The Bar

The Bar

                He picked up the quarter and gently flipped it. “Heads, I win. Pay up mate.” The cyborg said to his metal opponent.

                “Well, it is a 50 50 chance between a win and a loss.” Said the droid as he forked over two bits.

                “That’s the rules compadre.” Said the cyborg as he pocketed the coins.

                The bar maid played the piano. Her delicate fingers skipped over the keys, effortlessly playing a tune to the drunken patrons.

                “Play it again dear.” Said the inebriated cyborg. Some laughter fills the bar.

                This was just an ordinary night at the saloon. Music plays as the masses get drunk. Cyborgs and humans get drunk on alcohol. The droids are left to more creative means. Some partake in the shock drink. A mix of electrons carried through a wire. It’s usually just ordered as “the wire.” It sends a current to their CPU and creates a rush, like speed.

                The cyborg is happy with his whisky, he doesn’t enjoy the wire. The shock works for him too, but not the same way as with the droids. He sticks to his drink.  He stumbles to his feet as he took a shot of Jameson.

                “To the bathroom I go, catch you on the flip side metal man.” The cyborg says as he moves down the line to the restroom. The cyborg doesn’t get too far before he bumps into a large metal horse droid.

                “Pardon me sir.” He says as he walks by.

                He makes it to the bathroom and pukes on the wall. “Dang, almost in the bowl.” He says to himself.

                The horse droid remarks to his friend. “That man appeared very intoxicated. Reminds me of my youth, which of course was two hundred years ago. I’ve learned a lot over the years. Did you know you can tell a lot about someone just by their eyes? The way they dart from side to side or up and down. Remarkable even.” His friend nods and looks on.

                The cyborg returns from the bathroom stumbling. He passes the horse and nearly bumps into him again. He sits down and begins to think to himself. “Where’s my next drink?” He sits back down at his chair and notices his metal gambling partner has left and sitting at his place is a strange looking alien.

                “Care to flip a coin. Heads I win, tails you win?” The alien just stares at him. “Sure” it mumbles.

                The cyborg flips the coin. “Heads I win. Pay up blue guy.” The cyborg says as he extends his metal palm. The alien grabs the coin and examines it. “Wait a minute this coin has two heads.” Said the blue alien as he began to get angry. “So what? Heads I win.” Said the cyborg. The alien leans over, dislodges his jaw and bites off the cyborg’s head. The patrons of the bar stop what they’re doing and look over, horrified. “Heads I win.” Said the alien.

The Age of Nothing

The Age of Nothing

                Two guys sit around the atrium watching the space ships cruise by. They stare off into the distance and watch from the high building. They are both unemployed, cruising through life without a care in the world. They, like many others, have been replaced by the capable machines, robots and androids. In fact, there isn’t a human left in the city who works for a living. Every sector of society has been covered by the machines, except one. Robotics controlled pharmacies administer prescription drugs to humans without making any mistakes. Lawyers and paralegals no longer have to spend hours reviewing documents. Powerful software has replaced their jobs, and can perform flawlessly for a fraction of the cost. Fully automated robotically controlled cars and space cars can drive anywhere without any collisions. The vehicle is controlled by software built into the car. Humans have become obsolete, but they still make up the majority of the population which means they are capable of voting, which the machines are not.

                The government is the only sector that hasn’t been taken over by machines. They soon realize that if people are not working then they’ll soon question the need of the government. This realization dawned on the politicians during a group meeting.

                The mayor sips his coffee as his android secretary delivers a stack of papers to him.

                “Thank you. As you’ll see from the unemployment statistics, which is at 98% for the city,” the mayor says as he addresses his cabinet, “led me to believe that an unproductive human spends too much time at leisure. Sometimes an idle mind wanders and begins to question the very institution in which he or she is a part of.” 

                “We need to figure out how we can prevent a rebellion. We can’t have the masses rise up and overthrow the government, this will not stand!”

                A bookish man speaks up: “We can create jobs that only humans can perform. You might think this is impossible due to the fact that machines have become so advanced that they can perform every action of a human. But they don’t have a personality nor do they have blood. We can implement personality tests and blood drawings as a requirement for the jobs.”

                Everyone agreed to this and soon the lazy humans were put to work. Some took up rakes and cleaned parks, after they were deemed human through the required tests. At night, robots spread leaves from a bag throughout the parks so that the humans will have something to clean up in the morning.

                Others were put to work digging holes at construction sites (which were later filled by the robots).  

