Tag Archives: dystopian future

Standard-Issue Partner, Chapter 3

Standard-Issue Partner
Neon lights flicker,
Machines replace flesh and bone,
Trust must still be earned.
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This is a draft version of a chapter from John Saye’s book, Standard-Issue Partner.

Workers arrived the next morning early, Flint was still in his clothes from the night before, his beard was a little on the scruffy side, and the second cup of coffee was still biting at the edges of his consciousness.

They found Simon propped up on the couch. Flint wasn’t thrilled about the manner in which this made his apartment look like a crime scene, but there it was, the best he could do. The eyes were still black. If he could have closed them or propped them open or something, that would have been something.

The workers brought in a plethora of contraptions, the first of which was designed to take Flint’s coat closet and turn it into Simon’s single bedroom. It was an upright chamber with clamps in place at the waist, head, and ankles that looked like something out of Frankenstein’s laboratory. It lit up electric green when they turned it on, and it did seem to dim the lights when they first activated it.

One of the workers bent down and pulled up one of Simon’s legs. “Sir,” he said. “There is an extra power pouch down here next to his ankle.

Flint looked at the ankle and couldn’t see anything unusual about it. “I don’t see anything.”

The worker put his hand around the ankle and twisted. Quickly, the robot’s foot popped back into position, and the worker dropped the leg. “He’ll now have enough reserve power to get to the booth and plug himself in. Once he reboots.”

How long is the reserve charge?”

“A few minutes tops.”

Simon suddenly shook his head and stood up. “Well, that was interesting. Drop off did I?”

Flint pointed over to the workers.

“Ah, great, my booth. looks ready.”

“How long does it take to recharge?”

“Depends. Eight hours overnight, and I’m good to go for twenty-four. I could do a flash charge for thirty minutes and be ready for the day, but I’d have to go back in the box early that night.”

“Let’s do that.”

Simon nodded and walked over to the booth. He tapped it with his fingers, and it opened. He stepped in, attached the clamps to himself, and then pressed another button inside. The booth filled with green light, bright enough to read by.

One of the workers closed the old closet door in front of the booth and blocked out the light. He smiled at Flint and finished cleaning up the debris around where he had been working.

There were other things brought in, various appliances. Half of the kitchen was converted into a workshop, complete with a variety of high precision tools for working on the robots.

“Do I have to know how any of this stuff works?”

One of the workers replied, “It doesn’t hurt, but the robot will make use of them himself as he needs to make repairs. He’ll basically take care of himself.”

Within another half-hour, they were finished, and Flint wasn’t sure if he’d ever see his apartment the same way again. There was a soft ding from the closet, and Simon came out. He even looked like he was rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“You ready?”

“Sure thing.”

“It’s about that time. We need to make it in and get out assignments from the Chief, though I imagine I’ve got an idea what he’ll do.”

“Proving grounds?”

“Most likely.”

A half an hour later the Chief looked at them and said “Proving Grounds.”

“We knew it,” said Simon.

“But first, you’ll have to get Simon here geared up. He’s got a standard-issue laser pistol there, but not much of anything else.”

Flint took him down to requisitions, which was basically a huge discount store that also sold bullets, laser packs, weapons, police hover-cars, and it all came out of your check. Of course these days everything seemed to come out of the check. Having never seen an actual check, Flint decided he was going to have to look up what one of those looked like later.

First, they went for the underwear, boxers with T-shirts, then they went for the rest of the outfit. It included a long duster, hat, dress pants, and a white shirt.

A zipper was added for access to his inside-the-thigh holster, and the suit was well-tailored. Flint liked the look, though he could barely pull it off. He was thinking in terms of allowing people to feel the robot was in charge of turning routine calls and allowing him to get in folks way and out of his while he did the real work. It never really worked that way, but it never hurt to dream either.

When they arrived later at the proving grounds they both went for black jumpsuits. The standard-issue laser pistol was the only thing allowed onto the course.

After suiting up, they crossed into a small auditorium, and ready to meet them there was a short robot, trash can-shaped, with lots of extra arms protruding from its top. Most of them seemed to be for a particular function. One of them was a laser pistol, another was a soldering iron, another was a five-digit hand, then a periscope, and on and on. The body of the robot was green, and it looked like it had been in there for some time.

The lights dimmed, and a projector flared to life in the back of the room.

The green robot chirped to life, and several mismatched eyes around the section of body most associated with its head lit up. Some were green, others red, and one large cyan eye seemed to gleam above all the others.

“Gentlemen, I am F-Force 269. Officer Calvin, your new partner is scheduled for training in the proving grounds today, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Then let’s get on with it.”

The big cyan eye blinked, and a slide appeared, projected on the wall behind the old robot.

On the slide was an image of a spherical floating robot with a series of green eyes around it at the top and bottom, and several blaster holes through which lasers can be fired at any time.

“The first task is to eliminate all of these little buggers, there’s nine of them in all in the course. They were massive, at least fifteen feet tall at the outside, and ten feet wide. The proving grounds were made up of the sixteenth and seventeenth levels of the building together, and Flint had always suspected that there were a host of audio-animatronics, illusions, and just plain robots that went into it. It was changed on a biannual basis, and Flint had actually served on the committee that designed the course on three different occasions. Not on this one though. Every ten years, when you are first admitted into the force, and each time you either change or lose a partner, you had to go through it again. When he was on the committee Flint had suggested that every cop should go through it at least once every three years. Stepping through the door today, he wasn’t sure he could make it through alive again. Some recruits died attempting the proving grounds, that was simple logic they would never have been able to handle the job.

Flint wondered.

He checked his laser pistol one more time. Everything checked out. He turned to Simon. “What’s your model’s record on achieving the proving grounds course?”

“Ninety-five percent.”

“What of the other five?”

“Three percent were destroyed saving their human partners.”

“And the other two?”

“The other two were destroyed by their human partners in firing mishaps or other human error.”

“Terrific.”

“Terrific for you, not coming out of this functioning is one of the only times the force won’t rebuild a robot partner.”

“Why not?”

