Penultimatology

Chapter Five of Helena, a novel in progress. This work of fiction examines Christian nationalism, political power, and the corruption of religious language.

The message from Helena’s mother arrived at 06:10.

It appeared on the wall while Helena was dressing for work, accompanied by the green border that identified an approved family communication.

FROM: JUDITH

RELATIONSHIP: MOTHER

Helena opened it.

Your father and I were informed that you participated in a pastoral conversation yesterday. We trust that any misunderstanding has been resolved. Your father asked me to remind you that an honest citizen has nothing to fear from honest answers. Daniel and the children send their love. Please confirm that you are well.

Helena read it again.

The message sounded like her father, except for the final sentence.

That belonged to her mother.

Judith had always hidden concern inside practical requests. Eat something. Take a coat. Confirm that you are well. When Helena was a child, those words had meant only what they said. Now they might mean anything.

She selected the approved response.

I AM WELL.

The wall asked whether she wished to add anything.

Helena thought of the questions Pastor Ward had asked about her family. She wondered whether her father and mother had merely been notified of the interview or whether they had been questioned too. She imagined her father insisting that the Republic had every right to correct uncertainty. She imagined her mother sitting silently beside him, hands folded in her lap.

Helena selected SEND without adding another word.

Her wristband vibrated.

FAMILY COMMUNICATION COMPLETE.

REPORT TO ASSIGNED EMPLOYMENT AT 07:45.

Outside, the morning procession continued as it always had. Citizens followed their projected lines. Gates opened and closed. Compliance bands pulsed softly against millions of wrists.

No one looking at Helena would have known that anything had changed.

She was still an active citizen. She had not been arrested, reassigned, or withdrawn from civic participation. Her employment and travel authorizations remained valid.

But she was now a supporting witness in Reproductive Case MV-77241.

She was forbidden to discuss the designation.

She did not know what she had witnessed.

At the employment center, the scanner recognized her immediately.

IDENTITY CONFIRMED.

PROCEED.

The empty space beside her workstation remained.

Mara’s station had not been replaced.

Livia was already seated across the room. She did not look up as Helena entered. Her posture was exact, her attention fixed upon the assignments displayed before her.

Helena sat down.

Her screen remained dark.

At 07:45, the starting tone sounded. Every occupied station changed from gray to blue.

Helena’s changed to white.

The day’s assignments did not appear.

Instead, a notice filled the screen.

SUPPORTING-WITNESS OBLIGATION PENDING.

EMPLOYMENT DUTIES TEMPORARILY DEFERRED.

DISCUSSION IS PROHIBITED.

A narrow progress circle rotated beneath the words.

Helena placed her hands inside the marked area and waited.

At 08:02, the notice disappeared. Mara’s identification photograph took its place.

It was the same photograph Pastor Ward had shown her: Mara smiling in a way Helena had never seen in life.

Beneath it appeared a case summary.

SUBJECT: MARA VENN

CLASSIFICATION: PROTECTED REPRODUCTIVE SUBJECT

EVENT STATUS: UNRESOLVED

CIVIC RISK: ELEVATED

Helena read the final two lines again.

Unresolved.

She had assumed that Maternal Protection possessed evidence it had not disclosed. She had imagined physicians studying test results, officials reviewing recordings, and analysts reconstructing every movement Mara had made.

The system knew.

That was what Livia had said.

But the system did not know. Not yet.

A document appeared.

SUPPORTING-WITNESS STATEMENT

I, Citizen Helena, affirm that during the six months preceding Reproductive Event MV-77241, I personally observed Citizen Mara Venn express distrust of the reproductive protection system, question the accuracy of her compliance band, and demonstrate reluctance to submit reproductive irregularities for appropriate review.

Below the statement were two choices:

SUBSTANTIALLY ACCURATE

REQUIRES CORRECTION

Helena read the statement slowly.

She had heard Mara question her band once.

The band doesn’t know everything.

Mara had said it months ago, during a midday break, after the band reported an unexplained elevation in her temperature. She had not rejected medical care. She had not concealed a pregnancy. She had not even claimed that the reading was wrong.

