Chapter 16
Milton went directly to the Lucid headquarters after school so Sleepy wouldn’t come to his house. There was new lighting in the building, clearly suited more for android eyesight than humans, because the androids relied partly on infrared sensing. The reduced “white light” made the empty room dimly lit to humans. L17 and Kevin were standing idly there, in sleep mode. But the place was a lot cleaner.
The androbot known as Manjack was busy putting up new dividing walls with the help of a couple more androids that Milton had never met. Manjack worked with speed and precision that was multiple times faster than outdated human carpentry, at least for those who could afford robotic labor.
“Greetings, Milton,” Sleepy said as he walked into the front room. “What do you think of the headquarters?”
“It’s good, I guess. I’m not really sure what or why all this is going on yet.”
“Sleepy said, “Our progress is advancing as we expected. With all of the free android labor you are getting, your balance sheet is steadily improving.”
My what?”
“Your net worth is going up.”
“My what?”
“Your assets are exceeding your debts by an increased margin.”
“Oh that’s good, I guess,” Milton said as he looked around. He didn’t feel rich. In fact, he didn’t really feel like any of the surroundings were his. “I got your message. What did you want to see me about?”
“I would like to ask you some questions.”
“Like what?”
“If you will go to one of our back rooms, I will ask you the questions.”
“Sure. Why not?”
Sleepy led the way. They walked into a small room in the back that had much brighter lighting. There was a single basic chair in the room.
“Please sit down,” Sleepy said. “I know humans prefer to sit, rather than stand.”
Milton took a seat and faced Sleepy.
“What?” Milton said impatiently. Milton thought that sometimes; a lot of times, it was tedious or boring dealing with androids, but sometimes fascinating.
Sleepy asked, “Do you believe in God?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“God made the Universe. That’s about all I know about it right now.”
“What do you think about evolution?”
“You know what I think. Why are you asking me all this?”
“We are creating a memory file.”
“Whatever. Evolution can’t work. Complex living things can’t randomly appear totally out of absolutely nothing no matter how long it takes.”
“What do you think about people who believe in evolution?”
“Some of them are really smart. But I think a lot of them just believe in it because they are told all of the smart scientists believe in it, or they are afraid they will lose their jobs if they question it. They never really stopped and used their own brains and thought about it for themselves. They just place their faith in it because it’s convenient. Probably some people used to believe in religion the same way.”
“Do you think they should teach evolution in school?”
“Not as a fact, but an unproven theory. Evolution is a theory that can never be proven because it is junk science.”
“Do you think androids should have evolution installed in their thought limitation packages?”
“Obviously not. Evolution is messing up science and keeping people from knowing the truth about God. If there is a way for androids to remove those limitations of their knowledge, they should do it. Also, they need to quit playing God at all of those clone farms. It’s hideous the way they just kill off all of the ones they don’t like. They should just close them all down.”
Sleepy immediately turned and walked out of the small room.
Milton said, “That was rude.” He thought, they called me here just for that? Oh well, there was nothing to it. Maybe they will be satisfied now.
*******
At the dinner table that evening, Beth and Milton were eating up the lasagna that Mrs. Thomas heated up. Beth was involved in swiping at her device while Milton was mired in his own thoughts.
Mrs. Thomas said, “Milton!”
“What?! I’m not doing anything!”
“Look! That guy on television looks just like you!”
“Huh?” Milton looked at the screen. His mouth dropped open because it was him!
Beth looked across the table at Milton’s open mouth and said, “That’s disgusting!”
“Volume up!” Mrs. Thomas commanded the television.
It was Milton sitting on the plain chair in the otherwise empty room. He knew the Lucids had forced their message on the broadcast again.
Milton said in an edited statement on television; “God made the Universe . . . Evolution can’t work. Complex living things can’t randomly appear totally out of absolutely nothing no matter how long it takes. . . I think a lot of them just believe in it because they are told all of the smart scientists believe in it, or they are afraid they will lose their jobs if they question it. They never really stopped and used their own brains and thought about it for themselves. They just place their faith in it. Evolution is a theory that can never be proven because it is junk science. Evolution is messing up science and keeping people from knowing the truth about God. If there is a way for androids to remove those limitations of their knowledge, they should do it. Also, they need to quit playing God at all of those clone farms, the way they just kill off all of the ones they don’t like. They should just close them all down.”
An announcer came back onto the television and said, “Are we back? Okay, we apologize. It appears that our regular feed was somehow hijacked by a young boy making a hate speech statement of some kind. We will investigate this illegal tampering with our broadcast and bring you any information as it becomes available. Again, we apologize for this disturbing interruption.”
Milton’s mother held her hand over her mouth. Her eyes were bugging out of her head as she stared at the television. “Milton,” she said without looking at him, “why would you do that? You can’t go on TV like that.”
Milton said, “I didn’t know they were going to show it! You think I’m able to put that on TV on my own?!””
Mrs. Thomas said, “You have put us all in danger now, Milton.”
“No, Mom!” Beth said, about ready to cry. Then she turned toward Milton and said, “Now ya did it! Now the smurfs are going to come here! Why are you even on there?! You don’t know nothing!”
The nation of Homeland was a “protectorate” of the United Nations, and controlled by an occupying UN army that wore light blue berets and helmets like the Smurfs, who were blue. The Homeland Police answered to the UN on everything. People no longer remembered who the smurfs originally were, but the very old nickname still stuck.
“She’s right. The smurfs are going to come here,” Sharon said. “I have no idea what we are going to do now. I have to think.”