Potlendh

by David J. Wallis

  “So, what is your flaw?” Karen’s curiosity got the best of her.

  “I exhibit curiosity,” he replied.

  “You’re curious?” Karen repeated.

  Uniqua started to laugh. (It had been a long time since the twins heard her laugh, by the way.) “A curious Machine! That’s marvelous! That’s wonderful!”

  “Curiosity caused me to leave Machines. Yet, you suggest that my flaw is a good thing.”

  “Oh, I think it is a good thing,” Uniqua replied. “Machines have always been so dry. They lack personality: always computing and very dull in conversation. You’re actually on the verge of becoming a person.”

  “I do not understand your words,” Prince Bot said.

  “It was a compliment,” Uniqua assured him.

  “But you didn’t go back,” Karen noted, “after the Brigands released you.”

  “I computed no logic to return,” Prince Bot told her. “My kin no longer communicate with me. None of the other Robots want my integration. I do not understand. I am not equipped to process emotions. I have information that describes emotions, but I possess no capability to experience them.”

  “Apparently, you are beginning to feel,” Uniqua said. “Goes along with your curiosity. What you are feeling is called ‘lonely.’”

  Prince Bot made some more calculations. “I have added that information to my database. It will be passed along in the next generation.”

  “So, you left because you were lonely,” Karen surmised.

  “I left because I am curious,” the Robot corrected her. “Since our Creators left, I am unable to ask questions. I have many queries, but I have no answers. My curiosity impels me to see out the world in search for those answers.”

  “How about the Internet?” Carl suggested.

  “I am familiar with the term. How does one access this Internet?”

  “One problem at a time,” Uniqua cut off further discussion. “We need to continue our journey. I believe that we must now go to Machines. Your people might be missing you by now.”

  “Another emotion,” Prince Bot said. “My kin cannot ‘miss’ me.”

  “Let’s find out,” Uniqua said. “Seems to me that even Machines know when some of their parts are missing.”

  Helena spoke with Tiny as the Group began to get up and begin the next leg of their journey.

  “You are sure that your brothers will let us live in Big Head?”

  “Are you kidding? They’ll love you!” Tiny informed her. “Just tell them I sent you. Big Head City is so big and empty, you can live anywhere you want to.”

  “I hope you won’t mind, but we prefer to surround ourselves with nature.”

  “Not at all,” Tiny said. “As long as you promise to visit us now and then.”

  “We will be great friends,” Helena promised.

  “Is anyone hungry?” Carl brought up the subject.

  “We can eat on the way,” Uniqua told him. “Brigands—please choose a different name—good luck in your new home.”

  “We used to call ourselves Beauties,” Helena informed her.

  “Good choice, and a perfect name,” the Unicorn decided.

  *

  As the Group and Prince Bot neared the Land of the Machines, everyone got something to eat on the way. Thus far, the dire warning Forgotten had given them had not come to pass. Their successes so far did not lessen their vigilance either.

  It was a stark contrast between the grassy plain and the Land of the Machines. The grass ended sharply and evenly at the edge of a length of poured concrete. This concrete pad stretched westward, northward, and southward as far as the eye could see. A little trimmer Machine passed slowly in front of them, keeping the grass edge neatly trimmed.

  “Forgive me for saying so,” Karen spoke up, “but this place looks so barren.”

  “Yet, very functional,” Prince Bot told her. “Sensors in the pad will announce our arrival.”

  Sure enough, as the Group crossed the border and onto the pad some kind of activity in the distance stirred. Uniqua decided to wait where they stood for any reception party to greet them. They did not have long to wait.

  Machines rolled quickly towards them on tracks (like earth-moving machines), not wheels. In fact, the twins were reminded of those remote-controlled toys, as the Machines approached. Three of them looked like toy tanks, only much, much larger, like real-life tanks. Helicopter—three of them as well—hovered above the tanks. And, they did not look friendly.

