8. THE BEGINNING OF THE END
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Previously on 2100: Kirk had been assembling a formidable alliance of million H-bots and carrying out his plans against humans secretly.
Year: 2100
29th Tuesday June, 10:06 a.m.
Myriad of reports about people who used Elysian Tab experiencing the same dream were now surfacing in all media across the world: A complete pandemonium in the streets, people running frantically across the streets, and H-bots were in total control over the population.
Although the dreams varied in their contents significantly, this core bedlam incident was seen across 97% of the Elysian Tab users and this was scary for all the governments. Few religious countries considered this as a bad omen and stopped employing H-bots for work in different domains. In other countries, serious debates and arguments between scholars, scientists, psychologists, and psychoanalysts were common sights across news channels. Humans were beginning to ostracize H-bots.
Rod had been using the Elysian Tab regularly for three months now and became engrossed with it. He was at work in his workspace. He worked under the Embed Emotions (EE) division, wherein his team was responsible for embedding emotions into the H-bots. The responsibilities included incorporating cognition, bodily and conscious experience to the H-bots.
He was checking his Elysian Tab. He saw the stats widget displaying,
ROD's DREAM STATS Total Dreams Recorded: 97
Night Dreams: 93
Day Dreams: 4
Lucid Dreams: 25
He then navigated to the Watchout Track list,
1. SEARCHING FOR SOMETHING IN BEDROOM (89) 2. DR. RICHARD'S DISAPPEARANCE (74)
3. TRYING TO FIND KIRK (67) 4. WITNESSING A HORRIFIC INCIDENT (52)
5. DR. RICHARD'S FINAL WORDS (43)
.
.
The list was big and sorted in descending order of recurrences. He clicked the first item in the list,
SEARCHING FOR SOMETHING IN BEDROOM
Location: Home, Bedroom.
Time: Evening.
Event: Searching for something in the bookshelf next to the cot in the bedroom, possibly, an item which is unknown.
First Occurrence : 27th Saturday Night 2020.
Last Occurrence: 28th Monday Night 2020.
Recurrences: 89.
No clear interpretation so far. Marked for future observance.
He was anxious. He was aware of the reports about majority of the population across the world experiencing the same bedlam dream and even he was not an exception. Most of his dreams recorded had beginnings with an uproar and confusion in the streets. And in almost all his dreams he was in his bedroom searching for something. Neither Anima nor he was able to figure out what he was looking for. Rod believed that it was a key insight about an important affair that is to happen in the near future, a portent from his inner self and felt that his inner self is trying to communicate with him.
Right then, a notification ringed from his WorkPad*; he received an email from the organizational administration team. The subject read: Important Organization Announcement
Owing to the unprecedented pressure from public welfare groups and government officials, it is with a heavy heart that we are relieving Thomas Kirk, the first ever H-bot manufactured by Horado Technologies, from his Board of Director membership. He will no more be a member of Board of Directors committee and will be discharged from all other duties as well. The science division will proceed with the shutting down procedure of Kirk's operating system later this week on July 3rd Friday 2100. The same edict and shut down procedure applies to all other H-bots working in all division in Horado Technologies. We request you(humans) to pay your ...
[To be continued]
Glossary
WorkPad - A workstation with a flexible glass panel monitor and a laser keypad operated based on sensory finger touch.