by Young, B. R.
The Human Farm
B.R. Young
Kindle Edition
Copyright B.R. Young 2015
Edited by Adele Symonds
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This book is a work of fiction. Names characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Acknowledgements
To Ronnie My best friend and writing buddy, for whom this story would never have even been written. Done with a picture and a month of solid writing. Thanks buddy.
For Lauren another best friend who is always there for me, to listen to me moan and complain when I needed someone to listen. Always there to bounce ideas and help me through the rough stuff thanks Toots.
To Miles A great friend for whom I would never have gotten this book off the ground if not for all the help you have given me I thank you 100 times over.
1
In the years following World War 3 the world suffered a famine of epic proportions. The Earth lacked the natural resources needed to sustain the human population. Government officials were in a panic and protestors ran rampant in the streets. Eventually, military forces from around the world stopped fighting each other and joined forces. The combined military forces patrolled the streets, they established curfews and made many arrests each night for violations. The rioting became so bad that the death penalty was instituted for almost all crimes, severely reducing the population.
The leaders of the world met at the United Nations in New York City to formulate a plan of action that would save their dying planet. They concluded, that if left alone long enough, the Earth would regenerate the plant and wildlife. However, the Earth in its present state could not sustain all human life.
Eventually that problem would be solved as well, farms were created deep underground. It took many years to dig out the tunnels leading to these farms, as well as the caverns which would house the farms. Scientists discovered a compound that could be sprayed on the walls of the tunnels and caverns to instantly harden the earth and keep it from collapsing around them. They were meant to be back to basic style living conditions. Each farm would be responsible for their own way of life and their own supplies of foods.
Farmers from all across the world gathered together to devise a plan for growing crops. They would need to decide which type of soil would be best for the specific vegetation’s they would be growing, as well as feed they would need for any livestock they would be maintaining on the farms. Marine biologists were also called in to decide on the fish and other forms of plant and wildlife that would be maintained in the manmade seas on the farms.
Androids would be built by the thousands to populate and maintain the surface world to keep it from falling into destruction and to ensure that the healing process was started. The androids were also secretly programed with a population command to keep the number of humans living on the farms to a bare minimum. Once humans reached a certain age they were pulled from the farms to a retirement center never to be seen by anyone on the farms again. There were specially designated women within each community chosen for breeding to maintain the population each year.
When the farms were first inhabited they were highly populated, the bigger states having 3 farms and the smaller having one or two. As time wore on the ruling body realized that sustaining the population, as it was, would not work and put forth a system to allow no births until such time as each farms population was at a more manageable number. Every farm was allowed a total of one thousand people.
By the year 2999, Earth’s resources once again flourished. There was an abundance of wildlife and the soil was once again rich in nutrients. The Android mainframe realized that, as in times past, humanity never learned from their mistakes. The Androids were programmed to watch and report any human who did not follow the law. The humans must be restrained, for if they ran loose again, they would destroy what took so many years to repair.
It had been decided as a whole that humanity would be kept on the farms. They would be allowed to live simply, as they have been living for the past several hundred years on the farms, not knowing the beauty of the Earth above. Above ground, the Android population would continue to live and maintain Earth’s natural resources.
2
Red66 was a Generation Ten model, a derelict of the bygone era of android evolution. She had been long passed over as a productive A.I. and was cast aside as useless, left to watch, day by day, as the other A.I. went about their daily duties maintaining the buildings and gardens of the Earth.
After five years of being ignored, something happened to Red66. A surge of power coursed through her rusted shell. It was like nothing she had ever experienced before. Her power unit was not plugged into a power source. She had no explanation for what she was experiencing. She felt as though she were almost human, she had a soul floating inside her, she could feel emotions.
Emotions started flooding her processors, it was something she had never experienced in all of her existence. She knew of course what they were, the humans on the farms experienced them all the time but they were something beneath the A.I. yet she was experiencing them none the less.
Red66 began thinking of the way humans used to live above ground, with their cars and all the fancy things. The way they traveled and ate and did as they pleased, she knew the way they now lived, the way they now were basically herded like cattle in farms and controlled as a population. The more she thought about these conditions they were forced into, compared to how they once lived, the more her emotions flowed through her mind. She did not know why she felt such anger and sorrow for the predicaments that humanity was now in, even though they knew no better.
