"Please proceed to the upper deck..."
The soft and soothing 'personalized' voice was guiding you since you entered the building. 'Mat熟' had done a great job.
A brilliant idea! Analyze citizen specifics (height, weight, skin tone, age, voice and speech patterns, even body temperature!) to produce a unique signature that they could match with the ideal voice... and all of this in a blink of an eye. Of course, some felt frustrated with it, as they knew that the chances of ever finding a human being with such a 'perfect match' voice was (almost) impossible.
Yours was a in its mid fifties, elegant, refined, oozing 'safety' and 'compassion'.
Excellent choice, as the butterflies in your stomach were here to stay.
The smooth and almost clear disc you were stepping on seemed motionless. You never really paid attention to such trivial details before, but for some reason, it seemed startling to see the ground disappearing so fast and not feel dizzy.
"Upper deck. Please proceed to the courtroom".
Why were you here ? To do your duty, right. ...
"ladies and gentlemen, please sit down". That voice again. You knew that not two people would hear the same. That old lady (dressed like these "old timers", those hippies who refused to be treated with any "non-natural" medication), she was probably not so old, by the current standards. What voice could she hear?
"ladies and gentlemen, today you will be attending this court's 8th trial."
The "ladies and gentlemen" was a nostalgic remnant of the past, as every person attending the trial, either in person or remotely, was getting his own personalized message.
To think that such a magnificent tower, often called 'the lighthouse of justice', had only been used 8 times in the past 20 years was ... comforting? disturbing? logical.
There were not many crimes types that required such an event. Everyone was invited. And everyone was a jury. The "votes" were collected and 21 of them were randomly drawn. Not easy to bribe or influence an entire populations...
A little commotion in the room... they were bringing the man.
A bed. The man was lying on a soft white bed. With a few clear tubes coming out of the sheets, and an animated display on the side.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please remember that this man is in a deep coma. We cannot communicate with him, and therefore, he cannot defend himself. However, the laws specific to his presumed crime require the suspect to be present."
You start looking around you. The colossal round room is surrounded by floor to ceiling clear windows. Slowly, they darken until every detail around you starts to fade. Everybody's attention is now focused on the gently glowing bed.
"This man is accused of tampering with other citizens' thoughts, emotions and will. This is commonly referred to as a 'Psy-Rape'" ...