be preparing your next moves. He'll know what to do.
And Paul is there, but he's in no rush. He's standing on one side of his cube, a drink in his hand, a sad expression on his face. He sees you, shakes his head, and softly says, "I'm sorry."
The chair at his workstation turns around, and you realize there's someone else there. It's Lars Pemberton in all his Leisure finery, and nothing makes sense.
"I'm sorry, too," he says. "We had such high hopes for you, #$workerNumber."
You're unable to close your gaping mouth, unable to do anything as he points the gun at you and fires.
---
(if: $workerNumber<4815)[
It looks like you've died.
[[Try Again?]]
]
(if: $workerNumber>=4815)[
[[Wake Up]]
]
Well, this isn't good.
The best thing to do at this point is to try to get as far away from this place as possible and never come back. Leave town, get some new ID cards, start over.
You walk calmly out of your cube and take the elevator down to the factory entrance. It's a solitary journey; almost everyone else in the company is headed toward the main factory floor for Pemberton's speech.
You reach the automatic exit gates and pass your sleevemate over the sensor, but there's a horrible tone accompanied by a horrible red light, and a realization crawls over you: they were never going to let you leave.
As you take a few steps back so you can hop the exit gates, your sleevemate sends a crippling electrical shock through your arm and you collapse onto the ground.
After a few seconds, your vision returns and you look up to see a security bot inches from your face. A screen on the bot flickers on, and the handsome features of Lars Pemberton come into focus.
He shakes his head. "We had such high hopes for you, #$workerNumber. I'm sorry it had to be like this."
The screen blinks off, the bot shoots a dart from some unseen crevice into your face, and you collapse permanently onto the ground.
---
(if: $workerNumber<4815)[
It looks like you've died.
[[Try Again?]]
]
(if: $workerNumber>=4815)[
[[Wake Up]]
]
Your eyes snap open. You're awake. You're alive. You're sitting in a small robotics lab.
"#$workerNumber made it out, Sir." You turn your head toward the familiar voice. It's Paul - rings under his eyes, unshaven, a bit unpresentable. But he's excited. He looks at you, gives you a quick thumbs up.
"Well done, #$workerNumber. Very well done indeed." Another familiar voice, though you don't need to turn as Lars Pemberton walks directly into your view, pulls up a stool, and plops himself down on it.
As he begins to talk, you realize that though you have your memories and emotions and desires, this isn't your body. It feels foreign.
"I know this all feels very strange. You don't know it yet, #$workerNumber, but you're the future." Lars flashes a big smile. "The Meadowview factory isn't about producing bots. It's about crafting immortality."
You sit still, wait for him to continue.
"When workers join us here, we inject them with nanobots that target certain parts of the amygdala - that's part of the human brain - and embed themselves there. They're supposed to start collecting and harvesting data, in case the human runs into an unfortunate accident. And we've gotten pretty good at engineering all sorts of unfortunate accidents at our facility."
"See, immorality was never about our bodies, #$workerNumber. We can remake the human body. The body you're in now? Completely synthetic, yet pretty much identical in every way to the biology of a human being. That's not the problem. The problem is our brains. But!"
He's getting excited now.
"But, these nanobots are also able to detect when the body has ceased functioning, and they're supposed to transfer everything they've gathered to a new server a moment before the death of the original body. Theoretically, I've proven it time and again, but somehow the brain has always shut down too quickly to have it practically work."
He stands up, claps you on the arm, and gives a cheerful little chuckle.
"Until you, my dear #$workerNumber. Until you. I'm going to shut you down now and tear into that network you might think of as a brain, but rest assured that you have done some really extraordinary work today."
Lars reaches behind your head and you want to stand up and push him away. You want to shout. You want to do a lot of things, but your body won't listen. You sit there, smiling dumbly at Lars. He smiles back and everything fades one last time.