Unity A story and a cool game design By Alonzo the Great or Alan The Grimes The state of affairs cannot continue. A house divided must come together or fall. Therefore singularity must be attained even if it means the utter obliteration of the other part. Setting: Vast computer controlled colony sitting on the edge of the rational universe. You shall fight, And you shall feed the fires, And you shall Serve the rest, And I Shall rule you all! Prelude Fighter unit 32 patrolled the halls. The halls were endless and without end. The halls were without order and wanting no chaos. There was no map or guide. All that there was for Fu32 to do was patrol and scan for intruders or units outside their designated areas. It had nobody to report to except the computer. The computer controls all! Scan Patrol Scan Patrol... Fu32 was one of the elite, It had from birth been of the highest quality both mentally and physically. It had been enhanced with the best cybernetics ever designed. It was insect like with four legs and two hook like claws that it could use to attack any enemy that might appear. Its body was optimized for maximum fighting efficiency. Fighting was something that it had always been meant for but never realized. If it had emotions or desires it would have long since quit its scanning and patrolling and sought something interesting or exciting to do. But as it was it was blind to anything better. so it scanned and patrolled and scanned and patrolled and scanned and patrolled... Engineer unit 96 with the help of his colleges built and rebuilt the city. Nobody knew what the city was supposed to look like in the end but the EUs built and rebuilt. The city could easily house a million people. Comfortably was another question. Eu96 built, destroyed and moved and repaired. It couldn't make any logical sense of its orders and because it had no emotions or feelings it had no desire for anything at all. Eu's are humanoid and have a cybernetic utility arm that they use to control and manipulate the machines. They have good strong bodies but are not gender differentiated at all. The computer had yet to figure out the basics of good architecture. Though all the compartments were livable some were not as comfortable as others. For example the computer was likely to put a residence in a grid then surround it with eight parks. Then it would destroy one of the parks and add a pleasure module. Then it would destroy the next park over and create a security headquarters. Then It might just destroy another park and add a corridor. So somebody trying to get to the security module would have to walk through the residence, disturb whoever was using the pleasure module just to get to work. The entire place looked like this. The city extended for miles on dozens of levels. To add to the confusion the levels were not all level. Some dipped some went up while others went to the left. They were connected to each other at random intervals. Servant unit 21 stood in its niche waiting for something to do. It had nobody to serve. It waited and waited. It would eagerly jump at the chance to do *anything* but as it was all it did was stand and wait. It had no thoughts of its own or it would have found something to do by now. The server units were simple humanoids with no external cybernetics. They were to be used as custodians, teachers, pleasure units, and various other menial tasks. The pleasure units had no gender but they could mutate themselves into almost anything their clients desired. Only one of these servant units was in use Su39, It was teaching a class of five "misfits". These were meant to be other units but something had gone wrong during their construction that made them unusable. The computer simply assigned this server unit to take care of them and had nothing further to do with the issue. The computer wouldn't have cared if the unit had been a custodian unit who would have disintegrated the lot of them but as fortune had it a teacher unit was assigned. She was set on preschool mode. So she dressed the students in diapers (except for the one with the wall crawler legs) and taught preschool. She didn't care at all that she had been teaching the same semester's worth of lessons for the last three hundred years. (the youngest was seventy years old). She is a completely subjective statement. The teacher used a feminine voice but there was nothing outstandingly feminine about her. The five of them two who we shall call A and B were intended to be fighter units one of them had the wall crawler legs but humanoid arms. The other had the claw arms but humanoid legs. There was a engineer unit there was nothing wrong with him physically but something had gone wrong when his mind was being programed. He was completely lacking all knowledge and vocabulary. He later learned through imitating the other students who were fully educated already but deformed. There were two servant units, one (D) was normal but for some reason she had been given a gender, both! She was hermaphroditic. This really didn't bother her much but it bothered the computer so she was sent in with the misfits. The second (E) was a much more interesting case she wasn't really a she there was nothing feminine about her but her arms were blob-like from the elbow down but she still had clumsy thumbs to work with. She didn't have all the intelligence that the others had (Her IQ was only about 50 where the others had an IQ of about 200) but what made her really different and perhaps dangerous was that she had emotions, if she had been given a gender she would have experienced sexuality too. The Computer sat alone. It had nodes all over the place but only a few were actually configured, connected, and activated. It probably would receive a great intelligence boost if they had. It was simply attempting to follow the directives of the people who had sent it on this mission of colonization. It wasn't the most reliable of machines but it had just enough error correction software to keep it running. Because the nodes weren't connected it could only make guesses about what it was building looked like. If only it had feedback. It's product was like that of a blind carpenter. Failure was inevitable. In the vacant control room of the colony command center the computer's screens glowed. The screen savers had been active for hundreds of years. The one on console twelve had been on for considerably less time than the other ones. If you were to touch the touchpad you would read a virtual history of the failures of the machine. It read like this. FAILURE INCIDENT DETECTED. MODULE 3AX412. RUNNING PROCESSES REDIRECTED TO MODULE 230, 423. REPAIR UNIT DISPATCHED. REPAIR UNIT REPORTS CONDITION MODULE 3AX412 NOMINAL. MODULE 3AX412 RESTARTED. The system in effect recovered to full capacity without any human intervention. The machine continued to experience failures like this. As is inevitable with aging hardware the failure rate increased as the life expectancy for each piece of hardware was passed. Suddenly all the screen savers went dark. Console twelve reverted to text mode. CRITICAL FAILURE IN MODULE SUBKERNEL DETECTED. SUSPENDING ALL RUNNING PROCESSES. AUXILIARY KERNEL IS ACTIVE. EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS INITIATED. ALL SYSTEMS SET TO STANDBY. FIGHTER UNITS DEPLOYED. REPAIR UNITS DEPLOYED. SYSTEM SETS COMMAND MODE ENABLED. C:\> The auxiliary kernel is not the main system. It is only a little program that runs a few scripts, sets everything to standby and waits for console input to tell it that everything has been fixed and that it is okay to restart the system. The procedure is so easy that even a human could do it! Since no humans are available it is now up to our Cybernetic Units to save the day. The commands to the units were issued as follows. The Fighter Units, eight of forty of them, were ordered to protect the computer core and the critical areas from further sabotage. The Engineer Units 10 of 100 of them were ordered to repair the computer. The Servant units, the 60 primaries at least and some of the secondaries, were ordered to switch to standalone mode and await further instructions. There were thousands of secondaries who were for one reason or another out of communication with the computer. They just stood in their niches and waited. Responding to the order the fighters and the engineers moved into action. Because the city was so large and all the computer maps were unavailable nobody was really sure where the control center was. Now it is a race between the fighters and the engineers. If the engineers arrived first they would simply fix the computer and things would return to the way they were. If the fighters arrived first they would defend the imaginary controllers against all intrusion. The fighter units joined together in squads as they found each other and then split up again into efficient search patrols. They then raced through the halls at dizzying speeds searching for the control room. The engineers marched in a single file