This is a draft version of a chapter from John Saye’s book, Standard-Issue Partner.

Simon did most of the piloting on the way back. He could easily figure out the mechanisms in the yacht, and Flint needed the rest, his human body had had just about enough. He decked out in the front of the yacht and watched as the clouds passed him overhead until he fell asleep in the sun.

Simon entertained himself with a detailed examination of the ship’s capabilities, not to mention the three-dimensional holographic message system. It had a host of other features that catered directly to the robot workers who the boat was intended for. He plugged in and managed to charge faster than he was using energy, and would arrive at the base later with a complete understanding of the ship, as well as a good charge. If working with Flint had taught him anything, it was that you never knew where you were going to end up, and you never knew how far from a charging station you were going to be.

He piloted the boat on a more-or-less direct heading for city central, and let the computer do the rest. He checked and rechecked for any devices or programs in the system that could give out their whereabouts, and without much trouble, he was able to disable several of these kinds of tracking programs. There was a camera on the front that was detailing just where they were going. Simon knocked it out. In addition, he ripped off the camera and threw it to the ground below.

They passed massive buffalo herds, and monstrous congregations of geese and other waterfowl. It was amazing to Flint, who for the last seventy years had only really known the major cities, Central in particular, that there was anything out here that was still alive.

A flock, rather an army of ducks flew over them in V formation, and Flint thought it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. They were so honest up there, just ducks, living out there ducky little lives. No one was shooting at them or turning them into foie gras. It was a simple life, and he longed for it. Maybe he would retire, and move out of the cities and take his chances.

They checked through the entrance gate to the city, having to send in Flint’s clearance code manually, and landed the yacht on the top of the main police tower.

The Chief was there to meet them.

They slid off the yacht and landed on their feet beside it.

“We are glad to have you back. My God, look at this thing,” said the Chief.

“I know, it’s strange isn’t it?”

Simon shored up the craft. “We need to have this moved almost immediately. Chief, do you have a place I can take it to study?”

“Sure,” said the Chief. He handed Simon a clearance card. “Take it to this docking bay.”

“Got it. Flint?”

“I’ll see you in a bit. I’ll let in the Chief here.”

“Will do.” Soon Simon was on his way.

“What did you see out there?”

“It was insane boss,” said Flint. “It’s the robots.”

“What about them? You’re not quitting now are you?”

“No, that’s not it. They’re robots out there. A whole complex up over the old Grand Canyon. It’s all robots, and what aren’t robots are human slaves. People who have become stranded out there.”

“How did you escape?”

“I’ll tell you later, that’s beside the point. The important part is that they are a threat, and they plan to come in and take over, one by one, and they’re going to start with this one, they may have already done so.”

“I don’t know Flint.”

“Chief, they can look like us, they can alter their shape, they can do almost anything we can do, and they can do it with ease. I saw Simon do things that I’ve only seen highly trained humans doing, all kinds of acrobatics. It was amazing.”

“Even still, how sure are you about this place.”

“I’ll show you. It’s way off the zone we usually look in.”

They went into a small meeting room hooked to a computer, and Flint closed the door. He turned on a small projector, and called up the coordinates for the Grand Canyon and started to scan.

“Funny, the satellite doesn’t want to look out that far.”

“Because we think there’s nothing there.”

“Look.” He pointed it out, the structure they had just spent time in.

“Yeah, it looks like a temple of some kind. A dome. I’ve heard rumors about this, that the savages out in the west were building temples and other large structures here and there, this one is amazing though.”

“Yeah, and it is a temple, that’s definitely true, but the believers are all robots.”

“And their leader?”

“Roman.”

“What?”

“It’s at least a copy of him like there’s several of the suckers. He was their leader. He’d been aged up though like he was going for the refined older, wiser look, it looked just like him. It felt like him”

“You don’t think…”

“I don’t know, but I definitely want to talk to Roman face to face, our Roman at any rate, and with Simon. He’s got some pretty sensitive gear for detecting the robots.”