“If they can’t make it through the proving grounds, they are considered defective, and scrapped.”

“Well, with any luck neither of us will get scrapped today.”

They stepped through the doors. Before them was a large circular room. Windows around the walls showed a computer-generated underwater landscape. A digital readout above the door read “1 ft. Above Sea Level.”

They looked around them. There were tables strewn with aqua-lungs, re-breathers, chain-mail suits of pull-on armor, diving belts, and underwater gear.

“Looks like an underwater adventure.”

“Naturally.”

Flint gave the robot a look, but it wasn’t seen, and he didn’t say anything.

Then they began to plummet. The windows in the walls gave way to water, the sky was soon no longer visible, and before long they were in the deep, dark ocean.

The meter on the door began to flash first ten feet underwater, then thirty, then sixty, then a hundred and twenty. When it came to a stop, Flint and Simon were securing their pressure suits. It was a pretty interesting setup. The aqua-lung was connected to the suit in several places making for a break-away effect that left room for a lot of flexibility. First, there was an ordinary wet suit. on top of that was a fine layer of mesh in the form of ultra-light chain-mail armor. Above that was a special pressurized suit for ultra-low depth diving. The usefulness of the suit was that each layer could be broken away at any given time, that and that they were armed.

Every gadget known to man seemed to be strapped onto them in some way, shape or form. Aside from their lasers, which were already rated for firing below the water, they were each covered in grenades, ink squirters, infrared goggles, extendable flippers, small water engines that sucked water in and squirted it out of the back. They were set. They were ready. The lights went out, and the water started pouring in.

Simon checked his suit for the last time, though it was devoid of an oxygen tank, he was carrying some extra equipment. He frantically checked for air pockets or leaks.

The water poured in and filled the room. It did so in a matter of seconds. Flint and Simon were blown off their feet and into the room. They swirled around watching the whole place turned upside down around them and held their breath. A few moments later, the room was full, and they were floating in the middle. Lights lit their faces so they could see one another.

Simon motioned to Flint, and then a comm channel opened between them. “Are you all right?”

Flint nodded. Aside from being thrashed and beaten up a bid by the inrush of water, he was actually feeling pretty good. “Yeah. Not bad I think.”

Simon lit a flashlight and shined it around. It was attached to his helmet. Flint turned him on as well. They looked around the room and pushed through the pile of overturned tables and desks where their suits and weapons had been sitting only moments ago.

A small television screen blurted on, inside their helmets, in a sort of a heads-up display. It was the little green trash can again.

“Good, it looks like you’ve both gotten the aqua suits on fast enough not to be killed by the water. That’s very good,” said the can.

“Got any other good news for us?” asked Flint.

“Yes. Here’s the scenario. In a moment the doors ahead of you will open. Your mission is to penetrate the team of ex-seals and retrieve as much of the technology bundle they’ve stolen as possible. Then you are to capture as many as possible, and return them to the surface all before your air runs out.”

“Perfect. How much air do we have?”

“You have an hour.”

“And Simon?”

“He’s a robot. He doesn’t need any. Please make use of this fact as you dive. It’s a critical part of your success, and will be graded harshly.”

“Any other delightful news?”

“Yes. The chain mail will come in very useful.”

“I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.”

The image fizzled and fell away.

“Terrific.”

Before them, a second large door opened, and the tunnel mapped out before them.

“Lights out Simon.”

Simon nodded and switched out his lights.

“Flip on your infrared.”

Simon and Flint flipped them on at the same time. The corridor ahead of them shifted to black and white, but they were still able to see quite clearly.

They drifted up and through the tunnel. Flint checked the temperature and noticed it was freezing cold. “Shouldn’t be much life here.”

“Of course, you know it persists in the coldest temperatures.”

“True, but I’m thinking in terms of the sharks we’re likely to see.”

“You think they will being sharks in?”

“Maybe not real ones, but you can bet there will be something. this chain-mail isn’t going to stop a laser beam, but it might stop a shark.”

“What else do you think.”

“Remember we’re on the sixteenth and seventeenth floor of the police tower.”

“What good will that do?”

“It’ll ground you. If you think about it you’ll be able to tell if something isn’t really as big as it looks when you’re looking at a wide area. Also, things that are really real will start popping out more often than not.”

“Anything else?”

“Yeah. So far this doesn’t look as hard as the three of these I’ve helped design.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Those all started blazing away before the participants were able to suit up. The delay in any challenges is creepy. Either it’s rougher than anything I’ve ever seen, or it’s not tough enough.”

“What’s the problem then?”

“The stats on this version of the test. There’s only a sixty-percent pass rate.”

“What about the death rate?”

“About ten percent. Simulated death anyway. Just keep thinking you’re still in the police tower and come up here.”

Simon turned his head and saw that Flint was swimming along inverted, against the ceiling. He moved up to join him.

Flint squinted and thought.

“What do you think?” asked Simon.

“Any moment… Now!”

Ahead of the two large spherical robots swooped in, followed by a third. They created currents in the water that was difficult to swim against.

Flint hugged the ceiling. Simon followed suit.

The robots passed them.

“Why didn’t they shoot?”

Flint sniffed. “They weren’t using infrared. They won’t make that mistake twice. Let’s blast them!”

Flint and Simon shot down into the middle of the corridor, using their personal jets, and blasted their way down. The robots seemed to turn, or at least their glowing eyes seemed to swivel about on little track lines on their body to see them floating there.

“Here they come!”

Flint pulled a small rocket launcher from his gear and popped off a rocket into their midst. Simon cut loose with laser fire. It cut one of them, sending plumes of oil and smoke into the water. The rocket exploded and sent shrapnel in all directions. Flint twisted and swerved to avoid the pieces. One of the robots was damaged by the blast, but the other seemed only lightly grazed. The damaged one and the one cut by the laser blast fell into each other and exploded sending a plume of bubbles toward the ceiling, and they slowly sank to the floor. The other cut loose with its lasers, blasting them in all directions and began to rotate the lasers down little tracks across its spherical body so that it lit up the room and began to create a boxing effect, driving Simon and Flint down toward the floor.

