2084: Slavery Resurgent

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” - Albert Einstein

In two days Franklin would be going to a new office building to instruct another automaton and George was going to be on his own. Although the drone did not return, they were too afraid to communicate by word of mouth. When Franklin wrote George a note asking him where he had been born, George picked up a ballpoint pen and wrote on the back: I believe I was born in a remote underground laboratory in a Nevada desert.

On George’s last training day, Franklin resolved to find out by one means or another where George lived. Where did George disappear to after work? Again, Franklin offered to give him a ride home. Once again, his generosity was rebuffed. Franklin’s curiosity got the better of him. At quitting time, he rushed to his hovercar and waited for George to exit the building. He put the transmission into manual ground level and the hovercar slowly inched forward. Franklin was careful to stay far enough behind to avoid being discovered. Fifteen minutes later they came to a rundown, poverty-stricken neighborhood known as Skidrow. Several blocks later, George entered a dilapidated apartment complex on the corner of Maple Avenue and 6th Street. It was composed of sixty year old prefabricated modules stacked like children’s building blocks that jutted out in every direction from boarded-up businesses at the base. It looked like a good wind could blow the modules down. Despite the late hour, a ghostly figure with a rope belt holding up threadbare trousers emerged from a nearby alley with a rag and an aerosol bottle filled with soapy water. Too late, Franklin saw him coming. The derelict leaned across the hovercar’s hood and washed the windshield while he hummed America the Beautiful. Afterwards, Franklin stuck his hand out the window and gave the man three dollars. Feeling embarrassed, he jerked the transmission into top level

autopilot and punched the icon that indicated his residence on the touchscreen keyboard recessed into the dashboard. A little voice inside his head kept whispering, “curiosity killed the cat.” He didn’t own a cat because he was allergic to cats. In fact, he wished their species would become extinct. For him, curiosity was a positive virtue and Franklin vowed to satisfy his curiosity concerning automatons.

* * *

Goodbye, George 41,832,709; Hello, George 99,243,909. The new trainee proved to be a standard issue automaton. In fact, in Franklin’s opinion the second George was definitely not any match for the first George. Franklin figured it was because the first George was recycled from the Supreme Warrior Program and the second George came from the government’s standard source.

Not only was this George going to be more difficult to train, the Prudential Building would take more effort to clean. Franklin’s former workplace was more than three times as tall, however, the overall square footage of floorspace was less because the Prudential Building’s footprint covered an entire city block. No, it was not fair, but then few things in life are fair. Franklin knew it would not do any good to complain.

Each floor of the Prudential Building had at least four scanners and a large conference room on the 3rd Floor had six. Franklin was careful not to say or do anything untoward. Also, some of the white collar workers worked late at night and occasionally nodded off at their desks. All in all, Franklin had the feeling he was constantly being watched.

George 99,243,909 was a klutz. He fell over chairs, slipped on wet floors, and bumped into desks. On his third day on the job, he broke the glass cover on a fire alarm when he inadvertently struck it with a broom handle. Three fire engines, seven police cars, two rescue units, and an ambulance responded in record time. Franklin explained to the battalion fire chief that it was an accident, after which the chief shook his head as if in disbelief. The chief’s last words to Franklin were, “It does not matter who set off the fire alarm. You were the person in charge and that means you are the responsible party. Should this happen again, there will be severe consequences.”

Much to Franklin’s surprise, when he offered the automaton a ride home after work, George 99,243,909 readily accepted. He dropped his new trainee off at the corner of Maple Avenue and 6th Street. Evidently, the new trainee lived in the same module apartment complex as his previous trainee. Franklin doubted it was a coincidence. Most likely, someone unknown to Franklin had arranged quarters for them. It seemed there was more to the automaton program than the public had been told. Franklin was determined to uncover the truth about automatons.

The klutz (it was how Franklin had come to think of him) was a slow learner. Franklin ended up resorting to Hiram’s “monkey see, monkey do” method of teaching his trainee to be a janitor. The problem was that the trainee did not pay enough attention to detail. While Franklin loaded new rolls of toilet paper so that the end hung down the back of the roll, the trainee repeatedly loaded the rolls with the end hanging down the front of the roll. Although it was no big deal, it irked Franklin to no end to have to show him the proper way to do it over and over.

The klutz had problems learning how to operate a floor buffer. Ideally, janitors lead a floor buffer as one would lead a dancing partner – moving gently; expending only enough effort to point the buffer in the right direction. If a janitor grasps a floor buffer too tightly, the full force of the spinning brushes will act against him instead of the floor. The trainee was fighting it, rather than making it float upright as Franklin had instructed him. Several times George 99,243,909 was sent sprawling across the floor, while the floor buffer went off in the opposite direction. And he had forgotten three times to recharge its lithium battery packs. A lesser man would have chastised George 99,243,909 for his repeated mistakes. But Franklin wasn’t about to give up. Over and over he told the trainee to “relax and take it easy,” and he never got upset or raised his voice. Finally, after a full week of on-the-job training with the floor buffer, the klutz got it right. In his weekly training report to Hiram Nasov Franklin commented that “although George 99,243,909 is exceptionally clumsy and a slow learner, it is trainable. Barring unforeseen difficulties, its janitorial on-the-job instruction will be completed by the end of the allotted three week period.”

Twice Franklin saw drones outside the windows. The first time the drone appeared to be passing by on its way to some other building. However, the second time Franklin observed a drone three times the size of the previous drone hovering less than a foot outside a conference room window. Red, green, and blue lights flashed on and off. Franklin watched as a tube extended from the drone and attached itself to the outside of the window at eye level. Then the lights ceased flashing and the propellers stopped turning. The drone remained in that position for three days. On the fourth day it was gone. Franklin mostly ignored it.

