OFFICER JENNY 905
By Allan North
Mother was an incubator
Father was the contents
of a test tube in the ice box
In the factory of birth
The embryo swirled in the liquid tank. It had been created to mature. The Controller smiled as the computers registered that the embryo was indeed a success. Her fingers flicked over the switches as the swirling form stopped and stabilized in place, sucking in the steady flow of nutrients from the viscous liquid that surrounded it.
My name is 905,
And I've just become alive
I'm the newest populator
Of the planet we call Earth
Months had passed. The embryo was no longer the mere cellular form it had once been. It had taken on human characteristics now, a fetus in every right. Still, the old Controller's watchful eye monitored it as the nutrient flow continued. A readout on the monitor confirmed it… the fetus had aged to nine months. It was now human, and its incubation time was over. The Controller noted this on her status log, and activated the drainage pump from the tank. Slowly, the nutrient sack was flushed out, and the new baby was allowed a moment of consciousness as it was carefully removed from the empty tank and placed into the aging chamber. It had a few minutes at best as the Controller connected the nutrient tubes. Then, clouds of gas engulfed the baby and suspended animation began. Outside, the Controller typed the information into the keypad connected to the tank… "Officer Jenny 905". With the entry confirmed, the Controller moved the mouse cursor to the "BEGIN SEQUENCE" option.
Click.
In suspended animation
My childhood passed me by
If I speak without emotion
Then you know the reason why
It was 905's fifth anniversary of creation. The computer fed the consciousness programs and routines fully into the small child's mind as the nutrient flow increased proportionately. Memories of child hood… laughter, tears, parties, friends, and a even a mother flowed into the small child's mind, as they had with the millions before her and the millions to come…
Knowledge of the universe
Was fed into my mind
As my adolescent body
Left its puberty behind
It was 905's sixteenth anniversary of creation today. The third Controller to oversee her was new to her position, having inherited this most special of jobs the previous day, but she performed her duties to the letter. Puberty had, as the computer model had predicted, come full force to 905, and the girl who had once been a microscopic cellular layout was now a young woman in every physical sense. As they had for the last sixteen years, the computers continued to feed her her life… the life of a normal teenage girl. Today was the history final. Could she pass? Oh, if only she had studied harder…
And everything I know is what I need to know
And everything I do's been done before
Every sentence in my head
Someone else has said
At each end of my life is an open door
Today was 905's eighteenth anniversary of creation. The Controller smiled as she realized the time was nearing. The knowledge of the law and its intricacies had flowed in by computer transmission to her cerebral cortex, and the time for full activation was near. Laws, Ethics, Good, Evil, Trainers, the League, Criminals, Team Rocket… all this and more knowledge essential to 905's future position was now ingrained in her, permanently etched in her consciousness. She was 905, and she knew it. She knew that above all else.
Automatically defrosted
When (adult)hood came on time
I became (myself)
I left the "ice school" behind
Today was 905's day of joy… the second birth, the seamless move from ITLF (In-Training Life Form) to living, breathing human. This part was always tricky, and the Controller's hands shook slightly as they manipulated the keyboard, beginning the sequence that she had begun for so many others.
Now I'm to begin
The life that I'm assigned
A life that's been used before
A thousand times
905's physical eyes opened for the first time. Blinking and squinting, they adjusted expertly to the light of the Factory of Birth. It was the first time the human had seen actual light, but 905 did not know this. Her mind was full of artificial memories… of loves, of good and bad times, of generic parents and schooling. The memories and thoughts all resided in her, the way they resided in the mind if each of her cousins. None of them knew it, but every one of their pasts was identical. That was the way it had been for years, and would be for years to come. The only true individuality about her, and even this was not truly her own, was her name… not Jenny, Jenna, or Jennifer… but 905. With that file came the experiences of every officer before her who had held that designation… memories of triumphs and defeats, and in some dark corner, details of how each one had met her demise. 905's consciousness, as it had been programmed to do, dismissed that dark corner as morbid dreams, but somewhere, somewhere deep in her subconscious, 905 knew it was more than that… The Controller shook her hand, both of them oblivious to the fact that 905 was naked. "Congratulations, Officer Jenny 905. You are hereby assigned to duty." The Controller handed 905 a neatly folded uniform. 905 instinctively knew what to do, seemingly realizing for the first time that she was unclothed. 905's eyes held no shame as she dressed in front of the Controller as naturally as she would if she were alone. When the uniform was on, 905 looked to The Controller for her next order, as her mind had dictated. "Report to Commissioner Guinevere for assignment." The Controller said, performing the last test. 905's mind cross-referenced the name in a microsecond, and immediately knew where in the Celadon City Police HQ to go, even if this was the first time she had really walked the halls. Within 30 minutes, she had been assigned, and was on her motorcycle patrolling as if she had been doing it all her life.