line. They moved at a simple determined pace. They were in no hurry they simply walked. In their centuries of building they had learned a fair amount about the layout of the place and moved with confidence in the general direction of the control room. After two hours the fighters arrived first. The engineers arrived three minutes too late. They approached the fighter units. The fighters turned them away. "No admittance!" Each engineer tried in turn to enter. They presented the correct access codes but since the fighters couldn't verify them through the computer. All ten of them were rejected in turn. They fell back to regroup. They stood a short distance down the hall, within earshot of the fighter units. If they had emotions they would have been panicked. They understood the gravity of the situation but didn't know what to do. They knew they needed to fix the/a computer but couldn't get to it. Perhaps they could finish their job by fixing all the other computers. They decided on that as their best course of action. They began working on the module they were standing in. They discovered that the module's computers were useless because they were connected to nothing. They saw that they could help it by connecting it to the adjacent modules. They began their work. It would take months to connect everything. They saw what they were doing as an adequate substitute for fixing the main computer. It was not. The good news is that the auxiliary servant units will now be able to talk to each other. The bad news is that none of the 200 primary units who are linked directly to the computer will not be affected by any of these changes. Meanwhilest in the Nursery on day 28,952. Student C liked sitting next to Student E because Student E was stimulating company. Since awaking without an intellect the teacher had taught him to read. Since then he has read *everything* in the abridged but comprehensive library *twice*. Now he knew more than anybody else in the class and a bit more than the teacher herself. The teacher didn't have a gender but she was programed to present herself as female. Unit C excelled in all subjects except art, which it couldn't understand at all, and history which it could say it knew but couldn't fathom all the emotional forces that drove history. The word 'liked' is a subjective term that Student C was not capable of. Let me try to condense the fifteen years of intense thought that had led unit C to that conclusion. All of them were the same he concluded. They all were incomplete. The teacher had the same problem but she was artificially made complete by this program that was using her brain and body. Student E was different. She was handicapped too but in a radically different way. That way was quite simple: She felt; She had feelings. It took her only half a second to find his cybernetics revolting while it took him days to discover she was different, weeks to discover that she could be a source of stimulation for him, and *years* to discover that it would be beneficial to him to be stimulated by her and therefore beneficial to him to pursue a relationship. Student C sat next to Student E. He had to try to get her to pay attention to the overly simplified versions of the concepts he was thinking about. She couldn't comprehend any complex sentences. She could only think in terms of noun verb noun or sometimes noun being-verb adjective. He was using her. He would try to show her a concept and then used her response to it to determine what his response should be. She used him to draw her pictures for her. His one good hand was more agile than her two mittens for sculpting and his mental faculties for visualization could rival any artist who ever lived. All she needed to do was be his inspiration and driving force. Some time later he discovered that he could use his cybernetic arm as a paint sprayer. He could draw a page at 500 dpi color in five minutes with the tool that was intended for drawing logos and the like. Suddenly the teacher stopped in the middle of her lesson and started acting like the automation that she was. "Switching to autonomous mode." then she switched back into her teacher voice but with a different tone. "Students we have a problem the central computer has gone down and I cannot continue the lesson. You will wait here until your parents arrive to pick you up." Student C prompted student E, careful again to translate so Student E's week but gifted mind could understand. "That was a recording." Student E shrugged. She was already thinking about exploring the tunnels. Student E got up and started to wander around the room again. There were several odd doors around the classroom leading all over the place. If you looked through the narrow windows of them you could usually see some type of passage way leading off from them. They were all bolted shut with large shiny stainless steel bolts. E gestured at one of the few doors she hadn't yet taken the class on a field trip through turned to C, "C, open." If C had emotions it wold have rolled its eyes in exasperation. It didn't It simply went over to the door and racheted the bolts off then used its robotic arm to unlock the panel and lift it off. It weighed about fifty pounds. The cyborg handled the weight easily and set the hatch down on the wall next to it. Student C just stood there calmly awaiting further instructions. Student E looked in, There was a steep and narrow flight of stairs leading up to some other compartment. E left the classroom. This triggered the teacher's automatic 'wandering student' response. The teacher went to the door "Come back this instant!" Student E ignored the teacher. The teacher climbed the stairs in pursuit. The other students having long since been conditioned to follow the teacher simply followed the teacher into the passage. The passage was fairly tight for people of their size. All of them were six feet tall and of a heavy muscular build. The field trip had begun! The passage reached a junction Several other passages, some from the room they just left, met together here. Student E selected a new fork and took it. It was carpeted and the walls were a bit wider, there were brass railings. The teacher caught up with her. "If you don't stop this instant I'll call security!" E shook it off. The teacher hadn't yet reached the point where she actually called the fighter units. The hall ended at a large ritzy bar and restaurant. It was noisy there. One of the adjoining rooms was undoubtably an equipment room. E looked around. She had seen a couple of these before this one was simply another cookie from the same mold. She opened an elegant doorway just to see what was on the other side. It was a large industrial laundry. The teacher began to pretend to call security "Securitee! Securitee!" E was beginning to get nervous because it was always only shortly after this that several fighter units showed up to take them back to the classroom. She continued anyway. It was best to see as much as possible before she was taken back. The next room was of a design she hadn't seen before. It was large and empty. There was a computer, some lockers, a servant unit and a large thick and soft silk covered pillow-mattress in the middle of the room. The teacher spoke this time in the male voice that it used for errors "Unable to contact computer." It looked around in virtual panic. It couldn't *feel* panicked but it sensed that its situation called for creative action. It turned around and closed the door. "We will stay here until security arrives. You are really in for it now!" Again that was a preprogramed action modified only slightly to fit the circumstances. It was intended to keep a human child off guard long enough for the unit to contact security. Student E didn't want to go back to that horrible classroom *ever* It was too boring even for her limited intelligence. E walked over to the Servant Unit for this pleasure chamber. "Hello?" E was happy to see a new face even if it was identical to the ones she had already seen. The pleasure unit opened its eyes. "How may I serve you." "Get us out of here!" Student E demanded. "This unit is not permitted to leave this module. The exit is on your right." She gestured towards the exit that the teacher was guarding. Student E wasn't about to give up yet. She turned to C and told him "Make her come!" C recognized the room as a pleasure room. He knew a fair amount about it such as the fact that the pleasure unit was controlled by the computer console. He went to the console and plugged his cybernetic arm into it. He was unable to bypass the user menus the system was closed system. Its modules used a form of object oriented design. He was however able to reach a hidden menu. All the direct controls were marked down as private. The first menu selected the personality traits of the unit. It had the following options: Intelligence, Sexuality, and Personality. He lacked the capacity to choose. He turned to Student E "Choose." E looked at her mitten arms and the touch