Apollonia Attorney General Edmund J. Morris stunned the motorized lift sector with the results of a fifteen-month investigation into the business practices of Otis Elevator Company. The firm, which has not faced stiff competition since the turn of the century, has dominated the industry for decades. Its last major rival, LiftusUppus Inc., declared bankruptcy sixty years ago. While their monkey-powered flywheel technology initially impressed consumers, falling peanut shells and increasing wage competition from the medical research field conspired against the firm.

The result, contends the five-hundred-page report issued by the AAG, is a lack of choice for consumers. “It used to be,” explained Mr. Morris, “that you could expect real personal attention when going up, or even down.” In the early days of elevator service, competing firms lured customers with extras ranging from concierges to musical entertainment to freshly baked snack foods. “But now,” the government’s head attorney continued, “you’ve got to push the buttons yourself and what passes for music these days would make a deaf man cry.” The government attributes the decline in elevator amenities to the widespread success of Otis, whose Quaker founder, Eli Otis, believed that his customers should stand quiet and rigidly with a straight-forward stare.

Eli Otis, Jr., the patriarch’s great grandson and company CEO, contends that Otis has continued to innovate. “You know that glassed-in pod elevator you find in shopping malls? Where you can see the Foot Locker and CompUSA shrink below as you quickly and smoothly rise to the food court level? We did that. We listened to what customers wanted.” The government remains unconvinced and will seek to break up Otis’ monopoly on personal elevation. If successful, newcomers to the market may offer doors that slide open vertically, or personal headsets with a selection of music or news programming. Mr. Otis, Jr. plans to fight. “When it comes to our elevators, we have always raised, and lowered, the bar.”