Lightning Fodder

Outside of Glass, there is a sea of wheat. Tawny and feather-like, the blades reach up to the waist. They sway in the hot breeze that travels down from the factories of Smoke. If you look from afar, the surface ripples with shades of bronze and gold.

Glass is all skyscrapers and monorails, tracks threading between buildings, suspended with wires or upheld on platinum beams. Walkways between housing units are reinforced metal and chemiglass tunnels, strong enough to not so much as shiver with the gusts that snake through the maze of towers.

The population, just in the tens of thousands, is one of the smallest cities in the Conglomerate. The crowds are all of meticulous color, the black and blue of thermal suits worn by citizens as they load onto trains. Departing, arriving, and standing on the automated sidewalk with the day’s weather projected in front of their faces. A calm, jovial voice is heard in the distance, reciting the newest updates. There is a recall on this particular piece of equipment, the mesh wiring in artificial lungs, the rotator cuffs in this model or that.

The city of Glass thrives on innovation, sending out shipments of the newest technology to other cities. From Smoke to Sand, the other lands receive small cargo-trains when the desert storms that spiral between the distant cities are out of season. The freights ride on tracks across the field of grass that grows to the horizon, bleeding into the golden sun at dawn, then across the canyons that separate cities.

Glass was the first to develop and embrace robotic companions. The artificial intelligence systems were nicknamed ArtLs by the public relations office of the DevelopUs Corporation. The first models were blank, helmet-headed and humanoid machines that had difficulty in adapting to emotional situations. Quick to anger and programmed with enough kindness to lead them to gullibility, they were recalled after only a few months and placed into storage units. The second wave of ArtLs ended up apathetic, too cold and logical to be of any use besides reciting daily news in a pleasant, monotone voice. The third installment was never allowed for public purchase.

The engineers and scientists finally got it right on the fourth try. The artificial intelligences blended in, their emotions based on over seven hundred instances of human behavior, filtering out violence and conflict. They were companions and assistants. They helped in the home and worked in offices, hospitals, prisons, and the police force. They were the ones to fix your television or prepare your dinner, run to the nearest currency outlet, when you needed credits, or water your plants when you visited relatives in Carbon. They would sit beside you in your barren apartment, advertisements droning on without end through the ever-present screens covering the walls.

They were durable, their synthetic skin invulnerable to all but extreme heat. They had a hydraulics system placed in their chest cavity that mimicked the rise and fall of a breathing being. They could connect to the DevelopUs database and stream media directly, receiving news about the latest updates and products from the comfort of one’s housing unit.

Model Four worked perfectly. Except for one glitch. Families and businesses would report missing ArtLs, gone in the early morning without any notice.

They were found in the fields, standing miles away from the city. They stood, blue skies in their blank eyes, clouds in the reflection. Feet planted like trees into the red earth, grass dancing around their legs, they could not be moved. The engineers and citizens were baffled at the occurrence, wondering what had caused the faulty behavior and fearing that their own ArtLs would be next. ArtLs weren’t cheap, especially if yours possessed the newest updates. DevelopUs reimbursed any and all faulty models, quickly and quietly. ArtLs, as useful and expensive as they were, were nothing that could not be replaced.

The owners remarked on nothing unusual about the androids before the departure. A few would exit their stasis beds early in the morning each month while the city still slept. The only sound in the...