The Owners

by Tara Basi

  When the hunters came to get me it all happened so suddenly. Mum couldn’t do anything to stop them. I know she tried but the Band made her scream and roll in the dirt. The old boys took me through the door and left me there.

  Of course, I tried to come back to Mum. Get out. It wasn’t any use. Some old girl led me away. I kicked and screamed but she didn’t even seem to notice. She locked me in a room and I cried and cried till I couldn’t any more. Then another old girl let me out. I found out I was in Block school and I wouldn’t be getting out till I was ten and then I’d be Banded. That was three years later.

  The jellyfish had made lots of Block schools. They were all the same. I was with twenty other kids. Some a bit younger, some a bit older. We all lived together in a lovely building surrounded by nice gardens. It would have been great except Mum wasn’t there so it was never great. It was always a sad place. Mum would come and get me one day or I’d see her again when I was ten. It’s what I had to believe. It helped me. I didn’t cry every day. Not every day.

  I had my own room with my own little bed, a desk, a big cupboard, a few chairs and a nice bathroom. And there was a big screen. I kept up my studies at the screen. Mum would be really cross with me if I didn’t. Back then there was a lot more stuff about the world before the Block on the screens. I made sure I learned as much as I could though there was nothing about the Blocks. Mum didn’t know anything about what the Blocks were, where they came from or what happened to Blocked people, nobody did. The Block was just the place the Vans, our name for the boxes, took you when you… transitioned, and after that you were Blocked. No one thought it was good to be transitioned even though no one actually knew what happened to the Blocked. People didn’t like using the Blocked word; they preferred transitioned, maybe because it didn’t sound so final.

  When I was ten they let me out of school and I got Banded. Straight away I searched and searched for Mum but she was gone and no one knew what had happened to her. The other Banded people guessed she had been transitioned because they said she was getting on a bit. Someone said maybe she was working at a different school. I really wanted to get angry and go looking for Mum. The Band didn’t let me, instead it wanted me to start making babies. Once the baby making started things just got even more horrible. We were always scared, afraid we wouldn’t be able to make the next baby or we’d make the wrong sort and then a Van would come for you. Even if you were really good at making babies the Van came anyway when you were twenty.

  When I was getting very old, close to Van time, and I was pregnant again I got taken by a jellyfish to look after a school, just like I always did when I was pregnant. The schools were all the same. They even looked the same. Only the kids were different. Sometimes there were just babies and I would have to wet-nurse them. That was the worst, looking after the babies. It could have been one of my babies I was feeding but there was no way of knowing. The Bands put you to sleep when your waters broke. When you woke up you weren’t pregnant any more and you had two months to find an old boy to get you pregnant again. Not that it was too difficult unless you were broken inside. The only hope of escaping the Van were rumours of somewhere else, outside the fence or somewhere inside, where people didn’t have to wear a Band. Once you were Banded there was no hope of escape. If you were going to try to run it had to be before your days in school were over. Somewhere out there might be free people. I knew it was already too late for me.

  Then I met this little kid, Battery Boy. I taught him to read and I wasn’t sure why. Maybe that would have been all there was to it. Then, amazingly, after I got pregnant again I was sent back to Battery Boy’s school. That never happened, going back to the same school after giving birth. I thought it had to be some kind of sign. When I saw him again I decided I wasn’t going to have another baby. It hurt and I had to be really calm so the Band wouldn’t notice that I’d killed my baby. I didn’t care. It felt good that one of my babies was never going to be Banded. There was no time to be pregnant, I needed to be strong, I was going to tell Battery Boy the truth and teach him how to survive on his own. When he was ready I was going to help him escape. It had to be soon. Eventually, the Band would notice I wasn’t pregnant any more.

  Mina set down Tress’s papers. After a few minutes she tried to read it again, but it was too much. She could not escape one obvious terrible truth. A vast human organisation and a global infrastructure had herded everyone into the Blocks. There was only Mina, Anton up in space and her untrained companions left to get them out. The horror of Tress’s account and the magnitude of the task ahead left Mina sobbing long into the night.

