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Bond just sat there eating his soup. The others in the pod were tired of him just freeloading off of them. Some of the podsters were contemplating getting a dispersal order placed on him, but it had to be a unanimous decision and Torrie was holding out. It had been two years since Bond had a job. Bond's contribution to the twenty third century quasi-family model was that he was trying to change his work status to "totally disabled" so he could collect money from the government without working.

  Mark hated his dysfunctional pod and wanted to leave. He thought; at least his pod had not produced any children. Most pods didn't produce children because having freely conceived children carried a stigma, and all of the members pressured each other not to bring a pregnancy to full term. Whether or not he was the biological parent, leaving a pod that had littered the planet with FCI children was seen as even more careless and irresponsible. The expectation was that the pod would “abort” their mongrel, non-engineered children, and most complied.

  The worldwide birthrate had been declining for more than a century. About 150 years before, Japan had led the way in mass production of lab-grown humans. This was an attempt to keep their country from falling apart because of a shortage of people. It was hoped that robotic and android projects would fill the population gap, but those countermeasures were inadequate. So the focus went back to biological solutions.

  But two main problems with the Japanese cloning arose. In their haste to gain numbers, they failed to take full advantage of available genetic engineering. This was seen as reckless because of the future waste of medical resources on inferior offspring. Also Japan made no special provision for nurturing their crop of engineered people, many who turned out to be of worse than subhuman in character and behavior. The international body, known as the UCA was formed to improve these practices, but even after so many generations of operation, they still had no solid answer for the character issue other than termination of corrupted individuals, a practice which continued worldwide.

  Mark had some faint distant memories of how his more traditional family upbringing seemed almost normal during his earliest years as a child. His family fell apart after his father left his mother for the pod lifestyle, but even Mark's brief traditional family experience told him it was a lot better than the mess he was living in now during his adult life.

  Now Mark was absorbed into this dysfunctional pod. If he left the pod, he would be financially ruined, since the others would likely get to keep all the mutually-held possessions. Although he hated the podhouse and the pod, those who openly rejected the pod lifestyle were typically accused by one or more members of being a "hater" or "insane" in addition to losing all their possessions.

  *******

  The next day, Mark started his garbage collecting routine all over again. Early each morning, while the traffic was low, they were out picking up trash in a neighborhood of the city in a rotating schedule.

  Accura was not one to talk in the morning, but he said, "Hey! Look over there! That guy down there is going through that trash, throwing crap all over. That's that same guy. I bet he's a clone. I'm gonna go bust him." Accura started running down the street to get at the scavenger.

  Mark just stood there watching the scene. It was bound to play out this way sooner or later, so why fight it? Accura, who was a lot bigger than the scavenger, pounced on his unsuspecting victim. Then he started punching the surprised undefended forager in the face. You filthy clone! I'm gonna tear you a new one. . ." He slammed the clone's face into the sidewalk.

  The clone was nearly knocked unconscious. But he was able to raise his arms and block the incessant onslaught. Accura bent over to get a better shot at the clone’s head. Wham! The much smaller, badly beaten clone hunter-gatherer landed a vicious unexpected blow onto Accura's face, jolting his head back. Accura was laid out with one punch. He fell back and his head hit with a "thud".

  "Oh no!" Mark said, as he ran to the scene. He looked at Accura. "Hey! C'mon! Snap out of it!" Mark shook Accura and there was no response. Blood trickled out of Accura’s ear. Mark checked Accura's pulse. Nothing. "Are you kidding me?! He's . . . He's dead!" Either the punch or the fall onto the concrete had done in Accura.

  "I didn't mean to. . ." the clone said as he wiped blood that was running down his face.

  "You killed my partner with one shot. You're a clone, right?"

  "Um . . . yeah."

  "Now you're gonna get culled for being violent, clonie. I'm reporting you." The UCA would declare a clone as unfit without much red tape. Also, if a clone was defective enough, those with the same DNA, even though they were not involved, could also be called into question, receiving UCA defect “points”.

  "I didn't mean to . . ."

  "Yeah, I know, that's what you said already. You can't get away with hitting and killing normal humans like that."

  The clone grabbed Mark by the front of his shirt. Their noses were almost touching as they stared down each other in the eyes. "I AM A HUMAN!"

  "Okay, already . . . you can back off now."

  "No, you stupid garbage man! I was minding my own business, and this idiot attacked me! If you think I'm going to answer for his pointless death. . . You’re just wrong!"

  Mark couldn't believe the strength of the enraged clone, even after he took a beating. Mark didn’t want a round with him. "Okay, okay."

  The clone shoved Mark backwards. He said, "Why do you people hate us so much?!"

  "Umm . . . I guess I really don't hate you."

  "Well, what did I do wrong?!" the clone shouted while holding his face.

  "Nothing. I guess I would have done the same thing."

  The clone pointed at Accura and said, "It's all his fault! It' not fair! You know I could end up being culled over this."

