Chapter 303: Symbiote 0303: The Gaia Bracelet (2/2)

Symbiote 0303: The Gaia Bracelet (2/2)

Six more months passed, and four years in total had passed since Alex had established the Time Dilation field on both of Gaia’s planets.

In a small store in California.

“What do you mean that breaking this device is a federal crime?!” A man spoke to a clerk with agitation.

“I don’t know, sir. I’m just a cashier. You’d be better off joining the class action suit against Gaia and the government if you are really butthurt about this specific issue,” The woman manning the counter spoke with a typical dead-eyed expression, and her tone expressed just how done with everything she was.

Hearing the woman’s practiced response, the man frowned. “Is this a common problem that people have with the Gaia bracelet?”

“You are the seventeenth person to ask me this today,” She spoke.

“It’s barely noon …” The man spoke with some discomfort.

“Exactly. Now, do you want to take it or not?”

“What if I accidentally break it? Do I still go to jail?”

“No. In that case, you will be provided a free replacement after the audit, which lasts a few hours.”

“What if it’s a dent that accidentally revealed the internal circuitry? What then?”

“As long as it's accidental, everything will be fine.”

“What about right-to-repair … This has to be an FTC violation on so many levels.”

“As I said, you can search the necessary information regarding the class action suit and add your name to the registry. Alternatively, you can talk to our in-house attorney. He charges hourly.”

“How much?” The man asked.

“Five hundred. For the hour.”

“Five hundred! Why don’t you rob me?”

“You can pay for it with a card,” the woman said, instantly making the man hesitate.

“Fuck … That’s your scheme, isn’t it. I can’t pay for anything anywhere else …”

“Since you are not buying it, please move on. People are waiting.” The woman didn’t afford him any decency after his display.

“Morons …” She mumbled tiredly under her breath, “Even double wages aren’t enough to deal with these people all day.” She sighed and spoke, “Gaia, can you send the next person?” Her bracelet didn’t respond, and instead, a holographic screen appeared in front of the woman’s eyes that showed Gaia’s response since the AI was set to mute.

As for the man, he entered the attorney’s cabin.

“You’re here for a consultancy?” The attorney asked with a lax tone as the man’s eyes darted to look for a hanging bar certification, but he didn’t find any.

‘It’s all a fucking scam …’

“Yes,” The man quickly got to the point. “I wanted to ask what I’m supposed to do in this situation. My bank tells me that they are disabling their card and online transaction services and will exclusively work with the Gaia bracelet. This can’t be legal.”

“It wouldn’t be, up until a few months ago. Now? It’s mandatory for all banks to shift to the more secure method of using the Gaia Bracelet for any and all transaction purposes. Both the OCC and the FRS have issued these statements jointly. You can even try to change your bank, but it won’t help. All American banks are shifting. You must’ve seen the news about Visa and Mastercard filing for bankruptcy overnight once the relevant laws were passed. American Express won’t be far off unless its banks conform to the norm. Currently, the only payment gateway that is allowed is Gaia’s proprietary one.”

“I did, but I can’t even transfer funds online anymore. This is crazy.”

“My legal advice. Buy the bracelet. If you don’t have the money, I can help you appeal to your bank for a temporary bracelet, but in my opinion, you should just buy it. Even if on credit. It is very convenient.”

“…Fine,” The man accepted it. “I can’t even withdraw cash without a bracelet … Outside, the clerk told me that breaking the bracelet is a federal crime. What’s the deal with that? It’s a bracelet, accidents happen. What if I break it?”

“You get a free replacement. As for malicious tampering, I’m not sure about the tech behind it, but the internals all get fried, leaving you with nothing more than a charred piece of metal inside the casing. It’s apparently a groundbreaking tamper-proof design. Whatever that means. It wouldn’t matter, but that is indeed a federal crime. Considering the specific circumstances, you can be sent to jail for it.”

