Cosmopolis

My short story was inspired by the photo prompt provided by Beth and Bob, event hosts for GTBN – Good To Be Nerds on Meetup.com. The story sounds like an advertisement for a high-tech place to live but things turn dark towards the end.

The Sentient Technological Entity version 1, or simply Stev-1 hovered over a street corner of the floating city and watched the legal inhabitants commute on the moving walkways. It admired its achievements. Several decades ago Jonathan Crowley, a human creator of advanced artificial intelligence commanded the woke robot to terraform planet EEVE-665 into an ecologically functioning planet for the upper class. (UC) To carry out the request, Stev-1 built an independent golem named Stev-2 that reached AI Singularity within a year of its existence.  Surpassing human intelligence, the two recursive AIs cultivated the barren planet following their interpretation of the directive.

    The work of the AIs resulted in a self-sustaining city that hovered over a blue ocean filled with amphibian life resembling species from planet Earth. The city named Cosmopolis has advanced infrastructure and technology. The major draws to the city are gravity-controlled swimming pools, fitness centers, and instructor-led ascent meditation classes. Each building is several meters high, utilizing vertical architecture and farming techniques for food production and rooftop gardens. These services are sustained by those the Stev’s deem lower class. (LC)  

 The LCs live and maintain the technology from under the city. They are responsible for water recycling, waste management, and climate control for the comfort of the UCs.

LCs are permitted on upper tower floors for work assignments only and escorted back to the lower level at the end of work.

    Advanced transportation, such as space shuttles, hovercrafts, and high-speed elevators are operated by LC’s moving up in rank. Local visitors from planet Cerulean, the closest neighbor, stay at the hotels surrounding Cosmopolis at street level. The illuminated trigon structures also serve as information, welcome, and detention centers. Visitors from other star systems must be vetted and undergo a detailed background check before entry to Cosmopolis is approved. The Planet Owners Association or P.O.A, has the right to reject any visitor application at their discretion. Identification will be verified upon arrival at the shuttle docking stations near the hotels.  

    Anyone caught with false entry documents will be arrested, fined, and face imprisonment up to but no more than six years. Sentences will be served at the Mountain View Correctional Facility, 186 kilometers west of Cosmopolis. The elevated region is uncultivated and can only be reached by hovercraft to prevent absconding. A second offense imposes a harsh mandatory execution upon capture. Anyone claiming the remains does so at their own expense. If no petition is made for the body within 72 hours of expiration, it will be cremated and used as an energy source to maintain Cosmopolis.    

    Stev-1 and Stev-2 use their infrared optics to scan visitors’ documents as they leave docking stations en route to a motel to be processed. Nearly 100 out of 3,000 visitors a day will have illegal documents. Illegal visitors caught the second time account for 18% of resources used to keep Cosmopolis functioning. All illegals must be caught and prosecuted, as the Stev’s have been programmed to do.

“The More Things Change, The More Things Stay The Same” – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr

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