“Allrighty, lets see now. You. Go fit between those two tens up on the twelfth story.” Without so much as a pause, the large cube began to levitate upwards before settling itself between the two larger cubes on the twelfth floor. There, it quickly melded with its surroundings, creating an invisible seam. “Aint this great Phil? These new models are so advanced! None of those pesky control pads to carry around, and you’d never know what the final product is made of!”
“Yeah Joe. It’s sorta like in those weird fantasy books from when we were kids. You know the ones, where everything was made from strangely shaped parts instead of uniform shapes.”
“Yeah, I remember those. Weird stuff,” he trailed off, thinking back to his childhood.
“Honestly, I can’t imagine why anyone would want something to look so unique. Nothing could ever be produced in decent quantities to supply the masses if lots of different versions were being made.”
“You’re right Phil. People would have to waste so much time trying to decide which version they wanted that productivity would be unacceptably low.
“Exactly! And then it wouldn’t be cost effective to upgrade things as new equipment came out because it would have taken so long to create the original.”
Phil ordered another cube into position. It slowly rose off the ground and fell into position near the others. The floor was nearly complete.
“This conversation reminds me of a game my son plays. Like all the other developers, they have been releasing refined versions of their game for years. Yet all of a sudden, they decided to try something new. They said it would be ‘groundbreaking’ in the field, and that they were scrapping development of their other game.”
“Oh no. You must be joking.”
“Not one bit. They wouldn’t sway from their plan to spend years on a new game until they almost had their funding pulled away from them. Can you imagine? They wanted to spend upwards of 6 years with no revenue just to ‘try’ some crazy new concept. And then, no one would end up liking it I’ll bet!”
“That’s ridiculous! I’m glad they were brought to their senses. Oh, look at the time! Joe, we’d better finish this section if we wanna get outa here before the rush. You know how packed the solid-states get on these holiday weekends.”
“Right Phil. You three, get up there and finish off the floor,” motioning to another set of large cubes on the ground nearby. The cubes silently moved into position and completed the floor. Like clockwork, the whole group began to pulsate with a strange light; each time they dimmed, the mass of cubes looked slightly different. Slowly, they began to morph into their final shape as the twelfth floor of the new office building.
“Oh good, they’ve already begun to calibrate. Let’s go Joe. We can finish off the last two floors after the weekend.”
And with that, the two packed up their things and began to walk toward the exit of the jobsite, the new floor pulsating behind them. Several other crews were still working, trying to finish small tasks before the weekend began. On one side was a group doing the same job to another new building. Elsewhere, a single man was switching out a defective cube. Unlike with a new installation, only the single cube pulsated this time. With each successive pulse, the cube grew duller and the seams around it began to appear. Finally, it ceased its glowing and began to descend to the ground, leaving a large gap in the building. The worker was already busy sending another cube into place, where the soft glow began anew. This sort of work was happening all over the cube shaped business sector.
“Hey Phil, I was thinking. Remember those old kid’s books you were talking about a little while back?”
“Yeah. What about ‘em?”
“Well I was just thinking about ‘em. I mean, can you imagine some of that stuff? Putting things together by hand, and all of those weird shapes! It’s unthinkable.”
“Some people claim that’s how everything was millennia ago, y’know.”
“Yeah, well, those people are crazy. Remember, those are the historians who claim other crazy ideas. How about those suggestions that people used to waste large amounts of space just for conveying machines. What were they called again?”
“Automated-mobiles or something strange like that. But I agree with you, it’s a really stupid idea. Why would anyone waste all that space to move around in a machine when they could just as easily go to the nearest solid-state hyper terminal?”
The two friends turned out of the work area, and into a more finished area of the district. Around them, businessmen were moving in and out of buildings, each building exactly the same as the next; gigantic cubes built tightly together to promote the best use of available space. The only space not occupied by the cube buildings held a grid of small walkways for people to move about. There was nothing in sight but more of the same tall cubes.
“Imagine, Joe, if these buildings weren’t all uniform. Imagine that each was built as a unique and creative entity. Nothing would ever work as well as it does. You would have people sitting around all day trying to come up with these crazy ideas. You would have to look at all of the strange shapes and colors. And people like us wouldn’t have a job!”
“How do you figure that?”
“Well, nothing could be made with the cubes. Everything would have to be made like in those stories, where a lot of random parts were used. We would have to waste time going to some sort of school to learn how to make them go together instead of going to the seminars for the cubes. Everything would be a huge waste of time and money!”
“When you explain it like that, I guess I see what you mean. If those crazy historians are right about the way things worked so long ago, it’s a wonder we ever got to this point. People must have had to work really had to get all of that un-uniform creativity out of their systems!”
As he said that, the two men approached Business District Sehn-625’s hyperspace terminal.
“Yeah. Thank the great maker that we live now instead of then.”
They entered the terminal, and put their left hands into the nearest power slots. After keying in their addresses, the slots hummed, charging the miniature hyperspace cores on their hands. Shortly, the symbol on the front dimmed, indicating that the devices were ready for use.
“Well Joe, I’ll see you tonight. Say hi to the wife for me, and tell her I’m looking forward to that pie of hers,” Phil remarked with a smile.
“Will do bud, See you in a bit,” and with that, Joe activated his core. Instantly, a sliver of purple light formed in front of him, and slowly began to expand into a plane that would encompass his entire body. It began to move toward him, and soon he had disappeared into subspace. The plane of light moved past where he once stood, and quickly shrank back into nonexistence.
Phil watched his friend leave and then, still chuckling to himself about “automated-mobiles,” activated his own hyperspace core, just like many other people were doing around him.
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