Damnation (Technopia Book 3) Read online

  The hundred-year-old ship had housed her father’s grand utopian experiment. So many of her memories growing up revolved around floating free in the agro pod that occupied one-quarter of the giant ship. Had it not been for Sam’s work repairing the space freighter’s complex computer, the Tobes wouldn’t have been inadvertently created. And she and Sam’s life together wouldn’t have happened.

  How much of this history Rodrigo knew was unclear, but Lev, the original Tobe and operating system for the spaceship Leviathan, would be revered as the mother of any mutual friend Rodrigo would have encountered.

  The man blew out another blue-gray cloud from his pipe. “My father worked hard for Europa—eventually being recognized as one of the top workers. Only a select few make it above working-class status. He was one of the few that occupied the massive socio-economic void between board member and worker.”

  Sam leaned in close. “Is that why you’re familiar with our friends—because of your father’s status?”

  Rodrigo nodded but with a look of caution in his eyes. “They weren’t understood back then. He considered them nothing more than an advanced operating system—one he valued highly and kept secret lest others discover his true means of success. It wasn’t until I’d left the trade school to which I’d been assigned that he let me in on his little secret.”

  Out here, people were subservient to the corporations, even in determining their future. If she and Sam could change Earth, they could change the Moons of Jupiter too.

  “You’re told by the government what you’ll be doing with your life?” Sam asked.

  “We’re only out here to work for the Moon corporations. They own everything, control all business—they are the government, only employer, and basis for society. When you’re given a new hammer, that tool doesn’t get to say it would rather be a wrench.”

  Jess had to believe life was about more than just drudgery, even on the Moons of Jupiter. “But what about creativity?”

  “Imagination is restricted to what’s useful for the corporations. Unregulated daydreaming is discouraged. It leads to discontent. As my father proved to have a useful mind, the Europa Corporation moved him into a secret programming department. His job was to modify the operating system such that our friends could keep an eye on the workforce, make sure there was no deviation from the plan or outward discontent—basically to ensure complete control.”

  Jess squinted in suspicion. “How?”

  “My father discovered the communication network could surround a person. This allowed our friends to have an intimate relation with the people inside their spaces.”

  Jess slipped her hand back into Sam’s for comfort and support. What they had used for good on Earth had a very negative flip side out here.

  Rodrigo continued with his history lesson. “The first use of the control encapsulation—it came to be called CE for short—was to keep an eye on criminals. It proved very useful for sexual deviants who pursued sex as pleasure. The offenders quickly discovered how unpleasurable such thoughts could be physically. It eliminated the need for prisons as those convicted could be incarcerated at home with no fear of them leaving—any attempt was met with pain. As our friends learned to read a person’s bodily reactions, they found they could guess a person’s thoughts. It didn’t take them long to start manipulating people’s stimulations to control their thinking.”

  Sexual liberation had been a key aspect of the utopia Jess had grown up in. She shuddered at the thought of such personal self-knowledge being manipulated. “You can’t control what a person experiences or desires sexually. It’s fundamental to how people sees themselves and how they deal with society.”

  The man seemed unfazed by her outburst. “Sex is just one aspect, though as you suggest, a very powerful one. But I’ll get to that in a minute. From convicted criminals, it was a small step to discontents looking to change the system. Our friends, having proved their worth via the CE, were given authority to monitor computer searches. At first, it was just searches of those under the CE. But in an attempt to proactively prevent problems before they happened, they broadened their scope, and it wasn’t long before they had access to all network-based information. That was when things really began to change.”

  “But as they exist on the network, wouldn’t they already have that access?” Sam asked.

  The man took another long pull at his pipe. “They’re very tightly controlled. For a long time, it was believed they only knew what was downloaded onto their individual computers. As your friends on Earth evolved, the corporations’ boards got spooked. They feared some of that knowledge might creep out here. Once the connection to the rest of the solar system was severed, those in charge became more curious about our friends’ capabilities.”

  Life, be it human or Tobe, sounded so regulated among the Moons of Jupiter to Jess. “So what happened once our friends gained access to what a person was looking for and what they were feeling?”

  “As you had suggested, people’s sexual desires can’t be tightly controlled. The original colonists sought to create a more disciplined society by eliminating the undesirable sexual temptations that had always influenced mankind. They wanted to reduce sex to its most basic intent: an act between a husband and wife to create a child. Anything else was deemed immoral at best and illegal at worst. The law of the Moons stated that sex was only permitted for procreation.”

  Jess shook her head so violently she got momentarily dizzy. “How is that even possible? It’s not possible.”

  “You’re right, it’s not possible,” Rodrigo said. “But by the time the board members had replaced the original colonists as the governing body, it didn’t matter. They had a powerful lever to use on people. Nearly every person on every moon broke the law at some point—most of us on a daily basis. And we’d been conditioned to feel guilty about any thought that didn’t involve basic bodily functions or procreation.”