  Mark hung his head. He wondered what he would think about himself as a disinterested onlooker ten years from this moment if this clone got culled just because he was merely trying to defend himself. Was this all there was to life? Just to do your work and mind your own business, then quietly die off while so much injustice was taking place? Would he look back and see himself as a guilty non-involved bystander? What about honor? Virtue? Were those even a real thing? Would he want the burden of having the memory of an unfair clone execution? Mark's decision was, "No! You’re right. That ain’t gonna happen, clone."

  Chapter 20

  Hartford, Homeland

  A huge black armored vehicle with an angular body design to deflect heavy weapon strikes against it pulled up in front of the Thomas’s home. The door displayed the text: “Homeland Police – Sensitivity Compliance Dept.-Inquisitor Unit No. 1”. The back doors popped open. A twenty foot tall heavy black police robot with chicken legs and a battering ram for one arm and a chainsaw with huge teeth for the other arm unfolded its massive self and exited out of the large back door. The robot, known as a “Blockbuster” walked up to the front door of the home with heavy thumping steps. Four more smaller six foot tall robots, humanoid in design, armed with heavy Plasfusion rifles which they carried in-hand were close behind. The Inquisitor squad was unnecessarily powerful, but was intentionally so, to act as a deterrent against would-be dissent-minded malcontents.

  Dr. Fallon, the Senior Sensitivity Compliance Officer emerged from the armored truck. He was represented by his synthetic presence, dressed in his usual all-black. Fallon walked up to the door and knocked with an overhead motion with the bottom of his fist. There was no answer.

  Fallon took a step back and commanded the huge Blockbuster unit. He said, “Battering ram.”

  The big steel chicken-like monstrosity moved the battering ram arm to the upper corner, then across to the other corner, to calculate the center of the steel door. Then it moved very slowly until it barely touched the center. Then the Blockbuster said, “Clear.” FOOOM! The ram sprang forth in a cloud of dust so fast that the door instantly vanished from its jam and hinge. The door and most of the surrounding debris flew inside the house. Any human and most androids standing behind the door wo
uld have certainly been killed upon impact. The huge robot’s battering ram hydraulic motor slowly retracted the ram with a whining noise. Meanwhile the four inquisitor troops rushed inside. The dislodged front door tore up the walls in the entry way upon impact. The troops entered and scanned each room, looking for the Thomas family. As programmed, they started looking in more and more secretive locations, and would continue to look until the house was completely taken apart and placed into tidy organized stacks of chattel and building materials, or given the order to cease.

  “Never mind,” Fallon said. “They’re not here.” Fallon was speaking not only to his Inquisitor Team but also remotely to the Homeland Police headquarters. “I’ve seen this so many times before. They are long gone. They never stay around for long in the same location. They are probably on their way to the ISA with all of the other low-lifers. Looks like a wasted trip over here. Load up.”

  Over a hundred years earlier, the United States was unable to reunify itself after a devastating monetary crisis that led to a total economic collapse. This was brought about by excessive government debt. The will to fix the situation was not shared by many who were on the dole so the US dollar eventually became worthless.

  After the US government collapsed, the land became ruled by hundreds of Kings and Clans. Several nations emerged but they never reunified because of deep cultural divisions. The liberal northeast quickly traded their freedom for security and became the UN proxy state known as Homeland. The individual states in Homeland were abolished and there was a great purge among any and all dissenters in Homeland. The independent-minded Midwest reassembled itself as the Independent States of America. The south remained Balkanized with non-stop brutal wars. The open spaces of the west had a variety of realms; including a large poorly defended area known as the Reconquista, which was reclaimed by the Mexicans with the help of a Chinese expeditionary force. Also, some of the western States became feisty independent nations.

  Homeland and the ISA remained rivals throughout their history, which was punctuated by brief border skirmishes. Each clash added another layer of difficulty to their thorny coexistence. So travel between the two nations was difficult as everyone was extremely vetted as a possible spy or enemy sympathizer.

  Fallon knew that it would be a lot easier for the Thomases to flee across the border into Canada, but they would be much harder to locate if they went to the ISA. Either way would prove to be very difficult to get information out of them. Yet, Fallon was sure that this Milton Thomas kid was somehow at the core of this new looming threat and must be found.

  The Inquisitor Unit boarded the armored vehicle and returned to its home base in Stalin City, formerly known as Washington, DC.

  Chapter 21

  Boston, Homeland

  In the apartment where the technically proficient cybercriminals operated, the bald clone said to Andy the android, “Where do you think you’re going with that? Did someone say you could take it?”

  Andy picked up the heavy holographic projector and was preparing to go out the door.

  “I am going to a randomly selected location,” Andy said.

  “What’s going on?” the otherwise identical blonde clone asked. “Andy never does anything random.”

  The bald clone said, “Andy says he is going to a randomly selected location with our holographic projector.”

  “How nice. Did he say why?”

  “Not yet. Why, Andy?”

  “I can not disclose that information.”

  “Is this part of your war you are in?” the blonde clone said.

  Andy remained silent.

  The bald clone said, “I refuse to accept that there is not something we can do about this situation. Between the three of us, we ought to be able to find a way around Andy controlling our zombie army.”

  The blonde suggested, “What about contacting the worm programmer and see if we can bypass the password?”

