Looking up at the tribunal, Ivloq Skolb knew that he would have to make a plea. He thought back to when, in his consideration, it all began. How much did chance affect life? If a wire were to have fallen an inch the other way, would he be standing here? He liked to think that he would.
There was as good a place for him to begin, as he considered how he reached that point. Working up on the high poles was a good position for a man of his young age. There were those in The Society who didn’t approve of telephones, but Skolb thought them delightfully convenient. Besides, they gave him employment, and employment was purpose.
Extra lines were needed for that day, the 75th anniversary of The Society. Lectures and messages were to be given, and for those too ill to attend, the telephone would be used to let them listen by proxy. As Skolb had been stringing the line, it slipped from his hand. If the wire had not landed just so on the platform, if it had fallen to the ground, he would have descended and picked it up, as was best. Instead, he looked around for eyes, then kicked it back up to himself.
“Skolb!” he heard from behind. Damn, he thought. Shouldn’t have risked it.
It was Fabge Kupoda, a particularly annoying supervisor. Actually, Kupoda wasn’t even in Skolb’s department. He handled the electric power. But he thought he owned the poles, even though they were shared for both power and phones.
Skolb climbed down the pole and grabbed the wire, hoping that the gesture would convince Kupoda to move on, but knowing that it wouldn’t. As he felt the eyes boring into the back of his head, he turned to face Kupoda.
“What is the Fifth Great Truth?”
“Oh, really, Fabge, I’m doing it right now. It’s not even like you care about safety.”
“It’s nothing to do with safety. Recite the Fifth Great Truth.”
Dropping the wire once more, and adopting the straight-ahead stare that was the safest expression to have with reciting the Great Truths, Skolb enunciated as clearly as he could, “A man’s value is in his hands.”
“Indeed. On this of all days, it is not wise to show an affront to one of the Great Truths. Are you a beast of the earth, who has no hands and can only kick at the ground?”
He decided that the best way to extricate from this conversation was to play along. “No, I am not.”
“Good. Do it the right way from now on.”
“I will.” Kupoda finally moved on, but not without another dirty look. Well, it was another case of the First Great Truth.
Skolb finished the telephone repair. After which, he decided it was time for lunch. Making his way back to the phone company headquarters, he checked in at the canteen and received his rations. At least he didn’t have it as bad as the farmers. They were always under pressure to get the amount of food produced to be exactly right. Usually they came up short. Skolb finished his lunch still hungry.
“How are you, Skolb?” Ryndifia Volp came and sat next to him. Volp was a new man in the phone company, still green. He had a habit of asking the more experienced workers a lot of questions. “Done with lunch? Want some of mine?”
“No, that’s all right. Shouldn’t have too much to begin with. Especially with tonight being the celebration.”
“Right, the anniversary. You going?” Again, the endless questions.
“Of course. Everyone is, except for those who can’t.”
“Great. Hopefully I’ll see you there.”
Before Skolb could reply, not that he wanted to, a woman who worked as an operator approached them. He couldn’t remember her name.
“Volp, you’ve been making a nuisance of yourself again. It’s bad enough that you’ve been bothering me, but now I find you annoying Skolb as well. You need to be more mindful of the Eighth Great Truth.”
He liked to talk, but Volp had all joy drain from his voice as he recited. “’It is necessary for men to interact, but no close friendship should be pursued.’ You’re right. Excuse me.” He walked off. Skolb and the operator were left alone, and they did not even not at each other as she left to return to work.
Such reprimands were common throughout the day, and never went much beyond that. Skolb had been given one, and been the beneficiary of another. Probably before the day was out he would give one himself, when he caught someone slacking or forgetting a Great Truth. He didn’t enjoy them, and he wondered if anyone else did. Still, there was the First Great Truth, and that was why they were done.
During the rest of his shift, Skolb worked closer and closer to the pavilion at the center of the city. That would be where the ceremony was held, and it made sense that he worked from outside to inside. Once he was finished, he could stay right there. If he was lucky, he could even get a good seat.
