Part 1 - Welcome to Utopia
August 24th, 2165.
Utopia Technologies. Industrial giant, economic powerhouse, the world’s greatest scientific superpower, and the organisation most responsible for eroding civil liberties and personal freedoms. They’re an all-powerful capitalist megacorporation that you despise completely and utterly, yet you’re perfectly willing to join their ranks.
The paperwork has been filed, and you’re on the way to the California Archipelago in a transport shuttle. There’s no turning back now. Tomorrow morning, you’ll be a citizen of Utopia, based in the Arcology – that overcrowded, polluting eyesore of gargantuan proportions. You’ll be a mere immigrant worker at the bottom of the corporate ladder, but your stomach still churns at the thought. Your motives for going may be pure, but that doesn’t make it easy.
So this is roughly the extent of the premise that I knew before starting the game: you play a spy infiltrating a giant arcology, and the whole game is set inside it. Everything from here on out is a voyage of discovery!
The journey from China has been uneventful, giving you plenty of time to think of your upcoming mission, and the massive responsibility that’s been placed on your slender shoulders.
Civilian Transport Shuttle
As opposed to say, a military or executive shuttle, which would have seats to make the trip comfortable and an in-flight holomovie to ease the tedium of a three hour flight from Shanghai. Instead, this is the basic civvie model – you’re densely packed in a titanium can with over fifty other Chinese immigrants. The cabin reeks of sweat but there is nowhere to go, and at this altitude, opening the viewing windows would be the queen of bad ideas.
[Instructions available by typing HELP]
Most of the instructions are generic “How to play IF”, so I won’t reproduce them here, apart from the credits:
INSIDE WOMAN: The Empire of Gustav Ernst
Written, designed and programmed by Andy Phillips
Inform 6 programming language, libraries and parser: Graham Nelson
Beta Testers: Sam Kebo Ashwell, Al, Katzy
Omega Testers: Aaron Howell, Tom Robinson, M. Schoenitz
The subtitle “The Empire of Gustav Ernst” doesn’t seem to appear anywhere except in these credits. As I mentioned earlier, I did play a little way into the game before coming back and deciding to start this Let’s Play, so I can confirm that we’ll be hearing more later on about Gustav Ernst. But for now, let’s start with the standard parser fare for getting acquainted with ourselves:
>X ME
Miss Alice Ling. Mid twenties, shoulder length black hair, brown eyes, average height and build – by all appearances, a perfectly ordinary Chinese woman in good health. You’re pretty enough to be disarming when needed, but not overly sexy as to attract unwanted attention. All in all, walking evidence that looks can be deceiving.
>I
You are carrying:
some tatty work clothes (being worn)
an entry visa
Control checking in, Alice. Guess I’ll have to call you Alice from now on, eh? Just to let you know we’re picking up your signal bright and clear here in Hong Kong. Yes, ma’am. Your personal advisor is up and running.
You almost jerk with fright, and you probably would if it wasn’t for your extensive training and field experience. None of the other passengers can hear Nanci, of course – his commentary is for your ears only. That’s right: a man called Nanci. Only in China.
>X VISA
Exactly what it says on the plastic card: passage for one person to the Utopia Technologies Arcology. These travel documents are expensive to purchase for the average Chinawoman, so the tech guys at Bai Lihong concocted quite a cover. Having lost your (imaginary) husband in the war, and desperate for credits and a new life, you sold out your (imaginary) only child to an (imaginary) European slave trader – a horror story that’s probably not so imaginary for some of your fellow travellers.
>X IMMIGRANTS
Workers dressed in tattered rags: men, women and children in equal number, all lured by the promise of a better life in the land of the free. The Utopian propoganda machine may be driven by flashy advertisements, billions of credits and heartless lies, but civilians still flock to America by the shuttleload. Yes, these people are a sorry sight for any eyes, sore or not.
Okay, our tracking satellites place you over San Francisco – well, what used to be San Francisco anyway. Funny how people in yesteryear worried about the quaking earth, yet it was the raging waters that did them in. The Great Flood must have been a spectacle to behold, from a safe distance of course. If you want to visit the Golden Gate Bridge today, you need a hazard suit, a minisub, a navigation chart – oh, I almost forgot – a diving permit from Utopia Technologies.
Having a crazy, rambling voice in your head is going to take some getting used to, and Nanci doesn’t have an off switch.
