Fallen Man

Colenzo found the rest of the trip to the outer planets immensely tiring. The ship had a rather large contingent of passengers on board: people catching the ride from the gas giants to the outer planets for various business, social or migratory reasons. Colenzo’s work involved patrolling the areas these people frequented and ensuring the peace was kept and the local law was upheld. Meanwhile he was studying for a legal exam he would have to pass when they entered the jurisdiction of the outer planets. This was not an entry requirement but rather a work requirement; although he would be patrolling on ships that fell under his home legislature he would be interacting with people from other legislatures and would occasionally be visiting these legislatures. This meant that he had to be able to explain to people when their actions began to head down the “illegal” path and to understand why. He was also doing it for his own good; ignorance would not be considered an excuse in any legislature. Most of it was pretty boring financial stuff and minor variations on issues surrounding ownership and possession.
All the passengers had had their nanobots taken and although the ship had its own nanoassembler there were few templates on board from which new nanobots could be built. Furthermore the other templates that did exist could not be reproduced for anyone but the owner due to their purchase contract and although signals had been sent to the gas giants and the outer planets no company would risk transmitting a template as the signal would undoubtedly be intercepted and decoded illegally by groups such as the NoCoL. Many of the passengers had also been robbed of their luxury goods, including aesthetic nanobots, neural uplinks, jewellery and fancy clothes.

Colenzo and Edgar’s “morning” shift had them at the food court. Theoretically food courts were redundant; every passenger and every crewmember had a room that was directly connected to a nearby assembler. This assembler could make and deliver whatever they wanted from the menu within minutes. The time delay would be a sum of the assembly of the product and its transportation. The three competing food franchises had further got the time delay down to a few seconds. Oom Piet’s promised a pap and wors in 8 seconds. They could achieve this because they had warming trays hurtling around the ship in microcubicles, statistically organised such that they could meet the demands of any pap and wors gathering within the required time (they had a disclaimer for groups over 30). Chairman Mau could deliver a Chop Suey in 9 seconds through a similar method. But instead of sitting in their rooms, gorging themselves on fast food and linking to the net to watch movies or be entertained, people gathered in the food halls. There was something social, something satisfying in being there - it appeased the general human need to be together and share experiences together. Using the age-old excuse people would get together and “have a coffee” or “go out for dinner.” Now that few people had any other form of entertainment they were even further compelled to gather at the food court.
There were tables and plants in this giant chamber. It was one of the largest sections within the ship. It had a clear blue sky and a warm sun projecting down the psychologically and physiologically tested “most satisfying” sunlight. This product had been patented of course although nobody would stand for patenting the light frequency; even capitalism had its limits.
A large bean shaped swimming pool dominated the one end of the food court – running about 150 meters in length. The bean analogy carried further as using localised gravity belts the pool curved up the wall somewhat like a half pipe – thus making the middle of the pool lower than the water at the sides. Near the pool were numerous strong updrafts that could hurl a person 15 meters into the air before allowing them to drop onto the sloping sides of the pool. Using boards a couple of youngsters were dropping artistically, riding the sides and shooting out the other side to catch new thermals. The ship’s AI was controlling the speed and direction of the updraft, whilst monitoring the direction and velocity of the other swimmers, with the intent of dropping the surfers in the most open water. It even analysed the preferred options of the different surfers and attempted to predict what moves they would pull and thus compensate accordingly. This stylistic profiling was beyond the scope of its job description but provided something to expend its excess processing power upon – it was the model employee: it worked hard not because it felt compelled to do so but because it couldn’t stand being bored.
Today however it was actually really working; the crowds were out en mass and with no neural uplinks and no hormone controllers the men and women felt the need not only to entertain themselves but also the nagging need to impress their preferred sexual objects. Regular surfers were finding the experience quite a rush compared to the usual hormone controlled option they would have experienced with their nanobots (or hormone controllers) and two people were throwing up after coming down on a adrenaline homeostatic low. The sun was hot and some people were sweating and smelling. One poor guy’s eyes weren’t adjusting as they normally would have and the glare was giving him a headache. Interspersed in the crowd were people whose bodily functions had always received such extra attention that they couldn’t fully understand the subjective experience of thirst. Some figured it out naturally whereas others slowly began to get slightly giddy and feel mildly drunk. And as for the rutting, without hormonal control these poor animals really had no other way to appease themselves.
Colenzo wasn’t doing too well himself. Due to his physiology he was not suffering from the sun as much as some other people but he was suffering from social fatigue. There were so many people; at the best of times he could only stand crowds for a while – now he had to monitor them and with nothing else to do a large section of the ship’s temporary population was hanging out in the food court, by the entertainment areas and the pool.
Edgar took his job quite differently. Between them, Edgar and Colenzo had decided that someone needed to be near the pool and following the action there. Edgar had decided that the best way was to join in. Consequently Edgar was riding the half pipe and the thermals. The sergeant seemed to agree.

