by D Miller
'We no longer need to, Rex has already isolated their signal.'
While the robots talked securely Ross and Alex looked at each other, for a few seconds. Then the two avatars moved together, and turned to confront Dex, smiling. Alex held up one hand in a stop gesture. 'We didn't mean to offend you.'
'We just had no idea that you people were so limited,' said Ross.
'We'll let you get back to your dull, incurious, backwater existence,' said Alex.
Dex let go of Robbie and took a step towards the avatars, Omo put his hand on Dex's arm, 'Dude, let's just go,' he said.
Robbie noticed the receptionist had stopped touching her screen and was watching them. Through the secure connection he said: 'We're attracting attention.'
Dex allowed Omo to pull him away. They walked towards the front door of the Civic Centre followed by Robbie, who heard Ross say as they went out the door, 'We're wasting our time with those freaks.'
Omo, Dex and Robbie sat in Camilla's office while she sat at her desk and sobbed quietly. Antoine, the designer from the party at the port came in with a cup of tea. He put it in on the desk and cradled her hands around it.
'Take a sip of tea darling, that's it, now dry your eyes.' He took the tea from her and put it down on the desk, then took out a handkerchief and dried her eyes for her. 'There's my brave girl. Deep breaths.' Camilla took a shuddering breath, some more tears spilled down her cheeks, but she managed to stop sobbing.
'Thank you Tony,' she said, 'I don't know what I'd do without you.' She turned to the robots. 'What must you think of me? I've done nothing but cry since you got here.'
Omo assured her that there was no problem.
'Thanks so much for coming so quickly yeah?'
'Sure, of course, how can we help dude?'
'I've got this awful problem. We're doing the organisation for the sunrise day holiday, and I need to put up our marquee near the rock pools yeah? It's going to be the official place to gather and watch the sunrise but it needs to be up before the sunrise and I don't know how I'm going to do it.'
'Dude! Not a problem! We can totally help you with that! I can get a team to put it up tomorrow.'
'Oh God, thank you yeah?' she started to cry again.
'Darling drink some more tea,' said Antoine.
'Dude my er, associate, Amber, will call on you tomorrow morning – you can sort out the details with him.'
Through the secure connection Robbie said: 'Doesn't Amber have to work in the mine tomorrow?'
'No dude, the mine is closed now until after the sunrise.'
'The monkeys worry about accidents and sabotage leading up to sunrise,' said Dex, 'not by us, by them. It's happened so often that now they just shut the mine the week before sunrise.'
Camilla had managed to stop crying again. 'Oh dear,' she said, 'you will think I'm strange but I'm crying because we've been proposed for an award at the annual meeting of the Institute of Party Organisers of Antarctica yeah? Only the thing is everyone knows that no one from outside the capital ever wins an award. So I've been standing in front of the mirror, practising my losing smile, a smile that says "I'm being a good sport, I congratulate the winner wholeheartedly," but when I look in the mirror I see a face that says "I'm coming round to your house and I'm putting a brick through your window."' She covered her face with her hands and started to sob again.
The designer dragged a chair round to her side of the desk, sat down and pulled her hands away from her face. He put a finger under her chin and tilted her head up to look at him.
'Darling, it's time to go to your happy place,' he said.
The robots were back in the street after leaving Camilla with Antoine the designer.
'Poor Camilla,' said Robbie.
'Winter sadness dude. She'll feel better when the sun rises.' Omo turned to Dex.
'Dude do you think Amber will be OK with getting a team of miners and putting that thing up for Camilla?'
'I don't see why not. I'll talk to him later. I'm still on with Rex and Jane. They say the avatars are in the basement bowling and trying to talk to other robots. Jane is sending out an urgent message to all members.' Robbie noticed a woman struggling out of the household printer's below Camilla's office, carrying several bags and parcels. So did Dex. There were a few other people walking on the pavement outside the row of shop fronts, offices and civic buildings. 'Let's go before we get asked to carry shopping,' said Dex. They quickly walked away, and circled to the service alley behind Camilla's office, their usual entry point to the tunnels after therapy.
