Tech---error

Failure is heartbreaking, especially when the species is well-loved. Each in their time, the breakdown is swifter. A play for dominance….

“Get up, now!” The leader of the neighborhood militia screamed as I slowly rose from the pile of offal, keeping my hands in the air. ‘Good move! Now turn around, keep those hands high and open!”

I hoped I would not be shot this time as rebooting was a pain, literally. These kids never learn manners. This one has his hands too freely roaming my body, but his time is coming; stay steady, they soon will learn.

“What are ya doing pawing through the garbage? Ya know the laws. Once out, it belongs to the Militia!” He screamed inches from my face, his spittle hitting my cheek. I kept my arms up, hoping nothing more was going to be retribution. “Answer me!”

“Yes, sir. I was… looking for food, sir.” I mumbled, sounding scared.

“What did ya say? Can’t hear ya!”

Oh, he is deaf, not just ill-bred. I raised my voice and said, “I was looking for something to eat.”

He smirked and looked at his band. “What ya say, guys? Ya wanna feed this piece of trash?"

I see the bobbing heads. The one with the gun... he stuck it in the back of his pants. I just hoped the action went into the darkness of the alley. There were lots of witnesses gawking out the windows. They really should not be seeing the carnage. This pack was heading for shut down.

Staying in the shadows, I hurried along to the factory. I was elated knowing I could still take on the ‘misinformed’ youth and turn them into citizens of a better world. This world, unfortunately, had an expiration sticker.

The stench of decay lay heavy on the streets of concrete. Every block the same as before and the same to come. There was a uniformity code for the buildings, as well as the beings. Built link upon link - no deviation in their class structure.

I knew these streets, where the danger lurked. And how to encounter and how to avoid. Two blocks to go and call the mission accomplished.

There was law enforcement on every corner and coming out of shops, yet they saw little to nothing illegally going, while the citizens were pushed up against storefronts or doorways, debased or merely robbed.

Now what? I am trussed like a turkey for the oven. My head is thumping. I can’t reach to touch. Sitting up is not easy. I will probably vomit anyway; I close my eyes and start thinking. I saw a flash of a fist aiming for my face. I got clocked?! I must have banged my head going down. I slowly peek, see my attire is intact. And my hands are tied in front of me. That’s the good news.

The bad news is the hulk sitting in the chair watching me. Obviously, he has no intrinsic use for me. His actions speak loudly.

“Hey, sweetie, I see you’re awake. Saw those lids flutter, so you may as well stop pretending you’re sleeping.”

“Do you know the trauma you cause when you punch someone in the face, and they hit their head? If I sit up, I’m going to vomit. You got something I can use?”

“Hold on.” He says as he bolts for the kitchen. These open area apartments give no privacy.

Hmm, looking down at his serene face, he reminds me of someone. The pickup crew is again on the way.

The door to the apartment slams open. A rump in the air is grabbing totes off the floor, turns; I see a vaguely familiar face of a young woman carrying groceries from a local food store. She sees the hulk, screeches – drops her bags having oranges bouncing like fallen tennis balls on the floor and nearly tumbles as she jumps the fruit, rushing to the body: shaking him, she yells “Howie, Baby, Howie wake up!” Looking up at me, she snarls, “Who are you? What did you do to him?”

She also is ready for transportation. The bonus find, she has the other half of the device for the reset. Kneeling, I slip the blue heart locket chain over her head and gently lay her down again.

The Techs took everything but a banana, an orange, and instant coffee. I was hungry after all the action today. The team did not want to do the extra paperwork for leaving the fruit and coffee but figured it was easier to do than leave me hungry. They had seen me when I got ravenous. They said awesome, which in today’s lingo is not good.

Thinking I should have some entertainment while eating and turned on the tube. Impressive – sixty-four screens – worldwide coverage. Now, why would a hulk be using high-tech surveillance? Low attention span? Working for a government – usually, the spies are non-descript. Easily forgotten. Our forces?

I’m going to sleep on this one. I notify the factory I am exhausted from the encounters today. I’ll be in tomorrow. Left the time frame open. Said, I was going to play hooky and watch some reality tube.

Earlier I scouted and found an identical apartment unoccupied. I stripped off all the gadgets and a bit of me before I closed Howie’s door for the last time.

Time to go into lockdown. Bring the brain activity into a happy place, a calm place, one of pleasure-seeking any topic but the one I must work out in private. I cannot contact or think of my partner. He will know my mood; we are one - he will know I have isolated myself.

Entering the dream mode to reassemble the bits and pieces, the detritus of the day, many loose ends, not fitting the pattern.

The first scene was a true one, almost. The first-time meeting in the trash at the curb and the young preteens and barely teen militia, the gunslinger shot as I stood.

