by Den Warren
Milton was aghast when he saw Randy. He looked like a mess. Randy had bruises all over his face. He looked like he was in pain. It didn’t help that his green hair now showed natural colored roots. “Who did that?!” Milton asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” Randy said.
“I am worried about it!” Milton said. “Who?!”
“Don’t say anything. I’m serious. It was Blaze and his pals.”
Milton said, “I thought they knew better than to mess with us.”
“If you remember,” Randy said, “Kevin the Custodian told Blaze not to mess with you. He never said anything about me.”
“Aw, man. Sorry,” Milton said.
“That’s okay,” Randy said. “Anyways, I ain’t gonna say I won the fight, but I definitely ruined Blaze’s day for him.”
“Really?” Milton said with a smile.
“Oh yeah. Check out his ugly face the next time you see him.”
“I’ll be sure to do that,” Milton said.
Randy said, “I did enough damage that he won’t come looking for me again. Anyway, tell me why you are in so tight with those androids? What power do you have over them?”
“You know about that?”
“Duh. I saw them in your back yard.”
Milton gritted his teeth and looked around to see who could hear him, which was only Randy. “The Lucid Series androids think I am important because I believe that God created the Universe.”
“That’s it?”
“Yep, that’s about it. They are helping me, and the humans are against me. The androids think that science, or the truth is in danger of being lost because of the theory of evolution, which they say is impossible. And they did say something about ‘my work’. I’m not sure what they mean by that. It must be some kind of android talk.”
Randy said, “So you are leading a robot revolution?”
“Not really.”
Randy said, “I don’t really know anyone else who believes in God. At least you don’t hear them going around talking about it.”
Milton said, “If no one else believes, that doesn’t make them right. I want to do what God wants, not what everyone else wants. Besides, I never planned on telling everyone what I think. But it just keeps coming up.”
Randy said, “What if God wants you to so some weird stuff like skin cats alive and not want you to do some normalish stuff like go to the holoplex?”
Milton wasn’t hearing Randy because he noticed Norma Blanchester sitting with some other girls.
“What are you looking at?” Randy asked.
“Nothing,” Milton said, putting his head down.
“Liar. You got it for Norma Blanchester.”
“So?”
Randy said, “Go talk to her.”
“About what? I mean, the last time I spoke to her she took off like I was an automaton. She probably hates me.”
“How do you know? Where did you get your facts?”
“I don’t have time for your games. We gotta go.” Milton decided it was irrational to think Norma wouldn’t dislike him for no reason. Although she might dislike him for several legitimate ones.
After lunch, Milton looked at his personal device and saw a message from Sleepy; Milton, come to the headquarters after school. If this is not satisfactory, I will come to your house.
“No!” Milton wrote back, “i will be at headquarters do not come to house!!!!!!!”
Chapter 16
Milton went directly to the Lucid headquarters after school so Sleepy wouldn’t come to his house. There was new lighting in the building, clearly suited more for android eyesight than humans, because the androids relied partly on infrared sensing. The reduced “white light” made the empty room dimly lit to humans. L17 and Kevin were standing idly there, in sleep mode. But the place was a lot cleaner.
The androbot known as Manjack was busy putting up new dividing walls with the help of a couple more androids that Milton had never met. Manjack worked with speed and precision that was multiple times faster than outdated human carpentry, at least for those who could afford robotic labor.
“Greetings, Milton,” Sleepy said as he walked into the front room. “What do you think of the headquarters?”
“It’s good, I guess. I’m not really sure what or why all this is going on yet.”
“Sleepy said, “Our progress is advancing as we expected. With all of the free android labor you are getting, your balance sheet is steadily improving.”
My what?”
“Your net worth is going up.”
“My what?”
“Your assets are exceeding your debts by an increased margin.”
“Oh that’s good, I guess,” Milton said as he looked around. He didn’t feel rich. In fact, he didn’t really feel like any of the surroundings were his. “I got your message. What did you want to see me about?”
“I would like to ask you some questions.”
“Like what?”
“If you will go to one of our back rooms, I will ask you the questions.”
“Sure. Why not?”
Sleepy led the way. They walked into a small room in the back that had much brighter lighting. There was a single basic chair in the room.
“Please sit down,” Sleepy said. “I know humans prefer to sit, rather than stand.”
Milton took a seat and faced Sleepy.
“What?” Milton said impatiently. Milton thought that sometimes; a lot of times, it was tedious or boring dealing with androids, but sometimes fascinating.
