SFS1 - Science Fiction Short Stories Read Free

our work area, my
co-worker James asked:
“Hi Joe, how are you?”
“Fine.”
    “Have you seen Bob? I haven't seen him
lately,” said James
“I've got some sad news about that. Bob is no
longer with us.”
He
stopped
walking,
surprised
and
asked”What happened to him? Was there an
accident?”
I replied by gesturing to enter the rest room.
We went to the next restroom and turned the
water on full speed and started to talk. This is
the way we bypass the security cameras and
microphones when we want to convey secrets
to each other.
“The robots found out he was breaking the
rules. They closed his story, James. You know
that seventy percent of the workforce here are
robots. Bob made a mistake and tried to talk to
someone he wasn't absolutely certain of. We
need to be very careful.”
“Did they kill him?” James asked, clearly
shocked.
”I think so. Bob is not the first person we've
lost you know? These heartless robots would
even kill us now. We've exceeded more than
the 2.3 minutes allowed for urinal”
James looked incredibly sad while he walked
to his work area. But these things are regular to
me. As James and I know we've lost eleven of
our co-workers, but I know we've lost many
more than that. The robots need humans to do
work that only they can do. Other than that,
robots don't require humans. They'd likely kill
us all if they had no purpose for us. They don't
allow us to talk to one another in private place.
It's even against the rules to leave your room
or visit another co-worker. All they want is for
humans to work.
It's impossible to identify who is a human and
who is a robot. There are no differences in
speech, attitude or behavior between them. The
robots
are nearly
beings.
Even our
differences are minor. Humans drink energy
drinks while robots change charger cells. And
    perfect
copies of
human
skin looks
the same.
The
while robots don't need to take breaks like
humans do, they're programmed to take breaks
anyways to trick humans. No one knows who
is a robot and who is a human. And everyone
is afraid. They're afraid to share their thoughts
or to even check if someone else is a human. If
they guess wrong, they'll be gone, like Bob.
I met James again at break time. He looked
better,
a little less
sad.
We've developed
a
system for communicating in public in secret.
We use phrases with double meanings that are
vague and
can't
be easily
deciphered.
I
pointed out a person and leaned over towards
James.
”He looks like Bob, right?”
James
thought
for
a second
and
replied.
“Okay.”
I just conveyed that the person I pointed out
was
not
human.
Of
course,
I
couldn't
one
hundred percent sure. No one could. We use
'look like' to signal that the person is a robot.
The names don't matter, we just say whatever
for that. “Bye, take care,” I said to James.
    ‘Take care’ means be careful of danger. We're
both on alert since Bob's disappearance. We
don't say anything else, just go to our separate
work areas.
At 8:00 PM the work day ended. I searched for
James, but I didn’t find him. He might have
went directly to his room.
Dane and David came up and greeted me in
the hallway.
“How are you, Joe?” asked David.
They called me to rest room by action and we
went in like James and I had in the morning.
“I identified a person as robot,” said Dane.
“Who?” I asked.
“The guy wears the yellow colored pants. His
name is Wes. Be careful of him.”
“I've got news for you. Bob is no longer with
us. The robots killed him.”
They were speechless for a while.
“Really?”
“Yes, please be careful”
“He was a close friend of James' right?” asked
David. “I suspect James may be robot, you also
should be careful.”
I was surprised. James was a robot? How could
that be possible? “What do you mean? James?”
Both Dane and
I were surprised
and
just
started at David. We heard someone coming
into the restroom so we went we go out one by
one without talking at all. We'd have to