Memorize (Book One)

A New Beginning

How it had all started, Jay was at a loss to know. But it was there, inside him. This growing rage, this nagging pain, a desire deep down to assert himself and crack open the surface of all lies. There he was, alone in a sea of fear and ignorance. His only light was the faint conviction that he was right. The world around him was just made of madness. And he was alone.

Suddenly, the tracks in front of him had stopped, the ground was unsure and his legs were shaking. He looked at his hands as if he had never seen them before. Were they still his own? Wasn't  his life completely pre-modeled? And what was the plan exactly? A new life? A new soul? Maybe a new partner, maybe children again... Of course it had been schemed since the day he was born. He had to move into a new gear, accept what was the normal way. He knew it was all for the best.

"Feel shaky, man?" asked his neighbor.

"Nah, I'm all right," said Jay.

Of course he wasn't. It wasn't stress before starting the Process. Something else was coming on. Droplets of rage gathering from every recess of his body. Streams of uneasiness, rushes of heat, sweat down his neck. It was tracking him from deep within his tired body. He had to make it look like "pre-scheme stress". Was he alone to feel that way? Or maybe it was what they called "pre-scheme stress". Normal, understandable apprehension before starting the Process.

But no. Something was settling inside him, nestling deep beneath his skin. It was hard to shake it off. A wide ocean of something dark, unexpected, puzzling.

This is...fear.

Jay looked up : his curious neighbor was looking at a documentary displayed on the giant wall opposite him. A flow of images was telling the story of humanity over the last centuries. A woman's voice, soft and peaceful, was quietly explaining in details the ups and downs that had led to the present situation. Jay leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees, and  listening, mesmerized by the images in front of him :

Mankind almost reached a fateful end in the 22nd century, with the fast-spreading Alzheimer disease and its pandemic correlates.

Jay shuddered as pictures of very old people were shown, reclining in wheel chairs, lying in beds amidst perfusion devices and all sorts of all-fashioned medical apparatus. They were staring at emptiness. Toothless, wrinkled, in various crooked postures. Long lines of them in corridors. Families crying. The voice went on:

But genes and tissues were eventually controlled in an unexpected way : a mistake committed by the WRL (World Research Laboratory) initially allowed a ground-breaking discovery. Scientists found out that the disease was impossible to stop but could be pushed to its limits, so that memory was totally rebooted in a matter of minutes... leaving a chance of regeneration for body and brain stem cells.

And so the memory of human beings began to be wiped out. On volunteers first. Soon it became a more widespread process. It became obvious that a human being, with their memory totally erased and their body regenerated, could start a new life and meet all the requirements for fulfilling a new destiny.

Such was the only possible way out of the pandemic illness that centuries ago almost completely destroyed human creatures, leaving them as empty, stranded shells. The solution? Creating a new Life Process, and making it triple.

Images were then shown, of young, healthy, smiling people. Happy, cheerful families. Like Jay's...

Nowadays a standard life lasts a hundred and fifty years in perfect health conditions. As you all know, your life is divided in three sets. At the age of 100, you will undergo the same Process again. And at the age of 150, you will reach the end of the cycle, that is a painless self-destruction phase.

Thanks to the evolution of medical, genetic and re-engineering, it is now possible to remain young and fit, with flawless skin, long-lasting organs, re-grown muscle. Food, clothes, the atmosphere inside housings, everything is conditioned and designed by GloCo, so that the human body stays in optimal conditions.

You need not fear anymore. It is all for the best.

But best or not, Jay felt the fear inside. The restlessness. And above all, none of the acceptance he had been taught since his early childhood.

"Looking forward to flying off to the colonies? " asked his neighbor who really wanted to chat. "You're a first-born too, right? You know second-borns are sent to the colonies... outside the solar system. I mean...wow!"

Before Jay could answer, a man came in the room:

"Mr Dryhten, ref.2387659H?"

"Yes, that's me."

"Will you follow me, please?"

There it was. The beginning of the administrative process, soon to be followed with the re-engineering process. Soon the bio files would be ready, the appointment made. Soon he would be re-scheduled.

Jay would become a second-born.