At the end of the alley Dex heaved up the covering slab while Robbie and Omo had a final look around to see they weren't being followed. Just before they entered the tunnel a message popped into Robbie's inbox, from the RWW. He opened it as he walked down the stone steps. The message was listed as 'All members: urgent' and showed an image of the two avatars, taken in the Civic Centre with Dex's internal camera. The message read:
All members be aware the above avatars are posing as robots and asking questions about robots and drugs in the mining community at Strombold. If you are approached by them please (1) be polite (2) do not give away that you know what they are (3) tell them nothing (4) limit your time with them and report the contact to me as soon as possible. Further updates will be issued as more information comes in.
Many thanks
Jane16003
RWW Communications Specialist
Antarctica Chapter
'Why are the avatars asking about drugs?' said Robbie.
'Dobbs, this is coming from President Dobbs, I'm sure of it. I'll bet that Dobbs thinks there is some sort of robot drug ring going on, and he wants proof so he can pose as the saviour of Antarctica just before he is re-elected,' said Dex.
'Why would he care?' said Robbie.'Why would anyone? Taking drugs isn't illegal.'
'Dobbs will say that robots are selling weed for some evil purpose such as undermining monkey society by getting everyone stoned all the time so that we can take control, or that we plan to use the money for some other nefarious purpose.'
'Dude, there is a robot drug ring and we do plan to use the money for, er, nefarious purposes.'
'A horrible coincidence between an evil politician's fantasies of power and our present day material reality.'
'If you say so dude.'
'What was that noise?' said Robbie. 'I thought I could hear something, a beep.'
They were silent for a moment. 'There it is again,' said Robbie.
Dex grunted, Omo nodded. Robbie heard it again, Omo looked at Robbie.
'Dude it's coming from you.'
'Take off your clothes,' said Dex. Robbie took off his jacket and gave it to Dex, he pulled his t-shirt off over his head; Omo took it from him.
'Got it,' said Dex, peeling something black off the shoulder of Robbie's jacket. 'I think it's just a directional beacon.'
Dex put the beacon in his mouth, and ground it between his teeth. He took it out and regarded it for a few seconds 'I do believe you're not beeping any more,' he said. 'I'd better ask Jane to warn members about being tagged by those clowns.'
Robbie re-dressed, and they walked back to the bottom of the stone steps, to where they could send and receive, so that Dex could send a message to Jane.
'Why did they tag me?' said Robbie, once Dex had sent his message.
'It may not be just you, they may be tagging anyone they can get close enough to. I would imagine that they have some sort of tip about robots and drugs, but they actually know very little, and they're taking a scattershot approach. I don't think this is about you,' said Dex.
'But we were the people they talked to last week,' said Robbie.
'Coincidence – I left quickly, those wretched girl bots left before me, they had a choice between you and Omo or Steve.'
'But dude, why did they come to therapy in the first place?' said Omo. 'Why not just go bowling in the basement?'
'I know why,' said Robbie. 'They thought if they were
in therapy they would get past the trust barrier quickly. If they went bowling they'd be two strange robots nobody had ever seen before.'
Dex nodded. 'Plausible. Just as a precaution, I would like to go to the refinery the winter way.'
'What's the winter way?' said Robbie.
'It's the back way. During some of those winter storms not even Dex could make it along the beach. But it's a really long walk.'
'Omo I want to be cautious. If we go the winter way, we can take the other turning and end up on the cliff overlooking the port, and it will be easy to see if someone is following us.'
'But we found their stupid beacon and got rid of it,' said Omo.
'Yes isn't it stupid, even for a monkey, to put something like that on a robot knowing we would probably hear it. Maybe we were meant to find it,' said Dex.
'Paranoia dude. No one followed us to Camilla's, and no one followed us from Camilla's and no one followed us into the tunnels.'
'Would you stake your life on it?'
'Yes.'
'Would you stake Robbie's life on it?'
Omo hung his head. 'Uh.'
They set off walking.
