Trial By App – “Erin, Civil Basic” fiction/ #tellastorytome #5

Erin sat patiently with her hands folded neatly over her com tablet and stared out of the portal window patiently waiting for her stop. Next to her a man persisted in “accidently” bumping her thigh and then smiling at her. She had cranked her bumper jumper up to 5 which inflated the panel inserts to cushion herself against the contact. She contemplated giving him a NEG-SPACE rating but her tablet alerted her that her portal was approaching.

The chair mechanically glided on a track whisking her away from the annoying passenger and down the train car’s aisle. As a child she had been thrilled with riding the tram. Now she was just happy to be able to sit even if it cost a few extra creds.

The tram stopped and her chair accelerated forward along with others in the line and parked on the platform. From this point onward everyone in a chair rode upon a dedicated track along a vast network of rail arteries to their destination.

In her peripheral vision she could see the foot traffic corridor jam packed with pedestrians, unmoving. Red lights flashed over the pedestrian thoroughfare indicating a delay and caution. She hoped there would not be a riot on the thoroughfare today. There had been too many lately. No one left their pod without wearing their bumper jumper these days.

The chairs moved slowly but at least they moved. She was right on time for her appointment so began to relax. At last, after several minutes of twists and turns in single file passageways, racks and tunnels she arrived at a small narrow door. The door opened and she unclipped her belt while the chair pitched forward and dipped her into the closet.

⬧❖⬧
It had taken extra time to get here. Lately the private space rentals were harder to come by and she was having to travel father out from her pod. It also had cost a bit more than she was used to and she didn’t know why but had agreed to the rate because she needed to get her 3rd trial in for the week in order to meet her allowance.

She was one of the lucky ones. Most Basics – people who did not have careers or work, only received their basic income and lived boring and short lives spending their government issued creds on food and pod with nothing left over. Some people would volunteer to relieve the monotony. Volunteering didn’t make extra money but would earn a higher status in the pod with a larger bunk and more amenities.

Erin was what was known as a Civil Basic. The government at times wanted to make decisions that required a larger consensus than the Career population could provide. Civil Basics were created to give Basics a chance to earn extra creds and pod status while keeping their basic income as well. She had worked very hard to earn her Civil Basic status and studied the extra courses in school, which cost every spare cred she had, as well as the required volunteer years in service.

“Why bother? Aren’t you happy with what you have?” her friend Jane would ask while sharing a joint in the hydroponics quad. Every week they would sit in the crowded designated smoking room with huge ventilators in the ceiling, get high, and pretend they had a little privacy. If you positioned yourself and your friend in the perfect spot the acoustics would mask your conversation.

“It’s nice to have a bigger bunk and be up high in the pod with a view of an inner spire. And a 10 people room is better too,” she explained. That just made Jane a bit jealous and she wouldn’t speak to her for days until she needed to borrow money for more drugs.

⬧❖⬧

Erin’s Civil Basic designation was Esteemed Voter which meant her vote had a 50% weight in a trial. Her goal was to be a 100% Master Voter someday.

Today’s trial is going to bump me to the next level, Superior Voter, I just know it, she thought to herself.

She could almost see the vacation room, purchased with her earnings, in her mind. Every year she had saved her extra creds for a vacation to an ultra private room. The first few years they had been small, maybe three times the size of this closet. But it was quiet and peaceful and a luxury still. With a Superior rating she could earn even more and get a larger vacation room. Maybe even invite Jane. She shook her head at that thought. Bad idea.

She sat down on the floor and opened the app on the tablet.

The app ran through it’s authentication sequence as usual.

“LOCATION VERIFIED AS PRIVATE ROOM”
“LOCATION VERIFIED AS SINGLE OCCUPANT”
“LOCATION VERIFIED AS FREE OF AUDIO DISTRACTION”
“SCANNING FOR VISUAL DISTRACTION”
….
“WINDOW WITH VIEW DETECTED.
“VERIFYING DISTRACTION FACTOR… PLEASE WAIT.”

She hadn’t even noticed the window until the app mentioned it. Looking around she saw the thin rectangular “window” at the top of the closet far wall. A shaft of light filtered through broken into rays. Odd light, she thought. That kind of light was never seen in the pods.

The app was taking a long time to verify and Erin began to get nervous. She stood up and walked over to the window and stood on her tippy toes but wasn’t tall enough to see out. Her hand reached up and she could feel the warmth from the rays.

The tablet bleeped and she cringed reading the next prompt.

“EXPLAIN THE WINDOW IN ONE SENTENCE. QUEUED FOR MANUAL REVIEW.”

She sighed and sat down across the room as far from the window as possible. Manual review requests have happened before and she usually passed the challenge.

“The window is a small rectangle, too high on the wall to see from and it is not a distraction.”

SEND

Little dots appeared to indicate her response was being processed. Thankfully the verification came back quickly.

“MANUAL REVIEW PASSED”
“LOCATION VERIFIED AS SCENT FREE”
“LOCATION VERIFIED AS FREE OF OBJECTS”
“RENTAL TIME VERIFIED AS SUFFICIENT FOR TRIAL MATERIALS”
“OPENING TRIAL”

The trial was thankfully simple. A Career had been caught stealing from his company. There was video evidence as well as transactions and witness testimony given as proof. He confessed as well as part of a plea bargain to have a shorter sentence. She spent the full time reading and watching even though it was a shoe-in verdict of guilt just to be thorough. There were only two “showcase” videos that went with it of his wife begging for mercy and tears streaming down her made up face, presented by the defense, and the Career’s co-worker who had caught him giving a rather overly dramatic story of events and declaring himself the company's hero. Finally, at the 5-minute rental warning she submitted her vote for “guilty.”

Her rating flashed on the screen and she wrinkled her nose at the progress bar. She needed some bigger trials if she was going to make it to Superior Voter.

She closed out the app and relished her remaining 4 minutes in the closet with the tiny window. She looked at the rays fanning out like a nightclub strobe light. I wonder what makes it? She thought.

GREETINGS ERIN CIVIL BASIC 3HdrsMyJvyNTJGKjo2cENuoeaGBTQFH7ev YOUR TIME IS UP. HAVE A GOOD DAY!

The closet door opened, and a chair beckoned. She sat and was whisked away. The longer trip than usual left her mind to wander and contemplate the warmth and memory of the strange light. She rubbed her hand absently, missing it.

~
This is my entry for @calluna ‘s “Tell a Story to Me” contest #5
https://steemit.com/contest/@calluna/tell-a-story-to-me-and-win-5-sbd-writing-contest-5-a-fair-trial-and-winners-of-4

I was greatly inspired from JG Ballard’s story “Billennium” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billennium_(short_story)

Other inspiration was how jury duty in the U.S. is seen by many as an unwelcome task. You have to drive to the courthouse, sometimes in a different city within the same county and wait. Attorneys ask personal questions. You may or not be picked. You usually hope you’re not picked as it means missing work and it’s stressful. They only pay you $12 a day for jury duty lol

Trials can last a long time making it detrimental to your work schedule. You can sometimes be excused from jury duty but need a good excuse such as if you missed too much work you couldn’t pay your bills or your family would suffer. I like the idea of remote trials and voting because I think it would allow people to participate in their civic duty more easily, but I do think a lot could be missed by not seeing a person face to face in a court room. Perhaps if the system were for petty or small crimes could be done this way that would be a good start to try it out. I think serious crimes would still most likely warrant an in-person participation.

Image source Pixabay, filtered/altered

I'm on Twitter https://twitter.com/antimetica if you want to stay in touch.
Thank you so much for reading.