They Tried to Tell Me That Love Was Just Another Errand To Run

“Do you know this man?” an automated voice thundered in my cube. 

I stared blankly at the man on the other side of the glass separating us. 

“No” I lied. 

I couldn’t hear what the automated voice said in his cube, but I didn’t need to. All I cared for was his answer. I had just committed a crime punishable by death. I could only hope he did the same. 

The campaign had started off as a sort of joke. Dr.Cogway first appeared on national television for a scientific breakthrough that was the culmination of his life’s work . He claimed, like every scientist before him, that this discovery could change the shape of the human race. 

“Do you know how much potential is wasted in the name of love? Geniuses are marrying drug addicts and professional athletes are uniting with couch potatoes. These children become degenerates.”

He had actually used a word much more offensive than “degenerates” but they voiced him over for the sake of avoiding controversy. 

As years passed and his work began to gain popularity, Dr.Cogway appeared in the media more frequently.

I have created an Artificial Intelligence that can take a set of DNA and pair individuals that are an ideal genetic match. Think of the offspring we could produce, a combination of the finest characteristics of both parents.  

 He had begun his trial runs on volunteers two decades before he went public with his findings. He would bring in adults who were conceived as a result of his experiment. Spectators would marvel at their beauty, athleticism, and intelligence. Dr.Cogway claimed that the technology worked every time, and that he had the research to prove it. 

Other scientists in the field disapproved of his work, some stating it was unethical, others calling him a fraud. A human being has too much genetic variation, they said. There was no way pairing two people and having them reproduce ensures a successful offspring, they said.

That’s where they’re wrong. While my technology can find ideal genetic matches it also knows the exact moment intercourse should take place, ideal conditions, everything. It can predict the identity and skills of the child before it is born.”

After that announcement there was an uproar in the religious community. Groups of people protested and rallied, outraged that Dr.Cogway was trying to take the place of god. They stormed his mansion and tried to burn it down, they gathered outside of buildings where he was speaking. After they destroyed his lab, Dr.Cogway was given a top-secret facility by the government so he could continue his research.

We need to stop thinking of falling in love as something magical, or written in the stars. Reproducing is a responsibility. Love is another errand to run. 

All over the country, universities were holding seminars on the “Ideal Genetic Match Algorithm”, IGMA for short, and running propaganda advertisements encouraging such methods. Dr.Cogway’s last announcement was one that sent a terrified wave among the general public, whose ripples caused a tsunami. 

We must wake up. The fifth world war is coming. A war that will end all wars. It will be a long and hard battle, the duration will be more than the last four world wars combined. We need exceptional soldiers and masterminds to defend our country and citizens. We may be overpopulated, but the quality of our population is low. Very low. We need to begin pairing ideal matches and producing ideal children. Now.

No one ever heard from him again. His voice didn’t ring on radios, his face wasn’t on every television in sight, his name wasn’t on posters. He simply disappeared. Some people thought that he was killed, others thought he was preparing in his secret laboratory. Conspirators said there was no war. It was a farce. The government and Dr.Cogway were working together, trying to imprison the people.

People waited for announcements of a war, stocking their shelves with supplies and leaving stores bare. But peace reigned on. During the months that followed Dr.Cogway’s disappearance everyone was required to go to the doctor’s office and give a sample of their blood. We were told it was for a vaccine that was being developed. If you didn’t cooperate the police threw you in jail, where your blood was taken anyway.

Two days after my twenty-first birthday the country was placed under lock down. I had to go home from university and stay with my family. We were all scared. Guards patrolled the streets. No one was allowed in or out. 

One night, when the country was asleep, soldiers of the national guard came into our homes and took anyone eligible for breeding. I struggled and screamed and kicked but the soldier put a cloth over my nose and everything went black.

Sometimes at night I try to picture my family because I know I will never see them again. We aren't supposed to do that. In training, they told us that it would be easier if we let go of our past selves and dedicated our energy to the new life ahead. My instructor made it clear that it was our responsibility to serve the government, we had to do as we were told. We were now property of the state. Pawns in their game of chess, I had thought. 

They never told us what happened to those who weren’t fit for IGMA. They didn’t have to. We knew they were dead. We were separated by gender because training differed. In the women’s section, they stressed the importance of cooperation. There were a lot of rules. 