“Quick, down here!” Flint headed for one of the husks of the other two robots. He dived in, hiding amongst the rubble. Simon dove in after him. It was cramped, but there was some air here and there in little bubbles as they slowly streaked out through the cracks. “Find its weapon systems.”

“How?”

“You’re the robot, you tell me! Plug into it or something!”

Simon considered this for a moment, and then tore the glove from his left hand, a gauntlet and all, and wiggled his fingers. His index broke in half and a stream of little soft wires protruded from the digit, snaking their way into relay panels in the gigantic robot.

Above them the third robot stopped shooting, and starting scanning, looking for them among the wreckage.

“He’s scanning now. Can you hear the hum?”

Simon nodded. “Just a second.” He twitched and screwed up his face. “Got it!”

The husk of a robot lit up beneath the one that was still functioning. The pristine model scanned down and seemed to look around, as all the husk’s remaining guns twirled around and shot straight up at it with a terrifyingly concentrated blast.

The robot exploded in a gigantic fireball, scorched underneath by the other’s rays.

It began to sink, its air pockets blowing away through the cracks.

Simon noticed, just as Flint did. “We’ve got to get out of here,” they said and used their jets to zoom out in different directions as the one collided with the wreckage of the other in an underwater blast.

Soon all was dark.

They hid among the wreckage. “There are supposed to be more of them.”

Simon concurred. “Nine, right?”

“That’s what I thought.”

“Maybe there are around the corner.”

Then they heard it, the hum of the robots.

“Here they come.”

“Sounds like a bunch.”

“They’re dragging something.”

“How can you tell?”

“Robotic ears. I can hear your ulcer bleeding.”

“That’s nice.”

“It’s very very useful. Let’s stay hidden for a moment.”

“All right.”

They hid and watched as the other six robots passed over them. They seemed not to notice the wreckage of the other robots beneath them, but they were dragging something behind them.

“What is it?” The infrared in Flint’s display had temporarily fuzzed-out, still re-calibrating from after the last blast.

“It’s a box of some kind, looks about the size of an aircar, maybe smaller.”

Flint’s video display cleared. “Yes, I can see it. It looks like a mail cartridge; they’re used on short space flights. I wonder what’s in there…”

They waited for the robots to pass, deciding to tail them for a while and see where they went. Flint checked his oxygen, He seemed to have less than a half an hour left. Flint tapped his timer.

“Are you going to tap me after I’m blown to bits to see if I still work?”

Flint ignored this question and tapped the dial anyway.

Staying far enough behind to stay in the dark, they followed the guard robots, which were pulling the crate behind them in the water. After a couple of turns, they dived down a small opening and came to rest on the floor below. The crate sunk and settled on the bottom of the chamber, and the robot guards seemed to let go of their tethers and float up, right towards Flint and Simon!

“Quick! Over here!”

Simon lurched and saw Flint disappearing behind a short wall. He zipped over there, in his suit and ducked behind the wall with him. They watched as the six robots took up century duty over the hole.

Simon pulled his rocket launcher.

“No!”

Simon put it away again.

“Not every victory is a kill.”

Simon watched him

Flint breathed deeply. “I’m going to conserve some air. I want you to swim back down the corridor and make a diversion. Draw them to you, then I’m going to get down there and see what’s in that crate.”

“What kind of a diversion?”

“The best kind!”

Simon tilted his head, thinking about what would disturb the robots the most.

“Forget the robots.”

“How? That’s the object right?”

“Yeah, but we’ll need more time than that. Do something that will keep the guys in the control room running this test busy too.”

Simon waited for the idea.

“Go tap into the computers and tell the central hub that the aquarium they’ve got up here is leaking into the records department.”

Simon nodded. “I’m on it.”

“It ought to keep everyone busy for at least a few minutes.”

Simon set his little jet and zoomed down the corridor, careful to keep all his lights off. One of the century robots noticed him but did not seem to register him as a threat. They continued guarding their area.

Flint watched the second hand on his watch, he had to time it just right. A few ticks later the robots all started floundering around looking in all directions. Simon had managed it. The robots floated up to the ceiling to start checking the pipes, and a few ticks after that Flint was in, settling down near the cargo box. He twisted open the back panel and slipped into the airlock in just enough time to see several men, though Flint new all the participants here to be robots by design, shooting past him, riding underwater jet skis.

He cycled the hatch, and air-filled the chamber.

He pulled his mask and threw his tank aside. He’d run out of oxygen, and pulled off the outer layer of his suit, revealing the chain-mail. He dripped, but he did it very quietly. Ahead of him, several people were unloading a crate in the small underwater box. They were not wearing wet suits. The alarms were still blaring outside. The robots, being programmed to react like humans were starting to get a little jittery.

He took aim, and with the help of a powerful scope shot one of them in the head. The robot went down, circuits oozing from the hole in its head. The others took cover, but another shot took out the second one with no problem. The third was shot by Simon, who then stepped into the clearing with the crate they were examining.

Flint almost shot him.

He came out of the darkness and landed in front of Simon.

“What the hell was that about?”

“I finished him off, besides here’s the crate, we can examine it while everyone is searching for the fault in the aquarium’s electrical system.”

“You could have radioed me or something. I nearly shot you, thinking you were another one of them.”

Simon didn’t know what to think.

“Come on, open this thing up, and let’s take a look inside.”

Simon tore the top of the crate off and inside was a series of computer parts, but the most interesting thing seemed to be a series of memory cards.

Simon picked up the memory cards, and the shipping box they were in rock. “They’re on their way!”

“Quick,” said Flint. “Download everything on those cards. Just keep one as evidence. We’ll need to be almost hands-free to get out of here.”

“How are we going to do that?”

“By blasting this crate. There’s a cockpit at the front. They use these things to load and unload cargo in space.”

“And underwater?”

“Who knows. Maybe they’re trying to simulate a space mission while keeping it on the planet.”

They clambered up to the front and get into the cockpit. Flint smiled. “Make us a hole.”

“That’s likely to destroy part of the chief’s office at this site.”