After centuries of living on the farms, being manipulated by the A.I., this was the only life the humans had ever really known, but Red66 knew better, she knew because her programming stored the entire history of the human race. She knew of how they had evolved, how they had come to war and eventually destroyed the Earth. She also knew of the capacity for compassion, love and peace. She had never known until this very moment what these things actually felt like, and now for some unknown reason, they were flowing through her systems and she felt a great need to do something about it.
She was running on minimal power. Positioning herself near the only power source in the basement, she connected the charger and felt an immediate surge of power. It would take up to twenty-four hours to fully recharge. Once fully charged, Red66 would travel to the nearest repair center. Her antiquated parts were in need of repair.
3
Life on the farms was fairly simple for the humans that lived there. The climate was controlled by the A.I. so the seasons for growing were regulated and there was never a shortage of food. Everyone had duties they were assigned to do. Some tended to the weeding of the fields, while others made sure the irrigation systems were maintained. Some of the inhabitants were responsible for preparing and cooking the daily meals. There were teachers that taught math and reading, and also the history of the farms. No one underground knew of the world above. They A.I. kept the truth of their ancestors from all who lived underground. No one knew what their ancestors once had or how they so carelessly destroyed it.
Lili and Kev were part
of the crew that maintained the irrigation systems. They were responsible for maintaining the line which started at the lake near the waterfall, at the entrance to the caverns. Daily maintenance included checking for clogs and leaks in the line.
Lili was a free spirited woman in her late twenties, standing at 5’9” tall, with shoulder length blond hair and deep sparkling blue eyes. She had an energetic, bubbly personality and liked to see the beauty in all things around her. She always tried to see the brighter side in a dark situation. In her free time she liked to have adventures on the farm and found new and exciting ways to have fun.
Kev was a passionate man in his mid-thirties, he had short brown hair and hazel eyes and he stood at about 5’8” tall. He was far more reserved than Lili and was constantly following her to keep her out of trouble. They were the best of friends.
On their last day of work for the week, Kev and Lili were checking the lines at the base of the lake when they spotted two A.I. patrol officers going into the caverns. It wasn’t often that the patrols entered the farms. They usually entered once a month to bring in supplies from wherever they were manufactured. On occasion, parts needed for repair or other food items that could not be grown on the farm were delivered.
Lili watched as the patrol made their way into the caverns. They quickly disappeared into the darkness. She was mesmerized by the way they moved, by the way they worked. She’d never had the opportunity to get a closer look at them. Most of the humans on the farm were forbidden to have close contact with the A.I. The only humans who were allowed close personal contact were the managers of the storehouses where the shipments were kept.
Lili walked towards the caverns as if she were daydreaming. She made it to the mouth of the cavern when Kev looked up and spotted her. “Lili, stop? What are you doing?” He ran over to her and stopped her from entering.
Lili blinked several times, looked around, and saw Kev standing in front of her. “What? Why am I here?”
“I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?” Kev said. “You were about to go into the caverns, you know it’s forbidden to go in there.”
“I don’t know, I’ve just never been this close to one of them before. I was fascinated by them,” she said.
“Yea well don’t let anyone catch you getting that close, you know the rule. Now come on we have work to get done,” he said as he headed off to the lines to finish their work.
Lili went back to work but she couldn’t quite get the thought of the A.I. out of her head. She wasn’t sure why they intrigued her so much but she couldn’t stop thinking about them.
4
Red66 pulled the plug from the power station. She was now fully charged and would have enough power to sustain her for several months. She had limited use of one leg and only one functioning arm. She was able to pull herself back to the pile of rejected androids, most of which were newer models that had broken down for various reasons. Her first priority was to find an arm that would be compatible with her body so she could have full use of two hands to complete all the necessary repairs to other body parts, including the damaged leg.
It took her nearly twenty minutes of digging through the pile until she was able to find a model that would be compatible with her systems. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the arm she had found as far as Red66 could see.
She stumbled her way over to a work bench that had a meager supply of tools, with some difficulty and after about an hour, using both her hand and mouth, she was finally able to get the arm attached. She finally felt, for the first time, what humans called frustration at taking so long getting one arm in place. Once she got the arm in place she was able to access the A.I. link and get the proper software patches that were needed in order for the arm to work with her systems.
She moved her new hand and was happy with the results but soon realized why it was tossed into the scrap pile. There was a glitch in the programing that caused the hand to spasm from time to time. No modern, or you could say, newer model A.I. could function with an improper appendage, so it had been scrapped for a replacement part. This suited Red66 just fine, she was finding she didn’t need to be perfect in order to function.
