Oren's Story

Oren’s Story

As the afternoon dragged by, Oren’s mind wondered—There must be something better to life than this; I’m trapped in this cubicle and will someday die sitting right here in this chair. The hugh company, Oren’s employer had thousands of trolls just like Oren across the world. They spent their lives processing insurance claims. The days passing by and left Oren in a grey funk from which he knew he would never recover.

That evening Oren was eating his usual Tuesday evening dinner (Tuesdays were always a Swanson’s Turkey Dinner for one). He ate slowly without tasting the turkey with stuffing and buttered garden-fresh green peas advertised on the package. As he ate, he perused the evening paper. He scanned the news between bites and as he was mindlessly eating his apple crunch (included in the frozen dinner), he turned to the classified ads. He ran down a list of job descriptions that he could see were no better than his ‘nowhere’ job. Then his attention was grabbed by an unusual ad. The ad had looked innocent, but the vague nature of the services requested and the way the ad was fashioned to raise more questions than it answered intrigued Oren. He went to bed at his usual conservative time, but sleep escaped him. Finally, at 7:00 AM he got up and called the number posted in the ad. He assumed that at that early hour the best he could hope for was a message service to leave his contact information. He was surprised to hear a real voice answer the phone. It was a refined business voice. It was friendly, yet business-like.

“This is Alan Cummings with Consorts International. Can I be of assistance?”

“Yes-This is Oren James and last evening I read our ad in the Metro News. Can you have someone call me regarding the position?”

“Yes, Mr. James—I will be happy to provide you with any information. I can do that now rather than waiting for regular business hours if that is convenient for you.’

Oren was taken aback by Cummings’ willingness to give some information at an early hour.

Cummings responded. “Allow me to read and explain the advertisement:

Looking for adults in the 25-40 age range who are interested in a change of career. This opportunity is initiated by a well-financed company willing to provide long term employment with compensation in multiples of industrial standards. Changes of pace and constant adventure are guaranteed.

Cummings read the phone numbers and email address and again addressed Oren. “Does fantastic compensation, adventure, travel and job satisfaction appeal to you?

Oren replied. “Yes, yes—that all sounds great, and I’ve been looking for a change in my life, but I need to know more.”

Again, Cummings spoke. “I will be happy to give you a fully disclosed briefing if you agree an interview at your convenience. When are you available for the meeting?”

Oren was surprised at the offer and chance for a face-to-face meeting with such a brief introduction. “Well, I’ll have to take a day or so to clear my schedule and arrange for a brief absence.” Oren didn’t suggest to Cummings that he doubted if anyone at his office would miss him other than the lobby time-clock.”

Cummings again responded. “We have resources and connections--connections with your company. We can make a plausible excuse for you and as you say, the company can run without you for a while.”

Oren was grateful for Cumming’s help, but could not remember having mentioned the particular company that employed him.

Cummings again replied. “Give me your email and I will send confirmation of the airline tickets and flight time. You company—Was APC Insurers? I thought you mentioned that before. They will work with Consorts. All those multinational conglomerates do.”

The email confirmed the tickets and Oren was off to a city a thousand mile away on the basis of one sketchy conversation.

In the distant city, Oren was greeted at the departure gate and whisked to a limo with dark tinted windows hiding him from the city and also obscuring the city from him. The limo traveled to a complex in a secluded rural area. They stopped at a secured gate and guard house where credentials were checked and Oren was moved to another limo. The first was turned away. They were driven into the immense complex. The driver pulled up to a portico, stopped and rounded the car, and opened the door for Oren. Stepping from under the portico, a middle-aged man in an exquisitely tailored suit smiled and approached Oren. “Well, Oren, we’re so happy you came. Come with me. I have a lot of answers for your questions and I have much more to tell you.”

They walked down seemingly endless corridors till they came to a large open space. The area was a large room suitable for groups of one hundred -or-so people. Around the perimeter were several smaller rooms. All of them had glass walls and doors facing the auditorium. Oren, the first thing you need to do is to change all your clothes. Here is your corporate uniform. I know this may be a bit odd, but I’m afraid it’s required. Oren took his uniform into one of the side rooms. He was shocked that there were no curtains or drapes. His naked body would be seen by dozens of dozens of people in the auditorium plus many more in the adjacent rooms. It was then that he saw some of the occupants of those rooms. There were several people in those rooms changing into uniforms. Men and women of similar age as Oren. Many were totally naked. They seemed to be totally oblivious to their unrobed state. Further he noticed they all had an absence of body hair. He knew he shouldn’t stare, but they showed no evidence of embarrassment or shyness. Both men and women were present and seemed unconcerned about their unrobed state. His shock was then heightened when a shapely (it was hard to miss) female removed her long red tresses and laid them aside.

