Chapter 12
Hartford, Homeland
Milton sat with Randy in the school cafeteria, eating the typical twenty-third century lunchroom cuisine. They were treated to processed protein blend with a choice of sauces; fresh hydroponically grown greens; and fruit juice.
Randy said, “This is my third favorite lunch, right behind the chili and the pizza.”
“Uh huh,” Milton said, not really listening. He had even more to think about after the hallway confrontation.
Randy said, “Daaa! Don’t look. Stafford is in here. Don’t come this way! Don’t come this way! He’s coming this way!”
He walked up to Milton, not looking happy and said, “Thomas, in my office as soon as you are done here.”
*******
“Thomas, I have been a principal quite awhile now. But I haven’t run into anyone else like you. You seem to cause drama wherever you go. But I would have never thought that you would get Kevin the Custodian stirred up in your little theatre. You know, Kevin didn’t work out as a teacher, but he was doing great as a Custodian. You messed that all up.”
Milton sat with a look of surprise on his face.
“Do you seriously think I can keep an android around who attacks the children? You don’t seem to get it, Thomas. You have no idea what a robot can do to a human. They can kill a human real quick. What exactly did you do to Kevin?”
“Nothing . . . I”
“C’mon! Cut the baloney here! You ruined Kevin and now it will cost the taxpayers a bundle to replace him! Not to mention you could have gotten some of the other boys killed!”
Milton felt intimidated by Stafford, a large man with a deep voice. But he had to think quickly. He said, “This is basically all your fault.”
“What?! Tell me I didn’t just hear you blame me for all this.”
“That’s right. If you would have helped me get an answer to my question, then the truth would have been protected. You’re a teacher, so you should have helped me.”
Stafford looked shocked. He sat shaking his head at the situation. “Thomas, you are going to make my brain explode. You got a metric ton of nerve telling me something like that. I hope this Notuda they got you on will kick in pretty soon. You got anything else brilliant to add?”
“Yes. Blaze Bangeese and those other guys were attacking Randy Klosterman and me in the lunch line when Kevin stopped him.”
“You know what, Thomas? There aren’t any videos of that all over Twitbook like there are of Kevin lifting Blaze off of the floor. You’re crazy if you think Kevin can be salvaged. You are the one who is the common factor in all this trouble. You are in the middle of it all. That tells me you are the problem.”
“Mr. Stafford, someone needs to listen to me. These androids know that everyone is destroying science with evolution. They will not stop until the truth gets out.”
“Oh, so you know more than the entire science community now. If I don’t listen to you the world will end. Why should I listen to a kid? You don’t know anything. That’s why you are in this school.”
“Evolution could not have made the human body because it had to start from nothing and have everything working at the same time so the body could survive. There is way too much that would go wrong. God had to have made man and the androids are realizing it. Yes, I asked them the question, but that is all I did. I’m not some kind of terrorist or something. But I think those androids are doing the right thing.”
Then Principal Stafford’s phone rang.
“What?! I’ll be right down!” Stafford stood up. He sneered at Milton and gritted his teeth, clearly blaming him for whatever was going on at the other end of the phone call. Then he ran out of the office.
*******
When Principal Stafford arrived at the hallway outside of the cafeteria, he saw Stephon the school maintenance manager sitting on the floor holding his nose with a bloody rag. The school maintenance robot was lying on the floor with one of its arms missing at the shoulder. The floor was slick with dielectric robot oil. Student and teacher onlookers looked terrified. Locker doors all along the scene were caved in.
Stafford asked a teacher, “What happened here?!
She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.
Stafford shouted, “Who knows what went on here?!”
The crowd just stared at him. One of the smaller children stepped forward and handed the principal the maintenance robot’s detached arm.
Stafford helped Stephon up. He asked the battered maintenance manager, “You okay?”
He nodded yes as held his bloody nose.
“What happened?”
“We were getting ready to take Kevin to the salvage plant. Then he like . . . resisted. It all happened so fast. Kevin more or less sucker punched our much stronger repair bot and got the best of him. Otherwise, I think the repair bot would have easily taken him in a brawl. I’m not too worried about the repair bot, since it should be able to repair itself for the most part.”
Stafford asked Stephon, “So did Kevin object to being taken to the salvage yard or something?”
“You hit the nail on the head. I ain’t never seen a droid act like that. It musta been some kinda glitch. It kept saying, ‘the truth must be protected’ while they were going at it. Then afterwards Kevin ran off somewhere. I need some cold water for my nose so I can get this stopped.”
Stafford immediately knew that Milton Thomas had something to do with the situation. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and called the city police. “I want to report a rogue android.”
“Can you describe the android, Mr. Stafford?”
“It is our Custodian. It has a green uniform. Oh, and a ‘Stay in School’ sign on its back.”
“Can you tell me if your android was properly maintained?”
It was rare, but on occasion an android would mutiny against its owner because some malfunction involving the owner’s authority link or related settings would become corrupted.
“Well, it is kinda old, but we have this student who may have tampered with it somehow.”
“A student?”
“Yes, but we are dealing with that situation right now.”