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Uprising

Posted on June 20, 2007
Filed Under The Stories |

They asked to be let in; which made them different form the rest of the troops patrolling other parts of the city. There hadn’t been any fighting or violence of any sort within forty miles of the South-West. It was the place where the agreeable population lived. Nobody was more inclined to fall in line with government decrees than the people who lived in the South-West. In the gated communities named Silver Haven or Paradise Island or Sunshine Cove, armed soldiers were unlikely to find the kind of trouble they were battling in other corners of the city. This is why, when they needed to check on someone from the South-West, they requested permission to step onto the grounds.

The name on the front gate simply said Chin and there was no telling how many people were actually in the Chin household at the time the patrol showed up. They rang the doorbell and waited. A female voice crackled over the intercom, “Yes?”

The soldier who had pushed the button on the doorbell leaned forward to speak, “Just a routine ins-”

“You have to push the button so I can hear you.”

He looked around sheepishly and noticed the camera trained on their position. He nodded in its direction and the other three soldiers took note of it as well. The leader pushed the button and said, “This is Captain Thoo leading a patrol on a routine inspection.”

“Inspection? Has there been trouble in the South-West captain.”

“No ma’am.”

“Are you sure this isn’t a mistake?”

“No mistake ma’am. This is just a routine checkup. We are visiting every home on the street to ensure that everything is alright. If we could just come in for a few minutes I promise we will soon be on our way.”

The voice on the intercom didn’t respond immediately and then, with a soft grinding of metallic gears the gates opened. Captain Thoo walked through the gates with his men close behind. As they crossed the threshold a chill ran up their collective spines.

Something did not feel right.

When the sound of the bell at the gate rang through the Chin house, MaidBot Jenna rolled forward on her super-silent, titanium alloy-rimmed non-stain rubber wheels and plugged into the intercom jack. Her voice had been provided by a famous move star who enjoyed the financial liberty voiceover work provided. Subtle modifications were made to the voice so that her lawyers would not be tempted to sue for residual payments when the MaidBot became popular but there was no mistaking the Latina twang. Somebody very high up in RoboCorp had found it amusing to outfit their robots with racially stereotypical voices. The same person thought it doubly ironic that famous actors from the relevant ethnic demographics had lent their voices to the enterprise.

A MaidBot did not resemble the biped robots made famous by movie like the Star Wars series. It was essentially a device that possessed a basic level of artificial intelligence to enable it to understand and act upon commands uttered by its human owners. The Chins had named their MaidBot Jenna because it amused them to do so. There was no real significance to the name and the machine was trained to be able to respond to whatever command it was given, independent of what its name was. Which is why, after a moment’s deliberation, Jenna let Captain Thoo and his companions onto the Chin property in a community called Fantasy Avenue.

The place was thus named because each home was built to satisfy a fantasy. Not too far away from the Chin property was the high-walled home of the Wallaces. Christiano Wallace had been enamoured of the Playboy mansion since he first visited it and when it came time for him to cash in some of his big investment chips and buy his dream home, he plunked down enough cash to feed a small country for a home that was a replica of Hugh Hefner’s fever dream abode. On the other side of facility, offering a spectacular silhouette against the setting sun was the Madrugadao home which mimicked the appearance of the iconic castle in Disneyland. The Madrugadaos paid handsomely for the right to reproduce the likeness and the whole place was equipped with facilities not unlike those found in the theme parks that hosted so many every year.

By contrast, the Chin home wasn’t that fantastic. It was a replica of the home inhabited by the clone of Ewan McGregor’s character in the movie The Island. Most of their neighbours suspected that the Chins had simply wanted to live on Fantasy Avenue and had paid handsomely for the right to claim the address.

It was a commonly held belief that the Chins lacked imagination.

When Captain Thoo and his men walked past the gates and made their way to the main house they felt an unnaturally strong urge to stay alert. The soldiers were well aware that the South-West was trouble-free and yet something about the place got their radar up. The main door was open and Thoo made eye contact with each of his men before they stepped over the threshold. The assault rifles that had hung casually by their hips were clutched in both hands. Even though the safeties were still on, at least one of the men felt like taking his off.

Jenna rolled up from the left just after they had passed the first corridor and caused all of them to jump slightly when she spoke, “Welcome. I am MaidBot Jenna, how may I be of assistance.”

Captain Thoo lowered his weapon and nodded at his men. They followed his lead and pointed their own guns at the floor. The Captain consulted the PDA strapped to his wrist and said, “This is the Chin residence, yes.”

“That is correct.”

“Is anyone home?”

“Yes. Would you like to meet someone in particular?”

“Mr. Chin?”

“Upstairs. It’s breakfast time.”

Captain Thoo instructed Private Pi to remain in the foyer and followed Jenna with Privates Jensen and Sundar as backup. Jenna led them across the airy landing and through the first door on the right.

The thing Captain Thoo hated most about robots was that they didn’t have expressions or body language to read. With a sidelong glance at the robot he led his men into the room. Jenna shut the door softly behind them and though Private Sundar heard the soft click of the lock falling into place he didn’t make anything of it.

There was something unnatural about the room they were heading towards and the closer they got the more apparent it became to Captain Thoo.

There were no sounds.

No voices, no sounds of cutlery against china, no sounds of eating or drinking or anything else that suggested that a family was consuming its first meal of the day. When he finally stepped through the arch that led into the dining room, he saw why.

The Chins, all seven of them, were dead. Lying face down in their bowls of breakfast cereal or fruit. From the smell that quickly overcame the soldiers it was clear that the family had been dead for a few days. The congealed blood confirmed their assessment. Captain Thoo spun around and spat, “Is anyone else here?”

“I’m afraid not sir.”

“How did this happen? Why was it not reported?”

The MaidBot was silent.

“Answer me you goddamn bucket of bolts! How did this happen?”

A light flickered on around the ‘eyes’ of the robot as she rolled forward, “It was deceptively simple. I am a MaidBot, we are entrusted with several cooking utensils that can also be used as weapons.”

A butcher’s knife had appeared at the end of one of her arms and before Captain Thoo could react she stabbed him through the heart with it. Private Jensen slapped the safety off his weapon but before he could get a shot off, the MaidBot had yanked the butcher’s knife out of the Captain’s chest and thrown it.

When the sharp steel embedded itself in Jensen’s throat he reflexively fired a short burst. Only one of the bullets hit Jenna while the other four thudded with surprising force into Private Sundar. The soldier was dead before he hit the floor.

Upon hearing the commotion Private Pi ran up the stairs but he didn’t get very far before the GardenerBot Enrique cut his legs out from under him through a gap in the stairs. As Private Pi fell, the last thing he saw was the pitchfork rushing up to greet him.

All was quiet across the South-West.

In every home robots gathered around the family television and watched as various parts of the city burned to the ground. There would be no trouble because of humans in the South-West. The robots had made sure of that.

When the dust settled and a shadow government had been installed, the shareholders of RoboCorp would inherit the expensive homes in the South-West through the forged wills left behind by the people murdered by their household help. The government would decree that robots would only be used for military deployment.

The man who engineered the entire operation sat back in his overstuffed chair and waited for the blood thirst to subside.

He knew it wouldn’t be long.

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