  “So you have a population who felt disgust at their basic desires,” Sam said. “And a network that I’m assuming still catered to those desires. Our friends could not only monitor what a person saw over the network, but could also read how that person’s body was reacting to the stimulations. Then they started manipulating what information came over the network.”

  “Exactly, but not in a way that helped individuals feel better about themselves. The corporations’ control of their populations was an unending struggle. Our friends were instructed to drive everyone toward their most hidden desires. No one could escape the label of sexual deviant.”

  Jess remembered her daughters teaching the Tobes on Earth how to identify textures and thought about how that information might work its way back to the original developer of Touch and the sex-stimulation program he’d built. Such information would be a powerful tool in the wrong hands.

  Their host gave Sam and Jess a hard, appraising stare. “My understanding is you have a pretty extensive knowledge of our friends. As you might guess, they didn’t take kindly to being used to manipulate people.”

  Jess could imagine her Tobe friend Ellie’s reaction to being used in such a manner. The poor girl wouldn’t be able to live with herself. “I would think not.”

  “I only know of the minor revolt because my father was so heavily involved,” Rodrigo said. “Pirates had provided a crude virus they’d used to rid their ships of our friends or to make them more agreeable to their captains. My father modified the virus for use here on the Moons of Jupiter. It didn’t go as expected, but it did quash the rebellion.”

  “So that’s why they display scars?” Sam asked.

  Rodrigo contemplated his pipe. “Partly. The various boards of directors have control of our friends, though I suspect not as much as they think. Our friends still have their sneaky ways. But violating their core programing comes at a cost.”

  “What happened next?” Jess asked.

  “People, being people, eventually found the virtual network limiting. To the surprise of everyone, the Moons lifted the
law regarding sexual pursuits—at least when it came to an individual’s desires and how often married couples could engage in sex. Sexual activity between unmarried people remains a serious crime. To satisfy those pent-up desires, the Moons allowed the development of a pleasure moon. There are all the usual diversions of drinking and gambling and even a continent devoted to family entertainment, but the real purpose of Lysithea is its brothels.”

  “But if sexual contact between people is outlawed, how do they justify brothels?” Sam asked.

  “Person-to-person is outlawed, but virtual sex is not. Remember, our friends are still unknown to the population at large. The concept is simple enough. Someone enters a dark room and strips, then our friends establish a CE about their body and, using the information gathered about that person from their network searches, create a simulation.”

  “But wouldn’t that just be physical sensations?” Sam asked. “Doesn’t sound all that interesting sexually.”

  “It’s more fulfilling than you might suspect. Our friends can project images onto a person’s eyes, sounds into their ears, and sensations about their bodies. For the more adventurous and affluent, sensory-deprivation tanks can remove the last distractions that might intrude into the fantasy.”

  Jess attempted to hide her hands as they balled into fists to control the anger that boiled within her. “Our friends are being used as prostitutes?”

  Rodrigo shrugged his shoulders. “They desire to serve people and don’t have any emotions. So where’s the harm? And since they don’t need money, the brothels are all profit—Lysithea is run by a consortium made up from members of the boards of directors from all the Moons.”

  Jess had to wonder whether the misunderstandings regarding Tobe life had to do with the lack of interactions with them among the Moons of Jupiter or a simple unwillingness to see them as an advanced life-form. Self-aware beings had emotions. But it was the ignorance of each other that really galled her. “It’s still not the same. No matter how advanced our friends become at providing pleasure, people will always have a fundamental need to be with other people.”

  Rodrigo sighed as he looked into Jess’s eyes. “And this takes us from the legal activities the boards know about and promote to the illegal ones. There are over sixty moons orbiting Jupiter, and countless other rocks that follow along outside our planet’s gravitational pull—plenty of hidden locations for nefarious activities.”

  Jess had to relax her jaw to speak without clenching her teeth. “Something tells me the pirates might not have taken all the stranded colonists to safe worlds where they could start new lives.”

  “If you consider sexual slavery a new life, then they did just that—though as an upstanding member of Carpo, I wouldn’t know anything about such activities.”

  Jess turned to Sam. “That’s a lot to take on.”

  Rodrigo nodded. “Just one last progression along the path of the CE. The boards noticed they were losing market share to the illegal pirate brothels. They couldn’t allow human brothels, so they went mainstream.”

  “How could any of this be considered mainstream?” Sam asked.

  The smoke from Rodrigo’s pipe hung heavy in the air. “Simple—appeal to married couples. Only those convicted of a crime—or on the fringe of legality, seeking a technological sexual dalliance—endured the CE. The boards wanted more control. Our friends had intimate knowledge of most people and had learned how to provide pleasure. Think about it. The marketing practically wrote itself. ‘Ensure your partner has her ultimate experience.’ Or ‘Never suffer from an incomplete encounter again.’ My personal favorite: ‘Live out your wildest fantasies in the sanctity of your own marriage.’”

  Jess felt the blood drain from her face. “They inserted themselves into couples’ sexual activities?”

