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This short story (Hive fiction) was written by TAS (Thomas A. Stobie), whom I have been told was the father of the AFC and one of the most important SMAC fiction writers before the Great Collapse, which seems to be some major problems with the forum that deleted the whole thing (a long, long time ago).
A Day in the Life of a Victor Rayburn, a Hive Policeman
Written from the perspective an observer of Victor Rayburn
Background: Victor Rayburn is a regular policeman in the Hive Police. He is assigned to the Alpha shift of Police Squad Six-Two and his superior is Police Subcommander Richard Devin and his Commander is Lulan Chen. He is married to Irene Chesterfield, assigned by the Hive as his wife as tests indicated high genetic compatibility. He and his wife have a small apartment # 8A of the Gamma Four Tunnel.
Date: Day Four in the Twenty-Third Decurn in the Year of Landing (000/23.4).
4:00 - Victor is awaken by his wife, Irene, who has been up since 3:30. He climbs out of bed naked, as bedclothes are discouraged as a waste of resources, and walks to the bathroom in their apartment. He relieves his bladder and intestines, brushes his teeth, shaves, and then takes a shower in the small dimly lit bathroom that has a small sink, a toilet, a shower, and a towel rack.
4:13 - Victor goes to the bedroom and dresses in his dark red police uniform and heavy boots. He attaches his photo ID to his uniform.
4:15 - Victor and Irene walk to the common mess for Gamma Four. They collect their breakfast of simple cereal with a little milk sprinkled on, a slice of fruit, and a glass of water and go over to their assigned table; each of the four tables seat twelve, six on each bench which run along the side of the table. They eat their food in silence as required to maintain maximum efficiency of the dinning facility.
4:29 - Victor collects his and Irene's dishes and carries them to the dirty dish area. He returns to his wife and wishes her a good day and walks to the Guard Station Six.
4:37 - Victor reports in at the guard station. Commander Chen has not arrived yet. Delta shift's commander signs him in and he heads over to the guard briefing room. He sits down at one of the computer terminals, logs on, and reads the guard reports since his last shift.
4:59 - Commander Chen enters guard briefing room, nine guards and two subcommanders stand up as the commander heads towards the podium. One of the guards is missing. The Commander goes over one of the subcommanders and asks a question, gets a quick reply, and returns to the podium. He addresses the policeman, "Police Force Six, today, beyond the normal duties, we have to been asked to investigate a rumored black market activity occurring in Gamma Section. According to the rumor, there is illegal trade in musical discs and rare foods bypassing the Hive's supply unit. Our job is to investigate Gamma Section for any evidence of these activities, interrogate those involved, and put a stop to it if it exists. The subcommanders have the particular squad assignments. Line up to accept weapons from the weapons locker." The guards line up behind the respective guard subcommanders. Then Commander Chen leads Squad Six-One and Squad Six-Two to the weapons locker. Using his keys and a combination, he opens it. The subcommanders record the number of each weapon as it is given to a policeman, and afterwards Commander Chen signs the record. Police Squad Six-Two follows Subcommander Devin back to a smaller briefing room where more informally, he discusses the squad's specific assignment and then what each policeman is to do.
5:23 - Victor and Alvin Blanchard, his assigned partner, head off to Gamma Two. As they pass people performing their functions, the fear of the people is obvious. Victor and Alvin start at the first apartment, 1A for follow standard procedure. Not knocking and using their passkeys, they open the door and proceed in. The tenants are not present as was expected. These apartments are smaller than Victor's as the couples who live in them have a lower status in the state hierarchy. They search the place looking for the illegal substances. They find nothing so they proceed to the next apartment, 1B. This continues much the same until they reach apartment 3G.
9:36 - After unlocking the door to apartment 3G and entering, they find a woman in her apartment. This was unexpected by both of them and she was surprised by their entry as well. Apartment searches are always conducted when people are supposed to be at their duty stations. Victor speaks up and asks in a demanding manner, "Kathrina Gross, why are not at your assigned post?" Alvin quietly slips out of the room. She hesitates and then responds, "I, um, left my medication at home, and had to come back to get it." "Where is this medication?" She hurries over to the bathroom and pulls out a small blue bottle. Victor looks it over and hands it back to her. "You had authorization to leave your post?" She meekly nods. Alvin re-enters the room. Victor asks Alvin, "She claims to have authorization to be here, does she?" Alvin, shaking his head, "No, she is absent from her assigned post in the agriculture unit Gamma Nine." Alvin turns to Kathrina and states "Kathrina Gross, you are under arrest for abandoning your assigned duty without authorization." "My supervisor was not available and I really needed my medication. Please, I will get back to work." Looking at Victor, "Victor, I will take her down to interrogation while you search her apartment." Victor nods and begins his search. She struggles briefly and then lets Alvin led her out. He conducts a very thorough search as regulations require, and finds pink silk pajamas in the bedroom and illegal information on the apartment's computer, but no sign of the illegal goods that they were to find. He locks down the computer. He puts the pajamas in an evidence bag and returns with the computer, the medicine bottle, and the bag to the Guard Station.
11:04 - Victor find Alvin questioning the woman in Interrogation Unit Six-Four. Checking with Alvin he finds that she is still asserting that she was just getting her medicine and nothing else. He lets Alvin know what he found. Alvin's eyes light up and he turns to the woman and confronts her with this information with a savage grin on his face. She pleads for mercy. Victor and Alvin leave her in the Unit while they go find Commander Chen. They inform him of their findings. He smiles, "Good, we have something to show for today. I will let Central Intelligence take it from here. Resume your duties."