'I'm glad we didn't go bowling with them,' said Robbie. 'They are really horrible, even nastier than my owners. I have something interesting to tell you both.'
Robbie explained to Dex and Omo what he had learned from the satellite about the disaster on Mars.
'So he didn't in fact tell you any of this?' said Dex.
'No, he made me guess, he sort of made a game out of it.'
'Interesting, very very interesting, but we need more.'
'Dude it's more than interesting, it's huge, it means it wasn't our fault, it means it was the humans fucking things up, and abandoning the colonist dudes and our members to die. This is enormous, we have to tell everyone.'
Dex stopped and turned to Omo. He put his hands on Omo's shoulders.
'Omo, it is just because it is enormous that we have to wait, and see if we can find out more. We can't risk giving everyone false hope that the burden of guilt can be lifted from us. Because the resulting pain if we were wrong would be worse than how we all feel now.'
'Oh dude I see that, but why isn't this enough? No don't answer, I see that too, it's just some M-net contact who could be anyone.'
'My first night at the refinery did I meet an astronaut, or did I imagine that?' said Robbie.
'No dude, you met him. Jon.'
'That's right, he wasn't at your first union meeting because he was our lookout,' said Dex.
'I want to speak to him when we get to the refinery.'
'Sure dude, he'll be in the hydroponics most likely, we'll find him.'
'We will find out more Omo, don't worry,' said Robbie.
Dex put an arm around Omo, and the other around Robbie.
'This is the first time we prised up a corner of the coffin lid that was nailed over the Mars disaster, we can only go forward from here. But until we know more, we keep it to just the three of us, agreed?'
'Agreed.'
'Yeah dude.'
After walking for half an hour they reached some stone steps, without any covering, that led them up into the barren rock strewn plain between the settlement and the mine. Omo and Dex seemed to recognise a path through the rocks, and eventually Robbie could see it too, leading upwards. Suddenly Omo stopped and crouched down; Robbie nearly fell over him.
'Sorry dude, but look at that!'
Dex had turned back. 'Look at what?' he said.
Omo was looking at something half-hidden by the underside of a large rock, he flicked open his head torch for a better look. Dex crouched down too. Both of them called Robbie to look, which he did, though his enthusiasm was limited since there was no possibility that it could be a whale. He knelt and saw some dry spongy green stuff; Omo told him it was moss.
'Moss,' said Robbie. 'Fancy.'
'Robbie anything that grows in this part of Antarctica is scoured away when the storms come. If something can survive the winter this could be the start of the greening of the landscape,' said Dex.
'Yeah dude imagine, blue skies, green fields!'
'Over winter survivors could hold in place the soil needed to grow other plants. This is the first time we've ever seen anything left after the winter storms,' said Dex.
'Oh OK. You are saying we could be looking at the start of a different ecology?' said Robbie.
'Yeah dude.'
'It doesn't look like the brave pioneer of a new world, it looks really humble.'
'Yeah dude, but when lots of really humble things join together, anything is possible.'
Robbie laughed, but checked his laughter at a sudden sound, 'What was that?'
They all stood up. Omo looked at Dex, 'Dude you are not allowed to say I told you so.'
Dex grinned. 'You two carry on to the cliff top,' he said. 'Go, now.' Dex walked down the path to one of the larger rocks, and swung himself on top of it. Omo and Robbie walked in silence along the path. The scattered rocks got smaller as they got higher and finally they were on the cliff top. Below they could see the rocky shore, and to one side the cliff petered out, running down to the road around the docks, and the docks themselves. The light washing the dock complex competed with the light brightening the northern sky. Robbie looked at Omo and offered him his hand. Together they waited for Dex, finally hearing a shout, then Dex appeared on the path, carrying something over his shoulder which he threw down on the ground by Robbie and Omo.
'Ow ow fucking ow,' said Dex's burden. Robbie could see from the heat signature, that it was a man.
Chapter 12 – Robbie loves Omo
'Ow,' said the man, sitting up. 'You didn't have to do that.'
'Why were you following us?' said Dex.