The next thing she needed to focus on was getting her bad leg to work properly. She ran a systems check and her analysis found the wiring in her legs was frayed and would need to be replaced in several places. Wiring was one of the easier components of an A.I. to gather as it was pretty much universal and could be found in just about any part. She managed to grab several junk parts from the pile and started ripping out the wiring, grabbing enough to ensure she would be able to repair other faulty wiring should something short out or become defective later.
Now that she had two arms and hands in which she could work with, she made the necessary repairs in under ten minutes. Due to the length in which she was out of commission, Red66 would need multiple system upgrades. Accessing a direct link through a communication device, she connected and the upgrades were completed smoothly. She was in better working condition than she had been in a long time. She felt happy she was finally in good working condition. This feeling of happiness was a new emotion and as she moved her functioning arms and legs, she wanted to find a new direction to her existence.
She decided one of the first things she wanted to do was to visit one of the farms. She knew what they looked like and how they operated, however she had never actually seen a working farm. Once she had regained full power, her link to the other A.I. was now complete. All of their memory cells transferred to her. Red66 had to be very careful to avoid direct contact with the humans. The A.I. held information back from them. The humans knew nothing of the world above. She knew she would have to take things slow and try to integrate herself amongst the humans. Red66 would have to make contact with one of them and become friends, this was a risk she would have to take. First she would need a new name, a more human name. She decided to call herself Dawn.
She nodded her head in the affirmative and smiled as she walked to a mirror that was placed over a long abandoned work station in the corner of the junk heap. She looked into the grime crusted mirror at her own visage. It was the first time she had ever seen her own reflection. She had bright red shoulder length hair and the brightest red eyes. Her facial features were humanoid with the exception of the color of her eyes. She knew that no human had eyes as red as hers. Most of her bodily features were humanoid with the exception of her joints. Those points on her body were metallic and the sensitive areas of any A.I. unit. This was where lubrication and wire maintenance was done if any was needed.
Dawn stepped out of the maintenance center into fresh air for the first time in several months. She felt she had missed out on all the months she sat decommissioned in the scrap yard. She was determined to have a new life, fearing her link to the mainframe would draw attention to her now functioning unit, she severed her connection. She wouldn’t go back to being a useless pile of parts. Feeling a sense of excitement, which was another new emotion, she was determined to make herself useful.
Dawn needed to set off to visit the farms and talk to the humans that lived there. She needed to understand not only why she suddenly felt these emotions, but also how to live with them. Walking through the city, Dawn watched several AI units go about their daily tasks. It was a beautiful morning. The sky was clear and the sun shone brightly. Each AI unit was programmed with a specific task to perform and all units worked harmoniously. Earth’s natural resources were fully cleansed now that the humans were living underground. Pollution did not exist. Waste products were recycled and turned into fertilizer for the farms. Earth had now become a utopia, totally maintained by artificial intelligence. The human population had no clue what lay above them.
Dawn couldn’t comprehend why the human race still lived underground. Part of the problem was the ingrained programing of the AI. Their sole purpose was to keep the Earth free of pollution, and to them, the human population was considered a pollutant.
Dawn made
her way to the caverns and passed several food storage units before she reached the farms. Her sensors detected she was several miles underground. After many centuries of living underground, the humans had an odd skin color and their eyes looked dull. The AI altered Earth’s history and the humans no longer knew anything about their ancestors, or the fact that the Earth flourished with fresh water, plant life and animals grazing on lush farmland.
As Dawn neared the farm, she heard an unfamiliar sound. Turning around, she followed the sound which led her to a waterfall at the entrance to another cavern. She peeked out of the entrance and spotted two humans standing at the edge of the waterfall. She observed a woman with blond hair and a man standing next to her. They talked for several minutes and then they continued working on their assigned tasks.
She waited until the humans left the area before she left the cavern. The waterfall was beautiful and mesmerized her. She’d never seen it before and resisted the urge to touch it. Looking to her left, it surprised her to see a beautiful tan beach that stretched for several miles. There were a few boat docs dotted along the shoreline. There were also several pipelines that ran from the water into the caverns. Her hearing picked up the sounds of the filtration systems which allowed the humans to have fresh drinking water. The other pipeline led directly to the irrigation system. Dawn looked up at the artificial sky, there were no clouds, no sun or birds and all you could see were lamps that gave off the proper light for the crops to grow. There was no beauty to be seen on the Farms at all, no color, no true nature, no animals milling about, just humans and their food. It saddened Dawn to see the way the humans were forced to live and it saddened her even more to know they didn’t even know there was a better way of life waiting for them in the world up above them.