“Are you all right?”
LUH turned and saw SEN 5241-middle aged, face starting to go into jowls and bags under the eyes.
“You should be at your post,” she whispered. SEN’s observation console was next to hers.
“You looked upset… not yourself.” He reached into a pajama pocket and pulled out a tiny plastic envelope that held two yellow pills.
“Here. Try these, they’ll help.” He smiled at her.
“Thanks.”
He stood there, watching her. LUH slowly tore the plastic open, shook the pills into her hand, and put them to her mouth.
“There. You’ll feel better in no time. I use them all the time. Special issue. You can’t get them in the regular stores and dispensers.” He smiled again, toothily, and LUH shuddered.
“Uh, thank you.”
“Think nothing of it. My pleasure to help you.”
SEN blinked his watery eyes and then turned and went back to his own console. As he sat down he put on his earphones and began scanning the screens. LUH glanced down at the yellow pills still in her palm. Quickly she let them fall to the floor.
THX shuffled down the busy roaring pedestrian corridor, letting the crowd’s mindless momentum carry him along.
“So he just jumped off the tram platform. Just like that,” someone was shouting into the ear of his companion, a few bodies up ahead of THX. “Just like that. Ffftt. Destroyed.”
“You mean you haven’t tried ekterol?” a woman beside him was saying to her friend. “It comes in blue capsules and it’s just heaven.”
And from the eternal overhead speakers, the announcements. Always the announcements:
“Please keep your causeways clean.”
“Performance perfect is perfect performance.”
“The level 6421 intermural stadium will have open day on series 621T.”
“Central Plaza stay to right. Con 6 move to left.”
THX battled his way through the surging crowd and stepped onto a slideway. Here at least he could stand still and let the conveyor do the work. But still, from overhead:
“Please hold handrail and stand on the right; if you wish to pass, pass on the left… Please hold handrail…”
Up ahead he saw a vertitube that would carry him down to his apartment level. He edged to the side of the slideway and gingerly stepped off. A chrome police robot standing alongside the slideway curbing stepped politely aside to let him pass.
There was a prayer booth near the tube entrance. THX looked around, almost guiltily, then quickly stepped in and shut the plastic door. It didn’t fit tightly enough to turn on the light, he had to tug on it. Finally the light went on, illuminating OMM’s kindly face. A warm, taped voice said gently:
“My time is yours. Go ahead.”
THX tried to remember the proper prayer. It had been so many years since…
“Very well, proceed,” said OMM’s voice.
“Well,… this morning I almost slipped on a radioactive transfer. It’s never happened before. I wasn’t concentrating enough. Things haven’t been…”
“Yes,” said the voice, expectantly.
“Everything’s piling up on me,” THX went on. “I don’t understand what’s happening to me. The medicines don’t seem to be keeping me adjusted anymore…”
“Yes,” said the voice, knowingly.
“And my roommate’s been acting very strange. I can’t explain it… I don’t know, maybe it’s me. I haven’t been feeling very well lately. I feel jumpy all the time, as if something’s going to happen… something…”
“Yes,” said the voice, patiently.
“I can’t understand it. The sedatives… I’m taking etracene but it doesn’t seem strong enough anymore. I have a hard time concentrating. Please forgive me, I can’t…”
“You are a true believer. Blessings of the State. Blessings of the masses. Thou art a subject of the divine. Created in the image of man, by the masses, for the masses. Let us be thankful we have an occupation to fill. Work hard; increase production; prevent accidents; and be happy.”
THX slumped back on the bench of the booth. Be happy.
He was nearly home, almost at the door of the apartment. The crowds of the upper levels were thinned down now, quieter, slower. A man could stroll calmly here, or try to unwind after the noise and tension of the upper working and shopping levels.
The timebox was at the corner of the two main corridors. THX crossed over to it, took the badge from his lapel, and tried to insert it in the proper slot. It didn’t fit. They’ve changed the mechanism again, he thought wearily. Nothing works the way it’s supposed to. They keep changing things, but still nothing works right.
He struggled with the badge for a few moments, and finally it slipped into the slot. The mechanism rang dimly once. THX nodded. His working time was entered into the computer satisfactorily.
Turning as he clipped his badge back on, he saw LUH standing silently, holding a punch card in her hand.
“What is it?” he asked her.
She shook her head without replying. Her .face looked troubled, and somehow this bothered him.
Glancing at the card in her hand, he asked, “What did you get?”
“I have to see SEN. I’ve just been given a shift change.”
“When?”
“Now… Just now. SEN wants me to come to his quarters to talk about it.”
THX felt his brows knitting into a scowl. “SEN can’t change your shift. Shift changes have to come through the scheduling office.”
She said nothing.
“Why does he want to see you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t go,” THX said.
She looked up at him. “I have to… he’s a G-34.”
“You don’t have to,” he said, feeling more and more annoyed. “I don’t trust him, and I don’t want you to go.”
But she only smiled. “No, don’t make trouble. It’s nothing.”
“I ought to file a report against him. He can’t change your shift and order you around.”
“No, please. You’ll only make trouble for yourself. I’ll go see what he wants… I’ll be back soon. It won’t take long.”
And she turned and left him standing there, tired and confused.
Chapter 3
THX sat alone in the holoroom, flipping channels at nearly eyeblink speed. A naked black mannequin dancing erotically, a newscaster rattling off the day’s events, a shapeless matron discussing drugs, a chrome police robot beating a man to death, and finally two men sitting at a table locked deep in discussion:
“… to stimulate the arithmetical and logical processes as an extension of the 5141. Never before have we been so contented, never before has life been so satisfying. A referendum of bliss, a gratification sustained by the benevolence of authority…”
Why can’t I be happy, then? What’s wrong with me?
He listened to the discussion for a few moments longer, then flicked back to the black dancer. But he felt nothing as she swung her rich shining body to the driving music. He flicked the hologram to the policeman, but the bloodied man crumpled on the floor and cried pitiably. Disgusted, THX turned off the hologram viewer completely. The picture vanished with a soundless bright flash.
He sat alone in the dark room. Then he heard something.
Jumping up from the chair, he called out, “LUH?”
No answer.
He walked into the main room, then to the bedroom, calling, “LUH, are you here?”
Standing alone in the empty bedroom, THX made a sudden decision. He left the apartment and headed for SEN’s quarters.
Out in the corridors the loudspeakers still called out their constant urgings: