Fractured Uplink

Shaping human traits and behaviours versus the contributions of genetics means MotherCorp became the founder of a society that tested the haves and the have nots.

What started out as a lab test of painless death grew, by 3055, to a manipulated society governed purely by what government-controlled media told people in their news link app on their hand.

Watching the reel, two seven-year-old girls travel to their new home. MotherCorp put Cass and Joy in the same Marshall family. However, they gave them different news links and vastly different rewards for positive learned behaviour.

                                                           ***

Stretching in bed after chilling, twenty-six-year-old Joy’s audio palm-alarm went off. “Joy, go to your violin class with the reward of a movie night with a hot boyfriend.” Rising, she rolls her eyes, pulling down her Stuff Society T-shirt. “Oh really? I don’t have a boyfriend, so I’m not believing that. Pull the other one as I don’t believe my news-link, not for a second.” The buzzer panel on her wall goes off. “The system awards you four gold merits for correctly identifying the lie. Enjoy your day. You have twenty days to up-link, so remember to say goodbye to the family you know here.”

Joy nods and picks up her gold hairbrush with a soft finger-moulding grip. “Twenty days to go before this body is twenty-seven and gets pushed into gel-gloop forever. I guess I won’t have to eat or shower again, but I wonder if I will still be at Uni or if I’ll work? I guess I’ll find out soon enough.” Rising, Joy’s dark brown curls bounce. “I pity the poor who die in twenty days, though. It sucks that someone wipes their minds, cleans them out and inserts new ones. I keep wondering where their thoughts go, but no one knows for sure.” Her palm link itches. “Cass is calling you.”

Joy nods. “Sure, I’ll take her creepy drivel this morning.”

“Morning dear sister, I wish you a good day and have put your lunch in a chill which sits inside the hot box of your auto car.”

“Oi, don’t call me that Cass, someone made you my shadow. Less talking, more doing, remember?”

“Thank you for the reminder sist.. Joy. I think I palm-linked you twenty days ago to talk. When shall I speak to you again?”

A smirk spread across Joy’s face. “In twenty-one days. Set a new programme to remove the word sister and all variants from your vocabulary. It’s embarrassing to hear you call me that. People in the virtual mall stare, which is so not cool.”

“My apologies Madam, I shall leave virtual notes of completed actions from now on.”

“Now you sound like a robot. Should I cut you again to see if you bleed?”

                                                     ***

The net-link dropped. “Cass is so wet I can’t wait until I never have to hear or see her again, that’s for sure. Time to get in my transportation pod and have the new audio male voice tell me how long my journey will be,” Cass says, lifting her palm to her mouth. “Pod on. I am going to Uni in MotherCorp town and will be with you in a second, so warm it to twenty degrees for me.” Her palm link itches. 

“I confirm all is ready for you to travel, Cass Marshall, age twenty-seven, on Monday. We have booked your funeral tour for this weekend. Shall I arrange new clothes so you look your best?”

Joy pulls her bedroom door open and the front door to her home slides to reveal the street outside. Rows of individual personal pods move past Joy. She waves at two women. “Yes, order me a pink and black check shirt and pink blouse to match those women’s clothes in those pods sliding past me.”

Her palm link itches. “Thank you for your order, Cass Marshall. It will arrive tonight and will be laundered by the time you return.”

Placing her palm link on the car, Cass speaks. “Pod open.”

A soft whirr and Cass bends to push her derriere into her vehicle to get to class. As her vehicle automatically drives her, Cass talks to the hollow driver. “I suppose I will miss those beat-the-creep-out-of-her sessions. I bet MotherCorp has trained her to stuff pigs in her afterlife in the virtual world. I will be some important management, snug in those daily nodes, a proper princess in the machine.” The hollow visual of a driver nods at intervals until the vehicle stops in the glow of the early morning sunlight. 

“You have reached your destination. Have a nice day until you don’t.”

Joy shakes her head. “I never get that last bit as most of life isn’t nice, but having a creepy polite sis..shadow is enough to rub my rhubarb up the wrong way daily. I hope when I am uploaded, my afterlife will be better than this.”

