Crusade Against the Machines

by Franklyn Santana

  I went to the food counter and asked the man behind it for a certain Freeman. He pointed to a thick colored guy, wearing gold chains, a white undershirt that was several sizes too short for him and a jacket. He was talking to a young girl whose face was disfigured by a long scar.

  I went to him and interrupted the conversation: »Are you Freeman?«

  »That’s me, man. Who wants to know?«

  »My name is Dexter. I’m a friend of Will Snyder’s.«

  A grin went across his broad face. »Ah, yes, Will told me about you and what you need.«

  »A portable backup generator of about two kilowatts,« I specified.

  »I can get you what you want, my friend, but first we should perhaps settle the matter of payment. What do you have that you can offer me?« He had pushed the girl aside and now he was giving me his full attention.

  I pulled out some gold certificates. »Don’t worry. I can pay in gold,« I assured him.

  He took one of the plastic bills in his hand and waved it around scornfully. »What is this? That’s not gold. It’s plastic, man.«

  »These are gold certificates. You can exchange them for real gold at any bank,« I told him. I couldn’t believe he’d never seen bills like that before.

  »I can see that myself, you clown,« he replied. »And how can I exchange this for gold when the banks are closed? I want hard gold, not plastic. Who knows if your bank will even exist tomorrow?«

  »These are from the HSBC Bank. It’s the second largest bank in the world, headquartered in Hong Kong in the USEAN. It doesn’t just go broke. This is as good as real gold.«

  »Then I’m happy for you,« Freeman replied unimpressed. »Then you just go to your bank and get some real gold yourself. And then you come back and we’re in business.«

  »But the banks are all closed,« I interjected.

  »You see, you finally get my point.«

  I cursed. I wouldn’t get anywhere with him. And he was right about one thing: As long as the banks were closed, those bills were nothing more than plastic. I needed real gold badly, or I was out of cash. The whole financial system had collapsed. Everything that had to do with any bank was worthless. And with that, Neil O’Neil was in as much trouble as I was. Of course, he also had all of his assets in accounts somewhere. And all of it was worthless in the current situation. I checked my smartphone. I had hundred fifty-eight SkyCom minutes left. That wouldn’t be enough.

  »Listen, I have one hundred and fifty minutes right now and I’ll pay you double in gold certificates for the trouble with the bank,« I suggested.

  »Hey, ain’t that going into your head, man? Keep your plastic! You bring me some nuggets, you get your generator. Otherwise, there’s nothing I can do for you,« he made himself clear.

  I wouldn’t get anywhere here. I had to find some shop that was open today, even if it was a long search. Maybe I would also find any bank that was open, although that was unlikely on a Saturday. In any case, I had to exchange all the certificates that O’Neil and I had for real gold as soon as possible.

  I went back to the car, had the navigator look for the next promising shops in the area and then drove off to the closest store and then to the next, one after the other. The first shop I went to was closed as expected. But as I approached the second, I heard an alarm siren. I saw a group of people in front of the store. They had pried open the metal shutter in front of the entrance and pushed it up. Now they climbed through the shattered shop window into the interior. This shop had obviously just been looted.

  I stopped in front of the store, pulled out my gun and got out of the car. One of the looters standing guard in front of the store called his fellows when he saw me with the gun in my hand. The others came jumping out of the store one by one. They had some stolen equipment under their arms. When I slowly approached the shop, they ran away as fast as they could. The alarm siren was still blaring. I went to the smashed shop window and looked inside. All kinds of equipment were standing around, from televisions, music systems, inverters and batteries to generators of various sizes. This could be my chance.

  I was thinking. If I went into the shop now and stole a generator, I would also become a looter and be no better than the Neo-Luddite rioters who plunged the whole country into chaos. If the National Guard happened to come by and catch me, they would shoot me without warning. On the other hand, it wasn’t me who had broken into the store. If I walked on now, just someone else who walked by would take the generator that I had left. It wouldn’t make any difference. I looked around. There was no one around watching me. And surveillance drones seemed to have disappeared from the skies of Washington, D. C. There wasn’t a person in the store either. I hesitated, though. I wouldn’t find a generator anywhere else today. This was my only chance. So I made a decision. I would take the generator with me, but leave the equivalent value in gold certificates in the shop, just to ease my conscience.

  So I got into the store. It was dark inside, because only little light came in through the broken roller shutter. I better didn’t take too much time. I hastily checked the specs of the generators. I found none with two kilowatts, only those with five kilowatts, but they were too heavy. Another one was small and handy, but only had one and a half kilowatts. I decided to take this one. If I lost any more time here, a National Guard patrol might show up at the entrance. And I didn’t need that at all. After making sure that nobody was watching outside, I carried the device to the car and put it in the back seat. I remembered that I wanted to leave the equivalent in gold certificates in the shop. But I wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible and not waste any more time. Besides, what sense would it make to leave the gold certificates in the shop? The next looter who came by here would just take them. It wouldn’t make any difference to the owner. I wondered if the insurance would cover the damage during the riots. But that wasn’t my problem now.