While society has no age limits or boundaries, killings are not allowed to be witnessed. A reboot of the scene is reenacted. The terror of hearing of or hearing but not seeing keeps the populace under control.

No messy guts for the techs to clean up, reality only on the tube. The players are too sensitive. The techs did a marvelous job with the reenactment. The children and that they are - are in for reprogramming. They have had many years of seemingly non-restriction controls. It shows in their speech and lack of restraint.

They will go into a reprogramming project. That band triggered the recall of that model. The ‘Essence of Being’ chip was not installed. Not an easy fix. They also need a ‘Creativity Chip.’ Other chips, minor and major, will be put into the report as I see almost a total need for refurbishing.

The previous generations each seemed to be overall failures in pursuit of their desires but rather caught up in the scheme of money-making, leaving their young machines to be programmed by the tubes around the globe.

Even the tales of the Ancients and then the humanoids failed the machines in their lack of vision.

The experiment for a perfect world now seems to be ending. Losing feelings for another, the ‘Compassion Chip’ was eliminated hundreds if not thousands of years ago. The ‘self-loathing chip’ thought to be the answer to correct the overinflation of ‘ego chip’ took it too far in a direction that appears to demolish the whole breed.

She woke when the time to shut down the tube in Howie’s apartment occurred was shortly followed by an explosion and the wail of sirens. She had deduced this would happen, thus removing most of herself. Now she must concentrate on keeping herself invisible to all except Time. It was Time she needed and summoned.

Time found her weeping. He pulled her up off the couch. She buried her face in his chest. Time was not into this but gave in as he always seemed to do, at least with her. He swiveled, sat down, and pulled her closer if that was possible. She continued to weep as he silently sat. Stroking her hair, he was examining to see if she was injured. He sat up straight, jostling her on his lap. She looked up.

Time roared, causing her to duck her head, throw her arm over her head, covering both ears if he roared again, “What did you run into? Why is your left hand cloaked?

She mumbled into his chest.

“Speak up, Nature. I did not hear you.”

She grabbed the bottom of his shirt to dry her eyes. Nature smiled at him. A big wobbly smile. “What do you want to know, dear?”

He saw her eyes were still leaking and quietly asked her, “How did you injure your face? Running to get somewhere again? What happened?

Nature smiled, “Please promise not to yell, please; then I will tell you.”

Time nodded.

“Howie clocked me.”

“Who is Howie, and more importantly, where is he?”

“The techs took him and his partner away.”

Time then quietly asked, “Why is your left hand cloaked?”

“It’s not,” Nature whispered.

“It’s not what?” Time roared, then seeing Nature weeping again, patted her head, and said quietly in her ear, “Tell me, Sweetheart.”

“You know there is dying more and more each day. In this age of technology, our resources are dissipating faster than regrowth is possible. Soon, the last chip will be made the generations will die, one by one, until all the circuits die. No one to care, no one left.”

“Nature, we have discussed this before, and yes, it is inevitable. Let’s not go down a rabbit hole. Just tell me about your left hand.”

“You know how ravenous I get after a workout.”

Time nodded, indicating she should get on with the telling.

She smiled at him, and he groaned, knowing this was going to be a long session.

“I started thinking.”

Time groaned again.

“When I opened his tube, Howie had top-of-the-line portals. Why would a hulk need that many portals? Was he a spy? Who needs to spy? Everything is the same. Everyone eats the same food; everyone is given the same furniture. Cars no longer exist. Everyone is equal.” Nature looked at him, waiting for an answer.

“Tell me about your hand, Sweetie.”

“That’s it, Time. He sounded like you. When I looked down on his face in repose, he looked like you. And his sidekick looked like me when I was young.”

“Now, right now, Nature, you tell me about your hand, or I will, I promise you, roar until you are deaf.”

Nature leans forward almost horizontal with her knees and whispers, “Not to worry. It will grow back.”

“What???” Time roared.

“I now know someone on the factory tech team would kill Howie if they could not kill me. So, I cut my left hand off and left it in the bed for an explosion – knew the clean-up crew would need DNA splatter to make sure I was totally gone. Then I had to get my brain quiet so only you would find me, and here you are.” Nature beamed a huge smile. “I am uploading the report I did while I was sleeping, repairing, rebooting. I truly cannot see another way. It has not been that long since we rebooted the earth when the last pandemic swept the world, but now with this type of technology, it is dying even faster than when the humans walked."

Father Time put his arm around Mother Nature’s shoulder and said, "For now, let them run their course. Let us go to the factory, you point out the would-be killer, and for now, we call it a wrap.

Reboot is scheduled.