Jed looked sheepishly over at Jerry before speaking. He wasn’t sure how exactly to ask what he wanted to ask, but now that he had an honest-to-goodness English fellow here to talk to, he felt like he should take advantage of the education.
“So… how do I say this… you don’t look like you’re on Quadrille or on the Internet in your head.” Jed smiled a little. He thought that he’d made it sound like the Plain People believed that all English were on Quadrille and the Internet all the time. He wanted his interrogation to be taken as benevolent, and he wasn’t sure whether he’d said it right. Jerry didn’t seem to be offended.
“Oh, Jed… I don’t mess with that stuff. But I’m unique in this world. When I need to, I get on the Internet the old-fashioned way. I’d walk down to the IntSta—the Internet Station—near our house a couple of times a week to check email. Frankly, I don’t know why they even have the IntStas any more. No one uses them, except a few weirdos like me. Even the ultra-poor have the BICE… do you know what that is?”
Jed shook his head.
“The BICE is the Beta Internet Chip Enhancement. That’s what you call ‘the Internet in the head.’” Jed noticed Jerry looking at him, and his new friend saw the confusion on Jed’s face, but Jed nodded anyway as he tried to keep up.
“Listen, Jed. I’m sorry to be using all of this stupid technology jargon with you. I know your people don’t use too much of it. Let’s talk about something else.”
“No, please. I’m fascinated, and I mean to learn all that I can. I just have to slow down a bit and try to understand it all. I think I’m getting it. There are so many terms to learn. I just got the hang of a whole new vocabulary just for this trip, so you can correct me if I’m wrong on any of this stuff. I studied a lot before I left home. I know that TRIDs are Transfer IDs. I know that unilets are your kind of invisible money.” He was now counting off the terms with his fingers. “Hey, and I even know that the term unilets comes from what was once called the LETS, which meant Local Exchange Trading System. Then, when the UN took over the money system after the wars, it became UNILETS for United Nations International Local Exchange Trading System. Now, thanks to you, I know that the Internet in the head thing is called BICE, and the Internet that is not in your head is at a place called an IntSta.”
“You’re doing okay, Jed!” Jerry said, slapping him playfully on the back. “Now I hope you’ll get to your colony at New PA and forget all about this nonsense out here in this world. Especially the TRIDs and the BICE and the unilets. Those are just people-control systems. After the wars, everyone was willing to give up whatever freedom they had left just to stop the violence. So now we have TRIDs and unilets… and they have this stupid BICE system that ties it all together so that the power apparatus can control everything down to the minutest detail. It won’t be long and the BICE will be mandatory, just like the TRIDs and unilets. I hate the unilets system.”
“Why do you hate it?” Jed asked.
“Unis are now just an international currency, governed and regulated by corporations and the international banks. The great wars, which were caused by the collapse of national banks, drove everyone—everyone but you Plain People, that is—to conclude that the only way to prevent massive swings in the values of currency and markets was to have a centrally regulated form of money. The unilet became that currency. In the end, the mechanism designed by so-called “patriots” to free people from the grip of the banking cartels became the tool used to codify and deify the single currency as the de facto monetary unit of the whole world.”
Jerry looked around, leaned into Jed, and whispered conspiratorially. “That’s why I’m going to New PA, buddy. When I get there, I’m getting my TRID removed. Heck, I might even try to get into the AZ to visit you there. Maybe I’ll even convert and become one of you!”
Jed laughed. He really didn’t think that Jerry was serious, and as the big man turned to glance out the window, the smile kind of faded slowly until his face communicated more of a wistful look than anything else. The look reminded Jed of Dawn.
“In Europe, a long time ago, our people were persecuted horribly. But after a war, or when some king somewhere discovered that his people were nearing starvation, he would open wide the doors of his lands for our people to come in. We’ve always been prized for our industry and hard work and productivity. For a time, we’d be given tolerance and protection… and things would remain that way until our numbers would multiply, and the people, no longer starving, would grow angry at our successes, and then the kings would banish us, or allow us to be persecuted again to the point where we would have to flee. Then we’d be off to homestead in some other land. There was always another king somewhere with land who wanted us to come and work the ground in his kingdom.”
Jerry sat and listened intently. They’d arrived at the SGT Transport Facility in the desert of Loving County, Texas, and now they were sitting in the gate area waiting for their turn in Medical. Medical was their last checkpoint before they could board their ship for New Pennsylvania.
“And now the newest new world is a whole other planet!” Jerry said. He whistled softly and shook his head. “I guess some things never really change, do they?”
“Jerry Rios!” The name crackled out of the speakers and frightened everyone in the waiting room. Most of the people had the BICE, so there was no need to actually call those people’s names over the loudspeakers. With the Internet chip in their heads, an alert would indicate to them that a medical station was opened and waiting for them. For the Plain People, and those few like Jerry who didn’t have a BICE implant, the old-fashioned building-wide announcement was used.
“Jerry Rios to Medical, please. Jerry Rios.”
Jerry stood and reached over to shake Jed’s hand. “I guess this is where we part ways, Jed. We probably won’t see one another again until we disembark at New PA. They take us straight from Medical to our pod, so… I guess this is it. Have a great trip, buddy, and I’ll see you on the other side.”
“Okay, Jerry. Thanks for the nice conversation.” Jed squeezed his hand and smiled. “I hope you have a great trip too, and Lord willing, we’ll talk when we get to New Pennsylvania.”
Jed sat back down as Jerry hurried off toward the main desk. Most of the people had already gone through their checkup and preparation at Medical, and only a few travelers were left in the waiting area. Slicked-back had been one of the first ones called, over an hour ago, and Jed was glad about that.
Jed hadn’t had the opportunity to see everyone who was going to be on the trip. The SGT station was a confusing and cavernous facility, and people were seated all over the place. Without access to the Internet queue, to Jed it looked like people would just randomly stand up and head off to Medical, and while he’d been talking to Jerry, maybe two-thirds of the passengers had loaded onto the ship without him even noticing. Now, there were only a few travelers left in the waiting room.
“Jedediah Troyer! Jedediah Troyer to Medical, please. Jedediah Troyer.”
Jed was poked and prodded and tested, but, all in all, the process proceeded quite rapidly. The only painful part was when a catheter was inserted into his bladder. He wasn’t sure if that process violated the Richmond Ruling, but the doctors explained to him that it was necessary in order to be able to drain his liquid waste during the trip. He didn’t understand every word they said, but it seemed pretty straightforward. After the catheter was installed, he was given a large glass of an orange liquid, and he was told to drink it all down. This was supposed to “clean him out” for the trip, they explained.