  I got into the driver’s seat and entered O’Neil’s apartment as destination in the navigator. Time to get back.

  During the whole trip it didn’t cross my mind that I would have to get some ethanol too, since the generator would hardly run completely without any fuel. But either I was too nervous about the stolen generator in the back seat or the pictures of the destruction in the city distracted me too much. I can’t tell. In any case, I reached O’Neil’s residential tower with just the generator, but no ethanol.

  »Hey, I knew Freeman could help you there,« said Will Snyder when he saw me with the heavy equipment. I didn’t reply to that. He should think what he wanted. I could hardly tell him that I had looted the thing somewhere.

  Climbing the fire escape with the device up with all that rain pouring down on me really wasn’t that pleasant. But at last I reached the top. I knocked on the door, but it took a full five minutes before the Old Man finally opened it for me. I was completely soaked and in a pretty bad mood.

  »Well, it didn’t take that long,« the Old Man said instead of a greeting. I wanted to punch him in the face. But somehow I managed to control myself. I took off my soaked jacket and threw it over the next chair.

  »Hey, watch it, Dexter! You’re gonna get everything wet here,« O’Neil said. I just answered with a grim look. »And what about the ethanol?« he asked. »Don’t tell me you forgot that? How are they going to get the generator running without fuel?«

  At that very moment I realized that too. My anger at the Old Man gave way to the unpleasant realization that I had once again screwed up. »The gas stations were closed,« I made up as an excuse.

  »Mr. Dexter,« O’Neil said reproachfully. »You even managed to get a backup generator. So it can hardly be more difficult to get hold of some ethanol. I guess that this would have been the easier task of the two.«

  If it’s that easy, you might as well get your ass in gear and get some ethanol yourself, I was going to answer him. But I didn’t. Instead, I said, »One thing at a time. First of all, we have the generator. That’s something. Maybe we can find some ethanol somewhere in th
is building.«

  »And where would that be?« O’Neil asked back.

  I was thinking. Maybe I could siphon it from some car down in the parking area. But I dismissed the idea. I had another idea. »Let’s go up to your apartment. I thought of something.«

  Of course I had to get the heavy generator up the spiral staircase all by myself. Just don’t expect that the Old Man would have helped me!

  Breathing heavily, I put the machine down in the bedroom, next to the bed on which the discharged android was lying. I unpacked the cables, power supplies and adapters that had come with the generator.

  »And now?« O’Neil asked impatiently.

  My eyes fell on the O’Neils’ house bar. »Say, don’t you have any stronger spirits in here?«

  »What?« he replied with a look between perplexity and shock.

  »Well ethanol, that’s alcohol, the same alcohol that you drink. But industrial alcohol is methylated so that no one gets the idea of drinking it in order to avoid paying taxes,« I explained.

  »You’re not trying to tell me you’re going to run the generator on my whiskey?« O’Neil said stunned.

  I went to the house bar and looked at the range. »Something with a little higher percentage would be better. Whiskey only has forty percent alcohol. That won’t quite do. Ah, what do we have here? Absinthe – seventy-four percent. That’s more like it.« I held up the bottle of greenish liquid. It seemed to be still sealed. Then I looked further. »Bacardi Rum 151 – seventy-five percent.« It was rum normally used for mixing cocktails. Drunk straight, it would be too strong for human consumption. The bottle was only half full, but O’Neil had another one in stock, sealed. Then he went into his bathroom and came back with a bottle of surgical alcohol. I also found an aftershave lotion that seemed suitable.

  We filled all bottles one after the other into the tank of the generator. Then I did a test, pulled the starter cable and started it. The engine ran without any problems. I switched it off again so as not to waste the precious fuel.

  Now we only had to connect Anabelle Palmer to the generator somehow. Fortunately, the included cables had lots of adapters. So this shouldn’t be a problem. I went over to the bed and patted her neck. I don’t know why I looked there first, but it seemed the most logical place. Maybe I’d seen this once in a movie or something. I had no luck, though. Anabelle only had smooth skin in that spot.

  I started frisking her chest. Her body was strangely cold. It wasn’t hard as I expected, but soft, more like elastic rubber rather than real human skin. While her breasts were soft, the rib cage underneath was completely hard. I suspected she was made of metal on the inside.

  »What the hell are you doing, Mr. Dexter?« O’Neil finally shouted. »Stop your indecent grabbing of Miss Palmer right now!«

  »I’m just trying to find her damn charging socket,« I defended myself. »You better help me find it.«

  »What socket? Dexter, I know you quite well. You’re just taking advantage of the situation,« O’Neil accused me.

  »Damn it, plug her in yourself!« I said angrily. »Here’s the cable. Good luck!«

  »I thought you were the computer expert,« O’Neil refused.

  »The computers I deal with usually look a little different.«

  We both stared helplessly at the android lying there like sleeping.

  »All right, so what do we do now?« O’Neil finally asked.

  »We have to get her undressed,« I suggested and began unbuttoning the jacket of her costume.

