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D-503. D-503 was created by the Russian author Yevgeni Zamyatin (Ape) and appeared in MbI (1920).

A dozen centuries in the future the “United States” is a vast city-state which rules all aspects of society, with sexual partners being assigned by the state, all citizens forced to lie behind transparent walls, and even the number of jaw motions used to chew food regulated by state order. D-503 is an engineer who is happy to live in this society, but when he is approached by the woman I-330, his life begins to change. I-330 is part of an underground devoted to overthrowing the United States, and the underground wants to use D-503’s project. He is in charge of a colony spaceship, the Integral, and the underground wants to take control of the ship. D-503 is infatuated with I-330 and goes along with her, even accompanying her outside the walls of the United States, to where the rest of the human race lives. But D-503’s inner conflict, between his desire for I-330 and his social conditioning and state-sponsored ideals, lead to a kind of nervous breakdown, and when the state security forces pick him up and remove his imagination, he is happy to denounce I-330 and cheer during her torture.

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