Chapter 102: The Jeed Revolution
Several years earlier, Governor Lily visited Jeed. On Lily’s day of arrival, Dr. Crane and the Ripe Company executives waited to greet her at the train station. The train pulled up at the station. Lily disembarked the train. A handful of security guards followed her. She shook hands with the Ripe Company executives.
‘Welcome Governor Lily to our humble region,’ said Dr. Crane.
‘I hope it’s not too humble considering the “rights” funding that has gone into this region,’ said Lily.
‘We have made great progress in turning it into a wonderland for troubled youths,’ said Dr. Crane.
The executives nodded in agreement.
Lily was escorted out of the train station down to the street level. The Ripe Executives put Dr. Crane in charge of showing Lily around. They returned to the office building as Dr. Crane showed Lily various projects that were currently under development or had recently been completed.
‘This is our extra-thrills rollercoaster,’ said Dr. Crane as he proudly pointed towards it.
‘We don’t have anything this fun in the Capital or West Regions,’ said Lily.
‘Do you want to try it out?’ asked Dr. Crane.
Lily looked up at the enormous structure of the rollercoaster. ‘Absolutely,’ she said with a smile.
Lily was taken to the front of the queue. She stopped along the way to shake hands with the youth. She even posed for a few selfies. She climbed in the first car of the coaster. The coaster set off. It climbed to the peak and then dropped rapidly. It went up again and did three loop-the-loops. It finished off with a corkscrew segment.
Dr. Crane went over to escort Lily off the rollercoaster. Lily enjoyed it so much that she wanted a second go. Dr. Crane smiled as the rollercoaster went off again. When she got off the rollercoaster, she received cheers from most in the queue. One youth blew her a raspberry.
‘We also have two paintball arenas, skating parks, cinemas, and a virtual reality world that will be completed in under a month,’ said Dr. Crane proudly.
‘This is wonderful,’ said Lily. ‘Any youth, troubled or not, is not going to want to leave here.’
‘It doesn’t stop there,’ said Dr. Crane. ‘Our youth leaders and assessors organise wild parties on an almost nightly basis.’
‘Oh wow, you have the allure aspects of this place sorted out,’ said Lily, sounding impressed.
Lily and Dr. Crane continued walking down the main street.
‘All attractions are run by the youths themselves,’ said Dr. Crane. ‘We pay them with tokens so they can enjoy other attractions.’
‘I assume all those who remain here pass the assessment?’ asked Lily.
‘We have three outcomes from our assessments,’ said Dr. Crane. ‘Pass them so they can remain with us to enjoy this paradise. Pass them and return them to their region. Fail them so they can be converted into a fruit picker for our partner company.’
‘Return them to their regions!’ exclaimed Lily. ‘That is not an acceptable outcome.’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Dr. Cortex. ’That is only a theoretical outcome. If we can’t convince them to stay with us, we just fail them.’
‘Excellent,’ replied Lily as her face lit up.
They continued walking down the main street. ‘What’s this place?’ asked Lily as she pointed to an attraction called ‘Baby Games’.
‘This is the backbone of our deal with Ueban,’ replied Dr. Crane.
‘Tell me more?’ asked Lily.
‘Passing so many troubled youths was reducing the size of Ueban’s “Sapiod” workforce,’ said Dr. Crane. ‘This place far more than compensates them in potential profits. Our youth are highly promiscuous, which leads to many pregnancies. Jeed has a strict no-baby policy. We let them experience pregnancy for around six months. Then they are forced to come here to have their babies terminated.’
‘So then they can be placed on the Cabas menu?’ asked Lily.
‘More than that,’ said Dr. Crane. ‘The blood, the bones, and the skin are all used to make various other products such as facial creams, masks, and even rejuvenation medication.’
‘I don’t understand what this has to do with games,’ said Lily.
‘The games part brings in just as much income as the products,’ said Dr. Crane.
Lily gave Dr. Crane a perplexed look.
‘Our richest clients come here to play surgeon,’ said Dr. Crane. ‘They pay a large sum of tokens to abort the babies themselves using robotic arms. They love getting in and tearing the babies apart. Some even take home souvenirs. Unfortunately, some of our customers get a little overly enthusiastic and “accidentally” seriously maim the mothers.’
‘Those from the Business Sector are grotesque monsters,’ said Lily.
‘Our clients are almost exclusively from the House of Divine Knowledge,’ said Dr. Crane. ‘Merida and John are regulars. John spends a lot of time here. He likes the young ones. He’s knocked up several drugged-up preteen offenders.’
‘I didn’t know the youths here were so young,’ said Lily.
‘Most here are in their early twenties,’ said Dr. Crane. ‘We keep the young ones away from the others. They are reserved for our special clients. When we are done with them, we can harvest their organs as spare parts. It does not matter much. They all produce meat.’ Dr. Crane spoke unemotionally. It was just business as usual for him.
Lily accompanied Dr. Crane to his office. ‘How are the assessments conducted, and who conducts them?’ asked Lily.
‘We have a team of professionals,’ said Dr. Crane. ‘Most of them began as troubled youths themselves, but when they matured a little, we had them trained to assess others. I would like you to meet Mikayla.’