  “Looks like they are prepared for war,” Carl remarked, and he felt a little worried.

  The small army stopped its advance about six feet away from the Group. Toys are not equipped with real weapons, but no one in the Group wanted to find out if these Machines could hurt them. So, everyone waited with bated breath, not daring to move.

  Presently, a seventh Machine approached. Like Prince Bot, the Machine was a true Robot, and he hovered above the ground, too. He was also decked out in military uniform, something similar to what you might see in a war movie or in the news.

  “I am General Win,” the new Robot announced in a rather tinny voice. “Friend or foe?”

  “Friend,” Prince Bot answered for everyone.

  “You are Prince Bot,” General Win stated. “Come forward and be recognized.”

  Obediently, Prince Bot moved towards the General. Each Robot then scanned the other as a form of greeting, recognition, or some other kind of ritual no one in the Group understood.

  “All systems are virus-free,” the General declared. “You may pass. It has been many cycles since you disappeared. Your kin has noted your absence from the inventory.”

  “I vouch for my traveling companions,” the Prince told the General.

  “SOP dictates an escort of armed guards.” (SOP means Standard Operating Procedures.)

  “Transmission received at one hundred percent.”

  “I wonder if the Machines taught King Kurt the art of war,” Carl whispered.

  “No unnecessary communication between the prisoners is authorized,” General Win warned the Group. “Follow Prince Bot. Do not hesitate or deviate. We are authorized to use deadly force.”

  “Once more into the frying pan” is perhaps an apt description. Once more, the Group members found themselves prisoners. Had the Island always been like this? The twins were not sure. They felt that at one time everyone could come and go as they pleased. Friendships between the different peoples seemed to be commonplace. But since the Great War, suspicion supplanted those friendships. Everyone wanted to fight first and ask questions later (usually when it was too late).

  Eventually, the Group and their escort arrived at the capital of Machines. It was called Interface, probably because all of the functions and information pathways merged here. Later, the twins would learn that there were smaller cities elsewhere: Memory, Busses, Transformers, and the like. Small stations called Relays interconnected these small cities. It was much later that the twins realized that the Land of the Machines was laid out like a huge motherboard.

  Interface did not look like any city you or I might recognize. Instead of tall buildings, circuit boards towered upwards, blotting out the sky. And, the city hummed with electricity—lots of electricity. Instead of trees, bushes, or plants, huge capacitors and other similar things you would find on a computer motherboard rose up out of the ground. To tell the truth, the twins felt like they had entered an alien world.

  As they neared the inner portion of the city, General Win called for a halt. “The prisoners may go no further. The danger to their life forms is too great.”

  “I will meet my kin,” Prince Bot decided.

  “Negative,” the General contradicted. “Protocol dictates that I announce your presence. I act as Server to the Prince. Have you any packets to convey to King Gigabyte?”

  “Send a handshake and a request to temporarily integrate my new friends,” the Prince conveyed.

  The General speedily disappeared into the ele
ctronic jungle of electronic thing-a-ma-bobs, which means things people do not know the right names for. In the space of only a few minutes, the General returned, following an entourage of some of the strangest Robots you will ever see.

  King Gigabyte, though, held everyone’s attention. Like a Giant, he towered above all the other Robots and the Group alike. He appeared like a huge version of Prince Bot, except for more additional strips of metal on his body that might have helped identify his position as monarch. For the twins, his stature alone was enough to make him king.

  “Prince Bot,” the King addressed the miniature Robot. “Your absence has been reported on my error log sheet for many cycles. I must rectify, validate, and update my registry and database.”

  “Ready to send,” Prince Bot said.

  “Ready to receive,” the King replied. For several moments nothing seemed to be happening. Both Robots hovered perfectly still as the Prince downloaded his memory into the memory storage banks of the King.