Oren was ready to walk out. He didn’t know what he had expected, but it wasn’t this.

After several minutes, and the feeling that he could go just so far (and so far, was a big reach), He turned his backside to the glass wall and changed his duds.

On leaving the glass cubicle, he noted that Cummings was there awaiting him. Are you shocked? I know the lack of inhibitions of your peers is like falling off a cultural cliff, but in the project we are planning, togetherness will be paramount. And I can assure you that there will be no body-shaming.

It was long past time for more details of the project and Oren knew the answers were long overdue. “It’s time you gave me the information as to what this project is and what my part would include.”

Okay Oren, “Do you know anything about space travel?”

“I don’t know very much. I know that going beyond the moon to Mars will take years”

“Oren, that’s exactly right. And the years of seemingly endless voyage will be too much for the human psyche. For that reason, long sessions of reduced consciousness, suspended animation will be required. Those brave souls are in for adventures beyond current human comprehension where great experiences that will require great sacrifice. Now, I’m not asking for your commitment today, but after our conversation I did some research regarding Oren James. You, sir, are an ideal candidate for our voyage. But to further the process, if you are willing to continue, we have some simple tests.”

“I’ve never been good at tests, but I can try if they don’t have math.’

“No, no—these are tests of simple judgement and group dynamics. There is no pass or fail. We just want to see how you function, especially after your emotional shock while changing to your uniform.”

“So, that was a test?”

“Here, everything is a test. To totally give up control and turn it over to a crew for years, we test every detail.”

Oren nodded his head slowly in an understanding manner. “I guess I can see that.”

Four subjects were strapped into a capsule. Oren noted the woman with the red hair was one. There was another woman in splendid condition and a thirty-something man who was built like a pro athlete. The instructions were simple. Oren had a clicker. He was to click when the group saw pairs of anything. After being enfolded into the cramped capsule, the small capsule took off at a moderate speed. A pair of birds flew by, no problem. Two dogs were seen trotting along a sidewalk. Again, there was no discord. Then in the distance two contrails were seen. It seemed to be clearly another pair, but Red saw three and the pro athlete only saw one. After too much discussion, Oren made an executive decision and clicked. From there more discord developed to the point that the quartet argued over almost every pair (even obvious ones).

A fifteen-minute ride that seemed like an hour ended and the four left the capsule without a word. Shortly Cummings reappeared. “Verry Interesting! How did you like the test? I don’t like the negative vibs of those three. They argued over such petty things. What kind of people are they?”

Cummings still smiled. “Well, you did very well on the test. You managed the crew and made credible decisions. The test indicated that you do have the ability to make executive decisions. There are more tests, but I think you will fit well in our project.

“In answer some of your questions, one was a real person and the other two were robotics. Even they are not so different from you. The difference is that in their time here we have somewhat altered the human’s mentation. The decision was made some time ago that long space journeys would be very difficult give human physiology. When robots became so humanistic, they seemed a logical choice for flights taking many years. Eventually a mixture of human and robot has evolved. It’s almost impossible to tell the difference, isn’t it?”

“Altered their mentation—What are you talking about?

“We took intelligent people in boring unfulfilled lives and changed their status. We altered their memories. In some cases, we increased their intelligence, and as you experienced, we altered their inhibitions.

“You brainwashed them?”

“To some extent--yes. We used psychological means to revise their attitudes, but we did more. We used implants to create some memories and delete others. We made failed past into credible successful histories.”

“You engineered their brains to make them your ideal candidates.”

“Oren, we can even implant a chip and leave it dormant for years if needed. So that when the time comes, we can…”

Cummings seemed stumped for the right word, then he forged ahead. “When the time comes, we can activate the chip and harvest the ideal candidate for whatever project we are engaged in. In your case it is interplanetary travel.

“Oren, feel the skin just above your right ear. Do you feel a tiny scar?”

Oren felt above his ear and after a minute his eyes lighted up.

“Yes Oren, we are ready to delete your past and replace it with a past more appropriate for the crew leader of an interplanetary vessel. The process began as you passed our entry and we welcome you to our project.

Oren’s emotions were slung into a whirlpool. True, his past was not remarkable in any way and his recreated past may be glorious, but would it be his?

Later, as he studied computers full of diagrams, regulations and statistics he recalled some past in his dreams, but when he was awake, he was a jaunty spaceman. Still, as he wraps into his sleep module he asks himself, am I real?