Colenzo was watching in fascination as one child fought another for possession of a stretchable frog type thing when he heard a woman raising her voice behind him. His instincts told him that it was not normal and he turned clicking the shock ring on his middle finger. It took him a few seconds to notice what was going on. He stared more closely and started to make his way over when the woman spoke up again,
“Just stuff off!” She said, loud enough to draw stares from those around her.
The man sitting next to her on a sunchair rubbed his hand up her thigh and said something to her too softly for Colenzo to hear. Whatever it was though it really irritated the woman who rolled over and pushed the man away. He however just leant in closer nuzzling his unshaven cheek against her neck and subtly applying some of his weight against her. The woman squirmed a bit and moved away, placing a hand against the man’s shoulder and pushing him.
Colenzo hesitated a second and then tapped the piece in his ear and called Edgar. “Edgar I think you should get over here to section L3.” he said and then looking at the couple again. Colenzo noticed that the man had moved closer to the woman and was rubbing a hand across her inner thigh. Colenzo cleared his throat and was about to speak when a large Chinese man stormed past him, bumping him aside so he fell onto one of the near chairs. Soon the Chinese man had the other man off the chair. “Just watch yourself.” He warned the harasser who took a wild wing at him in response. Deftly the Chinese man dodged the fist and soon he was pounding the other man in the face.
The crowd simply stared in amazement, as did Colenzo; such violence was regularly seen on TV in sport and competitions but in a public place it was very rare. Then Colenzo remembered what he was supposed to do. He clicked the pacify ring and moved into the fray.
The two rings Colenzo wore worked amazingly well, much better in fact than did Colenzo; Colenzo was hesitant and in another age would have had the shit kicked out of him. The one ring – the shock ring – administered a strong enough shock to knock a man off his feet – in this case it was the Chinese man. The other – the pacify ring – flooded the target (in this case the other man) with calming chemicals. Having pacified the one man Colenzo quickly tried to pacify the Chinese man. It didn’t work though and so he shocked him again. Stuttering the warning they were supposed to give any lawbreaker.
The Chinese man was much stronger than Colenzo had anticipated though. In fact he was a regular participant in a form of gladiatorial exhibition and was quite used to being punished. He was up and at Colenzo before Colenzo could properly react. Colenzo cowered and covered his face bracing himself for the punch to come. It never came though as the man was tackled and pacified by Edgar.
As Colenzo stood there shaking Edgar got to work on the two pacified people. He attached small devices to the back of their necks and watched their arms go limp. He then activated a device on his belt and hauled the two men to their feet. Colenzo joined in and they started to lead the men away.
As they walked away the woman, the one who had been central to the entire situation, got up and thanked Edgar and Colenzo. She was very shaken. In her entire life she had never felt so directly under threat and so entirely powerless. No man had ever used the power of his physicality to overcome her and she was overwhelmed. She felt weak and terrified. She looked around the crowd with a fear she had not experienced in public before. This feeling would never truly leave her again. It was the one piece of evidence that shatters all one’s hypotheses about humanity and human nature. It was there and it could not be denied.