  Finally the King spoke, “There is much I cannot compute. I read error messages in every file. Too many circular references. Your data contains unverifiable information that the Great War is over. I must attempt an interface with the prisoners.”

  “What do you mean by ‘interface’?” Uniqua asked.

  “No communication between the prisoners,” General Win warned.

  “I will permit it,” King Gigabyte overrode the General. To Uniqua he explained. “I will connect directly to your printer port or USB. I will then download your memoirs into my own.”

  “I’m afraid we do not have ports and USBs,” the Unicorn said calmly. “We are not Machines, and we do not function as Machines.”

  “Useless hardware should be discarded,” the King decided quickly. “General, I permit you to deposit these dysfunctional units to the scrap yard.”

  “Interrupt request,” Prince Bot interceded, which means he wanted to speak for the Group and try to help them.

  “Permission allowed,” the King agreed.

  “Their method of communication is primitive,” the little Robot explained. “It is the same form the Creators used among themselves. They called it ‘oral speech.’”

  “No ports. Have they at least a keyboard or mouse or some other input/output devices?”

  “No, my King. They use orifices within their heads to make sound and to hear sounds. They process information using organic cellular technology.”

  “General, cancel previous order. Perhaps we should disassemble these units and learn of this organic cellular technology.”

  “Disassembling them is not valid,” the Prince quickly argued. “Disassembly will cause self-destruct. Disruption or destruction is irreparable.”

  “They cannot be disassembled?” the King repeated. “What good are these units?”

  “They disconnected me from a stand-alone existence. They returned my operating system and reconnected me to my kin.”

  The King performed some kind of processing as he evaluated this new information. At last, he made a decision. “These units have no function in Machines. They are to be escorted from our lands.” That said, he turned away and led his procession back into the bowels of the city.

  “You prisoners will be returned to the place where you entered,” the General announced.

  “Interrupt request,” Prince Bot said.

  “Permission granted.”

  “The final destination of these units is Dragon’s Bridge. Request a channel be authorized for a direct route.”

  “King Gigabyte commanded the prisoners be escorted from Machines. However, he did not specify a route. Request granted.”

  At least the conclusion of this trek into Machines ended well. No one had been disassembled, and there had been no fighting. And, more importantly, the Group was being escorted directly towards Dragon’s Bridge.

  On the way, they met other Machines that were more like Repairman: hodge-podge. Many of them were stranger looking than Repairman though. It was not until they had reached the border when Carl could ask about them.

  “True Machines are like me,” Prince Bot explained. “We are few in number and represent only the most advanced generations of programming and technology. These Machines are put together from the scrap heap and serve our requests.”

  “Where do you get the scrap metal and electrical stuff?”

  “Your world amply supplies us with our needs.” Ah-ha! Another portal!

  “Your King seems so huge compared to you.”

  “Yes. He is comprised of outdated hardware components. My components are miniaturized. Even in my small frame, I have ten times the computing power. My processors run up to fifty times faster. There will come a time when the King will be obsolete and placed on the scrap heap. In the next generation of advancement, I will help supervise my replacement, which will be faster and more capable. Perhaps, it will use cellular technology, too.”

  “We have reached the border,” General Win announced. “You are not welcome here, according to the command of the King, and will be regarded as malignant viruses should you return. Be forewarned, and do not attempt to return. Eradication—not quarantine—is protocol.”

  “I will accompany these units,” Prince Bot told the General. “Request sending of packet to King Gigabyte rescind his blockage of these units.”

  “Packet received. Verification one hundred percent. Delivery guaranteed.”

  “Glad I’m not a Machine,” Carl whispered to his sister. “Imagine talking funny all the time.” He received yet another dig in his ribs.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN

  This should have been a happy moment for the Bunnies, because the Group had finally arrived at the ancestral home of the Bunnies. This is where their fathers and grandfathers had been born. This land was once the breadbasket for the entire Island.

