A/N Happy Worldwide Women Entrepreneurs day ( #WomenWOW). (http://womenseday.org) This chapter also starts with a bit of a social message, keep with it you know it gets better. If you're reading this book backwards then you're going to pass the test on chapter 60/Him/Bear necessities.
Photo: Gort the robot just in case you got confused and miss read a character as being a small town in southern Germany. Which Is Gört near Bad Bentheim ( not far Good Bentheim I guess ). Honestly, check the umlauts guys. Gort's the one on grey, ignore the guy in green spandex he's for size comparison only. To help you tell ( if you're reading in Black and White) Gort is the robot in his Y-fronts.
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Room 404/Rockwood Hall/Washington 2.0/Region 01 area formally known as Nebraska.
Jenny's POV: 2 hours 23 seconds after previous chapter.
Later after Rockwood left, I got a message from Joe asking if I was alone. Looks like Joe was missing the new arrivals party. He appeared a little later from the slave door. At first I was very pleased to see him, he had brought chocolate with him. The lights were dim and the room was lit by the glow of the city beyond. Then I saw his face.
"What happened to you?" I said. He was slightly puffy under one eye. He wasn't doing the one foot in front of the other cat walk right either.
"That's what I wanted to ask you about," said Joe waving a box of Belgium quality chocolate. I was wondering what was worse to resist Oblivion or chocolate? Close thing.
"Watch this," said Joe sending his slave cam stream to the interaction table. I looked down on Joe leaving the Kijo robot at the dinner table.
"I didn't put my thumb on the consent machine so I'm free," said Joe looking down. So this was his third and final robot date. Joe fast forwarded the slave cam stream. He stopped when the stream showed he was walking back to the harem.
"When I wake up, well, I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the slave who wakes up next to you..." Joe was clearly listening to the upgraded version of the Proclaimers song on his collar and mumbling along with the words.
"...and I would walk 804.67 kilometre and I would walk 804.67 kilometres more just to be the slave who walked 1,609.34 kilometres to fall down at it's masters door" he partly sang. The robots couldn't make it scan either.
Joe was walking down the corridors - as a harem slave he could avoid he narrow slave passages and use the 'proper' hallways. It was dark and quite. It was a long walk back to the harem. Even harem slaves couldn't use the elevators with out permission and had to walk up the stair cases. Then suddenly just as Joe turned a corner the world became a blur. The camera stopped and in the bottom of the picture was Joe's date the robot Kijo. Kino had Joe against the wall and held an arm out to stop Joe continuing.
"I thought you might have changed your mind," said Kijo.
"No," said Joe hesitantly.
"Don't you like me?" said Kijo all five cameras looking at Joe in the entire light spectrum.
"You're OK Kijo..." said Joe.
That was smart - don't offend the machine which could squeeze your head like a zit.
"Kiss me then" said Kijo.
"N.." started Joe and then the robot pushed it's face against Joes. Joe mumbled. Kijo didn't have a mouth more a grill with holes for a speaker.
"He was holding me about a foot from the floor a this point" explained Joe looking at me.
"Say you like me," Kijo said looking menacingly.
"Look Kijo... your OK you know.." said Joe apologetically.
"I said SAY YOU LIKE ME!" Kijo insisted.
"Look...OW" said Joe.
From what I could tell Kijo had punched Joe or something. A robot like Kijo was capable of ripping Joe limb from limb.
"Kiss me, then tell me you love me. That's what you slaves want to say isn't it?" said Kijo.
I think Kijo was kissing Joe again. Joe only managed to mumble.
"Now tell me you want to sign the consent machine and give me your blood" said Kijo. For slaves it was more complex but may be for robots it was different.
"N..no" said Joe I think he was being hit again.
"You stinking blood bags your all the same. I'll show you.." Joe was thrown across the room.
I winced.
Joe paused the stream.
"By the way I discovered why the robots want to date slaves. If your hanging out with robot he can take your blood. They have to pay most of their salary for blood, so free blood means he can save a huge amount. After about a year he can by his own blood slave. Two years he's got enough to leave Rockwood and setup in his own apartment some were. He's got me on the ground and is about to find out about my plumbing"
"Why didn't you call for help" I said. There was a simple distress word on the collar.
"Yeh - I had more wine over dinner. I was really out of it. I feel enough of an idiot enough" said Joe pressing play.
Suddenly Kijo was dragged away and thrown againts the wall. This left a crack from the force. Kijo must have weight about a metric ton. Joe turned and you could see a large silver robot.
"Who's that?"I said.
"He's called Gort" said Joe. " He's a TOBOR 1 max upgraded with a laser eye. He's the only one big enough to handle Kijo."
"I thought the TOBOR's were semi-drones not sentient robots?" Basically the TOBOR's didn't have blood chips or at least that's what I thought.
"I'm not arguing, I really don't care," said Joe.
While we talked Gort had kicked Kijo a couple of times he opened his visor and was clearly threatening to zap him.
"Just do it. Go on I dare you" said Gort to Kijo "Now scrap off."
The shadows moved and showed Kijo getting up and limping off.
"He's kind of your knight in shining armour," I said.