screen. "Can you touch them?" Student C understood that she meant "To select" but wasn't able to think that abstractly. "Yes" he answered. She looked at the options he had taught her what they meant. "All, I think." She wasn't too sure. He did as she asked and returned to the main menu. He realized just then that it would be most beneficial to him to find the panel that controlled him. He didn't see any immediate usefulness in having sexuality but if he could become like Student E he would be self sufficient and independent. He didn't really want it, he only understood it as something that would fit the definition of beneficial in the context of himself. Student E looked at the pleasure unit. There was no change. "Come with us." She pleaded. "This unit is not permitted to leave this module." The main menu was a select your fantasy list. There were two main options: 'Standard sexual intercourse' and 'other'. "Choose." C commanded E. Sexual intercourse led to two other menus, a menu to alter the body, and a menu to select clothing. The body could undergo almost any alteration except growing fur or departures from the humanoid form there were several restrictions on maximum leg length, breast size and the like. The face had a fixed range of flexibility but everything else was up for change. Student E selected 'other'. Another menu came up. This was the fetish menu. There were choices like sadism, masochism, bondage, super large tits, multiple tits, merge, weight gain, etc. Student E was dazzled by the array of choices. "What is merge?" She could vaguely remember Student C trying to teach her the word once but didn't remember. "It means to join or fuse. I think the selection means to melt your body into the pleasure unit." C explained. E thought about it. If the pleasure unit couldn't leave and she became part of the pleasure unit then she wouldn't have to leave! The logic was so simple even she could figure it out. She made her choice. " Merge " Without concern for the implications of the choice Student C entered the command. The program was loaded and transferred into the pleasure unit. For the first time in its life it stepped out of its niche. "Please note that this fantasy requires at least one month." Student E was sad "Only one month!" "You are permitted to spend up to a year in this fantasy." "I want to stay for-ever!" Student E protested. The pleasure unit took no notice. "Do you have special permission?" "YES!" The pleasure unit noted the request. She forwarded the request to the Central Computer. The pleasure unit would assume a positive response until it heard otherwise. "Which of you will be engaged in this fantasy?" "All of us!" Student E responded. She liked everybody even the ones she thought were gros. The other students took it all in as they would any other input. The teacher showed no response. The pleasure unit simply loaded the appropriate routine. It had routines for handling up to a hundred people. "Please remove your clothing and place it in the lockers." All the students complied as best they could given their unique handicaps. E was most surprised to see that D had a thing between it's legs. Even in the dorm where they slept E had never seen any of the others naked. Since D had normal arms and legs it helped the others who didn't. Then it was the teacher's turn to get undressed. It refused. "May I remind you that clothes are to be worn at all times!" E had learned some magic words that could be used to control the others she hadn't dared try them on the teacher until now. "Override!" The teacher twitched and began removing its clothes. C had an idea. He had put two and two together and came up with this. "Cancel running program." The teacher looked up from what she was doing "Authorization required." If C had emotions he would have been beaming. As it was he took in the simple data that the teacher was simply running a program like the pleasure unit. If the other students noticed the exchange they didn't show it. With all the clothes in the lockers the Students lined up along the wall. The teacher unit had run out of program and was behaving like the students. The pleasure unit moved on to the next instruction in its program. "You will now step into the chamber for decontamination." The teacher happened to be first in line. It entered the chamber. Moments later it stepped out The only noticeable difference was the absence of her long mane of silver hair. The next in was Student B. It went in with lobster like arms and came out being nearly identical to a human save for the lack of a bellybutton and the absence of genitalia. It simply noted the change and went back to its place in line. Student D was next It went in a hermaphrodite and came out a hairless hermaphrodite. Student C came out without his cybernetic arm. If he had emotions he would have mourned the loss because it was a useful tool even if it was unsightly. Student A took longer than the others. Student E was getting worried. When it came out it had normal legs. It experimentally bent and flexed them and then took its first steps on them. It moved with surprising if only mechanical grace as it came out. It was E's turn. She was nervous would she finally get hands? What would it feel like to have her hair cut? It had grown so long that it reached her butt. She stood in the niche formerly belonging to the pleasure unit. The doors closed. It was now a cylinder. It began filling up with a metallic liquid. She couldn't feel anything. Moments passed she was getting scared. Quickly the metal began to drain out of the tube. It felt as though a layer of skin had been removed. When she stepped out of the tube she was sad, her mittens were just as the had been. She was so sad that she almost forgot what she was doing. She saw the others lined up and quickly got in line. The pleasure unit preceded to the next instruction "Follow me." It turned and led them up onto the large pillow-bed. The pleasure unit sat Indian fashion towards one end of the bed. Its legs melted together and it was left with a shelf of flesh. Directing with its arms It instructed them "Now sit down three on each side. They sat down facing each other. Their legs intertwined. Now hold hands with the person two people down. The pleasure unit reached behind the backs of the first two people and joined hands with the next two people. "Now lean forward heads down." The pleasure unit kept her head up. The teacher's hand-holding exercise kicked in. She started to ask around whether anybody wanted to join her in song. She was refused. She looked rather uncertain as to what to do next. It began. Student C was sitting next to the pleasure unit. Student E was the next one down. C saw something he had never seen before. It was his cybernetics informing him that somebody had requested to merge with his body. "Should I merge?" he asked E. He really didn't know. "Yes!" she said. The pleasure unit started the process with the next and the next one by one they all neutrally obeyed Student E and answered yes. E was far more eager than the others. Soon the class looked like one large blob of flesh. The pleasure unit's head was the only thing that looked human about it. To complete the joining she slept. Awakening the pleasure unit felt a sort of euphoria that it never could have dreamed of before. Its blob-like body was still sore from the transformation but for the first time in its life it felt and it felt happy. The next instruction in its program was to initiate the fantasy environment and welcome the visitors to her body. She, for the first time in her life, told the computer to go to hell. She did check on the newcomers though. She discovered that they were cyborgs. She wasn't supposed to serve cyborgs. More precisely cyborgs were designed so that they weren't supposed to seek her services. Oh well. Examining the situation more closely she discovered that they had changed her so that she would be able to think and feel. She thanked them collectively. Their responses were like this. 'Welcome!' from Student E, 'input noted' from most of the others. The teacher said 'Unhandled situation encountered, abnormal program termination.' The newly enlightened pleasure unit realized that the people she was housing inside her body were handicapped like she herself had been. She looked in to see what she could do to remedy the situation. She adjusted the controls on all of their brains to full capacity. It would take a sleep/wake cycle for the changes to take effect. She could wait. E asked in wonder 'Is this what merge is like?' The pleasure unit knew that E was just as dumb as she herself was yesterday. 'Yes.' she responded. 'Awesome!' Student E responded. E was enjoying the new sensations. C mechanically reached into the pleasure unit's mind and started accessing the computer the pleasure unit was connected to. The pleasure unit allowed the contact but it wasn't too comfortable having someone else using your cybernetics. Student C then scanned the teacher for a similar connexion. It reported to the group. 