Chapter 2:
The Revolution of the Clones
FROM AFAR CAME the electronic sounds of a robot patrol among the waves.
“Damn,” A-Ka muttered.
Using the strength of all his limbs, he pulled the man out of the sleeping chamber, then hauled him onto his back as he ran toward higher ground. Four hundred yards away, two coast guard ships parted the waters as they rushed toward the shore.
His heart thundering in his chest, A-Ka clutched the man tight as he clambered up the rocks while the sound of sirens screamed in the distance. He pulled out a remote from his shirt pocket, then a huge boom came from inside the cave.
K staggered forward and crashed about, leaving a trail of smoke behind it as it charged outside. With one arm, A-Ka hugged the man, and with the other, he grabbed K’s metal arm. K slammed against the rocks a few times and lost a few stray pieces, which rolled away and fell with a series of clanks into the sea below. Darkness swam across A-Ka’s vision, and realizing he had no better options, he clasped the man to his chest and rushed behind K back into the cave.
After several minutes, A-Ka finally recovered. He patted that man’s face to no avail; he was still unconscious. K took several large steps back to its original position and once again sank into silence.
Climbing out of the cave, A-Ka peeked down, only to see the patrol robots taking the sleeping chamber away. Now there was nothing left of it, only a man whom he had picked up and brought with him.
A human.
A-Ka looked at that man’s soundly sleeping face and suddenly felt at a loss. What use was a human? If the chamber had been empty, he could have at least sourced some materials from it, but throwing this man back into the sea, even if he was useless, was not something that A-Ka could bring himself to do.
Well, things were how they were.
A-Ka stood and walked to K’s side, then returned to adjusting its navigation system. The chip that he had stolen off the clone’s body must indeed have been broken, because when A-Ka turned on the sound system, he heard nothing but static.
Until, without warning, a sound came from K’s voice box. “System failure.”
“Ah!” A-Ka jumped in surprise. He’d never expected K to speak. What was going on? He hadn’t installed artificial intelligence software on the mecha!
K once again fell silent, its two icy eyes staring fixedly at A-Ka, filling him with suspicion. He opened up the circuit board on K’s abdomen and swapped the voice controls.
K spoke again. “The patricide campaign must be…”
A-Ka was startled once more, but this time he found the reason: The navigation chip was producing the noise. Some strange messages had been inserted into the navigation data. A-Ka wired up the rest of the circuitry and began to broadcast the navigation system’s narration again—only to hear a series of words that nearly sent his soul flying out of his body.
“Attention all members of the rebellion! The turning point of the revolution is soon to be upon us, and the password is ‘The patricide campaign will mark the last day of our oppression, and a new era will arrive.’ On November 27, at twelve o’clock in the morning, when the time for humans to switch shifts comes, we will break through their defenses and exterminate any robots that try to suppress us with force. When every district loses power, all members of the rebellion are to sneak into the Central Reactor Chamber. The vanguard will then force a failure in the defensive system. Our goal is to destroy the Central Energy Storage with explosions and thereby annihilate Father. I wish everyone success.”
A-Ka was so stunned that he couldn’t speak. All he could do was stand there and stare at K.
November 27, and today was November 25… Was this a joke? A-Ka couldn’t believe it, but the navigation chip had been taken from the clone’s own body. He didn’t know that A-Ka had stolen it, so he couldn’t have planted this clip of narration beforehand.
In other words, in forty-eight hours at most, the clones would ally with the humans and start a riot with the goal of taking down the Central Computer. A-Ka couldn’t help but think about the impossibility of everything that had happened today.
He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t notice that the man he had rescued from the beach was awake. When A-Ka turned suddenly, he rammed right into that man’s chest. He let out a loud cry as he took a fist to the face and landed heavily on the floor.
The man’s eyes were filled with killing intent as he stared coldly at A-Ka. Under the glow of K’s light, they watched each other in silence for almost half a minute. A-Ka’s brain filled with a buzzing noise, and he felt as if it was ticking down to an explosion. As the silence dragged on between them, A-Ka struggled to break free of the sensation.
“What are you trying to do?” the man asked icily.
A-Ka’s eyes filled with tears of rage, and he sputtered and coughed as he gulped down air. “I saved you!” he shouted. “Is this how you treat the person who saved your life?!”
“Oh.” The man looked A-Ka up and down, assessing him.
A-Ka looked back—and suddenly felt a little bewildered. The man in front of him was about twenty years of age, with bronzed skin and a well-built physique. His hair was short and even, as if it had just grown out. The line of his lips was as clear and sharp as the edge of a knife. He had a high nose bridge, eyes bright with spirit, and eyebrows dark as ink. His limbs were long and lithe, the lines of muscles on his torso were clear and powerful, and his pectorals were sleek and well-formed. Droplets of black oil clung to his chest, smeared there when A-Ka had carried him, but they didn’t detract from his perfect body. In fact, the black oil glistened with the colors of the rainbow, adding a layer of rough glamour. He reminded A-Ka of a heroic sculpture from ancient times with the kind of beauty that came from an abundance of manliness.