George 99,243,909, however, tapped on the window as one would tap on an aquarium with a finger to make a guppy swim faster. Franklin ordered George to quit it because it could draw the drone’s attention to them. Franklin surmised that the drone was positioned there to spy on a board meeting taking place in the conference room. It would not make sense for two janitors to be the target of a costly, sophisticated drone. There was no reason to be paranoid.

Near the end of the three week training period, the klutz pulled a real boner. While buffing a linoleum floor, the buffer bumped against the wheelchair of a female secretary who was working late at night. It threw her onto the floor and spilled a full cup of coffee on her dress. Outside of a minor bruise, she wasn’t hurt and Franklin lifted her back into the wheelchair. However, she was quite upset and kept yelling obscenities at the klutz. After she calmed down, Franklin told George, whom she referred to as “numbskull,” to sanitize the toilets in the women’s bathroom where he would be out of her sight.

Franklin was afraid that this particular incident could blow up into something much bigger. No need for a complaint or, much worse, a lawsuit. He admitted fault, apologized profusely, and gave the lady 50 dollars out of his own pocket to pay for a new dress. Franklin had concluded that the less Hiram Nasov knew about the unfortunate incident, the better.

The next morning, Franklin received an email from Hiram that, among other things, ordered him to report in person to Hiram. He reluctantly complied. When Franklin entered Hiram’s office, he was surprised to find his boss throwing holographic darts at a holographic dartboard.

“Come on in, sit down, and pretend you are happy to see me,” Hiram cheerfully greeted Franklin. “Can I get you something to drink?”

“Water would be fine,” accepted Franklin. “My stomach is a bit upset.”

Hiram took two luminescent glowing bottles of sparkling spring water from a red polka-dot cylindrical refrigerator in a corner of his cramped office and handed one to Franklin. When Franklin turned the cap, a straw came out of the bottle and squirted the liquid into his mouth.

“Will George 99,243,909′s on-the-job instruction be completed within the three week parameter we set earlier?,” Hiram asked after bolting down his drink.

“He’s rather slow and clumsy. I think he needs one more week of training before he can do the job on his own. This way we’ll keep complaints to a minimum,” Franklin advised Hiram.

“Automatons are supposed to be all the same. What’s different about this one?”

“The first one was reprocessed from the government’s defunct Supreme Soldier program. George 99,243,909 is not from the same source. They’re not programmed alike,” Franklin stated.

“Nonsense!, our company bought both of them at government auction. Violent convicted felons are transformed into useful, productive workers. We no longer imprison them and they get a generous food and housing allowance. We’re happy, they’re happy, and everybody benefits. If it were not for automatons, you might have spent the rest of your life as a janitor. Instead, you have been given a chance to move up in the world. Is this how you show your gratitude?,” Hiram lectured.

“Yes, that is the official line. What the government isn’t saying is that they ran out of convicted felons long ago and now they are obtaining them by other means. The truth is that they have sacrificed quality for quantity. Give me an automaton from the Supreme Soldier program and I will train it in three weeks. All I want is for the company to get what they are paying for; not an inferior substitute,” countered Franklin.

“So how can I tell the good automatons from the clunkers. We purchase them at auction. It is not like they give us any details about them. Since all of them are named George, how can we bid on the best ones?,” queried Hiram.

“It is all in the numbers. The first automaton was 41,832,709. I assume that automatons with numbers near that are from the Supreme Soldier program. The government has probably sold them already, however, we might be able to purchase them on the aftermarket, that is, they are chattel and there is nothing to prevent their owner from selling them downriver,” extrapolated Franklin.

“That is a horrible analogy. Of course, that does not mean it is not apt. I will check it out and if it proves to be correct and has the potential to save the company money, I will have it brought up before the Board of Directors,” Hiram promised. “And, yes, you can take an extra week to prepare the automaton to work alone.”

“You told me I am being paid to think and that is exactly what I have been doing,” declared Franklin. “I am constantly looking for ways to save the company money. Anything I come up with I will pass along to you.”

“Last week our firm won the bid to provide janitorial services to the Union Bank Building at 445 S. Figueroa Street. Complaints I do not need, so I am sending my top supervisor, that means you, to start the ball rolling. As soon as George 99,243,909 is qualified to work by himself, you will be relocating to the Union Bank Building where you will begin training a new automaton. Since it is more than 40 stories tall, you will be supervising two janitors: the automaton trainee and a janitor who was working the day shift at another location. Because it involves additional responsibility, you’ll be making more money. How much more depends on you. I don’t like excuses and I have zero tolerance for complaints. I am depending on you. Do not let me down,” Hiram warned. “Any questions?”

“Just one. Will I be working the same hours?”, asked Franklin.

“Yes. I will text you some other information you will need to get started at the new location. Now, take these two empty water bottles and toss them in the recycle bin to the right of the door as you exit,” Hiram directed as he went back to throwing darts at the holographic dartboard.

* * *

Franklin’s last week at the Prudential Building was uneventful, with the exception of George 99,243,909 slipping on a freshly mopped hallway floor, bumping against a doorknob on his way down, and falling face first into a storage closet when the door opened. When he attempted to get back up, his feet jarred the mop bucket, spilling several gallons of soapy water on himself and the floor. Franklin suppressed a laugh and helped George to stand up. Franklin could not cure the automaton’s awkward bearing, but he made certain George 99,243,909 was capable of doing the job. At the end of the on-the-job training, Franklin praised the automaton for his persistence and shook his hand.