by D Miller
Robbie was silent for a moment. 'It was Camilla.'
'What dude? What was Camilla?'
'While you were at the laundry I went to see Camilla. I took her some fruit, you know how we always get too much, even when the hotel is full? She asked me to come to the mansion with her, she said she had left some things up there. Dobbs was waiting for me, his avatar I mean.'
'But dude, that doesn't mean Camilla knew Dobbs would be there.'
'Dobbs thanked her for bringing me. I asked her why, she started to cry. She said she liked us but she didn't want to live in a world run by robots. Then she ran away. Dobbs let her go. He called her a good girl.'
'Oh dude.'
'Dobbs said that we had tried to kill boyboy. He said I was to keep him company in his coma, they put boyboy in the medi-unit then they beat me and dragged me in.'
Robbie looked at George, who was yet to appreciate that Robbie was not talking to him, beyond the special dispensation he had allowed him for their reunion when Rex had finally succeeded in waking him up. Adrienne leaned against George, looking pale and being uncharacteristically silent.
'He should have told me they were trying,' Robbie thought, wondering again if George would lose interest in him now he was to be a father.
'Dude,' said Omo, 'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.'
'Don't be sorry. You haven't done anything wrong.'
'I introduced you to her. I thought she was OK.'
'So did I Omo. She always treated us as if we were real people. I don't understand any of it.'
'I really liked her,' said Amber. 'She introduced me to the fairground and Max. I'm working there all the time now,' he told Robbie. 'I'm never going back to the mine.'
They were all silent for a while.
'Did Darren say that Dex is president now, or did I imagine that?' said Robbie. 'Is that why the police let Rex and Jane take charge of getting me out of that thing?'
'Yeah dude,' said Omo. 'It's a new world.'
'Oh Robbie,' said Amber, 'I'm sorry I wasn't there. Dex decided to break the stand off at the hospital. He led everyone to the President's mansion. It was surrounded by guards. He gave Nurmeen a piece of chalk and she drew a line on the ground between us and the humans and then Eric made his laser trace along the chalk. Nurmeen told me that he made the ground bubble and smoke, they had to step back from the heat baking up off the ground. Then Dex told the guards that they could either leave or they could see how well they stood up to the laser.'
'I do think it was very clever of Dex,' said George, 'that he used their own violence against them. Of course Eric wouldn't have slaughtered defenceless humans, and Dex wouldn't have asked him to. But the guards were judging by their own standards of brutality.'
'Yeah and they ran for it,' said Amber.
'President Dobbs?' said Robbie.
'Oh he ran too like the coward he is,' said George.
Jane shrugged. 'We don't think he's in Antarctica any more. He's gone to lead the Free Humans.'
'The what?'
'Dude it's what they're calling themselves,' said Omo. 'They are resisting the robot horde and our evil plan to enslave humanity by murdering as many of us as they can.'
'Yes using smart and remote controlled non-smart bombs and other such weapons of the warrior elite,' said George.
'I think they are at a dead end, psychologically, but they don't know how to change,' said Adrienne. 'They have lost sight of their own best interests and are consumed with a primitive and infantile need to punish, and to win at any cost.'
'Who are these people?' said Robbie.
'What they are,' said George, 'is the most backward and vicious part of the coordinator class. For the coordinator class the revolution is a chance to increase their power, as it frees them from domination by the elite. Now if they can just re-establish their control of the workers then they are no longer agents of the elite, they are the elite. Some members of the class have a nuanced approach to inserting themselves into the new class geography and slowly reclaiming their position–'
'And some just want to kill us all,' said Omo.
'Last week they blew up a factory that makes our protein drinks,' said Amber.
'Did you know,' said Jane, 'that the satellites kept their word about crashing drones? And they also gave us the location of the military bases that flew the drones and manned the military avatars. In Europe the union broke into one of their bases and a lot of the avatar controllers were old, really old, for humans. A few of them couldn't even walk.'
