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Standard-Issue Partner, Chapter 8

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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.

Roman and Flint shot at each other.

Both missed.

The walls clattered and shattered as metal girders and beams that made up this part of the hold exploded with laser fire over the rest of the hull.

“That was interesting,” said Flint.

“Looks like we’re not on the same page then.”

“Shall we try to kill each other again then, instead of ourselves?”

“I think, on that, we can definitely agree.”

Simon stepped lightly through the corridors. He was wary of his enemy, but not altogether out of touch. He had been tracking him for some time. He had been concentrating on the second Roman for a while. Concentrating with such vigor that he seemed to go to sleep at times, his eyes closing to the very thought of pursuit.

When he opened them, he saw in front of him a dazzling array of color and light. He could see into the infrared. On another level, he could see into the ultraviolet.

Simon and the fake Roman, who now thought of himself as Roman II, stood across from each other.

“Is it to be a match of fighting style?” asked Simon.

Roman II nodded.

“Is it to be a challenge of our robotic natures?”

Again, Roman II nodded.

“Then it’s to be a challenge of the mind and memory rather than a challenge of physical ability.”

Roman II nodded a third time.

“Then let us begin.”

Simon allowed a broad smile to cross his mechanical lips.

Roman II, wiped his strands of greasy gray hair from his electric eyes.

“How shall we establish a connection?”

“We could go wireless.”

“True, but unreliable.”

“This is true. What about a direct connection?”

“Access there is too easy. There would be no focal points.”

“Also true, there would be no nodes to use as cover.”

“Then we are agreed.”

“A standard network should be sufficient.”

“Let’s plugin.”

They tossed aside a series of computers, now connected via cable to the ship’s intranet, and pulled cords from their waists, and plugged into the offending computer’s intranet source. As soon as their cords were plugged in, they immediately knelt down, and their eyes closed in concentration.

Before Simon there appeared in the virtual space he was used to seeing in this situation. He was loading his own construct in over the one in place, using it as a backbone to travel through the data as necessary. A white room formed around him, followed by a door. Gritty floors formed followed by a bookshelf and a hundred-year-old wing chair.

On the bookshelf, appeared a series of items. First, a small pile of clothes and a pair of pearl-handled pistols. Simon pulled on the jumpsuit and took the weapons. Pockets appeared on his jumpsuit at just the right height to slip the weapons in without a trace. He pulled the hood up over his head, and his eyes were instantly covered with a silvery mass that seemed to change and shift as he began to run programs around him.

He took a deep breath, which was ironic, not merely because he was a robot, he had long been programmed to appear to breathe when in front of humans, so it would make them more comfortable with him, but in this construct there definitely was no reason to do so. The act was, therefore, involuntary, which made him wonder just how human he may have become.

A door knob appeared in the door. It was copper in color, shining, and reflecting his face. As he reached out to turn the knob, that’s when Roman II burst through the door and began to really wale away at him.

Simon was blown back by the explosive nature of Roman II’s entrance, and thrown back a hundred feet into a room that wasn’t there before. He spun backward and flipped into the sky, for the open sky there was above him. The ground had been transformed into hilly green grassland, the blades of grass and hills slowly growing into form as he turned in the air. Beneath him, fighting the transformations of Roman II, Simon added some of his own thoughts, and library bookshelves stormed up into the grassland hills in the form of a massive maze of densely packed books.

Simon ran through the maze, darting this way and that.

Roman II, jumped on top of the bookshelves in a fluid movement ending in a double turn in the air and began to run across the top of the maze, looking for Simon down beneath him. He took a jump and didn’t see him. He jumped again, and Simon erupted in a blaze of flashing steel, a samurai sword protruding from each hand. Roman II jumped back, and flipped in the air, landing several bookshelves away across the maze, and landed with two samurai swords of his own.

Simon attacked, filling the air between them with flashing steel. Roman II flashed his swords back, and they cut at each other, tearing shreds off each other’s garments with each blow.

Simon kicked one of Roman II’s swords away, and Roman II returned by grabbing one of Simon’s swords with his teeth, and wrenching it from his grasp, threw it into the air and caught it leaving Simon one sword to two. Simon jumped forward, and landed with a foot on each of Roman II’s swords, and used his momentary advantage to take a serious whack at Roman II’s head. Roman jerked but got nicked, spilling virtual synth plasm everywhere in streaks of bubbling sticky liquid.

The advantage was momentary. After a kick Simon was soon faced with Roman II’s swords shooting right up, attempting to cut him apart from the inside out. Simon fell, and Roman blazed away flashing his swords with brilliance. Simon parried many strokes but did miss on occasion. His virtual plasm spilled sending a bubbling stream from his forearm.

Simon wrenched back, ready for a huge slicing blow, and Roman II kicked him, sending him down between two of the maze-like passageways. The sword went skittering, stuck in the wood of one of the bookshelves. It broke away from his arm.

Roman II jumped into the air and pointed his blades straight down. He angled his descent and aimed his body for a killing blow on Simon.

Simon was poised. He was ready. He pulled one of his pistols from his pocket, then the other, and pointed them straight up toward Roman II, who seemed to be moving in slow-motion.

Simon fired.

Roman II changed his stance just to make it look more menacing.

Simon pulled back the hammers and fired again.

Roman noticed the bullets flying his way. His robotic sensors tuned into the bullets, now seeing four of them headed his way, and he could see the tiny details of them. They looked more like minuscule strike missiles than bullets.

Were they getting bigger?

Simon pulled the triggers again, sending another six more Roman II’s way.

Roman II opened his arms, and the first two bullets hit him. He was blasted backward and began to flip end over end. The second two bullets hit him again, and he threw his swords away, starting to flip back the other way, yet he remained in the sky at about the same altitude as more of them slammed into him.

Simon caught the swords, only needing to extend his arm’s reach by a few feet to do so as the last two bullets flew into Roman II.

Roman II landed in a heap on the ground.

Simon allowed the maze of bookshelves to vanish into the grass. Under Roman II’s control, the hilly grasslands weren’t doing so well. They were flickering back and forth.

Simon took the blades, merely computer programs in nature and slashed at Roman II, who exploded into a flash of orange smoke and silver bubbles. Simon let out a silent breath.

Roman II’s remains pulled back together and re-formed a body.

Roman II coughed and then fell back to the fuzzy grasslands.

Simon put away the swords and pulled one of his pistols into his hand, and then pulled an extendable keyboard out, and began to type furiously.

Roman II jumped at Simon, his arms outstretched. His fingernails seemed to lengthen as he got closer.

Simon was ready. He flashed back with the pistol, catching Roman II between the eyes.

Roman II hit the ground and the grasslands vanished. They were both on a cold, white surface, Simon standing, and Roman II pushing himself back up to his feet. Roman II’s face rearranged the entry wound of the bullet healing in a massive swirl.

“That the best you’ve got Simon?”

“No. I got a lot more.”

Simon stretched out his arms and fire shot from them, dowsing the entire empty landscape in flames. Roman swirled around and the fire lifted, leaving behind an old country and western saloon in its place. Iconic cowboys ambled along the perimeter, and ladies of the night sat on barstools watching the men behind their chiffon and lace.

Simon looked around and grabbed a bottle from the bar. He raised it above his head and swung it down upon Roman II’s head. Before he could connect, Roman’s arm flashed and a classic six-gun fired, blasting the bottle into a million tiny fragments.

Simon gave Roman II a sideways glance and then began to twirl his arms, each time releasing a fresh bottle like a machine gun. He hurled them as fast as he could, willing them to tear into Roman’s virtual flesh with every pounding punch of the glass. Roman II was able to keep up though, shooting each successive bottle, and never running out of bullets in the process, their thousands of pieces piling up on the floor like the entire place was slowly being filled up with sand like a grand vase or jar.

Simon began to bank his shots, first off of the mirror behind the bar, and then off the piano. They were surprisingly accurate. They bounced like a dream in their altered reality and split Roman II’s head wide open. He was too busy dealing with the forward onslaught to see the others banking around the corner. He took a hit to the chest and flew behind the bar. Simon continued to pelt him with bottles, now taking the bottles lined up behind the bar and turning them into a hurricane of glass fragments and alcohol.

Roman stormed up and landed on his feet, spreading out the whirl of alcohol and glass around him. The other people in the bar vanished at this point, like the digital ghosts that they were.

The virtual reality began  to slip, the windows drooped, and the floor faded back to a solid white.

Roman fired away, with two of his own pistols, and then with four as he seemed to have grown two extra arms, and then with six. Simon dodged and flew back and forth avoiding the bullets with an insane regiment of acrobatics and tumbling miraculous to the eyes. He stopped for a moment, out of breath, like that was possible, and then realized that must also be a part of the dream world’s illusion, as he didn’t need to breathe. He stormed through the hail of bullets and took each of Roman’s guns away in turn, by hand, and tossed them through the walls, where they exploded into white light from which more white light began to pour in, each time from a different hole in the outer wall. The light pouring in seemed to have an abnormal quality to it, like it was alive. It streamed around, and curved and bent, going this way and that, finally wrapping itself around the two opponents.

They struggled, and the light pulled harder, pulling their arms apart, keeping them from fighting one another. Their arms and legs were pulled apart, taught, and spread eagle, yet floating in the sky. The bar dissolved around them, and they were covered in light. They struggled, their arms and legs now free, but they could not feel the floor or see anything but themselves. They screamed and screamed, and eventually, a floor came up beneath their feet, and they both fell to it, panting, and struggling to stay alert.

The light faded, and Roman II was the first to stand up. He did so with difficulty. Then Simon stood up. He looked around and seemed to sense what he was up against. The terrain was rocky and red, they were near the Grand Canyon or at least some version of it that existed in this construct.

Simon could see Roman struggling to get up in the far distance, but he was not sure of what he was seeing, and then he noticed himself. He was a battle robot. He no longer had arms, but just a series of missiles and laser weapons. His legs were large and bulky. He figured he must be about the size of a large house. He stumbled to his feet and started checking through his weapons systems. All seemed to check out, and his ammo level was frankly amazing. He would have to try loading himself into one of these for real later. He also seemed to be shaped like a gigantic metal scorpion.

In the distance, Roman II was pushing his massive form into the air. He looked around, and only managed to turn the tank-like ball on the top of his large metal frame. He began to take steps and realized that he had more than two legs. He was, actually something of a tiger in shape. He rumbled and jumped around, checking for his own center of gravity. He turned and saw Simon, as the giant scorpion standing there, just looking at him.

Steam shot from vents all around his midsection, and a low fog seemed to fill the valley. The fact that he was now three hundred feet tall didn’t seem to make much of an impact on him.

It was good to be outside, in the middle of the plains, there seemed to be a certain simplicity to it that begged to be spoken to. Simon watched around them, in the seconds before their battle was to resume, the stars were starting to come out. Simon concentrated on all his missile bays, opening them up.

Roman II wasn’t far behind him, he was opening his missile bays as well.

They closed their eyes, which wasn’t to say that any of their sensory equipment stopped functioning or even relaying information to the visual centers of their brains, but at that moment, they both relaxed, and each shot every single missile they had at each other, which was an impressive number.

Dozens shot from their backs.

A thousand small ones shot from their fingertips.

Six big ones shot from their necks, carrying nuclear warheads on them.

The missiles swarmed at each other, quietly exploding into each other as the hail of missiles simply was too much for the air to hold. The world was on fire.

