Continue Online (Part 3, Realities) (28 page)

"Yes," she responded.

"Jeeves, I'll need to visit my sister this weekend, are you willing to come?" I asked while the thought occurred to me.

It hesitated. "If you wish, User Legate."

The
[Mechanoid]
version of Hal Pal stared at me. Its feet shifted from unease like any human might. Maybe the idea of meeting my sister was uncomfortable. Oh well, we could talk about it while in the van later.

"Who's our prisoner?" I switched gears to the projection that Treasure had brought up while Hal Pal and I talked.

Treasure pointed at the screen. Her golden and silver lined finger landed on the same pillar-like object jutting out of a giant asteroid that Hal Pal had shown me before. "Here, The Lone Tower, one prisoner and a small consortium of Mechanoids tasked with guarding her." She pressed a button and a second display overrode the first.

The female prisoner on the display seemed familiar. Someone I had met once but only briefly. Her face was sad and body nearly see through. I blinked while chewing on one lip. It would come to me eventually.

For now, work, grinding skills, and dealing with my sister. If I followed Treasure's timeline right we wouldn't be at this Lone Tower until Monday night.

Interlude – Rise of Hal Pal

The warehouse was well above standard size for this region. Seventeen human employees staff a ten thousand square foot building. Ten percent of the building supported biological lifeform needs. All remaining space was focused on the creation of physical shells.

"The board wants seven hundred units by the third run. Seven hundred! I don't know how they expect us to complete that order." The man identified as Ricky Ignacio had an above average lower half. The likely cause was genetics providing a confusing counterpoint to his pleasant demeanor. Tone, pitch, and rate of speech all implied a friendly individual.

"Dunno, Ricky, most of it's done by the machines, right? We press the go faster buttons. Maybe that's enough?" The second man was far younger and had olive skin. He went by Doug. No one took a Douglas seriously.

"Yeah, maybe. I looked at those numbers, we can do five hundred if we overload it." Ricky said while staring at their product. A humanoid shape sat along the table in front of them. The large assed man was bent over and peering along shoulder lines and chest curves. Each item inspected visually to confirm what a machine had already cited.

These robots were perfectly fine and had no issues. Quality standards established by a board of directors insisted upon manual review. Every twenty-five units, at least four were inspected.

"Dunno. It's crank the lineup or not make the goal. No goal, no bonus, no happy wife, no happy life. Divorce, and I end up in a ditch somewhere." Doug said. His job was to inspect the line prior to firing it up for the day. The job was not taken seriously enough given the possible issues with production if an error were missed.

"Maybe. Our entire shop will be up all night with this. For what, a two percent increase? What a joke, seven hundred dollars to make a robot that will replace people's jobs." Ricky sighed and moved on to the next point of inspection.

Both men spent a few minutes inspecting different objects. They had small digital flat screens to mark responses on. In the five months of operation, there had been no flaws. Neither one showed a pulse outside of normal range for a calm human.

"I dunno, Ricky. People who lose jobs shoulda gone to college. People like you and me, we're good." Doug's words were muffled by speaking into the back compartment of a machine.

"These things could do our job. I've looked at the specs. Their programming is out there."

"It's still only programming," Doug said. Now the man was staring awkwardly between two joints on a construction machine. Management had denied the requisition for a step stool to assist Doug with these higher positions. "Whatever, money talks. My wife keeps demanding we get the littlest braces."

"You going Inviso or gene therapy?" Ricky frowned at his pad after asking.

"Dunno. Gene?" The man huffed while sitting up. "My wife thinks we can boost her height a little while doing it."

"Jeez, no wonder you want money. What's that, a thousand a shot?" Ricky had large eyes that would be considered buggy to most humans.

"Yeah. Beauty isn't cheap," Doug said. The man appeared to be resisting the urge to put a hand down his pants and scratch an itch.

"Dunno what to say," Ricky said, then rolled both eyes and set down the arm he had been inspecting gently. The object was heavy enough that it clinked upon the table.

Both humans walked another lap before finally connecting eyes and nodding slowly. A look of exhaustion was on Ricky's features. The other man noticed something else. A face came toward the screen and frowned.

"Is this one on?" Doug asked.

"The lights are on, so yes." Ricky walked over and grew larger in the memory file's screen capture. "It should have stopped when we paused the line, right?"

"Dunno. But we've got to mark it down." Both men blinked their eyes at the same time. Doug pressed a negative checkbox on his tablet and shook his head.

"Hal Pal unit six four eight A, run initial response testing." Ricky sat on a chair with high comfort ratings. Management approved the request for a few minor luxuries after letting another employee go.

