Molly Travels To Rachel City Century 31 by Walt Barrett © 2014 Segment 8

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 20^th 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 31^st 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.

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