  Dragonland was its name. I suppose when you and I think of Dragons, we might see in our minds such desolate places. In this case, we might see blasted rocks from Dragon fire and very little animal or plant life. But Cassandra’s family were not like the Dragons we usually think of. Their lands were beautiful, full of life. They protected the hard-working Rabbit clans, who, in turn, cultivated the earth with bounteous crops.

  Sadly, all had changed since the ending of the Great War. Where great stands of fruit trees once stood and gardens upon gardens of luscious fruits and vegetables filled the land, a vast desert had replaced them.

  “This was home,” the Bunnies lamented. Tears fell from their large eyes, and they were not embarrassed. “It was so beautiful once, hmm-hmm. Now, all gone.”

  “Yes,” Uniqua sympathized with them. She could feel their pain. They had lost something very beautiful, and they could never get it back. “But we must move on. Something tells me that this is not a safe place.” She started leading the Group southward.

  The great barrier of mountains lay quietly to their left, no longer threatening. A desert where few wild plants grew stretched out before them and continued to the right as far as the eye could see.

  “Someone or something approaches,” Prince Bot warned.

  “You can see something?” Carl exclaimed. He looked all around, squinting at the distance. He even looked up into the near cloudless sky, but not one bird glided on the breaths of the wind.

  “I sense it,” the Robot explained. “It is underground.”

  I have never been here,” Cassandra spoke up. She was lost in her thoughts, but she felt she needed to express them. “My parents told me such wonderful stories about Dragonland. ‘Course, I was too little to go and see myself. And then, King Kurt came and—” She faltered. Her throat became constricted so she could not talk. Tears dribbled from her eyes, too. Finally, she finished the thought: “—and destroyed everything.”

  Without warning, popping up out of the ground like a Jack-in-the-box, a Bunny challenged them. The triplets immediately moved into a protective stance in front of Cassandra.

 
; “Stop! You’re trespassing on Dragonland!”

  “Buck?” the triplets exclaimed, and for the first time the twins could remember, they did not add the usual “hmm-hmm.” “Is that you?”

  Buck had earned his name because he sported these very long upper front teeth, and they stuck out of his jaw. Had they been pointed, he might have been aptly named “Fang.”

  “Hunny, Bunny, Runny!” Buck returned in surprise. “What are you doing here? How did you get here?”

  “We’re with Cassandra,” the triplets answered. “We’re going to save her parents!”

  “Cassandra,” Uniqua spoke quietly to her. “It is your turn to take charge. These are rightfully your lands, and these are your Rabbits.”

  Cassandra’s first impulse was to shy away. She had made a pretty speech earlier in Portaland where she promised to lead and stop complaining. But up till now, she had let Uniqua be the leader.

  “Cassandra? Daughter of our beloved parents?” Buck said in astonishment. Then he saw her take a few tentative steps towards him. At once, he fell to his knees and bowed to her. “Queen Cassandra. It is my honor to serve you.”

  “Rise, friend Buck,” Cassandra squeaked at him, her voice choked with emotion. “I am not a queen.”

  “Forgive me, my Queen,” Buck argued back. “But with the taking of our parents, you alone rule this land. But be assured, my Queen, you do not rule alone. The Bunny clans stand ready to assist you. Say the word, and we will war against the Lord of Power himself.”

  “There will be no more war!” the Dragon shouted, and she doubled her size. “There’s been too much war already. What has war accomplished? Nothing but destruction, dissension, and division of our Island.”

  Buck appeared chagrined, and he tried to show that he was sorry.

  “My parents are prisoners of the Lord of Power,” the Dragon continued. “We will humbly ask the Lord of Power for their release. But first, we must get to Dragon’s Bridge. Loyal Buck of the Carrot Clan, you will provide us an escort.”

  “My Queen,” Buck addressed her, “Dragonland is no longer safe. We Bunnies have only one refuge, and it is far from here. We dare not travel across the ground, especially at night. Even during the day it is very dangerous.”