“Whatever you say, you’ve got it, Flint. This could get really ugly before it gets better.”

“Seriously ugly, especially if we’re dealing with robots that have been programmed with fanatical tendencies.”

“Hell.”

“I know.”

“It’s like Roberts was the first straw, and then it all started to unravel.”

“It is like that.”

“Maybe it’s supposed to happen like this.”

“I don’t know, maybe.”

They watched the city out the window as the hover cars zoomed by. Flint was glad to be home, but a part of him still wanted the peace he found in the desert.

Hours later, after some decent sleep, and a proper charge for Simon, they made their way down the hall at the city’s central detainment center, and walked up to the glass side of Roman’s cell cube. He sat there, an uneaten TV tray of food in his lap, and an orange jumpsuit on, watching the television.

“So unreal,” he said as they arrived.

Flint coughed, and Simon adjusted his suit.

“Roman, will you talk with us?” asked Flint.

“Sure, what’s to talk about with my favorite guys.”

“Simon and I here have made a discovery.”

“Yeah, what’s that?” He took a sip from his drink.

“We made an acquaintance over the weekend, and we think that it might interest you.”

Simon scanned Roman’s eyes and gave Flint the slightest shake of the head.

“We managed to meet your brother.”

“I have no brother.”

“You know, that’s what I thought, and here’s the thing, It’s in your record right here, that there are no living relatives.”

Roman sniffed.

“I even had them go into the DNA record and see if there was anything even possible as a match for your brother in the known archives.

“Where are you going with this?”

“Robots, Roman.”

“Robots?”

“Robots. Mean ones.” Flint stood back, allowing himself a little pacing room, and continued. “That was why I was so surprised to find your twin, or rather a twin of yours about twenty years older, out in the wastelands.”

“What were you doing there?”

“Clearing my head. That’s not the point. At any rate, here we go. It was a twin of you, with gray hair, and wrinkles, and it was a robot.”

“How could you tell?” asked Roman, his hands slightly shaking.

“Simon here pointed him out. They can scan each other you know, can usually tell make and model that kind of thing at a glance, just like humans can have a pretty good idea where you come from by how you speak, what kind of hand gestures you use, that kind of thing.”

“Sweet, but why am I supposed to believe you, there ain’t been nothing in the wastes for hundreds of years. It’s too toxic. Everybody knows that.”

“Not for the last couple of years. It’s actually quite nice out there.”

“I’ll make sure to organize a little weekend trip then.” he took another sip, still not touching the food.

“Look, what do you want to know?”

“We want to know if there’s anything to do between you and the robots out there.”

“I’ve never even heard it before now. You’re wasting your breath.”

“The only thing that’s wasting around here is you.”

Roman jumped from his bed, upending his food all over the floor.

The men stood staring at each other through the glass, both knowing that to go through it, to attack, would only end in the bruising of their knuckles.

“Let me talk to him,” said Simon. “Guard?”

A guard came forward from the shadows of the room.

“Let me in there with him. He and I need to talk.”

“Simon?”

“Please leave us, Flint, I think this is something that he and I need to do alone.”

Flint left, but not without protest. When he was out of the room, Simon let himself into the cell with no need for help.

“Tell me what you know about robots in the west.”

“I don’t know anything.”

A laser pistol flew into Simon’s hand from the recessed holster in his thigh.

“Tell me what you know about forced slavery in the west.”

“I told you, I don’t know anything.”

“From Simon’s left arm, a series of short dagger-like objects shot out, then they started to spin like a little helicopter blade.

“Tell me about the three-dimensional holograph technology they are developing out there or the hover tanks that can hold twice the amount of armor than ours can.” He made his eyes turn red.

“Look, oh-my-god, I don’t know!”

Simon began to stalk him down. First one step.

“Look, there’s nothing to it, I have nothing to do with it.”

