Exodus: EaW: A New Life

A New Life complete

“Bastards,” growled Parker Murphy, slamming his hand down hard on the table.

Cornelius Walborski nodded his head in sympathy while taking a sip of the good beer.  He was treating this night.  Parker, while he wouldn’t starve, would not have the discretionary funds for nights out in the near future, if at all.

“You’ll find something,” he told his friend, raising his hand to get the attention of the serving robot.  Nothing too good for us workers, he thought as the machine flashed a light his way, then wheeled off for the bar.  Human servers were expensive, and one server specialist could run three of the robots, enough to cover the entire bar.

“How the hell am I going to find anything,” yelled his friend, attracting stares their way despite the noise deadening field around their booth. Noise deadening was the operative word, not sound proof.  People could still hear them if they talked loud enough, and a yell seemed to be loud enough.  “Those fucking bastards control all the work.”

“You won’t starve at least,” said Jonah Friedmoore, another of Cornelius’s close friends.

“I want more than to just exist,” hissed Parker, glaring at his friend.  “I want to get somewhere in life.  Not spend every day looking at the walls of my apartment.”

Cornelius nodded his head again.  He didn’t know what to say.  The dole allowed people to exist.  As Jonah had said, you wouldn’t starve, and your medical was covered, one of your rights as a citizen.  There was even the mind numbing entertainment of the vid stream, or the online library if you were someone who was into learning.  But to get ahead you needed a job, and jobs were hard to come by.  And the jobs were all controlled by.

“Those bastards,” said Parker again.  “Those greedy, privileged bastards.  I wish I could get that damned Baron alone somewhere.”

Good luck with that, thought Walborski.  Nobles had bodyguards, who would take Parker apart before he could do anything to their precious charge.

Their drinks came, and Parker downed his in a few moments.  Cornelius signaled for another.  After all, he had the luxury of two jobs, and his wife another, in a society where almost half the work force was idle. If not for the Man in the Loop accord it would have been worse, but someone needed to oversee all of those robots that worked the factories and civil maintenance

“There’s always the Fleet,” said Jonah, whose father had served in the Imperial Navy, a fact he was sure to let everyone know about, even if he didn’t join himself.

“You’ve got to have skills to get in the Fleet,” said Parker, grabbing at the next beer that the serving robot put in front of him.  “Or connections.”

Cornelius was not sure that was true.  He had always heard that the Fleet trained its recruits.  But to be away from family.  Parker had a wife, after all.

“Then join the Imperial Army,” said Jonah, never the most diplomatic of people.

“You join the fucking Army,” yelled Parker.  “Since you seem to love it so much.  Maybe you like taking orders from the Baron and people like him.  I think we need to put assholes like him in their place.”

Cornelius cringed in his seat.  The Baron was in charge of Windsor City and surroundings, and was not someone to mess with on his own turf.  Cornelius got his jobs from the Duke himself, the chief executive of the continent, but it still did no good to stir up trouble with the noble’s subordinate.  And Katlyn had her job directly through the Baron’s wife, whose husband also owned the factory Walborski worked in.

“Hey,” yelled the bartender, a real live human, walking toward the booth.  “I will have no talk of treason in my bar.  You understand me, Murphy.  Keep a tight lip on it, or get out.”