The Synergist

[Year 14 | 2266-67]

Artur’s first day as a teenager did not go as the boy had anticipated.  As he slept in, his mum, still tidying up after her son, collected Gogh Tab Plus with the intent of putting it away.  However, upon discovering that it was left on, Mrs. Simril was treated to reconstructed footage of inside an interrogation room, where her husband was being violently tortured by guards.  As the terrible sight assaulted the woman’s eyeballs, her skin went absolutely white and her heart skipped a couple of beats.

Shortly thereafter, Artur emerged from his room, disheveled from his active on-again off-again sleep, gave his mum a quick wave and opened the refrigerator.

“Happy birthday,” Artur’s mum muttered, completely emotionless.

Artur gulps down some milk.  “What’s up?” he asks.

“Do you know where your dad is?”

“Uh, only that he’s in a re-education centre.”

“Really?” His mum shows him the Gogh Tab Plus.

Artur froze; it was now his turn for his skin to turn absolutely white while his heart skips a couple of beats.  As he looked for some words, the Gogh Tab Plus reconstructed another image.  Not of Dr. Simril’s torture, thankfully, but of a doctor standing next to an almost nine-year-old boy, showing him a projection of his father’s torture.

Mrs. Simril looked at the image, then showed it to her son.  “Your doctor showed this to you?”

Artur nodded.

“Did she give you any more information?”

Artur shook his head.  “I think she was trying to fuck with me.”

“Language!”

“I think she was trying to mess with me.  In the most fucked up way imaginable.”

Without saying a word, Mrs. Simril stood up and left the room.  She returned shortly thereafter, holding a dampener.  After placing it on the kitchen table, Mrs. Simril switched it on.  As the dampener let out a quiet buzz, Artur suddenly struggled to focus due to the interference with his Nanny Chip.

“Artur, Why didn’t you tell me about what you saw?”

Artur looked to the floor, refusing to speak.

“Artur, I have activated a dampener field.  The City can’t hear what we’re saying.”

“Are you sure?”

“Sure I’m sure, kiddo.  The City hasn’t picked up the work I’m doing.  Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because the doctor told me that if I said anything, YutopiCorp would put you in a re-education centre.  If it were me, I could at least help dad, but—”

“But what, Artur?  You don’t think I could?” Mrs. Simril began.  “I’ve been trying to dig up what I can find about the re-education centres.  I haven’t found much, but I do believe there’s one in Sector Miami.  It makes sense he’d be there, it doesn’t seem like there’s one closer.”

Artur nodded, taking some reassurance from his mother’s words.

“And there’s another thing.  I can’t find much information about your Extension Program for Talented Students, despite everywhere I’ve looked.  What are you learning there?”

“How to serve the City.  Apparently I have a bright future ahead of me.”

“I really don’t like the sound of that,” his mum answered with a sigh.

Due to his conversation with his mum, Artur arrived in class three and a half minutes late.  Unfortunately, this was a rare occasion where his birthday coincided with the first day of the education year.

“You’re late, Mr. Simril,” his educator said with a scowl.  “If you’re tardy, you won’t be able to serve the City.”

“Understood.”

“Why were you late?”

“Oh, birthday stuff; you know how it is.”

“It didn’t have anything to do with the dampener?  I can only assume that’s why both you and your mother went offline.  Did you know your mum’s been making a habit of that?”

Artur did not return home that day, he did not get to unwrap his birthday presents.  Artur did not return home at all that year.