Flint smiled again. “Good.”

Simon hit the laser-armed on the little shuttle and blasted the ceiling. The water really did start to leak then, a steady stream of bubbles began to surround them. They used the bubbles, combined with the limited mobility of the shuttle to bring it up to the ceiling, where they used robotic arms on the sides of the shuttle to grab hold of the ceiling.

Flint pulled up out of his chair. “Now all I need is a little re-breather.”

They searched through the supplies at the back of the cargo area and came up with a re-breather unit. It had a short air supply and fit over Flint’s mouth and nose. “This ought to do.”

He took it with them and they climbed to the top of the boxes in the cargo hold. Flint looked to Simon, “Blow it.”

Simon looked at the panel Flint was pointing at. “Easy.” he blew the hold. Above them, there was a dripping and wet but filled with air, the pocket where the ceiling had been torn away by blaster fire.

Flint looked around them. “This way.”

“Where are we going?”

“To the Chief’s office.”

“Ah…”

Flint maneuvered through the inner workings of the air duct they had blasted their way into and crawled up through this way and that until he made it where he was going, and punched his way through the air intake in the Chief’s office.

The Chief jumped as Flint pushed his way in, followed by Simon.

“God Dammit Flint!”

Flint smiled, and took the memory stick from Simon and handed it over to the Chief. “The rest of the data is stored in Simon here. Simon, let the Chief have it.”

Simon pushed his finger into the memory slot of the Chief’s computer interface, and downloaded all the information into the Chief’s computer, and brought it up. On the screen, images of tactical movements on the moon between troops of different nationalities enveloped the screen, and plans for space fighters and high-intensity weapons filled the screen.

“Good work,” said the Chief absently. “Good work. Now get out of here.”

Flint and Simon turned and left.

“Not bad, for a robot.”

“Not bad for a human.”

Flint smiled, though not intentionally.

They ordered up the hovercar and made their way back to the apartment. The air was swollen with cars and the head of exhaust and greenhouse gasses. They passed by spots where Flint remembered going on stakeouts with Roberts. It seemed like an age had passed.

“Maybe I should retire.”

“What?” Could a robot be stunned?

“I don’t know. I’m not sure I’ve got it anymore.”

“You kicked ass today.”

“What kind of talk is that for a robot?”

“It’s programmed in, sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, just be yourself.”

“Doing my best. It’s you I’m thinking about at the moment.”

“How’s your fuel level doing?”

“I’m fine for another six hours hard running, sixteen if I’m just arguing with you.”

“No arguments here.”

“No, you’re just thinking of quitting the force, that’s all.”

“Put things plainly there don’t you?”

“Sometimes it’s hard to move on.”

“Is this in your programming too?”

“Fifty-nine percent of cops like you saddled with a robot for a new partner consider bailing out. We have to expect you to try at some stage.”

“Perfect. What’s the percentage of cops who actually do it?”

“One.”

“Just one?”

“That’s being nice. Almost no one does it, but everybody thinks about it.”

“What’s wrong with having a human partner though?”

“Here’s the thing. I don’t eat, besides recharges I barely sleep, I’m usually pretty dependable, and I’m usually right when it comes to forensic evidence, all of which I’m qualified to take and evaluate while in the field.”

“So you’re just a tool then.”

“A tool and a friend. Besides, the main goal isn’t to have fewer human police anyway.”

“No?”

“No.” Simon paused. “It’s so that the force can cover twice as many emergency calls and busts as before with the same number of human cops.”

Flint didn’t say anything. He was thinking of a comeback for that one.

“Besides,” said Simon. “You like it.”

“What?”

“You like it. You were great in that training exercise earlier. You were focused. I only out thought you a couple of times.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“It should be.”

“No, look I’m just not sure I want to ride around with a robot all the time.”

“Why not? You encounter them all day, and you know how to deal with us.”

“I don’t know.”

“The Chief will be pissed.”

“He’ll live, I’ve pissed him off before.”

“Not like this. It’s one thing to have a spat, but to leave him, it’ll hurt.”

“Not as much.”

“Not as much as losing Roberts?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, well I know. Give me a chance though before you have my memory wiped.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Life’s not fair then, is it.”

“Look let’s just get in out of this haze.”

Flint piloted the hovercar into the entry bay at his apartment building in the sky. He landed and locked the craft into its harness.

He and Simon left it there, but not before Flint went to the edge and looked down. “I’ve never seen it you know.”

“What?”

“The ground. I’ve always been up in the sky soaring around in the sky.”

“Come on.”

Flint and Simon went in. Flint went for the coffee first, starting the brew for the strongest cup he could muster. Simon prepped the recharger, and stepped into it, turning it on, and sitting back into the little booth provided for him.

“Goodnight Flint.”

Flint slurped half of his coffee. “Goodnight Simon.”

Simon closed the booth and allowed the recharging juices to take him.

Flint went to the window of his apartment and tried to look down to the ground. He couldn’t see that far. The buildings just seemed to go on forever towards a bottomless pit. Of course, he knew the ground was there. He knew that some animals even still lived in parts of the earth. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do about all of that, but he was sure that soon he was going to have to see them, or at least go looking for it.

There were calls to make and plans to break, but it could all wait for the morning. Of course, there’s always the next assignment to take care of, and the next adventure to go on.

He went to Simon’s recharging cabinet. There had to be a better way than this to have a robot for a partner. There could never be a chance to dispute who grabbed the check at a restaurant, there would never be a celebration over his promotion, there would never be a gray hair on his stinking head. He hated the robot. He wished it would go away. Why did he have to enjoy working with it as much as he had today? How could you stay angry and resentful when the thing wanted to be angry with was so goddamn helpful?

He smacked the glass, but Simon didn’t stir. He just sat there recharging. He wondered for a moment if it was possible for Simon’s android brain to dream in there as he recharged. He thought he could do with some recharging himself.

He slumped into the couch, a plush leather job, and kicked up his feet. Maybe he’d ask Simon if he could dream in the morning if he wasn’t having him hauled away. With little difficulty based on the day’s physical activity, he fell asleep.

