Prefect

Comrades! Con-- Ah, Friends!

[Video clicks on, and lo, it is Prefect! He's squared the camera up neatly, and is sitting at his desk. His clothes are comfortable businesswear, and he's... pretty evidently about to do some serious business talk at you]

I have been thinking about ways by which we could potentially improve the general understanding of concerns and needs within pairings and on board the barge! As we know, wardens here receive no specific training or direction in terms of how to assist their inmates, and while this has allowed each inmate to have their own individual needs catered too, it has also resulted in wardens often being ill equipped to respond to the needs of their inmates, or unable to identify common mistakes or problems which are effecting their inmates!

[He's slowly becoming a little more gestural and excited as he speaks, and there's a kind of forceful earnestness in what he's saying.]

These errors are not made out of malice, but none the less their impact on inmates can hamper, or even reverse the personal progress and improvement for which we are striving here, and I believe that they can be drastically reduced with a more organized approach to the sharing of common problems, experiences, and expertise! [The gestures are getting bigger, slightly more jerk-y and rhythmic, and his enthusiasm is just still GROWING.]

Please find attached a short anonymous survey requesting insight into people's experiences and opinions on their progress here, and their perceptions of the mechanics of the Barge. I mean to collect, collate, and publish the responses, in an attempt to identify regularly occurring problems and trends within the Barge's population, so that I can compile them into a document to assist newly arriving wardens and inmates. Perhaps we will eventually be able to develop an effective induction to those working here, for the benefit of all!

So Comrades! Brothers and Sisters! [He's getting downright bombastic at this point.] Please reject the hypothesis that struggling wardens are lacking in commitment or in the desire to help their inmates! Reject the idea that inmates who do not improve on the barge are deliberately resisting progress! We live within a flawed system which we have a duty to endeavor to improve! Embrace the healing power of standardized testing and anonymous data collection! Redemption through correlation! Let our standards be outstanding!

[He gives a wide, joyful little grin, then quickly adds in a hushed deadpan:]

All responses will remain entirely anonymous for the protection of respondents and their pairings, and any details which could compromise the anonymity of participants will be edited out or remain unpublished. If you have a specific concern with your warden or inmate which you require direct assistance or a direct response too please feel free to refer to the suggestion and/or complaint box and I will endeavor to otherwise meet your needs!

[And with that, he smiles again (bright as a malfunctioning floodlamp) and signs off.]

( THE ATTACHED SURVEY: )

[Video clicks on. Prefect's sitting beside his comatose inmate in the infirmary, and looking... well... looking tired. He pressed one hand across his eyes, rubbing them, before glancing towards the camera again.]

When Eddie Russet left, he said he was going to try and change things in his world. To go... start a revolution, or join one. To try and change his world, even if he died in the process. Sonmi was the same. I don't know if anyone here got a chance to know her, really, but she was my inmate, before Barron. She was a worker. Born and bred and destined to be a worker, and she fought them. Like my workers fought me.

[He smiles, his gaze dropping from the Camera to stare out into space a little.]

I couldn't help her. I still don't fully understand why she was an inmate here, when she was a much better person than I was. She deserved... I don't know, he deserved to win. And when I think about that, I think, my workers? The people who killed me? They deserve to win too. They deserve a life outside the Factory. [He brings a hand up to scratch at his eyes, frowning now.] But-- but they won't get one, because the Factory is vast. It's vast, and it's powerful and it's omniscient, and it doesn't really need them. And it won't die in it's sleep. So they all lose, and none of them get that other life that they deserve, only I do. It's only me. [He drops his hand down again, staring into space, his expression desolate.]

Sonmi, and then Eddie, and now O'Brien. I guess Beatty too, eventually. I don't know if... if it's about atonement or suicide. Sometimes I think... eventually, I'll go back too. I'll have too, because if I don't actually try to change it, if I don't actually go out there and do something to fix what I did to all those people, then nothing that I've done here actually has any meaning. Nothing that I believe about justice, or freedom, really means anything.

[He finally glances back towards the Camera again.] I hate it though. I hate that they choose that. They just-- what kind of god complex do you have to have to think that your death, that your going back and fighting the good fight and dying will be the thing that changes anything? I'm sorry, Comrades, but Newsflash: This is not actually the end of history! The Factory is not infinite, eventually your totalitarian regime will fall with or without your intervention, and you have been lied too!

[His voice has sped up towards the end of this little speech, and his tone has hardened and he's openly agitated. As he finishes, however, Barron shifts slightly in his coma. It's really just a twitching muscle, but none the less, Prefect's attention is abruptly redirected to fawning over his unconscious form.]