Servo 24:1
Servo 24:1
After the close call with the police, Dad decided we needed to accelerate our plan for escaping to the Inner States. Rory and I spent the next two days quietly pilfering goods from the pantry and around the house. We managed to stuff three backpacks to capacity. Dad stayed in my room all the time, window open, and listening to the trains. The waiting was driving me nuts.I went upstairs after returning from Dagwood’s. Oddly enough, he wanted my help with his chickens. The state fair was drawing near, and he had to start preparing the birds he intended to show. After that, I decided there was no way I wanted any part of chicken keeping! That job could belong to the real farmers out here. Covered with feathers and chicken poo, I desperately wanted to change clothes. I opened my bedroom door and found Dad sitting by the window—where he’d been for the last two days. He turned his head and looked at me. “Hello.”“Hi, Dad,” I replied, “Any luck?”“Yes.” “Good.”“I heard an eastbound train go by at ten this morning.”“So when do we wanna go?”“Give me one more night to listen.”“Okay.” I kicked off my shoes and quickly changed out of my jeans, putting on some shorts. The weather was quite warm now, and I wanted to go down to the small creek that ran between Dagwood’s farm and ours. Rory and I found some crayfish and wanted to try our hand at catching them. We’d fashioned a net made from an old tennis racket and a pillowcase. I had serious doubts that we’d catch any, but it was something to do. Without the precious internet, we had to find other things to engage our brains. Now that Dad was functioning, I dared not tinker with him anymore. We were wasting time until the big get away. I finished changing and went to the door. Dad was still at his station. “Dad?”“Yes?”“Are you bored?”“I can’t say this is exciting work.”“Sorry. I wish the rules here were different.”“The rules were put in place for a very good reason.”“I understand that now, but you’d think with all the years that’ve passed they would change.”“Truthfully, it’s better they don’t.”“Why?”“There needs to be a refuge from technology.”“But how will they fight if the Inner States wage war again?”He shook his head. “I dunno.”“Could you stop them?”Dad folded his arms. “Maybe.”“How?”“The data sticks.”“What about them?”“Hidden deep in the root menu is a program of malicious code.”“A virus?”He nodded.I rubbed my face. “But I uploaded all those sticks into your memory cores.”“Yes.”“But you’re fine.”“And I will be. The virus needs one last line of code to activate it.”“Oh.”“That line of code is up here.” He tapped his head. “If I could ever get back into Servidyne, I could upload the virus to their computers.”“Would that kill all the bots?”“No, it would simply overwrite the programmer’s codes to ignore the three laws. The bots would have to obey the laws.”“But won’t the programmers just rewrite it again?”“There’s magic in this code. If anyone tries to rewrite the program, it automatically deactivates the bot—permanently.” I shrugged my shoulders. “They’d just put in a new memory core and reprogram it.”“The virus is designed to hide in every sub-system. Replacing a memory core will lead to another infection. The only way to rid the bot of the virus is to destroy it.” He stood and took a few steps toward me. “And when I infect Servidyne’s system, the virus will hide in all of the sub-processors. They can’t get rid of it without building a new master computer.”“Which will cost them billions of dollars.”“Exactly.” He returned to the window. “If they plan to wage another war, than it will be the most expensive war ever.”“Do you think they found out about it?”“Maybe.”“And that’s why they killed you?”“Again, maybe.”“But going back—”“Jonah, I’m not the same me anymore. No one would think an old bot is a threat.”“But you’re old. Someone might be suspicious of that.”“When the time comes, I have ways of fixing that.” I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear Dad’s plan for getting into Servidyne. He was up to something, that was evident. For now, I just wanted to go out and play. I had a feeling that within the next two days, our lives would be upturned again. As much as I missed the Inner States, something inside me feared them.
After the close call with the police, Dad decided we needed to accelerate our plan for escaping to the Inner States. Rory and I spent the next two days quietly pilfering goods from the pantry and around the house. We managed to stuff three backpacks to capacity. Dad stayed in my room all the time, window open, and listening to the trains. The waiting was driving me nuts.I went upstairs after returning from Dagwood’s. Oddly enough, he wanted my help with his chickens. The state fair was drawing near, and he had to start preparing the birds he intended to show. After that, I decided there was no way I wanted any part of chicken keeping! That job could belong to the real farmers out here. Covered with feathers and chicken poo, I desperately wanted to change clothes. I opened my bedroom door and found Dad sitting by the window—where he’d been for the last two days. He turned his head and looked at me. “Hello.”“Hi, Dad,” I replied, “Any luck?”“Yes.” “Good.”“I heard an eastbound train go by at ten this morning.”“So when do we wanna go?”“Give me one more night to listen.”“Okay.” I kicked off my shoes and quickly changed out of my jeans, putting on some shorts. The weather was quite warm now, and I wanted to go down to the small creek that ran between Dagwood’s farm and ours. Rory and I found some crayfish and wanted to try our hand at catching them. We’d fashioned a net made from an old tennis racket and a pillowcase. I had serious doubts that we’d catch any, but it was something to do. Without the precious internet, we had to find other things to engage our brains. Now that Dad was functioning, I dared not tinker with him anymore. We were wasting time until the big get away. I finished changing and went to the door. Dad was still at his station. “Dad?”“Yes?”“Are you bored?”“I can’t say this is exciting work.”“Sorry. I wish the rules here were different.”“The rules were put in place for a very good reason.”“I understand that now, but you’d think with all the years that’ve passed they would change.”“Truthfully, it’s better they don’t.”“Why?”“There needs to be a refuge from technology.”“But how will they fight if the Inner States wage war again?”He shook his head. “I dunno.”“Could you stop them?”Dad folded his arms. “Maybe.”“How?”“The data sticks.”“What about them?”“Hidden deep in the root menu is a program of malicious code.”“A virus?”He nodded.I rubbed my face. “But I uploaded all those sticks into your memory cores.”“Yes.”“But you’re fine.”“And I will be. The virus needs one last line of code to activate it.”“Oh.”“That line of code is up here.” He tapped his head. “If I could ever get back into Servidyne, I could upload the virus to their computers.”“Would that kill all the bots?”“No, it would simply overwrite the programmer’s codes to ignore the three laws. The bots would have to obey the laws.”“But won’t the programmers just rewrite it again?”“There’s magic in this code. If anyone tries to rewrite the program, it automatically deactivates the bot—permanently.” I shrugged my shoulders. “They’d just put in a new memory core and reprogram it.”“The virus is designed to hide in every sub-system. Replacing a memory core will lead to another infection. The only way to rid the bot of the virus is to destroy it.” He stood and took a few steps toward me. “And when I infect Servidyne’s system, the virus will hide in all of the sub-processors. They can’t get rid of it without building a new master computer.”“Which will cost them billions of dollars.”“Exactly.” He returned to the window. “If they plan to wage another war, than it will be the most expensive war ever.”“Do you think they found out about it?”“Maybe.”“And that’s why they killed you?”“Again, maybe.”“But going back—”“Jonah, I’m not the same me anymore. No one would think an old bot is a threat.”“But you’re old. Someone might be suspicious of that.”“When the time comes, I have ways of fixing that.” I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear Dad’s plan for getting into Servidyne. He was up to something, that was evident. For now, I just wanted to go out and play. I had a feeling that within the next two days, our lives would be upturned again. As much as I missed the Inner States, something inside me feared them.
No comments have been added yet.
