Chapter Eight of Helena, a novel in progress. This work of fiction examines Christian nationalism, political power, and the corruption of religious language.
“Run.”
Mara’s voice was scarcely louder than breath.
Helena stood in the darkness between their stations.
She did not run.
There was nowhere to go. The nearest exit was beyond the supervisors’ platform, and two medical attendants stood less than three steps behind Mara. Even without the screens, every exterior door would remain locked.
One of the attendants reached for Helena.
The lights returned.
Every station in the room restarted at once. Blue rectangles appeared in ordered rows. The transparent barrier around Mara descended the rest of the way, separating the women.
Helena’s screen remained black.
“Return to your station,” the attendant said.
Helena sat.
The outage had lasted eleven seconds.
Mara placed both hands inside the marked area. The white band around her wrist flashed rapidly.
“What did you say?” the second attendant asked.
“Nothing.”
“Vocal activity was detected.”
“I was startled.”
The attendant looked at Helena.
“Did the protected subject address you?”
Helena’s screen came alive.
SYSTEM RECOVERY IN PROGRESS.
“I couldn’t hear her,” Helena said.
Her band vibrated once.
The attendant waited.
No warning appeared.
“Remain at your station.”
He turned back to Mara.
The medical instrument was placed against the light beneath her band. Mara’s body stiffened.
MEMORY INTEGRITY: 67%
The attendants recorded the number and led her from the room.
Mara did not look back.
Helena stared at her own blank screen.
Run.
Perhaps Mara had expected her to flee. If so, she had asked for the impossible.
Or perhaps Helena had heard only part of the instruction.
The system completed its restart.
A red border surrounded her screen.
UNAUTHORIZED RESPONSE RECORDED
REPRODUCTIVE CASE MV-77241
SUPERVISORY REVIEW REQUIRED
Helena’s mouth went dry.
The wrong answer had not disappeared with the outage.
Supervisor Hale crossed the workroom toward her. He was a narrow man with colorless hair and a habit of standing too near the people he questioned.
“Hands visible,” he said.
Helena placed them flat on the desk.
Hale leaned toward the screen.
The red border vanished.
A new message replaced it.
INTERFACE FAULT CONFIRMED
USER RESPONSE INVALIDATED
NO SUPERVISORY ACTION REQUIRED
Hale frowned.
“What did you select?”
“The option that appeared.”
“Which option?”
“Reject correction.”
His eyes moved to her band.
“There is no such option.”
“Then the interface fault explains it.”
Hale studied her face.
“You sound certain.”
“The screen says the fault was confirmed.”
He straightened.
For a moment, Helena thought she had gone too far.
“Resume assigned work,” he said.
He returned to the platform.
Helena looked at the lower corner of her screen.
A small gray symbol rotated beside the case number. She had seen it thousands of times without considering it: two arrows forming a circle.
RUN INTEGRITY AUDIT
Run.
Mara had not told her to flee.
She had told her what to do.
Helena moved the cursor toward the symbol, then stopped.
Integrity audits were ordinary. Workers used them when conflicting records prevented a correction from being completed. Selecting one did not require special authorization.
But no conflict remained. The system had accepted the authorized account of Mara’s case.
An unnecessary audit would be recorded.
Helena opened her next assignment instead.
For the next hour she corrected addresses, employment classifications, pastoral attendance reports, and two disputed statements about a public prayer gathering. She worked within the recommended time. She allowed her breathing to settle.
At 11:48, a routine notification appeared.
QUARTERLY ACCURACY SAMPLE REQUIRED
SELECT ONE COMPLETED CASE FOR INTEGRITY AUDIT
Helena read the instruction twice.
The system selected workers for accuracy sampling at random. Her last audit had been three months earlier.
She looked toward the supervisors’ platform. Hale was speaking with another employee.
The completed cases appeared in a list.
Mara’s was fourth.
Helena selected REPRODUCTIVE CASE MV-77241.
AUDIT AUTHORIZED.
Two columns filled the screen.
The first contained the current civic record. The second showed the sources used to produce it. Most were familiar: medical reports, pastoral evaluations, household statements, employment observations.
