By now, a substantial crowd had formed and chants of Charlie! Charlie! echoed through the square. Charlie drank it in like a draft of Amstel Light.
Jade turned to Charlie. “I’ll be back in a minute. Stay by Monfils. He’s a bastard but he’ll take care of you.”
Monfils nodded at Charlie, confirming. Jade left with Angelo towards the Pavilion. The medical center for bots and hybrids was behind Charlie’s statue. It was impressive, an entire city block. As Jade and Angelo reached the front of it, MediBots came to Angelo’s side to help him in to see the “doctor.” But Angelo shrugged them aside. Angelo, PB of Jadyn, was going in on his own one foot.
Charlie noticed another building in the square that caught his attention. The Hybrid Technology Museum of Technology (terrible name.) Charlie crossed to its windows and starred inside. Inside he saw his image and work everywhere. There were the inside of hybrids and how the technology was making a better place. There was even a picture of Nate, who apparently provided Charlie with help on the code at some point he hadn’t gotten to in his present day. A young kid with his mother was looking at a hologram of Charlie writing his famous code. The kid turned to see the real Charlie standing at the window. Then he turned back to the hologram. Then back to look at the real Charlie.
Then he freaked the fuck out.
Charlie stepped back, both amused and overwhelmed.
Unfortunately, things were about to take a turn for the worse.
Chapter 10
With a rebel yell, thousands of the red-shirted humans, flooded into the city.
All the drone PBs in the sky made a beeline for the breached wall. They numbered in the thousands, like a globular cluster of stars. The clouds themselves began to shift direction, moving towards the breach.
The skies opened and destruction rained down upon the Lowsmiths. The drone PBs fired HEL (high energy lasers) through the masses. The clouds hatches opened and streams of black ShinobiBots darted to the ground in front of the Lowsmiths offering their deadly defenses.
Hundreds of Lowsmiths died in minutes. But they weren’t done for yet. Not by half. Lowsmith ballads were written about this day. The day that would be known as The Eruption was in fact the first day of what would come to be known as Trekon’s Revolt.
Charlie Richards, of Topeka, Kansas in the 21st century, knew nothing of the political reasons why any of this was happening. All he knew was he came to a future that was in the middle of the war. He didn’t want to be in the middle of the war. He liked being at the ends of things, like the end of long days, the end of several brews, or the end of the rankings in at Bandicoot SmartTech.
“Get behind me.” The ruffled voice of Monfils floated down to Charlie. He stared intently at the battle scene before him. They were a good distance off, a few miles, but Charlie wasn’t well versed in the technology of the age yet. They probably had inventions to wipe out planets by now, considering the rate they were going even back in the 21st century.
Monfils turned to look again at Charlie, this time with more intent. “I said, get behind me. I may not be as smitten with your legacy as most, but you may be the man we need to save our race. As such, I have no intention of letting you die.”
“I appreciate that. Please, let me buy you a beer when this is over.” Charlie stopped himself before Monfils rolled his eyes.
The biggest indication of how big an issue the battle was, was how citizens were reacting. It wasn’t good, as many were panicked. That said, they didn’t run around in fear, they ran around in preparation. Bots had shown up and were handing out weapons of some sort. Charlie cursed at Jade’s timing to leave his side. He couldn’t trust anyone in this world, including Jade, but still she was the closest shot at it.
As more bots filled the streets and with the citizens moved towards the battle scene, Monfils and Charlie stayed back. Monfils said it was because Charlie was too important to risk, but didn’t seem thrilled at not fighting. Above them, there were no drone PBs to be seen. Everything was engaged in the battle on the south wall. Monfils needed to get Charlie to Crowley tower. He looked around, figuring out the best course of action.
Charlie took the moment to also check his surroundings. Things had been chaotic, to say the least, and he was still processing. To the east, a large pristine river cut through the city, an unnaturally bright shade of turquoise. Fish and sea life of all sorts could be seen underneath, but they didn’t act quite natural. They swam faster than they should, were bigger and stronger. Perhaps his technology was even used on Mr. Duck. He had no doubt he would have lost the argument back in his day with Mr. Duck had he been a hybrid duck.
To the east were hangar-sized buildings (he wasn’t sure he wanted to know what was inside.)
Something caught Charlie’s eye. Figures were coming over the walls. “Mr. Monfils?” Charlie did his best to keep his voice calm.
“Not now, Mr. Richards.”
“I know. I’m just askin’, would people storming the castle be of interest to you?” Monfils turned to Charlie. “What are you-?” Monfils stopped, seeing Charlie looking the opposite direction. He followed Charlie’s gaze to the figures coming over the walls. They were not in red like the others, these were dressed in black shirts with leather bands around their arms. Monfils whispered, “The Yakuza.”
“The Japanese mafia is here?”
“What?” Monfils said, annoyed. “No. I think they just liked the name. All the same, they are the elite of the Lowsmiths.” Monfils turned his attention back at the war raging to the south. The battle continued, but clearly the bots and hybrids had the upper hand. The human Lowsmiths were taking heavy casualties. “The attack. It’s a ruse. Should have known. Typical.”
