Arektu

Chapter 1: Desperate Times

A barren underworld, free of disease and famine, no plague, no fighting, war, inside and out. My head is spinning, there is dust in my eyes and on my lips, it is hard to breathe, the desert air drowns out the music. I stand up and look into the horizon with my binoculars. I press the binoculars tighter against the rim of my eyes. I can finally see. The world of VeLoCityy Iz....

Nothing survives Arektu, not even a tear. Before it hits your cheek it has evaporated. Arektu is 120 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, -20 degrees at night. Growing up, when my Mom didn't pay the power, we would cook our eggs in the front yard, on a metal rock, sunny-side up. I haven't seen my mom in 30 years now. I miss those days.

"V, you're going to want to come look at this," Trennedy said.

"What's going on?" I asked, as we synced holograms.

I stuck my wrist out and so did he, his metal, worn down armor looked battle-tested, cause it was. Trennedy had completed 1099 space jumps before we met, the most of any harbinger. He graduated top of his class in fitness, he believed in training every rep til the verge of death, it was inspiring.

"You see it?" he asked.

I saw it. It was earth. In flames, the fire had spread even more now, covering what is technically North America. Poor earth, there's no saving her.

It's been 132 years since humans have lived on Arektu. Something we could never have accomplished without AI. AI built everything, we sent a thousand humanoid robots to colonize Arektu before humans ever stepped foot. Schools, roads, houses, farms, parks, everything was built, even zoos, before we came. Arektu is nothing like earth, there is no natural carbon dioxide or oxygen or even water here, we had to bring all that and keep bringing it, thats why this whole Earth's on fire thing is a big deal.

No matter where I go, I gravitate towards this dream I have, on earth, in the fire, and there's this girl, tall, blonde, standing there in the fire, not moving, looking at me, piercing me with her green eyes, seeing right through me. The fire is fine to me, I have my suit on, which converts heat into energy that keeps the suit's motor running, keeping me cool and strong. Why does she stand in the fire. I reach out my hand, and she doesn't take it.

"V, we gotta do something." Trennedy insisted.

"I know."

Chapter 2: Rollengaard

Life is simple here. It's so simple. The robots do everything for us. They take care of our housing, food, water, I mean, everything. There are no "jobs" on Arektu. The robots fix everything that breaks down, and they continue building and expanding new cities, some floating cities now that's the new thing. But not everyone on Arektu likes the robots. There's people who live on the outskirts of the city. They still need water and food so they come into the city for that, but then leave after. I have no clue what they do outside of the city, maybe read books.

I'm a drummer, and a guitarist, and an actor, and a singer, and a oh yeah everything. All we do here is perform for each other, it's something the robots can't do: art, feelings, expressing real feelings, they don't have those. Sometimes the robots will watch us, and even applaud a performance, and tell us they liked it. I wonder if they did. Or maybe they're just trying to learn. Or maybe they're planning our downfall (dramatic music insert). Jokes aside, robots low key dig art.

There are laws on Arektu. Humans have a general law: don't do anything that infringes another human's rights. Robots also have a general law: Dont do anything that infringes a human's rights. What the hell does that mean? It means basically dont hurt anyone. No hitting anyone, no messing with anyone's property, so on and so forth. There's no "jails" here on Arektu, there are only punishments, and yup, they're random, decided by robot judges, if the robot jury decides your guilty. Arektu's entire judicial system, police system, everything system, is run by robots...isn't that crazy? I've never known it any other way.

On earth, there used to be human presidents, and human police officers, and human plumbers. Humans used to have to work 8-12 hours every single day with a couple days off a year. That's crazy, it's madness! I can't imagine having to work for my food. That would change everything. Like I remember reading a story about how in early earth days, humans were hunters, and would have to hunt their food with spears through the jungle, sometimes running for 8 hours straight, until the animal they were hunting finally ran out of energy. You'll catch me dead before I run 8 straight hours jesus, but that's what humans used to have to do!

My dad passed away when I was six, he had a freak accident at the bar, where he slipped on a wet floor and busted his head on the table on the way down. It's probably the reason I've never drank. I see how people get when they're drunk and I don't really get it. You become a terribly worse version of yourself in every single way, plus it kills your liver, like what's going on what am I missing? Did you know on earth alcohol was illegal for like a couple years and there were riots because the drunk people were mad? Crazy. They had to overturn that law.

I think the robots know best. And they're nice. They say hi when walking by. There are all different kinds of robots, some are just flying boxes in the sky. Some look like birds. Some have two legs and two arms and a head and a chest and a neck and hands and look pretty similar to me. There's people on Arektu who are best friends with robots. You can't marry a robot though, that's against the law, and the robots have never changed that law.

The goal on Arektu is to keep humanity alive for as long as possible. And that means every human. Even if you murder someone, which has happened here, there is no death penalty. There is instead a random consequence generated by the sentencing robot, that apparently is the most fair based on the crime and the most likely to correct the behavior, based on the human's personality who committed the crime. There has never been a double-murder. There has never been someone who has committed the same crime twice. Except, of course, for me.

Chapter 3

My first time getting caught was when I was 18