Dr. Crane pressed a button on his desk. A few minutes later, Mikayla entered the room.
‘Mikayla has an interesting story,’ said Dr. Crane. ‘She used to be a pyromaniac. Burning things down or blowing them up was her thing. After just three weeks of rehabilitation, she was changed. I was so impressed. I even trained her to be a psychologist. Ever since, she has been our top assessor and top recruiter.’
‘The only fires I light now are these things,’ said Mikayla as she waved a cigarette.
‘How do you rehabilitate and assess them?’ asked Lily.
‘Show them a good time so that they forget all their troubles,’ replied Mikayla.
‘As simple as that?’ asked Lily.
‘Most of them are rebelling because of a lack of freedom,’ replied Mikayla. ‘We create the impression they are free here. We even let them outside the walls.’
‘What is the criteria for passing?’ asked Lily.
‘If they are not completely psychotic, all they need to do is agree to live here,’ said Mikayla. ‘If we can’t convince them, we turn them into Sapiods, where they can live out their lives as mindless slave labourers picking fruit or possibly doing other mundane agriculture jobs.’
‘Thank you, Makayla. That’ll be all,’ said Dr. Crane.
Mikayla walked out of his office with a big smile on her face.
‘How are your relations with Spiro?’ asked Lily.
‘Very good,’ said Dr. Crane. ‘We often share technology.’
‘They don’t see you as a threat?’ asked Lily.
‘No, we operate in our own niche,’ said Dr. Crane. ‘They take the older ones, and we take the young.’
‘Looks like you have everything figured out here,’ said Lily.
‘I must admit I have done a tremendous job,’ said Dr. Crane proudly.
‘It works well for now, but I think we can do better,’ said Lily.
‘I’m always open to feedback,’ said Dr. Crane.
‘Sapiens like Mikayla are the weak link,’ said Lily. ‘We cannot rely on her to always act in the best interest of this program.’
‘We have enforcers to keep her in check if necessary,’ said Dr. Crane.
‘That’ll make it worse,’ said Lily. ‘We could have over a thousand rioting youths to deal with.’
‘Okay, give me a solution?’ asked Dr. Crane.
‘I’ll give you more than a solution. I’ll give you a powerful opportunity,’ said Lily. ‘I want you to build an artificial intelligence programme.’
‘Haven’t the Linap always been afraid of artificial intelligence?’ asked Dr. Crane.
‘Sceptical, not afraid,’ said Lily. ‘Carvaress has their own program called “Cella”. I think we can be far more ambitious than that.’
‘I like the idea,’ said Dr. Crane. ‘I obtained a prototype of “Cella” from Dr. Cortex a few years ago. I have been doing some secret tinkering out of curiosity.’
‘I want you to build a self-aware artificial intelligence capable of running this region and beyond,’ said Lily.
‘That should not be a problem, but it will take some time to complete,’ said Dr. Crane.
‘Time isn’t too much of a problem,’ said Lily. ‘Our strong election win keeps the wolves of the Business Sector out of our hair.’
‘That is reassuring to know,’ said Dr. Crane while looking a little perplexed.
‘I need you and your partnering companies to keep this project a secret until after completion,’ said Lily. ‘The other Linap would be opposed. Most of them are so scar... sceptical of artificial intelligence that they use manual locks on their doors in fear they could be held as prisoners in their own homes.’
‘That is so strange, but I can clearly see you are different,’ said Dr. Crane. ‘I imagine that information is worth something.’
‘Fair enough,’ said Lily. ‘Prepare the artificial intelligence for a Cellrebrum takeover.’
‘That is ambitious,’ said Dr. Crane.
‘Maybe, but also necessary,’ said Lily. ‘They are wasting a great opportunity. They are far below capacity. They could easily house every adult offender in the country. We could build our own Sapiod army powered by artificial intelligence.’
‘Your ambition is sexy,’ said Dr. Crane.
‘Hmm, are you more robot or more Sapien?’ asked Lily.
‘I’m Sapien in all the right places,’ replied Dr. Crane as he raised his eyebrows up and down.
‘That is such a pity,’ remarked Lily with a naughty grin.
Lily turned and began to pace in the office. ‘I want the artificial intelligence to be called “Jennifer”. That’s the name of my biological mother.’
‘No problem, governor,’ said Dr. Crane.
‘Just in case I need to unilaterally make changes, I also want a backdoor to access programming,’ insisted Lily.
‘So you can override me?’ asked Dr. Crane as he rose to his feet.
‘Of course, I fund you. Therefore, I own you,’ said Lily.
Dr. Crane frowned disapprovingly.
‘Come on,’ said Lily. ‘I’m going to help you get Cellrebrum. You’ll be in charge of Dr. Cortex.’
Lily walked over to Dr. Crane. She gently put her arms on his shoulders and around his neck. ‘I see you as the best of both Sapien and machine,’ said Lily. ‘One day, future generations will look up to you as a true pioneer for integrating biology and technology.’
Dr. Crane leaned forward and kissed Lily on the lips.
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