He reached the central bureau. Many lines already existed, so it was just a matter of connecting his to a main hub, and then testing to make sure that it could be heard at the other end. He excused himself as he entered an active office. An official was meeting with a woman who was very pregnant. Skolb was forced to overhear, but they pretended he wasn’t there.
“I’m sorry,” the official said, “and I know how frustrating this can be, but every one of your potential name choices for the baby has been rejected.”
“Really? Even Fleep?”
“Some kind of messenger program from back when computers existed.”
“Chium? That one didn’t work?”
“A god in the old Hebrew religion.”
The woman let out an exasperated sigh. “No one even follows that religion anymore.”
“No, but remember the Sixth Great Truth.”
“Yes, I know. ‘A human’s name refers only to the person and not to anything else in nature.’ I’ll try some more phonetic combinations.”
She waddled our, neither Skolb nor the bureaucrat offering any help. Focusing on the line tester, Skolb had to figure out a few challenging glitches, echoes and pops before he could certify that the line was clean.
Tomorrow he would come by and strip it all down again. That wasn’t a Great Truth, but a rule that had almost as much weight. No permanent electronic interface was allowed to be installed. Everything had to come down as soon as possible.
When he was finished, it was time for the ceremony, and it worked out that he was right by the official building.
There was no name for it, but it was structured like a great stadium. In the past, Skolb was dimly aware, such arenas were used for sporting events or entertainments like concerts. But anniversary speeches were serious business. He got a good seat and observed as others filed in.
The arena could hold one hundred thousand people, and the population of The Society was approaching that. Either the building would have to be expanded, or some sort of annex built, or else remote listening would have to become the norm for even healthy people. This would be the least likely choice.
But now he had to sit with his hands on his knees, just as everyone else was doing, leaning just slightly forward. The speaker was approaching the microphone. Skolb knew that it would be just like the telephone hookup, that someone else had had to rig up everything today, and tear down everything tomorrow.
The speaker was no one that Skolb knew. Probably few would. He understood that generally people with few ties and little experience were chosen to preside at events like these. He was a small, nebbish man. He had a prepared script, and, coughing into the microphone, began reading it in a rote voice.
“Seventy-five years ago, there was no Society. There were only people, and the people were unrestrained. They had no Great Truths to guide them. They ran rampant and broke rules, always trying to produce more so as to consume more. They produced then a great evil, one which set about destroying the world.
“A few people saw what was coming and formed the Society. Their names are not remembered and not important. They established practices of what Society should do, and they set down the Great Truths for us to live by.
“In the first days, many people were lost to the Society, consumed by the evil that men had created. Thus it was that the Great Truths became known. Whatever the evil represented, the Society had to do the opposite.
“More people were lost as they discovered the individual facets of the evil. For to know evil is to expose yourself to it. From time to time, the leaders of the society hear grumbling from the people. But know that even a single step away from the rules may mean giving up your life to the evil that still remains outside the walls of the Society. The signal barrier that we maintain above our land, the mines and traps that we keep at the walls, and the impermanence of infrastructure—all these are necessary to forestall the evil from invading. Indeed, at every moment, it is trying to get in.
“If this causes you fear, good! Fear is an emotion all should feel. If the laws and rules of the Society confuse you, good! Surety is not what you should seek. Your natural instinct may be to struggle against these, but you must fight your instincts and rise above them. Not for yourself. For The Society.
“But above all, remember this: that you live your lives as you are supposed to, because Society demands it. To act contrary to this warrants the correction of Society. It is likely that you receive warnings frequently from your fellow men. Heed them, in service of the First Great Truth, which we now shall all repeat together.”
Skolb stood with the rest of the audience in the stadium and spoke in the same monotone voice.
“It is the lot of mankind never to be satisfied.
