good morning. to everyone here and everyone watching on etherscreen, welcome to the community address. today i'm coming to you from sector four. for those of you here with sugar quotas, let me recommend the french toast. i just tried some and it's excellent, really. but i know what everyone's hungry for s o let's move on to the lottery. as always the draw will be made from our host sector. so tell me, sector four - is everyone ready for the daily spin?
let the spin begin.
starkweather two-delta! step up!
well , starkweather, if you're watching on etherscreen - your time has come, my friend! you're moving out to the island! and the rest of you, never lose hope; what do we know about the daily spin?
an d tomorrow it could be you.
yes . please, take a seat. he taps a button. the glass wall frosts over. it's unnerving but lincoln stays deadpan, moving the chair before taking a seat. merrick reviews the etherboard: lincoln's headshot s p i n n i n g in 3d w i t h a scroll of data. then he looks up, forming a smile-
how ' s lincoln six-echo today?
e v e r y t h i n g going okay?
why do you say that?
i'm not sure i deserve such a negative association. my job's only to see that you're happy. that everything's okay.
i t sounds like you don't believe me.
i t ' s part of your makeup. to challenge things. to question what's around you.
p e r h a p s you can utilize that facility by helping me solve a little puzzle. lincoln shifts, feeling uneasy. merrick consults the etherboard-
you're doing well in most areas - pro- f i c i e n t a t work, exercising rigorously, your last medical puts you in excellent condition. but screening's picked up some deviations. trace levels, changes in your sleep pattern.  i see you've also been burning up your quotas.
no.
the r e are parameters, lincoln. when someone starts straying from those parameters, we need to find out why.
because you - not just you, all of our residents - are special. because people like me don't get to go to the island.
s o tell me, have you noticed any changes in yourself?
what about your sleep pattern? you feel you've been sleeping properly?
l e t me put it another way, when you wake up, do you feel.  disrupted?
r e s t l e s s , disoriented, uneasy.
they're all words in your vocabulary. i know you understand what they mean. lincoln ' s jaw clenches, patronized. merrick notes this, resumes-
quotas . . . nutrition. do you feel like you want more than you're given?
do you have any difficulty staying focused? at work, for instance?
h a v e you been experiencing feelings, sensations you don't quite understand?
do you sometimes feel agitated for no apparent reason? frustrated, angry.
an g r y ? you feel angry?
when exactly do you feel angry?
i'm going to order some tests at the medical center. in the meantime, i'd like you to stay away from stimulants - protein, sugar, caffeine.
but i know you can get around them.
i'm asking you to cooperate. not for my sake, lincoln, but for your own.
the r e is one other thing. you have a female friend. "ester". your file shows you've been interacting regularly.
o f course not. we encourage interaction in the hope it'll be of mutual benefit. but given these deviations.  let's just say proximity becomes an issue.
the rules of proximity apply to sexual contact, lincoln. in this case it goes deeper than that. ester is entering h e r second trimester. a time of change and emotional confusion. further inter- a c t i o n might be.  unhealthy for you. lincoln , patronized, looks away. this pill he won't swallow.
an d for ester - well, she has only six months left to delivery. then she'll move out to the island and whatever ties she has here will be broken.
g o o d . now i'm also going to refill your pleasure quota. it may help to settle you down a little.
i'm not sure you do. but i think you'll do what's right, lincoln. you may not trust me. but i trust you.
k a r l . . . welcome back.
j u s t a histamine reflex. your system's readjusting to the sterile environment.
yes , well i cut short your leave for a reason. i take it you've been briefed?
his name is starkweather two-delta. he dropped off the ether two days ago. at first we thought it was a system error. then we found this in a garbage chute.
that's right.
t h a t was entirely different. the product suffered a head injury.
we don't know. he just disappeared.
he's a code two, karl. a low functioner.
the y don't function mentally, they don't function physically - you know that.
