Chapter 6 - (part five)

As Daesti and Lina waited, they observed that everything in the station--the furnishings and the accoutrements, and for that matter, the architecture of the station itself--was curved, smooth, and rounded. There was nothing linear or hard-edged in sight.

The station staff continued their unhurried bustling, and at last the auburn-haired female officer, who earlier had offered them doughnuts, walked slowly into the lobby and addressed them.

"I'm Officer 773961," she said, pointing to her badge as if there were some doubt. "I'll be taking you ladies for measurement. Follow me, please." The officer waddled through an archway off to the side of the intake desk and onto a moving platform, which led down a separate corridor off from the main lobby. "The conveyor will take us right there."

"We can walk ourselves, thanks," replied Daesti politely.

"Suit yourselves," said the officer. "The day will come soon enough when you'll be glad there are conveyors."

Even the corridor, Daesti and Lina noticed, was wide and rounded. Presently they arrived at the doorway of what the correctly surmised was the room where they would be measured. The conveyor stopped and Officer 773961 spoke again. "This is where you'll undergo your body scan. You've probably heard of WIDE-AS by now."

Both arrestees smirked.

The officer continued in her business-like fashion. "Before you're scanned, I'm afraid I'll have to confiscate your personal possessions. But we'll hold your property in our inventory room for safekeeping. You can reclaim your things after you've reached regulation weight. This includes your clothes--not that you'll fit into them anymore by then."

"What will we wear?" asked Lina.

"You'll be issued Resilio-Tex bodysuits, custom form-fitted and equipped with sensors to measure your metabolism and other vitals, as well as your progress, of course. Now, which one of you would like to go first?"

After a moment's hesitation, Daesti steeled herself and courageously volunteered.

The officer addressed Lina and pointed to an overstuffed waiting chair outside the doorway. "You may have a seat, miss."

"I'll stand, thanks," said Lina in a manner not so courteous as Daesti's.

"Suit yourself," replied the officer, as she ushered Daesti into the scanning room. Daesti looked back at Lina with a look of resignation as she leaned back through the threshold. Daesti wiggled her fingers in a fleeting farewell gesture to her friend. "See you soon," she said to Lina, as she followed 773961 into the scanning room and the door slid closed behind her.

Inside, the female officer took her place behind a console and gestured to a round chamber across the room. "Undress in there, please. Put all your own things into the receptacle inside. When you're finished, step out and onto the platform." She pointed to a sort of glowing circular dais, which was obscured by a privacy screen.

Daesti entered the dressing chamber, sighed, and removed her own stylish, sleek garments and all her personal effects. These she placed in a wide bin-like compartment, which then slid closed with a mechanical hiss. A light lit on the face of the bin as Daesti's belongings were automatically analyzed, cataloged, and packed neatly into a plastic case marked with her identifying information. A transceiver in the chamber had already read Daesti's medchip, a mandatory implant which all galactic citizens received at birth. The case containing Daesti's belongings emerged through a pneumatic tube into a compartment beside the console where the officer sat. A robotic arm lifted the case and set it aside.

Daesti exited the dressing chamber and stepped up onto the glowing cylindrical platform.

"The scanning mechanism will measure you and analyze your body composition all in one pass," explained the officer. A scanning hoop maneuvered into place and encircled Daesti's ankles, then rose higher, emitting a holographic laser as it moved. There was a gentle whirring sound and a flurry of beeps from the console as the hoop finally hovered above Daesti's head and then quickly descended again, disappearing at last into the base of the dais. WIDE-AS compiled the scan data and fed the information instantaneously to Fatropolis's central computer.

"Now just stand still for a minute or two," said the officer, and Daesti complied. "Your measurements will be used for your new bodysuit. The rest of the information will be kept strictly confidential. Those results are between you and your counselor, who's already received the upload."

Another tone sounded on the officer's console. "Your bodysuit is ready," she said. "It's waiting for you in the compartment inside the dressing chamber. There's a new pair of intimates in there, too, to get you started. Go ahead and put everything on. Your bodysuit will activate automatically."

"And then that's it? I'm done?" asked Daesti, surprised by the alacrity of the process.

"That's it. You're done," replied the officer.

Daesti had to admire the efficiency of this place. Whatever their ridiculous laws, there was no denying that Fatropolis's tech was amazing.

When she emerged from the scanning room, Daesti was wearing her new, conspicuously hot pink bodysuit, which looked something like a full-body leotard gone high-tech. She smiled sheepishly and shrugged to Lina, who went in next, a bit more slowly and more reluctantly than Daesti, and followed the same process.

Lina emerged minutes later wearing a snug sky-blue bodysuit of her own.

"So now what happens?" asked Lina, anxious as ever.

"There'll be an orientation session for you. There's a vid presentation for you to watch," said the officer. "Then you'll be escorted to the Fattenarium, where you'll meet the counselors assigned to you. Their job is to oversee your nutrition regimen. They'll nurture you until you've ballooned up to regulation weight. You'll also be shown to your individual rooms, where you'll reside until you hit your optimum size. By then, you'll both be nice and big and legally fat, at which time you'll be free to come and go as you please."