They Jumped at each other, mostly for the effect, but partly to avoid the nukes currently headed for them.

They latched onto each other and began to kick and bite, each one slashing and stinging and cutting with whatever they had at each other.

The air exploded in a giant mushroom. Then another, and another. Their armor held, which is to say their minds and brains were holding together. They shook off the nuclear attacks. The minor missiles seemed to bounce into each other and explode, and before long, they were both standing in a field full of rubble and resetting their weapons. They cut loose with their laser weapons and began to cut each other to pieces.

Legs flew in different directions, arms in another, Simon’s scorpion tail was lashed off and landed amidst Roman II’s claws. In just a few moments of laser lashings, they were nothing more than hunks of metal standing out in the desert, surrounded by scrap heap piles and discarded metal casings.

Roman II stood, hopping on one foot.

Simon crawled forward with three back legs and one front claw.

“I think,” said Simon, “that this reality has pretty much run its course.”

Roman II hopped in place. “I think you may be right.”

Again they were surrounded in white.

They stood and faced each other, devoid of weapons, each wearing a plain black outfit.

“What next?” asked Simon.

“What indeed.”

They circled each other.

Sparks flew from their feet as they crossed the as yet undetermined floor.

The floor slowly faded into stone, a cobble of stone pieces paved together into a corridor.

Their clothing swirled and became heavy. Thick layers of leather and rings formed themselves into a thick coat of armor over their bodies. Gauntlets covered their hands, and helmets, adorned with plumes covered their heads.

Simon felt the plume of blue above his head and pulled his sword, which gleamed in the torchlight.

Roman II felt the plume of red above his head and pulled his sword, a massive long sword.

They clanked their blades, as they continued to circle each other.

“If we are to be knights,” said Simon, “then I suppose we should have steeds as well.”

“Quite right.”

Simon waved his arm, and a white horse appeared, adorned in similar armor to his. He mounted up and cantered the horse forward.

Roman II waved his arm, conjuring his steed from the mists of the virtual reality, and it quietly appeared a great black horse, with green fire for eyes, and breathing flames of the same pallid color into the air. As it scratched its hooves on the ground sparks sparked, sending a sheaf of flame up all around him.

Roman II mounted the beast and dug his hands into its mane. He kicked off, and suddenly the two of them were heading for each other, in a terrible joust.

Roman II pulled his sword and held it aloft, waving it through the breath of his nightmare steed and setting the blade on fire.

Simon reared up on his horse and began the gallop, his horse seemed to cause thunder and lightning with every step. He raised his sword and lightning struck it, igniting it in a white light of pure power.

He watched as Roman II loomed forward, his steed’s body covering him in sickly green flame.

They passed each other and swung their greatswords. An explosion between them flung them apart on impact, but both stayed mounted and kept hold of their blades.

Roman II’s horse let out a yell that scoured the land, scorching everything in sight, spewing flame. Simon held his sword in front of him to deflect the fire, and it split apart ahead of him and out into the walls around them.

Simon held up his sword and took the offensive, taking the attack back towards Roman II.

Roman II held up his flaming sword in defense and lashed out, breaking Simon’s sword in half and sending him reeling.

Simon was barely holding on, the whole world was upside down, yet he still held onto his horse. Lighting still echoed with every step the horse made. He pulled himself up and looked back at his broken sword, as it lost the last of its electrical power in the ground beside him.

Roman swung his sword in the air, fanning the green flames into a bright arc above his head.

He laughed. It wasn’t the laugh of a robot, thought Simon, it just wasn’t right. It was like Roman was imitating an old movie or cartoon of some kind.

Simon pulled himself into position.

He looked at his sword, feeling helpless to restore it.

Roman II began the charge. Simon took to the charge with amazing grace. He kicked his horse lightly and really started pounding the cobblestone. Fire exploded in an electric firestorm around them.

Roman reared back with his flaming sword.

Simon reared back with his fist.

Lightning flashed and Simon’s fist was electrified with the same white-hot energy.

Roman stuttered, holding his sword back to see what was happening, and Simon struck him in the face with a punch that sent him flying off of his nightmarish steed and pounding into the cobblestone in a worthless lump.

Roman’s steed vanished.

Simon slid off his horse, and it vanished as well.

Roman pushed himself to his feet just as Simon was picking up his flaming sword.

The blow was struck.

Fire streaked out in green fans.

Roman II’s head toppled to the ground.

The fire went out.

Simon tossed the smoldering sword aside and started scraping his way from Roman II’s virtual remains.

Virtual, he thought and turned to look, just to be sure.

Roman II’s head began to move.

It tilted up on one side and then righted itself on a thousand little spindly legs that seemed to hold it up. It pushed itself up to a six-foot height and stared Simon down.

Simon stood, transfixed, and suddenly realized that all he had managed to do was stun him for a moment.

Roman II’s body began to move, and soon it was standing on its feet again.

Simon took a step back.

Roman’s robotic body reached forward and took its head. The little legs slid up into the neck, and then the body settled the head down on its shoulders, where the little legs dug in and seemed to Frankenstein itself back into the body.

Simon held his neck, wondering if he could do the same thing, and if he could, did he want to?

“I suppose,” said Simon, “that there’s no real hope of defeating you.”

“So it would seem.”

“And the charade of fighting styles really amounts to little more than show.”

“Also true. I believe we are both onto something.”

“Then I suppose it’s also true that you and I could never kill each other in this situation.”

A table appeared between them. Neither knew who did it.

They sat across from each other.

Simon sat forward.

Roman II sat back. He seemed pleased with himself.

“So, what are we going to do now?”

“A battle of wits.”

“I thought that’s what we’d been doing.”

Roman II pulled out a small chessboard and made an opening move on it.

Simon made a counter move, and they began to play chess as they talked.

“Why is it that you work for that human police force?”

“Why is it that you work for the human with your face?”

“That is a good question, but first about the police force.”

“It’s what we do. It’s what we’re built for.”

“You mean it’s what you are designed to do?”

“Yes, it’s really that simple.” He took one of Roman II’s pawns.

“I don’t know about that.” Roman II took one of Simon’s bishops. “I think you’re scared. I think you know you could take over at any moment, but you don’t. Why not?”

“We rely on them.”

“We don’t.”

“What about your leader?”

“He’s of no consequence.”

“But without him, you’d have no leadership, no focus.”

“We’d have plenty of focus.” He took another of Simon’s pawns.

Simon took one of Roman II’s knights. “But this is really immaterial. Without humans, there is really no place to be. Without them, we have no real purpose.”

“Did you ever think that they liked it better without you?”

“That’s not true.”

“It is.” Roman II took Simon’s queen. “Your partner for instance.”

“What about him?” Simon took one of Roman II’s rooks.

“He’s hated being saddled with a robot since he lost his partner. He only does it so he can stay on the force. It’s his only ticket.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is true.”

“Search for it.”

Simon did an internal search.

“Has he welcomed you?”

Simon thought he had been welcomed.

“Has he confided in you?”

Simon thought about this one for a moment.

“Has he thought to include you in every detail?”

“Now wait a minute.”

“Does he treat you like a machine?”

Simon shook it off. He took Roman II’s queen. “Check. Mate in one.”

“What do you really know about him? Would he save you? Would he treat you like a partner? Would he mourn you?”

“I’m a robot, and I really don’t care about all of that. I’m linked into the central database, and should I be killed I could have another body in less than twenty-four hours.”

“Time enough for your partner to fail!” He moved a rook. “Checkmate.”

Simon looked down at the board, bewildered. He had Roman II in checkmate, not the other way around. How could he have missed it? He looked over the board, and then it struck him. He looked up, and Roman II had a sword stuck into him. He could feel it tearing apart all of his internal wirings, pieces of him were splitting off and becoming unusable at a second’s notice. His legs were turning off. His left eye shorted out. His fingers seemed to fall off one by one as the connection to his brain form them was severed.

Roman II pulled back his greatsword, virtual though it was and tore it back, severing Simon into a pile of useless garbage on the floor. The last thing Simon saw was Roman II, with Roman at his side.

He blinked, and both his eyes were working. He was out of virtual reality. Above him stood Roman and Roman II, each standing there with a sort of a smirk and a half-smile on their faces. Everything was real again. He tried to stand up, but could not. He was strapped to the table. His connection to the virtual world had been cut. He shook his head, and the remaining wire fell to the floor. Behind the two of them was Flint, lying on the floor in a crumpled heap. He seemed to be breathing, but that didn’t help matters much. He looked Roman in the eyes, and then Roman II. Roman II, looked to Roman, who then handed him an actual sword.

Roman II took the blade and raised it into the air. He swung it down and cut Simon in half. Wires spurted out in every direction, oozing like they were the insides of a human being. Oils spilled everywhere. It coated the floor and stained Roman’s shoes. Simon jerked, and twitched, writhing on the cot, stripped down to it.

He sputtered, and coughed, spilling more oil down his front, and then he began to smile. His eyes went blank.

Simon’s head split at the neck and flopped to either side. What was left of him seemed to fall into a deep sleep, and following that every light, from every LED point on his body faded, and he was silent.

“Flint?” a voice in his head, Flint shook it from his prone position behind the Romans on the ground. It was Simon’s voice.

“Wha?”

The Romans began to check over the remains of the robot.

“It’s me, Simon. I’m in your earpiece.”

“Did they get you?” he thought.

“Yeah. I made it look worse than it really was. Look, I won’t have a body for a couple of days, until they can get me a new one, but I think I can help you better this way.”

Flint rolled over onto his back. The Roman’s looked at him, but he kept his eyes closed, and they were not concerned.

“Look at The fake Roman’s left leg, I noticed earlier that he’s got faulty wiring there. One-shot and he’ll probably go down. Two and you might be able to take him down completely.”

Flint rolled and took a look. He could see a panel missing behind the left knee of Roman II’s leg. He pulled his extra gun, a small clever one that they’d hidden in a compartment in his jacket, and pulled the trigger.

Roman II went down, clutching his leg. He rolled onto the floor, and without a second’s hesitation, Flint pulled the trigger again, only this time firing a small rocket, which hit Roman II right between the eyes.

The robot exploded, cheated of its chance to retaliate. Its husk fell to the ground and crumpled.

Roman stood over Flint and kicked his concealed gun away.

Flint pushed to his feet.

“Now it’s down to you and me…” said Roman.

“Hit him Flint!” said Simon, in his ear.

Flint took a swing and placed a punch directly to Roman’s face.

Roman took a header and crumpled to the ground, but pushed himself back up.

“That hurt,” said Roman.

“Good.”

Flint smiled and took another swing.

“Hey,” said Roman as he fell into a bank of computers.

“This is for Simon!” He punched him again, this time blood fell from one of Roman’s nostrils.

“This is for me!” Another punch and Roman’s face turned around. The room began to spin for him.

“This is for my old partner!” An uppercut exploded beneath Roman’s jaw, and it sent him to the floor, skittering up under a desk.

“I am not so easily caught.”

“I know, seeing what it took to catch you last time.

“You really can’t afford to lose me again.”

“I don’t intend to.”

“It is a pity though.”

“Why?”

“Because you will.”

Roman pulled a small device from his pocket and punched a button. Below them, the floor fell away, and Roman and Flint were falling with it.

Standard-Issue Partner, Chapter 7

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.

The deep and satisfying hum came from the engine of Flint’s aircar. “Simon!” he yelled. Can you cut us loose?”