***
The next day Ivloq Skolb rose again, having gotten too little sleep. He swallowed a few bites of food before heading out to take down the phone lines. Most of the work proceeded without incident. It was only when he reached the same pole where, the day before, he had been chided for using his foot like an animal, that he paused. Was the thought already in his head, or was it triggered by the crackling of the line.
By all rights, no one should be on that line. Whoever was listening to the speech before should have no need for it. But it was an anomaly, and that meant something was wrong. He unhooked the line tester off his belt and plugged it into the line. Immediately it connected.
“Well, howdy!” a voice came through, clear and true, high and loud. A woman’s voice. “Had a pickle of a time getting someone to pick up, I can tell you something. Point of fact, had to get a friend of mine to do some of her magic with tapping the line. Don’t know much about these fancy things m’self, but now that I’ve got hold of someone, talking’s more in my line.”
“I-is there someone there?” Skolb half wondered if this weren’t some odd recording.
“Name’s Applejack. Darn pleased to meet‘ya! Though we can’t exactly call it meeting, now, can we, if we ain’t face to face. But there’ll be time for that later. What I figure right now, is y’all’re half in a panic about hearing someone who ain’t spoutin’ out your rules and whatnot. And I also reckon that you ain’t too keen on answering back. Probably a dozen eyes on you right now. Well, that’s no never mind. But it’s high time that y’all heard the honest truth. So it’s real simple. If there’s any part of you that ain’t corrupted and ruined, just leave this line connected. Maybe come and give me a talk some time. Just think about it, K?”
The line went dead. Skolb went about his work.
Ivloq Skolb was a good worker, an intelligent man. Only being raised in The Society had fettered his potential. In a freer world, he might have been a great inventor or creative artist. As it was, he had enough brains to understand that, much as they might like to, The Society could not see into a person’s brain and determine whether or not they were disloyal. Speech was more dangerous, and physical action the most likely to bring the wrath of The Society on a person. But, at the same time, The Society had a blind spot. Companionship was discouraged. Being alone was preferred. He had chambers that were his own.
So no one came to see when he had taken down the line from the pole and traced it back to where it reached the wall of the city, where a junction crossed it, and where it ran through a hole toward the unknown outside. Skolb was not stupid, and had figured this to exist. He wound up the line and ran it all the way back to his chambers.
But it wasn’t until two nights later, when he had checked all around for prying eyes and ears that he dared connect a phone to it again.
"Hello?" he ventured, his voice steady. The response was almost instantaneous.
"Howdy. Never did get your name."
"Ivloq Skolb."
"That name we might have to do something about, but are you talkin' to me on the line? Is no one around?"
"That's right."
Applejack raised her voice. "That's great. I'm real proud of you."
"That's weird."
"What's that?"
"I don't know. Some kind of weird feeling when you said that."
"That I'm proud of you? Guess that could be pride in yourself as well."
Skolb filed that thought away for future consideration. "Who are you?"
"Well, I'm Applejack, like I said, and I'm a pony. An Earth Pony to be accurate. Shoot, I wish Princess Celestia had turned her attention to y'all a while back. Because I'm gonna have to start at the beginning and explain how the world works."
For the rest of the evening, Applejack talked about the past and about Equestria. She told him how humans used to exist in the billions all over the planet, and how they all emigrated to Equestria. She told him how they had shards, just like The Society had sharded itself off from the world, but how within, the people were friendly.
With all that they had done to him, Skolb was still fearful. But something deep within him stirred. He still didn’t know whether to trust Applejack entirely, but what he did know was that talking to her made him feel something he’d never felt before, and wanted more of. He gravitated toward what she explained.
At the end of the call, she said, “Now, with all that, are you willing to help other people as well?”
“Of course. What can I do?”
“The problem with y’all’s society is that you’ve got a big wall around you. Now, Celestia could knock it all down, but she figures that’ll do more harm than good. But if you showed people that maybe they could go outside the wall, it might be a start.”
Skolb shook his head. “The moment I suggested something, I’d be brought up for going against the Great Truths.”
“You’re probably right. Well, give it time and we’ll think of something.”