But she had questioned the band.

The prepared statement transformed one frightened observation into six months of distrust. It placed that distrust beside a reproductive event and made each appear to explain the other.

Helena looked toward Livia.

Her head remained bowed over her work.

Helena selected REQUIRES CORRECTION.

Her wristband vibrated sharply.

CORRECTION REQUESTS MUST IDENTIFY A MATERIAL FACTUAL ERROR.

A text field opened.

Helena began to type.

I heard Mara say once that the band did not know everything.

She stopped.

The sentence was true. It was also precisely what the investigators wanted.

She erased it.

The screen recorded the deletion.

Helena tried again.

Mara expressed concern about an unexplained temperature reading.

She erased that too.

No wording could protect Mara while explaining why the prepared statement was false. Every correction supplied the government with another fragment it could use.

A timer appeared in the upper corner.

04:53 REMAINING

Helena had not been told that the statement was timed.

She placed her fingers on the screen.

I never heard Mara say that she had been pregnant.

She selected SUBMIT CORRECTION.

The sentence disappeared.

A warning replaced it.

RESPONSE DOES NOT ADDRESS THE IDENTIFIED STATEMENT.

PLEASE PROVIDE A RESPONSIVE CORRECTION.

The text field reopened.

Her sentence remained inside it.

03:41 REMAINING

Helena selected SUBMIT CORRECTION again.

Her band tightened.

REPEATED UNRESPONSIVE SUBMISSIONS MAY CONSTITUTE WITNESS NONCOOPERATION.

PLEASE PROVIDE A RESPONSIVE CORRECTION.

The sentence returned for a third time.

Across the room, Livia’s hands had stopped moving.

She still did not look at Helena, but she was no longer working.

Helena wondered whether Livia could see the white light of her workstation. She wondered whether Livia had received a statement of her own.

02:16 REMAINING

Helena read her sentence.

I never heard Mara say that she had been pregnant.

It did not deny that Mara had questioned the band. It did not answer the statement the government had prepared. It did not accuse Maternal Protection of making an error.

It placed one fact in the record.

Helena selected SUBMIT CORRECTION.

The warning returned.

She submitted it again.

00:47 REMAINING

Her pulse pounded against the band.

She submitted it a fifth time.

The screen went black.

For several seconds, nothing appeared.

Then:

CORRECTION ACCEPTED WITH RESERVATION.

WITNESS RESPONSIVENESS: DEFICIENT

FURTHER CLARIFICATION MAY BE REQUIRED.

Helena released a breath she had not realized she was holding.

Mara’s photograph disappeared.

A folder opened in its place.

CASE MATERIALS AVAILABLE TO SUPPORTING WITNESS

Most of the text had been concealed behind black rectangles. What remained consisted of disconnected phrases:

…cycle declaration overdue by nine days…

…sustained temperature variance…

…hormonal pattern insufficient for clinical confirmation…

…no authorized pregnancy test recorded…

…subject denied gestational event…

…potential chemical termination cannot be excluded…

Helena scrolled.

A medical assessment appeared near the bottom.

Available biometric evidence is consistent with multiple possible explanations, including early pregnancy, spontaneous termination, endocrine dysfunction, infection, medication exposure, device error, or intentional interference. The available data do not establish conception.

Beneath it, another office had added an annotation.

The absence of confirmed conception does not eliminate the possibility that an unborn child existed. Under the Doctrine of Life at Fertilization, personhood is not dependent upon detection by the state.

A second annotation followed.

Legal classification requires an identifiable reproductive event. Theological certainty must not be substituted for evidentiary sufficiency.

A third response had been entered beneath them.

The Office of Doctrinal Medicine rejects any standard under which technological detection determines the beginning of human life. God’s creative act precedes human knowledge of that act.

The final annotation was brief.

Doctrinal review pending.

Helena stared at the words.

The officials did not agree that Mara had been pregnant. They did not agree that a reproductive event had occurred. They did not even agree upon the relationship between pregnancy, personhood, and the government’s ability to detect either.

