* * *

In the morning, Volunteer 4711 is right on time, as she should be. She helps me into my uniform when I am out of the shower and attaches my pins from where she left them the night before. As is my custom, I do not help her, but I do not rush her either, as she figures everything out.

“Take my pajamas and sheets to be cleaned,” I say as I go out the door, and she obediently nods.

“Goodbye, Commander,” I hear her say as I pass through the threshold, and again I feel that I have done something good by bringing her here.

CHAPTER 7

VOLUNTEER 4711

I begin taking the sheets off the Commander’s large bed when a picture of me catches my eye. It’s on his small computer next to his bed. I can’t read the words surrounding my picture, but it’s there. It’s the one the AI took of me after they put the tattoo for ‘volunteer’ on my face. I look at the screen and assume it must be a newspaper article, my file, or something. I wish I could read it. I touch the screen, and the whole thing goes black, and a scary warning appears. Flashing green. I want to get it off, but I don’t know how. I am beginning to panic. What have I done? Will I be punished for this?

Then the male who led me off the transport yesterday enters the commander’s quarters. He’s angry and asks, “What have you done? What are you touching that? You shouldn’t be touching any of the Commander’s computers without his permission?”

I point to the bedside computer and to the sheets. “My hand accidentally….” I don’t know the word for ‘slipped’ in the Silver language.

He seems to take my word for it because he turns the alarm off and leaves without another word. I make a mental note never to touch computers that are not my own again. I take the rest of the sheets off the Commander’s bed, pick up his pajamas, and then leave towards the servants’ areas where the laundry room is.

I spend my day washing the Commander’s things and learning the Silver language. I eat by myself and will be happy when I learn enough to order something different than oatmeal and juice. But beggars can’t be choosers, and I’m getting more food with having to do less work, and once I can name other foods, I will be able to have them. I don’t think there was anything but oatmeal for me at the farm.

Yes, if I’m lucky, maybe I’ll die old and alone just looking after the Commander, and my biggest achievement in life will have been that I ordered something other than oatmeal from the food machine. Still, considering what life was like on that farm, this is a far better future, and I’m embracing it with everything I have.

By the evening, when the Commander buzzes for me, I’m happy to be at his door. We follow the same protocol as the night before, but this time as I’m sorting his pins, he asks me, “Volunteer 4711, are the other servants kind to you?”