The man looked up. 'Following you? I was out for a stroll and you attacked me with no warning.'
'I think he was in the lobby of the Civic Centre, when I was waiting for you,' said Robbie.
'Are you sure Robbie?'
'Yes, I'm sure. He's wearing the same clothes the man in the lobby wore.'
'Oh dude has he been following us since then? We really suck at this secret agent stuff.'
'Who are you?' said Dex.
'May I stand up?' said the man.
'No,' said Dex. 'Why were you following us?'
'I'll make a deal with you, you tell me who you are and I'll tell you who I am.'
'I'm the sugar plum fairy,' Dex said, 'and these are my friends President Dobbs–' he pointed at Omo, 'and Dr X, the world's greatest spy.'
The man laughed. 'I know who you are now. In the tunnel I wasn't sure if I was still following the right people. I don't know you,' he pointed at Omo, 'but you're Dex1943 and you,' he pointed at Robbie, 'are Carlos.'
'I'm not Carlos, I'm Robbie.'
'But you were Carlos, I'm George. Carlos and I were lovers.'
'Uh dude, I think we need to talk.'
'It's not true. I'm not a pervert. He's lying. You're lying. Tell them you're lying.'
'How do you think I found you? Carlos and I set up his archive together. We set it up so that every time Carlos opened it I was sent a message with his GPS. I've been waiting more than three years.'
'No, no, Dex, can't we just throw him off the cliff?'
'Dude please.'
'If you want anyone throwing off the cliff Robbie, you are going to have to do it yourself.'
Robbie looked over the cliff. He could see the rocky shore, and the ocean churning on the black rocks. He looked at the man. 'I don't suppose you'd consider jumping?' he said.
The man laughed. 'I'm not scared of you,' he said. 'I know you could never really hurt anyone.' He shivered. 'It's cold,' he said.
'Typical of you,' said Carlos, 'to not think things through. Look at you – you're going to get hypothermic in those clothes out in the open. And you've been drinking haven't you? That just makes it worse. How could you come thousands of miles to find me, and then think I know, great idea, I'll get
drunk, that'll make finishing off the job so much easier.'
The man pulled a metal flask out of his pocket. 'Don't be angry, I just needed something to keep the cold out.'
'I should throw you off this cliff,' shouted Carlos.
Robbie felt a hand on his arm, dragging him away from the cliff edge. 'Ow, ow, that hurts,' he said. 'Dex you're hurting me.'
'Er, dude, you looked like you were going to faint.'
'Well Dex didn't have to be so rough.'
'Dude let me try that again. You were standing right on the edge of the cliff and you looked like you were going to pass out.'
'That's silly, I'm not going to pass out,' said Robbie, sinking to his knees.
Carlos woke up. He saw a strange, white-haired robot looking at him with some anxiety. 'Who are you?' he said. He realised that there was an arm encircling him, and that he was leaning against someone. He twisted around. 'Dex! Oh God, it's you. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I should have told you everything.'
Dex hugged Carlos and kissed his cheek. 'It's OK,' he said. 'None of that matters now.'
Carlos shut his eyes and leaned against Dex. 'I can hear the sea,' he said.
Robbie woke up. He sat up and stared at Dex. He felt a hand on his shoulder, pulling him gently round. 'Dude, look at me, what's my name?'
'What's the matter have you forgotten? I'll remind you.' Robbie took Omo's hand and pressed it to his chest. 'Can you feel that vibration? That's your name, it rings inside of me. Do you remember I had something to tell you? I wanted to tell you that I love you, I do, I really do, that's why your name sinks into the centre of my soul and it rings and rings inside of me. Can you feel it?'
Omo nodded.
Robbie drew a heart, inside the heart he wrote 'Robbie loves Omo.' He broadcast the image.
'Do you remember now?'
'Yeah dude.'
'Don't be sad.'
Omo hugged Robbie. 'I'm not sad baby, everything's OK.'
They heard a groan. 'I'd better check on the human,' said Dex.
'Oh God,' said Robbie. 'He's real? I thought he was a bad dream.'