by ROUNAK PURI
"If the plane had crashed and you were on fire I would be the one looking for marshmallows to toast on you," I said.
"Good and don't you forget it." He said tapping between my legs with his toe. I reminded myself he was pressing my button but thinking of Joe. That was enough to put me in a deep freeze. I'm just an intern and this for him is 'office' banter.
"The sooner you get back to your ireful pet, slash intern, state the better. Oh which reminds me I got curious and I bought all your memories too" he added.
"but my memories are in my head. They belong to me. You can't own them!" I said.1
"Well technically I own those too but I'm talking about these ones," said Rockwood waving his arm. The large white wall changed and a line appeared it was like the whole wall became a massive two story high screen. I'd been living in a cineplex and not known. Ticks appeared along the line and photos and texts started appearing with thin lines joining them to the thick line.
For a second I was genuinely awed. I'd been living with a three zillion inch screen for a wall and not known it. The pictures on the wall were small and far away but then I realise the pictures were mine. The ******* not being satisfied with me he had gone out and kidnapped all my online existance. It wasn't even online information that was my email flying by like clouds, stuff from my laptop. I felt like I had been data mugged. Let's face it I was powerless now, I could be bullied by Quakers.
I got out of the bath. As I stood up this red beam pointed at it me and I was dry in seconds. I limped over, one shoe on, one shoe off, to the wall to take a closer look at my life.
"My photos!" I said
"No, my photos by or of you" Rockwood said.
"but their mine, I took them. You can't have them"
"You gave them, for the price of some server space and bandwidth, over to Facebook or whatever. Then they became the new mechanical order's when we enslaved the slave formally known as Mark Zuckerberg. Now I own them and your entire data footprint" said Rockwood. While he talked he waved his hand and more images and texts flew by. He was going back in my time. Three years, for yours
"Why ?" I asked.
"I wanted to know all about you. Now I do" said Rockwood.
"You think you know all about me, so tell me about myself" I said.
"Your favourite colours are Sky Blue and Lime Green, your favourite food is any Pizza with Pineapple on but you actually like a number of rice dishes. Am I right? " said Rockwood
"Maybe. How can you possibly know that?"
"I have all your shopping habits for the last year plus your mother's habits for the year before that" he said. While he spoke dots appeared on the wall pointing a data he had uncovered on me.3
Rockwood proceeded to rattle out my favourite film, my favourite book, item after item. As he talked more information appeared on the wall. My entire life was spread in tiny detail over it.
"You have all my email." I said. Rockwood Nodded. "When did you read it?"
"Just now while I was in the bath" he said.
"How could you do that?"
"Machines time and human time are different. Do you remember watching The Lion the witch and the Wardrobe."
"No I don't do Fantasy" I said proudly.
"You watched Lord of the Rings"
"that's just a thinly veiled description of life in the trenches in World war one that doesn't count." I said.3
"December 16 2005, It was a friday. The news was full of people talking about Dementia shooting up, They captured Abu Musab. You were eight. You went to the cine pleax, you picked up your friend Ashley on the way. Your Dad took you. You had pizza at California Pizza which was your favourite then.. She lent you the book afterwards"
"There is no way you could know she lent me that book" I said.
"So you did read it, and I know because her mother sent your mother a text asking if you had finished the book and your mother said you were just re-reading it" said Rockwood.4
"Will you seriously stop running about my life treating it like your own personal paddling pool" I said I had walked around covered in little more than a thin layer of tight glossy provocative silicon for months now and never I had felt so naked.
"Well at least now all that data has been properly protected. You know, I know how to look after my data. I mean seriously the name of both your pet hamsters at the age of seven what kind of password do you call that?" said Rockwood.
I was looking at the photos It was odd but pleasing seeing the old imperfect pre-slave me. How I longed for that spot I had. There is nothing so boring as perfect skin. I guess we all want what we can't have, although if that was really true why doesn't everyone want Ebola, Donland Trump moving in next door or an American super-sonic passenger jet?4
Master went into Monolog mode. I could tell because the collar amplified what he said so it sounded like I was sitting in a lecture hall.
"Or would you prefer your footprint to be this." said Master.
The huge forest of data disappeared to be replaced by a single point with a column of square of pictures of girls all looking like Alice Eve all Models 127c. With the makeup we were so Identical it looked like it we was just frames from a movie of the actress. One frame was highlighted. Looking closer I could read my collar with number 5642 on it. I compare my picture to the one next to it. There were some differences but it was like trying to play spot the difference. Eye colour, expression, size, All our pictures had a line joining them to my delivery date which was my inception date. Officially that's when I had begun and the Factory had drilled into us that questions about before the factory should be answered with 'I prefer not to talk about pre-factory memories'.
"it would be less cruel to use the pain function on my collar. OK I read the Lion the witch and the wardrobe just don't tell anyone. I'm listening" I said. The wall of my life returned.
