“Please take a seat. Mr. Albert Bolton, is it? Are you aware why it is that you are here?”

“Yes.”

“Splendid. And are you aware what here actually is?”

“You mean what this place is?”

“Yes.”

“Not a prison. Haven’t decided yet if this is a good thing or not.”

“Indeed, this is definitely not a prison. This site, for all intents and purposes, is a mine.”

“Am I to do physical labor? That was not in our deal. I have not signed up for that!”

“I am afraid that you are at a disadvantage there, Mr. Bolton. You have signed up to whatever we say you signed up. That was the deal. You do not go to prison, and in exchange of giving yourself over to us, your past sins will all be forgiven and forgotten. But rest assured. Physical labor is not what we do here.”

“Then I am lost. What exactly is that you require of me? At a mine of all places.”

“It is quite simple. You will go down that hallway, strip naked of your clothes, lay down on a gurney and let yourself to be processed by the good doctors in the other room.”

“Processed… As in how?”

“You will be anesthetized, surgically implanted with the necessary hardware and placed in a mining, which ultimately will be transported to the mining facility.”

“…. Can I go to prison instead?”

“Certainly not. You are now the property of Liege Consortium. For the upcoming five years, all your activities will be dictated by us. All your labor will belong to us. All your ideas thoughts and prayers will belong to us.”

“Am I a slave..?”

“No, Mr. Bolton. You are not a slave. YOU are the ore that we will be mining.”

————

“Please take a seat. Ms. Mollie Abbott, is it? Are you aware why it is that you are here?”

“I saw an add online that promised me a long term gig that can set me for life and I was desperate enough to apply, even though it sounded shady as fuck. And this setting here makes it look even more shadier.”

“Indeed, the decorum is somewhat excessively utilitarian. But I have to insist on the question..”

“I am here because I’m broke.”

“Ms. Abbott, if you would please comply.”

“All right, I am here so you guys can experiment on me in exchange of generous financial compensation that will be paid upon completion. Happy?”

“Positively ecstatic. Are you here on your own free will?”

“Yes. I already signed all the damn papers, can we move on it already?”

“Just last question. Are you aware that you will have zero contact with the outside world for the duration of your contract? No friends will be able to reach you. No Family?”

“Thank fuck for that. It is like the only good thing that comes up front.”

“I take that as a yes. All right, please proceed down this hallway, where the good doctors will start your processing. And oh, welcome to the Liege Consortium.”

————

“Please take a seat. Mr. Agustin Solomon, is it? Are you aware why it is that you are here?”

————

“Please take a seat. Ms. Clarice Morton, is it? Are you aware why it is that you are here?”

————

“Please take a seat. Mr. Kelvin Liu, is it? Are you aware why it is that you are here?”

————

“Please take a seat. Mr. Gale Berger, is it? Are you aware why it is that you are here?”

————

“Please take a seat. Mr. Buck Eaton, is it? Are you aware why it is that you are here?”

————

“Tell me, Kounen, do you enjoy this? Sending down the saft hundreds of people, one by one?”

“Don’t be daft, Friedmann. I do not send them anywhere. They send themselves. But I am the head of HR, and I have to make sure that everything is above reproach.”

“Hah! Head of HR. That title usually implies something totally different then what you are doing. And I can’t help the feeling that sometimes, you actively enjoy this.”

“There is nothing wrong in taking pride in ones work. Or enjoyment.”

“If you say so. But I would be somewhat more soft on them, here, at the starting point.”

“Care to elaborate why?”

“Liege Consortium. You can spin it anyway you’d like, but we belong to it just as same, if not more, than these poor schmucks you send to the depts of hell on a daily basis. We are just on the other side of the line. Who is to say that one day the monster will not devour us instead of them?”

“The monster.?”

“Liege.”

“Honestly, Friedmann, I would not refer to your employer like it is Cthulhu incarnate. It is not a desirable optics you want to project about yourself.”