showing a glossy white sphere, then the view zoomed in and entered it, showing a city made up of tiny houses, built around a huge shopping mall enclosing restaurants, spas, gyms, swimming pools, virtual arcades and so on and so forth.
Fred nodded and this time he was about to open his mouth, but the hologram noticed it and hurried on speaking “FartherWorld, in addition to paying for your board and lodging, will pay you a monthly sum of two thousand currencies. Yes, yes, I understand this may not seem much, but think, when you come back in ten years, you’ll have had fun, helped mankind with your work, you’ll have a lot of spendable experience and, most of all, there will be two hundred forty thousand more currencies, plus a productivity bonus up to 10%, waiting for you in the bank.” He stopped and laughed loudly “Tell me, Fred, have you ever seen so much money all together?”
No, he’d never seen it, damn, and it was a hell of a lot of currencies.
“Fred, Fred, Fred …” went on the hologram, in an almost epic tone “Tell me, Fred, isn’t it the perfect chance? When you come back, thirty-six years old, you’ll finally be able to start the life you’ve only dreamed of so far, that has always been denied by fate and bad luck… the moment has arrived to defeat it and take your life in your hands, Fred! You owe it to yourself! Don’t betray yourself!”
Damned hologram, Fred thought, they’d never told him those things could read your mind, “See, Martin, I’ve already thought about it all and I’m almost persuaded, but there’s just one thing I don’t understand: what’s your gain in all this? In short, where is the catch?”
Martin the hologram stared at him, sincerely hurt, then he smiled paternally “Fred, I’ll be sincere with you, don’t think FartherWorld is a charitable institution, of course we have our profit as well.” he explained “See, our problem is that the asteroids rich with Ambrongold, that our space drones have discovered throughout space, have such morphological features and geological composition that make them unproductive to be dug by our existing mining robots and, according to the computations of our analysts, it would be too expensive and too long to build new ones suitable for this purpose; therefore, we need old-style manpower, we need miners, thinking miners, miners who are fit to face and bear the tough conditions of the space and the asteroids.”
Fred listened closely, everything made sense and it was consistent with the information he’d been able to get; according to the Ambrongold quotations, just one kilo would have paid for at least one hundred miners like him and for sure, on the asteroids Martin had shown, there must have been hundreds of kilos, or maybe even of tons “If I prove to be fit, what happens?”
The hologram rubbed his hands “Well, my lad, look forward, always, this is the right attitude!”
Fred smiled, this Martin was so enthusiastic that he resulted ridiculous. A splendid caricature of the typical salesman.
“Now, it’s very simple.” continued the hologram “Let us suppose you prove to be fit for the job, and you’ll know it by tomorrow night, then you’ll have…” he made some quick computations, glancing at the holophone he wore on his wrist “a week of time to prepare, set up your belongings and show up at Zurich spaceport where you’ll board on the shuttle…” another look at the holophone “Triton-23, that will take you on the spaceship Enterprise 7, which will finally land you on Mars after only 12 months.”
Fred widened his eyes “A year’s journey?”
“Have you ever been in space?” Martin asked him back, at the peak of his enthusiasm.
Fred shook his head.
“An exhilarating experience, especially the absence of gravity, you’ll see how nice!”
“But…” said Fred “one year? Nowadays it takes even less than two weeks!” he protested.
“Yes, yes, we save a little on the transportation, but don’t worry, you won’t even notice, I mean, you’ve already been cryo-sedated, haven’t you?”
“No!”
“Ah, well, that’s another reason to do the genetic test.” Martin answered calmly “You see? No problem.”
Fred was already nervous thinking about the space journey, but now he was even more, knowing he’d have to be cryo-sedated.
“Any other questions?” asked Martin hastily, glancing at the holophone.
Fred shook his head.
“Perfect! Well, very well!” continued the hologram “I see you’ve already paid the fee for the genetic analysis, so if you agree I’ll call our Nara who’ll proceed and do it.”
Fred was perplexed “Not a hologram or a robot?” nowadays only in specialised private hospitals could one be assisted by a nurse in flesh and bone.
Martin laughed, sincerely amused “Nara is a robot.”
Fred was disappointed “And you gave her a name, as well?” he complained.
“Still better than I12-A16 or Nurse Aid Robot Assistant, don’t you think?” he laughed before continuing with the same jovial tone, pointing at a small window on the table that rotated and lifted up, offering a contract on a crypto-parchment and an electro-biometric pen. “In order to proceed, you just need to sign at the end of the page and then you’ll be all for Nara.”
Fred was about to start reading, but then he thought “Damn it, be whatever it is!” and whispered in a low voice “My life will be better than this.” and with a deep sigh he signed.
“Perfect!” exclaimed Martin, applauding “Very good, I’d understood since the first moment that you were a smart guy!” he complimented “here comes Nara.”
Fred was about to stand up, then he asked “What kind of beer or beerotch do you have up there on Mars?”
Martin put on an unexpected serious expression “No beerotch or other stuff up there, you’re there to work and it’s a delicate and dangerous work, so you’ll have to do without it for a while!” then seeing the disappointment on Fred’s face, he added, becoming jovial and smiling again “Can you just think how good it will taste once you’ll come back and have it again? It will be like the first time.” he said, winking at him.
Fred couldn’t help but smile, this guy could sell poverty to a beggar.
Then Martin took on again that serious expression that didn’t suit him, hurrying on to state “We don’t even have lobotoxicaine and I hope you don’t make regular use of it, otherwise I warn you that it’ll be difficult to get you among the lucky ones who’ll be chosen by FartherWorld.”
Fred shook his head “I am clean” he said, recalling the last time he’d used it. He could still remember. It was the evening of his last birthday, almost one year ago. He had never loved birthdays so, to numb himself a bit, he’d gone into one of the many federal shops to buy lobotoxicaine. As per law, everybody had the right to buy a daily dose. When he came back home, he opened the tube and spread it on his temples. The effect was almost immediate and one instantly felt relaxed and uncapable of thinking of anything negative. Then he had looked out below from his window and, staring at the horde of grey people slowly proceeding in an apparently chaotic way, constantly bumping into one another as crazy balls of a congested pinball machine, he’d thought “It’s not so bad, after all.” That was the moment when he decided he’d never use that substance again.
