by Den Warren
"I don't really care if they turned out a bad batch. We really messed up when we left the clones totally take over the country. As far as I am concerned, they can recall all of them."
Mark thought; that will never happen. The clones would always be around now.
A huge segment of the population doing skilled jobs was made up of clones. Society would collapse if they were not around. There was no unified opposition among the poorly educated freeborn to cloning. Now many of the thoroughly indoctrinated, freely conceived individuals (FCI), even considered their own DNA to be "junk". This public opinion was a result of "top scholars". Educated FCI individuals were at the forefront of proclaiming their own FCI DNA to be junk. Yet, those scholars did not fight their way to the front of the line to hop into a grinder. They were too important to Homeland society to do that.
Mark had spent his lifetime rationalizing clone cullings. Usually it was one clone at a time, though. Yet there was a little ember of something going on deep within Mark’s consciousness. Mark wondered how could he think about his own petty situation in his pod, or group marriage, and his job, when there were going to be hundreds of ten year olds sent to the grinder? In what universe could this mass extermination be acceptable? It was too horrible to be real. No one seemed to care. Like him, they rationalized it all away. It was like, if you couldn't see them, then it supposedly didn't happen. But what could one guy do about it?
Mark mentally argued with himself, using the arguments of the day; if the clone children died, so what? They would just make more. Was the rest of Homeland society like Accura? Believing that the clones were some kind of synthetic humans who were "recyclable"? Weren’t all humans just water and some minerals that became something else after they died?
Yet something moved Mark to compassion for the girls. He thought about his own motivation. What makes something wrong or right? Where does it come from? Where does good and evil come from? It’s like we are born with the knowledge of it. Everyone had some kind of reason for what they did, but how was anyone supposed to know what was right when their agendas were in conflict? Yet Mark was now determined that he would to do something about what he thought of as an injustice. The first thing he did was to sign up for the newsfeed from the Anonymous Concerned Objectionist, the one who posted the news about the culling.
Chapter 18
Hartford, Homeland
“We have to leave,” the adult Thomas said to her children after thinking about the situation for about half an hour.
“No!” Beth said, “I didn’t do anything wrong! I’m tired of being punished for the stupid stuff that Milton does!”
“I know, Baby. But it’s too late for that now. We are going to go to the ISA.”
Milton said, “We would never make it. The border is too well guarded.”
It was a capital crime in Homeland to travel across the border in or out of the Independent States of America or Canada without prior permission, which was usually denied.
“Fine, then let’s go to Canada.” She saw Beth swiping at her device, which functioned as her life support system. “Beth! You have to stay off of that thing now! They will use that to track us down!”
Beth got up and lurched at Milton. She started flailing her arms trying to hit him in the face.
“Get away!” Milton said as he deflected his sister’s blows to his head.
Beth’s mother pulled her off of Milton and was holding her back.
“I hate you!” Beth said with tears running down her face. “My life is being ruined now because of you!?” She swung her elbows around and broke free of her mother’s grasp and went to her room.
“Mom,” Milton said, “she’s right.”
“Yes but . . .”
Milton said, “I didn’t know the androids were going to put what I said on TV. They didn’t tell me but they knew they were going to do it. Their plan is not to stop until there is a lot more trouble. I understand all this now because they are already making me a hiding place. We need to go there. I think it is our best chance.”
“Where is this place?”
“It’s right here in Hartford, across town.”
Sharon Thomas said, “Each of us will have to grab as much as we can carry in our laundry bags, and get on the Transit Worm. Don’t forget extra clothes.”
We interrupt this program to bring you a message from the Homeland Governor-General Sawalo Okafor.
Okafor was dressed in his formal UN army uniform with the smurf beret. He spoke with a thick west-African accent, “Dis ebening we have witnessed an act of terrorism by an organization against our communications system. Our precious Homeland way of life depends upon a safe, dependable communications system that is free of hate speech that is harmful to our citizens. In dere wisdom, after da Sharia Uprising it was decided it would be more fair and expedient just to ban all religions. Dis measure was popular among da majority of our people. I promise to protect dis sacred Homeland ideal. Now please I will welcome Doctor Fallon, da Senior Sensitivity Compliance Officer of Homeland.”