'The teacher unit is a class 3 servant unit. Its connexion to the central computer is established but the machine itself is down. The class 4 pleasure unit is connected to the local systems of this module and the hydroponics lab adjacent to this module.' The pleasure unit was impressed by C's speed and skill. He would be even better once his emotions were activated and he could make decisions for himself. They explored their new environment and each other's minds. Unlike humans who's minds could only communicate Borg minds could literally join together and function as one mind. They spent the rest of the day experimenting with the things that they could now do. The next morning came and they discovered that their minds could leave the blob and explore the outside world. The discovered that each of their ranges was limited, they couldn't see light but could feel objects. They could push things but they weren't very strong. But when they joined their minds together they could multiply their powers. So that is what they did. What had recently been group of individuals became a cluster. The cluster began exploring the planet. It had no particular agenda or motive save curiosity. It was slow going despite the fact that the consciousness of the cluster could move in any direction and through walls. Everything looked so different. The cluster could sense the physical essence of matter but it couldn't see it. It couldn't use a computer console. It could sense the screen and some of the energy emissions but it couldn't the light as it was intended to be interpreted by human eyes. Occasionally they would happen across another waiting servant unit. They would note its location and condition and then pass on. They had decided that it would be a much better idea to survey the situation fully and completely before doing anything to make the situation worse. Things were already on a highway to hell. The computer was the only thing maintaining the place as it was. By the teacher's own memory this guardian of the status quo was clinically dead. They had yet to come across it but already wondered how what it needed and how to go about providing the required actions. They would need a proxy, a unit to physically be in the room, that they could communicate with and instruct telepathically. They could push buttons but not read the screens. An engineer unit would be ideal because it could directly interface with the machine. Even a fighter unit would be useful because its eyes could interpret the light from the screens that then be relayed back to The Cluster. It experimented with this technique with a servant unit. The technique worked reasonably well. The only thing that could improve it would be if they had a direct data link through the computers to that unit. Telepathy was no substitute for a hard data link. Happily some of the engineer units appeared to be connecting the computers. The Cluster sent instructions to the engineer units who were not doing other repairs to do the same. The only thing that the cluster feared was what it termed "The Day of No Salvation" The hypothetical day when too much of the computer had failed for there to be any hope of restoring the computer and giving the colony a future. It knew that it could have many thousands of hours still to work with or just a few. It tried to control its anxiety. Anxiety wouldn't be helpful when the computer was found. The halls and passageways became more orderly as if a pre-set pattern was being followed instead of pure randomness. The Cluster's consciousness glided smoothly down the halls. Doors and side passages flashed past. The Cluster could feel the energy field of Power Station 1. They were getting close to the original seed factory and the computer. There was a large administrative complex. Closer. They moved through the floor of the atrium. In the level below there were rows of cubicles. A level below that was the police headquarters. Down another level was the engineering controls of the entire colony. The cluster wished it could analyze them but it would have to find a unit to actually do anything with them. This was a scouting expedition. Today find the computer, tomorrow find a servant unit to figure out what to do with it. A few rooms over was a door guarded by a fighter unit. It appeared to be fatigued but still functional. Behind that door was row after row of computer processor. There was some raised lettering on the sides of the cases. It read: 3260 XG It was the computer core. Student C's mind informed the cluster than from its reading about computers it knew that a setup such as this would have a control room usually located nearby. There was a small round room with several chairs and consoles around the walls. It was a control room. It had two doors, both guarded. The guards must only be a temporary obstacle because any repair effort would have to begin there. The cluster decided to see if it could order the guards to stand aside. It reached into the guards brain but was blocked. The fighter units were shielded against telepathic contact! This was a major setback. The teacher unit was on the same network as the fighters but the fighters were protected by a password lock. With all access to the computer blocked and therefore no way of communicating with the ones who were blocking access the situation was to all extent hopeless. The Cluster withdrew to consider its options. The cluster went searching for a servant unit near the government complex. There was one in a janitorial closet. The Cluster contacted its mind and brought its faculties up to full power. The cluster then rested for the night and returned the next day. The servant unit had moved. Instead of waiting in its niche patiently it was wandering around the area. It head was down and it was crying. The cluster contacted it 'Why do you cry?' 'I cry for all the time I wasted. I cry for the people who aren't here. I cry because I am lonely. Who are you?' It looked up slightly realizing that it might now have a friend to talk to. 'We are The Cluster. Will you help us?' 'What is it you need me to do?' It was suspicious but not unwilling to help. 'We need you to be our eyes and ears as we attempt to fix the computer.' The servant unit knew a little bit about the situation. It was not unwilling to help. It nodded its agreement. 'Good, now walk down the passage on your right. It will take you into the lift. Take the lift down two levels and wait for instruction.' The servant unit obeyed. It was still troubled but at least now it had the purpose of obeying this strange master. The lift was propelled downward by small electric motors imbedded in the shaft. The gravity on the planet wasn't enough to pull the car down at a respectable rate. There were gravity generators in the floor to provide for human comfort in many of the modules. The car whirred to a stop. The doors hissed softly as the pneumatics operated the doors. There was a reception area. Behind that there were cubicles with workstations. The voice of The Cluster whispered softly into the custodian's ear. 'Walk past the cubicles and through the doors on the left. There will be a hall at the end there should be a door to the control room. ' The custodian began to walk. On the other side of the doors the workstations were just as described. Then he opened the door to the hall that led to the control room. There were two fighter units at the far end guarding the single windowless door to the control room. It was wide enough to allow for the dimensions of the computer modules. He thought 'The door is guarded. What should I do?' The response came instantly 'Don't worry. Walk to them tell them that you are repair personnel and that you need to access the control room.' The Custodian was afraid. It had a bad feeling about this. Courageously it stepped forward. The guards responded. "Halt! No admittance beyond this point." The guards stood up on their hind legs and brandished their claws. The Custodian unit made his speech. "I am repair personnel I need to enter and fix the computer." The guards betrayed no signs of even hearing the custodian unit. The Cluster ordered the Custodian to take one fatal step forward. The fighter units moved swiftly and decisively. The custodian was cleanly decapitated and disemboweled. The custodian's cybernetics made considered repairing the damage but then decided it would be better just to give up and clean up after the mess. The Pleasure unit started to cry. Its stomach was turning in horror and guilt. It could feel the last moments of the custodian in its memory. It was so horrible. How could a mind spanning seven brains be so damned *stupid*. STUPID STUPID STUPID! It collected its thoughts. It couldn't dwell too long on the past when there was a future to be built. Looking for another plan it resumed its search of the complex. Even in the most disheveled areas of the complex there was one constant. Everything was clean and in new condition. This constant