Chapter OneAlice was sitting in the biggest room that she had ever seen, with nearly a thousand other applicants from her term, watching the clock tick down to zero. She kept her head facing directly forward and cranked her eyes up and to the left so that she could see the clock. Many believed that the questions on the tablet before her were only a portion of the actual test, that there were hidden cameras watching and assessing the applicants as they experienced the most important day of their lives. Alice had no idea if that was true, but she had no intention of risking rejection because she looked nervous or distracted. She was already working from at least an 8% deficit due to being transgender. If she passed the written portion of the test and continued on to the medical or even as far as the verbal interview, she might have made it up to double digits. No one got a contract if they were in double digits.
She was even more worried about Gloria, though she was very careful not to look at her right now. They had done their best to keep their retionship secret, which Alice had aided by creating secret digital spaces where they could talk freely out of scavenged equipment. It was against Nile policy but it was the only way. Being gay was considered a 2.5% deficit. They wouldn't fire you for being a lesbian, just dock your credits a notch. It was entirely possible that they would avoid hiring you though. Even if they had kept that hidden, what if Gloria got hired and she didn't? She would lose company housing and company benefits. She would either have to take day bor or...
Her thoughts were interrupted by a harsh buzzing and the tablet screen abruptly going dark. An AI voice came out of the tablet speaker, "Please rise and move out of the testing room, results will be dispyed on the screen to the left."
Being sure not to rush, Alice rose from the small desk and walked into the hallway. She joined the massive group standing in front of the board and slowly worked her way forward until she could see the names. It was sorted by st name, she looked towards the top and worked her way down to Campbell, Alice: 15/889.
Not only had she passed, she was at the top of the css! Surely that would be able to overcome an 8% deficit! She scanned further down to Greene, Gloria: 449/889. She had passed! Without an 8% deficit and in good health she was sure to get a contract. Alice also knew that Gloria would do much better on the interview portion when she got there, she always did better verbally than she did on written tests.
She pulled out her mobile and checked her Nile profile, it had already updated. The test had shown that she had a high proficiency in data management, coding, and network management. None of this was news to her, but it did confirm that if she was offered a contract that it would be as a computer.
A voice came over the speaker above the board, "Due to a shortage of contracts, only those ranking five hundred and sixty-fourth and above will be accepted. Those ranked five hundred and sixty-four and above please return to the testing room for medical assessment and testing. Those ranked five hundred and sixty-fifth and below please wait in the hallways until medical assessment and testing has been completed. Some contracts may open during medical assessment and testing. Repeating: Due to a shortage of contracts…”
Alice immediately looked at Gloria, who she could tell was on the verge of panicking. That was so many fewer contracts than they had thought, Alice's deficit could be a real deal breaker now. What if one of them had some kind of medical condition, or just bnked during the interview. She tried to keep panic from her mind, she didn't need to enter a medical exam with her heart racing and her blood pressure through the roof. She risked another gnce at Gloria, she had her eyes closed, she was probably thinking the exact same thing. They'd deal with it, but first she needed to get through today and they had passed this test.
Alice turned around and passed back through the double doors into the testing room. The desks were gone, repced with hundreds of white cubicles with numbers and names on electronic dispys beside the entrance. She saw that they were now ordered by ranking from the st test so she was in the first row: 15, Campbell, Alice. She walked in and saw that nearly the entire cubicle was taken up by one long pod, shaped like some kind of electronic coffin.
The same chipper female AI voice came out of a speaker inside the pod, "Please remove your clothing and lie down inside the scanning unit." Alice heard a small motor behind her and looked over her shoulder, a bck curtain was being pulled across the entrance to the cubicle. She smirked, Nile was about to know every inch of her, the privacy curtain was a perverse kind of gesture. She had known this was coming and had done her best to make her peace with it. She quickly stripped off her clothing and hung it on a series of hooks along one wall of the pod. Maybe she would rank higher because her bra and panties matched. She climbed into the pod and stretched out. She was pleasantly surprised that the inside of pod was comfortable. It was preheated and the padding seemed to instantly conform to her body. The lid of the pod came down automatically and a bar of light scanned her from her feet to her head.
The AI voice returned, "Welcome to the Nile AI Comprehensive Medical Scanner. While we are running our scans and tests you will be given a verbal assessment. To ensure the accuracy of your responses, your reactions will be monitored for the duration of the assessment. To begin, please confirm name, age, and NID number."
"Alice Campbell, 22, 974215390," She responded by rote memory. Children were given a Nile ID number at birth and expected to have it memorized by their fifth year.
"Confirmed, please confirm the following conditions: standard depression, standard anxiety, gender dysphoria." The AI voice sounded like it was listing pizza toppings rather than something that Alice might have been sensitive about.
Alice steadied herself with a deep breath, "Yes, that's all correct."
"Please rest your left arm on the shelf to your left. The following questions concern your gender dysphoria." Alice moved her arm and braced herself as a strap tightened down and another scanner pyed over her veins.
