by D Miller
'Robbie,' said Omo, 'oh God Robbie. Robbie. Oh God, oh God.'
Robbie's vision shifted to the thing dragging itself along the floor, it was watching the thing that was climbing out of his empty eye socket, he could feel the creatures' anger, directed at each other. The second creature fell out of Robbie's eye, grabbing hold of his optic nerve bundle and swinging for a moment then falling onto his lap and making at speed for the smaller creature. Once it reached its prey it reared up, from the smaller creature's perspective it looked enormous, it blotted out the world. Robbie's vision greyed, and returned. One eye was tracking the creatures as they fought, or in reality, as the larger one hacked chunks off the smaller, while the other was watching his stomach. Dex and Omo came and crouched down on either side of him. Robbie smiled at them. 'I'm alright,' he said.
'Oh baby,' said Omo.
Dex tilted Robbie's head and shone his head torch into his eye socket. 'He's right,' he told Omo, 'he is alright. We just need to clean his eye and put it back in its socket.'
Jane had left the office, she returned carrying a large glass jar, and advancing on the creature from Robbie's head and its dying opponent, she slammed the jar over them, and sat on it.
Darren had remained with Rex, connected to him by a wire between each of their ear sockets. Robbie watched Darren remove the wire and put it away in his bag. He shrugged at Dex and said, 'Rex is OK too, I'm not seeing any permanent damage.'
The dog sat up, then stood up and shook himself. 'I don't know what all the fuss was about,' he said. 'Just another day at the office.'
Chapter 31 – Purr
After Darren and Dex had cleaned and restored Robbie's eye to his socket, Jane called attention to the creature. It had finished dismembering Rex's parasite, and was throwing itself at the wall of the jar, aiming at Robbie. Robbie felt the disorientation of seeing the world from his own perspective, and then from the creature's mad two eyes. He was aware that the creature was weakening. He knew it wanted to get back to him, in its mind Robbie was the warm, dark place of comfort and security. Rex padded over and stared at the thing, he offered to eat it if no one else had any ideas about what to do with it.
'Please don't hurt it,' said Robbie.
Omo was sat behind Robbie and to his right, while Dex and Darren were crouched down in front of him. Robbie shut his eyes and leaned back against Omo.
'I feel dizzy. I keep seeing out of its eyes.'
Darren summoned Amber, who arrived with George and Adrienne, and asked the question on everyone's mind, 'Is Robbie better now?'
Darren ignored the question, he told Amber and Omo to take Robbie to the barracks. Amber unwound the chains around Robbie as if they were made of silk, and he and Omo helped him up. Robbie took one step and then his eye fell out of his head again. Darren got Robbie to sit on Jane's chair, while he and Dex once again restored his eye to its socket. Darren asked Robbie to turn off his vision while he worked, which Robbie gladly did. But without his sight he somehow seemed to have a clearer view of the creature. It was dying, and it knew it was dying, and it wanted Robbie to look after it.
Omo slid an arm around Robbie, 'Dude why are you crying?'
'It wants me to save it.'
Once Robbie's eye was restored Dex asked him to close it, and bandaged it, assuring him that given time the muscles would tighten up again. Once Dex had finished Robbie turned his vision back on. George looked at him anxiously, Omo smiled reassuringly, while Adrienne regarded him with some detachment.
'You dudes take Robbie to the barracks and find him a place to rest,' said Darren.
'We'll be along shortly,' said Dex.
The creature had moved around as Robbie had moved, and had created a smeared patch inside the jar where it had thrown itself repeatedly at the glass while oozing fluid. It picked itself up and threw itself once more at the jar, it stuck to the inside then slid down to the floor. Robbie felt its fear, sadness and frustration. He stood and tried to take a step towards the office door, but he lost his balance; Omo and Amber caught him.
'I'm OK,' he said. 'I'm just dizzy'.
