PPRuNe Forums - The grimm adventures of Truejet

Hello pruners, please forgive me while I indulge in a bit of airline fiction. Of course any likeness to any person or entity, past or present, is purely coincidental.

Once upon a time there was an airline, well not a real airline, but more of a personnel company. It was called Truejet and bigger airlines employed companies like this to fly the smaller aeroplanes on thinner routes. One such bigger airline was a behemoth who's name was Oldjet. It had been around for a long, long time and had a reputation as being the best airline in the world, but it's speciality was having the longest memory in history. All they ever talked about was how well they remembered the past and how glorious it was.

One day Oldjet put out an advertisement to see if anyone wanted to help them out with some of their flying. Excited by the prospect of being in the airline business, Truejet's head overlord jumped to it and put in the application form. The flying job was awarded to Truejet many long weeks later and everyone was happy.

Aeroplanes and passengers with destinations to fly to were found. All the men and women who were to fly and fix the aeroplanes, and keep the passengers comfortable and happy were also found. Before these hard working people could get down to work though, they had to agree how much they would be paid. The workers asked a team of people to talk with Truejet to make sure everyone was happy. This team of people were called the "Workers Federation", and they talked to Truejet for a long time. Eventually, there was an agreement reached, this was called the "Promise to Workers" or PTW. Everyone was happy! Before long aeroplanes and people were flying here and there and business was booming.

Then one day, the PTW began to get old and the Workers Federation had to meet with Truejet to make it new again. The people from the Workers Federation were excited at the thought of meeting with Truejet again because they had been successful last time. They all sat down to talk, but very quickly the Truejet people became less friendly. They wanted to make it possible for everyone to work longer, spend less time with their family and get less money. When the Workers Federation asked why, Truejet said it wasn't their fault because Oldjet had become far too happy with what Truejet was doing and wanted more.

Word began to spread amongst the workers that Truejet wanted to do what Oldjet had asked, "but what happens if we don't?" Asked one person. A dark voice then appeared out of the shadows "well then you'll all lose your jobs won't you. You don't want to be out of a job do you?" All of a sudden, the air became hot and sticky and suffocating, everyone was worried. It was the topic of conversation all across the land and people began to imagine what would really happen if Oldjet became angry. Some time passed and Truejet wanted an answer, the workers agreed that it was for the best and agreed to help Truejet keep Oldjet happy. "Goooooood!" Said the people from Truejet, and for a time, everyone was happy again.

Years went by until the PTW started to get old again. The workers became worried that even though they had been incredibly industrious and had helped Truejet appeases Oldjet in the past, that they would be made to feel afraid again. And so it was.

Truejet sat down with the Workers Federation to discuss the new PTW, but before anyone said a word, the room became dark and fearful, and a scary red glow appeared. "We need more!!" Came a booming voice, "or else!" "Or else what?" Asked the Workers Frederation. "Who knows....." Said the Truejet people in a low sinister tone. The Workers Federation became annoyed and decided to go away to think about what had been said. They spoke to the workers, who asked why Truejet was being so ungrateful. The Workers Federation couldn't figure it out either.

A few days later, the Truejet people demanded that the Workers Federation people make a decision. "We need to keep Oldjet happy!" They hissed. "We need an answer!" The Workers Federation asked the Workplace Rulers if they could stay home from work until this had all been sorted out; the Rulers agreed and allowed the workers to have protection days. As soon as Truejet heard of this protection days action, they proclaimed "We have told Oldjet that we are going to fix things using our own management skills, you can all continue working in your usual happy state!" "Bravo!" Was the call from the Truejet people. The Truejet people smiled and shook hands with each other, and there was an appearance that everyone was happy once more.

The truth however was very different. The Workers were unhappy that they were feeling threatened, and the Truejet people were angry that they were not able to fool the workers again. In the great Southern Fortress, the Truejet people schemed. They employed spies called "Monosells" to spread the fear and things called "variables". Variables were cleverly constructed slices of information which had special pieces surgically removed so as to appear like the truth, but were in fact sinister lies. Monosells were given special gifts called zippers and wobblers. For a time, the Monosells were effective, and they enjoyed the gifts and protection from the people a Truejet. The other workers were skeptical of the Monosells and tried to keep a distance. This was hard though, as the Monosells had endless variables and deposited them all around.

Spreading variables wasn't the Monosells only job, they also ferreted around, feverishly gathered material highly prised by Truejet. This material took on the appearance of gems and allowed Truejet to know who said or did what. The power of the gems meant that Truejet could rule remotely, giving them unlimited power. This allowed them to make those workers who had developed a resistance to the variables, read their dirt file and eventually disappear.

One day, a new overlord emerged within the walls of Truejet, his job was preordained and terrible. He had a name he didn't like so he called himself "Acronom", but all and sundry called him Gregory.