A narrow tab at the top read REVISION HISTORY.
Helena opened it.
The earliest record was dated five weeks before Mara disappeared.
REPRODUCTIVE STATUS: NOT PREGNANT
SOURCE: DISTRICT MEDICAL EXAMINATION
The next three medical records were the same.
Then came the date of Mara’s removal.
REPRODUCTIVE STATUS: PREGNANCY SUSPECTED
SOURCE: PASTORAL OBSERVATION
Six minutes later, the status had changed again.
REPRODUCTIVE STATUS: PREGNANCY CONFIRMED
SOURCE: PROTECTIVE CLASSIFICATION PROTOCOL
There was no medical examination between the two entries.
Helena opened the authorization record.
INITIATING PASTOR: ELIAS WARD
Below his name appeared a certification.
The subject’s persistent denial indicates an acute threat to the unborn child and justifies immediate protective separation.
Mara’s denial had not contradicted the evidence.
It had become the evidence.
Helena continued through the revision history.
Three days after Mara entered protective custody, a system analyst had challenged the classification.
CONFLICT NOTICE: MEDICAL BASIS ABSENT
The analyst’s name was hidden, but his employee number remained visible.
CI-204-1187
Helena repeated the number silently.
The challenge had been rejected twelve seconds after submission.
A second challenge followed the next day.
Then a third.
Each had been rejected.
The fourth included a recommendation.
Attach protected memory monitor until source conflict is resolved.
RECOMMENDATION APPROVED.
DEVICE CLASS: WHITE INTEGRITY BAND
Helena felt the muscles in her neck tighten.
The white band had not been placed on Mara because she was pregnant. It had been placed on her because someone inside Civic Integration had refused to let the original records disappear.
Nathan had said he corrected errors.
She repeated the employee number again.
CI-204-1187.
A yellow warning appeared.
AUDIT TIME EXCEEDS RECOMMENDED DURATION.
Helena closed the revision history.
The audit form required a conclusion.
NO MATERIAL CONFLICT
MINOR SOURCE DISCREPANCY
ESCALATE FOR DOCTRINAL REVIEW
The truthful answer was not offered.
She selected MINOR SOURCE DISCREPANCY.
A text box opened.
DESCRIBE DISCREPANCY.
Helena typed:
Medical sequence appears incomplete.
She submitted the audit.
ACCURACY SAMPLE ACCEPTED.
THANK YOU FOR PROTECTING THE INTEGRITY OF THE CIVIC RECORD.
At midday, Helena carried her meal to the communal tables.
Livia sat near the far wall. As before, the seat across from her was empty.
This time Helena took it.
Neither woman spoke while they opened their meal containers.
Helena ate one bite. She had rehearsed several harmless openings, but each sounded like the beginning of a recorded conversation.
“Do you know what an integrity band does?” she asked.
Livia’s hand stopped.
“That is not its public name.”
“No.”
“Then you should not know it.”
Helena waited.
Livia lifted her water packet and turned it so the printed verse faced Helena.
In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.
“One witness can be corrected,” Livia said.
She placed the packet down.
“Two create a discrepancy.”
The midday tone sounded.
Livia stood and carried her unfinished meal away.
Helena remained at the table.
One witness could be corrected.
Nathan had preserved Mara’s records, but Mara was still only one witness to what had been done to her.
Not anymore.
Helena repeated the employee number as she returned to her station.
CI-204-1187.
She did not know whether it belonged to Nathan. She did not know whether the interface fault had protected her or merely delayed her punishment. She knew only that Pastor Ward had initiated a false record and that the government had transformed Mara’s objection into proof of her guilt.
At 16:58, two minutes before dismissal, Helena’s screen turned gold.
COVENANT RESPONSE PERIOD
TIME REMAINING: 49 HOURS, 2 MINUTES
Below the clock appeared a new message.
CANDIDATE REED HAS REQUESTED A SECOND CONVERSATION.
REQUEST REASON: CORRECTION OF PRIOR TESTIMONY.
Helena read the final line.
DO YOU CONSENT?
This time, both choices were real.
Previous: Error Correction — Chapter Seven
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