They got off the phone and Skolb lay on his pallet, thinking. The Society was so all-consuming that it would be difficult to find any dent in it. The key was to find others who, presented with the idea of being free and satisfied, would react as he did. There were some, he was sure, who would relish punishing any rebellious spirit.
***
The book Nineteen Eighty-Four was not kept in The Society’s library. The book Brave New World was, and people definitely believed that it was a dystopia. Skolb had read it, and had the proper reaction of revulsion at the world portrayed and sympathy for the character of John. But it never occurred to him that rebellion away from self-flagellation would be met far more harshly than rebellion toward it.
He had a modicum of success at first, and enjoyed it. Finding a couple of friends, actually getting to know one another, feeling that perpetual joy of gravitating toward a worldview that he agreed with. Plus nightly conversations with Applejack. She was available any time he picked up the phone, though he still didn’t know what she looked like, and her descriptions of a pony had effected an image in Skolb’s mind that was quite incorrect.
What did in the burgeoning rebellion was not treachery, though, but fear. One of Skolb’s new friends had been caught doing some sort of labor for Applejack, digging with a shovel in a place no dig was scheduled, and, faced with confrontation, confessed everything.
Fingers were pointed quickly to Skolb as the ringleader, and he was brought up before a tribunal.
Tribunals in The Society were frequent and brutal. It was one of the problems the elders of The Society had to deal with. Breeding was unbearably satisfying; death was unproductive. Punishments had to be harsh, but not debilitating. In many cases it was just as bad for the inflicting party as for the victim.
But if they found out the entirety of what he had done, they might well kill him. It threatened the existence of The Society, not just the Great Truths. Skolb didn’t know whether to lie or to tell all. The tribunal was in a small meeting room, but the result, carefully edited, was to be showed at the next rally in the stadium. It would be educational.
He liked to think that, given the opportunity, he would have made a rousing speech that would have smashed The Society’s view and changed everything right then. He feared that, given the opportunity, he would have fallen to his knees and begged for his life. In any case, what actually happened was that, as he opened his mouth, the ground around them caved in, and he witnessed a creature clambering up through the rubble.
“Looks like it’s high time for this rodeo to start!”
“Applejack?” Skolb said, drawing the scowls of the judges.
“Darn tootin’! Mighty nice to see you in the flesh.”
By this time the judges had called in guards, but Applejack bucked and kicked in ways they were unprepared to deal with, and they backed off lest they take one to the face.
Once they had withdrawn, she looked up at the judges and said, “Y’all’ve been ruining these people’s lives for long enough, fillin’ their minds with hooey about how they ain’t supposed to be happy and satisfied. Well, Princess Celestia’s been tryin’ to find a way in, and thanks to your own people, and the bravery of folks like this feller here, I’m in now. I’ll be tellin’ everyone here what’s what, and how they can emigrate just the way folks did back in the day. And there ain’t nothing you can do to stop me.”
After that there were varying reactions. Some charged at Applejack and got another well-aimed kick, designed to disable without doing any damage or even causing much pain. Some fled in terror, and others clawed at the ground and wept. Skolb, more relieved that he was not to be killed than any other emotion, stood at Applejack’s side and put his hand on her shoulder.
“Thank you,” he said.
“Don’t be thankin’ me yet. We’ve got a lot of work to do. First thing is to round up all the rebels and explain to ‘em that the time of weeping is over. Then we gots to start convincing the others. But sooner’n you think you’ll find your way to Equestria.”
It took a long time, but after converting most of the Society to ponies, it was his turn. The long-hoped-for needle was entering his brain. He loved Princess Celestia.
***
Rainbow Dash trotted by. She knew that the society that had been here had already emigrated. And Applejack was done with her work. Had to be. The shell that had held her mind was laying idle. Dash stripped it for parts. She wasn't supposed to be strong like the Earth pony, but Celestia had said it was OK. After all, she was a pegasus, and pegasi were supposed to fly...