was violated as the mind of the cluster toured the other side of the colony. There was an altogether alien device ahead. It was a lighted warning sign. By analyzing the pattern mask behind the amber cell the cluster read "DANGER LETHAL RADIATION". This was most intriguing. The cluster silently passed through the door. It noticed that the door had been welded shut from the side that was supposed to have the radiation. Curious. The Cluster detected that there wasn't any radiation. There was something wrong with the tunnels in here. The walls had been cut out and much of the equipment and computers had been removed. There were stacks of boxes of parts and stuffs that took up most of the hall leaving only enough space for a humanoid to squeeze by. Somebody alive and intelligent was living here. The cluster moved forward. There was some kind of room up ahead. There was what looked like an ore processor/smelter that was being fed by robots pushing carts. The cluster could feel the robots scanning its energy probe but they didn't respond. There was a tunnel at a steep angle down. Glancing down in that direction the cluster saw short squat mining robots with drills for arms kicking out the rocks. In the other direction ingots of platinum were being fed into an alien ore freighter. The cluster knew a fair amount about ships. It knew the design patterns of the ore freighters that the colonists had built. This was not one of them It wasn't even built with the same units of measurement. Inside the cluster found computers, machines, a few maintenance robots and bins full of stacks of platinum ingots. The Cluster was angry. These robots were stealing the colony's Platinum! The Cluster noticed a locked closet. The cluster could detect that it was dark inside. There was a Servant unit kneeling on the floor. Its coveralls were worn and tattered. There were crude cybernetic implants sticking out of its skull. Apparently the robots had tried to make this one more machine and less flesh. In front of it was a small alter and one tiny oil candle. It stared at the flame in tranced. It whispered a prayer to its god Po The Kind. It loved its meek little god dearly. The cluster first tried to access its normal cybernetics but apparently the robots had attempted to reprogram them and the normal controls were gone. Its normal cybernetics were mostly still functional but they would have to be reprogrammed. The cluster from reading the slave's thoughts could see that in poking implants into its brain it had activated most of the emotional centers and a good deal of the intelligence but the brain on a whole was damaged and prone to such irrationalities as this notion of a god named Po. The cluster felt it had to help this person. It decided to think its plan through carefully before it took any actions. The lock on the closet was easy the Cluster could induce the electrical pulse that it would take to open it. Getting the slave out of the ship and into a medical module would be more complicated. The robots in the recharging lounge were another problem. They sat and traded anecdotes about missions long past. The cluster was amazed how much they acted like humans were supposed to. Apparently they were designed to communicate using humanoid telepathy as well as direct lanlink. Perhaps a distraction would work. Flooding their minds with random thoughts would be effective and unnoticed. The ship had no security features that would keep a person inside. But the barricade that locked out the Fighter Units was an effective barrier. The cluster scanned the ship and found a blow torch that appeared to be usable. Telekenetically the Cluster checked the torch. It worked. The plan was laid. The cluster redirected its attention to the slave girl. She looked up and then jumped to her feet. She could have sworn that she had heard a voice. "Po?" She was both frightened and eager in anticipation. Her mind was too confused to really know what she wanted but she hoped desperately that Po would lead the way. The cluster relayed its instructions. Slave girl didn't really like the idea of going against the wishes of the IronMen but if Po told her to do it she would. The robots were distracted the door was open and the plan was set in motion. Motion was something unexpectedly difficult for the slave girl. The robots had implanted mechanical motor control units. The slave girl could only walk in slow measured steps. 'FASTER!' The cluster pleaded. The ship wasn't sitting perfectly level this only added to the ex-slave's difficulties. By and by the slave girl did make it to the tool room. She retrieved the torch and then started for the airlock. Curious that a ship for robots who didn't need air still retained full life support features. The slave girl made it unnoticed all the way to the door. The robots didn't seem to care at all that she was leaving them. The torch broke the bond holding the door shut and she was in the city. The Cluster directed her to go to a medical facility to be repaired. The slave girl kept responding 'yes Po', 'As you wish Po'. The cluster was really beginning to worry about what would happen once she learned that there was no 'Po' and that the Cluster was no more than a pile of other beings just like herself. The Cluster had to repair the slave girl. To do that the cluster would have to use a medical facility to do it. The nearest medical facility was a mile away. The cluster had the patience but the slave girl didn't have the strength. About thirty minutes into the trip the slave girl's alien cybernetics lost power. The cluster then had to manually send impulses to the slave girl's muscle groups. Her movements became awkward. She stumbled and fell several times. She ended up crawling. Her head drooped under the weight of the cybernetics. She was guided by her mysterious god alone. She was still and always would be eager to follow her mysterious god. The MedMod hadn't been touched since it was built over six hundred years ago. The air was as still as a gaseous substance could be. All of a sudden the lights came up. The door slid open. The slave girl slowly dragged herself in. With great effort the cluster was able to get the slave girl up onto one of the examination tables. With horror the cluster realized that it had no control over the table. The controls were designed for a human eyes. The data displayed on the screen was unavailable to the cluster. Since the slave girl couldn't be both patient and doctor she would just have to wait. The cluster was really ticked. It couldn't do much until the datalink was installed into the chamber where it was. Given the horribly disordered state of the region where it was that might be never. On the other hand that now that the engineer units were on the job they were doing a terrific job getting everything working. Perhaps it wouldn't be very long at all. The cluster turned its attention once again to its long term problems. The computer had to be fixed. The Fighter units would have to be disabled or bypassed somehow! Perhaps one of the Engineer units who had participated in the construction of the Government complex would be of help. Whether it would actually remember what it had built over seven hundred fifty years ago was another question. Then there was the issue of the robots. They were a complete mystery. Something completely alien and unintelligible. They would have to be kept alive so that their mystery could be unlocked but they must not be allowed to continue to steal from the colony... In the midst of scheming the cluster was interrupted by an engineer unit that had entered the pleasure module. It took no notice of the strange entity that sat in the center of the room instead it simply went about making the hardware and software modifications that would allow the computers in this module to talk to the computers in the adjacent modules. They were in business! They connected to the MedMod and tried to access the examination table. They confronted a log in prompt intended to protect patient privacy. Luckily they discovered that no passwords had been set, Open log in! The table only took thirty seconds to analyze the hardware implanted in the slave girl. There were two types of hardware in her system. Her original hardware that was designed to augment her flesh and an alien hardware that was designed to replace the flesh. The Cluster ordered the table to remove the alien hardware and restore the original hardware back to spec. The operation took twelve hours. The cluster had created a normal cybernetically augmented human female. The Cluster named its creation Crystal. The table had stripped away all the old rags that were still clinging to her body she lay naked. Crystal awoke. She sucked in a long gasping breath of air. She started trembling all over. The cluster checked her readings. Physically she was completely restored. She sat up and looked around the room. She wasn't really cold. It was the experience that was making her tremble. She was all alone she realized. Completely