"Really? listen" said Joe.
Gort came over.
"You can walk?" said Gort leaning over.
"Yes master. thank.." started Joe.
"Don't thank me, just go. I blame him but I blame you to. When are you men going to learn going around flaunting yourself like this in front of a robot is just asking for it. " said Gort unpleasantly.
Joe didn't say anything got up and limped off.
"Anyway" said Joe switching off the slave came stream. "I don't want to see Kayla, not like this. I'll switched to using Maybelline - they say it hides bruises better, but If she see's me she will ask questions. If she does then she won't eat the chocolate and it would all be wasted. I mean would you?" said Joe dropping the chocolate box on the table.
"Good point," I said putting the chocolate down.
"Would you give it to her?. Look I'm going to hide out for a bit. I don't what anyone seeing me. Kijo its still out there, it's going to be awkward if he sees me. If you see Kayla tell her I'm busy and they won't let me out."
"You should tell Rockwood or you're over seer," I said.
"You heard Gort - he would just say I was leading him on. These machines stick together. At the end of the day Kijo is still out there I have to live in the hall with him. They only evidence I have is this" Joe said showing me his index finger. The nail varnish was a different colour from the rest.
"I don't understand," I said.
"The quote girls unquote gave me this." said Joe putting his glove on again "it's a nail polish which changes color when it's in contact with drinks which have been laced like Rohypnol, Xanax and GHB. Looks like I got a full dose . Fortunately the machine doesn't understand much about drinking so I was able to fake being zoned out while my glass didn't go down. Glad I was faking it the machine asked a lot about the harem, I could have been in deep crap if I had said anything"
"You should say something to someone. " I said.
"I love the way you still believe in justice and stuff." said Joe "This is the machines world, promise me you won't stop that, don't ever stop that."
***
The next day I found myself being printed into the kind of perl catsuit which had a tail. Grr. Rockwood let me have breakfast with him we had lemon poppy scones, fluffy pancakes with cinnamon Syrup and sweet potato muffins.
"Happy birthday," he said.
"Really?" I said time passed so strangely in Rockwood Hall was I really 20?
"No, you've been here for a robot year* so you're now officially 1. " said Rockwood.
"Brilliant and I'm out of diapers," I said twirling my catsuit tail.
Rockwood handed me my leash. With a resigned look on my face, I put it on my collar.
"Come on I'll take you for a walk. You can walk breakfast off" he said.
I was a little full I had been expecting my collar to tell me when to stop but it didn't. I think as a birthday treat Rockwood had switched it off and for the first time in my slave life I was actually full.
We walked through Rockwood Hall together, while out of room for 404 I still had to do the slave thing. Fortunately, we could still talk by texting. We started in the pod bay looked at his replacement Osprey then started up. Rockwood walked passed another Osprey and noticed a black high-tech looking suitcase nearby.
"Do me a favour would you and pop the case into the Osprey would you?" Rockwood said.
"Groan," I said. "I guess so Master."
I picked up the case and strained. "Wow, this is heavy. What have you got in her your ego?" I texted a certain cyborg, straining to pull it up the ramp.
"Certainly not" Rockwood sent back "my ego case comes with a two-man lifting warning. Tuck it away it the corner will you? Thanks."
Case tidied away we continued on the tour. Every so often we would pass a group of slaves cleaning all repairing something in the corridor. The slaves would kneel face to the ground or hide. The overseer robots would stand to attention.
We walked past a group cleaning near the blood donation area, Rockwood suddenly stopped. He walked backwards and looked at one of the robots standing to attention. The robot stood still and Rockwood looked him up and down.
"Your slaves are dismissed, go back to your cages, " Rockwood said.
After they had gone he went back to inspecting the robot. We stood in silence for a minute.
"I see dent,s soldier," said Rockwood firmly.
"Yes Lord," said the robot.
"I don't like dents in my workforce. Either you don't care or don't know how to look after yourself" he said.
"Yes, Lord."
Suddenly a large silver robot which I recognized as Gort partly because he had the word 'Gort' written on his chest, turned up.
"You rang my Lord," said Gort.
"Yes, Gort I'm firing this overseer. He was 50 ms late standing to attention, he was letting his slaves do a lousy job, look at it! And look at him he's covered in dents. After the subjugation of Tobago, there aren't any real credible military threats left, I think we should take advantage of the peace dividend and downsize some of the security personnel" he turned back to the robot "go to charging station get your stuff and get on the first flight out of here. In fact, I can't even stand your Mac address on my Wi-Fi it's an ugly number, just leave now."
The robot uncertainly saluted and then managed to march off in the most disgruntled way a machine could. We continued to walk Rockwood's inspection tour. I had never really seen this bad ass side of him since the day I had arrived. We continued spiralling down Rockwood Hall, it was a huge pyramid with glass on one side letting light into a massive atrium. We were walking past the massive glass wall looking out onto the city beyond. I stayed close to Rockwood. The Machines didn't believe in handrails or balustrades. If I got too close, so there was nothing except my leash to stop me going over the edge.