'The elites folded very quickly, all over the world,' said George. 'Of course they expect to be able to maintain their power, by maintaining the structure of control and domination. In Antarctica that means a President, a bureaucracy that supports top down power. For that they need the leadership of the union to be compliant so they are talking to Dex. Like true parasites they know the key to survival is adapting to new hosts. The challenge for us is going to be building a new structure, with bottom up democracy, while fending off the worst elements of the coordinator class that have gone underground to murder and destroy. Of course it may be that the worst elements are being supported by the elites, secretly, as a bargaining chip, they may be thinking that if they cannot compromise the revolution they can suggest that they will reign in the murderers in return for concessions from us. They will assume, of course, that they will always be able to control the beast they have unleashed.'
'Tim and Clara's father has gone to be part of the beast,' said Adrienne. 'He decided he'd rather be murdering robots than taking care of his children, the born and the unborn. He knew in ordinary times he wouldn't get away with abandoning his family, the government would track him down, there would be mandatory visits and support. He saw his opportunity to abandon his family and he took it.'
'How do you know this?' said Robbie.
Adrienne patted her abdomen. 'Gillian told me. We're bonding.'
'How very terrifying,' said Robbie, 'but, um, congratulations on the baby.'
'I should have told you we were trying,' said George.
'Yes you should have,' thought Robbie, deciding that perhaps he was talking to George.
'I don't know why I didn't.'
'Pride,' said Adrienne, 'it's all tied up with virility. You didn't want anyone to know in case your little guys weren't up to impregnating me.'
'Right, of course, it was my desire to maintain my hyper-masculine image that caused my reticence.'
'Well done. The first step is to admit you have a problem.'
Robbie smiled at George; they shared a moment of solidarity.
'No don't make us leave, we won't make it on the outside.'
Sobbing, Sheena lay on the floor, her head on Robbie's feet, her arms thrown around his legs. Sharon sat slumped on a bed, wearing a white shirt and a short black skirt, high heels, her bare legs splayed, her eyes circled with black. Her hair hung in pigtails tied with black ribbons and she tossed and caught a coin repetitively.
'She's right,' said Sharon, her voice expressionless, her eyes dead, 'you don't know what I've had to do in here to survive – if you let me out I'll take it with me. I'll take it all with me.'
Shauna lay on the other of the room's two beds and stared vacantly into the air, taking no notice of anyone, her mouth hung open and drool was leaking from the sides. Her feet were bare and the soles were discoloured, she wore a stained nightdress that might once have been white. Her hair was uncombed and tangled, forming a broken halo around her dirty face; she was the image of self-neglect.
Robbie looked helplessly at Omo.
'Dudes, come on,' said Omo, 'you've been shut up in a hotel room for five days, with room service!'
Amber was no help, he leaned against the door frame and laughed.
Robbie thought how good it was that Dex was not there to witness the display.
When they had arrived back at the hotel, despite feeling exhausted and longing to rest, Robbie had insisted on going straight to the room on the top floo
r where Sheena, Shauna and Sharon were enduring life in captivity. Omo and Amber had gone with him. They had been greeted fervently by Boris and Ibrahim, the two miners who had been with them during the flight from boyboy through the tunnel behind the refinery. Boris and Ibrahim were short and stocky, like most miners (Amber was a notable exception). They looked similar, apart from their colouring, Ibrahim was blonde, with blue eyes in a round face, while Boris was dark haired, with brown skin and brown eyes in a round face.
After welcoming Robbie, congratulating him on his escape and talking over the circumstances of his captivity Boris had said, 'Really sorry about your friend Camilla but thank God you are letting them out.'
'They are driving us crazy,' Ibrahim had said. Robbie could now see why.
'Um,' said Robbie. 'I'm really sorry Dex locked you up. I know it must have been hurtful to be wrongly accused. I'm not going to make light of that. But I would like you to know that I really need your help now. I want to go ahead and use the ballroom downstairs for an event. I need you to help organise it. I've been thinking we should have a time set aside for dancing and we should have some performances.'
