Meat Factory
(Written by Ace Dreamer; posted 08 September 2012)
No one's sure who's responsible for the Meat Factory. The odds are it was a Fen who'd gone quite thoroughly Mad. Brains stumbled on it while prospecting the Main Belt for a good out-of-the-way asteroid to mine. A 40', black photo-cell painted, cargo container, with ion jets, half-embedded in a low albedo, mixed organics/water ice/rubble, asteroid of more than a megaton mass.
Looking closer the container was double-ringed by black geodesic domes, and part of a third ring. Some argument and Uran flew in, used the crude airlock on the side of the container, then called "Brains, it looks pretty safe".
The container was lined with galleries of second-hand fantasy and science fiction books, mostly paperback, maybe a tenth hardback. The books were not well sorted, though some sections were alphabetised by author, and dated from the 70s to the 2000s; maybe several dedicated fans collections? There were quite a few gaps, sometimes whole rows missing.
Uran was ecstatic. "The book collection I've always wanted!" Brains cautious, suggested "I think we should look round a bit more".
Negotiation continued while a pair of spindly-looking robots, pushing a book trolley, wandered in, ignoring them. One knelt on the deck and rolled a number of polyhedral dice. The other read the dice, and went over to shelves, selecting books. Repeating this process until the trolley was mostly full.
"What do you think they're doing?" radiopathed Uran. "I doubt they're playing D&D", whispered Brains, having heard her via his earpiece. "Best we avoid attracting their attention."
They followed the robots, and noticed they stopped at some shelves they'd not yet inspected. The dice were consulted, and what looked like school, technical and general books, like biographies, used to finish filling the trolley.
Brains and Uran looked at each other, Brains shrugged.
Intrigued, they continued after the robots, through a bulkhead door. Into a control room, with a notable hole in a glass window, installed before crude controls, at what must be the front of the container. The robots rolled the trolley up a ramp, where it looked an airlock had once been. Into a complex of tunnels. Into the heart of the asteroid.
As they walked Brains noticed nasty-looking guns, ceiling-mounted, that tracked them at each intersection. Each had a small, neatly-printed, card near it: "Quiet Please". He indicated one to Uran, and she started walking on tiptoe, though she'd been pretty silent already.
Several minutes led to a large chamber, partitioned into offices and workrooms. They faced an old-style wooden desk behind which sat a stern-faced woman, with disciplined hair, and old-style dark clothes. Before her a sign "Chief Librarian".
Holding a finger up for silence, she indicated a door marked "Office". Rising she led them, revealing her legs and lower body matched that of the spindly robots. The door was closed.
"Are you from the government?" Brains and Uran looked at each other, noting a gun on the ceiling was tracking them. "No", Brains replied.
The lady robot was revealed as avatar of the trio of AI who ran the asteroid, "Library Alpha". These AI, while obviously brilliant in some areas, were, Brains guessed, overall of limited intellect, with a number of fixed and very dubious ideas about how the world worked. They'd met Librarian, but she was apparently outvoted by the other two, the Literacy officer, tasked with promoting literacy, and the Membership officer, tasked with promoting library membership.
Literacy and Membership had been using books to feed a set of wavium Bioroid Moulds (Brains speculated the original Fen might've had 'harem' plans). Producing literate people who were library members, using CHON resources mined from the asteroid. Then keeping these people in cryogenic suspension, packed like meat, in the domes they'd seen on the surface. They were proud the library had more than ten thousand members, and that literacy was 'effectively promoted'.
Librarian was furious books were permanently consumed in this process, and only about half the original collection was left. She was enthusiastic about acquiring more books. Brains asked, cautiously, about the guns. "These are 'freeze rays'", Librarian replied, with a tight smile, "They are to maintain library discipline".
Thinking quickly, Brains said "I'm from a private philanthropic organisation, 'HH Investments'. We give grants to promote wider library use". He went on to suggest any future branch libraries would count towards the library membership numbers, and mentioned he was prepared to make grants towards literacy teaching.
Librarian summoned two more avatars. "These are Literacy and Membership." These robot ladies upper bodies resembled a pleasant teacher and a businesswoman, respectively. Though suspicious, the AIs agreed to further talks. Uran remained remarkably subdued.
Tea and biscuits were delivered, after a while. Brains, while a little worried where they might come from, thought it wise to indulge.
Postscript
Brains ended up cloaking the asteroid with a number of invisibility techniques, as well as installing really good passive sensors. The library grew a small publishing section, for astronomical observations made by these sensors, run by Librarian. After he found a number of obviously too noisy Fen were stored with the 'meat' (their vehicles had been 'recycled'), he fitted a good enough drive for the asteroid to slowly relocate itself.
