Becoming More Human: Chapter 3 – No Certainty in Flesh

Chapter 3 – No Certainty in Flesh

Joseph carries Antonietta to a large church that has three large mechanical skeleton angels overshadowing it as if protecting it from the rays of the sun.

“We’re here,” Joseph says.

“Thank you for your assistance and here is your tip,” Antonietta says as she kisses Joseph on the cheek.

“You just wanted to be carried. Everyone was looking at us funny while I was carrying you for blocks.”

“So what? I was enjoying myself. Maybe we should do this again. Oh, maybe I’ll carry you one time.”

“No, thank you.”

“Don’t knock it until you try it. Anyways, let’s see what this freakish cult has to tell us.”

Once entering the church, they find dozens of people praying and talking. Most of these people look more like robots than human since most of their body is replaced with mechanical parts. At the front of the church is a mechanical man with three distinct heads, three mechanical pincer arms on his back, crab-like legs, and a cog staff with an eye in the center. He preaches about the divinity of the machine and how it is God’s blessing that He gave humanity the capacity to make so that we could have immortality in this life and be assured of it in the next should we die. After the lecture, the man sees Antonietta and Joseph, dismisses the people around them, and asks to have a private conversation with them.

“I am so glad to be graced with your presence, Antonietta, or as some call you, the Cybernetic Queen,” the mechanical man says.

“Given recent events, do you know why we’re here?”

“I can’t say that I do. Have recent events opened your eyes to the blessing of the machine? Before we continue, I must thank you and your company for getting rid of AI from most of the world. We view it as an abomination since all men, women, and even children can take their job and role.”

“I’m here because I heard that you or someone here was involved in the destruction of my company.”

“I wouldn’t have a motive to do so especially because of what I said. I’m afraid you’ve been given a red herring to assume that my church is responsible though it isn’t without its truth. There have been members of the faithful here that worked at your offices and factories were conspiring against you and yours. I tried to convince them not to, but they wouldn’t listen to me.”

“My own workers did this? Why would they? My company gave them everything they needed to work and live fairly. Cybernetics to do the job, the best wages, and benefits in the world. We even got rid of AI-controlled machines and computers just like you said to give them a job.”

“Some don’t like the position they’ve been put in. Your company and other companies give them the cybernetics to do their job and affordable repairs if they need it, but now they’re stuck with those cybernetics for that job and are tied to the company if they want to be repaired. The cybernetics for a CEO, human-computer, mechanic, and stock worker are all different after all. They’d have to get rid of their cybernetics and get them reinstalled if they want to work somewhere else whether it’d be a company or job position and you know that doing that could result in death.”

“We’ve been trying to fix that issue and now the research that we had is gone. They’re going to have to rely on other companies if they want their cybernetics changed for a different job.”

“They’ll be rewarded for it by their new masters. I’m not sure if they’ll like serving different slavers though.”

“Are you calling my company a company of slavers?”

“I simply used the wrong word. When someone gets a job, they are essentially stuck in that job until they die similar to a slave.”

“I get it. It’s just how the world works now. You either accept your role or have no role at all and are just taking up space.”

“Maybe you should visit your workers. Your factories haven’t been touched by the attack and the workday is yet to be done.”

“I’ll do that.”

“Oh, and before you go, are you sure you do not wish to convert? You’d fit in here perfectly given that your body is mostly machine with hardly anything human left.”

“I’ll pass.”

“What about you, her last assistant?”

“My faith as a Catholic requires that I only get cybernetics if I need it for my job or if my body begins to fail,” Joseph says.

“Ah, a Catholic. I used to be pope and the leaders of the largest denominations of Judaism and Islam.”

“What are you talking about? How could you be all those?”

“We all worked behind the scenes of our faiths to bring everyone together under one faith of the machine, but we were exiled and had to start our faith from the ground up. To show our devotion to God and our trust in Him, we combined our bodies into this one machine that we all control like our one triune God is one God and yet three persons.”

“I know who you are now, or at least the past pope part. You’re Pope Benedictus X.”

“Yes, I’m glad that I am still remembered by my old flock. Are you sure that you will not join us?”

“I’m positive.”

“Then I’ll pray for you. You’re the spitting image of a normal man and you don’t fit in this situation without Antonietta by your side. I suggest keeping her on the path to Heaven because she’ll be lost without you.”

“I understand that.”

Antonietta and Joseph leave the church and sit on the steps of it.

“What’s wrong, Antonietta?” Joseph asks.

“My own workers despise me. I thought I did everything I could for them. I never abused you or came off as a neglectful boss, did I?”

“Not to me, but then again, you did give me special treatment. I’m starting to wonder what we would’ve done if we heard what the heads of HR and PR had to say. They didn’t get to talk at the meeting and probably would’ve told us something about worker dissatisfaction since I heard rumors of it.”

“Yeah, I blame myself for that. I was always thinking about the threat that our competitors posed that I didn’t really consider a problem that could grow within. I thought I was doing everything that my parents wanted me to.”

“Hey, this isn’t over yet. We’ll talk to our workers and see how we can make it up to them.”

“You think they’ll listen to us? They blew up all our offices.”

“We can’t get the authorities to arrest them because we don’t have evidence of them being responsible for the bombings other than a single person telling us that they did it. If we approach them with understanding, we should be able to reach some kind of deal.”

“That or I disable their cybernetics and force them to confess and we can reach a deal that way.”

“I’m not sure if that will make them view you more positively. In fact, it’ll probably make them hate you more for going for the more obvious approach.”

Antonietta sighs before saying, “Fine. We’ll try it your way and if everything goes wrong, we’ll do it my way.”

“Agreed, so do you want me to carry you to the nearest factory? It’s not that far.”

“What? Hahaha!”

“What? I thought you liked to be carried.”

“I do, but to be honest, I had you carry me because I was starting to lose it since I started to realize what I was up against with only you at my side. I’ll call a cab to pick us up.”

“If this is too much for you, we can stop, rest, and come back.”

“No, it won’t change anything other than making me more anxious to see justice achieved for us. We’re ending this today before the day ends.”

“Antonietta, it’s okay to admit that you’re tired.”

“I’m the ‘Cybernetic Queen’ as they say. I had the entire world under my control and protection.”

“The keyword in that is had. Maybe it’s God’s will that you don’t have that power anymore.”

“Well, you’re wrong! I am doing what I am supposed to. I am doing what my parents trusted me with, now come on, the cab is here. We have employees to discipline.”

Joseph quietly enters the cab and Antonietta rests her head on Joseph’s shoulder after a short while and outburst of anger then falls asleep after. Meanwhile, Joseph wonders to himself how he can help Antonietta besides acting as her moral compass.