Then another step.

“I swear I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

Then another step. He was right up in Roman’s face, and then he saw it. His eyes returned to normal.

“You don’t know.”

“Know what, honestly, are you going to let me in at all?”

He knocked on the door. “Guard!”

The guard let him out and then closed the cell door back, sealing it.

Simon came out into a small waiting room where Flint was pacing the floor.

“He doesn’t know.”

“Know what?”

“Damn fool doesn’t know. He’s been living his whole life and he doesn’t know.”

Roman had to follow Simon out of the detention hall.

“Doesn’t know he’s a robot. Absolutely incredible.”

They walked outside to a small park some twenty stories into the air, It was planted with trees, most of which were really fake machines designed to produce breathable air from carbon dioxide. There were crisscrossed paths and benches. The park was surrounded by a series of discrete little coffee and pastry shops.

Simon slumped into a bench. Flint sat down after him.

“How can they do that to him?”

“How can who?”

“That’s also a good question, but not what you were thinking I imagine.”

“He’s a robot. He must be three years old or so tops, and he doesn’t know. You’d think he would at least suspect.”

“You’d think. How could you tell?”

“The eyes. His serial number was written in his iris-like all the others, but it’s been scratched and smoothed away.”

“Look, are you sure?”

“Pretty sure. It’s amazing.”

“Look, I’ve been chasing that guy for ten years. He can’t be three.”

“Maybe you were looking at different models. Maybe there is a closet full of them, each representing five years, like a fifteen to twenty-year-old, and a twenty to twenty-five-year-old, things like that, and they’re just letting the appropriate one out as the years go by.”

“I don’t know.”

Simon looked around. “I’ve got to get some fuel, and then let’s go back in there and see what we can find out.”

“Okay.”

Flint looked around them. The courtyard was filled with little dives to get a bite of lunch from, but this was the first time he has ever really thought in terms of accommodating a robot. Sure there was a synthetic choice of food from almost every station.

“What do you like?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never gone to lunch before, dumb as that sounds.”

Flint nodded. It was strange. They walked around the pavilion, looking at all the choices.

Simon wondered. “I’m not really built for human food.”

“There are synthetic foods, and oils of all kinds. Some of it you can actually translate into energy. Come on.”

They stepped up to an old hot dog stand, situated in the middle of the park. Flint leaned in. “You have synthetics?”

“Ah sure,” said the guy. They ordered chili dogs and sat on a bench by the fountain. Flint’s was all beef, and loaded with more junk than you could count. Simon’s looked exactly the same, was made of a silicon by-product and would have killed Flint on the spot, but it did at least smell the same.

Simon chewed. He had not done much of this as a rule, and it was slow going at first.

“You having trouble there?”

“I can jump off a moving vehicle, snag another moving vehicle with my grapple gun, and destroy three other hover cars with the laser pistol in my other hand, and still have time to flip onto a catwalk a hundred feet above the ground, and do so without a glitch, so you’d think I could eat a hot dog without biting the inside of my mouth.”

Flint smiled. “Hey, at least you can eat. I was starting to get worried about you.”

“It’s not the only thing I can do.”

“I know.”

“Seriously Flint, what do you want? Do you want to prove that Robotic partners aren’t any good?”

“The only thing I’m proving now is that it’s next to impossible to eat with one. Relax a little.”

“Relax.”

“Yeah. Learn to meld in a little bit. Learn to fart.”

“Fart?”

“Yeah, you know… You don’t know… Look it up later will you?”

Flint shifted on his bench. “You want to be human?”

“No” said Simon.

“Good. Because the last thing I need around here is another one of those.” He stood up.

“What’s wrong?”

Flint was looking up through the office windows above the park level. “Activity on ninety-five. It doesn’t look good.”

He checked his pockets. “Do you know how to fly a hover bike? Nevermind. Stupid question. Come on.”