>X CLOTHES
Battered overcoat with stainless steel zipper, ripped trousers and heavy, flat-soled boots. Throw in thermal underwear, and you have the perfect worker’s outfit: low on fashion, high on durability and practicality. There are stains everywhere, remnants of a phony, nonexistent past cleaning the sewers of Shanghai. Well, they do say clothes make a woman.
The shuttle tilts sharply to one side, turning through a quarter circle before continuing straight.
Alright, Miss Ling, given your position and heading, your new home should be visible to the left. Look for a big glass and steel pyramid sticking up through the clouds. You can’t miss it.
>X PYRAMID
You can’t see any such thing.
The Arcology isn’t actually in sight yet, but I’m sure that at least one of the other fifty people in the cabin will be keeping an eye out for it, so for now let’s get on with orienting ourselves in the persona of Alice Ling. This huge overcoat we’re wearing seems a bit suspicious, so let’s look inside and check we’re not actually three kids standing on one another’s shoulders:
>REMOVE COAT
You’d better unfasten your coat zipper first.
>OPEN ZIPPER
You slide down the metal zipper, unfastening the overcoat. Now that it’s open, you see a single pocket on the inside of the jacket.
You feel the shuttle descending – the final approach to the Utopia Technologies Arcology.
>X POCKET
The coat’s inside pocket contains your passport.
Ooh, that sounds like something we might need on the way to start a new life in a new country. Or globe-spanning megacorporation.
>X PASSPORT
False identity papers issued by Bai Lihong Enterprises on behalf of the Chinese Government. It’s the new multinational, single plastic sheet version. Besides a digitised image of your face, DNA and biometric data, holograms provide basic textual information.
Name: Alice Wei Ling
Date of Birth: 16th February 2141
Place of Birth: Shanghai, China.
Some of the passengers are excitedly looking through windows.
Thanks, fellow downtrodden immigrants, I knew we could count on you to let us know when we were getting close!
>LOOK THROUGH WINDOW
You don’t need perfect vision – even if you have it – to spot the Utopia Technologies Arcology. The spire capping the world’s tallest building pierces the clouds, gold-tinted windows reflecting the bright sunlight of a new dawn. Further down, supporting the executive levels both literally and figuritively, is the so-called Black Tower, global headquarters of the Utopian Security Force.
Shielded by opaque glass, a near impenetrable, flickering blue forcefield, and a strictly enforced communications blackout, their activities remain a closely guarded secret from the prying surveillance satellites of other nations. That doesn’t stop the rumour mill working overtime, though. In China, you’ve heard many tales of the secret police troopers and what they do to “unco-operative” citizens. Utopia is anything but, a megastructure home to a million citizens, a prison in all but name.
As a teenager in the late 90s, I first encountered the concept of arcologies as the final stage of civilizational development in SimEarth, where they always looked pretty appealing. But Alice seems to have significantly less positive expectations about this one.
You’re not planning to stick around, though. The other passengers may be immigrating to start a new life, but you’re a woman on a mission. As the shuttle begins its descent through the clouds, you replay the briefing in your head…
Briefing Room
Corporate executives usually have expensive tastes and your boss is no different. His downtown Hong Kong office is a classy mixture of styles, ancient Oriental blended with ultra modern. Since his company owns a majority stake in the Chinese military, it’s no surprise to see terracota soldiers flanking the holographic projector, nor is it a great shocker – excuse the bad pun – that the Tesla cannons are fully charged and crackling with electrical energy.
The extreme security measures in place aren’t enough to convince the General to appear in person. He addresses you from an unknown location on the mainland, conducting all business via a video screen.
An image appears above the projector disc: a spinning globe. Yep, it’s Planet Earth post catastrophe number one thousand. Or something – you lost count years ago.
[Your score has just gone up by two points.]
Global mega-corporations displacing national governments, a boss whose position is somewhat ambiguous between military commander and corporate executive, ongoing environmental collapse: I feel we’re firmly established within a genre here, which is fine - we can refrain from worrying too much about figuring out the backstory and concentrate on being a badass super-spy.
>X ME
This is you before you became Alice Ling: a high ranking footsoldier in the Chinese military. Now capitalism has spread to the People’s Republic, you’re little more than a corporate mercenary.
As you watch, the colours of the spherical map change, highlighting territories around the world. In the last millennium it was governments and alliances. Today the key players are megacorps, and one company in particular occupies a noticeably large percentage of land mass.