Standard-Issue Partner, Chapter 1

Standard-Issue Partner
Neon lights flicker,
Machines replace flesh and bone,
Trust must still be earned.
Buy Yours Here:
Amazon - Books2Read

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

Flint and Roberts sat, thirty stories in the sky. It was raining as the other hovercars sped around them. Roberts repositioned the vehicle, moving it closer to the edge of the high-rise building, and under a short ledge, out of the rain. Flint fiddled with the controls in front of him, and an image came in, fuzzy at first, on a screen in front of them.

“I’ve got him,” said Flint.

“Are you sure?”

Images on the screen flickered. It looked as if several people were eating dinner in an Italian restaurant.

“That’s him.” Flint waved at the screen.

“So it is.”

Roberts hooked the hovercar into the side of the building, and engaged a clamp mechanism, locking the car to the side of it. Rain poured down all around them. The night was settling in, and the only light was flickering on them from their instrument screens, and from hover cars speeding nearby.

“How is the robot doing?” asked Roberts.

“Not that bad considering. It’s got a good bead on them.”

“Not like those new ones?”

“I suppose not. They aren’t right.”

“Yeah, your partner should be human at least.”

“It’s just the way things are going these days.” Flint adjusted his monitor.

“Yeah, everybody thinks the robots are the way to go.”

“But for a partner? It just doesn’t work.”

“I know.”

“Have you seen what they can do?”

“I haven’t looked. I don’t care.”

“I guess one day we’ll all get replaced.”

“Then what will we do?”

“Sit back in luxury?”

“Not likely.”

“Why, what are you going to do?”

“Become a robot repairman. What else will there be?”

“I don’t know.”

“It’s funny though.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. It’s funny. You’d think they’d be nothing like us.”

“But they are.”

“I’m not so sure about that, but they’re damn good, and almost everybody is using them for a partner these days.”

“True.”

“How can you talk to a robot though?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m talking about the little things, or maybe they aren’t so little. Your little girl for instance.”

“What about her?”

“Do you think a robot could relate? Do you think they can understand what it’s like to sit up all night while their wife is in labor, or when a child gets the first tooth? With a robot, I don’t think there can be as clear a connection. You to Be able trust your partner.”

“And to do that you have to know them.”

“And if you don’t know them how can you ever trust? I mean, could you ever put your life in the hands of something made of steel rather than flesh and blood?”

“I don’t know.”

“I guess you never know.”

“Some of the other guys don’t seem to have a problem with it.”

“I’m just not sure.”

Roberts tapped the monitor. “What’s Roman up to in there?”

“Looks like lasagna.”

“There has to be a better way to do a stakeout.”

“I dunno. He’s got to move soon.”

Roberts pushed back in his seat, laying it back. “Got to stretch.”

Flint shifted in his seat and sipped from a safety sealed coffee mug. “I hate these things.” He shook the mug, a feeble dribble of coffee came from the lip. He sipped it from the side as it trickled down.

The screen chirped to life with a crackle.

Roberts sat up and looked forward.

Flint turned the screen, “He’s on the move.”

Roberts gunned the engine and released the claw from the building, bobbing the hovercar down into the pouring rain. “Good deal, it’s about time we got off of this building. Where is he?”

“Looks like he’s heading for the south street.”

“Well, one way or another he’s going down tonight.”

“Don’t jump the gun, he’ll see us too soon.”

“Nobody’s going to see me too early.”

Roberts maneuvered the car into the rain and dived into the streets below. “You got him locked?” asked Roberts.

“Locked and ready.”

“Looks like the car’s navigation is getting a bead on him. Should have a solution in just a moment.”

“I can see him!”

“Where?”

“Just over there, on the other side of that billboard. He’s gone.” The computer beeped and a screen flashed. “We’ve got a solution.”

Roberts looked down at the tangled web of turns and twists and frowned.

“No good?” Flint tapped the controls.

“I’ve got a faster way.”

Roberts veered off to the left, taking a side tunnel between two buildings usually used for garbage pickup, and twisted through a tight passageway.

The computer piped up. “Of route, recalculating.”

Roberts slapped the navigation computer. “Useless.” He switched it off.

“Hey, we need that! It’s tracking him!” Flint switched the machine back on.

“Acquiring satellite.”

“I hate that thing.” Roberts pulled the steering yoke and leveled out the aircar. “There he is.”

Flint looked up. Ahead of them was an aircar, much bigger than theirs and in the style of a limousine. It was lumpy in appearance, smooth around the edges like a large mass of plastic bubbles.

“Target acquired.”

Roberts rolled his eyes at the computer “I think I know that. Flint, can you get a picture in there?”

“Let me try.”

Flint turned knobs on his control panel and twisted dials. A fuzzy picture of Roman came into focus. “I guess robots are useful for something. I’ve tapped into one of their photoreceptors.”

“He’s got robots in there?”

“Yeah, at least five. They seem like standard bodyguard style.”

“That should be interesting.”

Roman’s face appeared on the screen, fading in and out. For a moment his face is clear and the audio of him sharpens. “And that will be the last of them,” he said.

“What’s he planning?” asked Roberts.

“I don’t know.”

“You think he knows he’s being followed?”

“I don’t think so.” The rain beat down upon them. Roman’s limousine was nothing but a wash of color in front of them trailing red brake lights.

Lighting streaked across the sky. It flashed right in front of them. Roman pulled to the right “Whoa.” they spun around, and then straightened up.

Roberts looked around, “Where did he go?”

Flint shook his head and blinked, rubbing his eyes to return his vision. Blue patches hung before his eyes in streaks. “Dammit!”

Roberts flung out a pointing finger. “There!” he turned the aircar and dived down into the sub-streets below the city. Under levels of old physical streets and bridges, the rain lessened, only pouring in around them as the bridges and streets above them permitted. It created a kind of a stained glass effect around them distorting lights and movements.

The computer came to life tracing their flight in three dimensions as they careened through the water. Warning lights blared and alarms whistled.