  Chapter 6 – Biggles and the Sounds of War

  Early the next morning Pinkie and Stuff, led by Tress, started clearing away masses of tangled vegetation and hacking out the beginnings of a series of short runways. Mina, with Battery Boy and Jugger, concentrated on the main hangar doors. They burnt away the tough creepers and stunted trees that had grown up around the sealed opening using the machines’ acetylene torches.

  “Why can’t we just smash them open?” Battery Boy asked.

  “Winter’s coming. If we can’t close them, then there’s a risk of the base getting flooded.”

  “And maybe there’s other things we want to keep out. I prefer doors we can lock,” Jugger added over the radio.

  It was slow and delicate work. By the end of the day they’d cleared only a little of the blocking vegetation. It took another three weeks before the big doors were fully operational again and they had multiple, functional take-off and landing pads. The bright yellow robots, and a diminutive Nurse Trinity, assembled in an arc on the manicured runways facing the wide open hangar door to admire their handiwork.

  Pinkie jigged her machine on the spot and wiggled its arms in a vague impersonation of a Nurse Trinity dance. “These are such fun. Now what?”

  Trinity joined in. “The girl’s got game and rhythm.”

  Mina smiled. Everyone, even Stuff, was getting on well with the robots, maybe it was time to be a little more ambitious. “Great work. While we’ve got the hang of these things lets clear Seventieth Street to the docks. Later we’ll be able to use boats to bring even more than we can carry in the transports.”

  “Boats? Do we have any boats?” Battery Boy asked.

  “Sure, the docks will have plenty of them. There’s a naval yard along the coast. We should be able to ferry thousands at a time in the right ship.”

  “Shouldn’t we start training on the transports first?” Jugger asked.

  “We could, but none of them will be airworthy for at least a month. We should train and then start flying. Any delay in-between wouldn’t be safe.”

  Battery Boy looked uneasy. “What else are we going to be doing? We need to get ready quickly.”

  Jugger agreed. “Battery Boy is right, Tippese is a lying dog.”

  Inside her operator’s compartment Mina dragged a hand through her rough cut hair and hoped Jugger wasn’t right. “We’ll split into two teams. One can clear the way to the docks so that trucks can move freely, and the other team will do the same to mid-town. Lots of supplies down there we need to truck back to the base.”

  Jugger obviously wasn’t satisfied with Mina’s plan. He lifted the giant metal claw of his robot and pointed it at Trinity. “Idiot Nurse, can’t you sort these transports out any quicker?”

  “I am being harangued, therefore I exist. Oh joy. Well, impatient one, there are sixty nurses working on ten transports simultaneously. More nurses would only slow things down. Even my enormous brain has its limits. Flight training starts in two weeks.”

  Mina’s robot nodded in agreement. “I’ve been over this with Anton and it is the fastest we can go.”

  Stuff held up a huge metal hand.

  “Yes Stuff?”

  “Won’t all this vegetation grow right back as soon as we’re finished?”

  Mina was impressed. The boy was smarter than he looked. “Exactly so Stuff. Trinity, you want to explain?”r />
  “Gladly my histrionic master. The Nurse will program four of these yellow jobs as full time gardeners. They’ll happily keep things neat, once you lot have done the hard work.”

  “Two weeks. Then we learn to fly.” Jugger said.

  Mina knew that it wasn’t a question. “Yes. I’ll start tomorrow and work out the best training plan for everyone else and there’s advanced stuff I need to cover. Trinity will give you the detailed plans for the clearing work in the morning.”

  Mina missed her big yellow ride. There was an element of fun to that work.

