by D Miller
'The human is cold, I need to get him somewhere warm. I'm going to carry him down the cliff and along the beach. You two wait here, Darren is on his way to meet me, once I've given him the human I'm coming back for you.'
'We're OK aren't we?' said Robbie.
'Wait for me here,' said Dex, looking at Omo. 'Yeah dude, I hear you.'
Dex left, climbing down the cliff with the man over his shoulder.
Omo led Robbie away from the cliff, they sat down together in the shelter of a large boulder.
'Omo do you think what the man said about Carlos was true?'
'Yeah dude.'
'This has been a humiliating day,' said Robbie. 'First my therapists tell me to fuck off, then I get caught out by you and Dex as the avatars sneak up and tag me, then we get followed by that man despite trying not to get followed and then I find out Carlos had a thing for… body fluids.'
'This has been a good day,' said Omo, 'first of all any day when we're together is a good day, secondly we got some more work from Camilla who pays well and also has an excellent drug connection' – Robbie laughed – 'I made a breakthrough in therapy' – Robbie laughed again – 'we found some moss still alive after the winter and we might be close to finding out what really happened on Mars.'
'Do you still love me?'
Omo kissed Robbie's mouth. 'I love you more than ever,' he said. He took off his jacket and wrapped it around Robbie. 'You're shivering baby.'
'Do you think I'm disgusting?'
Omo leaned his forehead against Robbie's. 'Baby I love every part of you.'
Robbie and Omo lay on the ground facing each other and sharing a joint.
'Dude do you know there's robot porn?'
'What, porn for robots?'
'No Robbie dude, it's human porn, but with robots in it. April has made a few.'
'Really?'
'Yeah, she told me about it. She would play the nice innocent female human dude who gets violated by the robot who has switched over to sex mode due to an electrical storm or some other really thin plot device. She'd be made up to look human, and the dude playing the robot would be an actual human. April said the human dude playing the robot dude would always have a really big penis and she would be the farm girl followed into the barn by the robot dude, or the office worker trapped after hours by the robot cleaner and she would always have to say something like "oh my God that thing is enormous" and scream. And then the robot dude would rip off her clothes and say something like, "get ready for some robot love, human female".'
Robbie was laughing, and coughing on smoke at the same time. 'You are making this up.' He passed the joint to Omo, who took a drag.
'Robbie dude – how can you doubt me? Anyway you can ask April. But the really weird thing is in the pornos it's always male robots and young female humans, but the reality is, it's human males who want to have sex with girl bots.'
'That's strange.'
'It's fucked up, is what it is dude. I used to think human dudes were complicated, but now I think they're all just crazy.'
'Omo, Dex says he hates all human beings.'
'Dude, Dex couldn't be so disappointed in humans if he didn't love them.'
'I think he's angry with me about the man.'
'No dude.'
'He didn't even look at me when he left, he only spoke to you.'
'Dude, have you heard of flashing?' Robbie looked at Omo. 'It's when a dude has been wiped, and sometimes you see flashes of their old personality breaking through. No one knows why it happens, because your memories of being that person are supposed to be gone.'
'I think that happened at the end of group therapy last week. I was talking to Steve and suddenly it was as if he was a different person, a real person again, someone with intelligence and a point of view and then it was over. Poor guy.'
Omo shifted position onto his back, he stared at the stars, took another drag from the joint and slowly released the smoke.
'It happened to you too.'
Chapter 13 – Trust me, I'm an anarchist
Robbie and Omo were waiting at the top of the cliff, Dex had signalled that he and Amber were below. As soon as he had climbed the cliff and got to his feet Dex cupped Robbie's head in his hands and briefly kissed his mouth. 'I'm not angry with you,' he said. Then he offered Robbie the choice of walking the long way round, or being carried down the cliff. Eventually Robbie agreed to be carried which turned out to be one of the more terrifying experiences of his life. He lay over Dex's shoulder, with his instinct telling him to run away. He kept reminding himself that struggling would be a bad idea. His head banged against Dex's back, while he shut his eyes and tried to pretend he was back on the boat with the whale. Amber helped Omo and once they were down Omo and Dex walked along the beach talking to each other, while Robbie and Amber followed.