Charlie looked back to the east. “You know, they seem to be moving closer quite quickly. Should we be doing something?”
Monfils sighed. “Unfortunately, your survival is the most important thing.”
“How unfortunate,” Charlie agreed.
Monfils ignored him. “Let’s get you to safety.”
Monfils touched his fingers to this temple. He looked out to the east, concentrating.
There was a rumble in the city. Up above him the Crowley building started to shake. The outside of the building began to transform, darkening in color. An armored shell began to melt over the building. One of the clouds above them began moving back towards the Crowley building. A few dozen of the drones engaged in the battle to the south came back to the east.
Charlie was impressed. “You did all that by touching your temple?”
Monfils didn’t answer. He took Charlie by the arm and they were on the move. As they headed up the non-yellow-brick-road yellow brick road, several more GuardBots joined the group.
“Don’t you think we should wait for Jade?”
Monfils scoffed. “Don’t worry about her.”
“I thought humans live in this city, too? Why are some humans trying to destroy it?”
“Let’s save the questions.”
They quickly made their way up towards the Crowley Tower. However, it was about to become a more difficult trip.
A ship landed in the middle of the street ahead of him. Charlie wanted it badly to look like the Millennium Falcon. He had hoped in the future when such technology existed, designers would pay homage and thrown in an Enterprise or Battlestar Galactica look to their ships. Instead, this looked like a propeller-less oversized News Channel 13 (Dedicated, Determined, Dependable) helicopter. Charlie doubted this thing could even make it to space. Lame. Out poured dozens of redshirted Lowsmiths from the craft. To the west, the black-shirted special forces Lowsmiths advanced. They were about to be attacked on two sides.
A hatch in low cloud above Charlie opened, sending down samurai-looking ProtectoBots towards the ground. Six bots immediately encircled Charlie and began ushering him to the side of the street and towards a large arched opening to a nearby building. Several people were there at the doors waving Charlie to hurry in.
The Lowsmith
army advanced and clashed with thunderous results.
Monfils was just behind Charlie and the bots as the Lowsmiths closed the gap.
Charlie was ushered inside the building but Monfils stayed just outside. He shouted at the bots. “Get him to Crowley at all costs.” The bots blinked affirmative. Then Monfils considered the command and reconsidered. “Not at all costs. He needs to be alive.”
The room began to darken; it was the glass of the building, being covered by the same material as the Crowley building. But before it went totally dark, Charlie watched through the darkening glass as Monfils took out five red shirts with three succinct moves. The black shirts looked to be more difficult, but Monfils knew how to hold his own.
* * *
The room was dark, except for the flashing lights coming from the surrounding ProtectoBots. Slowly, light began to grow from huge chandeliers above (though no bulbs, they just glowed.) They were in a huge concrete terminal and the architecture brought him comfort. It was in the style of a 1920’s capital city train station. Though that was the only thing 1920’s about it, robotic workers ran around frantically. This was a factory of some sort, though he had no idea what was being manufactured.
“So,” he asked to any of the six bots surrounding him. “What do we do now?”
One of the six, apparently the leader, answered. “We take you to Mr. Crowley. When it is clear to do so.”
“When will that be?”
“Calculations: sixteen minutes.”
“So, we just stand here until then?”
“If this is too boring for your human brain, I could sing or play any game from your generation’s time.”
“Uno!”
They never got to play because suddenly, every bot in the entire place fell to the floor. All one hundred and thirty-eight of them. Several flying bots crashed near him with a thud. Slowly, the light dimmed.
“Charlie Richards?” The voice was deep and booming. He turned to peer through the dimming light of a burly man, about six-foot and most likely pushing three hundred pounds, stood with some sort of weapon raised. He wore the black shirt of the elite Lowsmiths he had learned of. This wasn’t good.
“That depends. What are you going to do if I am? Because my answer is probably I’m not.”
The man shook his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe they did it. It works.”
“Question. If you guys have technology to incapacitate these robots, why don’t you just use it on the whole city?”
“You have a few trillion in gold we can borrow? It works for a very limited time. We have to go.”
“I don’t think I should be going with the enemy.”
“I don’t think you know who the enemy is. And it wasn’t a request.” The man held up his weapon at Charlie.
“Will that thing kill me?”
“If you’re lucky.”
The man lumbered towards Charlie.
From the shadows, or rather just a dark corner, a figure lunged. Jade. As the man fired, Jade knocked it from his hands. It hit one of the ProtectoBots on the ground and created a huge hole in the bot’s stomach (so, yes, it would have killed Charlie.)
Jade subdued the man with ease and had his hands behind his back in seconds. She quickly strapped a wiry band around his wrists that locked up immediately.
The man looked up at Charlie. “Know your enemies, Charlie. Don’t help them.”
Jade kicked the man and turned to Charlie. “Don’t listen to the human, Charlie.”
Charlie nodded. The bots began to stir. Soon, they had their escort back. The windows of the building began to clear and Charlie could see out over the bots and hybrids and bodies of Lowsmiths. The winner was indeed clear, and it wasn’t the humans. It was time for them to go see Blake Crowley.
Don’t listen to the human, Jade had said. Easier said than done, Charlie thought. I am human.
