Servo 7:1
Servo 7:1
Rory and I just about trampled each other on the way out to the barn. Both of us tried desperately to fit through the front door at the same time and it didn’t work. After some jostling, grunting, and a bit of forceful elbowing, I cleared the doorway and was dashing across the barren space to the rickety structure. To this day I don’t know how that old barn remained standing. It was a single story, about forty feet wide and perhaps sixty long. Several shades of red paint attempted to cover its exterior with little success. The roof was galvanized tin and left its own silver color, but with corners that showed rust with its age. There were a couple of windows toward the back of the building, which allowed some natural light in the work area.I made it to the heavy door first and my fingers worked frantically to undo the latch. Rory ran up behind, colliding with me. “Hey!”“Sorry.”Looking over my shoulder, I noticed Grandpa standing on the porch watching. He was far enough away that I couldn’t see the expression on his face. Something told me he wasn’t pleased with his decision. What was so wrong with two kids tinkering on an ancient bot?With the door open, we wiggled past the tractor and headed to the back. I found the bot still in the corner, as I had left it. “This is gonna be so cool,” Rory said, carefully picking up boxes of parts and setting them off to the side, making room on the workbench. I hefted the bot and brought it over, carefully laying it on the bench. It was far heavier than any of the current production bots. Then I paused for a moment. Something seemed strange about our surroundings and I finally managed to put my finger on it. We were now living in a society without bots. Yes, that was it. When we ventured to town, there were only people on the streets. They drove the cars, they did the shopping, not bots. Why did I not see this earlier? Was I still in a haze over what happened to my father? Perhaps.“Rory?”“Yeah?”“Have you noticed anything strange about the Outer States?”“Well it’s certainly not like home.”“Have you noticed something missing?”He gave me a quizzical look. “In what regard?”“I know Grandma and Grandpa won’t have bots doing their work, but have you noticed everyone else?” I watched my brother’s eyes drift upward and to the right, indicating he was in deep thought. His lips pursed slightly. “No bots!”“Exactly.”Rory looked around. “I wonder if there are laws against having them? Grandma did mention on the day we got here that if she wanted a bot, she’d have Grandpa make her one.”“Maybe. And maybe they are illegal and Grandma was just trying to make us feel more at ease.”“If they are, we could get into a lot of trouble.”“Only if we make it operational.”“What’s the sense of fixing it if we can’t make it function?”I took a step back from the bench, folded my arms, and had a good think. “Maybe we can make it work, but remove the memory core when we leave.”“It won’t boot up without the core, will it?”“Don’t think so.”“Yeah, let’s do that.”As I surveyed the bot in greater detail, I realized that making it function was going to be a feat of magic. It had no arms, no legs, and much of the wiring through the body cavity looked like the insulation had been chewed off by mice. And where would we get parts? If bots were illegal here, there’d be no place to procure necessities to make it work. The barn didn’t seem a very likely place to find what we needed. There were some parts, but they were mixed in with tractor and car parts that littered the workshop area.My drifting thoughts were returned to the real world by the clatter of Rory ascending a ladder that was crudely nailed to one of the posts. I looked up and noticed the barn had a small loft of sorts. “Rory? What are you doing?”“Exploring!” He scurried up the ladder. “Oh, cool!”“What?”From the edge of the loft dangled a dusty golden arm. “Look what I found!”I reached up and grabbed it. “Keep looking!”“I am, I am!” There was loads of noise above as Rory rifled through boxes. After several minutes, another gold arm was hanging down. I made short work of adding it to the collection. “Should I come up?”“No, no, I got it. You just keep getting the parts I hand down.”“Have you seen legs?”“Not yet. Still have a few boxes to go through.”“Keep looking.”