Molly Sterling Makes Up Her Mind by Walt Barrett © 2014 Segment 9

Segment 9 The Adventures of Jennifer Starfield

by

Walt Barrett © 2014

It's the 31^st Century in the now thriving city, Rachel, Nevada.

Jennifer Starfield had given Molly a very large suite of rooms in her

country home on Galaxy Drive. Molly was relaxing by herself and thinking about her future. It was wonderful. There was an entire wall in one room that was a television screen. Molly had never seen or heard of a television before, but the chip that was implanted in Molly's brain explained to her what made it work and how to operate it. It was all run by voice command. People could talk back to it and could even use it to vote. It had entertainment, education and news. Molly thought. “Whoever heard of such a thing?”

Now Molly had to decide if she would like to spend most of her time in the 31^st century with Jennifer Starfield or go back to 1910 where she came from. Molly liked the modern things that she had seen in the city and she liked the clothing and the boots that people wore. She could not even begin to list all the modern conveniences that people had and the homes were like palaces where robots did all the work like cooking and cleaning and laundry. The Robots even ran the farms on the outskirts of the city. There was hot and cold running water and a giant tub in an indoor bathroom. “It was absolutely wonderful!” Molly thought. Thanks to the electronic chips that had been implanted in her brain Molly was as educated as well as anyone in the 31^st century and then she thought “What will I do if I stay here?” “Back home in 1910 I have a job six days a week spinning yarn in the yarn mill to keep me busy and all my friends that work in the yarn mill too.” And then Molly thought. “Just because things had always been that way in her lifetime and in her mother's and grandmother's lifetime it didn't mean that things had to be that way for her.” After all, Molly's grandmother had died of a heart attack while tending looms at the textile mill and no family in their town that Molly knew ever had any money or a nice home with things like these people in century 31 had. Molly thought, “Maybe I should stay here, after all, I can still go home and visit. Maybe I'll stay here.”

Then There was a knock on the door and Jennifer said “May I come in?” Molly said “Yes, of course, I'm trying to decide if I should stay here or go back to 1910 and I think that if you can replace me there in 1910 with an Android and If I can visit my family once in a while then I will stay here.” “Good, then it is settled.” Jennifer said. “We'll take you down to the Android works first thing in the morning for a total body and brain scan; and then there will be a new Molly the factory worker Android while the real Molly Sterling goes on to bigger and better things.” Jennifer was smiling and said “She was very happy that Molly was going to stay and that she would be teaching Molly about the 31^st century and that there was a lot for Molly to learn.” Jennifer told Molly “You will be my assistant for at least two years while you learn all about our society and our space fleet operations.” Molly said “thank you, this is very exciting and I won't let you down.”

Jennifer said, “Now that I know for sure that you are going to be with me I have something exciting to tell you.” Molly was on the edge of her chair.  “What is it she asked?” Jennifer replied, “I have been asked to take a battle cruiser to the Planet Mars and investigate some irregularities in the robotic mining and smelting operations that we have had going on there.” “No one has visited in over fifty years.”    Molly asked, “When do we leave? ”Jennifer replied,   "We leave for Mars in four days, but first we have to drop off your Android replacement and you can visit your family while we are there.” "Tomorrow we'll pick up your Android."