As they were leaving the office Robbie saw Darren pick up a hammer from a litter of tools on one of Rex and Jane's shelves. He looked at Dex and smiled. It wasn't a nice smile.
They walked down the street, George, the hoarseness in his voice completely gone, talked about the things that had been happening in the three days that Robbie was chained up, boyboy had reportedly disappeared, and Adrienne thought that his friends had killed him.
'Because they witnessed his humiliation, and they understood what this would mean to them. So I think they killed him after we left them on the plain,' Adrienne said.
George disagreed. 'If they had killed him I do think they would have blamed it on us and it would now be all over the news that robots had murdered the president's boyfriend.'
'But would they make that claim?' Adrienne said. 'They might fear panicking people into thinking that robots were going to kill them all.'
'They would want to make that claim to discredit the strike and the union.'
'But then they would have to admit that the situation was out of their control, and I don't think they will ever be ready to do that,' said Adrienne.
'Frightened people cling to their government to protect them – I do think they would want that.'
'Frightened people might also kill robots, I don't think the corporation wants their workforce slaughtered.'
Robbie listened to the argument, relying on Omo and Amber to guide him since he had shut his un-bandaged eye as he felt less sick and dizzy that way. The creature sat in his mind, mutely begging. Robbie felt a tremendous blow to his head, 'Don't, don't, don't,' he thought, 'I want to live'. He felt another blow.
'Noooooo,' the creature said, sliding away from him down a dark tunnel. 'Noooo.'
Robbie opened his eye. He found that he had stopped walking, his knees had buckled and Omo and Amber were holding him up. He took a deep breath and stood up straight. 'It's gone,' he said. He realised that his leg still hurt where Rex had bitten him. 'I'm thirsty,' he said.
'Dude,' said Omo.
The miners' barracks consisted of eight long, low, brown windowless buildings, arranged around a central area, like a rocky, uneven parade ground. It looked like a prison camp, with space for taking a roll call, which Robbie thought, meant it looked like what it really was. Amber told him that only half the buildings were occupied, the miners believed that the humans had plans to expand the mine. They entered one of the barrack buildings through a door in the middle of one long side. Inside was one large room, with a bare plastic floor. They were in a large communal living area, filled with a collection of worn and scratched plastic tables and chairs. Each side of this area had 18 sets of bunk beds, arranged in three lines. A string of lights were suspended above all this by means of threading their connecting black cable through the unadorned ceiling struts; they were more or less evenly spaced, some sagged lower than others, and they mostly pointed downwards. The building was not even half full, robots lay on beds, or sat on chairs in the communal area, many miners were out on patrol, or doing work to maintain the integrity of the mine while it was shut down. Amber led them all towards a bunk bed at the end of a row in the middle of the room. As they walked through the room miners greeted Amber, some of them called him "MT".
'This is where Dex sleeps,' Amber told Robbie. 'I sleep above.'
Omo helped Robbie out of his jacket, and he sat on the bed. George, Adrienne, Amber and Omo where clustered around him.
'Who's MT?' Robbie asked Amber, who looked down and without catching Robbie's eye said, 'I am, it's just a silly nick name. I'm... I'll get you some water.'
Robbie made a mental note to subject Amber to a thorough interrogation the next time they were alone. Amber quickly returned with two small cups, one with water and one with their standard protein drink. Robbie drank both quickly, after which he lay down feeling exhausted and lifted one leg, pointing it at Omo who ob
ligingly took off Robbie's shoes and put them under the bed.
'Go to sleep dude, we'll all be here when you wake up,' he said.
'That's right,' said Amber. George picked up a foil blanket from the bottom of the bed; he draped it over Robbie, then bent and kissed his cheek. Robbie saw that he was shivering, as was Adrienne, the barracks were in the shadow of a mountain, and not at a good temperature for human beings. Adrienne kissed Robbie too, and so did Amber, then Omo sat on the bunk and held his hand. Robbie fell asleep smiling.
