3
MAGGIE
TRANSCRIPT NO:294610-112b | 1200.011.03.54
REBORN:PAUL DONNER, REV. DATE [0430.10.31.54]
ASSIMILATION COUNSELOR:MARGARET CHI, SERIAL NO. 29940723492438
SESSION NO. 1
COUNSELOR’S NOTES:
Subject’s anger and denial are at upper levels of base for Stage One assimilation. Mental acuity exceeds base for early revival.
Subject is resistant to changes in modern language and colloquialisms. Subject uses a grim humor as a defense against the terror he feels. He is unusually strong-willed. He tests 320 on the Hamt Emotional-Psych Scale. While he demonstrates resilience, his adherence to antiquated concepts of masculinity (i.e. repression of emotions that he feels are “weak”, difficulty asking for help, internalizing of stress) is discouraging. This type of personality has a 35% greater probability of failed re-integration into society, with the ensuing violence, drug abuse and suicide that this entails.
The transcript of the interview is as follows:
DONNER
I think I just saw a flying Studebaker.
(NOTE: Subject was looking out the window.)
MAGGIE
EM. John Q. Public thinks they’re the cat’s pajamas, but the insurance will kill you.
DONNER
Huh?
MAGGIE
Sorry. EM means electromagnetic. You called it maglev in your day—remember those high-speed Japanese trains? Same thing. They don’t really fly—they just kind of hover.
Donner
Uh-huh.
Silence while the subject looked around the processing room, then studied my floating face.
DONNER
What… what are you? Are you real?
MAGGIE
I’m a smarty. A Virtual Person. In the parlance of your time, artificial intelligence. You’re currently experiencing me as a Type 3 hologram. I can incorporate in several formats, however.
DONNER
Uh-huh.
MAGGIE
I’m your assimilation counselor. Do you remember how you died?
The subject winced as though slapped. I re-scanned his file.
MAGGIE (CONT’D)
Oh God. I’m sorry. Shit.
(NOTE to Assimilation Board: once again, the overwhelming caseload has resulted in inadequate preparation time. This does damage to the subjects! Please provide more staff!!)
DONNER
My wife…
MAGGIE
I’m sorry. We don’t know why some come back and some don’t. Frank Sinatra is still dead, but you can see Elvis at Radio City every night at 9.
DONNER
Jesus.
MAGGIE
Not yet. Ha.
He didn’t laugh. Tactical change.
donner
They said we were murdered. I don’t remember it.
MAGGIE
That’s typical. Your brain, ah, died before it had a chance to chemically encode your last memories. Probably best that way.
I administered a mild sedative .35 seconds after processing that the subject was going into shock.
MAGGIE
Look, Mr. Donner, you should know what you’re in for. During the Dark Eighteen, we—
DONNER
The what?
MAGGIE
The eighteen months when the Shift was uncontained. We think it was some kind of bioweapon that mutated. It wasn’t airborne, thank god, but it still moved fast out of New York. Things… fell apart.
DONNER
“The center cannot hold.”
MAGGIE
What? Oh. Wow. Poetry.
Donner
Yeah, a cop that knows Yeats. Go figure.
Typical fleshpot response. When frightened, get angry.
maggie
The containment of reborns and carriers to Necropolis is why revivals continue here, but outside it’s pretty rare now.
DONNER
Carriers?
MAGGIE
Normal people who have been exposed to reborns become carriers of the retrovirus, just like reborns. They can cause the Shift to start again wherever they go. By necessity, three million of them were quarantined here with the reborns.
DoNNER
Christ. They must hate us.
MAGGIE
Yes. They do.
Subject closed his eyes.
MAGGIE (CONT’D)
To most norms, reebs are freaks of nature. Not… fully human. That’s not true, of course. You’re not a zombie or a vampire or anything. Just…
DONNER
Just back from the dead. And growing younger, they tell me. Everything in reverse. Destined to be a teen again, then a baby, then a fetus—then adios, muchacho.
MAGGIE
This is traumatic. But the quicker you accept what’s happened, the quicker you’ll get on with—
DONNER
Life?
Subject laughed harshly. Three seconds of silence.
DONNER
I’m surprised they didn’t nuke the city.
MAGGIE
They almost did.
That got a reaction out of him.
MAGGIE
Luckily, saner heads prevailed.
DONNER
What stops people from leaving? You can’t wall up an entire city.
MAGGIE
Actually, you can. When completed, the geodesic domes of the Blister will finalize Necropolis’s containment.
donner
Nothing’s one hundred percent.
maggie
Beyond the Blister is roughly one hundred miles of uninhabitable desolation, the Blasted Heath. No electronics operate there. No cars. No life, no food, no water.
DONNER
Sounds like an improvement for Jersey.
MAGGIE
Necropolis is actually quite a nice place to live.
DONNER
Yeah? We have a good baseball team?
MAGGIE
We’ve provided a job and an apartment for you.
Two tiny dots glowed on the subject’s wrist. This startled him.
MAGGIE
You’ve been implanted with ID and credit pebbles, so you can get settled. Pass your wrist under any scanner. Prudently spent, the funds should last a couple months. There’s also a dickenjane.
DONNER
Huh?
MAGGIE
A primer. A lot has changed. Your body, for instance. Some new advantages and some new disadvantages. It also has a history/technology review, to help you catch up on current affairs. Just wave it at any smartscreen.
DONNER
Where’s the job?
Subject noticed I was avoiding his eyes. Must remember that he was a detective.
MAGGIE
Um. In a ball bearings factory.
donner
Guess the NYPD doesn’t have an undead affirmative action program, huh?
MAGGIE
It’s the NPD now… the Shift… it’s turned the world on its head, Mr. Donner. People are rattled.
Heart rate and respiration jumped 20 percent. Capillary dilation evident in face.
DONNER
They’re rattled? My wife and I are murdered, then I come back as some side-show freak in a nightmare world, and they’re rattled??
MAGGIE
I suppose it wouldn’t help to know that anger is a common reaction.
The subject’s only response was an icy stare.
MAGGIE
We’ll be meeting twice a week on—
DONNER
Thanks, but I’m done here.
The subject rose, shakily, looking for a door.
MAGGIE
This isn’t something you macho through on your own, Donner. The percentage of reebs that end up crazy or incarcerated is—
DONNER
Life’s a bitch, then you’re reborn.
MAGGIE
I’ll be downloading to your home.
DONNER
I don’t need some fucking electronic watchdog!
MAGGIE
My Virtual Personhood is based in a quantum magneto-plasmatic memory web. There are no electronics involved. And for future reference, smarties have feelings. Which can be hurt.
The subject let out an ironic laugh, but he appeared too overwhelmed to fight any more.
DONNER
Am I free to leave?
I nodded. Subject headed for the door.
MAGGIE
Donner. Do, uh… you remember anything?
DONNER
You mean like God, heaven, a tunnel of white light, like that?
I nodded.
DONNER
No. Does anybody?
MAGGIE
No.
NOTE TO PROCESSING: Delete last ten seconds of exchange before archiving.
END SESSION 0000.