Book 3: Chapter 39: Retirement
Marcus
February 2218
Poseidon
I sat in a lawn chair, soaking in the warm afternoon sun. I hardly ever thought about the fact that I was inhabiting an android any more. Howard and Bob kept improving the model, and Bill seemed happy with the delegation of responsibility. Couldn’t really blame him, I supposed. He had other things on his mind.
Around me, children played, couples walked hand-in-hand, and people did their jobs either through tablets or tele-presence. If this wasn’t utopia, I’d be damned if I could figure out what was missing.
Especially for me. Rather than take back control of the autofactories after the revolution, I’d aggressively created the means for the population of Poseidon to take over the responsibility. Now, three years later, I had absolutely no duties in this system.
As promised, Gina had me voted out on my ear. To her chagrin, she found herself voted in as Chairperson. The new Council was still arguing about what to put in as a permanent government, but that was certainly nothing new.
I got up and walked along the path toward the nearest food kiosk. That particular lawn chair might or might not be occupied if I returned, but there’d be another. Or I could just park my butt on the grass.
The problem I had run into was perhaps not totally unexpected. Bob had always been a driven, workaholic personality. Great for when you were defending the galaxy from the rampaging hordes; maybe not so good when you’d just arranged to have yourself made redundant.