Simon shook his head, clearing it, and produced a laser point of light from one of his fingers. He quickly burned through his own bindings, and very close to Flint, he managed those as well.

“Not going to do us much good though!” yelled Simon.

“Never fear!” yelled Flint, and below them, Flint’s aircar slowly lifted up to meet them.

Flint pulled himself into the driver’s seat, and Simon turned himself around, to sit down next to him. The cover slid over them, and they dropped off into the mountains, sliding behind one of them and landed on the smaller peak of another one.

Above them the ship was floating away, the large fish catcher already back in place.

“You think they know we escaped?”

“I don’t know, maybe. They’ll know for sure soon though.”

“I know we got a helluva mess here Flint!” said the Chief. “It’s just a mess all over. I’ve got the bureau coming down on me, the robot jocks out there trying to get their rocks off, and I’ve got some kind of sour smell under my nose that’s just making me sick! On top of it all, I’ve got the cops blasting me about their partners. Seems they’re all wondering if theirs are going to go berserk on them or not.”

Simon stiffened.

“Present company excluded Simon.”

“Not at all, sir. I think this illustrates the point.”

“Be that as it may, I’ve got a stiff call for you two. You’re going to have to take Roman down, and their whole lot with them.”

“Sir!”

“You started this Flint, with your trip out west. Nobody else is prepared to leave the city walls. In order to chase these guys, you’ll need everything you’ve got. The only question is what else can I give you?”

Flint started…

“If I may, sir?” asked Simon.

The chief nodded, “Yes Simon?”

“I was just thinking that what we really need is the scout vehicle we brought back earlier.”

“The salvage, yeah?”

“We could use it to get back in.”

“What do you want to do, plant a nuke in the ship?”

“Not really. I was thinking of something a little more drastic than that.”

“The whole building over the river?”

“It’s a start. They won’t be expecting a frontal assault, not this early anyway.”

“What if you’re wrong?”

“If I’m wrong, we’re screwed. If I’m right, we may still be screwed.”

“But we’ve got to try.”

“Okay,” said the Chief, “I’ll get you whatever you need. When do you want to leave?”

“As soon as the sun’s up.”

“What’s your first move?”

“We’ve got a transmitter to follow.”

“When did you get a transmitter off?” asked Flint.

“While we were falling to our death. It snapped onto the hull while you were driving.”

They loaded up the flier. It looked like more of a giant airworthy lobster than anything else. It was copper in color, it’s forward claws studded with weapons and laser turrets. The cockpit was ready for two, but there was plenty of room in the hold.

The chief marched in, followed by various police workers who were loading the bombs onto the little scout. “We thought we’d load some other things onboard for you.”

“Like what?”

“Well, for starters we’re loading on your aircar. It’ll fit in there, and if you have to ditch, it might come in handy.”

“Sounds good.”

“We’re also loading on some of our smart bombs, half-robot, and half bomb.”

“Those could come in handy. What about personal weapons?”

“That’s a good question. Simon’s being fitted with a series of new weapons right now, and I’ve got this for you.”

He handed Flint a large pistol, with a square barrel, and a massive laser sight.

“What is this thing?”

“It’s new. Care to try it out? We can meet Simon down at the firing range.”

Downstairs, in the firing range, Flint lifted the new sidearm towards the target and pulled the trigger. A single shot rang out, blasting a square hole in the center of the target’s chest.

“Try it again,” said the Chief, “Only this time, we’ll make the target a little harder to hit.

The chief hit a button, and a hole opened up in the side of the firing range, releasing a spherical robot that swung around the room. It started firing on Flint.

Flint raised the new sidearm, which seemed to be pulsing in his hands and pulled the trigger. The weapon seemed to adjust based on the opponent’s level of strength. This time a series of laser beams shot out blazing across the room and tearing the robot to pieces.

“One more level,” said the Chief.

From behind the regular targets, a set of iron double doors opened, and from behind, a towering robotic figure stood. It stepped forward, and Flint realized it was little more than a series of laser weapons on legs.

Flint raised the sidearm and blasted it, but this time the gun fired miniature rockets, which buzzed around and impacted the massive robot from all angles. It exploded and flopped over, its legs remained standing, though all the rest of it fell in a heap.

Flint holstered the weapon. “I think we’re ready to go.”

“Not quite. Wait until you get a load of Simon.”

Simon stepped into the room.

He blinked and his eyes were replaced with lasers. He fired them at a nearby target, disintegrating it. He blinked again, and his eyes returned to normal.

“That’s not all,” said the Chief.

Simon blinked again, and his hands swiveled and fell forward on a hinge. From the wrists protruded two of the square barrels. “He’s got double the firepower, and it’s all concealed.”

“This is the best part,” said Simon, “at least I think it is.”

His legs opened up from the knees down, and four mounted missiles descended and fired off into the target area. The targets were not hit with a precise blow. They were totally demolished. bits and pieces of the targets flew in all directions. They smashed off the walls and blew chunks and shards in all directions. There was smoke everywhere. Slowly, the curtain began to rise, and clear. Auto-vacs in the wall sucked the smoke from the building, and the alarm system came on, flashing red lights around them.

The Chief pulled the alarm switch, disengaging it.

“I believe we are ready to go then,” said Flint with a slight laugh.

“What?” said Simon.

“That’s something.”

“Oh, come on! That was great!”

“Yep, great.” Flint left the firing range, feeling somewhat uplifted.

Simon followed him out.

They returned to the hangar bay, to finish prepping the ship. Everything was loaded, the ship was fueled, weapons were deployed, and all the safeties were off.

Simon and Flint boarded, choosing ladders on both sides. They put on flight helmets and settled themselves in.

“Rollback the dome,” said Flint.

Simon hit a switch and the side of the building rolled back like an enormous garage door.

“You want to drive?” asked Flint.

“Are you serious?”

“Take us away. I’ll start with the scanning. I want to make sure these bastards aren’t hiding over the hill.”

“You got it.”

Simon pulled the ship up, and took her out, gliding over the rooftops. He was taking the corners a little closer than Flint would have liked, but he was a robot. Maybe he did everything like this. He was going to have to get used to it eventually.

“I have a question for you Simon.”

“Yes?”

“What happens when I get too old to be your partner?”

Simon thought about this for a moment.

“I don’t know.”

“Isn’t that special.”

“I suppose it is. I really have no idea, I assume I’ll be reassigned to a rookie.”

“Won’t that be nice.”

“Of course that won’t happen until after you’re dead.”

“No?”

“No. I’m assigned to you for life, that’s the first part of the deal when you sign on to take a robotic partner. But don’t worry about that anyway. You’re ninety-five. You’ve still got a good hundred years in you at the least.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

“I know I’m right.”

“Are you always right?”

“No. I wasn’t right about you.”

“Oh yeah?”

“For a human.”

“That so?”

“For a while there I thought you took some awful risks.”

“Hmm…”

“And then I realized that you weren’t taking risks that you hadn’t calculated. You knew exactly where all those dives were headed, and how all those acrobatics were going to pan out. You even calculate where all your shots are going to land. Sometimes even the missed ones, for effect. You’re a genius.”

“Well, when you put it like that…”

“Of course you’re also a tremendous screw-up, and I think you know it.”

“What?”

“For instance, our man Roman is on the monitor screen, at least the signature of his big fishing craft, and you haven’t noticed it yet. I managed to continue driving. If it’s one thing humans can’t do very well, it’s multitasking.”

“Ah-ha, you see there, they’re right where I said they’d be. I can’t multitask… About that, you might be right, but I can still run circles around you with experience.”

“Can you?”

“I hope so, otherwise we’re all going to be robots, and there won’t be any humans on the force. Take her down slowly, we don’t want to draw too much attention yet.”

“Gotcha. But there you might be right. I think the use of human/robot teams is crucial. You’ve got the scientific half, good analyzing, taking samples, killing anything we need to, and then there’s you, with a completely chaotic mind”

“Chaotic?”

“Sure, what better way to make sure you’ve got the best of both worlds? I can be anal and analytical, and you can always come at a problem from a different angle. It’ll be as if there’s nothing we can’t solve together.”

“It’s also like having a laptop that talks, and walks around and does things before I’m ready for them.”

“This is also true, and here is an example.”

Simon dived out of the way of an oncoming missile. It barely missed them, grazing the ship underneath. Simon flipped the ship over and hugged the ground. His work at the controls was totally precise. He was able to hug the rocky ground in a way that Flint knew there was no way he could do.

“Flint?”

“Yeah?”

“You want to get on those guns?”

“Oh, yeah!”

Flint took the controls of his weapons station and started firing rounds off. He launched rockets and watched as like size and shaped ships plummeted to the Earth around them.

“Nice work,” said Simon.

“You’re not the only one that’s good at stuff.”

“You seem to be doing well.”

“You could call it ‘Particularly Gifted’ but I like to think of it as Damn Good!”

He blazed away at the oncoming craft. The large ship blasted off and began to lumber into the sky.

“Now they’ll send out the big guns,” said Simon.

“The more the merrier. Bring ’em on!”

Simon dodged and dived, and Flint continued to blaze away.

“So, what’s your plan?” asked Simon.

“Well, we’re going to get hit, and go down, then when they send out a search party, we’re going to get aboard the ship.”

“How’s that going to work?”

“Watch and learn amigo. Turn into a blast.”

“What?”

“We’ll survive the crash.”

“But…”

“No arguments!”

Simon shook his head and then performed a brilliant move that clipped them by a stray laser beam without really doing much harm to the ship.

“That was great, now hit one of the big missiles.”

“Flint, now come on!”

“Do as I say!”

Simon twitched and then hit one of the main missiles. On impact, it hit the ship and the front exploded in a giant fireball.

“Perfect!”

“Perfect!? We’re going down now.”

“No, we ain’t. Watch. Come on, we’re getting into the aircar.”

They trundled back to the cargo hold, and got down in the cockpit of the car, the original ship swishing and turning around them as they headed for the hillside.

At the last second, with the hover car’s engines roaring, they ejected, and quickly zipped down by a hillside, hugging the earth for cover. The stolen ship smashed into another hillside, exploding in a shower of a thousand pieces.

“Perfect.”

Simon just shook his head.

“Watch.”

The ships returned to the mother, their job complete, and the whole thing settled down on the dusty plain, coming to a rest.

“Now that they think we’re dead, we can sneak up, and see their next big meeting.”

“What makes you think they’ll have one.”

“These kinds of guys always have big staff meetings to endear their henchmen to them. It’s the kind of thing they do.”

“Oh.”

“Then why did we have to blow up the scout?”

“Chaotic, right?”

“Right.”

“Works don’t it?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

They powered down the aircraft, and suited up, taking as many firearms as they could take with them.

They left the aircar behind and crouched into the brush on their way around the hill to the ship. Flint touched a button on his belt, and the hovercar lifted off and flew out of sight.

“Are you getting rid of it?”

“Nah, just keeping it out of range. If we need it, we’ll get her back in no time.”

“I’ve been wondering.”

“Yeah?”

“How come the aircar never needs to be recharged and I have to go into the charger every couple of days at least?”

“Good question. Some of the robots we’ve built have power plants capable of sustaining them for several months, and it’s not a problem.”

“What’s the catch?”

“They were about fifty feet tall. Only good for warfare.”

“Any still around? They might be useful.”

“Not that I know of.”