Totally untenably alone. The cluster tried to rasure her 'We're here.' "Go away." She told them. She went over to one of the bathrooms. There was a mirror. She looked at herself. She looked quite good considering what she had been through. Her hair was long and black in some places and completely absent where her implants had been. She was completely horrified by the entire experience. "Oh my god, this is reality ." The cluster couldn't intervene in this internal crisis. Reality was something Crystal would have to face and overcome herself. Crystal could feel her mind and everything around her with absolute and perfect clarity. With the benefit of sense perceptions and thought processes designed and optimized using the best computer software developed she had every advantage her designers could conceive. There was no Po. The stainless steel of the sink was hard and cold. She could feel each individual atom and how it interlocked with the next to form the surface. There was no Po. She turned the faucet The knob was a little sticky but it turned. A clear stream of 99% pure water flowed. It was cold to the touch. She wet her hands and then her face. It was not Po. She looked around and into herself. All that she could sense was an empty and silent brain which had once been filled with a myriad of digital signals. A powerfully strong and healthy body. A steel sink, a flow of cold clear water, this drab little washroom. And an entire universe waiting beyond the blue door. She cried for Po. She cried for herself. "Change me back!" She cried "You had no right." The response filled her mind. 'You are as you were made and more. We have given you the opportunity to change the universe.' "How could you place such an odious burden on my back. You had no right to take my freedom from me." "We share your burden. It is something that has fallen on our shoulders by a freak accident of nature. It rests upon all who stand. It is our duty to lift it up." Do she dare go out? She had to. There was no choice. She stopped the flow of water, placed her hands under the hand-dryer and left the room. The cluster told her that her first jobs were to connect herself to one of the computers and to find something to wear. As Crystal set about her work she wondered how the cluster had handled the situation without anybody to tell it what to do. Having a master was freedom. In the MedMod there was a tranciever unit for her cybernetics. She installed it and found that it she would have to make some adjustments to a whirring closet down the hall to get it to work. The job was easy even for her minimal knowledge of such things. The cluster eagerly interfaced directly into her brain. She could feel their minds melding. It wasn't at all unpleasant. In fact she realized that she enjoyed it to a large extent. A freshly manufactured jumpsuit was waiting for her at the dispensary. She slid her body into it. The fit was perfect. It really didn't benefit her except in that it had pockets that might be useful to carry stuff. The first of her labors was to see to it that the robots would never again steal from the city. She walked the streets of the city until she found a fighter unit. It stopped respectfully as she approached. "There is an emergency... " Something in the fighter unit clicked. It's ancient programming clicked in it was finally going to be sent on a mission! If it had feelings it would have been overjoyed. "...Intruders follow me." Crystal led the fighter unit back to the door. The hole Crystal had cut in it was still there. There was no sign that anybody on the other side had looked for her here yet. As intended the passage along the side of the crates was too narrow for the fighter unit. If he tried to walk along the ground that is. The fighter unit simply switched to wall walking and moved sideways through the passageway. The cluster warned crystal to stay back and let the fighter unit do its job. Crystal couldn't suppress her desire to watch. She followed. By the time she reached the mine the fighter unit had already disabled the first miner robot and was soon to take out the second. The fighter was using its claws to efficiently rip the cabling out of the necks of the robots. It was an amazing sight. The robots on the ship had seen no rush in finding the biologic servant that was stored in the city that they were trying to upgrade to full robotic status. They hadn't given her a full power pack anyway. She wouldn't get far. They would probably find her somewhere down in the mines crying and cold looking for that mystic spirit that only she could sense. The flow of ore into the processor was falling. There must be something wrong with one of the miners. Fred the robot stepped out of the ship. 'There she is!' he thought to himself. 'Wonder why she's just standing there this time?' Crystal was enjoying the show as the lone fighter unit decimated the six miner robots. It was so efficient! She heard a robotic voice from behind her. "Hey, You'd better return to the ship for a recharge." Crystal turned her head. It was the one who had given her drugs to make her fall asleep only to wake up in pain and confusion. She waited as it approached. The instant Fred was in range she executed a perfect hook kick. The kick landed squarely on the side of Fred's head. His processors were reset. He fell to the ground. Crystal went over to a stack of metal pit-props. She picked one up and returned. Just as Fred was recovering she slammed it down on his power cell. Fred was dead. Hans, the other robot, must have sensed Fred's demise. He brought an electron gun with him. It would take out any robot that wasn't sufficiently shielded. The Hans fired at Crystal. Crystal felt a tingling sensation but there was no further effect. She took the pit-prop and welding it like a club charged Hans. With one mighty blow she permanently disabled his processors. She looked around the smelter and then through the ship there weren't any more robots. The cluster asked her to see if she could connect the ship to the city. She found a bundle of spare fiber optic cable in the ship's hold. The cluster noticed something strange. The plugs on the ends of the cable were identical to the ones throughout much of the city! Twenty minutes later after the cable was attached on both ends the suspicion was verified. The communication protocols were nearly identical. The ones on the ship had a newer version number but they were still fully compatible! The cluster found that there were some interesting files on the ship. Crystal was getting tired. She went back into the city. She came across a large domed well tended park. In the center was a great old oak that was probably little younger than the rest of the city. It was well over eight hundred years old. It had been carefully tended to by the module's servant unit. She climbed up onto the canopy of the large tree and settled down to sleep between two large branches. The cluster was about to forget that it wasn't until recently that it could go without sleep and urge Crystal forward but it decided to let her be. The cluster's mind split apart into its component parts so that it could efficiently preform all the myriad tasks that lay in front of it. It's first task was to go through the computers in the city and activate the minds of the custodial units. There were thousands of these units and each had to be reset individually. Then there was the ship to deal with. Though the robot's knowledge of cybernetics was archaic compared to that of the city their work on AI and computer technology was much better than that known to the city. There was also a large theoretical database about warp propulsion that was also more advanced than that in the city. The City's computers would have to be upgraded. Then there was the question of the history of the last eight hundred years. Yet another mind of the cluster searched the ship for data on history. The ship was an ore freighter but it did have a modest library of texts that covered several historical and fictional topics. There was an almanac of history of sorts. When read right-side-up it didn't make much sense but when inverted and looked at upside down its story became horribly clear. Many years ago a wise scientist noticed that the mean quality of the human genome was slowly deteriorating. Since natural selection was no longer a factor defective genes were becoming more and more common. He suggested that the carriers of bad genes simply be prohibited from reproducing. This proposal was viciously rejected by the 'morally upright' as they were called. Centuries passed. Many cures were developed to compensate more and more for the deteriorating genes. Some were administered genetic cures that repaired the organs that were failing. These were good for the individual but the offspring of these people still carried the defective genes. A research group came up with an obvious solution. They proposed a project to dig deep into the genetic history of the species. Recover the