“Fine …” The man sighed in defeat. “I’ll get the damn bracelet. If only to not starve …”

…

On the other side of the country, in New York.

Alex and Gwen were visiting her mother and two brothers, Simon and Howard. As for her oldest brother, Phillip, he was in Oxford, taking his finals, and would come home in a few days.

“What do you think about the Gaia bracelet, Mom?” Gwen asked.

“It’s a marvelous piece of technology. However, the government’s push for it does seem a bit unnatural. I agree that it has made things immensely convenient, but essentially forcing people to buy a five-hundred-dollar piece of tech makes things seem radicalized. Just yesterday, I was watching a conspiracy theorist going on about an alien having taken over our planet and using it as a satellite base and all that.”

Alex had to clear his throat at Helen’s words and spoke up. “It might seem radical, but these policies are being implemented all over the world. In a recent UN meeting, all member countries unanimously voted for the implementation of the higher-end authentication system of Gaia for their transactional systems. The five hundred dollar price tag might sound like a lot for a mandatory thing, but it is a highly subsidized cost. It doesn’t even cover the cost of making a single bracelet if we include the R and D costs and time it took for us to research it.”

“I see,” the woman nodded. “Coming back to your question, Gwen. I haven’t had a single problem with your device yet. And Gaia is the most helpful assistant I could’ve asked for. Whenever I don’t understand something, I can just ask Gaia. Not to mention the holographic displays. I thought hologram technology was still a couple of decades away, but not only did you guys invent it, but you also made a product that can project clearly visible holograms that are also interactive. It’s very impressive.”

“You haven’t run into any issues yet, have you?” Gwen asked. “Even something minor, like the interface bugging out on you.”

“Not that I’ve noticed, no.” She shook her head.

“That’s good,” Gwen said. “What about you two bozos?” Gwen then turned to her brothers.

“It’s downright horrible,” Howard shared a look with Simon and spoke. “So many issues that I can’t even begin to count.”

Simon spoke next, “So many issues. I can’t play most games on it because I can’t touch anything. I would have to connect an external controller for that. Not to mention VR. I can’t even play games in immersive VR despite signing up for that neural interface with Gaia.”

Howard spoke up, “I have more. Gaia never finds me the contact information of someone I talk to unless I explicitly ask for their contact number. Literally unusable.”

Just as they were about to continue, Gwen cleared her throat. “Gaia, disable users Simon Stacy and Howard Stacy for the next twenty-four hours.”

“Admin control enabled — Administrator, Gwendolyn Stacy. Command accepted. Initiating time-out mode.” Gwen’s, Howard’s, and Simon’s devices all spoke in sync.

“Since you two don’t like it, you can just enjoy life without it for a while.”

“You can do that?!!” Simon was wide-eyed.

“I made it. Of course, I added some developer privileges. If your crime is of a high enough caliber, the police can also get a court order to disable your devices.”

“Really?” Helen asked with interest. “In that case, these devices should be tantamount to reducing the presence of crime on the streets.”

“You’d think so, but not really,” Gwen said as Howard and Simon gestured to Alex apologetically, hoping to get their devices unlocked. “Don’t even think about it. I’ll show you the consequences of messing with your big sister.”

Helen smiled a gentle and satisfied smile at Gwen’s behavior. Now that she’d started communicating with them regularly, things had gotten much more casual between everyone, much to her contentment. “How so?” She asked Gwen. “You don’t think this will affect crime?”

“Gaia already made a deal to never allow their tech to be used for any investigation purposes. That fail-safe I showed you just now is just there in case the attacker is a terrorist wanted in multiple countries, and the order must be passed through the entire council of the UN. Only then can the bracelet be used for tracking purposes.”

“It sounds like launching a nuke is easier than disabling someone else’s bracelet.”

“That’s because it is,” Gwen nodded. “Alex has some very grand plans regarding the next product from Gaia, and it hinges on the fact that people consider it to be completely separated from the law.”