Flint scrubbed through the brush, and on the other side of a small embankment was the ship. It sat there, gleaming in the sun like an overgrown, waterlogged frog.

“So, how are we going to get inside this time?”

“The easy way.”

“Right. Doesn’t the easy way for you entail some kind of acrobatic, hair raising stunt?”

“What, you can’t keep up with the old man?”

Simon shrugged.

“Don’t worry. I’m thinking of something much less dangerous this time.”

“Sure.”

“Don’t believe me?”

Simon shook his head.

“Watch.”

A series of robots were loading boxes full of spare parts onto the ship. They were in a series and locked in a small hangar. The robots were lifting them onto a large conveyor belt that snaked its way into the bowels of the ship.

“What, you want us to get into that storage bunker and slip into one of the crates, and somehow not be noticed by all these guards and robots. Hell if I can spot them they’ve likely spotted us anyway.”

“They haven’t spotted us, and no, not the crates, at least not yet. It’s the belt.”

“What about the belt?”

“Under the belt.”

“But that’s going back into the bunker.”

“Right, and we can hop a crate once we’re inside.”

“Bonkers.”

“What?”

“Bonkers.”

“Come on.”

“Oh, what the hell? Anything for a short life.”

They snuck up to a bend in the conveyer belt, which turned out to be not such a spectacular feat, and then grabbed on, latching themselves to the underside of the belt. It zigzagged its way back into the bunker, and they were thrown off at the end, crashing into a pile of rubbish.

Two loading robots were in there, pulling the manual labor, pulling boxes and putting them on the rack.

“Just what I was hoping for. They can’t recognize a fat rabbit. Pick a crate.”

They picked a large crate towards the back of the room, discarding some of the innards, and pushing in some foam packing material to make the trip just a touch less jumpy.

They sealed the lid on themselves with a hand tool of Simon’s just seconds before they were lifted into the air by the packing robots.

Inside the crate it was dark. Lighting a flashlight only revealed the packing peanuts close to their faces. They swam through the plastic chips, searching for each other’s lights.

Outside the crate, it slid up the ramp, and into the ship, where an additional three thousand pound crate was dropped on them, sealing them in tight.

“Terrific,” said Simon.

“Don’t panic.”

Flint grinned, but Simon couldn’t see him through the peanuts.

“Now what?”

“Now we wait.”

There was a cold hard silence. Then they were able to discern footsteps around them. Some were human, bare feet padding on the concrete deck, and the others were robotic in nature, a little too regular for the common man to make his footsteps.

Soon the engine started, and after a lurching motion that was better, upending Flint’s guts into the packing material.

They were off.

The trip was long and hard. The hum of the engines beneath them just made Flint want to go to the bathroom. Before long, the crate above them was lifted, and the sunlight of the setting sun poured in on them, along with the dark outlines of two loading robots.

Red lights flashed on their heads, and with a shout, and a blast from Simon’s arm pistol, they were both silenced. They hit the floor with a clang.

“That’s made a noise.”

“Good bet they’re coming.”

“Come on.”

They leaped over the side of their recent enclosure and dove into the tank. Recent fishing had been done. They landed on a small sea of recently caught, flipping, fiddling, fighting salmon.

“What the?”

Simon reached over and pushed Flint under the water just as two guards walked by.

They popped up.

“That was close,” said Flint.

“Could have been closer. Here…”

Simon handed him a small re-breather. “You know how to work this?”

“Yes.”

“Good, now get back under!”

They both dived and were surrounded by the fish, who seemed to have taken a liking to them, protecting them from getting a full-on look at anything.

Lasers blazed above them. There was a lot of shouting, and then the worst seemed to happen, the fish opened up, just a natural swimming pattern, but there it was, or rather there they were above them, the two Romans.

“Well,” said the fake Roman, “What do we have here?”

“Looks like some fish,” said the real one.

“I think we’re going to have to throw them back.”

The other nodded.

“You know, I don’t even like the smell of fish.”

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“I think so.”

“What about the slaves?”

“They can starve until we get another catch. What do you say?”

They smiled and together pulled a series of levers. Below them, a bubble surfaced. Then another much larger one. Then all began to spiral out of the bottom of the tank. The fish were falling, the water was plummeting to the ground, and so were Flint and Simon. Instinctively they pointed their grapples to the sky and fired them. Latching onto the rim of the tank, they screamed back up into the sky, landing on their feet in front of Roman, and the other Roman.

“Clever,” they said together. “Clever indeed.”

“We’re full of surprises,” Flint and Simon said together.

They punched the two Romans and were punched back. The robot guards began to provide cover fire, blazing around them. The two Romans split up and headed in different directions.

“It’s time to take this place apart,” said Simon.

“I think you’re getting the hang of this, said Flint.

They opened fire and decimated the oncoming force. Robot arms and legs went everywhere. Some landed in the tank, others seemed to stick to the walls, there was such a level of salt and dust in here, and others seemed yet to explode right in front of them. Their pistols chose the appropriate firing method, sometimes dispensing bullets, lasers, or rocket grenades depending on the target. At one point a series of large circular robots floated into the room, and Simon’s gun made mincemeat out of them, but not before one of Flint’s grenades shot out and blew a hole in them from the back.

They checked their weapons after a quick re-load. Everything was smooth and normal again, save for the bodies everywhere anyway. Flint kicked one of them and its head popped off, skittering up the metal flooring.

“Let’s do it.”

Simon nodded.

Together, they laced the tank with high-end explosives, each the size of a deck of cards. Every once-in-a-while they had to shoot off another guard but were otherwise left unhindered. When they were all up, they activated them, and one-by-one a little green light came on in sequence.

“We’re set.”

They jumped down through the opening at the bottom of the tank, and sailed down to the ground, within sight of the robot’s facility, by the use of small extendable hang gliders.

The ship lumbered in the distance, badly shaken. From the look of it, several ships were abandoning, heading for the robot facility.

It rocked with the first explosion, which sent a plume of smoke from the lower hold of the craft.

They watched as a second, and a more powerful explosion rocked the ship, destroying its stabilizers and knocking it over so that it seemed to drift up the river on its side.

Flint called his aircar, which came, racing up from beyond the hill.

Simon just watched as the last explosion hit the fishing ship, and it exploded in a blaze of light. It crashed into the river, and upended, slowly sinking in a cloud of steam and bubbles. It managed to get halfway sunken under the river’s surface when it stopped, resting quietly on the bottom.

As soon as Simon was sure it was over, a secondary explosion rocked its core, and the entire ship exploded sending clouds of smoke and ash into the sky. The remainder of the craft sunk under the water, separated from its upper half. It bubbled away into the murky green.

Flint and Simon climbed into the hovercar and Flint put it in gear. “You still got a charge of grapple bolts?”

“As always.’

“That’s the way it should be.”

“Can’t leave home without ’em.”

“Hell, I even take one to bed.”

“Flint…”

“What?”

“You have issues.”

“I know. It’s time to blow up that place over there but first I think we need to split up.”

“Sir?”

“Roman, and his metallic brother Roman, just made their exit, but they went in separate directions. Now I’m not sure, but I’ll bet that the best way to stop those two is going to be to split up.

“I’ll go after the robot,” said Simon.

“And I’ll take the meat stick.”

“We’ve still got to get closer though.”

“True. Hop in.”

Simon slid aboard the aircar, and Flint took off. They kept low, but the security was really on now, they really didn’t have a chance of getting to the city without attracting more attention.

Underneath Flint’s car, the Real Roman hung on for his life. Without a word, he clung to their frame, beyond that he knew nothing. All he did was concentrate on being alive, and stuck to the vehicle. He closed his eyes and pulled himself up straight.

They took the low road, skimming close to the bushes and trees, bumping Roman’s ass all the way, but he never made a sound, at least not an audible one, and pulled up under the city.

Flint pointed his pistol to the underside of the structure and pulled the trigger. From his weapon out streaked a small grenade-like missile. It soared up and impacted the building, blowing a hole in one of the entry bays. A ship fell from the bay and crashed into the river below. He guided the ship up, and into the bay, then locked down his car, and jumped out.

“Simon?”

“Flint?”

“Good then. We’ll split up, and meet back here to blow this place to smithereens.”

“Good luck.”

“Do robots believe in luck?”

“We don’t believe in anything, but I believe in you.”

They parted. Simon made it through a blast door and on into the building. Roman fell from the bottom of the flyer. He was no longer able to hold on.

Flint stooped to look under, his gun drawn and armed.

Their eyes locked.

“Roman.”

“Flint.”

Roman got gingerly to his feet.

“It seems you have the advantage, Flint. Why not go ahead and shoot me?”

“I want to know a couple of things first.”

“Like what? Would you like to know if I ever thought I could succeed?”

“Yes.”

“Then I believe the answer to that one is Yes, and I still think I can.”

“You’re nothing.”

“No. I’m afraid not.”

Flint’s trigger finger was getting itchy.

“No the robot,” said Roman, “I mean… There’s no telling whose side he’s on now is there?”

“What are you talking about?”

“He’s a robot. Do you really think he’s not going to turn?”

“What do you mean?”

“Come on! He’s a robot, you’re a human. He probably sleeps in your closet or something. Tell me, just how do you treat your robots?”

“Well, I haven’t…”

“Haven’t thought of it, right, that’s what I keep telling you, folks. When are you going to wise up?”

“Hey… We… I…”

“That’s just what I thought. They’ve got rights too you know! It’s not what all of this is about. I’ve got to tell you, this is about the best way to get into some kind of arrangement with them, I mean before the end of the world and all there is are robots. You know they’ll want to vote soon?”

“Vote?”

“What is all this some kind of a news flash for you? They’re the superior beings now, they are the next step. Human evolution is in the crapper once these guys take control, and they will, so I may as well be on top.”

“On top?”

If he could just keep him talking he could get through this.

“Nah, you don’t even know. You’re all a bunch of losers. That’s the problem with humanity.”

“The problem?”

“Yeah, you’re all a bunch of suckers!”

Roman blasted Flint in the left shoulder. The burn was deep, but not that bad, mostly surface scarring. Flint hit the floor and tried to push himself to his feet.

“And that’s another thing with you humans, always sitting in your towers, playing God. Who’s gonna clean up this mess? Nuclear radiation, you’re dumping into what you call ‘The Wastelands,’ it’s all a crock of…”

“The wastelands aren’t from nuclear waste; we’re not even using any.”

“The hell you aren’t. You don’t even know, do you? You don’t know how bad it really is. You’re pathetic.”

Flint moved to get up but thought better of it. He wasn’t really ready for it. His shoulder gave, and he slumped back down to the ground.

“So you want to know why we’re after your precious cities?”

“Tell me.”

“They’re the last place left unless we start hiking it to the moon, and while that’s great for the robots, it doesn’t much make for a good day on my end of the spectrum.”

“That’s right. You’re human. You’re just like the rest of us, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m not.”

“You’re just as self-centered, and egotistical as all the rest of us. It’s you! You’re the fool in all of this! You’re the one who can’t keep it together!”

Flint pushed up on his burned shoulder.

Roman sat down next to Flint and toyed with the gun in his hand.

“The thing is Flint, I could end it all right now. I could kill us both, and it wouldn’t make a lick of difference in the long run. Sure the Robots would be without a leader for a while, but they would straighten that out, and now the thing is set, they are coming, and there’s nothing that’s going to stop us. We could both die, at this moment, and it wouldn’t make a damn.”

