All of Space and Time

First Day on the Job

Graham was next in the bio scanner. "The system allocates work details based on fitness, stamina, dexterity, and mental assessments." Judy explained as the machine continued to beep and scan Graham.

"Same model as the Kerblam man." The Doctor said as one of the robots walked over to us. "I love the Kerblam man." She said excitedly.

"The teammates are the friendly base of the system. They're here to assist and supervise the organic workers." She said as Graham stepped out and the Doctor stepped in.

"'Organic'?" Graham asked.

Judy laughed before shaking her head and fixing her glasses. "Oh, Sorry. Listen to me. You get so used to the jargon. Gone native." She looked as the scanner confused. "Two hearts?" She asked the Doctor.

"Courtesy of the First Lady." The Doctor quickly replied. "Very good healthcare policy. I don't like to talk about it." She said getting out of the scanner. "So, Kerblam is completely automated?"

"Uh, no, 90%, as per Kandokan guidelines. Proud to be a certified 10% people-powered company. I know some people are against quotas, but I'm all for that one. Mind you, I would say that, wouldn't I? Head of People. Self interest." Sh laughed nervously looking at the screen then back to us. "It's funny, I don't normally talk this much." The power suddenly shut down and I quickly grabbed for the Doctor.

"I told you, coming here was a bad idea." I whispered.

"Don't worry, it'll come back online in a moment." Judy said. That didn't do much to reassure me. This reminded me of the cybership that was deep under a department store. They would have power outages like this because the cybermen were stealing electricity from them.

"Never paid your bills?" The Doctor asked trying to lighten the mood.

"Build a warehouse on the moon, it's never going to be perfect." She started the scanner for Yaz. "We get the occasional power drain, it stems from the self-optimization systems."

"How's the morale among the workers?" She asked from in the scanner.

"Oh, I'd like to think very good." Judy replied.

"You mean you don't know? I thought you were head of people?" I asked letting go of the Doctor to cross my arms.

"Er, it's my job to make sure everyone is happy. Not that it's difficult. I mean we're all so grateful to have a job, right?" She chuckled nervously again. "We all know how hard they are to come by. No, I hope that people feel it's a privilege to work at Kerblam."

"Relax, while I fix your group-loop." One of the robots said as it began putting ankle monitors on our legs.

"Are we under house arrest?" Graham asked.

"Oh, no. The group-loops monitor productivity and report back to the system." She explained.

They moved over to Ryan and started fastening his group-loop. "I wore one of these at my last job." He said.

"Oh, really, where was that?" Judy asked.

"Sport Stack. People's Republic of South Yorkshire." He replied.

"Hmm. I don't know it, but it's nice to meet someone with experience. You'll feel right at home."

"Yeah.." he said looking around the warehouse. I knew he didn't like it here because it reminded him to much of his actual job back on earth.

"Right. Time for the tour." She lead us through the building. "Six hundred million products, 10,000 employees, the biggest human workforce in this galaxy. Welcome to Kerblam." She said and we all looked down over the edge of the walkway. There were conveyer belts everywhere and they all carried Kerblam boxes.