Archer
On our second day in the Motherlands, we went to visit a factory that produced robots.
The facility was modern and white, and the guide excitedly told us about the advanced functions of the robots.
“Welcome to Advanced Technologies, the biggest manufacturer in the Motherlands. In this particular facility, we produce robots and drones, but we have four other plants spread around the world. One focuses on medical technology, another on audio and visual technology, and the last one on environmental technology,” he said and introduced himself as James Madsen, the owner of the factory.
To be honest, I think all us Northlanders had a hard time focusing on his words. Instead we were fascinated by his nail polish and his thin eyebrows that had a peculiar shape.
“What’s special about this facility is that we have a large research and development department too.”
Nikola’s hand shot up. “Do you make submarines?”
“What’s a submarine?” Willow asked.
“They are these cool underwater boats where you could sneak up on others and pop out of the water like a cannon,” Nikola hurried to explain. “There used to a be a ton of them before the Toxic War and the crew would stay under water for days. They had sleeping quarters and everything.”
“Yes,” James said, “I know what you mean but those boats were produced for a military purpose, which we have no use for. The closest things we have are small subs that our environmental department produces to help marine biologists in their work.”
“What about transporting people from one place to another?” Storm asked. “I’ve heard that in the old days they had advanced technology and were able to beam people from one place to another.”
James frowned and shifted his balance to one leg. “What an interesting question, and one that has been discussed for many years now. It is true that the Toxic War set us back technology-wise. With the old Internet being completely corrupted and for the most part useless, it has taken many years to get to where we are now. It was a proud breakthrough when we recreated virtual reality and holograms, but despite our great efforts we have yet to discover the technology behind beaming people and things from one place to another.” James lifted his hand. “But I have to be honest with you, there are those among our finest scientists who speculate that this technique never existed in the first place.”
“It did, I’ve seen it in old movies,” Storm argued.
“Yes, we all have, but just like time travel, 3D printers, and invisibility, we are unsure if what was described to us in books and films from that time is an actual technology, or maybe pure fiction,” James said with a slight tilt of his head. “It’s hard to tell, but then again, cleaning the earth has been our priority for centuries.” With a wave of his hand, he motioned for us to follow and pointed to a production line in front of us. “Over there, you’ll see our latest household model called Alex. The robot performs household chores with the highest efficiency yet seen.” James was obviously very proud.
My head swung to see what had all the boys laughing. It was a display of robots by the wall.
“What kind of chores do they perform?” Storm asked while cracking up.
“I think you know that,” Kya said dismissively, but our tour guide didn’t seem to think sex robots were anything to be ashamed of.
Whipping his arms in the air, James excitedly exclaimed. “Number two on the right is our best-selling female sex-bot, and can you guess which part of the world is our biggest market?”
“Let me guess; the Northlands?” Shelly said dryly.
“Ahh, yes, I thought she looked familiar. Finn grinned and nudged his elbow into Marco’s ribs. “Have you tried that model?”
“Can we see it up close?” some of the boys asked, and like a child excited about sharing his toys, James steered us right to the display models.
Shelly and Kya stayed in the background while the boys discussed the dimensions and looked closely at the different robots.
“I can’t wait till I turn fifteen!” Solomon declared.
“And when is that?” Marco asked him.
“In seven months.”
Marco smiled and patted Solomon on the shoulder. “Lucky you. The first time is always special.”
“Archer, what is he talking about?” Shelly asked me.
“The boys have to be fifteen before they can…” I nodded toward the robot. “You know.”
“I see. And how does that work? I haven’t seen any at the school.”
“We have whorehouses, just like you do,” I said.
Shelly gave me a disturbed look. “We don’t have whorehouses.”
“So, what would you call the places where your sex-bots are?” I asked.
“Pleasure parlors,” she said with her eyes fixed on the ground.
It was easy to forget that Shelly was only fifteen when you saw her teach or heard her debate, but right now she looked every bit the shy teenager.
“Do you ever let people test them?” Marco asked James.
“Yes.” The man clapped his hands together and lit up. “We have a focus group that gives us feedback.”
Finn narrowed his eyes. “And who is in this focus group? Only Motlanders, I’ll bet.”
“I’m afraid so,” the man admitted. “Obviously, we would love to have a focus group in the Northlands, but as you know, communication between our countries have been…” He frowned. “Well, limited.”
“Ha, it would take me five minutes to put a group together,” Marco declared. “I mean, if we’re your biggest market then we should have a say in what we want.”
The guide agreed, and happily gave his contact information to Marco and Finn, who gladly volunteered to test any robot he might have.
“How about you?” he asked me.
“Ehhm, yeah, all right,” I said and avoided looking at Kya.
“You see, some of us like curvier women with boobs,” Finn declared. “And others,” his eyes fell upon me, “have a fetish for darker women.”
“Okay, maybe we can move along,” Kya said pointedly to the guide. “I’m not sure the children need to hear about fetishes and sex-bots.”
The guide apologized and took us back to talking about tedious household chores that his amazing robots could perform. It was truly a state-of-the-art factory, and we all grew increasingly impressed when we moved on to see the production of drones.
“You must be rich,” William announced when we saw the large production line.
