Earth, Where the Flowers Grow

Acacia always walked very quickly when she was troubled about something, and today she walked as quickly as ever. Her friend Plum struggled to keep up with her.

“Alright, tell me what’s wrong.” Puffed Plum as she caught up beside Acacia. Their real designations, or names as we might call them, weren’t Acacia and Plum. Their real names were based on when they were born. Both Acacia and Plum were born in the year ‘G’. Acacia was the thirteenth child born that year, and was designated G-13, and Plum being the thirty-fifth, was known as G-35.

Both Acacia and Plum had a love of flowers, as did many of their friends, so they used the name of their favorite flower for their names among each other.

“Yes,” Said Cattleya, in her metallic voice,  “Something is bothering you.” Cattleya had no trouble at all keeping up with Acacia. For one thing, she wasn’t human. She was a robot known as UNIT-72.

Acacia slowed her pace a bit. “We’re moving.” She said flatly.

“To another compound?” Asked Plum, her eyes wide with surprise.

“No.” Said Acacia. “To Earth.” She had always dreamt of living there, but now that she was actually going, she found that she really did not wish to go. Acacia’s mother and father had lived on Earth most of their lives, but any time Acacia asked them about their time spent on Earth, they just said that is wasn’t important. It seemed to Acacia that they wanted to keep Earth all to themselves.

“I heard that they don’t have to wear uniforms there.” Said Plum solemnly.

“There are lots of flowers there.” Said Cattleya.

“They also don’t have year and number designations like us, they have real names.” Said Plum almost in a whisper.

“I know… It’s just…” Acacia said slowly.

“Don’t worry, we understand.” Said Plum.

“You will send us stuff, won’t you?” Asked Cattleya. Acacia nodded her head.

“So… When are you leaving, Acacia?” Plum said.

“Tomorrow morning on the first transport.” Said Acacia in a bewildered voice.

“Tomorrow morning!” Said Plum and Cattleya in unison.

“But, why did you not tell us?” asked Cattleya with a hint of deep surprise in her voice.

Acacia sighed. “I only found out today.” Both Plum and Cattleya looked at her sorrowfully. “My father’s Job Supervisor is making his whole section move.” Acacia looked up from the ground. With her walking so fast, they had already arrived at her family’s living unit. “Well, Bye, I guess…” She hugged them, and expected never to see them again.

The remainder of that day and the morning of the next passed like a dream to Acacia. She packed, ate, slept, and boarded the transport ship as if in a trance. The trip was to be a few hours long, so she curled up in her seat, and went to sleep.

Acacia woke an hour or two later with a start. The lights in the ship were off, and she couldn’t see a thing. Nor, for that matter could she hear the slight rumble of the engines. She sat bolt upright.

“Mother? Father?” She said. No one answered.  “Is anyone here?” She shouted in a desperate voice. Again she heard not a sound. She stood up and tiptoed toward where she knew the exit was.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a hand clapped over her mouth, and she felt herself being pulled backward.

“So we missed one.” Acacia heard a rough evil-sounding voice chuckle.

Acacia tried to scream as she felt something sharp being jabbed into her arm. A tingly feeling spread throughout her body, as she gradually lost consciousness.

This time when Acacia awoke she was groggy, and she felt sore all over. She looked around, and in the dim light, she could see other people tied up and gagged as she was. Acacia was in the cold, damp luggage level of the transport ship. She could feel the soft rumble of the ship close beneath herself once more.

As Acacia looked around, she noticed some figures standing up near the far wall Acacia looked more closely, and realized that they were robots. Not nice, kind robots made to interact with humans, such as her friend Cattleya, but cold machines of war who didn’t understand reason, and were made to carry out gruesome tasks.  Soldier-class robots, such as these were, only took orders from their superior officers.

Acacia racked her brain for all she had learned about soldier-class robots in school. She remembered that the first batch processing of soldier-class robots had had a major defect. As well as taking orders from their superiors, they would also take orders from any robot whom they deemed smarter than themselves.

“If only Cattleya were here…” Thought Acacia. “Maybe, just maybe these robots are from the first processing!”  She remembered that those robots had been sold to a wealthy politician, who had then turned to a life of crime. The government had never recovered the robots.

 Acacia looked down with sadness. “Even if they were…which they probably aren’t…” Acacia thought. “And like Cattleya would be here…”

Just then a familiar, metallic voice whispered into Acacia’s ear: “I’ll guess that you were just wishing that I was here, weren’t you?” Acacia almost laughed in surprise and happiness, but she was still gagged.

“Here,” Said Cattleya, “I’ll explain why I’m here later. Right now I must untie you. You must pretend like you are still tied up, and speak very quietly.” Cattleya quickly undid the micro-fiber ropes that were holding Acacia’s wrists and ankles down. She also undid the gag that was over Acacia’s mouth.

“But! Why-?” Sputtered Acacia as soon as her gag was off.

“Shhhhhh!” Said Cattleya abruptly. “You must be silent, or whisper!”

“Sorry.” Whispered Acacia.

Cattleya laughed silently. “That’s alright, just be more careful.” She looked up at the soldier-class robots. “Now, I have a plan.” Before Acacia could stop her, Cattleya stood up, her silver skin glinting in the faint light.

Cattleya walked over to the nearest soldier-robot. “Soldier-unit,” She said in a commanding voice, “What is your designation?” The robot examined Cattleya under its blue laser-beamed gaze. It was silent a full thirty seconds before its circuit-brain would allow it to answer.

“My designation is SOLDIER_UNIT-02.” It said in a monotone voice.

“Good then,” Said Cattleya. “Would you be from the first batch-processing, then?”  The robot didn’t answer. “Well, I know you are, because you wouldn’t have answered me if you weren’t.” She said. “Alright, then.” Her voice full of authority, Cattleya said: “SOLDIER_UNIT-02, I command you, and the other Soldier-Units, to untie all of these people, get us to Earth, and never obey your old master again. And, when you get back to earth, turn yourself into the government.”

“We will do as you ask, UNIT-72.” With that the robots set off to work. Cattleya went back to where Acacia was.

“Well, I suppose you’ll want to know why I’m here, now, right?” Said Cattleya.

Acacia smiled. “Yes, actually, I would.”

“After you left us, Plum went home, and I went to the Unit Compound where I live. Our Unit Commander told us that a family that was moving to Earth the next morning, and had requested a helper robot to live with them there. I asked if it was your family, and indeed it was! So I volunteered to go.”

Acacia smiled wider. “That’s wonderful! I didn’t even know my family requested a helper robot!” Then her smile faded a little. “But, what about Plum? Won’t she be downhearted?”

“Oh, that’s alright, I already talked to her. She was sad, yes, but guess what? Her parents said she could visit Earth once every month! Our friends Cherry and Forsythia are still there as well.” Said Cattleya in a happy voice.

“This is even better!” Declared Acacia.

For the rest of the journey, Acacia and Cattleya talked with exuberance of what they would do when the got to Earth.

When they finally got there, Acacia, her mother and father, and Cattleya took their belongings, and got into a small transport car. An hour later they had reached the little, sunny, serene valley where they were to live.

As she got out of the car, Acacia took a big whiff of the wonderfully fragrant, and yet, clean air. There was lush green grass growing all around. Acacia walked into the house.

“G-13!” She heard her father calling. “We have a surprise for you!” Acacia followed her mother and father out into the back garden.

There, in front of her, where three blossoming plum trees, and in front of them were beds of pink and white frilly cattleya flowers, and next to them were beds upon beds of petite, bright yellow sprays of Acacia, their green leaves blowing gently in the breeze.