Simon tossed the remainder of his hot dog and ran after him. “Do you hear it?”

“Why, can you?”

“Yeah, the alarms are going off in the detention level.”

“I thought so.”

“How could you tell?”

“I just saw three file clerks and an off-duty detective get shot on level ninety-nine.”

“Roman?”

“Most likely.”

They bounded up the marble steps, pushing folks out of their way as they went. Floor ninety-five was dark when they got there, and oddly windy.

“Flint?”

“He’s got the secondary hangers open, but for the wind to reach this far, he must have every door wide open.”

Flint turned the corner, and not only were the doors open, but the walls were too. An explosion rocked the building, jarring the people, the building was way stronger than it should have been, and the rest of the floor blew out, leaving only the main supports, and a few inner walls. Someone came out of the bathroom, zipping up, and walked right back in again.

“There he goes!” called Simon as Roman disappeared over the ledge on a hover bike. Flint and Simon got on their own bikes and sped off after him.

They lurched into the sky, without quite enough speed to really control them. They gunned their engines and recovered just as Roman did.

Roman looked back, aware he was being followed.

He pulled a weapon from his boot and fired. Laser light blazed and burned around them, sizzling the air.

Flint and Simon each pulled their laser pistols and took aim.

Roman ducked under a bridge.

Under the bridge Roman was again in full view.

They trained their weapons on him, and fired, but the distance was too great. The shots faded before they could impact.

They gunned their speeds to catch up, diving over and under bridges, and signs.

“Where is he?” said Flint, really trying to see for himself.”

“To the left two streets, then north again.” said Simon, who had a visor down over his eyes.”

“Where did you get that?”

“Standard-issue,” said the robot.

“Screw you.”

Simon smiled, and pressed a button at his temple. The visor pulled back into a cavity in his forehead and disappeared.

They swerved two streets to the right and then straight to the north. They were right behind him. Of course they were also right behind a dozen or so other cars, which were slowing Roman down, but not for long. He drove over them, and skittered up through the streets.

Flint went low, going under the other air cars, and Simon took the high, going right over them himself. Flint flicked a beacon on his belt. Fifteen miles away, Flint’s hover car lit up, and trundled out of the parking garage, checking itself out, and flying on to find its master.

“He’s getting ready to jump,” said Flint.

“How do you know?”

“I would if it were me.”

Something large loomed above them, It started to get dark, but for a moment Flint thought it was a trick of the light, then he saw it. The craft was enormous, and shaped much like the great fish catcher he’d seen out west. It rumbled through the sky and lurched above them.

Roman pointed a hand to the sky, and released a grapple gun, with which he blasted off his bike and into the sky towards the ship. It opened a panel below for him and he was already crawling in as his hover bike crashed into the side of a building.

Flint and Simon pulled up, heading for the craft, and followed as it began to rise out of the city.

Flint and Simon followed the craft as it lumbered through the dense and twisting towers of city central. It scraped across one tower, destroying a series of glass mirrored windows, and then snaked around another set of buildings, each managing to miss the other by a few simple feet. This was it, the craft was escaping. Soon it would be out of reach to the two investigators. Flint couldn’t agree with that, and gunned his engines.

“Flint!”

Flint wasn’t listening. Which wasn’t really true, he was ignoring Simon’s calls for reasonability and good judgment. Sure they could survive another day to pursue this guy again, but Flint didn’t care. He wanted to see Roman go down. He wanted to take down the whole ship if he could. On his hover bike it was like a single yellow jacket deciding to take down a grizzly bear by itself. He could sting and sting and sting, but all he could really do is upset the balance, and maybe piss them off a little bit.

Flint armed his weapons, and began shooting at the hull of the great lumbering mass. His laser blasts bounced off the surface, causing at most miniscule scoring lines, little pock marks on an otherwise gleaming hull.

Simon caught up to him. The ship had made it to the tops of the tallest buildings and was even then starting to lumber its way towards the west. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m going to bring it down.”