  Pinkie and Stuff loved the robots, laughing hysterically while attacking the greenery with buzz-saws and flame-throwers. Pinkie had painted ‘Killer’ in big red letters on her robot. Days later, Stuff painted ‘Fluffy’ in a neater, smaller script on his hulking machine. When not helping out with gardening duties, Fluffy and Killer kept Pinkie and Stuff endlessly amused. As often as they could, the youngsters would wander the streets of Manhattan on their metal mounts, trawling for loot in the abandoned stores. The ground shaking thud of metal clawed feet, the high speed whine of spinning gears and the hiss of compressed gases echoed around the skyscrapers and down narrow side streets. The giant metal men and their midget riders lumbered down overgrown avenues, sending wildlife scurrying and birds flapping away in panic.

  A month passed quickly. Once the outside had been cleared and the truck routes opened up, everyone turned to getting the inside of the base prepared for the expected thousands. When they weren’t doing that the older ones were in the flight simulators. And once the simulators were mastered, Mina decided it was time they flew the massive transporters for real. There was nothing stopping them, except the terror of actually trying to fly one of the machines.

  Finally, the day came when Mina felt she wouldn’t learn any more from simulations, it was time to take one out. She assembled Tress, Battery Boy and Jugger in the Park, with the robots on standby in case she crashed and had to be rescued. Pinkie and Stuff had been sent off into the city on Fluffy and Killer, just in case anything horrible happened.

  The transporters looked like huge oblong boxes with stubby wings. There was a loading door at the rear, and at the front of the flat roof was a small cockpit, a tiny pimple which almost seemed to be a designer’s afterthought. The craft was basically a sky truck and an ugly one at that. Mina thought that even her old ship Piglet, as beaten up as it was, looked pretty compared to these flying fridges.

  Mina took Trinity – still in its nurse body – aboard to act as co-pilot. That kept her risk really low. Even so, Mina’s hands were shaking as she began taxying into position for take-off and her maiden flight. The transporter moved out of its parking bay and slowly trundled up the ramp, through the hangar doors and out into the Park. Trinity was only able to come along for the ride because it had detached itself from every other base system. That extended its body’s range by a couple of kilometres.

  “God, it’s making a hell of a lot of noise. What’s all that creaking and banging? Is it supposed to sound like this?” Mina asked, as she nervously rolled the rattling transporter onto the landing pad.

  “Jesus, get a grip. It’s empty, that’s all,” said Trinity. “Are you going to shit yourself? If you are let me know so I can turn off my sense of smell.”

  Mina groaned. Why-oh-why had she ever given it that mouth? Still she’d take it as a good sign that Trinity wasn’t worried. Then again Trinity wasn’t really sitting next to her. It was safely back at the base. There were plenty of nurse bodies it could commandeer if this one was horribly mangled in a crash.

  Mina radioed the others, “Preparing for take-off. Stand well back.”

  The yellow robots started moving, and though they all looked the same from her cockpit, she guessed it was Tress who retreated and Jugger and Battery Boy who moved closer for a better look. They’d be alright, their machine bodies could take a hell of a beating.

  Mina turned towards Trinity, “Ready?”

  Trinity just shook its head and sighed.

  “Autopilot engage. Hover plan 33C,” Mina said and waited.

  The entire craft started vibrating noisily. Its huge engines attached to the stubby wings swivelled to point straight down and burst into life with a fearsome roar. Grass cuttings and other debris from the mowing exploded into the air, a green rain falling the wrong way. Slowly and steadily the craft lifted off the pad and climbed gently till coming to a stop ten metres up.

  “Commander Mina. Hover plan 33C complete. Awaiting instructions,” the transport autopilot informed her.

  Mina let herself breathe again and looked out of the cockpit window. All three of the yellow robots were waving at her. She waved back. Mina was excited and pleased with herself.

  “Good grief woman, are we actually going to go anywhere or is this the extent of your ambition?”

  Mina ignored Trinity’s jibe. “Autopilot engage. Execute test flight plan T1.”