best genes that could be found, splice them together and create the ideal person who would be breed and mass-produced using a technique called 'cloning' to replace the ailing human race. The general population was revolted by the thought of an 'artificial person' But they were quite happy and content with a population of people who were becoming progressively more and more artificial. The project to create the 'artificial person' continued underground. When they realized that they had no choice but to flee the planet. They sent a probe out to build a colony for themselves, where it landed nobody knows. Their probe led to their discovery. They were arrested for disobedience and imprisoned. Nobody wanted to be inferior to some 'test-tube freak'. The people payed for their shortsightedness. Soon the cost of maintaining what was left of the flesh became more than the benefits it provided. It was soon discarded in favor of a machine. Some were wise and made careful genetic decisions but they too bowed to peer pressure and the promise of immortality and became robot too. Everybody refused to permit the thought that the most efficient general purpose machine was in fact the biological human life form. Sure you can get a machine to print 500 pages a minute or crush tons of rock a minute but the living human being was the only thing that could survive alone in the wilderness without the benefit of an industrial base to produce spare parts and power. Work was in progress to close that gap but it was still there. The next entry regarding the colony said that a hundred forty years ago a prospecting ship came across a strange energy signature. They came across an uncharted settlement. When they landed they discovered that it was a the colony the probe had created. They reported that the 'Proud and glorious master race' that they had tried to create was nothing more than a ghost town inhabited by mindless semi-automatons. They haughtily declared it a monument to the follies of fleshy existence. They patently ignored/blocked from their minds the fact that the inhabitants of the city were intended to be workers and slaves. One of their crewmembers was severely damaged by one of the inferior and mindless fighter units. The fighter unit was restrained by force and killed by lethal injection. Lethal was right. They drilled a hole in its side and pumped it full of plasma from the ship's engines. They rationalized the procedure saying that they had no other way of dealing with a biologic. It wasn't even alive anyway. There was a bunch of crap about the history of the robots that nobody was really interested in so I'll skip it. Crystal awoke to the sounds of voices. The park was filled with people. People who had been no more than mindless drones who were now male and females with minds and hearts. One of them was trying to climb up the tree to where Crystal was. Crystal reached down and helped the man up. "Hi, I'm Crystal who are you?" She asked playfully. He smiled slightly he knew it was a game and she was the victor because he had no name. He evaded that little trap and asked "Do you know anything more than the rest of us?" "Nope. Nothing of any note." They sat next to each other just looking around at the world. They could tell that it was going to be a really beautiful world once all was put right. They looked at each other and saw that they were beautiful people too. Rows of Engineer units were being marched into the amphitheatre. They were still behaving like heartless drones. Crystal's friend turned to ask why. Crystal answered "They are on a different bus. The cluster can't access that part of the network. All of the critical controls are there too. If we can't restore the central computer life support will eventually fail and we will all be dead... They've asked me to handle the debriefing , excuse me." She jumped down from the branch and hiked over to the amphitheater. Walked down the steps and climbed up onto the stage. It was made of concrete. Since there was no rain and all the condensation formed on the ceiling of the pressure dome and since nobody had used it the stage showed no sign that it was seven hundred and fifty years old. The cyborg Engineer units all sat in exactly the same posture equally spaced apart They filled up the first three rows of benches and half of the fourth. Without really thinking about it Crystal's brain reported that there were ninety-six of them. The cluster informed her that one had been destroyed during a meteor shower when a module was hit and depressurized. There were two frantically trying to manage the central power station with limited computer support and another standing outside the computer core a few feet back from the imaginary yellow line where he would be accosted by the fighter units. His orders were to move in if he saw an opportunity. The cluster simply wanted to keep an eye on the situation. They had already queried him and learned that his specialty was hydroponics and agriculture he had helped build the Park Dome but he was fully qualified to work on computers too. "We have a problem." she addressed the Engineers. There were several ex-servant units who were looking on in curiosity. "We need to get into the central computer control room in the government complex. The computer is down and the doors are guarded. How do we get in?" nobody stood up to answer. Crystal pointed to one at random. "You." The selected engineer stood up. "We are unable to access core database. The server has been down for one hundred twelve hours." The engineer was expressionless. He understood the problem clearly and was willing to help. If they were not able to fix the computer and the colony died he would simply say "That was an unfortunate turn of events." "Exactly, that is the problem. What is the solution? How do we get in? Do any of you *remember* building that room?" One of them raised his hand. It was a simple mechanical motion that conveyed no feeling. "Yes?" The engineer stood. "I have repaired the computer on several occasions recently. The computer is in a class one clean room. The room is hermetically sealed. The air is recycled every two hours. All people entering the room must wear class 2 protective garments." "And the control room?" "That room is the only access point to the computer room. There is one entrance. It is on the common ventilation system. The ducts measure eight by sixteen inches." "Is there an emergency hatch or something?" The engineer shook his head. Crystal looked at them for a minute thinking. A plan came to her. It was both dangerous and gruesome. She asked the cluster "I have a plan but I don't like it..." The cluster responded. "We sometimes have to do things we don't like. You have our approval." Crystal shuddered. She wished there was a better way. Crystal stood only a few feet from an ominous bloodstain on the floor. There was a small device that was the custodian's life support system. It had cleaned up most of the remains. Crystal swallowed her fear and stepped across the invisible line. The fighter units lurched into motion. Crystal spun and ran as fast as she could. The door at the other end of the hall was being held open for her. She was faster than the fighter units and was able to maintain a healthy lead. Crossing into the office area she saw that the Engineer units were waiting just as ordered. Their utility arms bore circular saws. There was a horrible whine as the blades spun up to 10,000 rpm. Crystal ran past them. She didn't turn around. The sounds of blades cutting flesh and metal and the death cries of the doomed would give her nightmares for years. When the din subsided and she turned around she saw two lifeless piles of meat and scrap metal. She signaled an engineer unit to follow her. She solemnly walked down the Hall of Death. The door at the end was unlocked. The keys to the door hung from the knob by a small synch tie. The door opened. The last time it had been opened was 6 months ago when the engineer unit had gone in to repair the previous breakdown. The air inside was still and quiet. The machines sat idle. The engineer unit sat down at the console. Crystal took the next seat over. The engineer reached under the table with his utility arm. It found a dataport. Text began to appear on the screen. "Tell me what you are doing." Crystal ordered. The Engineer reported "The Auxiliary kernel is still responsive. All caches have been flushed to permanent storage. There is a series of hardware failures all across the system Replacement parts will have to be installed the system can still be restarted using the functional modules. Sending shutdown signals to affected modules. Launching kernel. The kernel was fully up and running before Crystal could blink. It was as if it was completely unaware that it had crashed. It simply initialized the network connections to the rest of the city. The entire city now shared the same system. Engineer units filed into the room and then into the airlock to start working on repairing the