Further Into The Future!

Chapter 15

Tiberius and I were walking a few blocks away from the apartment in a direction I had never traveled, which apparently led to the park where I arrived. The sky was gray but it was humid and hot. I observed the people of the future, their robots, their fogs, their video advertisements and their massive skyscrapers for the last time.

Mostly, however, I was thinking about how glad I would be to get home. I would relax in my comfortable townhouse for a few days, sleeping on a real bed, and then I would go on with my life. Maybe I would take my machine to another time and hope things would be better. But I would probably go back to teaching. Whether I would publish my incredible story – literally incredible, I didn't think people would believe it – was another question.

We passed the steel frame of a tower under construction. Three robots were sitting on a steel beam, each colored bright orange with red safety stripes running diagonally down their chests. They were tinkering with each other's joints and rods, checking for mechanical problems. One pulled a dispenser of oil out of a bag and applied it to his friend's elbow. The friend moved his arm around and nodded.

Tiberius waved at the three robots, who waved back then continued examining each other.

Tiberius had been obediently silent up to now, but I knew that would change. With every minute of silence that passed between us it seemed more likely he would say something. I could sense that he wanted to start a conversation. After we passed his robot friends he finally did, in his tough, assertive soldier's voice.

"Sir, did you have robots in your time?" he asked.

I frowned at the stupidity of his question. "No, we didn't," I said impatiently, pretending to concentrate on an advertisement on a building to our left so I could avoid eye contact with him. His black eyes still hovered in my peripheral vision. I hoped my body language would dissuade him from asking further questions, but robots aren't good at picking up body language.

"Sir, how did work get done in your time, if you didn't have robots?"

I sighed. "Men did the work."

Tiberius nodded, his head moving up and down perfectly, as if on a track. I always found it disturbing when robots imitated human gestures.

"Interesting, sir. That must have been an interesting world," he said thoughtfully. I was determined not to indulge his robot philosophizing. I kept my head turned stubbornly to the ground.

"Did humans build skyscrapers?"

I paused. How long would this go on before I had to tell him to stop?

"Yes," I finally said. He nodded in the same mechanical way as before.

"Did they fight in wars?"

"Yes. Men fought in wars."

"That is most interesting, sir. Do you know that today only robots do actual fighting?" He looked at me with his empty black eyes when he said this, hoping for a sympathetic reaction.

"Really, is that so?" I said. I might have normally considered that very interesting information about the future, but spoken by the robot it sounded dull. I wondered how much longer it would be before we reached my machine. I thought I could see a glimpse of green foliage a few blocks ahead and I hoped it was the park.

"Sir, did you know that I spent ten years fighting for Hammer?"

"Yes, Susan told me about that."

"That's why I have this American flag on my chest, and the gun crutch on my arm."

"Yes, we've spoken about this before," I said.