"Thank you. Does your gender dysphoria necessitate hormone repcement therapy?"
Alice quickly answered, "Yes." A needle flipped down and punched into her arm, blood started to move through the clear pstic tubing.
"Does your gender dysphoria necessitate breast augmentation surgery?"
"No," Alice said as she started to wonder exactly how much blood they were going to take our of her arm.
"Does your gender dysphoria necessitate genital reconfiguration?" the AI continued.
Alice gnced down, "I've already had bottom surgery."
"Confirmed. Does your gender dysphoria necessitate any other procedures?"
Alice felt anger towards the unfeeling AI but kept it from her voice out of habit, "No."
"Excellent. Please wait patiently while we conduct your blood test." Alice sighed with relief as the module finally stopped taking her blood and she wondered how long a blood test took to do.
After about ten minutes the AI voice returned, "Blood test completed, no new conditions found. Due to your conditions, if offered a contract, you will have 9% removed from your monthly allotment of company credits. Do you agree?"
"Yes," Alice sighed with relief both because there was no longer blood running through the tube and because she hadn't hit the dreaded 10%. She hoped that Gloria's medical tests had gone smoothly. The door to the pod lifted up and Alice awkwardly levered herself out.
As she dressed the AI voice came out of the pod speaker, "Your medical assessment has been successfully completed and you are approved to move on to the interview portion of your contract assessment. Please return to the hallway, after all of the applicants’ medical tests are completed the room will be reconfigured and your interview will take pce in this room. Thank you for using the Nile AI Comprehensive Medical Scanner.“
Alice did her best imitation of a calm walk back to the hallway. Two out of three tests passed. There were several hundred applicants milling around, but there was no board to check to see how Gloria was doing. She looked for Gloria but couldn’t pick her out of the crowd. She did her best to squash the fear that Gloria had somehow failed the medical exams and sat on one the benches that lined the hallway. The speakers in the hallways called in about a dozen applicants one by one as otherwise qualified applicants were deemed too expensive to employ. Not many though, Gloria would be fine.
After several minutes no one entering or leaving the hallway the AI voice came over all the speakers in the hallway, “All remaining applicants who were not asked to participate in medical testing and assessment, please return to your quarters. Your company housing will be revoked on January 7th at midnight. Please remove all personal effects by January 7th at midnight. All applicants who have successfully completed their medical testing and assessment and were approved to join the interview portion contract assessment please return to the testing room. Repeating: All remaining applicants who were not asked…"
A boy right beside Alice burst into tears and the hallway was immediately filled with the murmur of conversation as hundreds of applicants realized that their life was going to be lived in very different circumstances than they had pnned. Everyone in the schools knew how cutthroat the competition was to get a contract, but everyone also assumed that surely they were going to be one of the successful ones. Surely they would make it, surely they wouldn't be forced to work for one of the brutal subsidiaries or live a life on the periphery of society as a day borer.
For Alice at least, that assumption was proven correct, at least for the moment. For hundreds of others today, life as they knew it was over, all hopes dashed. Alice hurried from the hallway, desperate to avoid the tidal wave of emotional pain that had washed through the hallway. She still hadn't seen Gloria, but this was too much for her to take. For the third time that day she entered the testing room, still full of cubicles. She walked back to the cubicle that she had just left, the sign still shone with her name: 15, Campbell, Alice. The coffin-like pod was gone, now the desk was back in the center of the room with the tablet oriented for a vidcall. A woman waited on the other side of the screen, though after a moment Alice concluded that it was almost certainly an AI. There were no micro movements, the skin was fwless, and the 'person' on the other side sat with perfect patience and posture. Alice sat down in front of the screen with all the grace that her nerves allowed.
"To begin, please confirm your name, age, and NID number," The voice was the same one that had been coming through the speakers all morning, definitely the testing AI.
"Alice Campbell, 22, 974215390," Alice responded without thinking.
She jumped as a voice came from the entrance, "Well I'm gd that I'm talking to the right person then." A man walked around the desk carrying a small case, pushed the tablet down into the desk, and pulled the chair out from the other side of the desk. He sat the case beside him on the floor. As he sat down Alice saw from his uniform that he was a 4th css employee, the second lowest tier, and not a very respectable looking one at that. His shirt was rumpled and his face was scruffy with several days of growth. Alice gnced toward the entrance, wondering if there was some kind of mistake.
When she looked back she saw he was smiling, "No, I'm afraid that no one else is coming, just you and I for this interview," He leaned over, opened the case, "I am Subdirector Horton of the Nile Security Bureau."
He appeared the find what he was looking for and sat up. He pced a small and very heavily modified desk unit in front of her. The comm unit that Alice had made to talk to Gloria.
She couldn't conceal her shock and panic as her eyes slowly moved from her creation to the NSB officer across from her.
He wasn't smiling anymore, "Alice Campbell, 22, 974215390, 15th of 889 applicants this term, what can you tell me about this device?"
