"Put on your Transducer." Says Tulista's soft voice.
"OfBruno." Calls a voice in the distance. A woman's voice.
Alana puts the white headband with a transparent crystal on a black teardrop-shaped plate on her forehead.
"OfBruno." Calls the voice again.
"Good, now focus." Says Tulista.
"OFBRUNO!"
Alana concentrates. The crystal lights up with a blue light and it projects a beam of blue radiation. The beam goes on purple balls and levitates them.
OfBruno feels a slap and her body goes to the ground.
"Are you listening to me?!"
OfBruno moves a little to be in front of the person who attacked her.
"Yes, Madam." She said while looking at the floor.
"Then get up."
OfBruno stands up, shakes her red attire, and she looks indirectly at Madam. Arva, Commander Bruno’s Wife. Before, she was the Head of the World Council, the rest of humanity’s president after the Great Disaster. Now she’s the Wife of one of the most powerful Commanders of this new society. A society where men have all the power, where women are reduced to the lowest. Wives, Econowives, Handmaids or Marthas. No matter what class they are, women have lost their former freedom.
"Good," said Arva. "I want you to go to the kitchen and help Rita."
"Madam," said OfBruno, "I'm not a Martha."
"I know that, but dinner is still not ready, SO GO!"
"Yes, Madam."
OfBruno quickly goes to the kitchen where Rita struggles to make the meal.
"It's these machines, they refuse to work." Said Rita in a low voice. "Cook." She orders the futuristic oven and it doesn't turn on. "You see? Even the microwave doesn't work."
"You have to tell Madam."
"So she'll beat me again? No way."
"To the Commander, then."
"Commander Bruno is still in his secret room. No women are allowed, even his Wife."
"But he must be told."
"So is this dinner coming?" Said, from a distance, Arva's strong, authoritative voice.
"Yes ma'am." Rita replies nervously.
Rita tells OfBruno to find the Commander at her own risk and peril. The crimson Handmaid leaves the kitchen. She goes up to the second floor and presses a colored tile on a wall. A door appeared. OfBruno knocks on the door.
"Commander Bruno?"
No answer.
"Commander, I need to talk to you. It's important."
The door suddenly opens on an angry Bruno. He grabs OfBruno by the neck and slams her against the wall.
"What are you doing here, huh? You know the rules, no women allowed in my workshop!"
He has a Transducer on his forehead and the crystal flashes between blue and red. The Handmaid remembers the color red very well. Anger, danger. The Commander mustn’t use it in this emotional state.
"I... I know, Commander Bruno." Said the Handmaid with difficulty. "But... I... I had to tell you that..."
"ENOUGH!"
He sends her to the ground like someone throwing in their dirty laundry. OfBruno is breathless.
"Go away."
"But..." Said the Handmaid as she stood up. "But the dinner... isn't..."
Bruno yells at her to leave. OfBruno flees to her room. She hears the Commander coming down to the first floor, then he quarrels with his Wife. OfBruno also hears the voice of the Martha, who tries either to calm them down or to explain that the dinner is not ready because the machines do not function.
Suddenly there was a long scream. OfBruno goes downstairs and she goes to the living room. She finds Rita, on the floor, with an arm completely burned to the third degree. She screams in pain. She finds Arva, in shock, looking at her husband with disgust. She finds Bruno, his hands covering his face. The Transducer is lying on the ground.
OfBruno knows what happened. Using a Transducer in anger causes destruction. That's why everyone had to learn to control their emotions. They also had to pass a training to be allowed to use a Transducer freely, without supervision. Only children were allowed to be expressive, emotional. After they turn 14, they are considered adults.
OfBruno became a Handmaid during her 14 years. She has been passed from one Commander to another for years. She had several babies, her first at 14, and they were all taken away from her. Now she's 25, and she hasn't forgotten the past, before the Handmaids.
"OfBruno." Arva said suddenly. "Do something!"
"But Madam, I am a Handmaid."
"You have a Healer’s training, right?"
"Well... yes, but that was so long ago."
"Then heal her!"
"But it is forbidden for a woman to use a Transducer! It is punishable by death."
"If no one speaks," said Bruno, who removed his hands from his face "nothing will happen to you. Heal our Martha, OfBruno."
"Commander, you are asking the impossible of me. You can see her arm has been burned to the third degree. There is nothing to heal. All I can do is amputate it."
Bruno looks at his Wife. Arva is silent. Rita continues to scream.
"Well?" Asks the Handmaid. "What should I do?"
Bruno and Arva still say nothing. Rita loses consciousness. OfBruno, who has quickly learned to control her emotions and to behave as a submissive woman to survive, shows her anger.
"FUCKING SHIT!"
The Handmaid takes the Transducer and she puts it on her forehead.
"YOU'RE PISSING ME OFF!"
She inhales and exhales before focusing. The transparent crystal turns blue. It projects a long beam of blue radiation that goes into the kitchen.
"What are you doing?" Bruno asks.
The Handmaid doesn’t answer him.
"Answer my husband!" Arva order her.
"FUCK, let me concentrate!" OfBruno retorts.
For a moment, the beam had turned red. The blue beam becomes shorter and shorter as it carries a butcher knife. The beam drops it near OfBruno, then she stops focusing. This deactivates the Transducer, which makes the blue beam disappear. The crystal is transparent again. The Handmaid takes the knife.
"OfBruno. You're not going to..."
"What do you think, Commander?" She said as she moved into position, next to Rita's burned arm.
"I FORBID YOU!" Arva yells.
"There is no other choice AND YOU KNOW IT!"
Bruno and Arva scream "NO!" as OfBruno brings the knife down on Rita's burnt flesh.