“Utopia Technologies,” the General states, continuing his briefing. “The largest empire the world has ever known. Since its inception, Utopia has grown into a global dictatorship with major holdings on all seven continents. They continue to expand across mountains, ice, desert, oceans, even the depths of space. And if they are not stopped, Bai Lihong Enterprises – and with it China, the last free country in existence – will be consumed.”
I’m not going to dig too deep into the socio-political plausibility of the backstory here - there are other people on the forums much better-placed to do that than me, so do chime in in the comments! - but it looks like the story is that due to its communist government, China was the last country to fall before the rising tide of hyper-capitalism? Inside Woman came out in 2009 (Hu Jintao was president of China, the US had just elected Barack Obama, “One Country, Two Systems” was going strong in Hong Kong, the phrase “Belt and Road Initiative” had yet to be uttered) - I was getting to grips with my new career and can’t honestly remember how plausible the future depicted here would have looked at the time …
>X GLOBE
A three dimensional, computer generated image projected above a laserdisc. Hologram generators are commonplace enough, but this military version has a trillion pixels per cubic centimetre and over ten thousand colours. That’s what the guy said at the last tech briefing. Personally, you can’t tell the difference.
“So far we have contained them, but our resources grow increasingly limited. And now my spies in the California Archipelago inform me of a new Utopian project. Scientists the world over, mainly from the fields of cybernetics and nanotechnology, have been… recruited. Kidnapping is perfectly legal, of course. When you own the police, you make the laws. The good news is we know where the researchers have been taken. Utopia did nothing to hide the fact. And why should they? When you consider the bad news…”
The image blurs into a mass of light, then reforms and takes on the shape of a building. Not just any building – even vastly reduced in scale and coloured so brightly, the Utopia Technologies Arcology has lost none of its wonder, nor its power as a symbol of iron fisted tyranny.
(Attempting to examine the image of the Arcology any further just repeats the description of the hologram projector.)
“I see you recognise the building. Enclosed city would be a more accurate description – an entirely self-sufficient colony housing one million people under a single roof. Its forty levels have everything a society needs: accommodation, schools, hospitals, factories. And somewhere in there, the world’s greatest minds work in secret on a project we know nothing about.”
The General pauses for a moment then carries on. Yeah, you get the picture already, and it bleakens by the second.
“Built in the submerged ruins of San Francisco, the Arcology took Utopia two years to design and a further fifteen to complete. One third of the floors are below sealevel, yet the structure has withstood earthquakes, typhoons and ecoterrorist attacks. It’s a human made black hole. Many people go in, but none come out. Even the mysterious Director does not leave his fortress. Immigration is permanent, and I’m asking – no, ordering – you to go in there. To find out what Utopia’s up to and get that information back to us.”
Immigration is permanent? Are we being optimistic in hoping that this just means life is so great there no-one ever wants to leave?
>SAY YES SIR
(to General)
That was a rhetorical question.
“I know this is a lot to demand from a single woman, but you won’t be alone in there. Your talents for resourcefulness and sheer determination are valuable assets, but they will not be enough. So I’m assigning you a partner on this operation, a secret weapon of ours that goes by the name of Nanci.”
A tiny drawer, designed to be blend in perfectly with the wall, slides open underneath the video screen.
I think we know what’s coming here already given the introduction that we had before this flashback, but let’s see …
>X DRAWER
A small drawer, no more than a few centimetres wide. The front side is made of the same material as the wall and designed to be flush when closed – no wonder you didn’t notice it before.
“Well, aren’t you going to give Nanci a taste?”
Seems a little forward when we’ve only just - okay, sorry.
>LOOK IN DRAWER
In the tiny drawer is a red capsule.
Pretty clear what we’re meant to do here. And also, this is a flashback, so it’s not like we can even try to take a different path.
>TAKE CAPSULE
The second you remove the capsule from the drawer, it slides closed.
“Nanci’s so small you can hold her in your hand. The perfect companion.”
>EAT CAPSULE
With a touch of hesitation, you swallow the pill and gulp it down your throat. You feel your skin tingle, and your hands start to shake. You give the General a fierce glance, but all he does is smile. After a moment, everything is normal again.
“Even with Nanci’s help, you’ll need to be extremely careful. Utopia Technologies have practically redefined security over the last decade. You’ll be going in undercover as an immigrant worker by the name of Alice Ling. From this point on, you no longer exist.”
>NOD
That’s not a verb I recognise.
The General is similarly uninterested in any other efforts to acknowledge his orders, but as soon as we try to do anything else:
Testing. One, two, three. You hear me? You can? Great! I can tell from the way you’re looking around. I’m Nanci, by the way. Technically it’s NANCI in upper case, but I prefer the first way.