“Yes!”More time elapsed. My heart was pounding and I didn’t even realize it. I was excited about this project. Finally something to tie us back to our home, even if it was ancient. The three of us kids were technology driven, we needed to be surrounded by electronic gadgets, bots, and information. It was how we existed. “Jonah?”“Yeah?”“Here, I found a leg.”Above I heard Rory grunting and straining. “Is it heavy?”“Very.”“Need help?”“Almost got it. Get ready to catch.”I went to the edge of the loft and raised both arms, hands outstretched. A dusty leg dangled a few feet from my grasp. “Can you lower it down some?”“It’s everything I can do to stay on my feet and not drop it.”“Hold on for a minute.”“What are you doing?”I hurriedly searched for something to stand on. The last thing I wanted was to have the leg damaged in a fall. I’m sure it was already messed up, and I didn’t want it messed further. A small ladder, about four feet tall, was leaning against the wall. I grabbed it, opened it, and placed it under the dangling leg. Going up three steps, I stretched my arms until my fingers wrapped around the ankle. “Okay, I got it.”“You sure? It’s really heavy!”“Let go.”Rory let go and I immediately realized this was a bad idea. He wasn’t kidding, the leg weighed a TON. My hands lost their grip, the leg bent, and was falling straight toward my head. A definite recipe for a headache. Like an idiot, I took a step back and found there was no ground, just air. Now I was flying backward with a bot leg about ready to crush me as I impacted the ground. It must have been a spectacular wreck. I don’t know, I think I was knocked unconscious. All I remember was Rory standing over me, the bot leg off to one side, and my head feeling like I’d been hit by a metro train. I was covered in dirt and dust.“Jonah?”“Mmm?” I moaned.“Are you okay?”“Not sure.”“You know, you’re bleeding.”I reached up with a shaky hand and gingerly touched my forehead. Oh yes, there was blood, a pretty good amount of it. “Grandpa’s gonna be angry,” Rory said, trying to help me up.“Confident of that.”“What are we going to tell him?”As I got my wits about me, I looked around. I was next to the workbench. “We’ll tell him I dropped a part under the bench and when I stood up from getting it, I banged my head.”“Think he’ll buy it?”
“Probably not.”
Rory and I just about trampled each other on the way out to the barn. Both of us tried desperately to fit through the front door at the same time and it didn’t work. After some jostling, grunting, and a bit of forceful elbowing, I cleared the doorway and was dashing across the barren space to the rickety structure. To this day I don’t know how that old barn remained standing. It was a single story, about forty feet wide and perhaps sixty long. Several shades of red paint attempted to cover its exterior with little success. The roof was galvanized tin and left its own silver color, but with corners that showed rust with its age. There were a couple of windows toward the back of the building, which allowed some natural light in the work area.I made it to the heavy door first and my fingers worked frantically to undo the latch. Rory ran up behind, colliding with me. “Hey!”“Sorry.”Looking over my shoulder, I noticed Grandpa standing on the porch watching. He was far enough away that I couldn’t see the expression on his face. Something told me he wasn’t pleased with his decision. What was so wrong with two kids tinkering on an ancient bot?With the door open, we wiggled past the tractor and headed to the back. I found the bot still in the corner, as I had left it. “This is gonna be so cool,” Rory said, carefully picking up boxes of parts and setting them off to the side, making room on the workbench. I hefted the bot and brought it over, carefully laying it on the bench. It was far heavier than any of the current production bots. Then I paused for a moment. Something seemed strange about our surroundings and I finally managed to put my finger on it. We were now living in a society without bots. Yes, that was it. When we ventured to town, there were only people on the streets. They drove the cars, they did the shopping, not bots. Why did I not see this earlier? Was I still in a haze over what happened to my father? Perhaps.“Rory?”“Yeah?”“Have you noticed anything strange about the Outer States?”“Well it’s certainly not like home.”“Have you noticed something missing?”He gave me a quizzical look. “In what regard?”