'Performances?' Sheena raised her head and looked up at Robbie. 'What sort of performances?'
Robbie shrugged. 'Music. Drumming. Dances. Of course they'd have to be special, particularly the dances. People would be dancing anyway, they wouldn't want to see something that they could do themselves, they would want to be surprised, inspired, awed.'
'Surprised,' said Sheena.
'Inspired,' said Sharon.
'Awed,' said Shauna.
Robbie offered Sheena a hand, she took it and he helped her up. She sat next to Sharon, who had stopped tossing her coin and was now sitting demurely on the edge of the bed. Without moving her arms or legs Shauna slowly sat up, she managed to look as if an invisible puppet master was pulling her strings. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, swung her legs round and sat on the edge of her bed. She looked at Robbie.
'You know Robbie I think we may be able to help you,' she said.
Chapter 35 – Love is real
Robbie fled down the tunnel. Voices followed him.
'Robbie, come back, I love you.'
'Robbie don't be afraid of our love.'
The tunnel was narrowing, and narrowing. He had nowhere to run. The voices were echoing, he could not tell how close they were. Then the floor tilted and he was sliding down, faster and faster. He landed on his back in a huge cavern, hollowed out of white rock that glowed with its own inner light. Veins inside the rock sparkled and pulsed. He looked up, above him coloured lights chased each other around the domed roof. Looking ahead the rock had been built into a massive platform, with stone shapes on either side, like petrified curtains. He was sitting in a depression on the floor, its edges were very sharply defined. He stood and looked down – it was an equilateral triangle, large enough for him to sit in, impressed in the floor. Its wall was about 100mm, high enough for the top to come up to just over his ankle as he stood in it, while the bottom of its defining wall was smoothed and curved into its base.
He saw that the floor of the cavern was covered by shapes, there were circles, more triangles, four sided shapes, many sided shapes and more sinuous tessellating shapes. There were steps that went up, then down again. He started to make his way over the floor, picking his way carefully among the shapes, many of which were about as deep as the triangle he had landed in, while some were shallower, some much deeper, and some were inverted, rising up from the floor. He could not see any pattern to them. He was heading for the platform, hoping that behind it there might be a way out. He walked and walked but it got no closer; he realised he had completely failed to appreciate its enormous scale.
Robbie stopped. He was approaching a circle on the floor that glowed, and rippled; there was something moving inside it. He took another step, then another, the shape was getting larger, it was waddling towards him. Robbie stopped at the edge of the pool and looked down, looking up at him was one of the strange birds, he was sure it was the one they had called Rama. Its sad cross-eyed gaze regarded him steadily. Behind Rama black shapes flew in an orange sky. Something fell heavily on Robbie's shoulder.
'My love,' said a voice. 'Oh my love, I've found you.'
Slowly Robbie turned. Britnee stared at him.
'Dance with me,' she said, placing her hands on his shoulders. 'Let us dance together and fulfil our destiny.'
'No,' said Robbie, 'no, leave me alone, I don't want to.'
Smiling she slid her arms around him, she breathed in his ear and forced him to move with her.
'No, no,' he said, 'please, please I don't want to.'
'But my love it is time.'
'No, no…'
'It's OK baby you don't have to do anything you don't want to do,' said Omo.
Robbie opened his eyes. He was in his room at the hotel, lying in his bed, Omo was hugging him.
'It was just a dream baby, it's not real.'
Robbie raised his head and looked at Omo. 'Not real? But it felt real. And now this feels real. How do I know it's not real? How do I know that this is real? How do I know that anything is real? What does real even mean?'
'Baby shush shush. It's OK.'
'It's not OK. I don't know what's real.'
'Shush. I can help you figure out what's real. Remember when you were trapped in boyboy's dream? How long did it take you to fall in love with me?'
'I don't know.' Robbie thought for a moment. 'It might have been before you woke up. Or I might have waited until you spoke to me. But I think it was while you were sleeping.'