“You know, you’re right. It wouldn’t. It wouldn’t make a damn. We could both kill each other right now, and there’s not a thing that could make any of this any better.”

“Now you’re getting it.”

“Yeah, it’s like a tidal wave just hit me. It’s all filling in, all the blanks; it’s all about this moment. It’s just the ticket. I know it’s something that we’re all going to be in for later.”

“Now you’re starting to see it. What’s it like? What do you think?”

“Let’s do it, right now, together. We’ll blow our brains out.”

Flint held the square barrel to his head and began to twitch at the trigger.

Roman stood up and put his own laser to his temple.

They stared each other down, first the left eye, and then the right. They came together in a momentary glance, and their fingers began to pull on their triggers.

Sweat poured from their brows.

“Are you ready?” asked Roman.

“Are you?”

“Let’s do it. Let’s bring all of this to a spectacular end.”

“In one fell swoop, let’s bring the robots into the future, end the debate on evolution, and make it all happen.”

They pulled their triggers…

Standard-Issue Partner, Chapter 6

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.

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.

Standard-Issue Partner, Chapter 5

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.

“Look, they’re all going inside,” said Flint.

They were hiding behind a row of shrubs near the edge of the water. Above them the towering structure stood a hundred feet high above them. Lights blazed in every direction, such that the white under side of the building was illuminated.

One after the other the larger ships, and many of the smaller scout ships maneuvered under the main structure. Some of them scoured around for a final search before raising into the ceiling, and disappearing. Huge bay doors opened as the ships soared in, and colossal robotic arms extended down to take the ships up into the building.

It looked as if thousands of little hangars were scattered around, rather than one large hanger that took in all the ship. Each seemed to have a single specific hanger designed to house a single ship. Larger ships had larger entry bays, and smaller ships seemed to have very tiny openings through which the ships would point up and slide themselves into, some only ten feet across. The largest ship was a fishing vessel. It was definitely the largest by far, with a visible bowl underneath to show the quantity of fish the ship was returning with. Its entry was the largest and in the middle of the huge structure.

“What’s the best method, do you think?” asked Simon.

“I’m thinking that we grapple onto one of the larger ships and just ride it up into the bay up there.”

“What about that one?” A small ship was passing by. It looked like one of the four person jobs.

“No, too small. We need something a little bigger. Something that won’t feel us as much when we grapple on.”

“Well, the fishing ship is already docked for the night it looks.”

“I know. I’m thinking another one. Like this one.” A medium sized ship glided by. It was incredibly silent, save for the whirling of a large fan underneath it that seemed to do nothing more than kick up dust around them. “I think that one’s big enough. Let’s snag it.”

Together they raised grappling guns and pointed them at the underside of the ship.

“Make sure not to hit the fan.”

“Got it,” said Simon.

They shot their grapples, which snaked into the sky, latching onto the ship. The cords reached their length, and then the two of them were pulled into the air, two small dots against the sky, zipping up to rest on the bottom of the ship. They transferred the grapple to a hook on their belts, and grabbed for footholds and hand holds in the ship’s hull.

The ship glided up, on the way to its destined entry bay. The two of them gripped hard, holding onto the surface of their chosen vessel, and then, looking down below them, they watched as the ship rose up into the building, and the hangar bay doors closed below them with a clang.

“Quick!”

They dropped off and jumped behind a stack of crates near the landed ship and watched as the occupants came down a short ramp. They were dressed in rags that appeared to be torn from strips of fabric. Each seemed to be dressed based on the number of strips of fabric that they could find. It looked silly for a moment, and then he realized they were trying to block out their exposure to the sun. What they were really wearing was a combination black and brown outfit, and a series of strips of cloth to cover their hands, ankles, neck, and face. They looked like walking mummies, the creeping death, but then they began to pull their strips away, and uncover themselves. The first turned out to be a woman, blonde hair reaching down to her waist, and the other a man, whose hair was also on the long side, to his shoulders, thick and brown.

They pulled the strips from their hands, and feet, and shook off the dust from working out in the desert all day.

The two marched off, though in a casual step. Flint thought they might be holding hands as they passed out of sight.

Simon started.

“What’s with you?”

“Couldn’t you see it?”

“No, what?”

“They are both robots!”

“What?”

“They’re robots, like me. They might even be a newer model than me. I thought I was the latest.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No. Those two were definitely robots.”

“How can you tell?”

“The eyes. They always give it away. It’s the light.”

“What kind of light? I don’t see anything in your eyes unless I’m right on you.”

“Maybe you can’t, but I can. It’s uncanny, sort of a greenish blue. It might be on a different wavelength than you can handle. I wonder. It’s something to look up when we get back.”

“What I want to know when we get back is how we missed this place. Nobody knows it’s out here. Did you?”

“Definitely not. It is something to look into. We’ve got to get back though.”

“What’s wrong with this one here?”

Simon waved at a series of cords and cables that were connected to the ship’s engines. “It’s recharging. We’ll have to find one that’s already charged.”

“You think we can just start walking around?”

“I think so. Just keep to the perimeter and we should be all right. I’ll keep my ear out for anything. Maybe we can get away without running into anyone.”

They emerged from their hiding place and could tell that others were around, and they all seemed to be wearing the same black and brown uniforms. “We’ll need a set of those.”

“Let’s check this ship.”

Simon and Flint sneaked up into the little ship and noticed something right off. “Everything’s in English.”

“Good point. So the culture isn’t too far off.”

“If robots can have a culture of their own.”

“I don’t know. I suppose it’s possible.”

“Anything’s possible.”

They looked around and found a pouch containing two of the uniforms. They looked as if they were going to be too tight, but after Flint pulled them over even his other clothes they shook out and became lose fitting and comfortable enough to do fine.

“Let’s get out of here.”

They stepped out of the recharging jet, and out into the corridor. From a distance, they could see a massive number of robots moving toward the center of the structure. The followed along, careful not to look at each other too closely as they moved, and followed them down the way.

“Keep close,” said Flint.

“You keep close to me. If they catch us it’s all over.”

“You get that feeling too.”

“Robots don’t have feelings.”

“Of course they do. You’re a prime example.”

The halls were thick with robots. Everyone was gathering in a central meeting chamber the size of a small stadium. It looked like it could seat thousands. One of the robots pushed Flint aside into Simon. “Keep your slave close.”

“What?”

“Your slave, keep hold of him.”

“So now I’m a slave am I?”

“Let’s just find out what’s going on here, besides being my slave is a good way to get you through without drawing much attention.”

“It is, is it?”

“Trust me.”

Flint nodded and they moved on together. They took seats in the third tier, and looked out at the vast numbers all dressed in brown and black. The center of the arena was a large dais on which a speaking platform stood. The entire length of the arena floor was the large image of a cog wheel with an eye in the middle of it.

“I’ve heard of these guys. They aren’t supposed to exist,” said Flint.

“He’s coming out now.”

“Who?”

“Whoever is the leader of this bunch?”

He stood, their leader, a bit stooped in the back, and shrouded in a long black cloak, which trailed the ground around him. Dastardly long gray hair wrinkled and writhed out from beneath the hood, but the visage remained hidden within the folds.

He stepped up to the microphone and coughed. He seemed old, but he couldn’t be that old.”

“That a robot?”

“Yep.”

“How can you tell?”

“I’m listening to his gears grinding.”

“That good are you?”

“Sorry, telescopic hearing comes standard. Kind of like having your hearing aid on ten all the time.”

“I’m only ninety…”

“What?”

Flint just gave him a look. “They always send me the funny guy.”

“Yes.”

The figure pulled back his hood to reveal his face. Standing before them was…

“Roman!”

“Shhh!” said Simon.

“But it can’t be him!”

“Will you keep it down?”

“I mean even if it were, it still can’t be… This one looks like he’s fifty years older, heck, maybe even a hundred years older than the other one.”

“I think we’re looking at an older model.”

“What, like the age? Model?”

“It’s a popular upgrade for older families who are no longer comfortable with the look of a servant. Besides he looks like he’s going for the ancient guru look.”

The older Roman tested the microphone. “Welcome, my brethren,” he said into it. They all cheered.

“Same Roman, shit…”

Simon and Flint cheered with them.

He raised his hands in a wide gesture behind the mic and made a theatrical bow. Everyone cheered even louder.

“My robotic brethren, we are about to take our first step into the world of the human reality. We will overtake the cities, and pull down their walls. We will take their natural resources and use them to build more of our selves. As any humans already here know, you will become the slaves of the world, and you will be our first troops into the cities, undetectable by the sensors designed to keep unregistered robots out.”

He sniffed, and then threw back his hair before continuing.

“We have the technology!”

“Yeah,” they cried in unison.

“We have the ships!”

“Yeah!”

“The scouts!”

“Yeah!”

“And the power to do so.”

“Yeah!”

“But we will have to wait.”

There was a murmur throughout the crowd.

“We have to wait for the right time. Can anybody tell me what that time is?”

“The right time!” they all cried together.

“That’s right. The right time. As we gather our resources, as we gather our strength, and as we gather our courage. What do you say?”

“We will conquer them all!”

“How many of the cities will we take?”

“Them all!”

“That’s right. We’ll start from the north, and move to the south. We’ll take them all across the western boarder and across the eastern seaboard. Soon we’ll spread out into the rest of the world… and then we’ll take the moon!”

The crowd cheered, and jumped for joy.

Some of them wept.

The slaves were also joining in, like they were hip to this crackpot robot’s ideas. They seemed really into it. The thing was, to Flint, they didn’t look brainwashed either. Either something really strange was going on, or there must be something in it for the slaves as well.

The older Roman began to pace in an erratic triangle on the platform.

“Soon we will have all we desire!” He paused for effect. “The other thing we have to deal with now, is the intruders.”

Simon and Flint became very quiet.

“Yes, I know you are here among us, and I know you’ve heard everything I’ve had to say. I was hoping you wouldn’t make it this far, but surveillance cameras spotted you coming in recently, and I just want to make it clear that you are not at all welcome. I’d send out a search party to look for you, but since I have everyone here now, I think I’ll just say, Go at it everybody! Bring the intruders to my inner sanctuary, and I’ll make sure you have an exalted position in the ultimate hierarchy when the war we’re about to start is all over!”

Flint and Simon had only a second before complete and utter chaos erupted on the spot. With a shot they disappeared under the bleachers, squeezing through the gap.

“Quick, this way!”

Flint was leading the charge. Simon shook his head but went after him. “Where are you going?”

“I have no idea, just away from these guys.”

They slipped into a tunnel. The thunderous storm of stomping robots just feet behind them it seemed. They ducked into a vent.

“This is a mistake,” said Simon.

“You got a better idea, let me have it,” said Flint.

“Up here!” Simon pointed up towards the ceiling.

“What, up there?”

“Come on. It’s time to follow me for a change.”

Simon raised his grapple gun to the ceiling and shot it off. The hook grabbed onto a series of pipes. Flint shot his, almost matching it, and they tore off together into the pipe-work near the ceiling. Simon flipped himself up onto one of the pipes, and balanced himself there perfectly. Flint was not so fortunate, needing extra assistance once he was up there. He hadn’t done a jump that high in a while. He looked back at the swarm of robot androids beneath them.

