The Sacred Man (revised . . . with Paragraphs!) (382 hits)
Category: Quotes & StoriesRating: -1 on 2 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by realpolitik (View user info) at 2006-12-19 20:10:31 EST
The persistent beat of the chopper blades echoed somewhere in the abscesses of her mind. The dull and routine thump was not obnoxious enough to distract her, yet was audible just to the point of giving her a headache. Not that she noticed. She was too busy; plus, she had heard it all before, the novelty had gone out of the whole extravaganza and it had become just another assignment, just another job. Just another trip to a piss poor hell-hole, or a sad backwater settlement, or the expensively furnished lair of an urban demon dressed in a thousand dollar suit. As she examined the file, she guessed that it would probably be a combination of the last two - the location was deliberately remote, yet the man was too important not to have his tastes catered to. Infamous men normally wear nice clothes.
She liked to call them "marks", the people she interviewed. It implied that they were the victims, that she was the one in control, and most importantly it accurately described the nature of her work - she was stealing information from the minds of some of the most powerful people in the world. After all, information was such a valuable commodity. She was a good thief, a very good thief. She could always manage to land the perfect interview, to make the marks tell her anything and everything that was important, and always present it neatly the greedily awaiting world. Which is why she had risen through the ranks of Bureau for Information Dissemination - the only source of news left. It felt good to be the excusive possessor of the truth. And God knows that people needed truth now days. Since humanity lost the capacity to retain and store information, no one could remember what the truth was. People had to be refreshed, reminded every day of not just what was right and wrong, but what was real, what existed. No one really knew how people lost the capacity for memory, and even if they did, they certainly couldn't remember it long enough to tell other people, much the less devise a permanent solution to the problem. But, as always, humanity adapted. Information Retrieval Devices were issued to every man woman and child. Much like the antiquated person computers of old, the IRDs became a crucial part of life itself. Extremely accessible even to the point of becoming invasive, IRDs were much more than computers, they were more like another ego. However, there was an important distinction between them and their predecessors; they were all slaved linked to a central government regulated database which was the repository for all human information. Everyone counted on the IRD to tell them not only what to do, but who they were.
She had named hers "Nathan." She didn't really know why, she had never met anyone named "Nathan", maybe it was because of this fact that it was a suitable name for what could accurately be called her best friend. As she was carried towards her destination, she began to wonder if Nathan was an extension of her, of if she was an extension of the Central Repository, just like Nathan. She was using Nathan to acquire information of her newest mark, yet at the same time, was that not what the CR was using her for?
She took solace in the information Nathan retrieved that was relevant to her stream of consciousness. Her IRD had a peculiar way of analyzing brain waves (which were typically used to access information) and then calling up any data pertinent to her thoughts. Even though she had not inputted any query, Nathan began to systematically display any useful details, documents, and facts. It was almost as if Nathan were communicating with her, trying to comfort her trepidation. This is not to say that Nathan lacked the capacity to communicate verbally; rather, the IRD had a near limitless vocabulary, yet it seemed to Nathan that based on data collected from his user in recent years, words are sometimes useless. This rapid fire data retrieval was Nathan's way of comforting and assuring her.
Nathan perfectly fulfilled his purpose - he was designed to help her remember, and that is exactly what he did. She was reminded that this was her last assignment. After this, she would get the position of her dreams, Chairman of Bureau for Information Dissemination. She would decide what information got promulgated. She would have near limitless control. And, if the rumors were correct, Nathan would get the upgrade which was reserved for only the highest in the government - this upgrade would make her as close to gaining the capacity for memory as is humanly possible.
She thought it was funny, the fact that Nathan was responsible for entirely formulating her memory. She had always thought of herself as an "independent" person, heck, a misanthrope even. At least she thought that she had always believed that. The truth be told, some IRDs develop intricate personalities and with the level of connectedness that she shared with Nathan, well . . . who knows exactly how her personality was subtly altered over the years as Nathan grew into his own consciousness. Therefore it didn't surprise her all that much that Nathan would be willing to gossip with her about a rumor that probably wasn't even true. It was not that it wasn't true; it's that it is not as true as Nathan made it sound, or she would like it to be. In reality, the upgrade was probably an improved intrinsic link to the CR, enabling her mind to actively recall more data, faster. Or perhaps it was just a higher security clearance, giving her access to more tantalizing bits of knowledge. Most tantalizing was the possibility that she would be given a constant uplink to a section of personal file space - giving her a new memory, a computerized memory.
"Ten clicks to landing zone, initiating landing protocols", Nathan's clear voice rang out, directing her to the fact that there was still one interview left to do . . .
User Reviews
Submitted by joedaddy (user info) at 2006-12-19 20:21:39 EST (#)
Ranking: -1
i'm quite certain i don't want to see the original
Submitted by Doodles (user info) at 2006-12-19 20:21:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Pretty good for a first post, and because it was good I'll give you some advice.
If you want to get rid of your first post that you fucked up on all you have to do is click RSS at the bottom of your "My Uber" page, copy paste the text into a submit box, delete the post you want, title the post your user id number deetion request for the posts id number and submit it. Bart will see it delete that post and the delete request post.