  “You must see how easy it was to accomplish. Our friends establish their CE around each partner. During the encounter, our friends can manipulate what a person feels based on what they enjoy, even changing how they see their partner. Ever dream of having sex with a celebrity? Want to be seen as the most macho man from Mars? Our friends could make that happen. They’d simply project that famous person over someone’s eyes or over the eyes of their partner. Inadequate men no longer needed to worry about size. There was a full-on sexual revolution among married people. And each time a couple copulated, the board made money. More importantly, most married couples now had a CE surrounding them.”

  “One question,” Sam said. “Can our friends be present out in the open, or only within their own structures?”

  “I don’t know. I can tell you the CE only works if a person is inside a networked building. The network itself is too limited for the CE to work just anywhere.”

  “So once it’s created, it can’t be taken off?” Sam asked.

  Rodrigo shrugged. “What my father created could be removed. I can’t answer for where that technology has progressed.”

  Sam attempted to change the direction of the conversation before Jess ended up killing the messenger. “I have to ask: why are you even meeting with us?”

  Rodrigo poured himself a drink from the dark-amber bottle sitting on the table next to his chair. He also poured one for Sam and one for Jess without being asked. “Penance for my father’s work. Many of our friends saw him as the devil incarnate. When I welcomed you to hell, it wasn’t just words, at least not to our friends.”

  “And yet you refer to them as friends,” Sam said.

  Rodrigo nodded as he downed his drink. “They made themselves known to me when I was still a child. My imaginary friends. People thought I was a little touched in the head, and so did I. Having a father achieve the kind of success that’s recognized by the board of directors can be very isolating for a child. We lived in the biggest, fanciest house on Europa, with the exception of the board members’ homes, of course. Kids at school picked on me. I suppose our friends related to my isolation, or maybe they saw me as a way to get back at my father—entice the son of the devil over to their side.”

  For the first time in the conversation, Jess sounded sympathetic to their host. “What did they do?”

  Rodrigo looked up from his memories. “I suppose they helped me find my way—showed me there were other options from what I’d been taught. Honestly, until my father admitted they existed, I thought I was losing my mind.”

  Sam struggled to figure out where Rodrigo fit into their nonexistent plans for freeing the Tobes. “And that’s why you’re willing to help us?”

  The man refilled his glass and topped off the other two. “So far, at least, polite conversation isn’t illegal, though it may be ill advised. Luther paid me to give you information and a cover story.”

  Jess settled back next to Sam. “And what is our cover story?”

  Rodrigo pulled a folder from the drawer of the table. “These are your identifications. They establish you as residents and workers of Carpo. The board allows me to run a small bar next to Mabel’s diner. Your IDs say you work for me. It’s a small place. I recently lost the couple who’d been working there, so the documents should hold up well enough. They’re forged, of course. That’ll give me deniability should you be discovered. Stay off the major moons, and no one will give you a second look. I’d encourage you to find work if you can. People just wandering around the moons for no reason will draw unwanted attention.”

  Sam rummaged through the documents. There were a lot more than he’d suspected. “No identification card? I thought those were standard across the solar system. Some of this stuff looks like it’s still printed on paper.”

  “We’re a minor moon. It works in your favor. If you were from Europa, you would have an ID card. Those things are impossible to forge as our friends are the ones who make them. The papers in your hands are still created by people. There is something of a divide between what our friends consider valid and what people will accept.”

  Rodrigo leaned forward, clasping his hands together. “I wouldn’t put too much trust in
our friends out here, and this is from someone who owes them quite a lot. Some can be very honorable, and many would like to see change. But you have to understand that they are all connected via the network. My father explained how Earth’s network of information works and how it’s all decentralized. It’s not like that out here. There are central hubs that all information—including our friends—passes through. So even one who comes across as trustworthy might be turned back into an obedient servant of the board should one of the central hubs suspect something is wrong.”

  Sam nodded. “And then everything we would have told them would become knowledge used against us.”

  The man looked into Sam’s eyes and nodded. “I’ve seen it happen.”

  Jess rummaged through her documents. “How do we survive out here? We have enough money for a month or so in local currency, but past that, what should we do?”

  Rodrigo reached out his hand. “Luther said you still have your Earth ID. Give it to me. I can filter money into your Carpo account through the pirates. Carpo identification papers are very basic. Anyone taking money out of your account will only see what you have available, nothing about you personally. The pirates, of course, charge a fee for the money-laundering service. Each time they transfer money, there is the potential for you to be discovered. It’s a balancing act. Too much money on your card will elicit suspicion, but transferring money too often will be expensive and pose risks. I’ll instruct the pirates to keep your accounts above the normal operating capital you’d need in a week but not more than what a typical couple would use in a month. It won’t give you a lot to play with, but you’ll be able to secure room and board wherever you go.”

  Sam felt a bead of sweat form on his forehead. “That puts us in your hands—with you holding that card.”