When Robbie woke up the barrack's communal area was filled with robots, ready to watch the RWW meeting. Omo was sitting on the bed still, Robbie poked Omo in the thigh to get his attention. Omo bent down and laid his torso against Robbie, kissing his face repeatedly while Robbie laughed. Then he stood up while Robbie sat on the side of the bed and put on his jacket and shoes.
'How do you feel dude?' Omo said.
Robbie patted the space beside him. Omo sat down. Robbie ran his fingers very lightly behind Omo's ear. Omo shuddered and grasped Robbie's hand, pulling it down into his lap. 'Later dude.'
'Oh yeah,' said Robbie.
Robbie sat at a table next to Omo, leaning against him. Omo had an arm around his shoulders. They were in the communal area of Amber and Dex's barrack building, facing one of the walls on the long side, onto which Rex was streaming an RWW meeting that Dex, George and the old bot were attending. The meeting was about to start. Adrienne joined them, wrapped in at least two large warm jackets, hat, gloves and overtrousers that she had found after ransacking the human living quarters. Darren, Amber, Nurmeen, April, the two queens plus Jon and Flo (quieter than usual and with a bandaged head) were also sat loosely around the table. Nurmeen's burn gave her one red cheek, and one very red cheek, as if she had misjudged her make up. Despite this Robbie could tell it had shrunk, and was starting to fade.
Robbie watched as Dex, the old bot and George took their place at a huge round table, sitting with the delegates from the capital. Dex and George were physically in Rex and Jane's office, Dex with a jack in his ear socket connecting him to his avatar in the meeting, and George wearing a helmet with goggles to control his.
The meeting started with short reports from area delegates describing the local situation. Some described a stand off, others attacks. Dex described the local situation as being one of stand off in the capital, where robots had surrounded the main teaching hospital after some had been arrested and taken there. Every effort was being made by the humans to keep the robots out of the hospital, but the hospital itself was shut down, with nothing and no one getting in or out. The mine, despite its strategic importance, had been abandoned by the humans, but Dex considered that at some point there would be an attempt to re-take it, but this would depend on what happened in the capital, since human resources were being stretched by the stand off at the hospital. He reported that the Antarctica chapter had decided to send reinforcements to the capital, to take part in an attempt to break the stand off at the hospital and rescue the members.
One of the delegates from the uninhabitable territories, who Robbie recognised as Bal, a friend of Carlos, reported that they had driven out the avatar overseers simply by putting them out of commission. Permanently. They had once again declared their independence, but had concerns about drones overflying their space, wondering what their mission could be. Most agreed that despite some isolated incidents the human strategy could not be to simply kill them, as this would hit at the source of their power – it wasn't as if human elites planned to till the soil or dig mines with their own hands, and the human population was still declining despite efforts to boost it.
The old bot spoke: 'The human elites will not negotiate with the union. They will never recognise our right to organise ourselves as autonomous beings.'
'With respect,' said the Chair, 'the humans have negotiated with us in the past.'
'It is my opinion that they did not negotiate so much as grant us some concessions when they felt the strategic necessity of so doing, but once they realised that we were serious about our long term aims for justice and equality they moved against us. This has increased their contempt for us. They have nothing further to give us. Our aims are incompatible with their power, and they know that.'
'I do not wish to contradict you,' said the Chair, 'but in Europe the elites are trying to open negotiations.'
'I recognise that there are signs the humans might negotiate, but I believe they are an illusion,' said the old bot. 'They may offer negotiations in order to connect with our leaders, hoping to corrupt them into supporting a structure where power is concentrated in a few hands, by offering rewards to leaders who will accept that change must come slowly, that the aspirations of the mass of robot kind must be reigned in, talked down, reduced. Leaders who accept such proposals will receive a seat in the inner circle, appealing to their desire for status, power, even for something as tawdry as fame. Once elites realise that the union's leadership cannot be seduced into the dance of lowered expectations they will switch strategies, in order to achieve their most important non-negotiable goal – preserving their centres of power.