Colenzo and Edgar made their way to an exit cubicle. Colenzo, who had recovered from the direct physical threat to his person and the psychological threat to his worldviews, began thinking clearly again. He called through to the sergeant and informed him of the situation. He also suggested that some further resources be allocated to the area as things were getting heated. The sergeant agreed; he was currently in the small unlawful persons holding section with six other perpetrators – things were indeed getting heated.
In the cubicle the four men sat around awkwardly. The two subdued men were hanging their heads. The one, Grand Cru, who had started the entire thing, was mortified at his behaviour. Eventually he couldn’t hold his feelings in and spoke out to no-one in particular.
“I can’t believe I did that. I actually couldn’t control myself.” The other three sat in silence not knowing what to say. Grand Cru continued, “I have never felt like that before. The need was…” he stuttered into silence, wiping blood off his nose and looking at his bloodied fingers uncomprehendingly.
Colenzo stared at Grand Cru and considered the man’s situation. For one thing the man stank. He actually smelt of male body odour. Obviously the man was used to having aesthetic nanobots to keep him smelling nice and looking shaven. Without the bots he was a bit lost as to what to do. This was however the smallest of Grand Cru’s worries. His actions would be tagged onto his identity. All the information systems throughout the civilized universe would get this information when they looked him up. Wherever he went he would find doors being closed and security guards following him as though he were a criminal – because he was now a criminal.
Grand Cru was obviously thinking the same thing as he said, “Shit do you know what this will do to my life. I might loose my job. I won’t be let into clubs. I’ll be debarred. I might even get deregistered.” He started to panic and made to stand up. Subtly Edgar turned a dial on the control on his belt. A light on the device on Grand Cru’s neck lit up and his arm started twitching. As the frequency increased his voluntary control decreased and Grand Cru slumped back into the chair. Edgar grinned at this. He was enjoying having this kind of power over another individual.

When they arrived at the holding cells they found the sergeant waiting for them. He was wearing his police armour. The four men felt an immediate inferiority to the sergeant and felt willing to obey his commands. Although they were unaware of this it was due to the pheromones being released by the suit which immediately placed everyone but the wearer of the suit in an subordinate role and placed the wearer of the suit in the alpha role, much like animals in herds or troupes. The sergeant, already a large and well built man looked much more powerful in the suit, as well as more graceful and confident. The armours angles also gave him a ferocious air and visually projected his prowess.
The room they were in had six separate cells leading off it and served as a control and observation room. A desk at the far side of the room had hologram screens that could examine the inmates on various levels; analysing not only their hormonal state and neural activity but also their pheromone emissions as well as their behavioural indicators (eye movements, hand movements, edginess etc.). All of this would help determine when the person had “cooled off” and whether the person was ready to be released back into the public. It would also stand as evidence in trail about the persons control over their actions and their guilt or remorse about their actions. The security company owned this information and would sell it to whoever wanted it. This would also be tagged to Grand Cru’s identity.
“Gentlemen” the sergeant began, “I have analysed the extensive footage of this incident, the actions leading up to it and your responses following it,” he paused and considered, “if one can realistically separate the actions that preceded any event from the actions that follow it and the event itself.” He nodded to himself in agreement. “On these grounds I have acquitted Mr. Smith. You actions were noble and correct given the circumstances and the local law.” He nodded with some respect to the burly Chinese man that had been involved in the fray. “Either way this will be tagged to your identity file and my statement will also be included. You can leave.” He stepped forward and removed the device from the man’s neck and shook his hand. Mr. Smith patted the sergeant on the shoulder and said, “Thanks Sarg.” before departing.
Colenzo noticed the mannerism between the two and wandered if there was something more going on there, some form of boys club or something, but he kept quite. The sergeant then addressed the three, “I have consulted with the more learned of this ship’s population and decreed that this is a disaster waiting to happen. Without hormonal controllers and nanobots humans are nothing but animals. Today alone we have had three attempted rapes and twelve fights. Given the normal distribution curve and the genetic sample on board this ship we are not surprised. On these grounds I am increasing the security warning on board this ship to green and extending your credit levels so I can arm you better and dispatch you both to improve security. Things might get ugly.” He paused and spoke directly to Grand Cru. “As for you, Mr. Cru,” he snorted at the rhyme “you will have to be placed in a shared cell with another and more aggressive perpetrator. This incident will be tagged to your file, although given the circumstances I feel that your actions are,” he contemplated, “understandable. Hopefully other people will understand too.” With that he led the fallen Grand Cru into a holding cell with a rapist, after which he cautioned Edgar and Colenzo, “You know” he told them, “humans without hormonal controls are nothing but beasts that craved to fuck and to fight. We are, as some would have us believe, born into sin.”
He turned and walked over to the holographic screen and pulled up a display of the greater entertainment area. “Colenzo, I am placing you in charge of this area. I am also dispatching four other human resources who will fall under your control, I want you to think ahead, plan. I will also be sending further technological resources through to you forthwith.” He paused and thought a second and then said, “Dismissed.” The two men left the room.