SAR ASCENDANT / Book 1: Incursion of the INDEN

Chapters 4 to 6

Chapter 4

Hazel turns The Hoshster, skirts the boy's sad and inexplicable remains, and we draw up to the building's main doors, at the top of a sweeping, constantly upward-moving grassy hill. We all leave the AirCar and step onto the base of the hill. It carries us right up to the doors, four pillars of ShimmerGlass that slowly turn. We each step into a pillar, and enter the grand foyer, aka The Satori.

Sometime in the early middle days of the century, someone decided to name the university departments and grand halls after literary or religious concepts, perhaps in a last-ditch effort to immortalize stuff soon to disappear from the human lexicon. Hence, Satori – which, from what Hazel tells me, used to mean awakening to a Zen Buddhist.

Yeah, I'm awake. I look around. Nobody. I sniff. I always think the Uni has a distinct smell, somewhere between unpalatable vegetables and crushed seashells.

"It's probably coming from the cafeteria," says Jax, like he's reading my mind. Really, that's not out of the question. "The food smell," he says, and he tugs on my sleeve.

He's hungry. Of course. "Let's go," I say.

Hazel is shaking her head, but it's too late. Jax is running toward the smell.

I catch up with my brother at the door to the caf, sense Hazel a few steps behind. Jax, fingers tangled in his hair, is moaning softly. He's usually even-tempered but dislikes spilled food. A pea rolling across the table, falling to the floor, can make him cry. Hazel knows this, pulls him back, says, "Just stay here both of you. Don't wander."

She sidesteps piles of food stacked on tables, smeared on the floor. It's a huge mess. She makes her way across to the row of FoodBots. They are active. No, hyperactive. Usually they try to aim for a plate. Now they are just hurling fruit, rice, mashed whatever.

"Stop!" Hazel commands. "Code forty-four."

I am guessing she knows what she's talking about. Maybe she's on the Uni's food committee. The FoodBots stop what they're doing and fix Hazel with their SensEyes. They're waiting.

"What happened here?"

One of the Bots, probably the meta-router, says "The sky is orange."

"Not outside! What happened in here?"

"Everything's different," says the Bot in his precise monotone.

I edge quietly up to Hazel's side. I avoid her metallic scrutiny, though I can feel the heat of her annoyance. I think of the poor boy's words, the boy lying dead in his driveway. Everything's different now. I ask the Bot, "What do you care? You're a machine."

The Bot turns to me, says "In a properly automated and educated world, machines may prove to be the true humanizing influence."

"What? That's cheeky!"

Hazel sighs. "It's from Robot Visions. Isaac Asimov. It's an old book. He wrote about intelligent machines. These Bots have access to the library. It's supposed to help them with food prep. Sometimes they get bored. They read. Sort of."

Jax has made his way up to us, stands beside me. He's munching on a slice of toast. "Bots get bored?" he wonders.

The Bot swings towards Jax. It says, "Would you like some jam?"