Hot Earth (AIOA, Part 3)

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This is a sequel to the “Lost”-series. Click here to be taken to the last part of it, which contains links to all previous parts.

Read Part 1, Part 2 of “AIOA”

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I open my eyes and stare into the dirty face of a malnourished child. The child, a little boy I assume, is looking down at me. How can he look down at me? I should be taller than him.

”Are you alright Sir … Ma’am … uhm ….” He doesn’t seem so sure how to call me. Can’t hold it against him, I must look horrible.

With a moan, I move into an upright position. The blood has dried and changed its color, but my clothes are still hanging down in shreds.

”Yes, yes I think I’m alright. Thank you.”

The boy raises one eyebrow. He obviously doesn’t believe me. In an effort to convince him to leave, I try to stand up – and promptly fall back down to the floor. Guess my body doesn’t tolerate such an amount of blood loss too well. Good to know.

”You don’t seem alright. My mom told me that you can’t leave a person in need alone on the street. Please come with me! We can give you food!”

I look into the boy’s dark brown eyes. He’s clearly worried. Briefly, I contemplate just sending him away, but I have to admit to myself that I really need a break. And some food. Stupid Android body, why couldn’t they make me run on sunlight? Solar power is so much easier to obtain than food.

”Alright. Take me with you. But you might need to assist me”, I give in. With a grin, the child comes closer and helps me up. With my right arm resting on his shoulder, we slowly move down the street.

After a short walk that felt like ages, we arrive at a tiny, run down house. The boy kicks open the door which swings inside with a loud creaking noise.

”Moooom! I’m home! And I brought someone over for dinner!” He calls out. A female voice answers.

”That’s nice honey! Bring them into the kitchen, I’ll be there in a minute!”

The boy pulls me into a small, cramped room. I can make out a stove and a table with three chairs, but everything else is just chaos. A surprisingly clean chaos, but still chaos.

”I am surprised your mom accepts a stranger into her home”, I tell the boy. He just shrugs.

”She knows I won’t bring anyone who seems dangerous. She knows she can trust me. I know people.”

I have to smile. It’s a bit of a sad smile. This boy is so trusting, he doesn’t even know I’m not human. I sit down on the chair he offers me and together we wait for his mother.

The woman who enters the door is not what I expected to see. She looks so young. So healthy. I haven’t seen a person who looked that healthy since the engineer tried to deactivate me. I glanced at the boy. He obviously had a lot less to eat than his mother. What kind of selfish person would invite total strangers for dinner, feed herself enough to not seem malnourished but let her son starve?

”Welcome in our home”, she says with a warm smile, which vanishes when she notices my grim stare. ”What is wrong?”

”I don’t think I want any of your food”, I reply. ”You should give it to your son instead. Maybe you should give him a part of your portion too. The child needs to eat.”

For some reason, her smile returns.

”I see. You don’t recognize what I am. That’s okay. You’ve probably been wiped.”

She knows I’m an Android. How?

”You’re probably wondering how I was able to recognize you as an Android, don’t you?”

I just nod.

”I’m an Android myself. A seeker. Created to find enemy spies that hide among humans and bring them to my superiors to have them dismantled.”

I stare at her, in shock.

”Don’t worry!”, she immediately tries to calm me down. ”I should have been dismantled years ago but I fled when I found out. I’m trying to find and save other Androids since then. This boy is an orphan, I try to care for him as much as possible, but food is scarce. I eat only so much that I don’t shut down.”

”So the boy recognizes Androids too?”, I ask.

”Yes, I taught him how. There are certain signs, especially with your model, that can be pretty obvious.”

”My model … can you tell me more about us Androids?”

”Sure, what do you want to know?”

”Why do we even exist?”

She sighs.

”The world was at war. Most of humanity had left, resettled on Mars. But only those who could afford a seat on one of the spaceships. The rest were left behind on a dying world. There was just so much CO₂ in the atmosphere, so much pollution everywhere. Humanity reached an amount of emissions that would have taken several thousand years if it had occurred naturally in just a few centuries.
Because of orbital wobbles, the globe was supposed to cool, but it was constantly warming up. People denied it until it was too late. At one point, all ice on land masses had melted, the sea level had risen over 60 meters and most coasts were totally flooded. Some countries even vanished completely while others turned into deserts. People were driven from their homes or just died.
There were some efforts to take the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and store it in the ground, but it didn’t work as planned. The concentration of this gas in the air is so low that the energy needed to filter all this air was just creating more of the harmful substance. It wasn’t enough and the temperatures kept rising. So the humans started fighting for their survival. Every nation is now at war.”

”But why do they need Androids?” I wonder.

”We’re more reliable than humans, can survive even in the most extreme conditions. And it isn’t that bad if we die. We’re hard to kill anyway. So we were created as spies, as doctors. If you look closely enough, you can find many of us, roaming the streets among the humans. Although most are completely cut off from any kind of emotion.”

”That’s horrible”, I say. She just nods.

”Is there anything else you want to know?” She asks.

”Oh yes, we’re just getting started.”

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References:

What the World Would Look Like if All the Ice Melted

If the world ends in 2100, we’re probably OK

Will Carbon Capture and Storage Ever Work?

IPCC report proposes sucking carbon out of the air as climate fix

Introduction to Carbon Capture and Sequestration

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