“Dear God, why would you want one of those?”
“Excuse Me? I just--I have all the paperwork uploaded”
“Let's see. Yes you do, but why would you want a jet pack?”
“Well, you know, why would anyone want one? To fly.”
“Is you internal regulator functioning properly?”
“I'm sorry my internal--?”
“The chip.
“The chip. Oh well, I . . . uh I don't have one”
“Dear God why don't you have a chip?”
“You know you keep using that word god.”
“It's just a figure of speech. You know, textspeak OMG”
“Because in this scientific age--A minister of requisitions such as yourself--”
“Don't change the subject. You still haven't told me why you don't have a chip installed.”
“Why should I?”
“Why should you tell me? Because you are required by charter of this biosphere. Shall I call up the appropriate subparagraph on your reader?”
“No, why should I have a chip?”
“Are you serious? This isn't one of those shows on Googlenet, is it? Your external camera is not on is it?
“Nope. See my Google glass has a purely internal sensor array. So why should I have a chip really?”
“Because your health and safety matters.”
"To who? "
“To whom. To whom does it matter”
“Okay, to whom does it matter?”
“Well to you, sir. Jet packs are dangerous.”
“I have also requisitioned the Anderson portable protection shield.”
“Your safety matters to everyone.”
“My safety matters to everyone? How come?”
Dear Go—what do you mean, 'How come?' Because everyone is responsible for everyone's well-being. We are a community.”
“Yeah. So?”
“What do you mean 'Yeah so?' If the biospheric sweepers have to scrape you off the side of a dome, we all suffer.”
“Seems I would be the one suffering in that scenario.”
“You are dense. Are you sure I'm not being pranked? Did Arlene in family services put you up to this?”
"No she didn’t. Besides, I don't plan on flying inside the biosphere."
"You really are crazy aren't you? You want to go outside? Why? There's nothing to see but miles and miles of wasteland."
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe above the troposphere, out among the nacreous clouds somewhere near the aurora borealis I might see the sun. Nobody's looked since we built these domes."
“And for good reason! Who knows what sort of toxic infections you might come back flying in that soup. Don't you get it?”
“No explain it to me.”
“Health and safety is everyone's right and consequently everyone's responsibility. That means unhealthy behavior like flying around willy-nilly with a jet pack cannot be encouraged. Your internal regulator would have told you this . . . if you had one. To think otherwise is seriously deranged. Oh wait, you aren't one of those subversives are you? Is this a protest? Are you wasting my—that is, the Ministry of Health’s—time?
“Look, I've uploaded the forms. It's 2050 for goodness sake. I just want my jet pack.”