“You can’t there’s no way!”

“Watch me.”

Flint pulled his guns, taking a couple more shots at the giant machine, and hitting it underneath.

“Flint, what good’s that going to do?”

“It means I’m within range. I can hit it.”

“With what?”

“With these!”

Flint changed guns, and fired off immense grappling devices that stormed out from a nozzle on the front of the hover bike. Simon watched as they collided with the ship and latched on. He fired his own, but still wasn’t sure what the plan really was here.

Flint and Simon’s hover bikes began to buffet and twist in the wake of the larger machine. They cut their engines way down, Simon fired his retro rockets, and they stabilized themselves. Then Flint started to climb. It was insane, or at least it looked like it was insane to a robot who had only a rudimentary knowledge of what sanity really is.

Flint took hold of the grapple ropes and began to climb, almost as if he were climbing straight up. He bobbed and weaved on the ropes as they whipped around in the air.

Simon began to climb out also. He was just taking the lead of his partner, like he was programmed to do, but this didn’t seem like it was the best of ideas. In fact it seemed downright stupid, but he did it.

They made better time that Simon thought they could, and without much real trouble, they made their way all the way to the hull of the ship, which was now just crossing the edge of the city and out into the wastelands.

Flint and Simon sat on a ledge, overlooking the city as they floated away from it. “Now what?” asked Simon.

“Now, we get in. There’s got to be a way around this place somehow.”

They stood up, with each other’s help as well as that of the help of a special magnet that Flint kept handy for this kind of thing, and started making their way around the ship, looking for the way in. The wind whipped their hair, and stung Flint’s eyes. He wished he’d had his goggles with him, but they were usually in the hover car when he needed them.

Edging around the great bulk of the machine was difficult and dangerous. One step missed and you’d be off the side and plummeting to your death in a matter of seconds. Simon didn’t like these odds, and in order to distract himself from them he decided to start to whistle.

“I didn’t know robots could whistle.”

“Neither did I.”

Eventually they made their way around to a large opening. It looked like an entry bay, or some sort of hanger. All looked quiet for the moment, but that didn’t stop Simon from being nervous. He whistled some more.

They stepped into the hanger bay and crouched behind what looked like a scout vessel of some kind. Two guards were standing near a doorway that was lit with an eerie green light.

The two guards muttered to themselves.

“Hey, you seen that new X-P-38?”

“Nah.”

Flint and Simon rose from their hiding place, pistols drawn.

“Hey! You’re not supposed to be here!”

Flint and Simon raised their pistols, and blew them away.

The uniforms were useful, if not well-fitting, and they soon had them on.

“Simon, can you work the code on this door?”

Simon glanced down. “Looks easy enough.”

He plugged into it from a port on his finger, and within seconds the door opened.

“That was quick. How many codes did you try?”

“Fifty-eight thousand million.”

Flint decided to put that one away for the moment, and they walked through the door.

Inside the ship was a dingy crate. Steel corridors led to more steel corridors. Lights illuminated them from all sides through miniscule ovals that lined the walls. There was an eerie glow about the place, and the floor seemed to be wet.

Simon looked at the floor and squeaked his shoe across it in disgust.

“Fish oil,” said Flint.

Simon twisted his face in disgust. “Fish oil?”

“I think this is the same ship we saw fishing in the Colorado River.”

“Why would they bring this old crate? They had some much nicer vessels, some that were much faster, and better for a rescue.”

“Maybe there’s a shipment of fish they want to dump on the city?”

“There’s a pleasant thought.”

“It’s possible.”

“But unlikely. I think we’re dealing with something much more interesting here.”

“We may never know.”

They trudged up through the corridor and marched silently through a room full of people who were all dressed as they were. Simon looked around, and whispered to Flint. “Looks like they are all robots.”