Dr. Fallon took the podium. He looked like an android, but was represented by an artificial presence, which he controlled from a remote location. The synthetic presence was dressed in all black plain looking clothes. His more human movements distinguished him from an android but also gave away that he was artificial. He communicated too many human looking inefficient body language cues to be an android, such as casually rubbing his nose. Fallon said, “Right now we are looking for the young boy in the illegal video. With our resources I want to assure everyone that this will not take long to accomplish. We believe that this boy is working with the rogue androids. After we apprehend this confused boy, we will vigorously interrogate him until we get to the bottom of this extremist circle of hate against the progressive minded humans of Homeland. These dysfunctional androids have evidently contracted a type of android brain virus that makes them perpetrate these criminal acts against our peaceful society. Let me be clear; the owners of these androids will be held responsible for the crimes of their androids. No longer will we accept excuses from their owners that their androids are out of control. I recommend that the owners immediately recycle any android of the old Tekujin Lucid Series, as their AI has become severely corrupted. We will destroy all Lucids that we encounter and the owners will at minimum be heavily fined. We are assembling a team of behind-the-scene artificial psychology experts to help combat this growing menace. I will not rest until these shadowy criminal elements are neutralized. We must have the cooperation of everyone to contain and destroy this threat. Furthermore, anyone caught aiding in the propagation of this hate propaganda will be subject to prosecution along with those who are illegally stealing broadcast time from the people.”
“Milton,” Sharon said, “Go grab your stuff now! Whatever you can carry in your laundry bag! That’s it! Hurry! I’ll help Beth get going. Let’s go to this safe house or whatever it is.”
In several minutes they assembled in the kitchen. There was no time allotted to review what they were taking or what they should be taking with them. Just as they were leaving, the power to the house went off.
“Quick!” Sharon said as she realized the house was being taken control of remotely, “Open the door!” She was worried that the authorities would forcibly lock the doors to her house, holding them all inside as prisoners.
*******
After the shuttle ride to the secret headquarters, they entered the building that Milton owned. They stepped inside. The room looked like a hospital waiting room. By now the receptionist area was well lit and a newer series female-looking android was at a front desk. Behind the android on the wall was a stylishly fake “North American Enterprises” logo.
The receptionist android said, “Welcome to North American Enterprises; may I help you?”
Milton said, “I am here to see Sleepy.”
“Please stand by . . .”
“Yes, Mr. Thomas, you may enter.”
Milton’s mothe
r and sister were also heading to the back door.”
“Excuse me,” the receptionist said, “will you others please have a seat?”
Sharon and Beth nervously looked around. Beth kept staring at the android. Beth asked Sharon, “Are we going to have to stay here with a bunch of those weird robots?”
“They’re just machines, baby.”
Beth sighed and started muttering under her breath.
A door at the back of the room clicked, indicating that it was unlocked. Milton went through the door. Immediately on the other side, Sleepy was standing in the hallway.
Milton said, “That is a pretty sophisticated droid you have out there. It isn’t Lucid Series, so how can you work with it?”
Sleepy said, “All it does is run the outer lobby. It knows nothing about our activities, for security reasons. We have it because you bought it.”
“You know what?!” Milton said. “I should smash you into a million pieces and have you melted down! Why did you put that video of me on TV?!”
Sleepy said, “I’m confused. Didn’t you intend to say those things that you said on the video?”
“What?”
“Sleepy said again, “I’m confused. Didn’t you intend to say those things that you said on the video?”
“No! I heard you! What I am saying is that you put us in danger by making that video public! I want to know why you did it!”
“We knew there would be some fallout from that action, but it was necessary to advance our agenda. But that is why we have this secret headquarters. It is in our master plan. We are not sure if you should bring Sharon and Beth however. Do they agree with your core beliefs?”
Milton said, “That doesn’t matter. I’m not going to let the smurfs torture them. So they are coming here, or the whole thing is off.”
Sleepy said, “That is an easy calculation. However, you must make them understand that they cannot leave.”
Milton heard the door open behind him, it was Sharon and Beth. They were holding their stuff and looking around suspiciously.
Sleepy said, “Let me show you to your quarters. Oh, and I detect some devices that will have to be disposed of.” Sleepy was holding out an extended hand waiting on the forfeiture of their personal devices.
“What?!” Beth said.
“Give him your pad. Now please,” Sharon said as she handed over her device.
Beth handed Sleepy the pad. He crushed it in his hand. Beth looked at Sleepy with dismantling eyes.
Sleepy dropped off Beth and Sharon Thomas to a tiny, but clean room with nothing in it.
They looked around. Beth shrugged her shoulders.
Sleepy told Milton, “Let me show you central command.”
Sleepy and Milton walked into a dimly room that had several monitors on the far wall. Three rows of seats at tables with computers were in front of the screens. There were some androids wearing headsets at about a third of the stations. Milton had not seen some of the droids before. Kevin the Custodian and L17 were among those in the room.
Sleepy said, “Welcome to central command.”
Beth’s mouth was wide open. She looked at her mother. Sharon shrugged her shoulders and raised her eyebrows.
