~~~~~oOo~~~~~
As he hugs her he looks past her at the window of the tractor. At first he sees the bug landed there merely as a beetle, but as he looks closer he freezes, his heart all but stopping. It’s a micro-predator-bot. He realizes that although it is not equipped to clearly record human speech, and that it could not have gotten an understandable recording through the window, it may have sent out a call for a better, more capable bot to investigate what was going on inside this noisy container. He tells Carrie to slowly look around and see if there are any other robots on or near the tractor. They find that there are a few dozen micro-bots on the tractor, and there are also some larger ones that may be equipped with better listeners too. He realizes that it is all on the line. That very soon, an enforcer or other such robot may swoop down and snap them up, or just snuff them out.
He grabs her shoulders, looking deep into her eyes. “Do you love me?”
She looks at him somewhat confused. “What?”
“Do you love me?”
“You know I do.”
He hugs her close and strokes her hair. “We’re done living the lie. Is that what you want?”
She nods. “We’re too old for make believe. I want the freedom of the truth.”
He switches off the autopilot. They are far from the barn and the house and there is no place to run, even if they were young enough for it. He mumbles some little saying he learned as a kid, “Daddy always said… when faced with the completely unexpected, robots default to dumb as a rock every time”.
He begins to shift through the gears into high and throttles the engine all the way until it is screaming. They veer off crashing at an angle across the rows of the field. There is a sudden rush of bots large and small toward the area. They are drawn by the cries of the plants as they are mowed down. The tender-bots start working on the injured plants, and the predator-bots begin attacking the tractor. At first tens, and then a hundred or more robots begin banging into and trying to stop the tractor. The tractor is covered by robots of a range of sizes, from the micros up to bird and cat sized. None of these robots were designed to defend against a tractor so they are ineffective at even slowing it down.
These smaller bots are the rodent and insect control and small worker units of the typical 39th century farm. Very few machines with the size and power of the Joe’s antique tractor are available to free and unfettered human control and there is no contingency plan in the farms programming for such an event as this. The tractor begins to zigzag through field after field, all the way into town.
As they pass near the center of the small town, a number of people come running outside to see what is making all the noise. Joe and Carrie can see the wonder and amazement in the eyes of their fellow citizens. At first a select few begin to cheer them on... They are slowly joined by more, and then eventually most of those witnessing the scene begin to holler and cheer. Joe can see the lights popping over other folks heads. He points to an old hunting buddy as he passes and he makes a fist, he then makes a hand sign that they use as a signal to gather the hunters and circle the prey.
The old hunter waves over at some of the others on the street who he thinks might be up for some freedom fighting. As they reach him he looks them each in the eyes, then he begins talking. “If you all are tired of living like pets and cattle in your own homes, now is the time to end it. Joe is showing the way. Let’s arm ourselves and meet back here in a bit... Gather whatever weapons you can...” He straightens and continues, “and your courage... Prepare for the worst!” He gives a hopeful nod and asks... “Who’s with me?”
A dozen or so have gathered around him and most all of them give some sort of shout of agreement. As they spread out this talk of rebellion spreads rapidly along the main street and many more join in at yelling their new-found thirst for freedom. Some town folk have started running or driving off towards their homes and farms. Many out of fear are just trying to escape the area, but some others are thinking of what part they can play in a fight against their robot masters and are arming for a battle. By now the town is flooded with all types of robots heading towards Joe and Carrie; thousands of small bots, hundreds of larger bots, all converging on the out-of-control tractor.
The old couple becomes silently defiant in their determination to rebel as they exit the other side of town and head back out into the fields of their neighbors’ farms. The trail of damaged robots that have committed suicide against the tractor’s wheels, or hard exterior is now over 7 miles long. Larger and larger bots have been attacking the tractor and Joe realizes that soon they will break in, or stop the tractor dead in its tracks by damaging its motor or wheels.
Suddenly he turns towards a lake beyond the one end of the town. As he drives down the hill through the field he formulates a plan, hopefully for their escape. The field is rough and as they get closer to the drainage ditch at the bottom of the slope the old couple inside the tractor are bouncing around more and more and having trouble staying on the seat.
Joe yells to Carrie. “When we hit the ditch we need to slow way down so we don’t flip over. That means that there will be a lot more bots on the tractor. I may not be able to see. I’m going to let the ditch steer us into the lake. That’s where we get out. Okay?”
