Ghost in the Machine

Contraband

The three of them stood staring at one another in the fading light, but as soon as the sun dipped past the horizon casting the interior into gloom once more, the android's eyes went black and drifted closed.

"Dad-?"

"Kai." Greer's voice was sharp. "Go get the truck and bring it around. Pull in backward as close to the hanger door as you can. Don't say anything to anyone about what's in here. Not a word. Understand?"

"We in trouble?"

"No, but if someone finds out we didn't notify the Reapers as soon as we saw her, we will be."

"How come they-?"

"Kai! Go!"

The youth scowled but hurried to obey his father, trying to move inconspicuously to get their rig. Greer moved forward, hesitantly reaching out to touch its arm. The flesh- no, he corrected himself, a sort of silicone rubber, was almost human, down to the thin, soft hair under his fingers. Androids had become contraband since the middle of The War, and by 2287 had been banned worldwide. After all, it was one of them that started The War. It had waged for nearly fifty years, devastating the planet, wiping out entire cities as anti-tech groups massacred those pro-tech, finally threatening the very survival of the human race.

What remained in the aftermath of The War was further corrupted by factions fighting for power, and the planet fell farther into darkness and ruin. Only within the last seventy years had civilization begun to stabilize. Limited power, electricity, and plumbing were functioning in the major cities, most technology having been wiped out with the global electromagnetic pulse that had been used to decommission most of the robots. It had also taken out satellites, radios, and most other electronic formats, a high price to win the War.

Any form of artificial life was still illegal, and Reapers prowled the outlands and ghost towns for sign of androids. In three hundred years, they'd announced over the Global Broadcasting Wave that all but ten percent were accounted for.

Reapers were a highly militarized organization founded by the then vice president of the United States, just after The War forced the world to reorganize their governing practices. Instead of independent countries and rulers, the globe was now overseen by Grand Chancellor and his advisers, a total of thirteen men from different countries who changed power every twelve years. Almost two hundred years ago, they commissioned the Reapers with the monumental task of rounding up every android ever put out into society, from the first A.I to the series four. Across the globe, soldiers of the Reapers were constantly on the lookout for contraband tech, and any androids that might have survive the EMP.

Anyone found harboring robots was imprisoned, interrogated, put on public trial then executed as a traitor against the New World Order. Androids were considered a threat to humanity, and sympathizers were not tolerated. The information Greer recalled had been drilled into him throughout all his learning years, as it had been for decades across the earth.

Shaking his head, Greer studied the female android. Her skin was lightly tanned beneath her green pencil skirt and tank top blouse reminiscent of the mid-twenty-third century. Long, straight black hair hung in a dust coated sheet down her back. He recalled her eyes being a fierce, electric blue. If she had been a real woman, there wouldn't be a man within two hundred miles that wouldn't clamor at her door in exchange for a night's pay. And that wasn't sexist. In this day and age, prostitution was almost as prestigious and honorable as being a member of the Senate. Many a beautiful woman made a good living by selling herself-

Glancing down, Greer froze.

The android's legs were encased in dust and dirt halfway up her shins, the silt tightly packed around the limbs. She had never attempted to move from behind the stacked boxes blocking her from view, nor brush off the decades of dust coatingher skin and clothes. It struck him as sad, for if he recalled history correctly, the series four androids- Delta Class- could run on an internal, solar powered source for a hundred years if properly maintained. The Echo Class was rumored to have been, by what advertisements he could recall from history, nearly immortal. To know that it stood here, alone in the dark, feeling its power source drain away, never attempting to recharge, was deeply disturbing.