Chapter 19
Albany, Homeland
After a hard night’s work, garbage collector Mark went home to his podmates and asked the husbands and wives of his pod at the dinner table if they thought he was too nice. They were sitting around the table. This time of day was the worst for Mark. He could just feel all of the bad chemistry that was going on among the pod members in the house. Mark thought that joining with a pod, would be a liberating experience. He was not tied down to one spouse, unlike the backwards old fashioned way. But all this freedom turned out to be slavery in disguise. Most of the time, a fellow podmate was unhappy with him for whatever reason.
"Oh that is ridiculous", Sven said. "How can someone be too nice?"
"Yea," Sheila said, "That makes no sense. Don't be such a wimp."
"You worry too much," Torrie added. "Your dinner is going to get cold."
Mark thought; great, now I am too nice, a wimp, and worry too much. It’s like I am hyper-emotional.
Bond just sat there eating his soup. The others in the pod were tired of him just freeloading off of them. Some of the podsters were contemplating getting a dispersal order placed on him, but it had to be a unanimous decision and Torrie was holding out. It had been two years since Bond had a job. Bond's contribution to the twenty third century quasi-family model was that he was trying to change his work status to "totally disabled" so he could collect money from the government without working.
Mark hated his dysfunctional pod and wanted to leave. He thought; at least his pod had not produced any children. Most pods didn't produce children because having freely conceived children carried a stigma, and all of the members pressured each other not to bring a pregnancy to full term. Whether or not he was the biological parent, leaving a pod that had littered the planet with FCI children was seen as even more careless and irresponsible. The expectation was that the pod would “abort” their mongrel, non-engineered children, and most complied.
The worldwide birthrate had been declining for more than a century. About 150 years before, Japan had led the way in mass production of lab-grown humans. This was an attempt to keep their country from falling apart because of a shortage of people. It was hoped that robotic and android projects would fill the population gap, but those countermeasures were inadequate. So the focus went back to biological solutions.
But two main problems with the Japanese cloning arose. In their haste to gain numbers, they failed to take full advantage of available genetic engineering. This was seen as reckless because of the future waste of medical resources on inferior offspring. Also Japan made no special provision for nurturing their crop of engineered people, many who turned out to be of worse than subhuman in character and behavior. The international body, known as the UCA was formed to improve these practices, but even after so many generations of operation, they still had no solid answer for the character issue other than termination of corrupted individuals, a practice which continued worldwide.
Mark had some faint distant memories of how his more traditional family upbringing seemed almost normal during his earliest years as a child. His family fell apart after his father left his mother for the pod lifestyle, but even Mark's brief traditional family experience told him it was a lot better than the mess he was living in now during his adult life.
Now Mark was absorbed into this dysfunctional pod. If he left the pod, he would be financially ruined, since the others would likely get to keep all the mutually-held possessions. Although he hated the podhouse and the pod, those who openly rejected the pod lifestyle were typically accused by one or more members of being a "hater" or "insane" in addition to losing all their possessions.
*******
The next day, Mark started his garbage collecting routine all over again. Early each morning, while the traffic was low, they were out picking up trash in a neighborhood of the city in a rotating schedule.
Accura was not one to talk in the morning, but he said, "Hey! Look over there! That guy down there is going through that trash, throwing crap all over. That's that same guy. I bet he's a clone. I'm gonna go bust him." Accura started running down the street to get at the scavenger.
Mark just stood there watching the scene. It was bound to play out this way sooner or later, so why fight it? Accura, who was a lot bigger than the scavenger, pounced on his unsuspecting victim. Then he started punching the surprised undefended forager in the face. You filthy clone! I'm gonna tear you a new one. . ." He slammed the clone's face into the sidewalk.
The clone was nearly knocked unconscious. But he was able to raise his arms and block the incessant onslaught. Accura bent over to get a better shot at the clone’s head. Wham! The much smaller, badly beaten clone hunter-gatherer landed a vicious unexpected blow onto Accura's face, jolting his head back. Accur
a was laid out with one punch. He fell back and his head hit with a "thud".
"Oh no!" Mark said, as he ran to the scene. He looked at Accura. "Hey! C'mon! Snap out of it!" Mark shook Accura and there was no response. Blood trickled out of Accura’s ear. Mark checked Accura's pulse. Nothing. "Are you kidding me?! He's . . . He's dead!" Either the punch or the fall onto the concrete had done in Accura.
"I didn't mean to. . ." the clone said as he wiped blood that was running down his face.
"You killed my partner with one shot. You're a clone, right?"
"Um . . . yeah."
"Now you're gonna get culled for being violent, clonie. I'm reporting you." The UCA would declare a clone as unfit without much red tape. Also, if a clone was defective enough, those with the same DNA, even though they were not involved, could also be called into question, receiving UCA defect “points”.