The Truejet people thought the walls of the Southern Fortress were now beginning to feel too thin and low. They began spending large sums of "Olddollars" building bigger walls, and buying more variables. New Monosells were bought to spread the variables, and the rewards became more and more generous; even impossible. The new Monosells initially went unnoticed by the other workers, but by the time they did become visible, the damage had been done. Each time a variable was believed, it made Truejet richer, and the Southern Fortress more luxurious.

As the appetite for power and gems, and the need to appease Oldjet increased, so too the attacks on the PTW. Every day it seemed saw another opportunity for Truejet to steal from the workers. Every time Truejet met with the workers, the same tales of woe and hardship were told. The same demands were made "we need flexibility", "you don't support us", "times are tough". These stories were so well known and boring that even the overlords couldn't stand to listen. Sometimes they vanished for a while, only to return with a new hairdo.

Then one day, the stories of woe and hardship began to lose their power over the workers. The workers were tired of being told they were not working hard enough, not giving up enough or not supporting the Truejet overlords. The workers felt that Truejet expected them to be a bottomless pit of generosity, but sadly, they weren't, they had been used up. Even the Monosells secretly began to question Truejet and their greed, they wondered if they themselves had been used, never to receive the impossible rewards. Alas, they couldn't go back, all the bridges were burnt, they were trapped in the Southern Fortress along with the Truejet managers. With no one believing them anymore and all their bridges burnt, they began to feel nervous about their future.

Acronom was known and feared for his love of "disappearings", his speciality was getting rid of workers and returning their salary to the overlords. The other workers then had to do the work of the "disappeared" ones as well as their own. He called this "compliant efficiency". Disagreeing with Acronom was the best way to get selected for a disappearance, everyone knew this and so all he ever heard was "Acro-truths". This would lead to self destructive prophesies and cause doubt in the mind of Oldjet. The situation was becoming hopeless.

As the days became darker and more fearful, many workers decided it was time to help Truejet and particularly Acronom reduce the number of workers by auto-disappearing. Despite the noise and confusion emanating from the very high walls of the Southern Fortress, the workers could still hear "Sandjet" and "Jetasia" calling for help. Many answered the call and before long, Acronom had his wish, the workers were finally working for two. "Good!" He thought, "more money for walls and gems, and variables, and Monosells. Soon I will own the Southern Fortress and all the workers, and my wishes will be theirs too".

When the workers told Truejet that soon there will not be enough of them left to do all the work, the "Human Torturers" overlord proclaimed "nonsense! It has never happened before, it won't happen this time! Hahahah!" But it was too late, too many had already left, work was not getting done. The only way Truejet could keep working was to make very expensive "dollarcalls" where the workers were asked to work when they should have been at rest. They were paid with Olddollars and given "collectable days off". These days would, in the fullness of time, be lost to a dubious oversight.

Oldjet, unable to see the putrid interior of Truejet could only smell the rot. The ever growing walls around the Southern Fortress hid from view all the problems, but Oldjet knew it was time to change overlords. Whispers flowed and drifted among the workers. The smell of the putrefaction made the whispers more and more truthful and now it seemed the variables were beginning to reverse.

Many overlords no longer circled overhead, they just flew away. The tastiest morsels of the beast had been consumed and what remained was becoming toxic, it was time to leave for fresh carcasses. The remaining overlords were becoming desperate with the loss of control over the workers. They declared a state of emergency thus giving them the power to deny the truth and suspend their own doubts. These powers enabled them to believe to their very core all of their own "trueganda". Their minds had achieved a state of "lobotis", a state all overlords aspire to. Morose claims became the norm.

As the merry, merry month arrived, there was a total loss of control looming and all the Truejet overlords and workers could do was wait for the crunch. The end was in sight, and no one was happy.

TO BE CONTINUED

As the state of emergency in the Southern Fortress steadily gained pace over the many months that followed. The synchronising of minds meant the spread of lobotis within the high, thick walls had become unstoppable. Treuganda was reacting with trueganda to form a "multiganda", a form of hysteria whereby nothing was true anymore. Not even the the fabric of time itself was relevant now that the overlords had denied its existence. And by denying the existence of time, the overlords were able to manipulate the working hours as they pleased so that each worker could work almost simultaneously alongside themselves. The workers time at home relaxing was also denied an existence thus yielding a level of compliant efficiency that was once only dreamt of by the overlords as they slumbered long and peacefully. Such was the success of the "hyperslavery" that the overlords felt an overwhelming desire to rejoice. A feast was planned and much celebration was to be had, they all sat down at the long and generous table to celebrate. The chief overlord then snapped his finger to bring the rest of the overlords out of lobotis for the feast, but when he did all that was revealed was putrid and rotting food. The sight of the ghastly meal that lay before them and the realisation of the "actutruth" allowed a foul stench to escape. The actutruth was the natural enemy of the multiganda because it served no purpose other than to display the truth in its raw form. It allowed the workers to build up a resistance to all that was decreed by the overlords. The chief overlord quickly snapped his fingers and they all fell into a deep, safe and blissful lobotis again. He stood there presiding over the "morolord", the name given to a group of overlords, and held his breath. He was listening to see if there was any audible evidence of the workers outside sniffing the truth. He quickly dispatched dozens of variables and contacted his monosells demanding they extinguish any actutruths. The wait began to see if he had been successful.