“You’re too close to the wall.” Flint hung onto the dashboard.

“We’ve almost got him.”

“I am too old for this…”

“No you’re not, you’re only ninety-six.”

“What’s your point?”

“You’re not too old. Hell, I’m only a hundred and two.” Roberts turned the wheel and followed Roman’s limousine down through a circular tunnel. “I agree we’re not in our fifties anymore, but it’s not like it’s time for a mid-life crisis or anything.”

Flint ignored him. Medical technology had come a long way since he was a child, that was true, but he wasn’t sure that they were in quite that good of condition. He checked his badge and the power on his laser pistol.

Roberts flipped the ship upside down, slinging it through a series of pipes, barely missing an electrified laser gate.

“I don’t know about you Roberts, but I’m looking at seventy years on the force, and I still can’t seem to get enough together to retire.”

“You’re ready to retire?”

“I didn’t say that!”

“It’s what I thought I heard.”

“It’s just that seventy years of anything gets old after a while.”

“You mean like being partnered with me?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“Maybe you want one of those new robotic partners. That way you could pop in another personality cartridge anytime you got bored with them.”

“Lett’s just drop it.”

“I think you’re just tired of me!”

“Jeff!”

Roberts stopped. It had been at least thirteen years since he’d heard his own first name, and it stopped him for a moment. He wasn’t really sure how long it had been.

“What?”

“Drop it. We’re almost on Roman. Let’s bring him in, then we can duke this out later.”

“Agreed.”

“Look, there he goes.”

Roman’s limousine plunged into a series of underground caves. Roberts followed him, keeping close to the ceiling of the cave, and inverted, so they could look down at Roman’s limousine from above.

“He’s stopping, activate the cloak.”

Flint hit a switch on his panel and the car’s hull shimmered, and then appeared as if it were a part of the cave ceiling. They clamped onto the roof of the cave and powered down the ship.

Below them, The doors of Roman’s limousine opened and out stepped five robot bodyguards. They formed a line, and Roman exited the vehicle, walked past them, and through a small door. The robots followed him, and soon the limousine took flight and went down a small corridor. All was dark, save for the dripping of water from the cave ceiling.

Roberts and Flint opened the canopy of the aircar, and seat belts in place, they did not fall to their deaths. Instead, they each reached for a small latch at their side and hooked into it, then, releasing their belts, they rode a thin strong cable to the floor a hundred feet below. Twisting like bored acrobats, they touched down on the ground like it was second nature to them. They released the lines which slid neatly back up to their ship. Flint pulled a remote control from his belt and punched a button on it causing the canopy on the ship to close. The cloaking unit still activated, it blended into the ceiling and disappeared.

Roberts checked his laser pistol’s power level and tucked it away. “Ready?”

“I always am.”

They pushed through the door and found themselves in a dank corridor. Lights flickered around them, and drips from the ceiling penetrated their clothes and slipped in through gaps at their neck and wrists.

“They can’t be much farther up now. Why do you suppose they would come all this way?”

“Not sure. It can’t be for a good reason though, and what about all those robot guards?”

“How many are there?”

“Five.”

“That seems like a lot of firepower.”

“For anything except a massacre, yes, I suppose you’re right.”

Roberts smiled. “I haven’t been on a bust this big for a while.”

“Feels good doesn’t it?”

The tunnels twisted and turned. Flint opened a small device latched into his wrist, and checked to mark the progress of the guard robots he was tracking. “They’re not far off.”

“No, they can’t be.”

“It’s got to be right up there.”

Ahead of them was a door with a frosted window. Lights danced and shimmered across it as if from a great bonfire in the distance. They could smell the smoke in the back of their throats. The air began to feel warmer.

Flint loosened his cuffs.

Roberts shook his head and adjusted a visor over his eyes. It gave him a thermal readout of the scene ahead of him.

The door was warm to the touch. It blinded Roberts’s thermal relay, and he discarded it for a moment. It was warm, but not hot, it was possible.

“You ready?”

“Let’s get in there.”

They cracked the door and saw no one except a guard robot on the inside. It noticed them, and Roberts took it down so fast it never had a chance to send a relay message.

Roberts swung up and connected with the robot’s power pack, which every cop worth a paying wage knew about. It confused the robot long enough for him to pull the power, and then carefully lay the robot on the ground.

Flint knew his part in all of this, he pried open the robot’s chest plate, and dug his hands into the wires, cutting some, and twisting others, until he pulled enough of them away to get to the central hub of sensory input. He plugged in a small round device that he pulled from an inside pocket. When it connected a small green light lit up. He was in. Within seconds the chest plate was back in place, and they were hoisting the robot back onto its feet.

“You get the memory circuits?” asked Roberts.

“Not only will it not remember us, but it’s programmed to never remember seeing or hearing us in the future.”

The robot stood up and returned to its post, looking right past them. The two old men, still appearing roughly in their forties despite their real age looked over a short ledge behind the robot, with the robot’s eyes feeding into their visors.

Below them, a large bonfire lit the room. Around it stood a variety of crooks and thugs. Most of them looked like ordinary folks, and others looked like more high-profile bounty hunters and some of them looked like they were made of money and bad intentions drove their daily use of it. Roman stood at the head of the group, pacing in front of them.

Roman cleared his throat. “It seems gentlemen that this town is not long from ours. It seems to me that given just the right leverage and use of our tools and talents that we could run this town to the betterment of us all. We are useful, talented, devious people in desperate need of making a living aren’t we?”

The thugs and bounty hunters watched him with their arms folded. Some nodded. Flint watched them in his visor. It looked like they were still deciding whether or not to take the bait or turn on Roman. Roman continued to pace.

“Are there any questions?” Roman asked.

One of the thugs raised his hand.

“Yes?”

“Well, What about the robot cops?”

“What about them?”

“They are getting harder and harder to avoid.”

“The robotic cops are of no concern. They are no more than bodyguard partners for the few remaining cops that they have left to work the streets for real. They are not a threat. If anything we should thank them for spreading the local police departments as thin as they have done. Anyone else?”

“What about our bodyguard robots?”