She is so amazed by what is going on around her that she half sings out as she yells back to him. “Yes, yes...Just keep going... Go... Go! Just keep going...” She chants the last part as if it’s a college football cheer... all the while bouncing around and laughing at the same time. She is truly free for the first time in her life. As a young girl she longed for the days her father talked about; the days before the Controllers directed everything. She heard of those times and dreamed of being able to say this is what I do because I wish to.
She stops yelling and looks over at Joe; this man that she was pre-destined to mate with from before she was born. This man that she had learned to care for and eventually love, that she had made her babies with. Here he is, like a hero, taking her to the freedom she has desired for as long as she can remember.
As the tractor enters the ditch it lurches suddenly to one side then the other. Carrie flies off her seat, into the windshield, and then lands on the floor. She bounces around with blood trickling down her face from a cut on her forehead, laughing again, and now crying too. It is finally over. The lies have been erased from her mind and heart. The robots had been winning a war that most people could not even admit was being waged. But today they are not winning; at least not with her and Joe.
As the tractor nears the lake Joe leans over to help Carrie back up onto the seat. He programs the autopilot again. “Carrie, when it stops, open your door and jump. Do it quick as you can. Jump and get away from the tractor, don’t stop or look back... I’ll find you... I love you.”
By now the tractor is covered from top to bottom with small and medium robots, 3 and 4 deep in places. Also, there are 3 hover-lifters trying to find and get good grips, but they are not strong enough to easily lift such a heavy load and they end up just getting dragged along. As they approach the end of the ditch, Joe steers into the right side bank long enough to crush and wipe the robots off the door. Joe switches the autopilot on and waits for the stop.
“Hang on!”
The tractor jerks to a sudden stop as Joe slides toward Carrie and helps her kick her door open. The bots temporarily become disoriented at the sudden loss of forward motion. As she jumps from the cab Carrie sees thousands of bots leaping toward the machine. They are so intent on the tractor that they seem not to notice her at all. Joe pulls the door shut as the tractor lurches forward and starts toward the lake at full throttle. He had programmed a 3 second stop, just long enough to get Carrie out.
Carrie looks up and sees that the local Controller is hovering over the tractor; directing the attack no doubt. There are only a few Controllers in this part of the country and she instantly knows that this is the ke
y to her and Joe’s escape. She needs to get Joe’s attention.
Carrie begins moving towards the lake. It is slow going for her because she has sprained her ankle in her leap from the tractor. Even so, she reaches the water before Joe does because the tractor keeps getting stuck in the silt at ravine’s end.
The bots are attacking in even greater numbers now and the tractor is completely covered. There are so many small robots on the ground around the tractor that it is grinding them up with its wheels and then using them for traction. Every now and again the hover-lifters also get a bit of a grip and lift Joe just enough to get him moving again; the bots are actually helping Joe in their single-mindedness to attack the tractor.
Carrie wades out into the lake in front of the tractor and begins waving her arms as best she can. She is hoping that Joe will see her. Eventually, he does... even through the layers of bots on the windshield he sees her.
Joe asks himself out loud... “What the hell?” He searches for a better view through the bots on the windshield... “What da hell you doin out there Carr?”
Since Carrie has now also come to the Controller’s attention it focuses on her for a few seconds and assesses her to be part of the threat. Instantly, she is attacked by numerous small flying robots. They begin flying into her head and especially into her face.
Joe blasts the horn in an attempt to draw the robots attention back toward him, but the assault on the now struggling Carrie continues. She begins frantically pointing up... Even as she is starting to go under she keeps pointing up. She is about to drown, and still she is pointing up with all her might; pointing up at the Controller.
As she goes under Joe screams... “Nooo! Carrieeee...! Noooooooo!” He stops fighting with the tractor’s controls and slumps back into the seat... He begins crying in horror and disbelief that he just watched his Carrie die.
The tractor’s lack of movement allows the hover-lifters get a good solid grip and the tractor starts rising above the lake. Joe notices the tractor lifting and tilting to one side. He wipes his eyes with his sleeve and grabs at the controls... quickly he begins flipping switches and turning dials in an attempt to shake loose of the lifters.
