Chapter 11
Green Mountains, Homeland
Beth and the other girls were out in the field as they were on most days with good weather. They always had to be alert in case one of their armed lookouts told them to scramble. Otherwise, the job was very boring. Hot, tiring and boring.
Suddenly, Beth’s clone co-workers took off running. She thought their acute clone eyesight or hearing must have picked up on something that she must have missed. Beth wasted no time in following them. If they were all being shot at, at least some of them might make it to safety.
“Girls!” It was Jenn’s voice, pleading for them to come back.
Beth stopped when she heard Jenn and walked back to her location.
“Look at ‘em go,” Jenn said. “They got all of that clone energy. Might as well forget about calling them back.”
“Where they going?” Beth asked, still numb with fear.
“See them people out there?”
Beth stood with her eyes and mouth still wide open. She was both stunned and relieved that they were not under attack. “Yeah. Way over there?” Beth could see them about a quarter mile away.
“Uh huh. That clone Edgar and clone Katrina had a notaclone baby they named Mark. Poor thing. Those clones don’t know the first thing about taking care of babies on account that they aren’t supposed to have any babies so they ain’t around them enough to know anything about them.” Jenn continued calmly talking on, while Beth was still shaken, “I told them it was a bad idea for them to have a baby in the first place. This place is not the best situation for somebody to have a baby in. Of course all those clone girls lose their mind if baby Markey comes within a half mile of them. It’s a clone thing, I guess. You know, an actual clone like them having a baby is a real novelty, I’d say. They’ll be back after they get their baby fix. You can take a break too. I don’t imagine you want to run way out there like they did though. I tell you, their energy is amazing.”
Beth thought to herself, what if someone would have been trying to attack them? She thought back of how they were attacked in their hideout in Hartford. Then she thought about how they were under attack by the organ harvesters. It was not unthinkable for her to be under attack again. Maybe the next time would not turn out so well.
*******
Milton spent most of his time in the Lucid control room. Not because he believed himself to be essential to the Lucid mission, but because the monitors gave him a window to the outside world, or different, less boring worlds that were in virtual reality. He considered everything the Lucids had done, or at least tried to do. There was not much he could see that changed or improved, other than his own security in the lair. Boring, boring security. The Lucids were built for work. There was no evidence that the androids had no concept of fun.
“Hey! Andy!” He said to one of the androids.
“Yes?”
“Let’s have some fun!”
Andy stared back blankly, which was not so uncommon for an android, even one with a human-like face. Then it said, “What type of fun would you like to have?”
Milton looked surprised. “You mean you would participate in having fun?”
“Yes. Fun is what raises human morale. Humans need morale to function at a high level.”
“I can’t believe you get that. You know what? I want to play a sport.”
“Playing a sport sounds like lots of fun.”
“Huh? You are excited about sports?”
“No. I cannot feel excited. If I say it that way, it heightens the human anticipation of the fun. The best time of day during this time of year to organize the sport fun will be at 6pm. It won’t be so hot outside then and the optimal time to start the fun so there will be time to have fun before sunset. We will have a pickup baseball game, which is a traditional way to have exciting fun.”
That evening Andy made a baseball out of a ball of twine, which turned out to be more like a clunky softball. The androids made a crude, but useable bat and bases out of leftover building materials. Milton and a young militiaman chose teams. Andy served as an umpire until they got tired of the strict android rules, which many players, who never played any sport, did not understand. After they fired Andy, everyone truly had fun. Those who didn’t play mostly watched and cheered. Zeke, the head militiaman was a wreck the whole time because of the casual lack of security while being out in the open on the surface and making a lot of noise.