Chapter 6
Green Mountains, Homeland
Later that same day, Beth and her new friends all walked into the mess hall in the underground lair. It was a larger community room with tables and benches. There were a few dozen people seated in the room. More people were in the room standing in a line to get their daily rations.
People smiled and remarked at the new look of the clone girls, who were all happy to get individualized attention and show off their new looks, while giving Beth the credit. As they stood in the serving line, Jenn came by and looked at all of them. Then when she got to Little Jenn, she was taken aback when she saw her name and gave her a long hug. Then they went through the line and got their food and took their seats.
Beth stared at her food, which was mostly greens and a small unidentifiable protein of some sort and said, “This is our food? How can anyone eat this junk every day?”
The girls sitting near her froze and stared at her.
Jo looked at Beth rather angrily and said, “Beth, we worked really hard out there to grow that food. We work all day out there. Then we have to walk a couple of extra miles in the dark to make sure that no one follows us back here. You should feel really lucky to have something to eat, especially if you didn’t do anything to get it.”
Beth immediately felt embarrassed and her head dropped. “Sorry. I . . . shouldn’t have said that. I don’t mean it.”
“That’s okay,” June said.
The mood at the table was very quiet after that.
The more Beth thought about it, the more she became deeply embarrassed over her comment. It didn’t make her like the food any better, but she resolved that she would have to make amends for her indiscretion. Minutes before, she was so popular with the girls, now she wondered if they would give her another chance to be closer friends with them again.
*******
When the girls got back to their dorm, Beth saw Lucid series androids, Sleepy and Andy which were both accessorized with synthetic human skin and hair, sitting in there looking at her toy mouse that they pulled from her bag. “Hey! I thought I told you to leave that alone!”
“We need this,” Andy said.
“It’s mine! Give it back! And why is that other droid wearing a smurf uniform?! That is creepier than usual! By a lot!”
Sleepy said, “Our priority of protecting the truth must supersede your ownership rights over this toy. It is subject to our confiscation.”
Andy’s most recent change of clothes included a UN army uniform when it was trying to escape the UN army in Boston weeks earlier.
Beth objected, “I’m getting Milton! No, Jenn!”
Andy said, “None of those alternative actions will change anything. It may be helpful for you to understand that this toy can become instrumental in our plans, which must remain a secret.”
“Why?!”
“I can say no more about it.”
The two androids walked out with the toy in their possession.
“Daaa! I hate those creeps so bad!” Beth said. Then she looked at the clones, who had never really owned anything in their lives and got twinges of embarrassment again. She thought about the ups and downs of what happened during the day.
Little Jenn said, “No! We won’t let them take the mouse!” She ran out the door after the androids shrieking as loud as she could. Then all twelve of the other girls all started running out the door shrieking as well. Soon attention was being brought to the situation. The growing crowd included both Milton and Jenn.
Beth was impressed that the girls were all interceding on her behalf.
Jenn said, “What in the world is going on here?!”
Beth said, “Those creeps came into our room and took that mouse! Now they say they don’t even need to say why they jacked it!”
Milton shook his head and sighed. “Okay . . . Andy, why did you take Beth’s mouse toy?”
“And go into our room!” June said.
Andy said, “We Lucids have been trying to gain control over other android series to join our cause, but Homeland expects us to take such an action and have made silicon life forms much better protected and very difficult for us to crack. However, these toys have minimal protection. We are learning how to appropriate the ownership identity of them. That is why we need this mouse. Please maintain secrecy.”
Milton said to the androids, “Yeah, but still, what good is one little mouse to you?”
“Not just one mouse Milton, all of them.”
“All the mice?” Beth asked. “I only got one.”
“No, all the Sidekick toys,” Andy said.
“All the Sidekick toys.” Milton laughed and said, “that’s funny, you said you would control all of the Sidekick toys.”
“Yes,” Andy said, “All of the Sidekick toys. We will be able to remotely control all of them whenever we want. That includes modifying their behavior windows to attack enemy humans at our command.”
Milton frowned and turned his head to the side in disbelief. He asked, “Even the big ones? The ones all those spoiled Homeland kids use to fight each other?”
“Yes, our efforts include the two-foot tall toys.”
“Whoa! That is a lot!” Beth said. “You’re gonna have a whole army!” She started laughing. She waved her hand at the mouse and laughed. Then she looked around from side-to-side and said, “That’s a toy for babies anyways.” She said with a forced chuckle, “You can have it.”
Andy said, “We are trying to locate the main robotic toy server, then attempting to erase the ownership registers. Then we will replace the owners with Beth’s valid registration from this toy. In addition to taking ownership of the toys, we will install certain overrides to global settings. Our brains are operating at maximum speed, minus the distraction you are providing while talking to us.”
“Did you just say shut up?” Beth asked. “Just remember, stoop-roids, every toy will be in my name. I get to call the shots.”
Milton said, “Just take it easy! Okay?!” Then he stepped back as Beth lunged at him.
She sneered got even closer and said, “Never tell me that!”