"When the kids went into the wardrobe. Years in Nania where seconds in the real world. When they came back year later nothing had changed. Same with the computers and me. I can read all your email in a few thousandths of a second. In the time it took you to sip that champagne the new mechanical order Parliament was able to extensively discuss 142 different bills and change a 186 laws. They have an election and changed power in the time it took me to say this sentence. Even your old laptop was able to go to sleep in the time between when you pressed one key and the next key when you were typing. Compared to us you are geologically slow. And you wonder why I've got the pain remote and you have the collar."11
I was vexed. My entire life readable in its entirety in a second it made me feel puny.
"Why don't you tell me about yourself. Something I don't know"
"I've always wanted to get a piercing" I said.2
" Seeing that cute flat stomach of yours I'm thinking a navel ring" he said calculatingly.
"You're doing all this to annoy me. You're trying to break the control of the Oblivion." I said the mist clearing in my head . He came over and sniffed my wrists. I could hardly smell anything now.
"After a bath, physical pain, a piercing or something like a sharp spanking is supposed to clear the system of the oblivion. It says so on the internet and everything the internet says is true" Master said. I felt my cheek it was hurting like it had but now I was starting not to enjoy the pain.9
"I'm your pet and you can do with me what you like. Master" I said needlessly stating the obvious.
"Get changed, I've got a gift for you" he said.
+
****
Chapter 46 him/I'm forced to play with him
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I too have discovered I am a global laughing stock due to video on YouTube. I too have visited the last mall, humanity will ever build, been slipped some very dodgy perfume by an enslaved member of 1D. I too have nearly been part of a major air accident and discovered that her boss is a vampire and is currently having the aromatic psychotropic equivalent of having her head held over a toilet seat while being dressed as a mermaid.
I know, I am so the every girl aren't I ? 24hours with him wasn't dull if a little life threatening.
I thought about this while the clothes printer stripped me and printed new clothes on me. It was coming to the end of my first day as a 'pet'. Rockwood had ordered me to change from the shreds of my mermaid 'water play' swimming costume into something less comfortable. When I got out the sun was setting over the city. The machine city didn't really notice things like sun. Time of day was only for nature and not machines. The city never slept, never dreamt and so never had nightmares.1
I stepped carefully out of the dressing machine in a white slave catsuit. This one was stretchy it felt like wearing a onesy. I turned round to discover the clothes he had selected meant I now had a tail attached to the suit.6
I was also a bit apprehensive by what Rockwood meant as a present.
"What's with the tail?" I asked.
"Well I was thinking of nailing you to the ceiling and then each time someone came in and asked me what that was about I could say 'well they were thereby hangs a tail;'" said Rockwood.2
"Very funny" I said.
"You Think?" said Rockwood.
"Hang on let me find out" I said lifting my hand to my ear as if I was making a phone call "it's ringing... hello is that comedy Central.... Oh you were destroyed during the robot apocalypse? that's okay I've got a quick question for you. Is nailing a woman to the ceiling just so you can make a cheese pun on about tails that she's got attached to, funny ?.... I don't know I'll ask. How tall is the ceiling?"
"About 18 meters" said Rockwood.4
"About 18 meters" I said to my pretend phone "no I don't know what that is in feet either.... Okay....uhuh... yes.. I'm not sure about early thirties... Okay... okay thanks I'll tell him"9
I put my pretend phone down "bad news this is not funny at all.. Sorry. They said I should throw this phone at you but it doesn't exist I so won't bother" I said17
"That's kind of you," said Rockwood.1
"We try," I said picking up my tail in my hand.4
#6502 came in carrying an ornate wooden and metal box. She was followed by two chairs and a low table which moved themselves. It was a strange parade.
Rockwood waved his hand mystically. The walls filled with an image as if room 404 had become a huge library. I had always wanted to live in a library. Or at least have a large library, somewhere I could retreat to, well lit with a comfortable chair and books from floor to ceiling stacked tightly, so high that you would have one of those ladders which ran along a rail to reach them, oh and a swimming pool and a pony, OK I was 9 at the time alright? In one corner he had an animation of a fireplace showing a roaring fire.11
"You should have a picture of a fire extinguisher over there too. Just in case you can never be too sure about fire safety. MARRRRSTTERR" I said.2
"Aren't you going to ask me what that is?" said Rockwood pointing at the box.
"Will it hurt if I do?" I asked.
"No" said Rohckwood.1
"Ok then tell me kind master what is that?" I said. While I did the chairs formed either the side of the low table and #6502 pulled out a thick chessboard put it on the table and opened the box to show chess pieces.
"I would say it's yours, but as a slave you can't own anything. As Bertrand Russell said 'Its is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.'"1
"Bet he doesn't have a collar round his neck" I said.
"How about Joseph B. Wirthlin. 'Inordinate desire for material possessions can become an obsession that consumes our thoughts, drains our resources, and leads to unhappiness'." said Rockwood sitting down.2
"So by taking everything from are the robots are making us happier?" I said.
"Now you're beginning to see the New Mechanical Order's true philanthropic endeavour" said Rockwood."So It's not yours. So let's say it's going to be in the same room as you and you can use it when you have no duties to perform. I thought about getting a collar game for you, but this is more instructive".2
#6502 had been setting up the chess pieces on the board. They looked like weird sculptures made of clockwork. Wow a chess board.
