The Eternal Glass Ceiling :: The Neo-Reconquista

A Day At The Museum

Driving a few blocks away from their subdivision in west terrace. The two would later arrive at The Helia Medical Research Center. Amaru followed Rosalía inside the huge transparent tiled geodesic dome building to deliver her report. Inside the research center looked like something out of a science fiction movie. There were robots and drones roaming around the building accompanied by scientists in white lab coats. Cylindrical glass-like elevators that transported the workers from one floor of the building to another. Vivid 3-D holograms displayed all over the monitors as individuals cautiously drove by on utility vehicles that hovered about three feet above ground level while circular shaped miniature helicopters were used for air transportation.

This was Amaru's very first time at professor Kalinsky's research facility. Usually he would run tests on Amaru at his personal lab at home. The boy was amazed by the technological devices that the establishment had developed. Rosalía went to make her delivery as Amaru sat in the lobby observing the fast-paced work environment before him. Out of the blue, a spinning tetrahedron-like bot about the size of a soft ball floated directly up to Amaru as he sat down. The bot floated in front of the boy before he began scanning him without consent. A flashy blue beam covered Amaru's body with blue grid lines.

"Haha, uhm, what are you doing little guy?" Amaru asked.

"Zzz . . . Amaru . . . González!" the bot responded after scanning Amaru.

"Yes, that is my name! What's yours little dude?" Amaru smiled.

"Zzz . . . Tetra!" the bot stated as it spun around rapidly converting into a

holographic doppelgänger of Amaru.

"Wow, that's so neat! You're me! What kind of robot are you anyway?"

The hologram that the robot produced appeared so authentic. It mimicked Amaru's movements and copied his voice. As Amaru went to touch the hologram, Rosalía came walking over asking if he was ready to leave. He turned around to show Rosalía the tiny robot but before he could, it had already disappeared. He told her the name and tried describing the robot to her on their way to the car but the girl was oblivious. She told Amaru that there were many robots at the research center but she had never seen any robot similar to the one that he was describing. Eventually Amaru gave up and decided to drop the subject.

They left the research facility and drove along the highway for half an hour until they arrived at the bridge authority that connected zone one and zone two. The bridge authorities scanned their digital encodings to identify the pair. When the identifications were verified, they were allowed to cross the bridge into zone two. Zone two was where the free-market, economics, and commerce flourished. An entire zone dedicated to consumerism; advertising, marketing, buying and selling. Once they were there, they stopped at many stores and outlets. Then they consumed a plethora of delicious delectables at the food court.

Zone two was a melting pot of the upper class, coordinator class, and the merchant class. Citizens of every age, ethnicity and creed mixing and mingling. This was very new for Amaru because zone one was very homogeneous with little to no diversity. The Upperclass were predominantly one group of people that think, acted and shared very similar beliefs with very little individuality relative to the residence of zone two. The residence of West Terrace were extremely religious and conservative. They were arrogant and egotistic. They lived pretentious lives consumed by material possessions, obsessed with beauty and the conservation of archaic traditions. They kept to themselves, living in their own little bubbles, selfishly secluded from the rest of the world, locked away from nuance and opinions that differed from their own. They were unwilling to interact, understand or accept the culture, traditions and beliefs of anything that they deemed as 'other' or 'abnormal'.