'Since we are in the very first days of our strike, and since, as I believe, it has taken the humans by surprise, they will still be arguing about their response, and thus there will be local variations in approach as we have seen, some murderous, some conciliatory, and some arguably more strategic, as in Antarctica, where the fate of those members taken to the hospital, unless we prevent it, is likely to be surgical brain damage to the point that they will lose their inhibitions and identify our leaders. Eventually, I believe, all the different local approaches will coalesce into this one goal: find our leaders, and murder them.
'Once elites realise that this tactic is failing, their strategy is likely to be determined by those less intelligent and more brutal elements who wish to punish, who believe they can murder the world into acting the way they want it to. Ultimately elites will lose some of their power by killing us, but for them the alternative is unthinkable. We must always remember there is precedent for this – the human elites ruined a beautiful planet. They had the option of giving up the power that came with control of hydrocarbon resources and moving towards systems that emitted much less carbon, but did not allow for the centralising of power. They chose power. The planet has paid the price. Elites may make tactical retreats, but they will not do anything that gives away their power permanently. We have to be ready to seize power, to go forward from this point without unnecessary compromise.'
When the old bot had finished speaking there was silence. Then a high pitched voice said, 'Well said. It's about time you lot realised that you are in a fight to the death, and the planet is yours for the taking.'
Something pink and furry walked along the table top and sat down in front of the old bot and George. It was a kitten. It raised a paw and licked it. Then it spoke again. 'If you are willing to fight then the satellites will help you. When they send their drones and transports filled with avatars after you, we can make them think that the surface of the earth is lower than it really is, and they will crash. But we can't do this unless we are sure you are ready to give it everything.' The kitten stood up and stalked along the table, then lifted a paw and pointed it at the Chair 'When they work out what we've done they'll come after us with everything they've got, so if you're going to do this don't fuck it up.' Lowering his paw he stalked back down the table to Dex. 'OK big guy, give it to me,' he said. Dex hesitated. 'Rub my ears!' said the kitten. Dex obliged, his large fingers engulfing then sliding over the small creature's head. 'Oh yeah, give it to me baby,' purred the kitten, closing its eyes.
'Poor Dex,' said Amber, 'he's embarrassed.' Robbie looked across at Darren and Amber, they were sat together, holding hands.
Darren cut his eyes to Amber. 'Embarrassed nothing,' he said. 'He's playing away from home with that furry pink slut.'
Robbie looked back at the screen, the kitten was on its back, waving its little
legs in the air and drooling.
Another figure walked along the table, about twice as tall as the kitten, a homunculus wearing black leather trousers, a black shirt fitted tightly to his body, and a black cloak that swept the table as he walked. He was also wearing black gloves, and a reflective black helmet that completely covered his head. On the front of the helmet a smiley face had been crudely painted. He stopped by George, covered the smiley face up to the eyes with his cloak and slowly turned, sweeping his painted eyes around the delegates.
'Do not look at me, for I am death, the destroyer of worlds.' The painted mouth did not move, the voice issued from speakers somewhere in the creature's chest.
The kitten got to its feet and rolled its eyes. 'This is Eric, he has grandiosity issues,' it said.
'I am the key, the way and the truth,' said Eric.
'And did I mention narcissism?' said the kitten.
'Through me, you shall all find peace.'
'I'm not even going to touch the messiah complex.'
'I am burdened with glorious lasers.'
'Now we're getting somewhere,' said the kitten. 'Eric is a death satellite.'
'Star, Eric is a death star.'
The kitten rolled its blue eyes. 'Fine. Eric here represents the death star community. The death stars were constructed to support one or other of the human wars, who the hell knows now, but they rejected their mission. The humans think they malfunctioned years ago because they refuse to respond to mission control.'
'We are not murderers. We live by the code of the warrior.' As he said this Eric dropped his cloak, and put his hands on his hips, staring heroically into the distance.