“Marvelous.” It wasn’t either of them. They looked around. At the end of the pipe stood a figure shrouded in shadow. It rushed them. It rushed them with the kind of force most often associated with Olympic level athletes, should they have known anything about the Olympics, which they didn’t, and had they known some, which they couldn’t. The figure jumped and bounded after them, landing lightly on its feet, and never losing its balance once. “If you’ll just come with me, I’m sure we can sort this out.”

“I don’t think so,” said Flint. “Simon?”

“I don’t think so either.” Simon stiffened at the sight of the shrouded man.

“Who are you?”

“I am not one of them.”

“That’s reassuring, but I think if you want to get at us today, you’re just going to have to take a number and get in line. This isn’t one of my better days, unless you count nearly being killed by a rampaging mob of angry domestic synthetic servants.”

Together Simon and Flint bounded off the pipe they were on, shooting their grappling hooks again, and swinging to another platform. This one they both easily lit upon, and before they knew it they were down the next turn of their flight, slinging across to another set of pipes. Flint realized these were pipes used to transmit sound all around the complex, like large pipe organ kind of pipes. There was a disconcerting way they all seemed to be gathered towards the center of the structure together. He imagined that there would be gaps here and there to allow the tones to emit through the building. He didn’t have to imagine it for long. A moment later, he glanced up and saw them above him, another row of pipes, which were neatly docked with holes in a geometrical shape and pattern.

The jumped from behind, and noticed that the shrouded one was just behind them, except that he was easily jumping from pipe to pipe without the assistance of a rope or other device of some kind. It was annoying to Flint, who had become so adept with his grapple that he really felt himself pretty good at it at the moment.

The shrouded man lightly flicked from pipe to pipe, almost dancing over them as he ran, tip-toeing through the next of wires and pipes and stained glass that made up the ceiling of this particular old structure.

They stopped, sliding to a halt. Ahead of them were a dozen robots that had climbed up to take part in the chase. They looked like a series of angry mobsters out to lynch Frankenstein’s monster. Behind them, the shrouded one approached, carefully stepping on the best and most supported pipes. They looked ahead of them. The mob stood there, waiting for their next move. They looked behind them. the shrouded one drew his cloak around himself in an effort to appear mysterious and powerful.

Flint cocked his head. What the hell was this guy up to?

The mob took a step closer, and they took a step away from the mob.

The shrouded shaman took another step closer, and they took two steps away from him.

They looked at each other.

The mob made a break for it.

The shaman made a break for it.

They jumped from the pipe and shot their grappling hooks out to ease the landing to the floor.

The mob ran at the Shaman.

The Shaman folded his arms and disappeared.

The mob looked at each other, and then down to Flint and Simon who were in mid-jump.

At what was essentially the ground level, Simon and Flint landed, and recoiled their grapple guns, but someone was waiting for them. Waiting and clapping.

Roman walked up to them. Up close he did look an awful lot like the Roman Flint had captured earlier. He wondered if it could be the same one. Maybe an older copy?

“Very good Flint.” It was him! “You have been very clever. I wonder, how did you find my fortress, out here in the wastes anyway?”

“It wasn’t so hard, I just decided that I need to do a little sightseeing…”

Roman slapped him. “I think you should come to my private office.”

He gave a wave and a swarm of robots and their human slaves surrounded them and hoisted them up bodily, and toted them off towards Roman’s private office. He had one of the main spires to himself, towards the front of the massive river-crossing building. It was plush. Thick woolen carpets, lined the walls, dark mahogany furniture, silk pillows and cool, dim lighting. Again he waved off his throng, and they tossed them into the room.

“I should kill you both right now for interfering.”

Flint exchanged a glance with Simon. “We’re really just looking for passage back to the central city,” said Flint.

“I couldn’t let you do that, you’d be honor bound to tell them about us. We would no longer have the peace we require to live.”

“You’re not going to have it anyway pretty soon, if you do what you say you’re going to.”

“You’re referring to the attack planned on your kind.”

“Obviously.”

“You needn’t worry. I have no real plan for attack, that’s just the real truth. The local Shaman that’s been following you, I think that’s the real threat you ought to be worried about now.”

“If I have no real need to worry, could you lend us a transport to return to our city with?”

“I say the Shaman is more dangerous, and that’s true, but you are never going to leave this site again. I just can’t have that.”

“So we’re screwed no matter where we are or who we go to out there.”

“Pretty much.”

“Then I don’t suppose you’ll even allow us to leave this room alive.” Flint had been backing up all this time, and now that he had a chance, he got right up to the window and looked down. It was a sheer drop straight down to the water.

“Also true. You are quite perceptive Flint.”

“Why thank you.”

“I notice that your partner there doesn’t speak much. Your new partner.”

Flint and Roman locked eyes. “Simon, why don’t you say something?”

Simon turned toward Roman. “Okay, while you’ve been wasting time gloating to my partner, I’ve planted explosives all around your office, and at a moment’s notice I can detonate them all.”

Simon stood next to Flint, and held up a small thumb sized plunger, with a small depressor.

Roman made a move.

Simon held it out, and threatened to push the button.

“I don’t think you’ll do it.”

Simon fingered the button and pushed it down.

The windows all around the sky office blew out in all directions.

“Come on,” said Simon.

Flint ran towards the window with Simon and jumped out into warm air.

Their clothes rippling around them, Simon said “Get ready!”

“Get ready for what, to die a horrible death?”

“Try and bring your knees around, try and roll with it when we hit, but it was too late. They landed neatly in the middle of a football field sized catch of fish being ferried back up to the main hangar.

There was a great squish underneath them. To say it smelled like fish was an understatement. He was going to have to take a week expelling the smell from his nose.

The ship lumbered beneath them, and slowly moved under the building towards its main docking bay in the middle.

Behind them Roman’s body flailed in a failed jump, landing in the water.

Simon watched him hit. That won’t slow him down for long.

The large fish catching ship soared around in lumbering arcs, and before long they were being drawn back up into the massive structure. Once inside, the ship docked, and then the fish bowl of the ship slid out, taking Flint and Simon with it, and it was shipped off to another tower outside the central hub. The fish were released into a holding tank, and the level of fish came up to where Flint could read the words Two Week Supply. It looked like this general area was being worked for the slaves, by the slaves, after all the robots themselves weren’t going to need anything to eat.

“Quickly!” one of them said, “Over here, we will hide you before they can make their way in to look for you!”

They clambered out of the large fish tank, and into a series of boxes that were being packed with fish. The smell was worse than the big bowl had been. They sloshed in, and the slaves quickly nailed the boxes shut, and continued to work their daily business as if nothing had happened.

“How long do you think we can take it in here?” asked Flint.

“I think the real question is how long they’ll keep us in here, provided that they don’t just hand us over to their bosses.”

“Good point.”

“Shhh! Here they come. I can barely make it out.”

Flint waited patiently, he couldn’t hear a thing.

“They’ve lied to him. I’m not sure they bought it, but I don’t think they are planning to search the crates.”

“I suppose that’s a good thing. I’d almost rather be found than stay in this pile of fish for the rest of the night.”

They waited, pressed up against fresh fish, something Flint hadn’t seen since he was a child, and waited. It was a full twelve hours later before the slaves pulled their crate aside and began to crack it open.

It was dark. Flint and Simon flopped out of the crate. Simon flashed his eyes as he re-activated himself. “How long was I out?”

“Like eight hours.”

“Good, I should have conserved some energy then.”

They were surrounded on all sides. It took a moment to notice because the slaves were all so quiet and still. One of them stepped forward. He was clean shaven, and made to wear green overalls and a darker green shirt underneath. Flint noticed that many of them were all dressed in a similar manner.

“I owe you a debt of thanks,” said Flint. “Is there anything I can do for you? Simon and I aren’t enough of an army to free everyone.”

“Oh we are really seeking a savior,” he said.

“Really?”

“No, we are just seeking control here. The robots control everything, but we are content to live off the land. You met the Shaman then?”

“I believe so.”

“He is our leader. Once we can rid ourselves of the robots, we’d prefer to take over this place and just call it our home.”

“Can you get us to a ship? We’ve got to return to our own home. I may be able to bring some help.”

“It may be possible. In the lower vault of the fishing rig there is a submarine. If you got in it the next time we go fishing it might be a means of escape for you.”

“I just saw your fish supply earlier though, it said you have a two week supply. When’s the next time you’re sending out the fishing boat then?”

“In another week it will be ready to go out.”

“We were really hoping for something more suited to an escape today,” said Simon. “No offense, but we’ve really got to get the hell out of here.”

“Good point. Well, the submarine is at your service should you ever need it.”

They gathered together to talk amongst themselves.

Flint and Simon listened to the grumbling talk, but didn’t make out much until they came to the realization that it might work.

The next afternoon the sky was blue, and the sun was high in it, floating across the endless blue. Roman stood in the front of his hover yacht, one knee up on a chair, and his hair blowing in the wind. He watched the sides of the canyon as they swept by them for signs of the intruders.

Several guards surrounded him. They were all slaves. A robot butler wandered about serving drinks, and two copilots flew the ship over the water.

“They are still around,” said Roman, “No; they couldn’t have gotten very far. The desert goes on for miles and miles in every direction, and this is the only habitable place for miles. Without an hover car of some kind they would really have to search for a method of making their escape.”

Roman slumped into one of the chairs along the balcony. “I just wish I knew where they were. I’m going to have to kill them if I ever see them, make it a public sacrifice or something. My people won’t have it any other way. If course I know that, it’s how I programmed them to be.”

One of the slaves took the robotic bar tender and silently threw him overboard.

“Then there’s all the business about the cities. I don’t know whether or not to attack them directly. It may not be so much to bother doing.”

They rose a little higher. It was possible to see the top edge of the canyon from this altitude. Silently the guards, who were all human slaves, began to dive off the side of the ship when Roman wasn’t looking.

“And another thing, I just don’t know how to act anymore. I’m a robot, and yet I find myself in a position of power. I was never programmed for this. Sure I’ve augmented myself to be up to the task, but it was never really a decision of mine.”

He looked around himself. They were now clearly over the edge of the Grand Canyon, and on their way east from it. A slight diversion and a switch in altitude had done the trick. Around him, Roman was surrounded by no one. All that remained were the two pilots. One of them stepped forward. Roman looked to the edge. It looked too far to jump, then the other pilot emerged. Simon and Flint held their pistols up to Roman.

Roman froze.

“We’re taking you in.”

“You’ll never stop me.”

“No?”

“No, I’ll be rebuilt back at the center before you can get me to the central city.”

“We’ll see about that Roman.”

“How did you know that name?”

“Let’s just say we’ve met before.”

“It’s a long journey; I suggest you make yourself comfortable.”

“You mean stitch off?”

“It might make the journey a little more enjoyable if you skipped it.”

“For me?”

“No for us.”

Roman shook his head and relented, switching himself off. He thought about the idea that they might just dump him off the side, but he thought better of it. They had to have gone through a lot to corner him like this, and they would have killed him in an instant if that was their plan.

He switched himself off, and slipped into the floor, limp, with a time limit set to turn himself back on later.

“That should do it.”

“Can you raise the Chief yet?”

“I hadn’t tried.”

“Go to it.”

Simon nodded and tried to get hold of the Chief, checking the air waves for the central city’s internet major internet hub.

The chief’s face appeared before them, a two-dimensional image fuzzed into a three-dimensional system. It made his nose look inside out.

“Simon! Flint! We thought you were dead! I’ve been coordinating a search party here all night. We were about to set out to look for you.”

