Shabazik on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/shabazik/art/Industrial-Worker-Shiks-548725182Shabazik

Deviation Actions

Shabazik's avatar

Industrial Worker Shiks

By
Published:
26.7K Views

Description

Evacuation Process by ShabazikDay of Infamy by ShabazikTo Battlestations! by ShabazikARR Recruit by ShabazikMercenary Captain by ShabazikWet work by Shabazik

In one of the giant Mineral Processing Plants - Spaceships of the CONMI, in the deep space of the Outer Core of the Nebula of Ots, it's time of the change of shift.

"Finally the shift is over" said one Shik, as she lightened a cigarrette. One of her comrades asked her for one, sharing the fire.

"The other day I was reading in the Ships web, that once cigarrettes where harmful and produced cancer and other pulmonar and related diseases" she said, with the cigarrette in her mouth.

"What?" said perplexed the first shik. "Then why they smoke if it was hazardous for their health?"

"No idea. Biological humans are suicidal like that I guess" the second said. All of the shiks of the deck being Jako class artificial humans, when they weren't around other types of clones or biological humans, they often made jokes of the "gloomy" humans, who unlike them, weren't genetically modified to have an enhanced balance of hormones and cerebral sinapsis, that made them more resiliant to depression and menthal problems.

"What where you reading that for, anyway?" asked the first.

"Once this tour of duty ends, my contract is over" the second Jako shik said. "And if I want to be a doctor, I need to study!"

"AH! A Miner Doctor?! And where you plan to study anyway? As far I know, clones can't go to university"

"Hey! I WANT to be a doctor! May not be in my conditioning, but I know is my passion!" said the second shik. "And while in the United States of Spotzen clones can't go to university, I plan to entry in the University of Sons of Dres."

"Sons of Dres? Isn't that one of the Dreselandes Artificial Human nations?"

"Yep!"

"AH! You better be careful. Dreselandes clones are even worse than biological humans with their attitude of superiority!"

"At least they don't ban Jako clones from studying in universities, fearing they will steal their cozy biological human works in the Inner Core" the second shik said.

"You aren't going to renew the contract with the CONMI?" asked a third shik, surprised. "I hadn't heard that before!"

"Yeah. I plan to do something else than to settle down in the first rock the company wants me to do, and to marry with the first miner I find to pop out a bunch of kids" the Jako that dreamed of studying to be a doctor said.

"What you want to do then?" said a bit puzzled the third shik. The wannabe-doctor rolled her eyes, as saying Klein-Shine Shiks. They don't have imagination. The first Jako shik, as well of Kasparov CIA origin, smiled.

"Well: I'm going to study, become a doctor... AND THEN I will settle down in the first rock I find to marry and begin a family!" she said, with her colleges nodding...

After all, was difficult to go against the conditioning of the maturation chambers, that installed the dream of raising a family in a little happy home...



More often than not, I'm asked about the concept of the Shiks: for persons who hadn't browsed much of my gallery -that it's maybe tooo big, around 4560 deviations and scraps by now- , they ask me first: what are they?

A Shik is in the sci-fi setting of the Nebula of Ots an artificial human, a clone, produced by the megacorporations: a corporative clone. They are called "artificial humans", because they are artificially done by clonation, but are ultimately, humans, and so are their emotions. They can (or not) be genetically modified. (More often than not, that's the case.

The name shik was originally meant only for the clones produced by the megacorporation Kasparov CIA, first to produce corporative clones, but later will become a generic term to design any non-guvernamental produced clone, or corporative clone.

Once is clear what are the shiks, often come the question: what are they for? What is their role?

This question come even more clearly, as in many pics are shown the shiks fighting, serving corporative private armies and failing in doing so, giving the impression they are exclusively minions of villanous corporations, and quite bad at that and at fighting.

That's largelly because in the Nebula of Ots, being corporative clones, they are mostly done to work in private business, and so, the bulk of shiks are of civilian classes, not meant for combat: However, in case of emergency they acan be conscripted. As well, should be noted, there EXIST military class shiks, meant for combat.

Other common question would be (but not formulated with these words): Are the shiks slaves?

Shiks
are produced by Megacorporations, but aren't a slave workforce: There exists a sort of property over them by the corporations, but it isn't as far as a slavery: it is however, a kind of indentured work, where the shiks will work since their creation a number of years -depending of the contract, how long- for the company that created them or that bought them. While they are to fullfil the contract, at the end of it they are free to renew it or not, and they have individual freedoms -but reduced.-

This wasn't always the case, and in some shady areas there is a neoslavery of artificial humans, but this is an illegal practice after the Convention of Torhanna, being the exception, not the rule.

Corporative clones earn an income, largelly due the capitalistic drive of the corporations who seek populations to be markets, rather than slaves. However, often their wages are significatively smaller than of a "biological" human -a human naturally born, or conceived in traditional artificial ways, such as conception in vitro-.

This mean, they have personal -yet limited- freedoms.

This status of non-slaves workers with wages, often lead to other question: Then: for what you need clones?

The Nebulosa of Ots it's compressed of about 800 stars, with about 200 star systems explored by humanity -the ones nearest to the core of the Nebulosa, and only about 150 star systems have some sort of known population or settlement by humans, in some 341 planets.