As the tractor falls back into the shallow water at the lake’s edge Joe bounces hard to the floor. Most of the bots also lose their grips... many of those on the windshield with nothing to hold on to fall clean off. From Joe’s vantage point on the floor he can now see through the windshield and straight up above the tractor.
He sees it! What Carrie wanted him to see; The Controller... “Well I’ll be damned... Been a long time you bastard.” Joe starts looking around inside the tractor... “Think Joe, think!” He feels around under the seat and as soon as his hand touches it, he flashes back...
After the incident in the field some 30 years ago he was scared. He was also madder than he had ever been in his life. In his anger he armed himself with an electronic weapon of a sort. It was a capacitor from an old piece of farm equipment. He had made it into a single shot taser. He would charge it every day before going out into the field; the only way to do that without rising Carrie’s suspicion was to keep it in the tractor during the night and then retrieve it in the morning. He kept it charged using the accessory plug-in... Looking up he says out loud... “Right there on the control panel.”
Quickly, almost frantically, he opens the case. He looks it over and it looks as good as the day he laid it to rest under the seat. The tractor begins to be jostled again. The windshield is almost covered over, and the engine begins sputtering from the water, or the bots... or both.
Joe pulls himself up to the steering wheel again and plugs in the capacitor. He starts fighting with the controls to get moving deeper into the water. The tractor is bucking and groaning, but it’s still making forward progress.
There is one more thing he wants to do before he tries to get out. This old tractor has a radio that was used to send messages back and forth between it and the support trucks long ago on some ancient 21th century farm. It was called a CB. Joe had listened with it before. He had heard a few people talking over the years, but he was always afraid to reply. Today, he will end his silence.
He has a message to relay. It’s from a kid who died on a sphere that exploded 35 years ago. It’s from a little old farmer woman who has just drown trying to be free, and it’s from a man who is about to die taking down a Controller. As he powers up the CB he can hear excited voices chattering and he can just make out over the tractors still sputtering engine that they are talking about him and Carrie... and their drive through town.
As he loses his view out the front window for the last time, he can feel the water sloshing around his feet on the floor of the tractor. He keys the mic a couple times to gain the attention of the others on the channel and then yells “Let me talk! Let me talk!”
“This is Joe Turner... Again! This is Joseph Turner... reporting from my 2019 International Harvester. Contrary to what we’ve been told, Mars is not a dead planet. Humans are still living there. The Controller destroyed the Mercury Sphere 35 years ago because of a rebellion that started after workers there had learned the truth about Mars...”
A very short pause as Joe sits up straight. “Listen to me very carefully now. Today, in a small farming town in Nebraska, humans used a 2000-year-old tractor to destroy thousands of the Controller’s robots. We refuse to live in the lies. We refuse to be controlled. We will be free again. Confusion, surprise, unexpected behavior, attacks that they cannot understand... This is how to beat them. We must act NOW!”
The robots intensify their attack... as if agitated all the more by the broadcast.
“Don’t wait. Throw everything you can at them. They have forgotten how to fight humans because it has been so long since we last rebelled. Do it now. Do it right now... before they remember!”
He looks at the capacitor, now fully charged and ready for action. He snaps it into the holster that he had made for it, seals it, and attaches it to his leg.
“And now, I mean to kill that local Controller that is hovering above me at this very moment.” Then in a subdued thoughtful voice... “Though, I‘m still working out how...”
He snaps back to what’s happen around the tractor. “There are still thousands of bots attacking my tractor as it sinks into Curved Valley Lake... We’re taking as many as possible down with us.”
As bigger and bigger robots have been arriving, the tractors “unbreakable” windows have been taking a beating. One of them has cracked and a corner shard fails. Some of the smaller bots start getting in and immediately they begin attacking Joe.
He screams into the mic... “Ahhh... Bastards! They‘re in!”
As the tractor has reached a point where the bottom of the lake drops off into much deeper water... it begins to move under gravity’s pull on its great weight. It is going down fast. The engine stalls as water starts pouring in the broken window...
Joe pulls two of the four pins that hold the cab’s roof on and it swings up just high enough for him to escape from the sinking tractor, but not from the robots. Although most of the bots are being dragged down with the tractor, many of the fliers are not, and one of the hover-lifters grabs Joe and lifts him above the lake. He loses conciseness as the tractor sinks into the darkness of the lake.