"You need to understand, Mr. Kent. Terrance is of a significantly higher standing than you, and if a suitable.. comprehension is not reached very soon, there will be consequences." Narhul, the Conflict Mediator, stated monotonously between sips of coffee.
"I wish for Terrance to properly understand where he has erred, Your Honor." Kent replied.
"I understand. I really do. But errors are a part of our existence and they impede upon productivity enough as it is. Why do you feel the need to prolong this sting to Zanzari? Any longer and it will turn into an open wound."
"You speak in metaphors."
"Yes. I do."
"That is not normal business practice, Your Honor."
"As a Conflict Mediator, my initiative is to illustrate how insignificant any individual problem is in comparison to the Greater Good, and to do so, I need to make it clear how much damage is being done. Even now as we speak, an essential outlet of productivity has been halted due to your minor strain with Mr. Terrance." Narhul almost appeared slightly emotional as he perked-up in his seat, visibly frustrated with Kent's stubborn resistance.
"Mr. Narhul, Your Honor. You must understand that I am part of the Office of Rational Interpretation. I am no measly member of the Labor Proletariat. I earned this position through my access to, and development of thought processes entirely alien to you. You must understand, as I understand, that this Department cannot reach its full productive potential with Mr. Terrance in charge. He is entirely inept for the position he fills, and keeps us significantly behind schedule due to his lack of comprehensive ability."
Narhul, noting that a promotion would be an inevitable occurrence in the event that he played a part in getting an entirely foreign Department up to its full working potential, decided to humor Kent and linger on the subject.
"And what, exactly, do you mean by his 'lack of comprehensive ability,' Mr. Kent?"
"He does not understand the way that the Order Documentation from the Upper Echelons is worded. It is too thick for his miniature brain to process. As a result, we end up carrying out the wrong order, and do not figure this out until a Detective from the Office of Labor Affairs shows up on our doorstep to inform us that our budget is being reduced due to a lack of able contribution. One more incident, and this entire Department may disintegrate or be downsized and assimilated into the Department next door, thus causing permanent and irreversible damage to the entire economic construct of Zanzari."
"'Economic construct?' You speak as if it is nothing but an illusion."
"I am no fool, Your Honor. You and I both know how superficial all of this truly is."
Narhul fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat. He was aware of this truth, but it was a truth that had always been buried at the back of his mind. A bleak opinion worth nothing at all. And now this.. this stranger.. had said it aloud as if it were worth its weight in words.
He began to drop the idea a promotion in favor of simply turning this man in for dissidence. It would gain him further credibility, and simply add to his already outstanding record.
"I suggest you cease talking in such terms, Mr. Kent. Such views are blasphemous, you know."
"I speak them only in context. I consider these circumstances to be worth the risk."
Before Narhul could reply, there was a knock on the sealed metallic door to the right of him.
Getting up from his seat, he clicked on the Intercom and said, "State your designation, serial number, profession, and your reason for being here."
"Designation: Anson. Serial number: 8254-86-K. I am an Officer of the Peace escorting a citizen to these coordinates for reasons undisclosed to me."
"Thank you, Anson. Please put the citizen on the intercom."
"Yes sir."
"Citizen, please state your designation, serial number, profession, and your reason for being here."
"Designation: Sadie. Serial number: 5375-28-N. I am a Senior Document Verificationist from the Office of Sector Administration for 81-Z, and I am here on a Z.O.I.A. Authorized Certificate of Circumstantial Intervention into the conflict involving my offspring, Designation: Kent, Serial Number: 5376-29-Q, and Mr. Terrance, head of Kent's Labor Department."
"Admission granted." Narhul announced. Opening the glass-seal to the doors security controls, Narhul punched-in a series of numbers and then pressed 'Enter.' The door hissed open and Kent looked up with seeming indifference.
"Good morning, mother. How are you?"
"I am fine." Sadie replied, wearing her falsified emotional numbness like a mask.
She breathed slowly in order to keep her heart-beat at a suitable pace. It wasn't working quite as well as she had hoped.
"Are you sure you are alright, Mrs. Sadie?" Narhul asked, placing his cup of coffee onto the small table next to him, already quite suspicious.
"I am fine, Your Honor. May we get back to business?"
"Yes.. yes, I suppose so. Take a seat."
Sadie pulled a small chair up next to Kent, and did as she was told. There was a short pause in which Sadie attempted to blank her mind before Narhul spoke.
"And what is it, exactly, that you would like to contribute to this attempt at mediation, Mrs. Sadie?"
"My input." She replied bluntly.
Narhul gave her a sharp look of perturbed annoyance. So far, he had gotten nowhere.
"And what, exactly, is your input?" He hissed.
