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Science Fiction and Fantasy
The Sweeper
By PaulE
14 July 2006
An idea Im working on, any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Jax felt the buzz in his right ear. He always felt the buzz just before the ComLink would activate. Another message from the Peace-Triumvirate. This was message 04 and was extolling the virtues of the Peace that comes with Obedience. So it has always been. Where ever you were, whatever you were doing they could always get inside your head. The Comlink was installed in all children at the age of 2. This is when the indoctrination would begin. By the time you were a teen you could easily repeat all the 32 rules of Peaceful Existence Coda by heart.

Jax didn’t have to concentrate to listen to the message, it was repeating something he had heard thousands of times.  Jax continued to sweep the floor on level 46. This had been his assignment for just over 4 years. After attending the required testing/training/assignment after his schooling ended at age 16, it was decided that this was his best of all possible functions to help maintain the Peace. He would sweep the 144 floors of the Command Comlink Center until his assigned life expectancy expired. He was not privy to this date. He only knew that some people had longer assigned life expectancy than others. Floor sweepers were usually good to about 49 years of age or so depending on the resource expense of maintaining their health. There were other jobs that had much shorter expectancies and high replacement rates. Jax felt quite lucky not to be a DeepSea Miner, he had heard they were only functional until the age of 30 as the pressure of the sea ruined their health. Of course if Jax became sick with any disease or condition that fell under the Immediate Termination Classification he would be just that, immediately terminated. Jax hoped to sweep the floor for many years to come. The assignment was not hard and it left Jax to think freely about things that were not especially applicable to the Coda. But as long as he never repeated these thoughts or acted on them he would be able to live out his assigned life expectancy in relative peace and comfort.


This floor was swept. He would now move to the floor on the next level. His silent sweeper automatically switched off as he entered the elevator. He stood at the back of the elevator observing himself in the shiny inner doors. His dark blue overalls covered his thin 6 foot  build and his dark straight hair cut to regulation neatly trimmed. His plain black shoes clean but no shine. The doors slid open. Jax stepped out and as his silent sweeper activated and he began. This level was much cooler than most levels. It was full of terminals and ergonomic chairs. Behind each terminal sat an Ops Specialist, their hands and fingers constantly gliding over bright multi-colored terminal screens. Jax didn’t know exactly what they did but it seemed endless. There was no talking or acknowledgement, just the sounds of terminals beeping and electronic buzzing. There was no paper or trash. Everything was logged in the millions of streams of electrons flying through the air. Jax was glad he did not have this assignment. It looked very brain consuming. The faces of the people doing it were impassive, but Jax could feel their stress. They were all dressed exactly the same, light green overalls with a small red metallic circle over their right shoulder signifying that the level they belonged on. Jax's circle was white, meaning he could enter all levels as a sweeper. If any of the people on this level were to attempt to enter another level it would be noted and the proper actions would be taken. Jax swept. He would not make eye contact with the Ops people and they would not attempt eye contact with him. Jax understood that they were of a higher classification than him and could not be expected to waste resources or time having interface with him. This was fine by Jax. He had no desire to interface with these stressful people. Jax, like his sweeper, glided quietly around them.

Reviews
Good start
Written by mishmish (389 comments posted) 22nd July 2006
Hi Paul 
 
I liked this very much. I got into the tech speak and could identify with the dystopian like future where everything is under command and control. Having just read an article where pills will soon be available to turn on or off a teenagers puberty, a world of your description could fast be approaching. 
 
Good start, I'd be interested to see what happens to the Sweeper. Obviously his access all areas white circle is going to get him into trouble!! 
 
Best wishes 
 
mishmish

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