The voice reminds you of a sixteen year old schoolboy – the playful, geeky kind that thinks he knows everything but doesn’t have a clue. For a moment, you almost thought you saw the General smile while you looked around in vain for a nonexistent male companion, a boy called Nanci.
>NANCI, HELLO
You seem to want to talk to someone, but I can’t see whom.
>SAY HELLO
(to General)
You doubt the General would be interested.
NANCI is a miracle of communication technology, but it’s one-way. At least so far, there’s nothing we can do to get any kind of message back to our invisible handler - which of course is perfect for a parser game, where we can have his constant presence without needing to deal with all the things the player might want to say.
“Colonel, meet NANCI, our latest prototype. Nanotech-based Audiovisual Neural Communications Interface. A cluster of tiny machines in your body that enable us to remain in contact twenty four hours a day. Essentially, we see, hear, and to some extent feel, everything you do. More importantly, it’s next gen and completely undetectable even with the latest Utopian equipment. The interface links directly with your brain, so Nanci is inaudible to anyone except you.”
Which means I can call the General a charmless, paranoid freak, and he won’t hear a word.
Since the General refers to Nanci as a communications interface, I’m assuming that the voice we’re hearing belongs to some (human) Chinese intelligence officer in an operations room somewhere who’s taken the name “Nanci” for his own. And who is apparently very confident that no-one else is listening in on his messages, either!
>Z
Time passes.
“I would wish you luck, Colonel, except I don’t believe luck’s a factor. If you’re good, then you’ll succeed in your mission. And if you’re not, there’ll be no discipline on my end. That won’t be necessary, because you’ll never leave the Utopia Arcology alive.”
On that note, the General ceases transmission and abruptly ends the briefing. A sharp bump brings you back to the present. The shuttle has arrived at its destination.
This is your partner speaking. Stop daydreaming, Alice. We’re here. Welcome to the Utopia Technologies Arcology.
Game on!
INSIDE WOMAN
Interactive Corporate Espionage
Copyright (c) 2009, Andy Phillips
Release 5 / Serial number 090628 / Inform v6.30 Library 6/11
Landing Pad
Or pads to be more precise. This is the Arcology’s main air terminal, with parking spaces for transport shuttles, jetcopters and heavily armed fighter craft. Departures and arrivals are monitored from the control tower to the west, and the aircraft hangar bays are to the south. Out here in the open, there is no protection from the elements. This high up, the wind is strong and relentless, an ever-present breeze that carries the tangy stench of salty seawater from the Pacific Ocean many kilometres below.
Black armoured troops of the Utopian Security Force are on patrol, the bulk of them stationed along a laserfence to the east. It’s a gateway to the inside world, a barrier to keep out the immigrants until they’re ready for processing.
With its payload unceremoniously dumped, the shuttle that ferried you here ascends into the clouds, leaving you behind on the landing pad.
Well, there goes your ride. You gotta wonder what happens to all these people Utopia ships in by the flying truckload. Guess we’ll know soon enough.
[Your score has just gone up by two points.]
So, just to get this straight: the Arcology is a permanent structure with a fixed capacity of a million people, no-one ever leaves, but hundreds of immigrants are flown in every day? This is definitely not a problem and there is definitely no chance of anything bad happening to us.
>X FENCE
The fence runs from north to south, a four metre high web of high intensity beams. Crimson red in colour, the lasers criss-cross so many times the gaps between them are barely wide enough to see through. There’s no way past while the grid is active.
>X TROOPS
The soldiers are well equipped to deal with threats, both natural and those of human origin. Clad from head to toe in black metallic body armour, the troopers carry miniguns and plasma throwers, weapons normally reserved for tanks and APCs. Features hidden behind opaque visored helmets, they are little more than faceless thugs on crowd control duty. Male, female, or robotic – you simply can’t tell.
This is kind of sinister, but I guess even the most liberal cultures aren’t averse to a bit of security around a major transit hub. Let’s see how long we can continue giving Utopia Technologies the benefit of the doubt in the face of their black-armoured stormtroopers and non-existent emigration policies.
You’re ignoring me, aren’t you? Yes you are. You’re probably thinking I’m this good for nothing whizzkid, a handsome voice chirping in with fascinating but one hundred percent useless comments. Wrong! You see, Nanci here is a walking encyclopaedia of information, and anything I don’t know I probably got access to.
