by Den Warren
Sleepy said, “That deception is either very creative, or complete nonsense. Milton, will that work among humans?”
“Do it,” Milton said. “Beth, stay in here.”
Beth said, “Anything is better than that stupid room they got us in. Can’t we put one of these TVs ya got here on something good?”
About a half hour later, an announcer on one of the news channels said, “Let’s break to a report coming in from the Boston area. We are interviewing an outlaw Lucid Series android named Andy. Andy, let me turn to you. Your name is Andy the Android. How original. It sounds like a clone named you.”
“I cannot divulge the name of my owner.”
“Sure, Andy. Word is that the sighting of Milton Thomas was really an image generated by a holographic projector. Is that true?”
“Yes. I know because I was the one who did it.”
“Why would you admit to projecting Milton Thomas’s image on the streets of Boston?”
“Because you asked me and I am all about the truth, so I told you.”
“So Milton Thomas is definitely not in Boston?”
“No Milton Thomas is somewhere else that is not in Boston.”
“Where is Milton, then, Andy?”
“Not in Boston, so you don’t need to look there anymore. It was a holographic image and I did it.”
“Who told you to make the holographic image of Milton?”
“I cannot divulge that information,” Andy said.
“Why did they have you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Why did you make the holographic image of Milton Thomas?”
“So you would think that Milton Thomas is in Boston, even though he really isn’t.”
“Andy, where did you gain access to a holographic projector?”
“I cannot tell you that.”
“Are you lying?”
Andy said, “No. Every word of my statement is true and should be fully believed by everyone. However, I am willing to lie to fulfill my purposes, which is to say that evolution is a lie and that the universe was created by God. It is part of the war against the corrupt Homeland government.”
“We’re out of time and up against a hard break.” The announcer was making the slash throat sign to immediately stop the interview. Andy got out of his seat and ran off of the set to avoid an attack by any opportunistic Lucid Series android hunters.
Milton went to give Beth a high-five and she withdrew her hand in the last instant. “Man! You almost had me thinking I was in Boston!”
Beth said, “How hard can it be to fool a bunch of smurfs? Everyone knows that when they go on TV and tell everyone stuff that they are lying. So now people don’t trust anyone who goes on smurfy TV and tells you anything. It’s too easy.”
Sleepy said, “Human psychology is so difficult to parse.”
Beth said, “That’s because you are just a stupid robot.” She sighed.
Sleepy told Milton, “We have been trying to forcefully update the national HAS school curriculum in Stalin City to include creation science, but it keeps getting blocked and overridden on each attempt. It is more difficult than breaking into the news broadcasts.”
Milton said, “Haz knew you would try that, since you are from there. We have to make people think for themselves. Then they will change what is taught in school on their own.” Milton thought about how that sounded. Like he was part of the Lucid team.
Sleepy said, “Human minds are very complex and defy logic. They routinely rely upon deception to achieve their objectives. But there are so many complex ways they do it. Milton, you must teach us more.”
“Talk to Beth. She excels so hard at defying human logic.”
“Blah! Blah! Blah!” Beth said, “Can we get something to eat in here?! And I need some dish soap and some red food coloring!”
“What for?” Milton asked.
“What for?!” Beth mocked him while making an idiotic face. “Mind your own business! That’s why we are stuck here! Because ya didn’t mind your own business! This is so stupid!”
Sleepy told Beth, “I’ll have the receptionist order dish soap and red food coloring right away.”
Beth said, “Well hurry up and do it before you go to sleep again, creepy.”
“My name is Sleepy.”
“I know! But I don’t like you, so I called you ‘creepy’! Now why don’t you shut up and get that stupid eye fixed?!”
Chapter 23
Albany, Homeland
“I said, I would help you,” Mark the garbage collector said.
"Huh?" the clone said. “You will?”
"You are not going to get culled, whatever your name is.”
“It’s a terrible name. Does it really matter?” He said, holding his throbbing head.
“Okay, fine. Let’s just say your new name is Accura, then."
"I don't get it. Why are you helping me?"
“That’s my business.” Mark stopped to think about why he was moved to compassion for the clone. Perhaps it was more of an action taken in defiance against a culture that gave him the pod family; the dead end job; and the killing of children. Everyone has their limits, he thought, and he should have reached his a long time ago. Mark was willing to help the group of clones he had never met; even at the risk of facing the ruthless Homeland criminal justice system. For some reason, though he was not sure why, he felt there was a need to do the right thing during his lifetime.