Humanity sprawls in planets and colonies over 150 star systems: However, the bulk of the population lives in the called Capital Worlds, often comfortable Aiers (Earth) type of worlds or terraformed for it, with a population of over 1,000,000,000 inhabitants: worlds where the life is safest -aside from the wars-, and provides services, works and all the luxury -or basic needs- needed by humans.

Because of these services, comforts and safety, the tendency of the population of the capital worlds is to continue to expand and concentrate in these worlds: It have both a significative natural growth, and as well, inmigration:

And meanwhile, as the borders of humanity expand, colonies are to be set -planetside or in the space-, and space is to be explored, is where shiks enter in game:

With many worlds to exploit, land isn't a problem -and neither, avaibility of raw resources-, but workforce to exploit these resources.

There are always some biological humans who will go to deep space, as adventurers. There will be colonists, but often, they where either on the seek for the creation of their own utopia -statal, societal, religious, etc-: in both cases, neither where the more wanted or needed workforce for the rivaling Megacorporations, with contracts from the great powers to do prospections and explotations of planets, star systems or sectors of space:

And to get Biological Humans to abandone the Capital Worlds and main colonies, they needed large, large wages: Without the Data Zones, avaible around most of the Capitol Worlds, despise the use of the Münzenmayer-Anuch Engines, the size of the Nebulosa was too big, and traveling, too slow: and a long permanence in space was proved to be dangerous and detrimental to biological humans.

That's why corporative clones are so important for the Nebulosa of Ots:

Not too common in the Capital Worlds, where there is a large workforce of Biological Humans, but instead in Deep Space and in the Outer Core colonies and in the borders of humanity:

Crewing spaceships in deep space, setting space colonies and ports, creating planetside colonies, mining uncommon resources as the appreciated Stornkoldio, fundamental for the spaceship building industry of Ots -and for the Münzenmayer-Anuch engines, be in asteroids or planets, terraforming worlds to set them for (biological) human colonization: That's where Artificial Humans play a role: To conquer the ultimate frontier, the endless borders of space.

Other question that several times have been made: Are there only female shiks? Can they reproduce?

One of the main motives why in the Nebula of Ots are prefereed clones rather than droids or robots it's because the statal entities -and corporations- seek population growth. This is why the clones of Ots are a fertile population, as is seeked a quick population growth.

There are female and male shiks, but the ratio males : females depend of each Corporation, state or colony, in some cases being a evident disproportion from one gender or other -often done such disproportion to try to equilibrate the male:female ratio of the biological human population, or to maximize the population growth.-

HOWEVER, even if is largelly seeked population growth, there exist genderless clones, called Arsvani, that are infertile.

Then: The children of an artificial human, are artificial human as well?

No. While genetically they can have both parents as clones, the status of biological human or artificial human is related to how the person is born -however, this isn't a closed discussion in Ots-. Therefore, the biological human is mostly a legal distintion, rather than genetical:

It was done largelly due an electoral fraud done in the Republic of Neue Münzen: all the clones produced during the previous years and during the political campaign where conditioned during their maturation to vote for the candidate of the rulying party: After this, was banned in Neue Münzen and many other nations electoral rights to Artificial Humans in fear of the use of their maturation conditioning for political goals. After the Declaration of Torhanna, was decided that Artificial Humans could vote only 5 to 7 years -depending of the country- after they left the clonation chambers, as it was considered it was enough time and life experience for them to form their own political identity beyond conditioning from maturation chambers.

Other question I have faced often is: I almost never see older shiks: what happens with them?

There are older shiks: However, the human population of the Nebulosa of Ots, largelly expanding -importantly, thanks to Clonation- is in general a very young population, with the largest segment of population being under 25 old (biological years) old.

As well, the sight of older shiks isn't as common as of younger shiks, because of the already mentioned contract: When a clone is mature and left the clonation chambers, they have a contract with the megacorporation that created them (or that bought them) from an amount of years. This depends of the company, but was regulated by the Torhanna convention.

Normally, a shik leave the Maturation chambers with a biological age of 18 years, and in Kasparov CIA  this contract is up to when they reach the age of 25 biological years old. At this moment, they can renew their contract -more often than not, is done-, but in these ocasions often the shik with a renewed contract (or not renewed) is given a possibility to begin their own families and settle down -normally the ones who renew their contracts settle down in new colonies, while the ones that didn't, may prefeer to migrate to capital worlds.- Because of this, older shiks are simply less visible in the instalations in deep space and spaceships, settling down in colonies.




Any more questions about shiks? Ask here!
:la:

Edit 17.02.2016 Coloured!
Image size
1919x1819px 3.34 MB
© 2015 - 2024 Shabazik
Comments97
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
OlivesandGrapeareok's avatar

Me, Working for 12 hrs straight: God Damn bosses wantin the girls workin 20 hrs down here to get these ores up there. I know it's for purpose, But God can they pay em a little more, and whatta bout me, I ain't one of them, Shik, Clone, Afra, What ever and I got pay'd like 10 creds down here........maybe their lookin for troopers?... Hell... Welp *toses cigeratte down*, I gots to get drunk topside, anybody wantin to come can do so, im getting knocked out tonight!.