  »What? That’s absolutely out of the question!« O’Neil interjected. »What’s she going to think when she wakes up naked with two men groping her?«

  I carried on and did not allow myself to be distracted by the Old Man’s ridiculous objections. »If you have a better idea, let me know,« I just said.

  »Well, I can’t condone that,« O’Neil said, even though he did nothing to stop me. Of course, he didn’t have a better idea either.

  A few minutes later Anabelle Palmer was lying naked on the bed. With her weight, it hadn’t been easy to get her clothes off. But even having her stripped didn’t help us either. I couldn’t find any screws, maintenance openings, plugs or interfaces anywhere on her body. She just had skin like a human. »Strange.« I wondered.

  O’Neil went around the bed and looked at her. But he always kept a shy distance, probably dictated by his uptight sense of modesty. »Now you’ve taken them off and you still didn’t get any further,« he said reproachfully. »The whole undertaking has been in vain.«

  I mused. »Well, let me think... She doesn’t have any plugs that are visible on the surface. So the power socket must be hidden somewhere in one of the body’s natural orifices...«

  »Natural body orifices?« O’Neil repeated in shock. »What are you trying to hint at now?«

  »Well, the natural orifices of the body, which a person... ...or a woman has...« I didn’t know how to put it in a decent way. »This could be the mouth or the ears... Well, the ears probably less so. But perhaps further down the body. You know how a woman is usually anatomically built...«

  »Mr. Dexter!« O’Neil yelled at me. »I don’t want to listen to any more of your filthy fantasies. I will not under any circumstances allow you to assault Miss Palmer here while she’s lying on the bed defenseless, with no electricity. There must be another way. Use your brain, damn it!«

  Well, that much was clear, a closer examination of Anabelle’s orifices would certainly not be acceptable to O’Neil. This was where his modesty triumphed over his reason. He was just your typical conservative puritan. How did he think an examination by a gynecologist would be done? And this was no different. What the gynecologist was to a human woman, the mechanic was to an android. And I was practically the mechanic here. But let him have his way.

  I sat on the bed and thought.

  »If I could just get a hold of Jensen, I could ask him,« O’Neil said. »Or maybe we could ask someone else who knows about robots – at least better than my own computer expert here.«

  »I’m not an expert in androids,« I defended myself. »But I can try to find out something on the Internet.«

  I took my smartphone and connected to the Internet. It took an agonizingly long time that morning. The Internet seemed either to be overloaded or having problems. It took me almost an hour to find a clue. In a manual of another android model the charging was done via the navel. I checked with Anabelle Palmer. In fact, a rubber-like cover in the belly button could be pushed aside. Underneath it, the opening for a cable connection was visible. This had to be it.

  I looked for the right adapter and then connected the cable to the opening in Anabelle’s navel. Then I left the generator on. A small light on the adapter indicated that she was obviously charging.

  »Well? Is it working?« O’Neil asked impatiently.

  »Looks like it,« I said.

  It took about half an hour for the android to open her eyes and return to normal operation. We left the generator running anyway.

  O’Neil handed her a blanket to cover her naked body. »How are you? I’m sorry we had to undress you. We just didn’t know how to...«

  »All right! Thank you very much. Don’t worry about it. Shame for the physical body is an irrational human reaction. I am above such trivial emotions,« said the android.

  »Actually this is something we both have in common,« I agreed with her and grinned. O’Neil stared at me angrily.

  »I thank you for everything you have done for me,« she said sincerely to both of us. However, she should rather have thanked me. O’Neil’s share in her reactivation had probably been rather negligible. But I saved myself the trouble of pointing this detail out.

  »I think I’ve really earned a double whiskey now,« I said, reminding O’Neil of his promise. He said nothing when I poured myself a glass with Johnnie Walker, Blue Label. I even found some half melted ice cubes. Actually, when I thought about it, the needs of a man and an android were not so different after all. Both of us just ne
eded a good sip of alcohol now and then.

  I looked out the window. There was still smoke rising from the Capitol to the east. The capital was without power. And our modern industrial society was collapsing right before our eyes. What would the future look like that waited for us?

  Chapter 10

  New Detroit, 2111

  This here was the future that had developed after the chaos of the Crusade against the Machines. This was the new world without computers, machines, Internet and electricity. Was it a better world? Were people happier now? Had we rediscovered the lost paradise of Earth?

  Here we were now in a village, protected by palisades against the barbarians of the outside world and celebrated our liberation. Liberation from what? What kind of freedom was it to lock oneself behind wooden walls? We could not even travel freely through the land that was once the United States for fear of gangs of robbers, the Brutes in the ruined cities, or the militias that claimed local territories and would not let anyone pass through theirs.

  The celebration on the village square was over. The people returned to their homes. It had been a tiring day. I had walked more today than I’d walked in a month. I could feel it by the strong pain in my leg.

  Reverend Carter, Magister Sanders and I had taken a carriage together that would take us to our respective homes. We had also taken two children with us who were going the same direction as the Reverend, blonde Janet and a shy little girl named Sylvie, both from my class.