THE REVOLUTION by Isaac Klein

(an unfinished story)

How I changed my life, and helped change the world order

There once was a time when a world like this would be unimaginable. A time when such a thing as a technocracy was a radical fringe idea. Some say that the industrial revolution itself was a mistake. But everyone knows that they are just old geezers afraid of change. This life we live may not be perfect but it might be better than the alternative,  MIGHT. Most people, though, don't mind. After all, what can we do to change it? But me? I’m just a normal guy, caught in the crossfire of life. My name is Almo Gavara, and this is the story of how I helped THE REVOLUTION.

  As I said, my name is Almo Gavara, at the time I worked at Alchemy facility number 313, just 8 miles from the center of that great metropolis we once called Orion city. My job back then was to mix together the necessary chemicals to create certain potions for various uses, ranging from cleaning supplies to flavoring. It may not have been the greatest job in the world, but it was an interesting one, you got to meet a lot of people, some of whom were nice. And you learned a lot about alchemy, the pay may not have been great, but for a 28 year old version of me it was enough. My life was far from perfect, I mean nobody likes the fact that they can get bought out around 3000 times by someone half their age and they would still have enough money to live a very comfortable life. And I knew that it went the same for just about everyone, but I guess according to the big guy, the only part of everyone that mattered was the upper 1.2%. Anyway, I didn’t mind, it wasn't my job. That was for the unionists. The first unionists were people who took a look around and said “things aren't great, and I’m gonna finally do something about it!” Sounds nice doesn't it, yeah well for them doing something about it meant killing everyone in that special 1.2%, and doing a fine job of pissing off anyone in that 1.2% and everyone who doesn’t like the idea of killing that 1.2%. Anyway, nobody but the unionists actually questioned the system, or at least they were the only ones who said anything about it. 

It all started as a normal day, I got up at 6:30 to get into my work uniform. By 7:00 I was ready for breakfast, I took a roll out of the pantry, and ate it as I packed my briefcase. By 7:15 I was on the steam train, and by 7:45 I got off and walked the remaining seven minutes to work. I got there at 7:52, 8 minutes early. Back then overtime was encouraged and many people took it, though you didn’t get paid much more. I didn’t really care about getting overtime though, because today was payday, every two weeks we would be handed a jumble of coins, and paper money  to spend as we like. I heard though, that for class 10 and up they were now giving special pieces of paper out on payday, with alchemy, and that you could go to the bank and turn the pieces of paper in for money, and that they could only be turned in by the person who it was originally given to, and that it uses a bunch of complicated alchemy. Anyway, that doesn't matter, after all the idea that they would spend that kind of effort on us was ridiculous. 

“Hey, Almo!” said my friend Archer Laughven, I had met Archer when I was 17 during our necessary schooling years, afterwards we had gotten the same job, and have been friends ever since.

“What” I said

“Didn’t  you hear what happened?”

“No, what happened?” I said.

“ There was a unionist attack on an airship over Stelwave! A Unionist broke in, and let out poisonous gasses, killing the whole upper class compartment, but before he did that, he detached the upper class blimp from the rest of the airship, even the minor servant compartments!”  He said in between long breathes

“What happened to the unionist who broke in?” I asked

“He died, sacrificed his life for the cause.” said Archer. Just as I was about to say something the work bell rang and we went in. Everyone immediately rushed to their work station and began working. I went to my station and began mixing the chemicals. Among the many chemicals there was one that stood out, a cooling bottle of Rubicard. For those who don't know, Rubicard is a very powerful potion that is only used for war, and can be used to bring down a few hundred men. The potion is used only as a last resort in many cases. Though later I would learn what they were planning to use the Rubicard for. The hard way. Anyway, I  didn’t think about it much, I just continued working. Now, I know that these days it may seem a little hard to comprehend but back then, before the revolution we didn’t have breaks. It was a ten day work week working 10 hours a day with no break in between. If you got hungry, which many did before you got off, then you better pray you could find some food. Some people brought food in with them and ate it while they worked, but god help you because if you were caught slacking off while eating or taking a break from work well. Let's just say it wasn’t pretty.  

Anyway it all started around 2 pm. Nobody has a good explanation for it, but it's not really the explanation that matters. It all came from the alleyway, that's where we heard it. And this is what it was.

“No please I'm not a unionist I never was I never had anything to do with them!” the man yelled. Then we heard another voice, a harder deeper voice.

“Stop lying Unionist fesak! Now tell me what do you know about the airship attack?” the second man said

“ I tell you, I don't know anything about it, i've never even talked to a unionist, much less collaborated in one of their plots, please please spare me, i've got a 

wife and children!” the first man said, almost screaming as he pleaded for his life. I don't think I have to tell you what happened next. 

After the gun shot the whole workplace fell silent. Stuff like this did happen, it was part of life but it generally happened in an interrogation room, or somewhere else, a place where nobody could hear it happening. And generally, or at least in our imaginations it always happened to actual unionists, that the people didn’t beg for their lives. We knew it happened but not like that not like that. We were all scared from that incident. We didn't know what to think about it. Our life wasn’t perfect, far from it, and we knew that the regime wasn’t the greatest or the kindest. But we didn’t think that it was brutal and repressive, strict maybe. But as long as you kept your head down and didn't complain where it could be heard, nothing bad would happen to you. The only people being actively repressed and hunted down were the unionists, and that was the path they chose. These things just didn’t happen to normal civilians. Looking back on my life I would say that there were three moments that drove me to the unionists. This was the first. 

After that moment of shock our managers yelled at us to get back to work, and the hubbub and clatter of the office resumed. But it wasn’t the same, it would never be the same. To this day 36 years later I still have nightmares about that fateful day.