“They are as useful as they can be, but remember that a human mind is always more devious and devilish than the robots can ever be. It’s why they are such a bad idea in the first place. The robots can only think a certain way. They don’t learn, it’s hard to program them, and the efforts to make them easy to talk to have failed miserably. There’s nothing for it. Besides, they are easy to control.”

One of the Bounty hunters spoke up. “What do you mean?”

“Here, watch,” said Roman. He pulled a smartphone from his pocket flicked his fingers across the screen, and from behind a concealed door next to him stepped an R-COP 5000. It was a slender beast, armed to the teeth with hidden weapons. Roman snapped his fingers and the robot came to attention. It stood there, a vague assemblage of parts that represented a cross between a fiberglass crash test dummy, a fashion mannequin and a work of art blown in glass. “I call him Manny.”

Roman snapped his fingers again. “Manny, show us what you’ve got.”

The Robot seemed to smile, gesturing its head in an inclination to Roman. It held up its left and right arms, and with a twitch of its elbows, two pistols appeared in its hands from hidden compartments. He showered the ceiling in bullets, then as quick as thinking he flicked his arms and the guns were gone and replaced with two flat steel blades. He sliced through the air and twirled around stopping to pause menacingly in front of one of the thugs in the front row.

“You see,” Roman gestured toward the robot. I can even make them harm themselves. He snapped his fingers again, and pressing a button on his phone, the robot looked at him with the sense of disdain, and then calmly stepped into the fire.

Next to them, standing near where Roberts and Flint were hunched down, the guard robot they had commandeered popped, and fell over, crumbling to the ground. Everyone in the hall looked up at the disturbance.

At their feet, the robot seemed to crackle with electricity. “They’ve rigged it. I should have known.” Flint looked at the smoking robot. It jerked and then really exploded sending shrapnel in every direction. Flint and Roberts ducked and the shower of parts and sparks flew over them.

Down in the hall, Roman scowled. “Cops.” He flipped a switch on his phone, and the R-COP 5000 jumped from the bonfire, landing on the ledge overlooking where Roberts and Flint had been just a moment before.

The door behind Flint and Roberts burst open, and the R-COP 5000 stormed through it.

Flint breathed heavily as he ran. “That’s the latest model, I think.”

“I think it is too.” Roberts pulled a compact device from his belt.

“If they can already control them…”

“We might be in a lot of trouble.” Roberts activated a small device, a bomb, and threw it behind him as they ran. It clicked onto the robot’s chest and stuck there, magnetized.

“Hell, we might all be in a lot of trouble.”

The robot stopped in the hall, and pulled the device from its chest and examined it about the time that a small blinking green light on its surface turned red and it exploded, taking most of the robot with it. For just a few moments the two of them were alone in the hall with the R-COP’s legs and pelvis, which took a second or two longer to fall to the ground, running without a torso for a few additional moments. A second later the eyes in the robot’s disembodied head went out.

A second after that Roman, leading a small army of thugs were right behind them.

Roberts and Flint stepped into an old elevator shaft, and pulled cords from their belts and pointed them up the tunnel, shooting razor cords into the darkness. They struck rock, grabbed on and the two of them shot up into the darkness, leaving the thugs behind them.

They discarded the cords and ran down the tunnel. They could both hear their pursuers behind them and still gaining, though hindered by the old elevator shaft.

They ducked around behind a series of overturned crates. The metal grinding of the bodyguard robot’s legs passed them by, followed by Roman, who slowed to a walk in the wake of them, and stood calmly as they continued on up through the underground passageways into the night.

Roman stood there. When he turned around to make his way back down to the meeting area, he saw them. Both Flint and Roberts stood, guns raised, and poised to strike. Roman walked up to them and stood there, his hands outstretched.

Flint bound his hands while Roberts searched him, pulling the robot controller from his pocket.

“What’s this?”

“It not illegal to own.”

“We’ll see about that Roman.” Flint pushed Roman into the wall and roughed him up, punching him in the stomach.

Roman remained very calm after expelling a forced cough from the impact. “You two don’t have a chance.”

Flint ignored him and pushed Roman forward. “Officer Roberts?”

“Shall I read him his rights?”

“You know I rather think not.”

Flint pushed Roman forward, to the edge of an elevator shaft.

“What are you doing?” Roman asked.

“Making something clear,” said Flint.

“Oh, I think everything is quite clear.”

“And how’s that Roman?”

“You are going to threaten my life.”

“Yes.”

“And then you are going to try and force me to divulge information.”

“Without?”

“Without any regard for my personal safety or the fact that I’m going to kill both of you before you have the chance to do anything of the kind.”

“You are a dog.”

“And you are a Cop. Sorry, that’s the worst that I can come up with at the moment.”

“Okay smart-ass…”

Flint plunged Roman toward the elevator shaft, keeping hold of his neck, and jerked him back. Roman yelled, but it was more out of surprise than anything else. He began to laugh. In the distance, there was a silent grinding buzzing in their ears.

Flint shook Roman, who stopped laughing and looked him right in the face. “You think I don’t know you’ve been following me for a month and a half?”

Flint let him go. It wasn’t voluntary.

“Yes, it’s true.” Roman brushed off his coat and readjusted himself. “You and your partner here are going to have to get with the rest of the century. The robots are the way of the future. Everything revolves around them these days. It’s inevitable. You’ll all be replaced, and I’ll own this town!”

“Is that what you think?”

“Isn’t it obvious? The constant inclusion of robotic technology, the way they do everything for you now, the way they clean your cars, take care of your food, shine your shoes, take your dogs out for a walk. Now with ninety percent of the police force dependent on them, trusting robotic partners who can be hacked by satellite at a moment’s notice and turn on you in an instant doesn’t work!”

Roberts stepped up and slapped Roman hard. Roman stepped back and nearly fell down the elevator shaft.

“Now that wasn’t any good at all.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“This.”