Strangely enough, there were other people in cold store than the Fen. Best he could tell they were (literate) Boskone prisoners, and had all been mentally abused, by some sort of device. Hard to be certain, but with good treatment they should all eventually recover.
The 'meat' proved to be a smaller problem than he feared. Only the first few domes were occupied, several hundred people in total. Plus the Fen and prisoners. The rest were 'bioroid chips', some sort of persona storage device, and CHON supplies ready to make their bodies. Looked like the Bioroid Moulds hadn't been designed for such heavy use, and after a while the AIs couldn't keep them in repair. The chips were a compromise, something the Moulds still easily produced. Brains wasn't sure if he could fix them, but the AIs certainly wouldn't let him take any away, to try elsewhere.
Brains carefully sold the spare minerals, mined in the process of building-up 'library membership', through a number of cut-outs; he thinks a lot ended up on Mundane Earth, via Australia. This paid Fen and prisoners compensation for their lost property, and generally being lost. He quietly dropped them off on the Moon, mostly at Kandor City, on the basis they could get to most places from there. They all had fuzzy memories of the asteroid, and were mostly grateful for rescue by "Dr Scure".
Remaining money went to set-up "LLM Services", administration done by "HH Personnel". LLM bought stock of closing second-hand bookshops, the residue of books from estate sales, library old stock, and books that would otherwise go to be pulped (best sellers being mostly avoided), exporting them into Fenspace. These books populated libraries, and sold via second-hand bookshops, though about a quarter secretly end up at Library Alpha (via invisible ships).
LLM was and is in no way connected to carefully hidden sales of minerals which continue to be mined from the library asteroid (two more asteroids are marked to be consumed in due course). It's claimed that Fen are so interested in books that it's self-financing, and as a private organisation no one gets to look at the accounts. Brains has a rumour ready, if anyone pokes around, about them being run by secretive philanthropic bibliophiles. Which, in a way, isn't too far from the truth.
HH Personnel hires Fen who want to do office work, or even 'Dane who're prepared to work in Fenspace, and generally acts as a recruiting agency. What they're not talking about is they're finding lives and jobs for the 'meat' from Library Alpha. They also make start-up loans to people needing "grub stakes", at interest rates pegged just above inflation. In some cases, like for teachers, these are flat-out grants. All this has rather strained Brains finances, and he's had to branch-out into new areas.
The 'Meat', products of the 'Meat Factory' (AKA 'Literati')
The 'meat' are normal healthy humans of either gender, aged 18 to 30, average height, build and appearance, and are culturally almost all either UK, US or European (based on the books used to make them).
They're all literate, of average or above average intelligence, and don't think or talk much about their background on Mundane Earth; it's a bit sketchy. If pressed they'll say they're making a 'clean break', or hint about 'relationship issues', while saying they've no legal problems - they really don't want to talk about it. Most will admit they've changed their name, or are only using a first name or a nickname. Really suspicious people might think they're suffering from mental tampering.
Otherwise they're pretty sane and well adjusted. They're all Fen, and have a book or author they really like. All have useful skills, many in technical areas, or teaching, and they all think libraries and membership of them is a good idea!
Bioroid Moulds
Long term, the tech of these is still potentially dangerous, but short term there are only a few hundred actually embodied Literati. It would probably take a significant project to make an industrial-grade Mould that would run indefinitely, with only occasional repair.
The existing set of six are probably only good for a few more tens of uses, and that would involve scavenging them for parts to get maybe only two that would limp that far. They need a major over-haul and refurbish.
Yes, Brains has done his best to study the design and possible repair of the Moulds. Copies of all his notes are in Library Alpha, as per his agreement with them. But, he has no plans to repair, or duplicate, the Moulds (privately he's concerned about ethical issues), and Library Alpha seems happy with this, at the moment.
Open Source
You might have wondered how various off-Earth populations built-up so fast - well, now you know! But, as this story stands, there are only a few hundred embodied Literati.
The products of the Meat Factory (Uran named this) do not know each other, or are any particular faction, but if you wanted to give them a group name you could use 'Literati'. Literati can be used freely.
You can use Library Alpha or any of its branches (or LLM Services), if you like - but note that serious attempts will be made to keep the asteroid and its (current) location hidden. Freeze rays induce suspended animation in humans, and the cold is bad for all but specialist machinery (including most space suits and armour). Keep Quiet In The Library! Reference to second-hand bookshops in Fenspace is encouraged!
Please ask if you want to use HH Personnel, if it may impact on Brains or associates; HH Investments was something Brains invented on the spot, and is really his long-suffering personal finances.