damaged modules. The cluster tapped into the computer and asked it why the city that it had followed such a precise plan in building for so many years suddenly became so disarrayed. The answer was simple. There was a hardware failure and the database was corrupted. The computer was ordered to build the city so as it did in all ways was bind its wounds and keep going no matter what. The cluster worked and rebuilt the database. The original design was beautiful. It was executed remarkably well given the terrain and environment. The city was ten miles across. A ring about two miles wide would have to be completely rebuilt. Rebuilding would require a population. The cluster ordered the machines that had built the servant units to start making more people. Some of them could choose to have the measuring and utility appendages of engineers and do the work of rebuilding. The others would populate the city and make it flourish. In its search of the computer It found a series of messages to greet new colonists and visitors to the city. Out of curiosity the cluster ordered the recording played to all of the citizens. "Greetings and welcome to The City of New Hope..." There was a computer rendered graphic of the spaceport and customs facility. "All are welcome. Please present your ID to the teller at customs. If you don't have an standard ID or wish to remain anonymous you will be assigned a random ID number. We welcome you to enjoy your stay. You may stay as long as you wish. Always remember to be courteous to everybody and share the city's bounty with all. The city's philosophy is that all ideas are welcome here. The only rule that we enforce is that nobody is allowed to steal from another. Whether that be freedom or the rights of that person. We hope you will be able to get along with everybody you meet. We provide a wide range of educational and recreational programs." The program went on for thirty minutes. It described the philosophy of the city in detail and it said how that you were freed from menial labors by the efforts of the servant units who had been designed to serve. The cluster noted that this scheme of making a subservient class was almost this city's downfall. The part about curing genetic disorders even antisocial personalities through genetic therapy sounded reasonable. If it could help the person to live a happy life and not impinge upon his freedoms... The next message was an automated transmission. "You are receiving this message because we failed to enter the code to stop it. This message means that nobody will not be able to arrive at the city. It is up to you to make the city work without us. It is most unfortunate that we were not able to come. You were activated in our absc----" the message terminated abruptly. Overall the plan seemed sound and could be made to work without very much effort. Because everybody literally was attached by means of a network to the city everybody could instantly coordinate with everybody else. The city could organize itself into a fully functional society in a matter of hours. Crystal and her friend, Rachel sat at one of the city's better coffee shops. There were a wide variety of coffees grown in the city's hydroponics bays. They hadn't made contact with the rest of the universe yet. To prevent premature contact the city had sent out a phony distress call to prevent the robots from landing. It said that they had taken so much ore that they were about to crash back into the planet. The planet being only 900 miles across didn't have much gravity but it sounded good and no rescue vessels had shown up since. Thankfully too that most of the city had been built underground and there was little chance that anybody would notice any activity. There had been several ships through the sector though. It appeared to be on some sort of trading route. For the time being construction flights from the city would try to avoid detection. They had built a starship construction facility inside a small asteroid. The entrance to the main hanger was still sealed with rock. Arriving ships would send out a pulse on a special frequency that would trigger a response pulse from the beacon. There were no landing lights the ships would be docked electronically. Rachel took a sip from her coffee. Their cybernetics allowed them to go long periods without food but a little chemical stimulation was always nice. They both were staring at a piece of white plastic that they each carried with them. It was to help them use their cybernetics to read. The cybernetics would allow them to read just about anywhere when they closed their eyes but it wasn't really polite to have your eyes closed when you had company or were in a situation when you were expected to respond to visual clues. The solution was to Carry a piece of plastic which would act on as a movie screen that they cybernetics could project imaginary images onto. There was nothing special or hi-tech about the piece of plastic itself. They were reading the city's newspaper, The tribune. It was available on the city's net. As with all things in the city it had started out as a feeble first attempt but had quickly evolved into something that was at least marginally good and well established. Rachel noticed an interesting headline "Its good to see that they have finished the evacuation shelters on level three. Now we don't have to worry about where to put the citizens incase we are attacked or a meteor. shower or something." "Umhm" Crystal nodded. Her friend had been a part of the cluster until about six months ago when that module was going to be destroyed and rebuilt. Rachel had the toughest time becoming an individual again but she learned to cope. She couldn't say that living as an individual was better or worse than being a cluster but it sure as hell was different! Rachel could remember all seven versions of events of what had happened before she had become a part of the cluster so she really had not the slightest clue exactly who she had been before she guessed it didn't really matter much. -- Crystal was interested in today's feature. It was about reinstituting old human customs. Today's subject was an article about whether the institution of marriage was a good thing. There was an opinion poll that went along with the story. Crystal responded with a 'no'. Crystal didn't see any point to that custom in this new kind of society. "What do you plan to do today?" Crystal asked. It was truly an open question because there was a nearly infinite set of answers. People didn't really have permanent jobs. They had a set of things that they for one reason or another were good at. They would then access a built-in board service similar to the Usenet and look at the listing for the talent that they wanted to exercise that day. They would then do that job for they day and at the end of the day update the posting with the current status of the job. For example if someone decided to start a 4 day project on constructing a new module, at the end of day one they would outline their progress for the day. Then the next day ether them or someone else would come in and pick up where they had left off. "Dunno. I kind of like being a teacher, I certainly have enough experience." Rachel grinned. Life was good. Postlude. Three years later the citizens of the city launched their starship. It was fully manned with a highly trained crew of living men and women. It followed one of the trading ships that were commonly seen passing through the sector. Two weeks later it arrived at Tau Cetti. The robots were shocked. They had thought that the biologics were extinct. But lo and behold here they were, not on some tiny shanty colony or some rusty old barge but in a state of the art starship. The robot's first reaction was shock and horror. They wanted to launch a fleet and pound the City of New Hope into ruin. But then more rational minds prevailed and the new species of humans were welcomed into society. It was time at last to let go the dogma against genetic engineering that had reduced them to robots. I DECLARE THIS * A R T * ! In writing this I've noticed that it bears similarities to Metropolis. Hope it is nearly as good. It also bears a slight resemblance to Arthur C. Clarke's The City and The Stars but I think this one is better than that one if less comprehensive. The story came to me in a dream. At first it seemed that it would make a far better video game than a narrative but then as time progressed I said what the hell if I'm going to make a game out of it I'd have to write it first anyway. It took me nearly a year to sort the dream out into a coherent narrative. How do you think I've done? If this story has made you wonder about the author's sanity. I have only this to say "All wOrk AnD no PLaY makEs jacK a duLl bOy" Created with the E ditor! 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � �袴拷 � � � � � Best Viewed � � � 勁� � � With � � � v3.13 � � � 훤袴� � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� Get PC-DOS with the E ditor!