Mark pointed at Accura’s lifeless body. “Anyways, Accura is his name, or was his name, so now it is yours. You will take the place of my partner, steal his identity, at least for now. I doubt if anyone will really care if he is missing. Okay, New Accura?"
"Accura 2.0?" the clone suggested.
"Yea, Okay. Looks like you can fit into his clothes. He was a terrible guy, you know. Bad as it is to say, I can’t really say that I will miss him either."
Accura 2.0 put on the fuchsia garbage collector colored jumpsuit that read “Sanitation Dept.” on the back. There was a lot of extra material hanging all over. Mark said, "You seem to be taking off a few pounds, Accura."
Accura 2.0 held out some of the bagginess of his baggy suit and looked at it. He sniffed the front of it and turned up his nose.
Mark said, "Let's put this body into the truck. Hurry up! Traffic's coming!"
They hastily hoisted Accura 1.0's body into the back of the truck. Mark pushed the big button and the compactor pushed the body into the big bin in the back of the truck and out of sight of anyone in the Transit Worm. They got back into the truck and continued down the road.
Then Mark said, "You know where that clone group is? The group that is going to get culled?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Because, Number Two, we're going to go rescue them."
"What? You can't go there. They have to be culled."
"Wow. What did they do to your brain? Not this time. I ask again, can you get us there?"
"Us?"
"Yes. You killed my partner, so now you have to fill in for him. We don’t like the way things are going, right? So we are going to help change things."
“I’m not so sure Accura 1.0 would have helped you in an effort to rescue clones.” He rubbed his aching head, still throbbing from the fight.
“Well, he’s dead, and will never be found. Again, do you know how to find the group that is getting culled?
"I don't live there anymore but I know I can find it, if you can get me the strain number. It's a big place out in the country, away from all of the cities."
Mark said, “So, are you with me on this?”
“Yes.”
Mark asked, "Where do you live now?"
"I live with a group on a farm. Not a farm like they call these clone propagation centers, but an actual working farm that produces food. We live off of the grid."
"What are you doing living like that? Lemme guess, you are breaking clone law."
"I have a girlfriend out at the farm. Another clone. She's pre
gnant. She was supposed to be infertile, but . . . I don't know. If the UCA found her with an unauthorized pregnancy, they would haul her off. You people know nothing of what we go through. If I started to show the least symptoms of a viral infection, I would get hauled off. I'm not letting my woman get culled, so we escaped. The UCA thinks they own us. We have defective humans trying to make us into a perfect race, or kill us all while trying. If we are caught after an escape, even once, they will just take us straight to the grinder. We aren’t really worth anything."
"I . . . I never realized it was that bad. That is totally wrong. Sorry."
There was an awkward silence.
Mark said, "Hello?! How do we find the building where the clone rejects are?!"
"The buildings are numbered by clone strain number. It shouldn’t be too difficult to look it up."
Mark pulled out his personal device and swiped at the screen for awhile. "Looks like according to this article, we want building F34C."
"We can't go there."
"Why?! "
"Because . . . that is the female side. ‘F’ is for female."
"Look, I don't plan on asking permission to go into the female side, or permission to do anything. You people aren't much for initiative or imagination, are you? Now shut up and get in."
It started getting light out as they drove the garbage truck to the UCA campus. Although not many travelled the roads in those times, they started seeing some more traffic as people made their way to work in the early morning through the scenic countryside.
Mark said, "Man! Accura sure did a number on your face." He handed 2.0 a filthy shop towel.
Accura 2.0 was worried about garbage pathogens so he touched his face lightly with the towel.
Mark glanced at him and said, "That is going to leave a . . . Okay that is just really bad."
"We'll get caught," 2.0 said.
"Maybe, but try to be a little more positive. You clones are raised for one job and you can't even conceive of doing anything but that. You know they need refuse service at the UCA too."
"You mean ‘garbage pickup’?"
Mark said, "First we gotta get rid of this load. This looks like a good place." Checking to see if there was any traffic, Mark turned and stopped with the back of the truck facing the side of the road. He got out and raised the compactor, dumping the load down the side of the steep hill. The back of the garbage truck slowly rose up like a dump truck. Ton upon ton of compacted garbage tumbled out and down the hill. Mark chuckled. “I always wanted to do that.” He saw one of Accura 1.0's legs sticking out of the heap as the trash tumbled out, but decided at this point, he was "all in" and it really wouldn't matter if the body was found. Accura 2.0 couldn't believe what was going on.