Amber told Robbie that since the mine was closed until after the sun rose, for once Dex could have a real day off, as there was much less of a chance of a disaster and a recall to work. He said that while some miners remained at the mine, many were hanging out at the refinery, some of them were in Rex and Jane's communications room, watching the feed from the avatars which Rex was projecting on two screens. So far whenever the avatars had tried to start conversations with robots they had quickly brought up drugs. 'They're not very subtle,' Amber said.
'I suppose they don't think they have to be,' Robbie said. 'They have so much contempt for us. They were really horrible.'
'Some of the overseers in the mine are like that – they hate us.'
'Why do they hate us? We're not enslaving them!'
'We had this one overseer, he had a whistle, and a rule that when he blew his whistle, the nearest robot to him had to stop what he was doing and run to find out what the guy wanted. Run, not walk. He would even come into the barracks when we were off shift. One time he blew his whistle and we all ran at him. Then he ran. Screaming. He hasn't blown his whistle since.'
Robbie laughed. 'Amber – did Dex tell you about the man, George, about who he said he was?'
Amber was silent for a moment. 'Robbie, whatever Carlos did, I'm sure he had his reasons.'
Robbie, Omo, Amber and Dex entered the hydroponics shed – a huge settling tank now adapted to grow weed – where Darren had taken George the human since it was the warmest place in the refinery. They wound their way through rows made up of long tables set end end to end, and full of trays of seedlings and potted plants in various stages of growth, until they reached the middle, finding a cleared area with a square table, whose surface was covered with empty plant pots, various metal implements, plastic tubs and packets of various things which meant very little to Robbie, whose house did not even have a single plant with a grow light. There were five discoloured plastic chairs that might once have been white, none of them had all four legs touching the floor. In two of them sat Jon, the astronaut, with a female bot Robbie did not know. Jon ignored them, but the female bot said, 'Hello boys.' In front of the female bot's chair was a sack of the finished product, which she kept dipping into, to fill an automatic rolling machine on a small table between their two chairs. Finished joints were extruded from the machine; Jon was gathering them up and dropping them into a laundry basket beside his chair. Robbie couldn't help but notice that, of the two of them, the female bot had the more onerous task.
Near to them was George, lying on a faded pink and orange striped canvas beach chair, with Darren sat next to him on a stool. Darren had tucked some heated gel packs around George, then covered him with a piece of old clear thick blue plastic printed with pink seahorses. He had wrapped a torn piece of foil blanket around George's head and was now trying to get George to drink some water from a small, cloudy, chipped glass. He smiled at Dex, 'Hey dude, he's warming up nicely.'
Robbie looked at George, he saw a man with seamed brown skin, hazel eyes and, judging from the hair strands escaping from the foil turban, black curly hair just starting to go grey. He asked Darren if he could take over from hi
m. Darren handed him the water, and Robbie took his place next to George.
'George – that's your name right? Please drink some water, Darren thinks you are a bit dehydrated.'
George looked at Robbie, 'You know what my name is.'
'I'm Robbie, George, I don't remember you. I'm sorry. But I'd still like you to drink some water.'
'You remembered me on the cliffs.'
'Yes, Omo told me, but I don't remember anything about that. Please take some water.' George lifted his head and drank all the water in the glass. Darren took it off Robbie, refilled it and handed it back.
'That's good,' said Robbie. 'You know you shouldn't have been outside for so long in the clothes you are wearing.'
'Do I take it from your concern that you have decided not to throw me off a cliff?'
'Throwing people off cliffs is wrong,' said Robbie. 'I'm really sorry about that.'
'George,' said Dex, 'I know who you are now.'
