Chapter 10: "Alice-13"
The day after Fenny's birthday, I received a certified letter instructing me to show up at the Change Medical Center the next day to be scanned for the creation of female model number 13. "Lucky number!" I thought. I had a plan to protect myself.
The next day, I took a bag for my clothes, and strapped my glock with the add-on safety attachment to my thigh. I also had a knife blade strapped to my upper left arm under my dress sleeve and another knife blade strapped to my upper right arm. I was not a trusting soul. If anyone attempted to physically herd me into a procedure room, I had already decided that there would be blood.
I rode the bus and got off at a pet shop half-way to the Change Medical Center. I bought a canary in a small wire cage. I kind of felt sorry for the little guy, considering what I had in mind for him. I rode the bus to the Change Medical Center the rest of the way, and walked in to the front counter. The same doctor whom I had encountered before was waiting for me.
"You will not need the gun you have strapped to your thigh," the doctor stated. "No one will attempt to physically force you to do anything you do not wish to do. You have an incorrect conception of how we operate."
He didn't mention the two knives that I had strapped to my upper arms. So the Planners did not know absolutely everything after all. I was grateful that there were no metal detectors installed in the Change Medical Center.
The doctor led me down the long hallway to the scan room at the far end. This time the room was well-cleaned. The only piece of equipment that was turned on was the scanner at the center of the back wall. I felt an icy chill roll up my back. A quote from a Yoda poster popped into my head:
"Fear is the white noise of the mind. Ignore it."
I breathed in and then breathed out. I blotted out all the images of my imagination. I focused only on the situation at hand, and blocked everything else out.
"The scanner is a relatively simple machine to operate. The complicated part is creating a model out of the scan. That's what all these other machines are for. After we have a successful scan, three specialists will be flying in from New York City to turn your scan into the female model number 13."
I put the canary cage on the scanning platform and closed the glass doors of the tube-like chamber. "You will be scanning the canary first. There will be no discussion about this. I will be watching from a safe distance."
The doctor started to open his mouth, but I interrupted him.
"There will be no discussion. Start the scanner." I lifted my dress up my right thigh to expose the glock to make certain that the doctor got the point.
The doctor started the scanner and a yellowish light began at the top of the chamber and slowly worked its way down the chamber. The canary seemed agitated and hopped around quite a bit. The scan worked its way down to the canary cage. The canary continued to hop around frantically inside the cage. When the scan ceased, the canary returned to his perch and chirped, but he did not sing. The canary appeared totally unchanged. I wondered if the radiation dose he just got would be enough to kill him or make his feathers fall out.
"Show me the output of the scan," I said to the doctor gesturing toward the other machines. The output looked like a 3D CAT scan image. A hexadecimal password attached to the 3D CAT scan was also visible. I wondered what that was for. I asked the doctor and he gave a curious response.
"The body can be used as a password for entering restricted, high-security areas." He did not elaborate. The idea of the body itself as a password for unlocking doors fascinated me.
The doctor informed me that the entire interior of the scanning booth and the platform itself had been disinfected with both rubbing alcohol and industrial disinfectant. The doctor told me to strip before stepping onto the scanning platform. I stripped down to lingerie, placing my wadded-up dress into my clothes bag, and stepped onto the platform – my glock and two blades in full view. The doctor informed me that I had to strip completely for the scan, including my socks.
"Put a long table directly in front of the scanning booth," I told him. "I need a place to put my weapons."
He agreed.
"Now put another long table in front of the first table. That is to keep my weapons out of reach of anyone near the table."
"You're paranoid, but I agree." He moved a second table in front of the first.
"You must stay at the controls the entire time the scan is taking place. If you don't, I will move disrupting the scan and grab for my weapons. No one is permitted to enter the room while the scan is taking place. You must lock the door from the inside with a deadbolt. No electronic stuff. If anyone enters, I will move disrupting the scan and grab for my weapons. Are we clear?"
"You're a nutcase, but I agree." The doctor walked over to the entrance and turned his key in the lock for the deadbolt.
I placed my weapons on the table and removed my lingerie and socks. I stood straight up with my hands down at my side. I was intensely aware of the squishy and jiggly spots on my body. I felt a bit self-conscious, but the doctor seemed oblivious.
"You act as if you've seen girls with the exact same body type as me a thousand times," I said. The doctor's response surprised me.
"You're forgetting my age. I was a doctor in the bad old days when hospitals let people die if they didn't have insurance or money to pay for the services in advance. I've seen thousands of girls with bodies similar to yours. In fact, your body type was the most common. A girl your age should be a little wobbly in a few places. A girl who doesn't jiggle anywhere is underweight. Of course now, all school girls who take their morning pills are underweight."
"Would you be able to tell me what's in those morning pills?"
"The morning pills for girls contain appetite suppressants, hormone supressants, tranquilizers, vitamins, minerals, and a few other things. It's a wonder the morning pills for girls aren't as big as computer mice. The boys' pills contain steroids, tranquilizers, vitamins, minerals, and a few other things. I'm surprised that they aren't huge as well."
The doctor seemed in a trance for a moment, and then he was all business. "You must remain perfectly still while the scan is in progress. I'm actually not sure how long it takes to scan a human. You're a lot bigger than that canary. You will be exposed to a tiny amount of radiation, about equal to a dental x-ray. Your skin will probably tingle a bit as if you were in a tanning booth. The scanner does not generate any heat."
The doctor kept his word and stayed at the control panel. The scan took somewhere around seven minutes and felt exactly as the doctor described.
"What name are you going to give my model?"
"Female Model Number 13 – Alice."
"I'm just grateful that you won't be calling it the 'Bertha' model."
"We are finished. You may put your lingerie, weapons, and clothes back on."
The doctor stayed put behind the control panel while I dressed myself. When I had finished, he led me to the entrance door and turned the key in the deadbolt lock. He led me down the hallway to the front lobby. There were no tricks.
"You see," said the doctor. "You did not need your weapons. Physical force is not the way we operate. We are civilized – much more civilized that the old societies that we replaced. Thank you for the great service that you have rendered. It has been a long time since we had a new model for either sex."
"I don't think I have to worry about seeing any copies of myself anytime soon. Nobody will voluntarily choose to look like what is currently perceived to be a fat girl."
"You underestimate yourself," said the doctor.
End of Chapter 10
This story is based on the Twilight Zone episode "Number 12 Looks Just Like You!" Viacom owns the copyrights.