Saturday, October 4, 2014

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 31st 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 31st 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 31st 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 31st 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."



Wednesday, October 1, 2014

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 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