From somewhere inside his clothes Dex produced a battered looking book, he handed it to Robbie, who had never see a printed book before. He looked a question at Dex.
'Carlos gave me this.'
The book had a green cover, with the title printed across it in black. 'Six principles for a democratic economy,' read Robbie. He turned it over, on the creased back cover was a photo of a much younger George. He flicked through the book, there were pages and pages of closely printed text, some of it underlined, some with handwritten notes.
'You wrote this,' Robbie said, showing the book to the patient. 'And apparently Dex has read it, many times.'
Dex looked at George. 'Carlos thought we should start a political party, and take your book as our manifesto,' he said. 'George, I'm sorry I didn't recognise you before.'
Robbie looked at the back of the book again, he thought the photo must be 20 years out of date.
George nodded. 'Carlos and I wanted to start a party that humans and robots could join. Even though as an anarchist party it would be banned, we thought we could still organise and disseminate ideas of equality, mutual respect, mutual aid and how to radically expand democratic structures.'
'What's an anarchist?' said Robbie.
'Anarchy is a political theory,' said George. 'Anarchists believe that all authority has to be justified, and that if it can't be justified then it has no reason to exist and should be overthrown. Robots are natural anarchists. You have leaders but you don't have hierarchies.'
'So anarchists don't have hierarchies?'
'Anarchists believe that everyone affected by a decision has a right to share in the decision making process, in proportion to the effect the decision will have on them. We don't believe that others should make decisions for you.'
'So, um, in the mine say, if you cannot justify the overseers then they should be abolished?'
'Yes, but more than that – why is there a mine? Who made that decision? What is the output of the mine used for? These decisions should not be made by elites, according to priorities decided upon by elites. Without democratic control of the economy there can be no true freedom for any of us.'
'Hmm. Robots democratically controlling the economy – drink some more water.' Robbie held the glass up to George's lips again.
George took two swallows then twisted his head away. 'Carlos believed that humans and robots together should democratically control the economy.'
'Carlos was a dreamer,' said Robbie.
George looked up at Dex. 'Carlos was a visionary,' said Dex. He turned to Robbie, 'Rex is ready for you and Omo.'
'I have to go,' Robbie said to George. 'I'll be back later.'
George shut his eyes, he looked exhausted. 'I'll be here,' he said.
Darren displaced Robbie from his stool with a wave of his hand, and sat down and checked over George. He spoke to Jon, 'Hey dude can you and Flo watch him for an hour or so? He's stable now, and he just needs to rest for a while and drink some more water.'
Jon stood and came over to Darren, he was shorter than Robbie, stockily built, with brown skin, short black hair and a broad, somewhat fleshy face. He wore plain black trousers and a formal white shirt. 'Fine. Interesting chap. Somewhat insane.'
'Thanks dude, call me if there's any problem, but I don't think there will be.'
The female bot also stood, wiped her hands on her blue overall, and joined Robbie and Omo. Omo introduced her to Robbie as Flo, the municipal workers secretary. Her sleeveless overall had two oversize pockets stitched right across the front, bulging and sagging under the weight of unseen items. Underneath she wore a checked pale blue top and navy blue trousers. She was nearly as dark skinned as Dex, with large lips, high cheekbones and an amused expression. Her long black hair was twisted into an untidy knot.
'Municipal workers?'
Flo laughed. 'You'd notice if we weren't there. If it needs lighting, heating, recycling, cleaning, maintaining or repairing – that's us.'
Dex, Darren and Amber withdrew to one side – Darren and Amber each put one arm around Dex while their other hand rested on his chest. Amber said something quietly and they all laughed. Dex told Omo and Robbie they would meet later, and then the three of them said goodbye to everyone and left.
'Those boys,' said Flo, 'so devoted. Don't let us keep you boys either – I know you've got things to do!'
She threw back her head and laughed loudly.
'Yes, we've got a meeting,' said Robbie.
Flo laughed again. 'If that's what you want to call it sugar.'