i f you bothered to read the clone laws, you'd realize we have no choice in the matter. the virtual humanity statutes accord them a set of freedoms. all we can do is prescribe the limits. and even those are subject to regulation. scope of knowledge, range of activity, even their speech patterns. the law requires that what is of human origin be provided with human characteristics.
the ether shows no attempts on the boundary. he's here, karl. but for some reason, your men seem unable to find him. it's your job to contain the products. i'd like you to do it, okay?
j u s t after starkweather went missing, his sponsor placed an order. an order we can't fill. damn right i'm sensitive.
j a m i l starkweather . . . last week he sustained a hepatic trauma resulting in liver hemorrhage. in medical terms, we have maybe a few weeks. in legal terms, we're already o n borrowed time.  an d karl?
there's nothing going on, karl.
what's your point?
you're jumping to conclusions.
q u a l i t y control is not your concern.
that's not what i said.
it's not an exact science - biogenesis. there's a degree of trial and error. if the agnate doesn't come together on the first pass, we have to abort and start over. it's like breaking inertia. the bioreactor, the growth medium - we just keep upping the levels till we achieve integration. at which stage the agnate is deemed physically stable. we rely on foundation to provide mental stability - matching the templates to their capacity but walling it in with parameters. when signs of instability started to show up, it pointed to foundation. a hole in the wall, an oversight. but it was only happening in the later generat- ions . which pointed back to biogenesis.
actually the opposite. we found out in the later generations, the levels were so high that when we broke inertia, the process kept going. over-integrating. specifically the neural system. it produced a condition called synesthesia.
a fusion of the senses, creating a component awareness. sixth sense, s e c o n d sight, whatever you want to call it. its emergence seems to be arbitrary. but it gives them experiences beyond their functional parameters. and ultimately.  it destabilizes them. however, if we catch it early enough we can control it with re-conditioning.
you find this amusing?
poetic?
this stays between you and me, karl. i trust i can rely on your cooperation?
remind me, why is it you were discharged from the military?
learn to be a team player, karl. or you'll find yourself out of another job.
thank you for coming out here.
first, let me stress there's no way we could have anticipated what happened.
we'v e lost two of our products. they escaped containment last night.
we'r e still piecing it together.
to answer your question, we condition our products with a deterrent. a fear of contamination. and thereby of the outer environment. so to escape, they first have to escape their conditioning.
well, in our favor, they've never been outside containment. they'd have no coordinates, no sense of direction.
they're in the middle of the desert. food and water become an issue.
possibly.
a few days maybe. but there is another variable. we maintain the products in a sterile environment. so basically their immune systems are untested. toxins, pathogens, environmentals t h e rest of us overcome routinely, to them.
well . . . the male, we could cover. fast- track another generation before the sponsor ever needed access. the female comes under the maternity plan. she's three months pregnant. even if we fast- tracked another generation, we couldn't fast-track the pregnancy. we'd miss the delivery date, the sponsor would wonder why and there would be.  difficulties.
i just don't think we should under- estimate them. especially the male.
bad news.
the male agnate tracked him down.
i told her, henry. about synesthesia.
we had no choice, karl. we had to keep this away from the institute.
your resignation papers. maybe `early retirement' would be more accurate.
t e n platinum bounty - if you sign the papers, their loss becomes your gain.
you understand that whatever happens, the institute must be able to deny it.
we use a chemical to dispose of waste product. it's called di-halcyonate. i t reacts on a molecular level to start a process of internal combustion. the subject is incinerated from the inside out. in post-mortem application it's done its job before rigor mortis. in a live subject, well.  you can imagine.
i t ' s a little more complicated than that. we have to be very.  thorough. if you still have it in you, that is.
i don't know.
s o you wear it is a badge of honor?
you'll find a vehicle parked outside. it's unregistered, difficult to trace. i take it we have an agreement?
an d it's a terrible loss.
e t h e r c o n ! ether control, come in!
an y o n e ! somebody pick up!
how wide is this going?