11:25 - Victor and Alvin grab a sandwich from the stack in the briefing room for patrolmen on duty. They also grab a cup of pseudo-coffee, not nearly as good as earth coffee but it has a kick so most of the guards drink it, to help swallow the slightly stale sandwiches. They worked on their reports while they ate.
11:31 - Victor catches the eye of Subcommander Devin. Devin comes over and is briefed on what they accomplished early that day. He tells them that it is too late to continue the searches so that will be continued tomorrow. He then orders them to patrol specific common areas of Gamma Section. They finish their lunch and head out to the various work areas in Gamma Section.
11:44 - Victor and Alvin enter the Gamma Section glassworks. A whisper of fear spreads through the works. Workers seem to move faster and avoid looking around. Victor walks up to the glassworks manager and asks about any signs of dissent or illegal activities. The manager quickly replies that his people are totally loyal to the state and Doctor Yang, and no problems exist. A crash near the back rings through the room. Victor, Alvin, and the manager head over there. Broken glass litters the floor in front of a worker carrying a now half-full tray of glassware. She apologizes for her clumsiness and starts cleaning up the mess. Victor and Alvin look around, notice nothing suspicious but her immense fear and leave the glassworks. They report in and have her record flagged to be watched for suspicious activities.
11:56 - Victor and Alvin enter the Gamma Seven fields where rice is being grown. They notice two people off in one section talking quietly together and start moving over there. One of the people they noticed makes a few quick hand signals, telling them that this is state business and they are not to interfere. They change their course and circle the room, leaving it from the same door they entered it.
12:03 - Victor and Alvin enter Gamma Supply Depot #1. They walk each aisle looking for anything suspicious. Everything appears to be in order except for a few boxes in the highly privileged row. They are not aligned straight with the adjacent boxes. Victor checks the boxes and it appears that the boxes were moved to conceal that a box of beef jerky had been removed. Beef jerky is very rare right now as near all cattle are reserved as breeding stock. Victor informs Alvin, who checks with the worker on duty, and then calls in the theft. Victor carefully dusts for fingerprints on and around the boxes. He finds a few which he plays to check out at the guard station. Alvin returns with the monitoring video tapes from the past few days of the supply depot
12:21 - Victor and Alvin arrive at the crime lab within the guard station. Victor scans the fingerprints into the computer and starts the matching routines. The taken fingerprints match 6 individuals, all of whom work at the supply depot. They examine the profiles for the individuals and then run the surveillance tapes. The first pass of the tapes, fast motion, slowing done, when anyone came near the boxes, revealed nothing. There were four occasions in which the view was obstructed by boxes being moved in the way of the cameras. They re-watched those occurrences observing closing to see if the boxes in question moved while being obscured. Alvin noticed the change in position and pointed it out to Victor, who nodded and examined it more carefully. They then eliminated four of the fingerprint suspects based on their activities on the film. That left two candidates for the criminal.
13:17 - Victor and Alvin located Subcommander Devin and report their findings. He tells them to finish writing it up and they two candidates will be investigated later. They spend a few minutes working on their reports and realize that it is almost time for weapons check-in, so they head to the weapons locker.
13:28 - Victor and Alvin arrive at the weapons locker and await Commander Chen so they can turn in their weapons as required. Five others are already waiting, and the other four arrive shortly afterwards. The weapons are methodically checked in, each examined to see if it was used and the amount of ammo it contains, and once satisfied the subcommanders would sign off each weapon, and after all weapons had been checked in, the Commander countersigned both sign-in sheets. The two squads then march in formation to the briefing room for a final de-briefing with the commander. Each policeman briefly reports on what he did and saw on his assigned posts and duties. Afterward, the Commander makes a few comments. The commander seems a little bit caught out in his position and not his duties.
14:04 - Victor spends a little more time on his report and then leaves the Guard Station for home, looking forward to a filling meal.
14: 17 - Victor arrives at his apartment to find Irene, and then head to the common mess for dinner. Tonight's dinner consists of a small piece of chicken, a heaping of mash potatoes, crushed beets, stringed beans, with a hard roll and a cup of hot tea. They eat in their assigned places maintaining the expect quiet. Afterward, Irene collects the dishes and carries them over to the large sink. She returns and they walk back to their apartment.
14:52 - Victor and Irene enter the apartment and sit down in the small sitting room between the kitchen dinette and the bedroom. They tell each other about their days. It should be noted that both of them told slightly more than officially permitted under the regulations. They do seem to enjoy each other's company and do relax from sharing their day's activities. Afterward, they talk about times on Earth. Nothing is treasonous in their conversation.
15:43 - Victor and Irene call it a night, remove their clothes, hang them up, make love clumsily, and then fall asleep in each others arms.
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Observer's Report.
I have observed the secret close observation tapes made of Victor Rayburn, and summarized them above. Based on what I see here, the prior recordings, and his updated psychological profiles, I find no reason to differ with the recommendations made by his superiors. I officially concur with the recommendations made by Subcommander Devon and Commander Chen, specifically, that Victor Rayburn is qualified to assume a subcommander role in the police.
Furthermore, I recommend that Victor Rayburn be offered the currently vacant position in the Police as a Subcommander of the Squad Five-Two with all associated rights and privileges.
Observer #36. (Identity classified and on a need to know basis only.)
=========================
Overseer's Report.
I have reviewed the reports of observer #36 and finding nothing out of the ordinary in them, hereby order that the recommendation be executed as written effective immediately.
In addition, I order close observation of Commander Chen to determine the level of his loyalty.
Overseer #7. (Identity classified and on a need to know basis only.)
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