“We don’t have a monetary system here in the Motherlands,” Shelly explained to him.
William frowned and pointed to the man. “But didn’t you say you were the owner?”
“I did.” The man squared his shoulders. “This is my life’s work.”
“What he means is that he owns the responsibility of this impressive factory,” Kya explained.
“And I’m compensated for the many hours I put in,” James hurried to say.
“Compensated with what?” William asked.
“I’m what we call a distributor. My talent for running this factory rewards me with more points than I can use myself. Four times a year, I distribute my points to those who have less.”
“What the hell is points?” Hunter asked with his arms crossed.
“You get points when you contribute,” Kya said. “For instance, I’m a teacher, Christina is an archaeologist, and Pearl worked for the Council. The society is based on people contributing with their special gift, and the point system is a way to make sure everyone is valued and rewarded.”
“But what do you use the points for?” William asked.
“We use points for food, rent, transportation, and anything else we require.”
“It’s what we call the fairness system,” Shelly added. “No one is rich and no one is poor. We all have the same opportunities.”
William shook his head. “That has to be the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard. Are you people mentally retarded or something?”
Finn placed a firm hand on William’s shoulder. “Now, you be nice, William; they can’t help it, and I’m sure our nice guide here wouldn’t want to share if he had a choice.”
The man was gaping. “What kind of person would I be if I only thought of myself?”
William leaned his head back to look up at Finn. “I’m telling you, something is seriously wrong with that guy. I feel sorry for him. But you know what?”
“What, William?”
“When I grow up, I’m going to be the richest man in the Northlands.” He grinned and looked at his friends. “And I’m sure as hell not going to share my money with all you fuckers.”
Cindy, Varna, and James, the factory owner, exchanged disturbed glances with each other.
“I apologize,” Kya said quickly and shot a reprimanding glance in William’s direction. “We talked about not cursing while in the Motherlands, remember?”
When we got back to the hotel after our long day at the factory, Kya insisted that we all needed to meditate to digest all the impressions.
For me, that thirty minutes meant napping because even though I had tried getting into that meditation stuff, it still felt silly.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t excited about it, because three of the boys snuck off to go to the pool.
I wouldn’t have found out if they hadn’t come back bragging that they had seen naked women.
Finn immediately sat up. “What do you mean you saw naked women?”
Oscar, Nikola, and Storm were all speaking at the same time so it was impossible to understand what they said.
“Calm the fuck down, this is a serious matter,” Finn declared. “Did or didn’t you see a naked woman?”
“We saw nine.”
That brought Finn to his feet in a flash. “What are you waiting for? Show me the way.”
The three boys stormed out the hotel door with Finn after them. “Stay here,” Finn ordered Marco before the door shut, but the young man took one look at me and sputtered. “Not a chance.”
There was a moment of tension in the room when seven boys between the age of eleven and fourteen stared at me.
“Who wants to go swimming?” I asked and they all flew up.
We didn’t tell the women that we were going to the pool. It wasn’t on the packed schedule, and in the back of my mind I recalled something about going to a museum, but there was no museum in this world that could offer something as fascinating as the rare sight of naked women.
The pool was in the basement of the hotel, and I stopped for a moment reading the sign on the door saying: Changing Room – Men and Women.
“Are you ready?” I asked, but the push from seven eager boys behind me answered that question, and we almost fell on top of each other to get through the door first.
The boys hadn’t been lying. Inside the changing room a number of women were putting on their clothes. Two of them were still topless, but with a scared grimace in our direction they hurried up and put on their shirts.
Seeing their tits would’ve been a lot more exciting if they hadn’t been at least seventy years old.
My own disappointment was fully matched by the group of boys, whose shoulders sagged.
“Can we still go to the pool?” Plato asked after the last Motlander hurried out of the changing room.
Finn, who stood a little farther into the room than us, turned and nodded. “You can go and see the pool, and tonight when we get back from the museum, we’ll all go swimming.”
“With the girls?” Solomon asked.
“Everybody who wants to come, can come,” I announced and added, “We’ll just give the girls a head start to get in the pool. We don’t want to change at the same time.”
“But then we won’t see their bodies,” Nikola concluded. “I thought that was the whole idea.”
“Eww, I don’t want to see their naked bodies.” Nero scrunched up his face in a grimace of disgust.
“If you don’t want to see naked bodies why did you hurry down here?” Solomon asked him sarcastically.
“There’s a difference between strangers and people we know,” Nero pointed out. Hunter instantly supported him.
“I don’t want to see my sister naked.”
“I do,” someone muttered and snickers broke out.
“You do realize,” I said calmly to the group, “that for you to see them would mean that they would see you too.”
Solomon raised his chin. “So? I’m not ashamed of my body.”
Clearly, the teen hadn’t thought this through, but I was an adult and I wouldn’t allow him to make a fool of himself when I knew perfectly well that the minute Willow walked into this changing room and started undressing, not only would he be sporting a raised mast with nowhere to hide it, but several of his friends would too – something that would no doubt create unnecessary tension between the boys.
“You won’t be changing with the girls, and that’s that! Now get your butts back to the room. We have a museum to visit.”