Meanwhile outside the southern fortress, the workers went about their daily grind of arriving home from work then instantly reappearing back at work as if by magic. They believed their families existed, but no longer had evidence of this. Some even swore that they did in fact have families, but no, it was only a memory or a dream. Their lives had become "reciprostered" where all they did was work in an endlessly reciprocating work day. They became angry and upset, but were unable to do anything as they were either at work, or at work. There was no time to combat what they jokingly referred to as the "mortroster". Little did they know that this was not so far from the truth as soon enough it would test ones mortality; this was no joke anymore.

Those workers lucky enough to have been downwind of the southern fortress at the time of the feast suddenly stood erect, eyes wide open, senses sharp. They began to sniff the air like wolves. They looked at one another knowingly and without a word, they smiled and slowly produced their communicators. These devices were usually in "aeromode", but those that weren't were able to broadcast an "actutruth" to others. The "actutruths" zoomed out at the actual speed of light and so began a chain reaction that allowed for an exponential increase in the spread of the truth. They renamed the southern fortress the "southern fortrid" after the putrid smell of actutruths. Verbal vaccinations called "varianations" started to take effect thus limiting the ability of the variables. Even the monosells were rendered powerless by the "varianations". The overlords now knew that the workers were crystallising in their resolve and the information once contained in the gems collected by the monosells was worthless. "Gemflation" had occurred making the gems worthless and the monosells a non-commodity. They were now living in "monolation", neither required nor accepted. The gifts once lavished upon the monosells were now nowhere to be seen, especially the impossible ones, which had actually become impossible. The monosells had thoughts of retaliation against the southern fortress, but pride prevented them from doing so and they just went cold. All of a sudden the tiny pockets of resistance that had been dispersed around the company coalesced to form a cloak of actutruths. The putrid smell once tolerated by many was now hated by all and served as a company wide call to arms.

While all this was occurring, Truejet and Oldjet had been meeting to discuss who was going to come off second best. Truejet willingly volunteered and Oldjet was happy. The deal included many reductions to the already reduced deal, with many functions removed altogether. Truejet was becoming a shrinking representation of its dwindling self, but fortunately, it was going to have a full "minicent" to enjoy this. The announcement was announced with much, but widely ignored, fanfare. The workers had hoped to be rid of the southern fortress and the overlords in the coming months. The end was nigh, but not for the overlords this time. Hopes sank.

As part of the deal, a new organisation was introduced to improve the rate of decay. "Boatjet" was awarded a crucial part of the over all operation, as it was a commonly held belief that it could do the job more cheaply, and therefore much better. So Boatjet started its new job with much enthusiasm. Soon they were dashing here and there making it so that the liquid gold that had become so prized by Oldjet was no longer being consumed on some ex-sectors. Buildings were no longer empty and seats no longer being sat upon. A system that once worked and at bargain basement price still did both, but with a lesser degree of success. Hoorah! Was the cry from Oldjet as the money was tumbling out at an all time low. Those who questioned this folly were quickly silenced by those who excel, for they too understood money but with a universal degree of knowledge.

Truejet, having filled its dance card to the brim with too many problems already, embarked on another covert mission. Code named "operation rexall", it sought to relocate certain high value assets to other locations without permission. Those who preferred to remain of value were "freemoted" whereby they were demoted, but at their own expense. The battleground was set and it was going to be a long and bloody battle. The worst was yet to come though.

Having woken up hungry after the feast, the overlords were reminded that the Promise To Workers had become very old and tattered. The time that the overlords had been denying even existed couldn't be kept from affecting the PTW and it was no longer relevant. They had overlooked this fact and now the workers wanted to provide Truejet an opportunity to compete with other companies for their services. Meetings were booked and meetings were had, but this would be a long hard road for Truejet. After the first meeting was over and the workers representatives were safely out of earshot, the overlords began to talk. As they stood on their lofty balconies surveying their now hostile domain and discussing their strategy, their coffee van cups began to shudder, the coffee sloshing and rippling. The fortress shook as a dust storm had begun and no amount of monosells or variables, or gems, or truegandas will dampen the dust this time. It would have to rain and rain and rain until there was no more disparity and the workers were happy once again. The workers families would need to recognise their loved ones once again and they would need to banish terrible thoughts.

Until then, the autodisappearings would continue, if not increase until the liquid gold stopped flowing, the seats remained unused and ex-sectors became the norm.

TO BE CONTINUED......