"I must first develop a satisfactory perspective on the situation at hand, Your Honor."
"I am not here to play games, Mrs. Sadie. You can either speak now, or forever hold your peace."
Sadie had expected such a card to be played. It was not as if Zanzari was going to play fair; egalitarianism was out of the question. It was productivity that mattered.
She would have to appeal to this omnipotent, unalterable truth or she would get nowhere.
"I wish to ameliorate this dismal situation to the best of my ability."
Stupid, STUPID. she screamed at herself inside of her head. She had appealed to nothing! Simply stated what had been implied upon her arrival.
"You are beginning to sound like a member of the Labor Proletariat, Mrs. Sadie."
Her eyes began to dart back and forth. It felt as if every emotion she had ever repressed was about to burst out of her in tandem; as if she had reached some sort of crescendo in her existence.
"Tell me something, Mr. Narhul." Sadie said, nearly in a whisper.
"I.. well, what-"
"What do you think justifies all of this?"
Kent's head shot up to look at his mother in shock.
"Justifies what?"
"This.. existence. This day-to-day exploitation of our fellow human beings."
Narhul stood up from his chair. "Mrs. Sadie, I'm afraid I'm going to have to escort you out-"
Crack.
Narhul lurched backwards, hitting his spine against the armrest of the chair he had previously been sitting in. Grasping onto his broken nose in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding with one hand, Narhul grasped onto the chair to his right with the other and made an attempt to pull himself up, his back pulsing with pain as he did so.
Sadie watched him.
That poor wretch of a man, she thought.
Just as he was about to hoist himself up, she kicked him in the left side of the rib cage as hard as she could. He yelped in pain, still holding his nose, but detached himself from the chair, almost voluntarily allowing himself to drop to the floor into order to tend to his injured side.
Significantly muffled beneath the obstruction of his hand, Narhul yelled, "MRS. SADIE, YOU ARE UNDER ARREST BY ORDER OF THE ZANZARI OFFICE OF INTERNAL AFFA-"
THUD.
The metal chair that Sadie had been sitting on came crashing down on Narhul's head and upper body. It took Sadie a moment to register the fact that it hadn't been her this time, and her eyes shot up to see Kent breathing hard between gritted teeth, a look of almost unnatural rage etched across his face.
"Kent-"
"I feel, mother. I feel." and almost as soon as it had appeared, that look of unnatural rage melted into tears of desperate fear and anguish, and Kent launched his arms around his mother and began to sob uncontrollably into her shoulder.
It took Sadie a moment to realize what was going on, but as soon as she did, she embraced her son in kind.
"I've.. I've been studying our society." Kent spoke between sobs.
"And I have too much to say, but not enough time."
Sadie simply listened, tears beginning to stream down her face as she held her son even closer.
"All I can say to describe it is this.. I love you, mother. I love you so much."
Sadie began to cry as well, and she began to stroke the back of Kent's head. Something about this was liberating. It was as if the entire world simply faded away into some sort of distant nightmare.
It was as if everything was false but this.
"I love you to, son. More than anything in this world of ours. More than.."
She paused for a moment, aware of the fact that what she was about to say was a death sentence.
"I love you more than I ever loved Zanzari."
The lights suddenly shut off, and they were left in pitch darkness, holding one another. Narhul could be heard returning to consciousness once again and, as such, he began to moan in severe pain.
"Aaaahhh." he wailed.
No words. Simply wailing. He was in unbelievable pain, but..
Sadie felt as if his wailing liberated her even further. She had freed him from numbness.
She had made him feel something. Something tangible and real.
It seemed so distant, the sound of the Peace Officers demanding surrender from outside the shut door.
It seemed so distant as they counted to 4.
It seemed so distant, even as the force and heat of the explosion swept across her and Kent, throwing them in unison to the ground.
She knew they could have simply opened the door. It was a fear tactic they had used in blowing it up.
And in one final act of rebellion, Sadie refused to be afraid.
As if their minds resided in the same body, Kent whispered, "Mother, I'm not afraid.. I'm not afraid anymore."
She didn't say a word in response. She simply continued to stroke the back of his head.
His hair was so soft, she noted.
So soft.
"Stand up, hands on your head, Citizen. Let go of one another slowly."
It was still dark, save for the epileptic movement of red-dots from the Peace Officer's weapons and the faint glow of light emitting from where the door had once been.
"You have"
"Your father"
"Until the count"
"Would be proud"
"Of three."
"Of us." Sadie whispered.
"Yes.. yes he would be." Kent whispered back.
"One,"
"I wish I could have told him how much I loved him."
"Two,"
"I think he knew, Kent."
Sadie opened her eyes and looked up into the barrel of the gun placed 3 inches from her face.
"I know he knew."
"Three."
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