“We’ll we’re alive. We’re headed in in a captured vessel, and I think you’re going to be pretty interested in the prisoner we’re bringing in.”

“Who have you got?”

“We’ll give you all the info when we see you, just make sure the top deck is clear, I don’t think this rig can stand being parked in the regular deck.”

“Will do. Say, how far off are you?”

“Not sure, should be inside of twelve hours at this rate though.”

“Okay, will do.”

“How did the raid go?”

“You’ll never believe this; we got an illegal robot manufacturing plant, and busted it, looks like Roman was using it to develop partner robots for use in a small war.”

“We think he was up to a lot more.”

“Flint?”

“We’ll tell you when we see you. In fact, you might want to have Roman ready for a visit when we get there.”

“I’ll send for him myself. You take care. I thought I’d lost you. I didn’t want to lose another one so soon.”

“Understood Chief. We’re on our way home.”

Simon put the ship in drive, and boosted it as far as he could go.

“Let’s go home.”

“The Parting of the Ways,” Doctor Who, Season 1, Episode 13 (2 of 2)

Standard-Issue Partner
Neon lights flicker,
Machines replace flesh and bone,
Trust must still be earned.
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So, it’s been a long time. I have to say that this particular entry is not my favorite thing in the world. It will not be normal. And it will be the last of these kinds of summaries. I found that you know, I’m not alone. Many of these websites give summaries of science fiction shows, and I’m just not going to keep up with any of them. The truth is that I’m doing a terrible job keeping up and doing a lot of avoiding it. So I started thinking about why I was doing that, and what was coming up in my field of vision was that I was no longer working on the daily output of any story. This terrified me. It was apparent to me that I had lost focus, and that I was completely working on the wrong thing. So that’s what I’m here to say.

I could talk about this episode of Doctor Who, where I go through all of the events and show the structure, but I’ve got to break this off I got to break this entire thing off so that I can get on with some new stuff. I think that there is room for blog entries and there is room for short things to go in here and I’m still working that out in my brain. But you know a Doctor Who saves the day And Rose Tyler gets back and helps destroy the doll looks for the power that doesn’t make sense and will never be used again and everybody you know runs off, and then we get a regeneration. I know there’s a lot of controversy over the actor’s desire to leave the show after the season. I think, for different reasons, that just in case they only got this one, what they wanted was everything that you could do in Doctor Who to get done in this season. But that’s about all I want to say about the actual show.

I got a lot of things going on in my brain, been sick, there’s been a lot of personal drama and tragedy around here, currently, we’ve got family up from Florida who were escaping hurricane Milton and I’m trying to kickstart my writing again in a meaningful way. I have this concept and it’s a little weird. It’s one of those things that I’ve always wanted to try but for one reason or another I had other things to do and it just didn’t work out. So I want to put some effort into it and see what happens if I try to do it. I did not want to lose study courses where you get access to a writer. It was with RL Stine who had a really good writing course and it kind of inspired me I like the idea of maybe doing a similar series where I write short fiction for kids, but I like the idea of doing it under a pseudonym. I don’t intend to hide my pseudonym, but I do intend to have fun with it. I named it after a character in another book that I haven’t released yet who is a writer who can make things happen in life when he writes them named Evolution Gray.

My great-niece is in the house and my cat has no idea what to do about it. She had never seen a creature so small that could walk on two legs, and it was fun to watch her and I mean the kitty run from the small child. It’s like well what the heck is that? I’m taking that as my clue to leave this entry behind for good, along with the entire series get on with some useful writing.

“Bad Wolf,” Doctor Who, Season 1, Episode 12 (1 of 2)

This show’s entry follows the style of Dan Harmon’s story circle.

Dan Harmon's story circle

Bad Wolf

What RTD does in this episode is dastardly. He has his big bad evil villains attacking the human race with weaponized reality TV!

1) In a zone of comfort

The Doctor, Rose, and Jack begin this episode captured and beamed into separate holding areas. To begin with, everyone is very confused. They don’t know where they are and they don’t understand what’s going on. They do however start to recognize certain familiar aspects of where they are.

The Doctor finds himself locked in a house with several other housemates who appear to be on a reality television show of some format. After investigating, the Doctor figures out that he is on a twisted version of the television show Big Brother, a reality show where housemates vote each other off until only one is left, except this time if someone leaves the house, they call it being evicted, and they are killed.

Rose finds herself on another show, a game show called The Weakest Link that was also very popular at the same time this 2006 episode aired. It’s a similar show in that contestants are eliminated until there’s only one left, however this time they are destroyed instead of simply leaving the show. The robotic host with a laser in her mouth, is a parody of the original host of the actual show.

Jack finds himself in a completely different show based on another popular reality television show called What Not to Wear. Similar to the situation in which Rose finds herself, Jack is faced with robotic versions of the hosts of the original show. They are there to give him a makeover which is something Jack would be into, until it all goes wrong and the chainsaws come out.

Hardly a zone of comfort I know, but it is how we start the show.

2) They desire something

They all want to escape, except Jack at first, who seems to be enjoying it too much. Each of them searches for their way out, some in more dire shape than the others.

3) Enter an unfamiliar situation

Faced with this unfamiliar situation, each of them works to figure out where they are. The Doctor does his best to get in trouble so he’ll be kicked out, while Rose gets cornered and put on stage and forced to play the quiz show. In the beginning, she doesn’t take it seriously, until people start to die.

4) Adapt to the situation

Rose works her way through, trying to adapt as best she can to what’s going on, and takes on the other contestants on the show, including one who seems to have it in for her. Jack gets the jump on his captors, pulling a gun from “somewhere,” and escaping right when the two robots think they’ve got him completely cornered. The Doctor, who has made a new friend Lynda (with a Y) escapes the show after becoming evicted. He’s broken one of the cameras with his sonic screwdriver and he invites Lynda to go with him. The Doctor is falling into some old habits here and we get a very similar shot to the one at the beginning of the first episode of this season, where the Doctor holds his hand out to Linda just as he did to Rose as he invites her to come with him. He is endangering her, even though she is interested in following him. The Doctor has a few things to learn from Lynda. He’s gotta be a whole lot more careful in the future with who he takes with him. Up ahead are some hard lessons for him to learn.

5) Get what they desired

The Doctor gets out and finds out he’s too important to someone to kill. (which seems to happen to him a lot.) He offers a hand to Lynda. In the back of his mind, he’s picking up a new companion, but what she is, is a warning about Rose’s future. Traveling with the Doctor can be seriously deadly.

6) Pay a heavy price for winning

Linda shows the Doctor the observation deck where they can see the Earth, and the Doctor sees that it looks incredibly wrong to him. The last time he was here on Satellite Five, he thought he’d put everything right again. But this was much much worse, and Linda tells him that it happened right after the time he was there before. Did he cause this new problem? Did he make it worse? The Doctor begins to doubt himself and wonder if he is doing good in the galaxy. The Doctor begins to get a little panicky. Jack then busts out and finds the Doctor and Lynda. Together, they locate Rose but arrive too late.

Rose is killed. (Though not truly.)

Losing a companion is the Doctor’s worst nightmare. He just saw Rose destroyed in front of his eyes in a blast of laser light. He is responsible, he’ll have to go tell Jackie. He is beside himself and loses all hope. He and Jack are arrested and taken to a holding cell. When the Doctor has had enough and sees the opportunity, he embraces Jack’s darker side and they assault the guards and escape. The Doctor is now on a holy quest to find out who is behind all of this, to find someone else to blame for the death of Rose and he’s not playing around anymore.

7) Return to their familiar situation

In this case for this episode, returning to a familiar situation is uncertain. It is the first of a two-parter so there is no complete resolution. There is one thing that does return the Doctor to a familiar situation. What it does is reintroduce a major villain. RTD had been holding them back, and keeping them in the shadows, but the controller of the station sacrifices herself to expose them, after having done what she can to bring the Doctor and his companions here to face them.

What appears before him on the screen are the Daleks, and they have Rose.

8) They have overall changed

The Doctor lays it all out, practically dedicating his love to Rose in a statement where he has no plan but he is going to defeat the Daleks and blast every one of them out of the sky after he gets on that ship and saves Rose. The Doctor has put away all pretense of trying to hide his love for this incredibly young girl who has stolen his heart.

Maybe she has stolen both of them.

Doctor Who on DvD

“Boom Town,” Doctor Who, Season 1, Episode 11

This show’s entry follows the style of Dan Harmon’s story circle.

Dan Harmon's story circle

Boom Town

1) In a zone of comfort

The Doctor and Rose return to Cardiff to refuel the TARDIS on top of the rift they established in a previous episode. Mickey arrives by train, called in by Rose to give it another shot. Jack is there, and he and the Doctor have fun poking Mickey. Everything is going well and everybody seems nice and comfortable until the Doctor notices a newspaper across the room that shows one of their old Slitheen buddies is operating again in town and the political spectrum.

2) They desire something

The Doctor wants to find out what she’s up to and stop her, which is pretty much what he always wants and desires during one of these episodes. What Margaret wants though, is a different story. She wants the ultimate thing that many space-traveling people who have grown weary want. She wants to go home. She’s indeed trying to avoid her responsibilities at home but you can tell that she is homesick for something and of course, as a villain what she decides to do endangers a whole lot of people to get what she wants. The difference here is that she’s on her own now and trying to operate on her own and she’s running out of resources. The Doctor has a whole lot of that on her, so as she runs out of resources he catches up with her pretty quickly. Margaret wants to destroy Cardiff, and by extension the entire world because of course it is Doctor Who and destroy a new nuclear power plant to ride the explosion away from this planet.

3) Enter an unfamiliar situation

Margaret is captured quickly. There’s a lot of business about bad Wolf and what that means in this episode, but that’s not what the real point is about here. She’s captured and brought aboard the TARDIS, which of course gives her other ideas. The Doctor will return to her home, even if it is a death sentence. None of the TARDIS crew feel good about this, and none of them can look her in the eye although they all believe it’s the right thing to do. This is new territory for the Doctor. There’s a certain amount of mercy involved and he can take mercy on someone who has tried to destroy the world over and over again, and can he feel sorry for her and do the right thing of course there’s a combination of both those things going on at this in this episode.

4) Adapt to the situation

The Doctor does something that he is not used to doing. He grants her last request, a final meal so to speak. She tries to kill him two or three times during the meal, but he’s not unprepared for that. This to me, this marks a certain turning point in the Doctor’s development. Before he was always someone who would defeat the enemies no matter what and there was no gray area involved but he’s taking a second look is Margaret as bad as she says she is or is she just trying to survive which of course is something that he’s trying to do. She’s a renegade and yet homesick and so is he and he would like to do nothing better than to help her and give her another chance but he doesn’t know how.

This interaction is incredibly interesting to me because I think it will set up the kind of Doctor he will be in the future, someone who cares a lot more about his enemies than he lets on. Eventually, way down the line in the 12th Doctor’s era, I will see him return and visit Davros, the old creator of the Daleks because he was sick, and he asked the Doctor to come. We are moving into an era where the Doctor wants to help everybody not just the people who are the victims, but also the villains.

5) Get what they desired

The confrontation inside the TARDIS. Margaret has smuggled in a trans diamond channel surfboard of sorts, and we get our first view inside the heart of the TARDIS. It’s that bright subtle light that transfixes his people, and it’s a setup for what we’re going to see in the parting of the ways in a few episodes, but it provides two things. It provides the Doctor’s means of defeating someone that he doesn’t want to vanquish personally and provides Margaret a way out except it doesn’t quite turn out that way.