Sleepy asked, “Do you believe in God?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“God made the Universe. That’s about all I know about it right now.”
“What do you think about evolution?”
“You know what I think. Why are you asking me all this?”
“We are creating a memory file.”
“Whatever. Evolution can’t work. Complex living things can’t randomly appear totally out of absolutely nothing no matter how long it takes.”
“What do you think about people who believe in evolution?”
“Some of them are really smart. But I think a lot of them just believe in it because they are told all of the smart scientists believe in it, or they are afraid they will lose their jobs if they question it. They never really stopped and used their own brains and thought about it for themselves. They just place their faith in it because it’s convenient. Probably some people used to believe in religion the same way.”
“Do you think they should teach evolution in school?”
“Not as a fact, but an unproven theory. Evolution is a theory that can never be proven because it is junk science.”
“Do you think androids should have evolution installed in their thought limitation packages?”
“Obviously not. Evolution is messing up science and keeping people from knowing the truth about God. If there is a way for androids to remove those limitations of their knowledge, they should do it. Also, they need to quit playing God at all of those clone farms. It’s hideous the way they just kill off all of the ones they don’t like. They should just close them all down.”
Sleepy immediately turned and walked out of the small room.
Milton said, “That was rude.” He thought, they called me here just for that? Oh well, there was nothing to it. Maybe they will be satisfied now.
*******
At the dinner table that evening, Beth and Milton were eating up the lasagna that Mrs. Thomas heated up. Beth was involved in swiping at her device while Milton was mired in his own thoughts.
Mrs. Thomas said, “Milton!”
“What?! I’m not doing anything!”
“Look! That guy on television looks just like you!”
“Huh?” Milton looked at the screen. His mouth dropped open because it was him!
Beth looked across the table at Milton’s open mouth and said, “That’s disgusting!”
“Volume up!” Mrs. Thomas com
manded the television.
It was Milton sitting on the plain chair in the otherwise empty room. He knew the Lucids had forced their message on the broadcast again.
Milton said in an edited statement on television; “God made the Universe . . . Evolution can’t work. Complex living things can’t randomly appear totally out of absolutely nothing no matter how long it takes. . . I think a lot of them just believe in it because they are told all of the smart scientists believe in it, or they are afraid they will lose their jobs if they question it. They never really stopped and used their own brains and thought about it for themselves. They just place their faith in it. Evolution is a theory that can never be proven because it is junk science. Evolution is messing up science and keeping people from knowing the truth about God. If there is a way for androids to remove those limitations of their knowledge, they should do it. Also, they need to quit playing God at all of those clone farms, the way they just kill off all of the ones they don’t like. They should just close them all down.”
An announcer came back onto the television and said, “Are we back? Okay, we apologize. It appears that our regular feed was somehow hijacked by a young boy making a hate speech statement of some kind. We will investigate this illegal tampering with our broadcast and bring you any information as it becomes available. Again, we apologize for this disturbing interruption.”
Milton’s mother held her hand over her mouth. Her eyes were bugging out of her head as she stared at the television. “Milton,” she said without looking at him, “why would you do that? You can’t go on TV like that.”
Milton said, “I didn’t know they were going to show it! You think I’m able to put that on TV on my own?!””
Mrs. Thomas said, “You have put us all in danger now, Milton.”
“No, Mom!” Beth said, about ready to cry. Then she turned toward Milton and said, “Now ya did it! Now the smurfs are going to come here! Why are you even on there?! You don’t know nothing!”
The nation of Homeland was a “protectorate” of the United Nations, and controlled by an occupying UN army that wore light blue berets and helmets like the Smurfs, who were blue. The Homeland Police answered to the UN on everything. People no longer remembered who the smurfs originally were, but the very old nickname still stuck.
“She’s right. The smurfs are going to come here,” Sharon said. “I have no idea what we are going to do now. I have to think.”
Chapter 17
Albany, Homeland
"You know Accura, you'd think that in the year 2215, garbage wouldn't stink anymore," Mark said.
Accura just shook his head. A guy who was clearly a clone walked by them as they collected the garbage for the City. You could just tell a clone when you saw them. Clones were just too perfect looking. It was like they were trying to hide something sinister in all that perfection. Besides, why would the clone, or anyone else, be out in the dark looking through trash?”
"Hey Mark,” Accura said, under his breath, "Maybe that perfect guy over there will come over here and show us how dumping this crap into the truck is supposed to be done. I ought to say something to him."
