Chapter 1

SATURDAY

“Give me back my sweater, Fendi!” Hilton yelled at her little sister. Hilton’s long blonde hair fell down her back. She was one of the leading cheerleaders at Central High’s most prestigious finishing school. Hilton had an upturned nose that cast her as a snobbish princess. Her genetic makeup was based on her parents and that of 20th-century musician Brittany Spears.

Fendi argued that Hilton had initially stolen the sweater form her. She was the spitting image of Emma Watson. She and her sister were close in age. Fendi wasn’t a cheerleader. She was a little more bookish and reserved.

“Stop arguing! Dad wants us in the living room,” Tylenol reminded his older sisters. He preferred to be called Ty, but his sister’s insisted on calling him Tylenol. They said it was because he gave them headaches.

Tylenol looked like a young Danielle Radcliffe. His mother was a big fan of the Holovid remakes of the classic Harry Potter series from the 20th century. The modern version of the series had quite a bit more sex and nudity in it than the original.

None of these brand names from the 20th century survived in the year 2089. No one had needed or taken a Tylenol in over fifty years.

“You are such a kiss up, Tylenol!” Fendi stuck out her tongue at her little brother.

Fendi giggled and ran into the kitchen. She was still clutching the sweater she had on and pulling it down so that it would cover her waist. She had on panties underneath.

The Burns family didn’t as a general rule walk around naked. They weren’t prudes, but both of their parents had once been augments themselves. They didn’t believe in owning slaves. Scott and Rebecca Burns had earned a substantial nest egg by working for the Cooper family for twelve years as their slaves. Scott had managed to parlay that money into a decent business and maintain his citizenship after completing his service without incident.

He was hoping that he would have a legacy to pass on to his children. However, recently his store had been unprofitable.

“I have some bad news for you,” he said as he sat at the kitchen table. Scott looked concerned about what he had to tell his children. They wouldn’t like it.

He looked at Rebecca. She offered him her hand. She knew it wouldn’t be easy telling them what he had to say to them.

“Oh my god, I am not going to get a 2090 Maserati Sabre for graduation? I just knew it!! Okay, fine, a 2089 model will be okay as long as it is chromatic red. I’ll just have to hang my head in shame,” Hilton joked. She was kidding. She knew her parents couldn’t afford such a personal vehicle. It cost more than their entire house. She knew girls at school whose family could afford them, though.

“Wait, are we not going to visit the Sacramento Canyon? I hear you can take a submarine down and see the original city underwater. There is so much history and culture down there,” Fendi asked. She was a real history buff. Sacramento was one of the first cities to fall into the Pacific Ocean during the last great war.

“Guys, c’mon,” Ty tried to quiet his sister’s speculation. “This could be serious, and you two are worried about yourselves,” he said.

Hilton was about to point out she was only joking. Fendi smacked her brother in the arm and pinched his ear. The girls liked to gang up on Ty because he was wimpy and generally very passive. They often teased him that he’d make a natural organic if he was a little more handsome and athletic.

“Okay, okay, just sit down,” Scott laughed. His kids often teased each other, but he knew they loved each other. The news he had to share with them was important, and it involved them. He didn’t have the heart to stop them while they were having a little fun with one another.

FORWARD

The year is 2089. Central City is a marvel of technology and community planning. The citizens have access to adequate schools, transportation, and the pollution is kept to a minimum. This is a stark contrast to the majority of the more industrialized megalopolis cities that sprawl across the world.

Hunger and starvation have been eradicated in Central City. That does not mean one does not have to work. It merely means that there is no rationing of resources in Central City as there are in other parts of the world. This is in part because of what some may consider draconian but effective societal and legal policies.

Citizenship is a privilege that carries with it an obligation. Serious crime and extensive financial debt are not permitted. The Central Human Services division adjudicates matters of debt liability and criminal rehabilitation.

Thirty years ago, they primarily relied upon cybernetic augmentation and hypnotic implanted triggers to make offenders pliable. Anyone who met certain standards was effectively sold to a responsible party as indentured servants.

There were other names for them. Some called them pets, some called them slaves. They essentially belonged to their responsible party for the duration of their service, with very few limits placed on their use.

Automation had made manual labor mostly redundant and obsolete. These indentured servants were often assigned roles in the service or entertainment industry, instead. They were required to obey their responsible party, much like a pet or a toy.

Morality went into decline. Pornography was mainstream on holovid channels. The most popular game show in 2089 was “The Masked Celebrity. B-list celebrities seeking fame donned elaborate costumes. They would be humiliated, fucked, degraded, and then the audience would vote who had to take off their mask and be shamed in front of the entire world.

The culture began to shift, and new traditions started to emerge. People became fascinated with 20th-century pop culture. It was an idealized version of a time when things were more normal. People in the 1980s idealized the Leave it to Beaver era as a traditional household. The people of 2089 saw the 1980s versions of Cheers and Family Ties in much the same way.

They didn’t want to recreate the 20th century. They simply borrowed elements of the culture and usually exaggerated it to something it never really was and then commercialized it.

The wealthy were able to infuse their own DNA with that of actors or actresses from the 20th century. The result was frequently that the child was the spitting image of the cloned actor.

They also started to name their children after brand-names of products from the 20th century. Clothing was more branded than ever and even more revealing. It was fairly typical to wear a skimpy thong bikini to mow one’s grass – even if you were not a pet.

Nudity in public was also no longer considered indecent. The indentured servants (slaves) of the responsible party were frequently paraded naked through the streets. There were some who even pulled carts in quaint recreations of 18th-century carriages.

Once a person completed their mandatory indentured service, they could choose to remain in the system to earn money so that they could return to the life they once had. Due to the chemicals in the hypnotic drugs that they were given, many simply chose to remain under control because they no longer felt they could make intelligent choices. There were some who were too humiliated to return to friends and family after their service ended.

As time went on, there were a growing number of very adventurous individuals who were naturally submissive by nature. They saw the conditioning and programming provided by Central planning as unnatural. They became known as the “Organics.”

Most of them did it for the thrill initially. They felt a calling to submission. There was a freedom in giving up control to someone else. However, many did it because it paid extremely well for the time served.

These individuals chose to live by the same rules and standards as those who were sentenced by Human Services to earn back their citizenship. They voluntarily allowed their bodies to be pierced, decorated, and used sexually by their responsible parties.

In time, a growing number of the decadent wealthy began to crave the service of organics. The augments were considered of lesser value because they had to be controlled through chemical hypnosis.

A class of organics began offering several years of service in exchange for money and citizenship in Central City. Typically, only the most attractive ones were chosen. However, in this age of plastic surgery, that could be easily remedied with the laser scalpel if one had the credits to pay for it. It became the only path to citizenship in an over-crowded city. Serving time as a slave would ensure that the person had a healthy respect for what it meant to live in the city and obey its laws.

The poor saw it as a means to an end. There were still those thrill seekers who wanted to serve simply as an escape from their boring lives. However, most were interested in the financial benefits that came along with citizenship and a few years of serving the wealthy. They saw it as a blessing if anyone in their family were chosen – because it meant the entire family had a chance to be naturalized as citizens when they completed their service.