Chapter 11
In the early 24th century, the Global Nations (G.N.) voted on the Innovative7Wonders of the World. Four of those were around in Charlie Richards’s era (Great Pyramid of Giza, Machu Picchu, Taj Mahal and significant parts of The Great Wall of China.) The other three newest members joined this elusive club in the year since.
One was a machine proposed back in the 21st century (at least, the first model), the Clock of the Long Now 5. It was a clock built to last for ten millennia with minimal maintenance and interruption. It was built inside a manmade titanium pyramid on the site of was what once was a seventh wonder in its own time, the Mayan pyramid of Chichen Itza (it’s being built at site had led to plenty of controversy.)
Another wonder was Atlantibot Island, a ninety-two-mile man-made floating island. The 23rd century island was the first to be staffed entirely by bots. It catered to the world’s elite as the ultimate getaway. The island itself would drift with enormous speed, but with advanced turbulent cancelling technology even the roughest waves and at top speeds, guests could feel virtually no roughness at sea. So, if you could afford it, every morning its guests would be greeted with a new sunrise at a new location around the world (it could do Hawaii to Italy in three hours flat if it had to.)
Finally, there was the Crowley Tower.
It wasn’t its sheer size; at 3,500 ft. it was merely the eleventh tallest building in the world (at the time it was built, it came in at 3rd.) The building was a blend of what Charlie would consider futuristic, modern and classical architecture rolled into one. Blocks and blocks wide, the building was full of parts. The building was a city unto itself, with high parts where hanging gardens descended to the lower parts, there were majestic archways, and sections resembling a medieval castle. Some areas looked like a 21st century NYC skyscraper, yet another area had a space-age shuttle landing pad and juice bar. The cherry on the top was not a cherry but a laser beam of light shooting up into the heavens. It was a mess of different periods design, but it was no doubt a wonder.
Charlie, flanked by Monfils and Jade once again, as well as a handful of ProtectoBots, reached the building with awe. The sheer vastness of the building up close was one to behold. Charlie wasn’t the most material of people, but if his work helped this Crowley guy build this building, well that just wasn’t fair at all. He had better be getting at least a luxury spacecraft out of the deal.
The rest of the trip to Crowley Towers had gone rather smooth, at least in comparison to the battle. The Lowsmiths had been neutralized, the majority having retreated through the breach in the walls. Already ServBots were working on repairs. There were the remains of destroyed bots through the streets as well and SaniBots were clearing the streets of the debris. Many Lowsmiths had been captured on the day of The Eruption. Groups of prisoners were being lead, hands bound, through the streets and off to the huge buildings to the east. Charlie had watched as the big burly man had cornered him not long before joined the group and was led away.
Charlie wasn’t sure what to think about what the man had said. Clearly, everyone was not getting along smashingly. He just had no context yet, the world still too new. Fortunately, he was about to get plenty of context as he was to meet the leader of the city.
* * *
They were lead into the control room by two hulking red and white ProtectoBots. Charlie was greeted to the sight of a man bordered by many other men (or hybrids, he wasn’t sure.) The man in the middle, presumably Mr. Crowley, smiled generously as Charlie entered the room. The room was high up in the building and full of glass. Monitors were everywhere; eyes around the city.
Blake was a strong looking man, but his age was hard to guess. Looked like the type of man who could buy his good looks, if he needed. He wore a suit that smelled of money.
“Charlie Richards!” he cried, throwing up his arms. “The man. They myth. The hero!”
Blake was flanked by roughly thirty people who looked important. Among them were many in military uniform, appearing to be high ranking generals. There were scientists, politicians, advisors, advisors to advisors, associate advisors to advisors, ri
ght hand men and left-hand men. Many smiled at Charlie, but those smiles looked forced. The ones who didn’t looked tired and stressed. It was only Blake who played the part well. The man to the right of Blake, an impeccably dressed man with sharp features, held a slight grin but not a warm one.
Charlie and the group approached. Blake stepped forward, his hand extended. Charlie looked over at Jade, whose face was twisted with anger. It was an anger he had never seen in her, and that was saying something considered they had almost been killed three times in their short time knowing each other. It worried him. But he looked back at Blake and they shook hands.
“Charlie.” Blake gestured to the world around him. “All of this can be traced back to your work. I owe you gratitude that can’t possibly be repaid.”
Charlie nodded. “But you can try, right?”
Blake laughed a deep, honest laugh. “Oh, I will. I will. In this world, you’ll be able to have anything you desire.”
Charlie again nodded.
“We just need your help with one little thing. I am not sure how much you’ve been told,” Blake shot a quick glance at Jade. The first signs of Blake being uneasy flashed across his face for an instance, upon seeing Jade’s rage, but was gone just as quick. “The future of humanity, what it has evolved into, you helped create. But it has a problem. One we think you might be able to fix.”
Charlie’s eyes darted around the room. The uneasy faces peered back at him. They had, after all, just been attacked. It would make anyone uneasy. But there was something else. They were scared. Jade had said there was something wrong with the original code, and whatever that was doing to them was making them scared.
Myths & Magic: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection Page 103
