Upstairs-Downstairs Services Inc. Official meeting record 2/3

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Goran: I really don't think anyone here would have posted something like that on a public…

Litze: Their dreams, Goran! These people entrusted us with everything. Their bodies and their minds. When I was too young to speak, Subjects F-43ACA and M-66ECD and a hundred thousand others were already asleep under the watchful eye of my parents and your parents. That trust was handed down to us, and what did we do with it? We posted their deepest, most private experiences on THIS SHIP'S PUBLIC FORUM!

(long silence)

Litze: Who wants to take responsibility? Anyone?

(silence)

Litze: No one.

Goran: At least there weren't any names listed, it's just subject numbers. And we've got fifty years left, by the time they wake up nobody's going to remember…hell we might not even be alive to see it. As far as we're concerned they're just…(trails off abruptly)

Litze: Just what? Big ol' sacks of money in numbered boxes, right? They're upstairs, and we're downstairs. They're dollar signs riding first class in dreamland and we're in steerage. Living out our lives right here, instead of going to bed on Earth and waking up with Zorica shining on our faces. Is that what you were going to say? Is that what everyone here is thinking?

(silence)

Litze: You all know me. As Director-In-Chief I am responsible for over three hundred thousand souls on this ship. Yes, they are rich. Back on earth they had money and power and all the things our parents didn't have. My grandfather could barely afford to get my parents onto this ship, let alone book a spot in the Sleeper Car, and so I will live and die right here without seeing the light of Danica or Zorica or any other sun. But what I will not do is abandon people in our charge. People who are helpless, who depend on us for food and air. People with no privacy except what we provide them, and no real life during this journey except what they have in their dreams.

Manny: Look I agree with everything you're saying—and let me stress that neither I nor anyone in my section would ever post documents like that in the forum…

Litze: But.

Manny: But come on, Caspar. We keep the lights on. We're not hurting anyone. And let's be honest, those three hundred thousand sleepers do take up more resources that the four million other passengers combined. I'm not saying anything here, and yeah, I get that we're responsible for them. But they're basically just taking up space. I mean, they're only kind of alive anyways, in a sense. Does peeking into their dreams really matter that much? We'll take care of those boxes — we all will — but, you know, stuff like this is going to happen.

Litze: No. It's not going to happen. You know why?

(silence)

Litze: I'm going to tell you a story, Manny.