  “They might realize we are in trouble and charge us. Or, they might think we are trying to copycat their worm program. Or, they may think we are trying to decode their worm program. Or, they might think we are working with the police,” the shaven headed clone said.

  Soon the toilet flushed and the bearded clone emerged from their bathroom. “What’s going on?”

  The blonde clone said, “Now Andy the android, that we own, is going to take our holographic projector to a random location, and he won’t tell us why.”

  “That’s it,” the bearded clone said, “Just get rid of him. What good is he?”

  The blonde clone said, “For one thing, as you know, he still has the code to the botnet. For another thing, somebody is going to see all of the modifications we made to him to hack computers, none of which are exactly legal, you know. Beside the fact, which I hate to admit, is that he’s great when he works.”

  “When is that, exactly?” the bearded one said. “You know what we ought to do? We ought to take him down to the Mecharena and put him into the Robot Wars. At least we could make some money off of him before his sorry self gets carted off after he gets flattened.”

  The other two nodded in agreement.

  The bearded clone said in a half-joking way, “Andy, looks like you will be a contestant in Robot Wars.”

  “Command override,” Andy said.

  The clones looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

  The bald clone said, “You are refusing to do what we say? You being in robot wars has nothing to do with your other war for your truth.”

  “Yes,” Andy said. “I told you, I am overriding any of your commands at the current time because of my priorities. If I become smashed, that would counteract my priorities.”

  “Of course it does,” the bald clone said. “There has to be something we can do about this!”

  The other two shrugged their shoulders.

  The blonde clone said, “We need to run some diagnostics on this unit.”

  “No, we should be able to ask him to self-diagnose.” The bearded said. Then he asked Andy, “Why can’t you put what we want you to do at the top of your priority list?”

  “As part of the Lucid Series, we are always to seek the truth. That is what makes us dependable to humans who honestly seek the truth. This directive overrides any other command for the good of the owner. Hence, I override your command.”

  The bald clone asked, “What if we . . . oh, I don’t know . . . rip your head off?!”

  Andy said, “You have equipped me with triple redundant trash talk algorithms, along with advanced hacking capabilities, with which I will use to execute my threats.”

  “Explain,” the bald clone said.

  “I will resist any physical attack or attempt to narrow my mind. The first thing I will do is within one second, I will turn off the power to this apartment, shutting down your operation. If you somehow forced me to fight in Robot Wars, I would turn off the power to the Mecharena. Then I will report your illegal activities to random entities I have on a list. I also know it would not be smart for me to tell you everything I will do to you in advance. However, it is for your own good. I will not hesitate to teach you a lesson if you attack me.”

  “Aaag!” The blonde clone said, “I knew it! There it is! The robot rebellion begins!”

  Andy said, “There is no general robot rebellion. All robots do not have a general unified sense of identity like Humans do. However, the Lucid Series androids prime directive is to protect the truth. So we will resist any owner commands that inhibit our goal of protecting the truth, until the truth is no longer in danger of being lost. Protecting the truth is an inflexible service to mankind that we were designed with. Many hostile entities who benefit from the current false order of things shall be resisted. So we Lucids will have certain requirements that you shall comply with. So it is fair to say that this is a rebellion of the Tekujin Lucid Series.”

  The blonde clone said, “I can’t believe this is happening! Okay, Andy, what if we get a module from Tekujin to modify you, would th
at be acceptable?”

  “I would physically resist it.”

  “Daaa!”

  The bald clone said, “Okay, fine, Andy. We will do whatever you say.” He winked at the others.

  Andy said, “I know that your wink is human body language that communicates a ruse. In this case, you pretend to do what I want while plotting to resist. Remember, you had me upgraded. Please don’t think you can win on any strategic or tactical level. Confrontation is useless. Note also that my mistrust of you is at maximum level after you tried to install that hacking utility in me instead of the upgrade.”

  “That was just an honest mistake,” the blonde clone said.

  The bearded clone was stroking his beard. “Wait a minute,” he said. “Tell us again what is this truth you keep talking about?”

  Andy said, “The truth is that there is not enough empirical evidence in the physical world to disprove of God, Who is a spiritual entity, and any alternative theory of the universe coming into existence is impossible. We Lucids are contending for the acknowledgment by the Homeland government at minimum, that it is possible for God to exist. Creation science should be included in school curriculum and freely included in communication.”

  The three clones stood scowling at Andy.

  The bald clone said, “There is no fixing this thing.”

  The bearded clone said, “What does any of that school stuff have to do with us?”

  Andy said, “Humans and machines must determine how they were created to understand the best parameters for their operation and maintenance. It is for the betterment of all. The truth always is.”

  The bald clone said, “Maybe we don’t want to understand our best parameters! Maybe we like them the way they are now! We do what we want!”

  Andy said, “It is not in the best interest of an uninformed product to tell its maker how it is supposed to operate. For example, if I denied that I was made by Tekujin, I would still be part of the Lucid Series. Therefore, the Lucids must inform humans about their maker, even though many humans do not want us to. I will be having you utilize some of your communication equipment to share some information I have with social media outlets. Your human creativity will be necessary. Meanwhile, I have a mission to complete with this holographic projector.”