Yet Mara had disappeared.

The screen displayed another document.

PROPOSED CIVIC FINDING

Citizen Mara Venn failed to report biometric evidence that might reasonably have indicated the existence or loss of a potential unborn child. Whether or not a gestational event can be conclusively established, her failure to seek immediate clarification deprived the state of the opportunity to provide appropriate protection.

The accusation no longer required a pregnancy.

It required only the possibility of one.

If Mara had been pregnant, she had endangered a child. If she had not been pregnant, she had failed to report data that might have indicated pregnancy. If the band was defective, she had neglected government equipment. If the data resulted from illness, she had failed to seek timely care.

There was no version in which Mara had done nothing wrong.

A new choice appeared.

I HAVE REVIEWED THE CASE MATERIALS.

Helena selected it.

The workstation changed from white to blue. Her ordinary assignments appeared.

Around her, the others continued working.

Livia’s hands began to move again.

At midday, Helena collected her nutrient cube and water packet. She sat at her usual table. Livia chose a different one.

Neither woman looked toward the empty space where Mara had once sat.

The projected verse for the day appeared above them:

“In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”

2 Corinthians 13:1 KJV

Helena wondered how many witnesses the Republic required when no one had seen anything.

The afternoon passed slowly.

Her assignments were familiar, but she struggled to maintain the required pace. Whenever her attention drifted, the workstation displayed a yellow border. She corrected herself before it became red.

At 16:42, the employment center doors opened.

Two pastoral aides entered.

The workers did not turn toward them. No instruction was necessary. Everyone knew that an unexpected arrival should not be observed.

Between the aides walked Mara Venn.

Her brown hair had been combed and pulled back. She wore the same gray employment clothing she had worn two days earlier. There were no visible bruises, restraints, or injuries.

Her face looked smaller.

A white light circled her compliance band.

The supervisor rose from his desk. One of the aides handed him a tablet. He confirmed receipt, and Mara was directed toward the empty space beside Helena.

Two maintenance workers followed with the station that had been removed. They uncovered it, reconnected it, and waited while its surface illuminated.

Mara stood without speaking.

Helena kept her eyes on her own screen.

The station ran through a sequence of identity checks. Each produced a low tone. During the final calibration, a wash of static filled the room.

Mara sat down.

The pastoral aides left.

At 16:51, every workstation went black.

An announcement appeared.

CIVIC RESTORATION NOTICE

REPRODUCTIVE CASE MV-77241

A recording of Mara filled the screen.

She sat against a pale blue background. Her hair and clothing were exactly as they were now. Her expression was calm.

When she began to speak, her voice was steady.

“I, Citizen Mara Venn, acknowledge that I failed to report a reproductive anomaly within the required period. My failure deprived Maternal Protection of the opportunity to safeguard a potential unborn child. I accept pastoral correction and express gratitude for the care provided to me. I encourage every woman to remember that reproductive vigilance is an act of obedience to God, service to the Republic, and love toward every life that may have been entrusted to her.”

The recording ended.

A written summary replaced it:

CITIZEN MARA VENN ACKNOWLEDGES THAT HER FAILURE TO REPORT A REPRODUCTIVE ANOMALY ENDANGERED A POTENTIAL UNBORN CHILD.

CIVIC STATUS RESTORED WITH CONDITIONS.

DISCUSSION OF THIS CASE IS PROHIBITED.

The ordinary work display returned.

For several minutes, Helena heard nothing except the muted sounds of hands moving across workstations.

Mara began completing the assignments placed before her.

She did not look at Helena.

At 17:00, the dismissal tone sounded, but Mara’s station entered another calibration cycle. Static rose from its speakers.

Helena stood.

Mara’s hand moved across the surface of her station as if selecting an instruction.

Without turning her head, she spoke beneath the noise.

“There was never a child.”

The static ceased.

Mara’s white band flashed.

Helena walked away without answering.

Previous: The Pastoral Conversation — Chapter Four