The Only Thing That Could Ever Unite Us

Eleven: brave new world

Joey and his brothers emerged from a deep 3T trance together. They'd been internalising. A lot.

"Woah." Said Joey. He realised it was probably an understatement but, in the circumstances couldn't think of an appropriately grandiose statement of surprise, so merely repeated "Woah."

"Bullshit! Fuck this, man!" Rico pounded the table "I was planning to go into politics when we finally get to the end of this protracted childhood bullshit." His face was flushed and contorted, "it's been centuries since Patagonia had a decent president, I thought...."

"Yeah but, dude" another brother, Rodriguez, chimed in, "think about it - that level of connectedness. Business transactions will be even faster if nobody even has to think about connecting. 3T transactions will skyrocket!"

"It won't even be the 3T anymore. We don't even know what it'll be."

"That's pretty fucking weird. The 3T is ancient. And remember what granddad said about the emotion stuff? What if society can't handle it?"

"I'm pretty sure the Sec Gen knows about society. He's been basically running it for long enough."

"Only on Earth. Martians are different. They're fucking nuts, dude. Aggressive, miserable, greedy. Why would we even want to connect with them?"

"Martians spend money, too, bro. It'll increase the market by 50%."

"Fucks sake man, it's not just about transaction margins. What about our identity? We've worked hard to make Earth way more merciful than they would want, than they can even really understand. They call us commies! Why are they even gonna wanna connect with us?"

"Guess that's what the Sec Gen has to find out eh? Someone else's problem."

"Is nobody else scared?" Joey looked sharply at Rico, as did the others. That word was banned. As brothers, one thing united them. They were brave, they were foolhardy, above all else, they absolutely weren't pussies. How could he suggest that they be scared?

And then, Joey realised, he was.