Segment
8 ©2014 Walt Barrett
Molly
Meets The Commander
Molly
had never seen a city like Rachel before. It was very flat with
groups of low buildings spread over acres and acres of green grass,
small
lakes and tall groves of trees everywhere. The electric water making
machines made more water than they could use. There were families out
walking and others were sitting around in groups on benches having
discussions and everyone seemed quite contented. It was more like a
park than a city. The buildings were very spread out. There were four wheeled robot carts everywhere and
they ran by themselves, stopping at the various groups of people,
some to offer transportation and others to offer them food or drink.
Jennifer explained that everything was free and that the robots made
everything that they needed including their homes and maintained them
too. It was all possible because of the free electrical energy.
People could now focus on improving themselves. No one really had to
work anymore. Jennifer told Molly that it was time to get her some
new clothing so she would fit in with the rest of the people while
she was visiting. Jennifer took Molly into a long low building with
lots of windows in it. It looked like a giant version of the country
store back in Molly's home town in the 20th century.
There were robotic trams with seats that were lined up just inside
the door. Jennifer got on one, sat down, and motioned to Molly to
get on and sit down beside her. A voice from the tram said where
too, and Jennifer told the robot tram to go to the woman's department
and stop at the body scanner. Jennifer told Molly That she was going
to get several crew type uniforms similar to her own.
The
robot tram stopped and announced that they were at the body scanner.
Jennifer and Molly got out in front of the body scanner which was two
full length mirrors with scanning lasers on them and placed in a V
configuration with a turntable set in the floor between them.
Jennifer told Molly to step onto the round plate in the floor, take
off the factory dress and stand up straight. Then Jennifer to the
machine to scan her. The round plate began to turn as the lasers
scanned up and down Molly from head to toe. It turned for one full
revolution. A robot voice said ready – what style? Jennifer said 5
full sets of flight crew number 4 everything including undergarments,
boots and socks. The robot asked Jennifer where to send the
clothing. Jennifer said to send it to number 10 Galaxy Way and asked
how long it would be. The robot replied one hour.
Jennifer
said that they had to go now to her home and get ready to meet the
commander. The robot tram took them back to the entrance. They got
off and Jennifer told Molly to follow her into a small room that
looked like an elevator and then Jennifer slid the door shut and said
10 Galaxy Way. The next thing Molly knew she was standing in the
middle of a beautiful room and Jennifer was welcoming her to her
home. Jennifer told Molly that they only had one hour to get ready
to meet the commander and that they would have to freshen up, change
and transport right over to headquarters.
Headquarters
turned out to be a very large anti-gravity space ship about one mile
across and it was saucer shaped being about a quarter of a mile thick
with many levels in it. Molly reckoned that it was about the biggest
thing that she had ever seen. It was hovering silently just a few
feet above the ground. Jennifer explained to Molly that it was an
anti-gravity machine of the galaxy cruiser class. Molly was
practically speechless. Jennifer faced the ship and asked for
permission to come aboard and they were instantly transported to the
office suite of Commander Cruz. The commander welcomed them and told
them to make themselves comfortable. He asked Molly what she thought
of the 31st century so far and Molly told him that what
she had seen so far was unbelievable, but she thought that she could
adjust to it. The commander said that was fair enough and that they
would like to offer Molly a chance to enter their society. Molly
told the commander that it was a wonderful offer because the only
future she had back in 1910 was to work in a textile mill the rest of
her life to support her family. The commander told Molly that they
realized that, but it would be very easy for them to replace Molly
with an android and no one would ever be able to tell the difference.
He explained that they did this often bring new genes into their
society. Molly asked if she could have a few days to look around the
city some more and think things over. Commander Cruz told her to
take all the time that she needed.
Segment 9 is next
No comments:
Post a Comment