Belzin Cathat
- The Way of the Lonk
Belzin Cathat opened their eyes reluctantly to the brightness of the morning sun. It was late April in Alberta, and the mornings were rapidly arriving earlier and earlier. They rolled out of bed, padded over to the bathroom, urinated, and put on their lonk. There was still a little time before the commute over to the refinery, where Belzin supervised a crew of Mash; enough time for some breakfast and Metoing before work. They slew a few dragons and said hi to a few peers, and heard a little news about their favorite Sumpsti before coming back to Gido and motoring off to work.
Now, a few of the words in the previous paragraph should probably be explained to folks living prior to the Martian emigration era. Firstly and most importantly, lonk. A lonk is a wearable device that projects a responsive, interactive hologram concealing the appearance and voice of the wearer. In the time of this story, in most developed countries a lonk is like underclothing in that no one removes it in any setting save for the most intimate and private. It is unlike clothing in that it does not protect or warm the wearer in any way. The wearing of a lonk is not required by law, but everyone in civilized society does. It’s just weird not to. There are a handful of fringe groups and deviants who go lonkless, but it would be almost the equivalent of a nudist or anarchist movement in our times…generally undesirable and looked down upon. With a lonk worn and powered on, a human has no gender, no ethnicity, no age other than 13+, no sex, no body type, and no race to anyone but their immediate family (and, ostensibly, anyone who has seen them naked). The image the lonk projects is something like an elegant statue: luminous, graceful, of a uniform height and build, and beautiful yet androgenous in all respects. The better lonks even have automatic word usage corrections and movement adjustors, along with the standard auto-translators and background-projecting “shrink/swellers” that hide excess height or weight or (if needed) add height or bulk to the wearer. All lonks are communication devices as well as projectors (and identification), taking the wearer to the virtual or online world (Meto) on command in a flash, and bringing them back to Gido (the physical world) just as quickly. The same lonk appears on the wearer in Meto (usually) that is worn in Gido, although anything is possible for a price, just as it is now. Everyone’s pronouns are they/them, and everyone’s name ends in the neutral “-in”.
One thing (probably the only thing) the lonk makes immediately apparent is the wearer’s socio-economic class. The Sumpsti are the highest class more or less equivalent to our celebrities, leaders, pro athletes and others regularly in the news. Sumpsti lonks are the skin color of glowing caramel mocha with dazzling white teeth, perfect jet-black hair, and the trendiest clothes, although the more flamboyant Sumpsti such as famous artists and musicians are allowed to sport more daring designs. The Pefelsti are the prominent scientists, lawyers, and businesspeople of the world more or less equivalent to our white-collar class (although there are relatively few of them in Belzin’s time). Pefelsti lonks are typically a subdued but nonetheless radiant gold, silver, or copper, and usually feature generously-cut, flowing robes. The Kevult (of which Belzin and almost every human on Earth is a member) are basically the working class, and the overwhelming majority of the work has to do with maintaining, managing, and repairing Mash (robots, although the term Mash also applies to any machine or artificial intelligence). The Kevult wear lonks that are typically simple, blocky, and composed of primary colors, although some Kevult lonks are the most beautiful, inventive, and clever of all. Mash are strictly forbidden from the wearing of lonks, or from affirmatively impersonating a human in any other way…any Mash who break this law or do not immediately identify as Mash upon request (in either Gido or Meto) are subject to instant destruction without trial, and aiding or abetting a Mash in such a charade carries a life sentence for humans.
In other words, the human world is strictly off-limits to Mash with the exception of labor provided directly to humans.
Bike Newbie 