                                                        ***

Lifting her palm link so it’s scanned for her entry to MotherCorp uni main building, Joy sees the blonde razor cut of a hot dude just in front of her. “Hey Node, wait up, I have a question for you.”

Flicking his eyes left to notice her all pink ensemble; those thin lips remain unaltered. “Nah, I don’t have time now. Plus, my cute girlfriend has just left my arms and I don’t want to soil the memory by standing near you un-Joy.”

“Come on, Node don’t be mean. I can’t help it if my creepy shadow puts the sauce in your hot dog.”

“Your sister just needs to freshen up to smell good. But you would need a new body and your soul scraped before you smelled sweet. I hope you don’t have a nice afterlife, un-Joy.” Node says and saunters off while Joy’s bottom lip quivers.

“Wait, Node I just wanted to know where I have been assigned in the afterlife,” She replies touching his shoulder, which he quickly pulls away from.

“Tough, they classified it, you know that. MotherCorp, I’m sure, has a special plan for you. Never touch me again in your piggy pink clothes of a toddler. You should know better at your age. Why dress like you are still two? Now that’s creepy, not being damn polite to a monster like my cute girlfriend does with you.” 

Joy’s eyes fill up and she bites her lip as Node moves away from her and begins whistling. Dropping her chin, she waits until he has left before she goes to class.

                                                        ***

Her pink shoulder bag swings as Joy rides the escalator up towards the huge white ship. A swirling dark pink logo of MotherCorp shimmers on its side. A reel plays above her head of a smiling woman with open palms and a static smile. Her voice is beaming directly into Joy’s mind. “Welcome to MotherCorp shuttle service. We hope you will enjoy your funeral tour with us. We know you will come again as your palm is now flashing Pink and black. When it has turned black, it will be your time to up-link. Your consciousness will enhance the richness of MotherCorp. Have a nice life after death.”

I suppose I should be excited, but I don’t really have a choice, though I hope my after life will be better in the virtual world based on what MotherCorp always says every morning during the university newsreel. Be well and happy forever in your chosen afterlife package. MotherCorp thinks of everything, so you don’t have to.

As Joy steps off the escalator, a frosty panel materializes before her, its screen flashing “Thumbprint Here” in stark white letters; the icy touch of the needle from the screen makes her hastily pull back her thumb. A click clack echo arrives in front of her, which is paired with high court shoes, and arms waving from a slim suited body. A see-through face appears and darkens to a flush of tan. “Welcome. You have won a pink pass and will therefore follow me. I will be your virtual tour guide during your day here at this part of MotherCorp. Press the flashing button Yes, if you have said goodbye to the whole family.”

Here I go, no turning back now. Her thumb feels the bite again of a second needle and her body stops. “Am I leaving my body now?” Her muscles twinge and shake as her mouth froths. Two metallic droids slide the frozen torso onto an upright whirling trolley bed.

The virtual tour guide smiles. “Your consciousness will enhance the richness of MotherCorp. Have a peaceful life after death.”

Joy looks down at her appearing virtual pink body, her eyes open wide with terror. “Wait, my palm-link is still pink and my virtual skin is as well. Why now and what section am I going to?”

Artificial eyes look down at her pink flashing palm-link. “You are the new stuffed toy piggy maker because your spot-check blood test confirms it. We will install you into your new virtual body today. Tomorrow you will attend MotherCorp’s packing line permanently, as you have nothing to absorb as you will be ignored from this moment.” The tanned face dissipates to clear glass.

“Wait, what about Cass Marshall?”

The virtual eyes flicker and return for a moment. “As you cannot change it, I am authorised to inform you she is now the new leader. You now have zero clearance to approach her. You will make stuffed pigs all day and may speech-link to Madam Cass annually for two years. She will be all-powerful after that point, and your memories of being a pampered princess will have driven you insane by then. Speaking out may cause your deletion. Please do that so one of the poor can take your place. Thank you for choosing MotherCorp, the only one you can plan to be with.”

“Whaaat did you just say? I will stuff toy pigs in the afterlife. No, I do not consent. I refuse to be uplinked to crappy MotherCorp.” Joy’s face changes from pale pink to crimson and her palm link matches her colour. The two robots holding her body have stopped.