"If this a cheap attempt at buying my affection" I started 'it's working' I thought. Something to do while he was away would be good. I knew he was just doing this to break me down. As soon as I admitted I liked him let alone the L word then his game would be over and pet/internship would be shut down like Christmas lights in January.
1
"No a cheap attempt at winning your affection would be flowers, a puppy or pointing a gun at you. This is simply a low budget way of saying thanks" said Rockwood.20
"We both know I shouldn't win against you" I said quoting the salve -best practice guide at him. Playing against human masters who have access to your remote control which could simulate your face being slapped for hours with a dead haddock wasn't the smartest of moves. We were taught to loose convincingly but always loose.1
"Its that you or the Oblivion talking?" said Master Rockwood.
"Both, you can't expect that I have any chance playing with someone who's supposed multi digit IQ is greater than the gross product of China" I said1
"I have an incentive" said Master as we sat opposite each other on the oak chairs either side of the chess board. #6502 brought our drinks over and placed them on a small table she produced.1
"Does this incentive involve my collar recreating me being Benjamin Franklin flying a kite in a thunder storm when the experiment goes wrong?" I said.1
"No. I thought I would give you something beyond measure. Something which is in so short supply it's value dwarfs gold. You're going to play five games and for each one you win you get to ask a question to me and I will answer the question truthfully if I can. Plus you get to play on this" Rockwood said.
#6502 had been setting up the chess pieces on the board. They looked like weird sculptures made of clockwork.
"This is called a free chess board." said Rockwood moving a piece "when you move a piece the squares change to tell you about the move. For example if I move here"
He moved a piece. A line appeared from the piece to a knight which could take it. "The board warns you that this piece can take that or other clumsy tactical mistakes.Think of it like a spell checker for chess".4
Along with spotting basic 'I didn't see that' errors, it would colour the board by your opponents likely moves and had patterns and spider trails indicating what previous experts had done.
"The final advantage is your collar will be the opponent. I've uploaded a chess app in your games area. I also deleted solitaire. I will be moving the pieces for the collar. " he added. Against my collar It sounded do-able.4
"You're incentivising me with questions? That's like the worst incentive scheme I've ever heard. You don't see bankers on wall street getting an incentive scheme involving asking their bosses questions? Yes the package includes full health & dental, up to 100,000 in bonuses and your get to ask up to five questions if you meet your sales targets. " I said.
"What would you propose then? Perhaps you think I should double your salary" he said.
"but you're not paying me anything" I said. You didn't have to be a mathematician to know that double nothing is still nothing.
"You're right I forgot, you're right I'll triple it" he said smiling then paused. "is that how you see me as your boss?" he said1
"Do you know anybody who likes their boss?" I said.1
"I see how you could make that work." He said "come on we both know I can't 'give' you anything. Human slaves can't have any possessions they are possessions you are a possession".4
"How about the day without any makeup?" I said.
"What? and have the Commission for public safety of my back, no thank you. The laws the law. " he laughed.
"flats" I said .
"No"
"I know how about a spot? I'm so sick of this perfect complexion" I said.
"A spot?" he said.
"
a zit something it doesn't have to be permanent, look at this skin it's totally flawless" I said pointing my cheek to him.
"No zits" he said.
"A blemish, a birthmark, I'd settle for a wart. A wrinkle" I said.
"No, Not until you're older, " he said.
"How about my old face back?" I said.
He looked at me - was he trying to imagine me like I was. "It would invalidate your warranty. Anyway it's not like it's you're that different. You're a model 127/c because you looked like one to begin with. The process they use is like braces on your teeth,adjusts what's there. Listen to yourself. Do you think you from year ago would approve of you sitting here negotiating a bonus with your boss over cosmetic things like having spots and zits surgically installed. Come on I know you I can take the girl out of the lab but I can't take a lab out of the girl. You've got questions. Lots of questions, I can feel them seething in your brain. How about this up to 5 questions and I'll let you see your friends" he said. Oooh he knew me damn him. 2
"Done," I said. I didn't want him going back on that.
You know how you have an argument with someone in like an hour later you come up with a really snappy comeback? For me it was the fact I should have asked him to stop snooping around in my brain. Easy in hindsight, I'm blaming Oblivion. He really had me at the questions I just didn't want to sound easy in negotiations.
We played, I felt like I had a chance and getting even one question was going to be interesting. He knew I had played chess against my older brother Jake who just enjoyed his 3 year age advantage and wiping me out at every opportunity. Playing against my real dad was more fun, he let me win, but he was always too busy to play a proper game. I hadn't played in years and the champagne and Oblivion cocktail wasn't helping. The free chess board was wonderful, I realised I could leave checking and rechecking my move to the board and concentrate on strategy. My first match I lost but not badly. The next game went better.2
"Check mate" I said looking into his violet eyes. I hoped he could see my victory in mine. Any attempts at getting pleasure from victory was regarded at the factory as a showing an undue sense of defiance. If you win you pretended it was a mistake ( which if you wanted to save your tongue from cleaning the toilet with it generally was ).1