Stand Against Infinity Read Free

noticed
there was one feed not received correctly by the patient and he
wondered when he might go in to make adjustments for it.” Silence.
“Really? Well, if you are certain. Yes, sir. I’ll tell him. Thank
you.”
    He hung up the phone and his brow wrinkled as
if trying to puzzle something out. “U2258? It seems they don’t want
you back in. They said all went as it should and the patient is
receiving all the proper feeds.”
    Pause. “He was not when I was in there,” said
U2258, “and it seems unlikely that it could have changed by
itself.”
    “All I know is what I was told. He said to
thank you for your good work, but that was all they would need of
you for now.”
     

Chapter 6
    That night, H662 thought about his job. He
lay next to his sleeping wife and he wondered. What about that new
employee? He didn’t like having people fired, but this new guy
seemed to deserve it more than most. How could he come late to
work? It was his moral and social responsibility to better society
with his hard work.
    U1472, lay still. He could hear her
breathing, slow and steady. She was a good woman. He wished he
could have had more time with her, but the work of society demanded
his all. They had married according to obligation, but after the
fact, H662 actually felt he liked her. He liked the way she
laughed, and at times she could even be warm. If things were
different he could probably be a better husband and father and he
would feel more warmth from her. If only things were different.
    His mind wandered to work again. His foreman
had been under a lot of stress lately. He wondered why. Was his
health okay? Should he take a vacation day? He knew such things
were frowned upon, but sometimes a person needed to do it in order
to keep functioning.
    He had known his foreman for many years and
had always been treated well by him, as long as he produced the
correct quota per week. That was what made society work. That each
person carried their load to make things that much better for
everyone else. And that meant improving technology.
    His company was the number one pod producer
in the city, and that was why he chose it. There were more
opportunities for advancement and innovation. When H662 had started
he was a mechanic. He repaired pods that had been decommissioned
due to breakdown. He had done well, and over time he moved up
through the ranks. Now, not only did he get to analyze the end
product and do complex quality assurance tests, but he was the
highest ranking employee in his department.
    He thought about all the pods that were on
the road, helping people get to where they needed to go because he
had been involved and had worked hard at his job. That was the real
meaning to go after. Not a wife and child. Those were side duties,
but his work was the one great duty to mankind. Even his wife would
have told him that.
    In all this, she did not stir beside him, as
no doubt she dreamed of the work she would accomplish the next
day.
     

Chapter 7
    The sun was just coming up when Chavez
reached the outskirts of the city. Here, old houses littered the
area, mostly abandoned due to people moving toward the center of
activity. Toward where they believed all the action was. Something
Chavez had given up on believing. He was tired of the lies people
told themselves. Lies about technology and how it was going to save
them. He had never seen evidence of that. Technology could
distract, it could inform, but it saved no one.
    The shape of a woman stirred over to his
right. With the sun behind her house, it was hard to see, but he
could smell smoke and he knew she must have built a fire. As he
drew near, she looked up at him and smiled, not something people
ordinarily did where he was from.
    “Hi, stranger,” she said, leaning over a
small cooking fire in her yard.
    “Hello,” said Chavez. “Do you live here?”
    “Yes,” she said. “As best I can. Can I
interest you in some stew?”
    “Stew?” asked Chavez. “You don’t use