So whenever you need the lowdown or just feel like a little company – hint, hint – I’m your man. All you gotta do is focus on something, then quicker than you can stop thinking, I’ll pick up your signal and give you the lowdown, if I got anything interesting to say that is. You don’t believe me, do you? Give it a try then!
Are you even listening to me, Alice? Focus!
I can recognise a diegetic tutorial when I see one!
>FOCUS
(on the USF troopers)
Utopia calls them security, I call them butchers in metal suits. That’s the latest in composite armour, practically indestructible yet fully flexible. Resitant to heat, electricity, acid, you name it. Self contained oxygen supply and computer assisted targeting. Take my advice, Alice. You definitely don’t want to pi–
You and Nanci are interrupted in mid conversation when a black metallic gauntlet grabs your right shoulder in an excrutiatingly tight, vicelike grip. You turn to see two USF troopers standing behind you. Just when you think the game’s up, the laserfence deactivates with a dull low-pitched whine, beams shutting down from left to right. No sooner has that happened than the troops herd you and the rest of the new intake like cattle through the open barrier.
Holding Area
The other side of the laserfence is a waiting zone from which immigrants are plucked one by one from the masses then escorted to a series of registration terminals to the north. As usual, those doing the pushing and shoving are Utopian Security Force personnel; wearing light armour, these guards are less intimidating than their hulking counterparts on the landing pad, but are still armed, dangerous and very much in control.
It’s started to rain, but evidently Utopia has planned for it. The slightly acidic water collects in grated off troughs, a primitive yet effective drainage system.
The laser beams reactivate, almost turning a lagging immigrant to jelly. Fortunately, she makes it through the deathfield just in time.
[Your score has just gone up by two points.]
This isn’t exactly a red-carpet reception, but there’s not much for it right now other than to allow ourselves to keep being ushered onwards.
>X TERMINALS
You can’t see the registration terminals very well from here.
>X TROUGHS
The troughs are about ten centimetres wide and covered with galvanised iron grates, providing coverage to the whole southern section of the level. It would appear collecting rainwater is more important to Utopia than keeping their new immigrants dry. Things look a little better to north, an area largely under cover of the Arcology’s upper floors – but only slightly.
One of the immigrants passes a cylindrical container to a USF trooper. The tube is small, about the size of your palm, and the handover smooth and well practiced. Most onlookers would notice and suspect nothing, but your senses are above average. Soon afterwards, the immigrant is taken away for processing.
The guard heads in the opposite direction. He – or she – reaches inside their uniform and takes out a remote control unit, which they use to temporarily shut down the laser field. Unnoticed, the small, shiny cylinder falls from their pocket, rolls into a drainage trough, and lands in the water with a plop. Even if you wanted to alert the guard – and why should you? – it’s too late. Whoever it was, they’ve already stepped through the now-active laserfence.
What was that? I’d sure like to know.
Looks like our first opportunity for some shenangians! Hopefully we can get hold of whatever it is without any of these heavily-armed security guards noticing what’s up.
>LOOK IN TROUGH
All you see is running water, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing there.
>SEARCH TROUGH
All you see is running water, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing there.
The help menu for the game warns us that it’s sometimes necessary to SEARCH and LOOK UNDER objects as well as EXAMINE them, but this time we need a different mode of interaction:
>PUT HAND IN TROUGH
Your fingers fit through the closed grate, but not very far.
>OPEN GRATE
The grating lifts with a loud creak, exposing the running water below. Fortunately, the USF guards are too busy supervising the other immigrants to notice.
>PUT HAND IN TROUGH
You reach down through the open grating, put your hand in the freezing cold rainwater, and have a good feel around. After a moment or two groping, your numb fingers brush metal. Instictively, you grab the item and bring it to the surface. An inhaler! If you catch a cold as well, you’ll have some medication.
[Your score has just gone up by three points.]
>CLOSE GRATE
You close the grating, softening the metallic clang as much as possible.
“You’re up next, lady. Come with me.”
Not that the brutish, broad shouldered trooper gives you much choice. With those few, less than courteous words, he grabs you firmly by the wrist and leads you to…
Registration
New citizen processing is designed to deal with immigrants en masse: banks of registration terminals outfitted with user friendly interfaces and voice recognition software, all no doubt hooked up to a central server on some distant security level. This is where the dehumanisation really begins, your identity gets stripped away, and you become a number in Utopia’s database. The system seems easy enough to operate – listen, talk and in your case lie. Just don’t get caught, not with USF troopers constantly peering over your shoulder.