When my group was deemed ready, we were each given our quarters. I was confined to a glass cube, like the rest of my group members, who I would never see again. I was given a television for entertainment and some books. Twice a week I was taken out to exercise. 

An automated voice informed me on a daily basis that my ideal match would soon be assigned. Our glass cubes were made of a special substance that only imitated glass. It wasn’t actually transparent. I couldn’t see past the swirls of translucent fluid. If I got close enough to the walls I could see tiny spirals. It made me sick if I studied them too long. 

My group was once shown a pre-recorded video of Dr.Cogway, before we ‘graduated’. He explained what would happen, what we all heard before, and told us that we were very lucky and would be celebrated in the history that was to be made. He also reminded us of the most important rule: we were to have no previous history without our ideal genetic match. The individual must be a complete stranger. Love or hate was not a factor in this equation. Dr.Cogway’s voice annoyed me. It always sounded like he had a cold.

It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes there is a glitch in IGMA and you are assigned someone you know. From previous trials we find that it makes the process much more difficult and produces less effective results. Oftentimes patients have tried to escape or rebel. Revolt leads to punishment. You must notify Mary at once if you know your mate.

Mary was the interactive automated voice that boomed through surround sound speakers. There were also surveillance cameras in each of our cubes and a robotic arm that folded out of the wall in the case of pampering night or if we weren’t following directions. It was huge and had the strength of twenty ox. They told us so themselves.

On the day of Artificial Assignment, I was made to look extra beautiful. The robotic arm bathed me and fixed my hair, makeup, and clothes. I needed to be desirable. The same thing was being done to my future ‘mate’, as Dr.Cogway liked to say. 

My heart pound as I waited to meet the man who would be the father of children I would never see. And when the countdown ended and the translucent fluid slid into the edges of the wall, revealing real glass, I locked eyes with Conrad Berrett. 

As Mary droned on about his age and height and other statistics that had no interest to me, my mind was overcome with idyllic scenes of our childhood. I hadn’t seen him since we were ten. Well I was ten, he was eleven. We used to run in the meadow of the summer house while our parents drank tea in the courtyard. He would fight off imaginary attackers with his wooden sword while I picked daisies to plait flower crowns. 

Conrad told me he was king of the forest and I was his Queen. He swore he would always protect me. 

“It’s like in chess Maybelline. A king is nothing without his Queen”

We used to play chess in the afternoons, when our parents said the sun was too strong. Conrad was the one who taught me, and after a few summers, where we always met, I started beating him. He never liked that. Soon after we stopped playing chess in the afternoons. 

One year my parents told me that we wouldn’t be going back to the summer house. When I had asked why they said it wasn’t safe to cross borders. This was when the religious uprisings against Dr.Cogway had been in full peak. We never went back to the summer house again.

I still remembered the night in the woods when Conrad told me that he would marry me someday. He had whispered it, resolutely, and presented me with a metal ring he had swiped from the stables. I laughed with joy and kissed him on the cheek, and then ran into the house reddening of embarrassment, being the eight year old I was. After that I called him Connie, because I figured I should get used to it. A wife shouldn’t call her husband by his real name. Everyone else could call him that. 

When Conrad's round green eyes met mine I remembered all of this. My heart doubled in speed because his eyes were the same. Thick dark lashes and pupils that were green with light hues of blue. He had strong cheekbones, an angular jawline and chin. His brown hair was cropped short. He was so big now.

His soft lips were slightly parted, thick eyebrows twitched upwards only for a second, lest he should give anything away. We both stood still, masking our thoughts, but our gaze was fierce. We observed one another, I had changed as well. I wondered if this was what he imagined I would look like now.

In his eyes I found summer days of careless freedom. The days of our childhood. The days when we had been in love, but were both too young to know how to love.

In the split second that I was required to answer, I found comfort in the silent rebellion of love. Of loving someone. I realized if it had been anyone else, I would have died in this glass box. I would have become a living corpse. I needed Connie. We would help each other get through this terrible prison together. We could pretend to re-introduce ourselves, fill in the gaps that were really there. 

I knew looking into his eyes that he hadn’t forgotten the days at the summer house either. He hadn’t forgotten our kingdom. I also saw looking into his eyes that he still loved me. 

My heart flooded with relief as I saw his lips move form a ‘no’. 

They tried to tell me that love was just another errand to run, but Dr.Cogway, if you are reading this, I want to tell you that you are wrong.