#DEC joined us. Looking down I could see the massive roof of the pod bay opening up and one of the Ospreys taking off. Rockwood stopped and looked out over the city beyond is protective fences.
MESSAGE FROM MASTER. 'You know the way you keep asking yourself if I am evil or not, look' the message said. I looked out towards the city beyond.
Suddenly in the distance, there was a huge explosion. The Osprey which had taken off only minutes before exploded. I watched as the vehicle fell out of the sky, it took such a long time to fall to the ground.
"Not again. Who was in the Osprey?" said Rockwood to #DEC.
"Just the robot you just fired, Lord," said #DEC.
"oh dear how awful, I guess bad luck does come in threes." said Rockwood casually.
'He was fired and died in a plane crash that's two' I sent as a text to Rockwood.
"What was his name?" said Rockwood to #DEC
"Kijo I believe lord," said #DEC.
'YES!' I thought.
"Is that plane going to hit that building over there? What building is that?" said Rockwood. I knew he knew the answers he could compute all this with out even a blood chip.
"I believe that to be General Bitsmarks's new residence, Lord" said #DEC.
The Osprey with a huge black trail of fire and smoke behind it went straight into the huge cylindrical building beyond.
"Opps! Hope he's insured. The place is so new it's still being printed. #DEC remind me to remove General Bitsmark's housewarming party from my social calendar" then Rockwood pulled a face "shame right into the upper data centre. That's going to cost. All those new bloodchips. Shame. Still he's insured."
We continued on as if nothing happened. I tried to keep the huge smile of my face.
"Gort, put out a help wanted sign for for both a replacement overseer and a robot that knows how to run a pod bay. Oh and don't forget to fire the Robot who runs the pod bay, shame I think he was a friend of Kijo's, he must feel terrible. Still, two plane malfunctions within the same year that really won't do, I might as well get a slave to run it." he said.
MESSAGE FROM MASTER 'That makes three' .
"Dear, when are people going to learn not to mess with my $hit" said Rockwood rhetorically looking at the fire in the distance then he turned to me.
"Oh - I know it's your birthday and everything, but would you mind sorting out Kijo's charging station? I know he had a lot of war booty mostly human consumables we won't be sending on now. Give his blood to the other overseers with my compliments, but then distribute the human stuff to the slaves. It's not from me you understand it wouldn't do for a cyborg Master to be seen to be handing out freebies to slaves, but I do so hate waste don't you? Oh and that reminds me I'm sorry I really don't have enough time to go out shopping with you. So I'm going to have a designer come over to have a look and design you a dress tomorrow for the opening"
"Why didn't you just buy one over the internet?" I said.
"Oh of course why didn't I think that? Oh, I remember it's not good enough. See what happened to Kijo , one bit of poor presentation and all kinds of things can happen. Never mind, the designer has been hired already. Oh and make sure it's as sexy as possible, cover up don't show any skin." then he stopped.
"Oh dear Zola is going to be so mad at me, accidentally ramming her boy friend's brain with one of my aircraft. Remind me to send Bitsmark some flowers. I wonder if Hallmark do a card 'sorry my aircraft flew into your brain setting it on fire? ' something humorous on the inside like 'you weren't using it any way' or 'next time don't paint a target on it'." said Rockwood.
"How about 'thinking of you even if you can't think of anything' or 'actually you make brain damage look good' , Master," I said.
"Nice, maybe you could get some card and crayons and you could make one. Nothing says I really feel sorry for the accidentally destruction of you and your building more than getting your one year old pet to make a homemade card eh?"
I looked out, the building printer on the top of the tower was starting to tip over.
"oh dear that's so unlucky," said Rockwood. Wow, he really was ruthless. I mean completely lacking in ruth. Total ruth absence. A ruth quotionant of zero. If anyone could have negative ruth it was him. Wow, ruth was in complete exile around Rockwood. Note to self don't pi$$ Rockwood off, I mean never. OMG, that's my job. Rockwood had a mean streak a mile wide what ever a mile was in kilometres. Still, I think I now had my own personal chocolate horde. Mine all mine, Insert evil laugh here.
The tower started to crumble pierced by the arrow of the Osprey's smoke.
"opss!" said Rockwood. "Add a balloon to those flowers. I really am sorry. How terrible. I so wouldn't want to be around him tonight. " he said smiling.
We walked on. Then his face changed "That's a bad email to get. Such a shame. It looks like Kijo's back ups were erased from my server farm the moment I fired him, the only one he had were the physical copies he was given as he boarded the plane a few minutes ago. Sad, looks like that's the last we are seeing of Kijo. Shame nice guy apart from downsizing and having a slovenly appearance. Did I wish you a happy birthday?"
"No master," I said.
"Happy birthday . Feel free to make a card for me to give to you" said Rockwood. The smoke rising from the building in the distance behind him then he looked at Gort. "Wish her a happy birthday"
"Happy birthday random slave," said Gort.
"Thank you, Masters. It's been a terrific day" I said smiling.
*1 robot year is 100 classic days.
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By the way fellow writers . The spelling/ grammar overhaul on the first chapters netted an extra 30% of readers who carried on after the first chapter.
Join us next week for the next chapter Mr Jones