The Last Place to Stand by Aaron K. Redshaw Read Free Book Online Page B

did not have a work ethic that told them work was what gave them purpose. Growing up he had never doubted that without such a strong motivation to work hard and succeed there would be little motivation to work at all. But approaching a house on his right, he saw a man making repairs to his walls with fresh clay, while his two boys helped him. Meanwhile, the man’s wife was cleaning some clothes in a wash basin and hanging them on a rope stretched between two trees out front.
    A couple of minutes later, he saw a whole family planting seed in a freshly furrowed garden. Each family member took a row at a time and were careful, putting the seeds in the ground one at a time and pressing them down in the soft soil a couple of inches below.
    At another house, there was a group of children who were sitting on benches while an adult was teaching them the sounds of reading and the letters of writing. Most of the children were quite small, but they had one girl who was probably twelve, and a boy who was maybe sixteen. As he passed, the teacher called to him.
    “Sir,” the teacher said. “Would you mind helping me with this lesson?”
    Hesitant and a little nervous, X4287 said, “Okay, what can I do?”
    “I was just telling the students that our society is made of all kinds of people, some of whom did not even grow up here, but might have come from the Technophiliac lands. I can see by your mannerisms that this is the case for you. Could you tell the students about where you grew up?”
    “Okay,” said X4287, “I'll try.” Coming to the front of the class and standing next to the teacher, a man who looked to be about fifty, X4287 began. “First of all, the Technos do not use names, they use ID's. Mine is X4287. Names are personal and an ID just identifies people more as part of a whole group. We were like parts in a big machine. To a Techno, there is no individual that has meaning apart from what he or she contributed to the society.”
    Here the teacher interpreted, “So kids, he is saying that each person is not very important by themselves, just all of them as a group.”
    X4287 had never thought of it like that before. He went on, “The reason you call us Technos is because of a common saying they have: ‘Technology is the highest achievement of man’. So most strive to work for a company that makes, repairs, modifies, or invents technology.”
    The teacher spoke up again. “He says that they believe that machines make people important, so the better the machines, the more important they will be.”
    This explanation was like cold water in his face. X4287 had never imagined it that way before. He didn't know whether to hit the man, or to cry, because although he couldn't put his finger on it completely, he knew there was something important in what the man said. Not knowing how to continue, he said, “I’ll answer questions if you have any.”
    A small blonde haired girl raised her hand. “Did you play catch the dog when you were growing up?”
    “W-We didn't play games growing up,” he stammered. “We learned and we worked. When we weren't doing one, we were doing the other. There was some entertainment, but mostly we worked.” The children murmured among themselves in shock. A couple of them laughed.
    Another girl said, “Did your mommy and daddy read to you before you went to bed?”
    “Well, no,” said X4287. “We did not learn to read because the chip we received told us what we needed to know once we were old enough. Signs either spoke when a button was pressed, or our chip informed us as to information we would need to know. At night, we just went to bed. The newer chips now continue to teach us even as we sleep.”
    An older boy raised his hand. “We learned that in some past cultures people married because it was arranged by the parents. In our culture we marry for love and friendship. In the Techno culture, what makes someone marry?”
    X4287 knew this one would be a bit more tricky. He paused