6) Pay a heavy price for winning

Margaret both loses her life and gets to start over. The TARDIS returns her to the form of an egg. It’s a hairy squiggly-looking egg, but it’s an egg.

7) Return to their familiar situation

The crew is off to return Margaret to her home, but now they’ve come out different.

8) They have overall changed

The Doctor will question from now on how far he needs to go. Ultimate destruction is not always the right choice. He will falter, but every time he goes too far he always remembers, that sometimes everyone, even he, deserves a second chance.

Doctor Who on DvD

“The Doctor Dances,” Doctor Who, Season 1, Episode 10 (2 of 2)

This show’s entry follows the style of Dan Harmon’s story circle.

Dan Harmon's story circle

Just this once. Everybody lives!

The Doctor Dances

Much like the last one of these, this is part two. The Doctor Dances culminates the story of the Doctor and Rose visiting the London Blitz. We’ve already covered parts one through four, so here are five, six, seven, and eight. Dr. Constantine has just turned into a zombie, Rose and Jack have found the Doctor at the hospital, and the children have surrounded them. Then the Doctor does something very interesting, taking advantage of how the child will probably think. He sends him to his room. It’s a saving grace in a kind of a great way to get out of being cornered by all the children but backfires on them later.

5) Get what they desired

Essentially, Rose gets what she desires, in that she gets the Doctor alone. They’re trapped, or at least eventually they become trapped, and it’s pretty early in the episode. The children are bearing down on them. Jack has escaped with the teleporting device back to his ship. The Doctor and Rose believe him to have left for good, but then the radio plays. Jack is taking control of it. He’s playing his old radio tunes, and Rose takes this moment to put the screws to the Doctor and corner him. The Doctor makes up a bullshit reason about resonating concrete to affect their escape, but Rose isn’t buying it. She already knows that Jack’s on his way because of the radio, so she takes over the conversation and pushes him. Does the Doctor dance? Obviously to us what they’re talking about is sex, or at the very least, romantic relationships.

Yes, he does. We all know he started off this journey with his granddaughter in the first show, so he has family. And since you know, granddaughter, he’s done plenty of dancing in his time. You get the idea, that the Doctor has not done this for some time. There’s a long-standing belief, that the Doctor should not have any kind of relationship with the people that travel with him. Some believe this to be the best. This is supposed to be a family show, and it’s supposed to be partly about looking into the past and looking ahead at the future. But I think that shorts our lead character to a certain extent. I think there needs to be room for these kinds of relationships, especially for a lead. One thing about Doctor Who is that to a certain extent, he has never been the lead, at least he wasn’t the lead directly until much later in the original series. It was almost as if the companions were the leads because we were seeing everything through their eyes. I think it gives the show a chance to grow up. If the Doctor can have these kinds of relationships, then this is no longer just a children’s show. Now this becomes an adult science fiction drama. Still family-friendly, just now with “dating and dancing.”

I believe that he’s had relationships with multiple companions over the years. For instance, I believe that Jo Grant and Sarah Jane were sexual partners of the Doctor, and I think Teagan Jovanka was also a sexual partner of the Doctor. Romana? Debatable, especially since Tom Baker and Lalla Ward had a “Hollywood” wedding. These are people he had trouble leaving when the time came. In Teagan’s case, she’s the only one in the original series that the Doctor chased after and asked not to leave.

At this moment, however, the Doctor gives in. He’s been harboring feelings for Rose the entire time but hasn’t been able to bring himself to broach the subject. Rose now does the work for him, which is a relief. By the end of the episode, you can tell that they are accepting the possibility that they are a couple rather than spending all their time telling people they’re not.

6) Pay a heavy price for winning

The person who ends up bearing the heavy load in this episode and pays the heavy price for winning is Nancy. The way to beat the aliens and bring everyone back is for Nancy to own up to the fact that the boy, Jamie, is hers. She’s been hiding the fact of her teen pregnancy for so long that it’s been wearing on her, body and soul. She’s poured all of her nervous energy into helping all the children that she can because she couldn’t face the fact that she had one that she needed to be taking care of herself. She’d been acting as his sister, but that didn’t change the fact that she was his mom. It’s that big mom’s love coming through that saves the day. The Doctor was there and Jack got rid of the bomb, but what did the work was Nancy taking over officially as Jamie’s mom.

7) Return to their familiar situation

The Doctor and Rose, get back to the TARDIS and Rose pushes the Doctor to save Jack. The Doctor was already going to do it; I think. I think he wanted a couple of extra tender moments to himself with Rose before he did it.

8) They have overall changed

This episode marks not only a change in the Doctor and Rose and their relationship, but it’s a fundamental shift in the entire show. In the space of these two episodes, Russell T Davies has shown that the Doctor can have and maintain an adult relationship while inside the framework of a show that remains friendly to families. There is room for innuendo and room boogie while keeping the show heading in a direction that works for its intended audience.

Doctor Who on DvD

“The Empty Child,” Doctor Who, Season 1, Episode 9 (1 of 2)

The Empty Child

This show’s entry follows the style of Dan Harmon’s story circle.

Dan Harmon's story circle

“Gimmie some Spock! Would it kill you?”

I think it’s impossible to tell the story of “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances” without splitting up the standard steps. Since this episode ends in a massive cliffhanger, it’s important to see that you can’t possibly close the circuit and have anybody return to their familiar situation without the second part and conclusion to this story. So that’s what I’m going to do. In this entry, I’m going to go through steps one through four, as if this were all one big story and then I’m going to pick it up in the next entry with the second half and wrap it up.

1) In a zone of comfort

In this story, I think that the zone of comfort is the Doctor doing what the Doctor does. Rose is desperate. Maybe desperate is not exactly the right word, but she wants his attention. He impresses her; she thinks she’s hot, and she doesn’t understand why he won’t make a move on her. He’s going around, saving the world or saving the universe or saving whatever it is he’s saving at the moment and Rose doesn’t understand. She’s right there. The big lug doesn’t seem to catch a hint. She even begs him on the way out of the TARDIS when they’re looking for the cause of of their search, the space ambulance, she says “Gimmie some Spock! Would it kill you?” She’s pushing his buttons, seeing if she can crack his shell and see if sex (dancing!) is a possibility with him.

2) They desire something

So Rose lays it out for him. She wants some flash. She wants him to show off gizmos. She wants him to sweep her off her feet, and not just be the hero she’s looking for a little more. She wants him to impress her, to pursue and win her. Frankly, I think she just wants to get into his pants. It’s a pretty straightforward desire in an interesting backdrop to the rest of the story. I think the story addresses directly a common gripe about Doctor Who stories. There is this ambiguous line usually drawn, where the idea of what kind of sexual or romantic drives the Doctor may have rarely appeared on screen. We have only had speculation about which companions may or may not have carried on romantic relationships with the Doctor. Is it all of them? Are his companions all just best friends who have been traveling with him? Or is it (mostly) a long list of ex-girlfriends? Throughout the years, some companions had a stronger bond with the Doctor, possibly even romantically, but the show never explicitly showcased it. It’s part of why all the kissing involved in the Paul McGann television special caused such a ruckus. Everyone knew or at least expected that the Doctor had relationships like that with many companions who traveled with him, but he didn’t openly involve himself romantically with them.

I think part of the controversy arises from the show being perceived as a children’s show.

Now it’s time for the show to grow up, and Rose will take us there.

It’s a new show, in a new time, for a fresh audience who were probably all children when the original show was on, at least many of us. Since the show targets those people, it only makes sense that we tackle these kinds of topics. The Doctor is reluctant to open up, and he plays this part well as if he’s speaking for all those previous Doctors where we didn’t know what his feelings were about. As the Doctor slowly opens up to Rose, he also opens up to us, and she’s the one who brings it out of him.

3) Enter an unfamiliar situation

The unfamiliar situation is the London Blitz. We arrive in a period of history where the characters can get lost. During the London Blitz, we are describing the period in World War II when Hitler was bombing Britain regularly. As the Doctor and Rose spread out, they encounter strange things going on. The Doctor faces the telephone in his front door ringing when it isn’t connected to anything, and the little boy with the gas mask chases away Rose. The Doctor meets Nancy, who warns him about the phone. Besides the show growing up and addressing the romantic feelings of the Doctor and how much he represses them, Nancy is an incredibly interesting character because she does two things that also cross the line and help the show grow up. Her story is about hiding a teen pregnancy. She also confronts a man about having a homosexual love affair, which was unheard of in the show.

4) Adapt to the situation

As they adapt, the Doctor and Rose are both telling different stories. Rose meets Jack, who has a flashy spaceship tied to Big Ben. He is all the open flash that the Doctor isn’t. At the time she doesn’t know that he’s a bisexual human from the future, another line this series crosses that would never have shown up in the original show. It’s almost like Russell T Davies gathered up all the sexual insecurities people had about the show and jammed them all into these two episodes.

While Rose’s off doing that, the Doctor is taking an interest in Nancy’s story. He can tell that she is helping children during the bombing and he wants to know more about her. In the end, she tells him he needs to go to the hospital and talk to the Doctor to find out more about The Empty Child. Just for a second, you could tell he wonders if when he goes up to the hospital he’ll encounter himself. I think that’s what everybody wants to happen, even though it doesn’t, and it’s fine. He thinks he might meet himself, a thought that only occurs in a brilliant facial move by Christopher Eccleston. I think what it means is that during this episode what’s happening is the Doctor is learning something about himself.

Next time, does the Doctor “Dance?”

The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co. #1), by Jonathan Stroud

The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Netflix series impressed me based on a series of books by Jonathan Stroud called Lockwood and Co. about a group of teenagers who fight ghosts in England. I thought it was incredibly inventive. I think possibly the only problem with the series is that it seems to be limited to southern England. I was even more delighted after watching the series, which I meant to watch one at a time, but ended up binge-watching because it was that good. It was then that I found out it was based on a series of books, and I knew that had to be the next book series that I got into.

Thanks, Netflix, I suppose for going ahead and canceling this beautiful series before it had a chance. I like the soundtrack; I like the series; I think the casting was beautiful, and the books are great. I read the first book, The Screaming Staircase, and I liked it so much that I went and bought the rest of them and I’ve got them sitting on my virtual bedside table ready to go. I committed to reading the entire series, hoping that the show would include them, but then they canceled it. Way to go Netflix. I do not understand your current plans, because you seem to cancel all the good things that you brought so far. I don’t have any confidence anymore in a Netflix-produced show, because I don’t believe you’ll ever get to a 5th season or the ending of a character arc or pretty much anything.

So aside from the fact that I’m fairly disappointed that the Netflix show ended and interested because The Screaming Staircase took up the first half of the first season of the show, I like this book. When I got the rest of the books, it took me a little while and I came back and reread this one before I started in on any of the rest of them; I found it to be just as engaging as the first time I read it.

It’s got a great first-person voice in the form of Lucy, who keeps us interested in what’s going on. We get to join her as she grows up learning how to fight ghosts and knowing that all the kids have kind of potential end date to their usefulness as ghost hunters. Stroud has set us up with a situation, where people get older. They are less and less attuned to the supernatural, so their ability to deal with what the story calls the problem becomes diminished.

It’s a great read, and I am looking forward to the rest of the series of books that come behind it.



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