  Immediately the craft climbed higher until it was well above the height of the surrounding skyscrapers. Its engines started rotating back to their horizontal position and the transporter turned towards West Seventieth Street. Although Mina knew exactly what was supposed to happen and she’d flown the route in the simulator many times, on autopilot and manually, she was starting to get nervous. Before she expected it, the huge flying truck shot off towards the Hudson heading along Seventieth Street.

  “Jesus, what’s wrong. It’s going too fast.”

  “I added a nought to the speed parameters. You’re such a little chicken shit. And I’ve got a rep to maintain.”

  “Bastard, pile of junk.”

  “That’s no way to talk about this lovely old transport.”

  Mina groaned, she was pinned back in her seat by the sudden acceleration. A little frightened and at the same time enjoying the feeling of hurtling across Manhattan. She could have slowed the transport down but she decided it was a good test of the old crate. In moments it was out over the Hudson, had swung around to face Manhattan and come to a complete hovering stop some thousand metres over the water. Now came the difficult part.

  “Disengage autopilot,” she said quietly.

  “Go girl. Go,” Trinity shouted in encouragement.

  It didn’t seem right that such a tiny little joy stick under her right hand could control such a massive vehicle, but it did. Keeping a close eye on the various screens and lights on the console in front of her, she turned away from Manhattan and followed the Hudson south towards Liberty Island at a gentle pace.

  “Hey, I thought we were going to fly back the way we came?”

  “Oh. Is the wittle wobot scared?” She’d show Trinity. Christ, she’d spent a hundred years on a faster-than-light space ship exploring a distant star. What was a trip around Manhattan? It was a little scary, but she’d done this so many times in simulation. It was a beautiful day and this was the only fun she’d had in years. Mina flew on around Battery Park up the East Side and then back to the Park along East Seventieth Street.

  “You’ll let the autopilot land it, right?” Trinity asked as they approached the landing pad.

  Mina ignored Trinity. Her confidence was growing and they really had to master these machines quickly. If she couldn’t do it she wouldn’t be able to train the others. She brought the rumbling monster to a halt over the pad and checked that the yellow robots were standing well back. Gently she began her descent.

  “Oh god, we’re all going to die,” Trinity squealed.

  Which only made Mina even more determined to succeed, perfectly, and shut her mechanical companion up. It was almost a perfect landing. There was a slight bounce as she came in a little too hard, but Mina didn’t care. She had a smile on her face, it was a big one, and her face was surprised by the unaccustomed contortion.

  “Jolly good show Biggles,” said Trinity. “How about some pop… and vodka. I’ll have a lubricant.”

  Mina could kill a vodka but she had no idea what a Biggles was. “Now you’re
talking some sense, finally.”

  Mina exited the parked transport and went to meet her friends who had climbed out of their robots. The whole trip had taken less than twenty minutes.

  “That looked like fun. When can we try?” Was the first thing Battery Boy said to Mina. Jugger nodded enthusiastically. Tress gave her a watery smile which suggested she knew she had to but wasn’t looking forward to it.

  “I think a couple of more sessions on emergency procedure and navigation, particularly at night.”

  It wasn’t long before Battery Boy had mastered the giant transport and was taking it for test flights out over the sea and around the heads of the skyscrapers. Shortly after, Battery Boy was joined by Jugger and then Tress. Mina decided Pinkie and Stuff were safe with the giant industrial robots, but were too young still for flying. Pinkie protested loudly, Stuff was relieved.

  Battery Boy devoured whatever the learning tubes could teach him. When he wasn’t working, flying or catching up with Tress, he spent his time exploring life before the Blocks. The more he learned, the more he talked about his hatred for the monoliths and the more he wanted them destroyed or gone. Jugger spent his spare time taking a smaller transport and going off for hours exploring.

  As the months passed Mina noticed Pinkie had deserted Killer and Stuff to spend more of her time with Jugger, accompanying him on his long trips. Pinkie had changed a lot since they’d arrived in New York. She no longer needed the sunglasses she’d worn for months. Her hair had grown out into a thick blond mane and she had shot up and filled out.