I sat, moping, at my desk. The weather had been too cold for my taste. It had only reached a dismal 80 degrees outside. I don't know how anybody can stand it. Today had been real slow so far, as usual. I sighed. Automation had turned the world upside-down. With the invention of robotics, people no longer had a need to perform manual labor. Instead, they just left it to the Department of Labor to provide adequate and appropriate robots. "Made the world more efficient," they said. More lazy, they mean. A man didn't have to do a hard day of work anymore. He could just sit back and watch the world revolve. Of course, the jobs requiring decision-making had been kept. All the higher-ups wanted to keep their fancy houses and cars. The average joe, though, had to make do with sharing common property. And since all property was to be shared according to need, there was very little need for cops like me. Oh, sure, there were always a few malcontents who wanted to join the Underground, misguided individuals who wanted to live in the Old Society, with money and capitalism. A few had attempted crimes against the state, but even then, the police sent Artificial Law Enforcers, or ALEs, after them. Now, I admit, those robots do the job pretty well, but they just don't adapt well enough to different situations.

I glanced up as someone walked up to my desk. "Hi, Wally. You've got a visitor." Stephanie was the station's secretary. She was a real sweet girl, nice to look at, but if you looked closely underneath her left ear, you'd notice a hole there. In this day and age, it's possible to surgically implant a tiny biological computer into the brain. Steph's job was to help keep track of everything that happened in our station. The biocomp made her perfect for the job. The jack underneath her ear was used to access the biocomp, in case a file from her memory needed to be extracted or her memories needed to be backed up.

I looked over to the man, dressed in the telltale black suit and tie of a government official. "Who is it?" I asked. She motioned the man over. "Wally, this is Agent Riddley from TIM. He wants to talk to you about your beat."

The Terran Intelligence Ministry? I wondered as to his presence even as I stood to shake his hand. "My name is Officer William Kates. How can I help you?"

He scratched absently at his earjack. Obviously, he was new to the job and had just received a new biocomp. "Officer Kates, I understand the area you are currently patrolling with your ALEs includes the nearby university." I nodded. "I am here because I want you to have your ALEs avoid that particular area until I give you leave."

I sputtered for a second. "Wait a minute! You want me to..."

"I'm sure you'd like to know what's happening. I suppose you have the right to know, since it is your territory I am moving into. Have you ever heard of the SETI program? The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Program? It was program started by the Old Society long ago. A new government project has created a large, high powered two-way transmitter that should be able to reach light years beyond the range of the Old Society's transmitters. We set them to work at the university. I have reason to believe that two nights ago, we were contacted by aliens."

The technicians scrambled about the university telescope room, busy checking all the instrumentation on all the machinery. Others readied the security cameras and turned them to face the transmitter. "Now, we're unsure as to the nature of these aliens. The scientists working on the project were found the next morning completely mindwiped. Fortunately for them, they had backups of everything in their minds. Everything, that is, except for the night in question. The next night, we set up cameras to record what happened. In the morning, the scientists had again been mindwiped, and the recordings had been erased. The custodians found them for the second time amidst all the humming equipment." He pointed towards a group of five men and women, dressed in the white lab coats that marked them as scientists. "Those are the scientists working on this project. If you'll notice, they are having their memories backed up at this moment. I'll be up next to have my memories backed up. Are you sure you want to stay here? If your mind is wiped clean, you can't very well reinstall your memories."

"I know, but I want to be here to see what happens. I take full responsibility for my actions." My curiosity had been piqued when he had mentioned the possibility of alien contact. I had always wondered what we would do when we finally contacted intelligent life out there in the far reaches of space.

"If you don't mind my asking, Officer, why don't you have a biocomp implanted?"

I thought about it for a second. "Well, I guess I just don't like the idea of anything in my head that isn't natural."

"But the biocomp is perfectly natural," he argued. "As soon as the brain stops growing in size, anyone can be fitted with one. There have been no complications since they were put into regular use about a year ago. The biocomp has made our lives more efficient, and much easier, you have to admit."

"Efficient? Yes. Easier? I suppose, but I still believe that the more 'efficient' and the 'easier' life gets, the lazier and sloppier humankind becomes. Tell me, after the invention of the groundcar, how many people walked? How many people relied on their legs? After the invention of the microwave, how many people cooked real dinners for themselves?"

"You don't have to fall into the same pattern as those people that you just pointed out, do you? You could do your job just as well, if not better, with a biocomp fitted into your brain."

