….After the end of “tactical revolution for rapid development” in 2096, a sustainable growth and governance model was implemented across the entire world which powers the enormous collective infrastructure required to serve the growing needs of an Earth citizen while also withstanding the Environmental effects to a “certain” degree. While the revolution was a strategic implementation led by Hober Mallow, some claim that….
Point-blank: A Romantic Sci-fi
A blank is a type of cartridge for a firearm that contains gunpowder but no bullet or shot.
“Mornings are the best”. Nick thought to himself as he woke up about what seemed like 10mins ago next to her. He didn’t want to get up, he just lay there staring out of the transparent 57' inch glass window. As an array of Economy class inter-sector transport vehicles strode across relentlessly on the other side of the window with a speed close to just about a few hundred kilometres/second but rapid enough to create speed to fit in a full length commercial by using the exterior of public transport compartment as a frame rendering surface.
But he wasn’t watching one of those now. His eyes were glued to the live broadcast of Earth Presidential debate of the year 2264.
With his back rested against the wall, he lay his hand gently caressing the back of Lila’s shoulder while she still asleep with her head wrapped in the warmth of the linen white blanket.
His watch showed 8:42AM while he sipped his 3rd coffee in the morning waiting for the cab to pick him up for work. “If the cabs still arrive late what’s the fucking point of driverless” he thought to himself.
“Are you going to be late again?” Lila asked. The words were uttered in a voice whose texture can be best described as gruff. In his life he always had on-off relationships, some short flings, some serious ones. But this woman, Lila whom he remained married for 7 years happens to be the only woman he married so far!
Kissing her goodbye, he jumped into the elevator to reach his underground cab at level -4, sector 17. It is a well lit compartment of a huge tube shaped tunnel with its interiors uniformly painted with a shade of grey that is only slightly distinguishable with that of the cab waiting on the pod rest in front of him. He preferred the cab to public transport since it avoids the need to walk to his desk from the office entrance.
He squeezed himself into the cab while balancing the coffee cup in his hands carefully, and quickly spelled the destination “DREAMCORP inc” into the passenger microphone fitted at the front of the driver seat and the cab flowed. “One more week and it will all be over” he thought. He was of course ruminating on the terms of the contract he signed up for DREAMCORP 2 years ago next Thursday. A week from now, his contract with the company would be officially terminated after which he would go back to doing day jobs and stay with Lila as before.
DREAMCORP is a company(or rather the only company currently) that develops software solving the problem of “companionship”. It is how they brand it anyways. But to explain it simply, the company provides a software that acts as a companion to relationship deprived men/women. One can create their own “flavour” of a partner(i.e. software) although most people choose their ex-sexual partner’s facebook/whatsapp persona. The software itself is sold in several virtual marketplaces as a licensed copy to users that they can plug into various virtual/audio devices to create a companion experience. And when they are done, they can press the point-blank button anytime to switch-off the software.
The manpower required for Research and Development, core customer value and support involved in building, maintaining and upgrading this software to rapidly growing human needs happens here, in the office. Nick works as a “customer satisfaction expert”(He still doesn’t know why they call it that). About a thousand Data Scientists work in this building too, working by day and by night with a passion to bring out an experience in the product that users felt deeply connected to at the most innate level. But Nick’s case(like the other customer satisfaction experts) was different here, you see. He knows he isn’t in for the bullshit, he was in for the money pot. A whole 200K gluds for 2 years was the best deal of his life. This meant enough money to travel with Lila even in the inter-galactic cruises and still be able to afford living expenses for the rest of their lives.
Nick’s cab arrives in front of his desk which among the others was stacked in the room conveniently to optimise space, the building by the way spanned almost a whole sector. His job was simple. He was given daily virtual spreadsheets of dialogue and next to it an emotion vector that roughly informed of the user’s(mostly women) feelings at that instant of time after the dialogue was spoken. Nick’s value addition here is to improvise the dialogues where the emotion vector was low and follow up. Or to him, it meant writing more loads of bullshit.
Nick was a PUA/pickup artist in his 20s. In fact his 20s were a blur of alcohol, sex and drugs in that order. He sold out copies of dvds, books on how to pick up girls in a random bar, to arranging private sessions with his customers to assist them get a “score”. He knew it was bull crap but had it selling anyways even after marriage because its bringing in the gluds. He was selected here through a private channel exactly for this nerve he carried on him for over a decade.
His work permitted him just enough time to sip in 4 mugs of coffee and a lunch break while in office. He would check out at 7PM in the evening. But today seemed a bit different, he realised his boss was not around yelling for being late or someone hustling at his desk for an “emergency”. Today was peaceful, this though has been quite the elephant in his mind since the morning.
“VERY IMP: ..” a mail just popped. Ah! these pigs got not chill, work again. he thought. He read the words that said
Mr Nick, due to unfortunate circumstances we were to terminate your contract today immediately. Although we can not share with you the exact reason of termination we deeply regret to inform you of this. Also the contract amount has been adjusted to 80k guids which will be transferred to your bank account in a few seconds after you open this mail.
“Those bastards” Nick thought. He ran to the nearest desk where Greg happens to sit. He was surprised to see the same mail sent to all the “customer satisfaction expert”’s. A gush of fluids flowed near a region that is most popularly called heart.
Nick called up his wife and told her everything. She said:
“It’s okay, just come back to your baby girl”
He wept as he passionately kissed Lila on the lower lip gently moving to the neckline, his palms that were covered in rough skin with cracks, manoeuvred her smooth back loosening the knots to the black lingerie that she was now wearing. Through the delicately woven mesh at the waist of this lingerie, he could see the curve of her hip which he grabbed with a sudden force and pulled her towards him.
While her lips locked with his, she couldn’t help but cradle the back of his head with her arms. And before she could realise, she was in mid air with her legs tightly wrapped around his waist, and immediately felt a sudden thrust to her back as Nick fell on the bed tied together with Lila.
What followed was the most passionate and expressive sex they ever had in life.
As they both lie naked on bed tired, Nick said “Fuck it, we still have those 80K and we can live happily. Are you upset that we wouldn’t be able to go on an inter-galactic cruise?”
“No! Baby, you gave me all I need” Lila whispered in his ear.
Lila reaching her hand to grab the right buttock of Nick quickly finds the panel. She gently presses the panel with the index finger of her left hand. And Nick lied there motionless.
The panel read:
POINT-BLANK
“Mornings are the best”. Nick thought to himself….