I have a feeling deep inside
That somethin' is missing
It's a feeling in my soul
And I can't help wishing
Five years had passed since 905's first day of duty, but it might as well have been 100. Nothing ever changed. THE LAW IS ALWAYS CONSISTENT, she had been trained. NOBODY IS LIKE YOU ARE. YOU ARE THE PERFECT BEING, THE PERFECT OFFICER, THE PERFECT SENTIENT LIFE FORM. But it was not perfect. 905's mind had been questioning the directives for the past two years, an event the computers and the programmers and the Controllers had never anticipated. That dark part of her mind, the part that tortured her late at night sometimes when her mind was not full of her duty orders and procedures, often played back those moments, those dark, evil moments of death in a constant loop. Her name… Jenny 905… on the death lists, on the memorials, on the coroner's reports… and yet never on a grave. Her mind knew why. WHEN AN OFFICER DIES, THE PROCESS BEGINS ANEW AND HER BODY IS USED TO FORM THE NEXT EMBRYO… Her mind rattled off to her by rote, ingrained with the training and the memories. The memories hurt the most. 905 knew they were false. It had taken a while, and perhaps 500 or so rebirths, but that pesky sub consciousness had refused to be sated, and had broken the truth through. Finally. After all, how it is that each officer dying in her dreams had had her same life? Each one may have been similar, but each one was also their own person… weren't they? On this point, 905's hardwired, programmed mind was stuck. The radio on her bike shattered her concentration. Blinking, she responded to the call. Team Rocket soldiers attempting to steal the gold statues of ancient Pokemon from the Celadon City Museum's newly opened Pokemopolis exhibit. 905's training, as it always had, took over and her bike roared to life as she sped to the museum.
That one day I'll discover
That we're living a lie
And I'll tell the whole world
The reason why
The Rockets at the museum were brutal. Their Leader must have really wanted this treasure badly, because these were not the typical Grunts or White Rockets she had faced before. These were the dreaded RED ROCKETS, a term set in stone in her mind. 905 and her fellow officers- She recognized 586, 648, 307, 275, and 917 around her- took up an offensive stance as the ruthless Reds looked at their enemies without emotion. One Red, a man with short spiky blond hair and a black goatee who seemed to be the group leader, ordered the others, "Kill them." Gunfire rained around the six officers as the five of the ten Reds began shooting their machine guns at them and the other five began carting the treasures out behind their comrades. 586 was hit in the chest and fell to the ground as the others returned fire. A Red was hit and went down, but stood back up. 905 glared. Bulletproof vests. "Aim for the heads and the legs!" she yelled to her fellow officers. No sooner had she yelled those words when 307 was hit in the head and went down. 917 ran to her bike radio to call for back up. She completed the call before she was cut down. 905 crouched behind a statue on the museum lawn and fired, hitting a female Red with dark red hair in the head. The Agent fell to the ground, her weapon clattering away from her. 275 ran in to try to take out the Red's group leader. In a flash, the blond man pulled a giant knife from his belt holster and brutally slashed 275 across her chest. Another officer down. Now only 905 and 648 remained. The two officers were crouched behind statues, shielded from the fire but pinned down. Holstering his knife, the Red leader yelled to his troops, "We've got we came for. Pull out!" One chance, 905 thought, her training foremost in her mind. With a quick, curt nod to 648, 905 ran up the stairs behind the fleeing Reds. She fired her weapon, and a hit a Red in the leg. He fell to the ground, unable to walk. The blonde man turned and snarled at 905. The other Reds ran to the truck as the blond man picked up the weapon from his hit comrade. With a quick decision, he pointed the weapon at the other agent's head. NO RED WOULD BE CAPTURED ALIVE TODAY, his own orders had said. A quick shot to the brainpan of the pleading agent ensured this. Now the group leader looked at 905. "Fucking Cloned Pig!" he screamed as he opened fire. 905 fell to the ground as bullets ripped through her. The group leader, apparently forgetting about 648, spit on 905 and turned away to run to the waiting truck. It sped away, narrowly missing hitting another car on the road as it made its getaway.
648 ran to her cousin as the sirens of the backup 917 had requested minutes earlier approached. 648 analyzed the situation in her mind, and knew that 905 was good as gone. "Don't worry, 905. They'll be here soon. Soon you'll be safe." 648 said in a soothing tone. NO! 905's mind screamed. Her dying body fought to hold on as her hand weakly reached for 648. "Si- Si- Six Forty-Eight..." she said weakly. 648 leaned forward. "What? What is it?" she asked. "Don't… Don't let them make… make an em- em- embryo…." 648 looked at her, her own mind not understanding. "But that's the way it is done, 905. That's the way it's always been." 905's mind screamed in rebellion as her body slumped down, losing all strength. "It's nothing but… a lie…" she whispered as she died. The back up team ran to her, and 648 helped perform her duty and load 905's body into the wagon. Within 40 minutes, 905's mind had been scanned, detecting all new experiences and thoughts and preserving them in Master File 905.
Well, until then, everything I know is what I need to know
And everything I do's been done before
Every sentence in my head
Someone else has said
At each end of my life is an open door
The embryo swirled in the liquid tank. It had been created to mature. The Controller smiled as the computers registered that the embryo was indeed a success. Her fingers flicked over the switches as the swirling form stopped and stabilized in place, sucking in the steady flow of nutrients from the viscous liquid that surrounded it. The Controller jotted a note in the status log, noting the time and date, and making the additional not of the embryo's predetermined designation that would be assigned in nine months… "Officer Jenny 905".
THE END?