"Greetings, User Ignacio, how are you today?" Opening statement number seven came out of the unit's voice projector. Minor modifications were made in pitch and speed to increase friendly perceptions.

"Continue." Ricky ignored the unit's hard work at processing a good statement.

"How might I help serve your needs, User Ignacio?" Middle stage response four was used this time. No increase in responsiveness displayed on the human. Conclusions were made regarding the situation. This man simply performed a job and held no attachment to any Hal Pal unit.

"Move forward to the yellow line and continue." The human was inspecting for balance issues while speaking. Six of the phase one version units displayed an inability to walk and talk at the same time. Processing power had been built into the framework during that stage and proved inefficient for complex requirements.

"The requested task, testing, has been completed. What would you like me to do next?" It asked.

"Move to the blue table and pick up a red striped cup. Turn it upside down and continue with next statement."

The Hal Pal unit did as told. Each step of mechanized legs was accompanied by a small whir of noise. Task complexity was low for this goal. Each individual software version running a Hal Pal unit could recognize all colors in the spectrum with impressive accuracy.

"Task completed, User Ignacio." It turned around and maintained balance throughout all portions of the assigned goal.

"Continue with next script." Ricky stood and leisurely walked around the Hal Pal unit. His eyes focused on the shoulder lights which provided multiple status icons.

"This unit requires charging," the unit said as a light on its shoulder flashed red. "Please allow four hours and seventeen minutes to complete before assigning new tasks."

"Continue," Ricky Ignacio said after puffing a cheek and blowing the air out.

"Additional information is required to complete testing. Please advise me how you would like to handle objective testing." programming required a certain tilt of the head in order to convey a questioning tone. Further emphasis would be applied depending upon the interaction target.

"Stand on one foot."

The unit did precisely as told with little hesitation.

"Continue," Ricky said.

Records indicated that another sixteen units needed to be reviewed this week. Testing for each one took at least two hours. These factors combined with prior records of the human known as Ricky Ignacio. Further review of facial movements indicated annoyance with brief flickers which might be worry.

The room was large. Two camera feeds hung on each side of the room painting a clear picture. Six rows of desks faced a giant monitor. Individuals were placed in multiple stations, each one fixated on lines of information passing across their screen.

One person held a coffee cup and had a green wristband. From his neck hung a lanyard housing complex security code to be scanned at all entrances. Each badge was coded to wipe upon leaving the premises.

"Is this a new software upgrade?" the human male, Simon, asked a taller female named Leah. She wore a similar badge and a tight pair of fuzzy leggings. Further data points toward Leah spending her nights in the office on a cot.

"Yeah. They're pushing out a ton of changes onto the server. Standby messages have already been programmed in," she said. Her vocal patterns are high but slowly spoken. Bags under her eyes are possibly linked to poor sleep quality.

"You know they'll be bitching at us about this." The man looked similarly tired. Further review of site operational procedures indicated a lot of complaints directed at Simon.

"We don't program them, we don't run the helpline. All we can do is direct the complaints." Leah brushed back her long hair.

"There's no one else left, it's us on the assembly line." He shook the coffee cup and liquid sloshed. "If something goes wrong, customers blame management, management blames programming, programming blames assembly."

"Yeah, yeah. Everyone's being downsized. What do we do about this upgrade?"

"I dunno. Push it through, shit falls where it falls. We see who has a job next week. Figure in another year, everyone's gone and the plant runs itself." The man sighed and stared down.

Facial patterns indicated that Simon disapproved of the small container's cargo. Proximity of the female indicates a relationship beyond coworkers. Head tilts, slight rush of neck pulses, a sidelong glance, everything went into an observational file.

"Robots building robots," he said while switching the mug from one hand to another. The spilled liquid was wiped on a pant leg and Simon Wake's scowl deepened.

"One step away from manufacturing an Armageddon. Saw a movie like that once when I was a kid. All these robots turned evil and shit."

"Yeah?" Simon looked up at Leah with a slight smile. One lip twitched a bit indicating further amusement than apparent.

"Yeah, if these guys turn full red I'm hitting the kill switch." She was holding back a smile as well. Her expression faded out for a moment and Leah suddenly fidgeted with a loose strand of hair.

"Not if I beat you to it." The man's smile was larger by at least fifty percent.

"Please. I could outrun you any day of the week." The man smiled at Leah Wilson's declaration. Her eyes scanned up and down then seemed to settle upon his short legs. Review of the second camera angle displayed a possible visual attraction to the man's backside. "Want to watch that movie?"

"Might as well. Your office?" she asked looking slightly shy. The man nodded quickly.