“The human does not consent. We cannot leave and put this body-vessel in storage. Supervisor needed. Urgent..arghhh!” Smoke shoots out from the top of the robot’s head while the bottom half of Joy’s virtual body halts. Her palm link on her corporal body flashes, “Speak!” Joy says.

“We are having technical difficulties, as the undertaker droid has malfunctioned. Its last words show you do not consent to your afterlife pink package. But you already signed for it at the top of the escalators earlier today.”

No one informed me about the contents of the pink package, and I have spent my adult life training in management. During my childhood I was at the top of my class consistently…Wait I feel weak. What are you doing to me? I am not one of those nobody-poor you can just melt away.”

“You signed for the pink package and now refuse it? You will need to sit in limbo until we …”

Joy’s eyes flicker and her last moment is seeing a new undertaker droid moving her human body away. “Waaaaai..t.”

                                                     ***

Julie has lost her uplink again while playing in the sand. “Mummy, is this sand really the freeze-dried sick people who couldn’t be uploaded?”

Tall and slender, Marg bends so her silky black hair flows over her happy little daughter. “No darling, it’s unwanted materials just ground down so you can play in clean safety.”

Julie picks up an uplink that is flashing pink. “Mummy, why is my uplink flashing pink? I’m only seven, so I still have nineteen years of fun and studying to do.”

“Don’t worry, I have ordered a new one, so leave that there in the sand. Some people hide them and get a new one from off the MotherCorp network. But don’t you do anything like that, okay? You will lose your life in this family, darling. They put offenders in a reconditioning pink camp making smelly toys in their afterlife.”

A crackling came from the uplink next to little Julie. “I’m not an offender! I refused the pink afterlife package, that’s all.”

Nearby mothers grabbed their young children from the park sandpit and spoke into their palm link. “Park attendant, it’s happened again. Another uplink on its own in the children’s sandpit. I don’t believe in ghosts, but really, this has ruined my day-a-month with my daughter before she gets conditioned to start a new life with a new family.”

“MotherCorp thanks you for your sacrifice and has paid you an extra diamond bonus. That house you couldn’t afford is now yours as a goodwill gesture. Sign with your blood-test consent to show you will not mention the solitary rogue uplink again.”

“I comply. Come dear, let’s pack your clothes now and have a long story time before bed.”

The girl shakes her head. No mummy, I am too old for stories and will just watch a film reel of MotherCorp until I fall asleep. I like the lady’s soft voice. I wish she could be my new mummy.”

“Oi, what about me? Cass is my name. Can any of you see me? My palm link is over here.” A silver object rises into the sky. “I want my human body back. Does this make me a non-body?”

A flat black circle moves from the tower above the mother and child towards the hovering palm link. “Speak again so we can collect you for MotherCorp redistribution. Our system has a malfunction because you did not consent to your pink package. Everybody consents to MotherCorp, as you have no choice.”

“Well, I don’t consent to stuffing pink pigs in my afterlife. I want to be in management.”

“Our programming cannot recognize this...” A tremendous bang occurrs, and pieces of the black disc ricochet across the playground tarmac; smaller pieces scatter near the solid pink screen of the palm link. 

“Ha, another robot goes boom. Remember, kids say no and watch your robots explode into nothing. MotherCorp has got used to us humans saying yes to everything they tell us to do. Time to say no.”

“Er, excuse me.” A pair of white ankle socks belonging to the little girl shuffle near the uplink and lean in to pick it up. “I will put you in my pocket and you can help me stay with my birth mummy. I don’t consent to leaving her tomorrow.”

Tears flow from the mother. “Oh darling, I can’t pay for my new big house if you don’t leave!”

“We’ll tell MotherCorp I left and I am your new daughter. I can just dye my hair and change my name.”

“Actually, put me on as your uplink and I will enter the MotherCorp nodes network and change it all for you. I trained in management, after all.” Cass says.

The young girl scoops up the flat silver oblong uplink. “Excuse me, but what’s your name and are you a ghost, like the old twenty-first century books mention?”

“My name is Cass Marshall and I think my life energy is separate from my living body, so I need to get it back pretty sharpish.”

“That means you are a ghost for now then, cool wait until I show my big brother Node. He wants to get me away from Mum tonight, now thanks to you, he doesn’t have to.”