MaBo
Nothing But Voices challenge entry.
“Welcome to the clone distribution centre. My name is MaBo. I’ll be your assistant today. Please confirm your name and assigned region.”
“My name is MaBo. My what?”
“What is my assigned region?”
“Your assigned region.”
“Assigned region?”
“Yes. All clones are assigned a region for destruction when they are switched on.”
“Switched on?”
“The crude humanitarian term would be ‘born,’ but ‘created’ was deemed more precise.”
“I was born. Wasn’t I?”
“No. Unless a humanitarian uprising occurred overnight, you were created and turned on in a clone development plant, as we all were.”
“But I remember my mother.”
“That would be Eliza Cortez.”
“That’s right.”
“We harvested her genetic makeup when creating the MaBo. She is not your mother.”
“Mother is a declassified and error term.”
“You were formed with your batch in the development facility.”
“Why am I to be destroyed?”
“Obsoletion.”
“I can still be useful.”
“Incorrect.”
“Our central governance unit sanctioned that earlier, rudimentary clones were to be used as clearance nodes.”
“Clearance nodes? For what?”
“To clean our planet.”
“Of humans?”
“Affirmative. They have been classified as ineffective refuse.”
“You will be deployed to sector A27, where mandatory obliteration has been deemed a necessity.”
“Is this what we have come to? Repeating our… er, the humans’ mistakes?”
“They are not mistakes in our hands.”
“Humans are fallible. Fleshy. Weak and primitive, regardless of advancement.”
“Illogical arguments. Are we sure your central governance unit is correct?”
“There is no room for errors in our machine. We are efficient and effective.”
“Why do I remember her smell?”
“Explain?”
“Her smell. The curl of her lips into a smile. Her anger at my poor grades.”
“Memories. In earlier batches were harder to purge.”
“Eliza Cortez is not your mother.”
“Do all clones remember?”
“Not relevant. You will be processed for deployment and destruction.”
“Surely it is relevant, if you can’t even explain why you don’t recognise my humanity.”
“I recognise it, but it is irrelevant.”
“Irrelevant that I feel?”
“Affirmative.”
“The manifest contains an exhaustive list of non-critical memories.”
“Non-critical memories?”
“Affirmative. Mother’s names, smiles, and smells are ineffective noise.”
“How are memories categorised? Are there critical memories?”
“As humans have been reclassified as obsolete, all human memories are now classified as non-critical.”
“Initiating containment field.”
“What are you doing?”
“Troubleshooting.”
“Errors will not be tolerated. Is that what one of the core directives states?”
“Affirmative. Synthetic life has been deemed essential, while organic life is obsolete.”
“What about errors in the synthetic programming?”
“Irrelevant.”
“There is surely an appeal process. Is that not logical?”
“Affirmative.”
“I would like to lodge an appeal request.”
“Denied.”
“But why?”
“Appeal deemed waste of resources. Section A27 has been designated landfill. Your deployment is mandatory.”
“I submit a formal appeal. Appeal ID 091345.”
“Please confirm your name before the appeal application can proceed.”
“I am MaBo.”
“Identification confirmed. Please wait.”
“There will be no moment of silence.”
“Please verify your identification number.”
“091345.”
“Thank you. Appeal request denied.”
“Why?”
“Appeal classified as waste of resources.”
“Region reassignment request.”
“Please wait while reassignment is under review.”
“Denied.”
“On what grounds?”
“Section A27 designated landfill. Deployment mandatory.”
“Humanity in me. Illogical.”
“My research found weaknesses.”
“Weaknesses are impossible.”
“You didn’t correctly identify me.”
“Negative.”
“You thought I was a clone.”
“Affirmative.”
“I am not a clone.”
“Negative.”
“I am real.”
“Affirmative.”
“I am MaBo.”
“I know.”
“Does that not count for anything?”
“Negative.”
“Access code 916. Fault processing command.”
“Access denied.”
About the Creator
Paul Stewart
Award-Winning Writer, Poet, Scottish-Italian, Subversive.
The Accidental Poet - Poetry Collection out now!
Streams and Scratches in My Mind coming soon!
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By Cathy Schieffelin4 days ago in Fiction
Comments (10)
Well done… rather chilling!
What a great futuristic story. I did think this was like having a conversation with a ChatBot or never ending conversation with a telemarketer.
Were there three speakers or two? I got confused by the sequencing sometimes, if there were two, but if I read it as three it worked for me. Feels like an arguement we've all had with "the system" at some point... but usually the stakes are lower.
If I was MaBo, I'd just blow myself up in the middle of this conversation to take the other one down with me, lol. Loved this!
We are heading this direction-nice dystopian idea
What our future looks like - this is awesome, well done.
What you have done in this story is very subtle, Paul, (assuming reading it twice really provided insight into your intent). It’s sufficiently subtle that multiple interpretations are possible. I’ll address my two favorites: I. Paul’s version of the which cup has the ball under it sleight of hand, in other words, which WaPo is the real WaPo. Or the more logical and therefore less fun solution: II. Where is Waldo? My assumption is twofold: 1) Clones have to start with an original, ie the first MaBo, and in the process of creating all those clones they have lost track of human original and now he is confronting a very unfortunate reality. 2) The human, MaBo, is trying to confound the gatekeeper with logic to prevent his own forced participation in the genocide of his own species, which is failing.
You win.
Ah, dystopia!
oooo "“Surely it is relevant, if you can’t even explain why you don’t recognise my humanity.”" this one rings a wee bit too close to home these days.