“I know Grandma and Grandpa won’t have bots doing their work, but have you noticed everyone else?” I watched my brother’s eyes drift upward and to the right, indicating he was in deep thought. His lips pursed slightly. “No bots!”“Exactly.”Rory looked around. “I wonder if there are laws against having them? Grandma did mention on the day we got here that if she wanted a bot, she’d have Grandpa make her one.”“Maybe. And maybe they are illegal and Grandma was just trying to make us feel more at ease.”“If they are, we could get into a lot of trouble.”“Only if we make it operational.”“What’s the sense of fixing it if we can’t make it function?”I took a step back from the bench, folded my arms, and had a good think. “Maybe we can make it work, but remove the memory core when we leave.”“It won’t boot up without the core, will it?”“Don’t think so.”“Yeah, let’s do that.”As I surveyed the bot in greater detail, I realized that making it function was going to be a feat of magic. It had no arms, no legs, and much of the wiring through the body cavity looked like the insulation had been chewed off by mice. And where would we get parts? If bots were illegal here, there’d be no place to procure necessities to make it work. The barn didn’t seem a very likely place to find what we needed. There were some parts, but they were mixed in with tractor and car parts that littered the workshop area.My drifting thoughts were returned to the real world by the clatter of Rory ascending a ladder that was crudely nailed to one of the posts. I looked up and noticed the barn had a small loft of sorts. “Rory? What are you doing?”“Exploring!” He scurried up the ladder. “Oh, cool!”“What?”From the edge of the loft dangled a dusty golden arm. “Look what I found!”I reached up and grabbed it. “Keep looking!”“I am, I am!” There was loads of noise above as Rory rifled through boxes. After several minutes, another gold arm was hanging down. I made short work of adding it to the collection. “Should I come up?”“No, no, I got it. You just keep getting the parts I hand down.”“Have you seen legs?”“Not yet. Still have a few boxes to go through.”“Keep looking.”“Yes!”More time elapsed. My heart was pounding and I didn’t even realize it. I was excited about this project. Finally something to tie us back to our home, even if it was ancient. The three of us kids were technology driven, we needed to be surrounded by electronic gadgets, bots, and information. It was how we existed. “Jonah?”“Yeah?”“Here, I found a leg.”Above I heard Rory grunting and straining. “Is it heavy?”“Very.”“Need help?”“Almost got it. Get ready to catch.”I went to the edge of the loft and raised both arms, hands outstretched. A dusty leg dangled a few feet from my grasp. “Can you lower it down some?”“It’s everything I can do to stay on my feet and not drop it.”“Hold on for a minute.”“What are you doing?”I hurriedly searched for something to stand on. The last thing I wanted was to have the leg damaged in a fall. I’m sure it was already messed up, and I didn’t want it messed further. A small ladder, about four feet tall, was leaning against the wall. I grabbed it, opened it, and placed it under the dangling leg. Going up three steps, I stretched my arms until my fingers wrapped around the ankle. “Okay, I got it.”“You sure? It’s really heavy!”“Let go.”Rory let go and I immediately realized this was a bad idea. He wasn’t kidding, the leg weighed a TON. My hands lost their grip, the leg bent, and was falling straight toward my head. A definite recipe for a headache. Like an idiot, I took a step back and found there was no ground, just air. Now I was flying backward with a bot leg about ready to crush me as I impacted the ground. It must have been a spectacular wreck. I don’t know, I think I was knocked unconscious. All I remember was Rory standing over me, the bot leg off to one side, and my head feeling like I’d been hit by a metro train. I was covered in dirt and dust.“Jonah?”“Mmm?” I moaned.“Are you okay?”“Not sure.”“You know, you’re bleeding.”I reached up with a shaky hand and gingerly touched my forehead. Oh yes, there was blood, a pretty good amount of it. “Grandpa’s gonna be angry,” Rory said, trying to help me up.“Confident of that.”“What are we going to tell him?”As I got my wits about me, I looked around. I was next to the workbench. “We’ll tell him I dropped a part under the bench and when I stood up from getting it, I banged my head.”“Think he’ll buy it?”
“Probably not.”
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