“That’s comforting. What about them?” He pointed up toward the front of the room. There stood the real Roman, and the older Robot Roman, with his hair graying hair pulled into his eyes. The two of them were holding up their arms to greet everyone. The robotic Roman stood back to allow the real Roman to come forward to the podium.

“Now that one’s real.” whispered Simon.

“My friends, robots, brethren,” he began, “I have brought you here to help me, and you will do it well!”

We are settling down now behind a mountain near the central city. Here we will build a massive staging works to mold thousands of you, my friends!” They all cheered. “Then we will take the city. Once you’re trained up a bit, we’ll sneak into the city in groups of three or four, and then when the moment comes, we’ll strike!” They all cheered again. It was like watching a dictator.

Then Flint realized that Roman was a dictator. Born in the same country, with no political ties, he’s constructed a society to follow him. He’s a virtual dictator of a virtual state, one that hasn’t been finished yet, though they all seem to feel like it’s already taken place.

The real Roman tapped on the podium. “Then there’s another thing,” he said. “Something I’ll bet none of you are aware of, save a couple.” They all looked around them. “Our friends are back.”

They roared with delight. “They are in your midst. Get them, a renegade robot, and his human partner! Call the pilot, let’s take her up. When we find them, we’ll throw them off the ship, sacrifice with style!” they roared again, and then began to rampage around to begin their search.

“Shit!” said Flint.

Simon rolled his eyes. “Is being your partner always going to be like this?”

“More than likely.”

“Why not, I’m getting used to it anyway.”

They ducked through the throng, and rolled beneath their feet. They glided between soldiers, and toppled them down, causing a ruckus.

Flint reached into his pocket in the commotion and pressed a button on his keychain. A hundred miles away, in the heart of the city, the headlamps on his hover car lit up. The hover car zoomed into the night.

Flint kicked one of his captors in the head, and kneed another one in the groin. He bullied his way through countless troops, and knocked them over like bowling pins.

Simon was nowhere to be seen. He was, in fact, acting like one of the standard troops, using it as a disguise. The effect was to put the center of attention of Flint.

The troops began to swarm around him, Simon included, and they grabbed him by his arms and legs and raised him up into the air. Flint twitched and pulled, clawing at them, but nothing did any good. Against their hard plastic uniforms his blows came to nothing.

They hoisted him up and dragged him to the front where Roman stood, laughing. “Very good everyone! Now, where is his partner?”

They all looked around themselves, and could not recognize him for anything. They all looked exactly alike. Then the robotic Roman stepped forward, and pulled off Simon’s mask. “Here he is.”

They pushed Simon into the middle with Flint, and all their weapons were taken from them.

“To the engine room!” said the real Roman.

Simon and Flint were grabbed, and hauled down to the engine room, which was near the middle, right above the grand fish tank. With the pull of a lever, the bottom of the ship fell away, and the tank lowered and moved out of site. The ground beneath the ship looked like it was a long way down.

Flint stared at the distance. “How high are we?”

“Ten thousand feet!” said the real Roman.

“Man,” said Flint.

“Let’s do it!” said the real Roman.

Flint and Simon were grabbed by their hands and feet, and hauled into the air. Hands covered their backs. Their arms and legs were tied with plastic cords. Flint began to allow his mind to drift, trying to ignore them.

The real Roman stepped forward. “We now commit these, the first two sacrifices of many to come. They will die well, and good, and soon the city will be ours!”

“Why do you want it?” yelled Simon. “What good is it to you?”

Flint began to awaken. He could hear a slight beep from the keys in his pocket.

“What good is it?” said the real Roman. “It’s the primary natural resource of our kind!” said the other Roman. “We want the factories!”

The real Roman made a bowing gesture toward the opening, and a smile crept across his face. “Toss them out.” The robots around them all began to dance. Those around holding them began to twist and turn. Then off they went.

They were out of the ship faster than thinking, hurtling towards the Earth at a blinding speed. Flint could hear it in the distance, a tiny faint hum.