Blaster fire rang out behind them. Flint ducked for cover, but Roberts wasn’t so lucky. The shots were all aimed for him in the first place, presumably, they would target Flint in a moment and he had to act fast. Robert’s body flailed, the very gunfire itself holding him up and in place until he came to rest on the ground a mile below the surface world where the torrents of rain had been reduced to the mildest trickle.

Four of the bodyguard robots had returned, realizing that their owner and operator was no longer with them.

Flint rolled back and tossed an electrified bomb into their midst. Its fuse was short. Flint ducked for cover and the bomb exploded sending electronic shrapnel in all directions. The robots shorted out and fell to the ground. It wasn’t a terribly good solution, best for buying some time at least though. He popped up; gun trained on Roman, and cocked the firing mechanism. “I think a short walk Roman,” he said.

Roman complied, but with an expression of boredom firmly locked on his face.

Flint opened a panel on his uniform and allowed three small floating robots to hover about the scene taking pictures and photographs of the crime scene. One of them dived down and permanently dismantled the robots, and another took finger, skin, blood and hair samples from everyone in the vicinity.

Flint took Roman and pushed him forward. “Let’s go. I’m going to have to add murder to your current list then.” within moments another series of robots were on the scene to clean up. They took away the dismantled robot bodies and the remains of officer Roberts. Flint stood by and watched as they took away his partner. He jabbed Roman in the back as they took him away, and wondered vaguely if this meant the end of his career or if he was going to be saddled with one of the new robotic partners like Roman was talking about.

He pushed Roman forward and walked back to the aircar. He pressed his remote control. The ship’s cloaking device cleared and the ship lowered to pick them up.

Flint shoved Roman into the back, a compartment saved for the scum of the Earth, and took off.

“It was bound to happen,” said Roman.

“Shut up.”

“I mean, as dependent as you are these days on robotic technology…”

Flint twitched and bit his lip. “I’ll make you pay for this.”

“Pay… whatever for…”

Flint punched the Plexiglas that separated them.

Roman jumped back from the impact, but then laughed from the release of tension.

“You haven’t got a clue.”

Flint arrived at the funeral late. The wind was blowing. All of their carefully combed and color-treated hair of those there looked like wild and wooly messes atop all of their heads.

Flint stood on a small rise not too far from what was left of the cemetery. Built-in an upward spiral toward the real sky, here the dearly departed lived in concrete graves surrounded by Astroturf and circular, spiraling ceilings of blue and daylight bulbs. The wind was real as they were close to the cemetery’s apex.

A holy man, dressed in black, finished some words over the body, but they never penetrated Flint’s heart. They were lost in the wind, less than real to him. What was real was the realization that he was alone. For the first time in forty years, he was alone. Had he missed having a family? In his nineties, he was still virile, and strong. Medicine was still on an upward spiral, and the human life span hadn’t been properly measured in some time. He laughed but it was more out of nervousness.

What was the solution? What would happen when he returned to the force? What about the extra desk that was now in his office? Once his partner’s, would it become dusty, left there like the remains of a legend like in those old movies after a detective loses his partner? Would he be able to survive this at all? It had been a long time since he had been saddled with the old man. Would they just downsize him? What about robots? The new robot partners, that was definitely a thought. Certainly, they wouldn’t saddle him with one of those. Hell, one was practically responsible for what happened.

He watched. Holy words had been finished while he was thinking, and people were beginning to break up. Dianne brushed past him, Roberts’s wife, she was beautiful, but he did not speak.

“Flint,” she said.

“He’s gone for good, isn’t he?”

“Yep.”

There was kindness in her eyes, and perhaps a string of bitterness as well as sorrow, but something seemed to soften it for Flint as he stood there in front of her.

She took him in her arms and hugged him.

“I’ll get these guys.”

“You already have.”

He looked into her eyes.

“Didn’t you hear? Roman’s dead.”

“When?”

“It was last night. The shower room. We’ll never have to worry about him again.”

Flint breathed. It was like he’d been holding it for about an hour straight. The color seemed to come back into his face.

“What I’m worried about, is you,” she said.

“I’ll be fine.”

“I know you will. Still, sometimes it pays to be thoughtful. Do you know what you’ll do?”

“I want to stay with the force. It’s all I really have.”

“Don’t forget you have me.”

She kissed his cheek and took her to leave.

Chief Parkers were next in line. A gruff man with flat hair, a flatter nose, and the flattest gray eyes known to man, he towered above Flint, who was starting to tremble.

“It’s all too real, Chief.”

“I know son, It really is.” He gestured around them. “All this, the loss of a partner, it’s the scariest thing a cop can face in this day and age. Of course, pretty soon there won’t be any more partners to lose.”

“You mean human partners.”

“Of course. That’s what I mean.”

“How many are left?”

“A dozen or so, worldwide.”

“Just that many?”

“Yes. It’s an interesting phenomenon. I still remember my first partner. But that’s all in the past now.”

“In the past.” Flint thought about it for a moment. In the past… What was the future? What would it hold?

“Naturally you’ve been wondering, I suppose, how it was all going to go down after the dust settled.”

Flint couldn’t believe he was getting a job evaluation at his partner’s funeral. He clenched his fists and bit his lip.

The Chief persisted, “It just seems to me that you are too valuable to the force to let go at this time, of course, a retirement is an option, and no one would think any the less of you. You’ve had a long career.”

“If I stay?”

“First thing you’ll need is a new partner, then we can start getting you an assignment or two, get you back in the saddle, so-to-speak.”

“About the partner… I…”

“No need to worry yourself, you’ll have the best we can give you, though getting used to having a robot can be an interesting fiasco if you’re not up to it.

“What if I refuse the partner, want to go it alone?”

“No chance. Our robots have gotten our cops out of so many scrapes, it’s just not advisable. Besides they are basically walking computers at any rate. You’re used to those.”

“Yes, but…”

“Not another word. If I have to instruct you to treat this as an order, then I’ll do so. You really have no idea what these guys are like. Pretty soon you’ll wonder how you got along without one.”

“I can’t wait.”

“Good, we’ll see you bright and early at the proving grounds. It’s going to take some time to get used to this and believe me, we understand.”

“I’ll be there.”