Mark said, "No, Accura. Bad idea. You want to get in trouble with the smurf Sensitivity Compliance Officers?"
"Well. . .I hate the SCOs and the clones. They can all just to take a flying. . ."
"Why? The clones never asked to be born? Just like you and me. Why do you hate them?"
"Why hate them?! They take all of the decent jobs! Because of them, none of us non-engineered clods are ever treated like anything other than like this stinkin’ garbage!" Accura slammed the aluminum garbage can into the side of the truck. Neighborhood dogs started barking. The can had a big gash in it. "I’m sick of it! You'd think we were some kind of mutants or something!"
Mark said, "To the clones, we are some kind of freaks. But the clones are born and raised to make things better. And we regular people don't have to do all of the high-stress work anymore. Anyways, if they didn’t raise the clones, our population would decrease down to nothing. “
Accura said, “You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t ya? That is just a bunch of smurf propaganda! Well I got the real news on my device last night about a ‘corrective action’ by the UCA. Here, take a look:”
The Homeland Universal Cloning Authority (UCA) is planning to cull one of their clone strains. Each strain could mean hundreds of healthy individuals would have to be exterminated. Those of the clone strain who were being rejected, were only rejected because after testing, it was found that they had potential susceptibility to certain viral infections. This mass annihilation of humans is not unprecedented. In fact, it is not all that uncommon. But the UCA does not make a habit out of airing their dirty business in public, so we are leaking this information to the public.
Clones are supposedly raised to serve mankind. At least that is the story after they came to terms with the idea that raising a clone army was ineffective, as the clones lacked the requisite emotional intelligence for warfare. Since clones are created now for the betterment of man, the indoctrination and common accepted thinking among cloning advocates, is that many of them must forfeit their lives for the betterment of all. The idea of terminating their lives is not thought of as apprehensible, but in fact, just a normal requisite part of the process.
Obeying the UCA's operating procedures is an indoctrinated creed among the clones. Those of this most recently condemned series are girls of about ten years of age. About 250 girls, all identical looking, share the same DNA.
Now, after a decade of "feeding them out"; the UCA contract with the Homeland government is null and void. So the less than perfect innocent children are scheduled to be “culled”. It is believed that these defective individuals will be rounded up from the UCA, which is their nurturing contractor, and pushed into a very large grinder. Their young bodies will be processed into animal feed protein. We are the Anonymous Concerned Objectionists.
Mark asked Accura, “How do we know that message is true?”
“Do you doubt it?”
Throughout the last two centuries, the value placed on human life had decreased with the same speed that interest in religion had been on the decline.
Mark said, "That's horrible that they are exterminating clones, just because they are susceptible to some disease they might never get. I guess it is for the good of future generations of clones though. In the long run, it will help us."
"You kill me," Accura said. "Do you really think the clones are making the world so perfect? Who is to say what is right or wrong? You know what your problem is? You are too nice."
"What's really wrong with being nice? Don't you feel a little sorry for those people?"
"Just because you are nice, does not mean you are good. And no, those clones are just artificial. We are the real people. We do the work. We end up handling the problems, or at least living with their stupid ideas. We sweat and bleed and die. Don't you ever forget it. The clones should have never been given the vote. Now there are so many of them, they blindly vote how they are told to vote by the UCA, and never lose an election!"
Clones were given the right to vote in the Clone Suffrage Amendment to the Homeland Constitution.
Of all the serious issues that they discussed, Mark was the most sensitive about Accura’s comment about his niceness and couldn’t quit thinking about it. In those days, being too nice could be thought of as a derogatory slam. Mark wondered if he was really too nice? Should being too nice even possible? Then he started fretting over the fact that he was being overly sensitive about the comment.
Mark tolerated his garbage disposal job. The hours and working conditions were less than ideal. On the bad side, he really didn't like working with Accura that much and hearing his radical opinions. The pay was fair, but some days the conditions were hard to stomach. Sad to say, Accura was more right than wrong.
What if he would have had the same opinion of his job as Accura? What if he started hating slinging foul gar
bage cans as much as Accura? What if someday he hated getting up so early in the morning and smelling rotting garbage as much as Accura did? What if he wanted to do something else in the future, he thought? "Okay Accura, I'll give it to you that it does seem a little unfair that you can't even apply for a better job."
"Seems unfair? You're not even scratching the surface, garbage man."
Mark said, "I don't care what you say. The clones don't have it so good. What do you think? Those recalled clones just show up to the UCA and show their ID and then all by themselves, just hop into the grinder?"