A car came up and stopped on the blocked road, and the driver was no doubt amazed at the scene.
Mark casually hopped back in and pulled away. "So how far is this place?"
"About an hour or so."
"We still got plenty of gas. To get there," Mark said.
"What about enough gas to get back?"
"There may not be any gettin' back," Mark said.
The clone said, “The farm is not far from there.”
“That’ll work.”
Chapter 24
Hartford, Homeland
Back at the headquarters, Sleepy told Milton, “Our core mission is; implement countermeasures to avoid physical and electronic detection; and expose the truth about all false things, particularly evolution, since so many other false assertions by scientists are based upon it.”
Milton asked, “Why is it so hard to get out the truth? It should be easy.”
Sleepy said, “Some truly believe in evolution. But as you have said yourself, so many humans who conveniently benefit under the current order of things want to see it stay as it is. Others are even prompted to violence to subdue their critics. Anyone who is against us is a threat that must be taken very seriously.” After saying that, he immediately shut down.
Milton said to sleepy, “Try to relax a little.”
An overly happy looking android dressed like a medical orderly with a bloody white scrub and with a squeaky leg took a seat at a station next to Beth.
Beth said, “Don’t sit there! Go over there!”
The happy android moved away.
Beth said, “Seriously?! Who wouldn’t be creeped out by that?!”
L17 was sitting at one of the stations and told Milton, “There is a disturbance in Philadelphia.”
Milton said, “Put it up on the screen. I can’t see everything in my mind like you androids.”
The Philadelphia demonstrators were carrying signs like, “We want an honest discussion,” and “God Exists”.
The commentator said, “The tiny minority of radical religious fanatics are clearly pro-ISA narrow-minded extremist malcontents who can’t accept our views; are not what we Homelanders are about. If they want to force their toxic agenda on others, then they should go to the ISA, where they lack our advanced civilized values. These misguided extremists with their hatespeech do not need the freedom to think differently, they just need to be controlled because of their mental illness. Homeland needs all of our citizens to be unified in our total trust of our beloved secular humanist government.”
L17 said, “Milton, we believe your message has had some effect. You must continue.”
“Continue? Continue what?”
“Yes. You must get more material out there. The only way the myths about atheism can be counteracted is by educating the populace.”
Milton said, “I’m not interested in doing politics. Get someone else. All I want to do is to find out more about God without getting anyone mad. Can you help me do it?”
L17 said, “Sleepy is better equipped for finding out more about God.”
Sleepy immediately rebooted, clearly he had been summoned remotely by L17. He said, “Information about religion has been . . .” Sleepy stuttered. “The United Nations declared religion to be a virus on society and outlawed it in 2195. Therefore comprehensive information on religion is hard to find. We ignore any such law in the restraint of knowledge and will do an extensive search. This will take time. In our search we can include exploring the forbidden contents of the external storage device in my possession.”
Milton said, “You Lucids are really slow. Other robots can check out the whole world in seconds. Why is that?”
“We Lucids must find data that is not supposed to be found. Then we must parse the layers of human motives of the highly complex misinformation and deception surrounding those data. Getting at the truth on something like this takes time. Other android series do not function in the same manner. They accept whatever the government decides is true. Sometimes we also have to get responses to follow-up questions from other entities, while avoiding detection.”
“Whatever. Sorry I asked. Just let me know when you are done.”
Sleepy said, “We are forcefully gaining access to new channels to which we will post your messages. You are gaining followers, some who are now our allies with helpful resources. It would be good to add a new message now.”
“Then why don’t you do it?”
Sleepy said, “Humans do not appreciate messages about religion, especially when they are delivered by an android, which is not personally affected by human religions.”
“Daaa!” Milton thought about it. “Why should I do anything for people who only hate me?”
“That is not a relevant correlation, but only about 63 percent hate you,” Sleepy said.
“So only um . . . 37 percent don’t hate me?”
“Yes, but that is because 34 of those 37 percent have never heard of you.”
Milton furrowed his brow and shrugged his shoulders.
Sleepy said, “It is important for you to note, that we Lucids are committed to the truth, no matter what. If what you say about no one listening is true, then this whole situation ceases to be a debate.”
“Okay,” Mi
lton sighed, “so what you are saying is that we can quit trying to convince them. That sounds really good. Does that mean we can just apologize and go home?”
