Free Stand Against Infinity by Aaron K. Redshaw Page A

worthless.
    But Chavez had reasoned that if his worth was
only in what he could do, then as a baby he was worthless, and as
an old man he would die worthless, and he refused to believe that.
There had to be some other standard by which men might be
measured.
    Chavez put on his pack, and looked around his
apartment, small, but neatly kept. He would miss it very little.
Since all property was owned by the government he did not feel much
attachment to it. Since everything in it was bought by the work he
now disdained, he felt little attachment for that as well. In his
pack were some bricks of processed carbohydrates, vitamins, and
water. Just what he needed to get on the road.
    There was one problem with his plan, however.
He didn’t know where he was going.
     

Chapter 3
    T-5529 had been playing in her room all
evening. After coming home from her job, her mother was working
again. This meant that she had to be quiet and do her learning
games. But those games were no fun. She liked make-believe games.
Games with her imaginary friend T82. She knew that was not a proper
name. Proper names had more numbers in them, but what could she do?
She was only four.
    Her favorite game with T82 right now was “be
somewhere else.” She did not like it in her room. Not when she had
to stay there at night while her mom still worked. Didn’t her mom
just pick her up after her work? She sure was a busy woman. Always
making calls, always answering questions for other people, but not
for her.
    She began with thinking up a place. She would
be in a garden. But not like where food is grown now inside a
building. This would be an outside garden, and it would get its
water from rain. This garden was green, and had all kinds of
growing things in it. And flowers. She had seen flowers once
growing through some cracks in the pavement, and she liked the way
they looked.
    She and T82 would play in the garden. Some of
the green plants were so big that she could hide behind them, and
so could her friend. They would play hide and find. She would hide
and her friend would try to find her. First she crept up behind a
large bush that held leaves and flowers. She would hide quietly
behind it. A perfect place to hide. Here, no one could find her.
Not even her mother.
    “T-5529?” She was startled by her mother’s
voice. “What are you doing?” She opened the door and looked in.
    Should she tell her? “Playing hide and find,”
she said truthfully.
    Her mom’s eyes narrowed, and a cross look
formed on her fair face. “Is that a make-believe game? Because that
sounds like a make-believe game.”
    “Y-yes.”
    “What have I told you about make-believe
games?”
    “They don’t b-benef…“ she began.
    “They don’t benefit anyone,” said her mother,
out of patience with her foolishness. “You should be either
improving your math score on your wallscreen, or listening to the
technology news feeds. Those will be usable skills when you get
older.”
    “O-okay, mom,” she felt embarrassed now. But
then something stood up in her and she said what she felt. “But
those are not any fun.”
    Now her mom’s eyes narrowed even more and her
face turned red right up to her blonde hair. “Fun? Fun? No one will
ever get anywhere by having fun. Our world will not be made a
better place because you had fun. Do you know that?”
    She really did feel bad now. She didn’t like
feeling her mom’s stare when she was mad at her. “I will work on my
math scores.”
    “Good,” said her mom. “That is something that
will matter when you get older.”
    “Y-yes, mom.”
    Her mom left and T-5529 turned to the
wallscreen and switched it on. All the while, her imaginary friend
stayed hidden behind a clump of flowers.
     

Chapter 4
    It had been the end of a long and successful
day for H662. He loved his job, not for the work itself, but for
the feeling that he was helping society move forward into a
technological age of improvement. In fact, H662 had made