The Machinist -- A Short Story

The company I work for has a story contest.

Rules : start with "The eyes were wide open, as if staring in to her soul"

            end with  "She scrubbed and scrubbed her hands till they were red"

My attempt.

                                                  The Machinist

 

The eyes were wide open, as if staring in to her soul. I was not sure If they were staring in to her soul or looking for a soul. Because, I was looking at a machine. That begs the question, “What is a machine”? Then the corollary question is , “What makes a human, a human”?

 

These questions would not be valid for my great-great-great-grand parents in 21^st century. New questions pop up as time goes on. Old becomes False.New becomes true.

 

After Neo's ignoble death, humans and machines compromised. The matrix was dismantled. In an historic meeting in Antarctica, the only livable outer surface, they exchanged their briefcase, or rather chips. That meeting was a necessity. Humans need Machines. Period. The dependence was mutual.

 

But, problems soon popped up. Increasingly more humans wanted to be machines.  They loved  machine's perfection, personality, professionalism, punctuality and productivity. All the 5 P's humanity was working for, for all the centuries. Its the end of human evolution, humans said. Everyone agreed, including machines.

 

But, again, new problems came. A minority of machines wanted to be Humans. Every one was stunned by that new development. They tweaked the circuits and mother boards and what not, to find the reason behind the desire of these machines. They couldn't find any errors. Big brother, that was what we called the government, went crazy, as he knew that a ocean starts with a drop.

 

They summoned up all the scientists, gave them whatever they wanted, to find out the reason behind this abnormality. After years of research, they came up with a theory. The theory said in one line, that, " It is impossible to create true replica of anything in this universe. That kind of impossibility is built into nature". The machines became furious, as it was an affront to their perfection. The theory implied that it is impossible to build a super machine, which could make replicas of other machines. Humans and machines got together and made the perfect ever intelligent machine and named it as 'Perfecto'. The perfecto took a micro-machine, the smallest machine every made, and replicated it.

 

Initially they were not able to find any differences between the replica and the source,but, after years of scrutiny, they finally found a small error. They tried the experiment again and again, and found errors every time. The theory was proved, and the machines made peace with it. The idea that machines go against nature became old school. Machines reasoned that; they were made within nature, by the materials within nature, and why would the nature treat them as outsiders? True. Humans and machines became prodigal children of the nature.

 

Big Brother decided that it was important to differentiate between humans and machines, and so it was decided to imprint a small code on the right hand palm of every machine. Machines agreed. But, BB was unable to find out the kind of errors which made the machines desire to be humans. They were always on look out for these machines, and they came with the 'criteria of behaviour' to judge such kind of machines.

All my friends, including myself, aspired to be machines. The attraction was unmistakable. We implanted chips under the right hand side of the chest, using 'Do it yourself' surgery tools.Every night, while we slept, data gets downloaded into the chip.The data contained, for most part, suggestions on 'how to be cool'. It suggested on; what dresses to wear, what kind of hair style, clubs to go to, the kind of drinks, music,attitude, behaviour; all the stuff that made us part of the zing thing.

We soon found out that, loneliness was a unique human emotion. It brought us emotional pain. So, we spent all our time in parties, dancing around,drinking, and playing. We had a blast. Even in our sleep we didn't let ourselves alone.After many years of living like that, out of blue, I took my old friend out of the club, and said, " I am not feeling anything".

She asked, "What is feeling?"

On that night, I came home alone and decided not to be machine. I took away the chip. I reached a point of diminishing returns in my journey to be a machine. The next day: the clubs refused entry, my friends stopped returning my calls, every one snickered at me, and I was thrown in to untouchable minority. I tried to implant the chip,but, stopped in the middle. No, I would rather be a lone untouchable than a machine. I decided.

 

I met her on the elevator on my way down to my apartment. I live in a single bedroom with attached kitchen, on the 314^th floor, below the earth. It  takes 5 minutes to reach there on the 'super slow' elevator.

 

I tried to start a conversation with her. She didn't respond, and I sensed a certain kind of  anxiety in her face. Then, I poked her further, and it turned out that I poked a balloon full of water.

She started crying and hugged me.

"why?"

"I feel lonely"

"Go to parties, go to clubs, meet people"

"I feel more lonely among them"

"why me?"

"You look more human than human.You are not cool"

"No. I am cool"

"What do you want?"

"Love"

"What is love?"

"You should know, you are human?"

"who are you?"

"-------------"

"Who are you? Tell me, or I am going to call the police"

"Please don't, please. I am that machine, which hates being a machine"

I looked at her palm, and there it was, the code of machines.

We became good friends after that. We enjoyed each others company, we went out for dinners,

and spent nights in my apartment.Every minute became an heavenly hour.

"What do you want?"

"You. What do you want?"

"You"

She moved in with me.

"You know what?"

"What?"

"This is Love"

"How to quantify it?"

"Lets not quantify it"

We lived happily ever after.

Ever after is ever after in romantic movies. BB came to know about her. Desire to be humans was one thing, but, desire to love humans was an entirely different thing. The simulation showed that it would destroy the authority of BB in future.

On that fateful day, the police started their descent to my apartment. We had exactly 5 minutes. She was scared, and crying hard. I too cried. Fighting with BB was suicidal.

" I don't want to leave you. Help me"

" What can I do?"

" I love you. I love you. I don't want to leave you", she hugged me and cried more.

" What can I do?"

Then, she hit  the wall with her right palm. She wanted to destroy the code, the last visual remnant of her machine status. Then she ran here and there in the apartment, looking for things to erase the code. I sat on the couch watching her. Her anxiety was heartbreaking, but what could I do?

She looked like a scared child. It was as if the moment got frozen in time, me sitting on the couch, and she crying and trying to erase the code. But, what could I do to help her? What could I do to save us?

We had 2 minutes to do something to avoid the police. She took a knife and stabbed herself on the palm. The knife broke and blood started coming out. She cried out in pain. Machines were programmed to feel the pain. The code was still there.

Someone knocked on the door.It was police. I sank down on the couch, feeling weak. I wanted to sleep, and wake up from this night mare. I felt 'more human than human'.

Then, she took out the industrial strength acid from the kitchen and looked at me.

I shouted, "No".

She said, " I love you", and poured the acid on her right hand.

she didn't cry. No tears left. 

She scrubbed and scrubbed her hands till they were red (with blood).

   

                                                  The end