Robbie opened his eyes. He saw Omo sitting across from him and smiled.
'There you are dude,' said Omo, 'right where you should be.'
Robbie was sitting at a small wooden table, behind Omo he could see a sink, and windows giving a view of the woods that Omo and he had gone walking in the last time they had visited. White curtains blew gently at the open windows. He could hear a noise, a woman speaking, and looked right to see the old man standing by a kettle, making tea. He smiled at Robbie.
'Welcome back to my world,' he said, reaching out a hand and turning a switch on a small black box. The woman's voice stopped. 'My radio – Rex and Jane stream news programmes for me.' The old man gave Omo and Robbie each a mug of tea, and sat down at the table between them. 'Glad to see you again Robbie,' he said, 'and you too Omo.'
Robbie wrapped his hands round his mug, picked up his tea and quickly put it down again.
It's hot!' he said, and shook his hands trying to make the heat and pain go away.
Omo and the old man laughed. 'Hold it by the handle dude, and blow on it.' Robbie picked up the mug by its handle and blew on the tea. He held the mug to his lips and inhaled the steam coming from it, the fragrance seemed to enter his nose and spread a message of calm through his head. Cautiously he took a tiny sip of tea. The taste sank into his mouth in the most strangely sensual way. He realised he had an erection, and leant forward, hunching over his mug.
'How is your tea?' said the old man.
Robbie nodded, 'Um good, really good.' He could feel his face getting hot.
'Robbie – after what has happened to you, you must have questions?'
Omo laughed, the old man looked at him. 'The dude always has questions,' he said.
'Well,' said the old man, 'I may be able to answer some of them. I have lived a long life and what I did not live through myself I have probably read and thought about and discussed with others.'
Robbie tried to sort through the questions he had, but was distracted by images of himself and Omo, alone in the woods. He looked at the old man. 'I have one big question,' he said. 'What am I? What are we?'
'That is a very good question,' said the old man. 'Let me start to answer it by asking you a question – what is the human population of the world?' Robbie looked at him. 'How many human beings do you think there are on the planet?'
'Um I don't think I have any idea, millions? A billion?'
'As far as I can tell from the data available, less than a billion. Do you know what the w
orld human population was at its peak?'
'Billions?' guessed Robbie.
'Nine billion,' said the old man. 'The question is what happened to those people? Most of them were poor, they did the work of the world for very little reward. Of course the world will not now support nine billion people, but it would probably support more than it does. What happened to the poor, and who does the work that they used to do?'
'We do,' said Robbie. 'Are you saying that as people died out they replaced themselves with robots?'
'No, people did not die out, the poor were deliberately killed, or allowed to die which is the same thing.'
'But people died in natural disasters – floods, storms, mud slides, fires, heat stress – are you saying the planet was killing them deliberately?'
'No, although I believe there are those who would make that argument, but I do not. People died in an environmental catastrophe largely brought on by mankind polluting the natural environment. They died as the planet warmed and the water ran out or was poisoned. They died because the elites who profited from the status quo refused to allow change, because that would mean giving up at least some of their power. People knew that burning fossil fuels was warming the planet, and they knew in good time to prevent global catastrophe. The industry had built a huge infrastructure, from drilling to the distribution of the end products, that the powerful wished to preserve because it allowed the centralisation of power, as well as huge wealth.'
'Why did it mean huge power?' said Robbie.
'Because the world ran on oil, so those who controlled the supply controlled the world. Switching to other energy sources – putting solar panels and wind generators on houses say – would make it hard or impossible to centralise and control power, and have your hand on the spigot ready to turn it off for the disobedient. So the disasters that killed the population were not natural. They were the result of political choices made by the powerful. And in their aftermath the poor died because they were left to starve in the ruins, even though food was available. They died because borders were closed with force and violence. They died because elites had a use for them as a scapegoat – they said the poor with their greed had destroyed the ecology of the world.'