                From that point forward the humans were content in their pointless jobs. They would not longer question the value of government and would live a happy, productive life. There would not be a rebellion. The government won. Now they just have to keep coming up with more pointless jobs.

The Underground

The Underground

                Si carefully walked into the subterranean room and sat down at a table. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and looked around. Several other teenagers gathered and exchanged discs. Si guessed that on each disc was some powerful software or maybe some illegal music or literature. He was fully aware of what transpires here, the clandestine meeting place of many outcasts and malcontents.  

                Local kids flock to the underground to exchange illegal goods, outlawed by the megacorporations governing and policing the city. They had to be careful though, the metal cops would be breaking up their get together and confiscate their goods if they loitered too long.

                As Si waited for his contact he saw someone enter the room. It was her, the girl with the electric fingers! He has only heard stories about her; that she can short circuit a cop with the delicate flick of her fingers. She had an expensive operation to have little voltage outlets installed in her finger tips. Si was speechless, his mouth ajar.

                At the local police station the cyborg chief barks orders to his underlings. “We need to step up surveillance of the nearby hangouts in which degenerates frequent. We have been making progress in the apprehension of repeat offenders and with capturing illegal material. But the next step forward would be to stop the flow of this material into the city in the first place. I’ll leave it up to your quick, computerized, brains to make a plan, you can run it by me to get my input.” The officers came up with a plan, they needed to stop the underground movement of material. They knew right where to go…

                Si met with his contact and scored the goods. He pocketed the disc and stood up from his chair just as five metal officers came through the door. Most of the inhabitants ran out the back exit. Si tried to run but he was too close to the front door, the cops will have him for sure. A cop reached out for him but was stopped. The girl danced in front of Si and touched the cop, frying his CPU. She moved like a ballet dancer, quickly brushing the cops with her delicate fingers. Si had an opportunity to flee but he wanted to watch. The cops didn’t even have a chance to reach for their batons, she was too quick. They all fell in steaming heaps of metal.

                Si caught his breath and spoke to her: “Hi, I’m Si. What’s your name?”

                “You can call me Lightning.” She said.

                “How did you do that? They just fell like they were nothing.” Said Si.

                “I’ve had lots of practice. Now, let’s get out of here before more show up.” Said Lightning.

                They left the room and went out into the drab, rainy night. Taxi cruisers whistled overhead as they noticed the police cruisers parked outside. They decided to leave them as they continued walking with no rush to their steps.  

Space Police

Space Police

                “Alright Max, we got a call in. There seems to be a tyrannical dictator on the planet V who is enslaving the people of the northeast continent through the use of mind control. He’s a powerful telepathic who projects his hypnotic messages over several thousand monitors set up throughout the cities. If we leave now and take the jump drive ship we should get there by sunrise.” Said Buster.

                “Sounds like a plan Buster. My only concern is, how are we going to be safe from his mind control?” Asked Max.

                “They are a different species with a completely different language. We should be safe.” Said Buster. Hopefully he’s correct in his assumption.

                The pair set off from the celestial body Y, the head quarters of the space police, the anti-corruption arm of the galactic government specializing in the freedom of all organisms.

                Just as Buster predicted, the two made it to the planet V by sunrise. They landed in the space port of the northeast continent and drew their phasers. The weapons were set to stun. Throughout the space port were several monitors, projecting the dictator’s messages to the helpless people.

                “Hey Max, don’t look at the monitors.” Said Buster.

                “I thought you said the mind control wouldn’t work on us.” Said Max.

                “Right, I did, but just to be safe. We don’t want to take any chances.” Said Buster.

                They left the space port and weaved their way through the masses of human noids acting like zombies. Their destination was city hall, there they should be able to confront the man behind all of this. He is the one who is enslaving the people of northeast continent, making them work to near death and not paying them. The two encountered a couple of guards at the entrance to city hall. The trusty phasers put them to sleep.

                “This really can’t be as easy as it seems. But I guess if you have control over the continent then there really are no enemies. Most likely any foreign enemies would be under the mind control too.” Said Buster.

                Suddenly a mass of monitors sprung up out of the pavement and encircled the pair, preventing any escape routes. It happened so fast, they were unable to close their eyes in time. Max was soon under the spell of the dictator, but Buster was unaffected. He stared at the monitor and watched the visuals then the dictators voice accompanied it.

                “Hello Max and Buster. I’ve been watching you. Now you will do as I say.” Said the dictator.

                “How are you resisting!?” Asked the dictator.

                “Like you, I am a powerful telepathic. You’ve met your match! Give me your worst.” Demanded Buster.