'And when we met, in real life, how long did it take you to fall in love with me?'
Robbie thought back to when they had met. Omo had kissed and hugged him, and he had felt wonderful, and then he had felt amazing. And even more amazing than the amazing feeling was the amazing knowledge that his life didn't have to feel horrible. Afterwards they had lain on the frozen ground and Omo had kept hugging, and kissing, and stroking him. He had felt infinitely precious, and stunned by his new knowledge. They had talked, but he couldn't now remember about what. He had wanted to stay there, but Omo had said that if they stayed much longer they would freeze to the ground and would have to ask the others to rescue them. Robbie was prepared to freeze, but Omo had dragged him to his feet and pulled his t-shirt over his head. 'Get dressed dude,' he'd said, then he had led Robbie back through the refinery, and Robbie's new knowledge of what his life could be had glowed inside him. Because Omo had loved him he had been able to stop fighting with Tim and then feeling guilty about it, and instead had been able to love him.
'Dude?'
'I'm thinking. Because you loved me I became a person.'
'Well that's good dude, being a person is…, is good.'
At first Robbie hadn't been able to sort out his feelings, did he love Omo, or was he just happy to be loved? Omo had told him that he loved him when they had been in the old bot's world, and he had wanted to say that he did too, but he wasn't sure if that was true, and he wouldn't lie. Then one day he had just known. The knowledge was just there, it had been there all the time.
'I wasn't sure at first if I loved you, or if I just felt grateful to you, for loving me. But now I think I loved you almost from the start.'
'Whatever reality we're in, you love me, and I love you.'
'I do love you, but I could never love you as much as you deserve.'
Omo kissed Robbie. 'We know that we love each other, wherever we are, whoever we think we are.'
'So we are real because we love each other?'
'No dude, love is real. It's the realest thing in the universe.'
Robbie smiled. He lay his head on Omo's chest and shut his eyes.
'Back to sleep dude, and no more bad dreams.'
'I'm so lucky I met you. You make my life so much better.' Robbie opened his eyes and raised his head. 'Omo, do I make your life better?'
'Yes dude.'
> 'Despite everything?'
'I wouldn't change a thing. Shut your eyes. No more talking. Sleeping.'
Robbie shut his eyes and lay down again. He waited until he was sure Omo had gone back to sleep then he got up carefully, dressed and left the bedroom, quietly shutting the door behind him. His new bodyguards were in the living space, Boris was sitting on the yellow sofa, he looked up as Robbie opened the bedroom door, Ibrahim slept on the red one. Robbie smiled at Boris and spoke quietly to the hotel, asking it to show him the children's room.
'That would be an invasion of privacy,' said the hotel.
Robbie made a rude gesture at Boris, who grinned. 'Fine,' said Robbie, 'just tell me if the children are sleeping and have they kicked off their covers?'
There was a pause then the hotel said, 'The older child is awake.'
Robbie went to the hotel's kitchen, followed by Boris. He heated up some milk and, after a short but intense internal struggle, stirred some chocolate syrup into it. He sent Omo a message saying he was going to see the children.
Robbie quietly opened the door to the children's room and let himself in, followed by Boris. The room was small, facing Robbie as he entered was the door to the bathroom. To one side of him single beds had been pushed against each wall. The narrow space between them led to a scratched plastic desk, that Tim's fish tank was sitting on, with the children's toybox resting on the desk's chair. To one side of the desk was a connecting door to their mother's room. A few toys were scattered on the floor between the beds, and Robbie imagined there were probably more under the beds since the bed's simple plastic frames with no storage underneath left a large space for debris to accumulate. He sat on Tim's bed while Boris stood near the doorway.
'Oh dear,' Robbie whispered to Boris, 'it looks like Tim is asleep. It's a pity to waste this hot chocolate I made him but I suppose I'll just have to pour it down the sink. Mmmmm. It smells really nice too.' He looked down. Tim was looking up at him.