Well, it’s a relief to hear that after being menaced by black-armoured butchers with miniguns, herded around the landing area like cattle and almost cut in two by a laser fence, this is where the dehumanisation really begins.
The terminal’s screen is occupied by a 3-D image of a woman’s face: angular edged, polygonal and turquoise blue, most likely a physical interface for an artificial intelligence program.
“Good morning, citizen. Welcome to the Utopia Technologies Arcology. My name is Teresa, and I will be assisting you with the registration process. Please insert your entry visa.”
Here we go. Hope you got your cover story memorised.
>PUT VISA IN TERMINAL
You slide the entry visa into the slot, and Teresa promptly gobbles it up. But not before her face turns bright green for a second. Guess you did something to make her happy.
“Your entry visa has been verified. Please insert your passport.”
You did remember to pack it… right? Better find it soon, or they’ll be serving up toasted Alice in the Utopia canteen.
Fortunately, we already unzipped our coat to check out the inside pocket, so there’s no cause for panic here.
>TAKE PASSPORT
You take the passport from the pocket.
“I am waiting for your response.”
Take a long, good look. This is the last you’ll ever see of it.
[Your score has just gone up by three points.]
>PUT PASSPORT IN SLOT
You slide the passport into the slot, and Teresa sucks it out of sight. Talk about renouncing citizenship.
I’ve never immigrated to a new country, and I guess maybe the process does involve surrendering the passport of your previous nationality, but there’s still something that feels very wrong about just depositing it in a slot.
“Your passport has been verified. Now I must ask security questions to confirm your identity. So that I may accurately interpret your responses and to avoid any misunderstandings, please restrict your answers to the information requested.”
Information requested!? What heap of junk is this? Utopia really knows how to make a glowing first impression. Talk about a welcome? Geez!
“Please state your full name.”
>SAY ALICE LING
(to Teresa)
“Your answer does not match the information on file.”
The woman’s face flashes red for a split second, then turns back to blue.
Looks like you made her angry. Best be careful.
Uh oh. We’d better pay closer attention to detail. Fortunately, the introduction to the game in the help menu and the passport we’ve now parted ways with both mentioned that our full (fake) name is actually Alice Wei Ling.
>SAY ALICE WEI LING
(to Teresa)
As before, Teresa’s face flashes green.
“Please state your city and country of birth, in that order.”
This was mentioned earlier when we reflected on our cover story.
>SAY SHANGHAI CHINA
(to Teresa)
Once again, Teresa’s face flashes green.
“Please state your age.”
Uhh … we probably should know this offhand if we were briefed properly on our legend, right? But we do have the information we need, as long as we remembered to read the passport before consigning it to its ignoble fate. Our date of birth is given as 16th February 2141, and the very first line of the game mentioned that the current date is 24th August 2165. So:
>SAY 24
(to Teresa)
To your relief, Teresa’s face flashes green.
“Please state your previous occupation.”
>SAY SEWER WORKER
(to Teresa)
Once again, Teresa’s face flashes green.
“Please state your marital status.”
>SAY WIDOWED
(to Teresa)
Once again, Teresa’s face flashes green.
“Single” also works.
“Please state your child’s name.”
Sorry, but your baby boy here couldn’t resist adding his personal signature.
So whoever the nameless intelligence officer operating Nanci is, he’s also one of the people responsible for constructing the details of our fake identity?
>SAY NANCI
(to Teresa)
As before, Teresa’s face flashes green.
“The registration process is complete. Please take your personal identification tag, then wait for assistance.”
A piece of clear plastic, looking suspiciously similar to your passport, emerges from the slot and stops halfway.
They do love to recycle. Looks like you just became a Utopia Citizen, and they didn’t even bother with an oath of allegiance. And what’s with all this escorting, waiting and procedure following? You’d think you were a piece of meat on a conveyor belt. Then again, you are being processed.
Is the implication here that our old passport was somehow melted down and recycled as our new Utopia ID in the time it took for us to complete new citizen registration?
>X TAG
Like your old Chinese passport, the Utopia Technologies ID tag is made from clear plastic, rectangular in shape, and stores a digital photograph of yours truly. The biographical information is even briefer this time around, limited to just a name and number.
Alice Wei Ling, Citizen FW-2815
>TAKE TAG
You snatch your ID tag from Teresa’s mouth, but before you can even give it a cursory glance, your “assistant” (read: impatient USF brute) shows up and directs you to an airlock. The door is closed behind you, and you hear the hiss of air repressurising.