"I suppose. I guess I'm just partial to keeping my head in one piece if I can help it." At this, the technicians motioned to Agent Riddley that they were ready to back up his memory. As Riddley plugged himself into the computer, I looked around. The night sky gleamed from outside the open dome, stars twinkling like fiery gems. Inside, a gigantic motor used to run the transmitter and the receiver squatted against the wall, lying in wait for someone to flip the switch and start it running. Opposite to the motor, the actual transmitter itself pointed out the open dome towards a distant sky, a sparkling star known only by the code HL-258. Man had solved most of his differences between each other, so all-out warfare had become obsolete; but this opened up new possibilities. Man no longer waged war, but that was merely because he no longer had an opponent. I shuddered. Hopefully, this new race would prove peaceful... but, no, it didn't matter. No, mankind had been waiting for a new opportunity to exert its power and now that chance had come. The soldiers now stationed around the university's perimeter proved that all possibility of a peaceful meeting had disappeared the moment the scientists had been mindwiped. The only thing left to do was wait.

The room looked empty without the scurrying technicians and the MPs guarding the room. Everyone but the scientists, Riddley, and I had been evacuated from the area. Three of the scientists carefully readied the instrumentation while the other two prepared to write a detailed account of the events. Meanwhile, Riddley and I were set to watch the watchers.

At around midnight, the scientists turned on the motor that powered the transmitter and receiver. It lumbered to a start, slowly spinning faster and faster. I watched, hypnotized for a second, before wrenching my eyes back to the scene in front of me. The scientists began switching on the instrumentation. In the background, the whirring and humming of the generator began to rise to full power. Apprehension filled the air as one of the professors slowly, cautiously, reached over to the switch to begin transmitting and receiving.

Click.

For a second, nothing happened. Then, he slumped over the controls of the transmitter. I watched, horrified, as each person slumped over, unconscious, where they stood. The noise of the generator in the background had reached full volume, but in my mind, the relatively quiet whirring continued to grow in intensity until the last body sagged to the floor. I stood up; trembling, lurching, unable to stand in confusion and horror. My knees gave out and the last image I saw was that of the ground rushing up to meet me. Then, everything faded to black.

I awoke. My head still hurt from last night's party. Or was it last night? My surroundings didn't look very familiar. Then, it all came rushing back. What happened? What was going on? Around me, the six figures lay draped over the furniture and the machinery. I rushed over to Agent Riddley as best as I could with my headache. When I reached him, I saw that he was drooling. In his eyes, I could see only a vague blankness. I couldn't tell if he had been mindwiped or was simply unconscious. I assumed both. The rest of the crew had the same vacant expression. What had happened? I was the only person who hadn't been completely wiped. I looked around in wonder. What made me different from them? Well, I was a native Venusian, but I'm pretty sure some of the scientists also came from there, or maybe even Mars. I was a police officer, but I'm pretty sure that occupation had little to do with the mind wiping. Or... maybe... maybe it wasn't the occupation, but what each person knew. Perhaps the aliens hadn't wiped their minds, but were stealing memories. I shivered. The scientists knew a lot about their respective fields, and Agent Riddley probably had extensive knowledge about the government. But, then again, perhaps not. It didn't answer why I hadn't been wiped. There had to be some other reason. I could think of dozens of miniscule differences between myself and the unfortunates on the floor. Eye color, hair color, size, ethnicity, even... even... could it be? I turned my eyes back across the room in wonder. Of course! The government had created it just recently. No, wait. Scratch that. The government, at its height of laziness, had turned the project over to computers to create it. Computers can't anticipate repercussions like this. They can only regurgitate what their programmers have given them. I began to laugh. Tears formed in my eyes as I reviewed what had happened. It all made perfect sense, now. I burst into a fresh fit of laughter.

The generator -- that was the first key. When the generator was turned on, it began to emit magnetic radiation. At first, it was weak, but as the motor sped up, it became stronger and stronger. Near its full power, the magnetic waves created by the generator penetrated the skin and bones of everyone in the room. That by itself wasn't bad, except that the other people in the rooms had been fitted with biocomps. That was the second key. Magnetic waves erase magnetically stored information. The threat that faced us was not hostile aliens, but merely our own stupidity and laziness staring back at us.

I had to wait long enough for my laughter to subside before I could stumble off to find someone -- someone without a biocomp -- who knew how to shut off the machinery.