Douglas groaned a little, at his 'new' job.
It was a demotion, no question there. As he looked at the loading bay, the cold wind blowing with the road ahead, in this desolate working area, all he could think of was how stupid it was. He has been busted down from logistical management to Inventory clerk, just because he was human!
All platitudes aside... it wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair. He was good at his job, just not as good as the changed could be with their 'superior' abilities. Especially considering it was a robot. A bloody robot,
He signalled a truck into the loading bay, to begin the next inspection. He smiled a little seeing the Trucker, Rodney. They had spoken many times, as he travelled the routes he gave.
"Hey man," said Rodney. "Nice to see you instead of hearing you on the phone all the time." He tipped his truckers hat to him a little jokingly.
Douglas gave a friendly smile back. "Well, you'll be seeing a lot more of me. Now that we got a robot running the show."
"Yeah I know, Robo-girl. She have good tits?" grinned Rodney.
Douglas rolled his eyes. "She's some teenager, still wet behind the ears and doesn't know anything" he said as he lifted up the shutters and started to look at the tags of the boxes and checking them off on his clipboard.
"Okay, well we got... exactly fourteen minutes and twelve to do this," said Rodney a little concerned at the time.
"She's timing my inventory checks?!" said Douglas tensing as he quickly got to work.
"Robo-girl is timing 'everything'. We're running like machines now. She's even timing our bathroom breaks!" Rodney said with some annoyance. "Now we ain't got any time for anything. We're just doing what we're told."
Douglas sighed. "Yeah, that's what you get when you're replaced by a machine" He said. Although it 'could' be the result of simple... inexperience? The new girl never interacted with any of these people, never got to know any of their quirks or even cared about them. But why would she? She was a freakin' teenager and a robot!
"Four minutes three seconds left man," said Rodney. "I got to get the engine started. It will shave a bit of time."
"Okay I'm almost done. What's this box? It's not on your manifest." Rodney quickly grabbed it.
"Heck I don't know. Just store it some place and sort it out later. I got to get moving!" Rodney started the engine as Douglas closed the shutters. "Damn it robo-girl!" He said as he accelerated quickly onto the road. On time... just on time.
Douglas watched with a sigh. So... this was the new world huh? Regular average people were just... what exactly? The unchanged had become the 'unworthy'? That's how he was feeling... However, as bad as things were for him, they had to be a hundred times worse for all the truck drivers. He couldn't imagine a machine constantly monitoring their positions, and telling them what to do, where to go... when Douglas did the job, he used a GPS and would tell them on the radio what was going on. Even share a little banter...
... but maybe... just maybe all that was inefficient. But it was certainly more fun. Right now, Douglas was just not enjoying himself. This drive towards efficiency might be doing well for the company... but it wasn't doing well for him. Certainly not that he was replaced... by a machine of all things.
... no... that wasn't fair. She was a person... he had to remember that. This Michelle Madison, was a person, before she became a robot. But he just didn't feel like treating her like a person in his mind. She was his 'superior', and it was driving him mad!
Finally he looked at the strange box. "Let's see what's in here... no tag... great, someone really screwed up."
Inside was a... bottle? It certainly looked very ornamental. Almost like a genie bottle. Probably a prop or something. There was also a note...
"...You're invited?" he said looking at it. Weird... just weird. "I wish I had a job I can't be replaced in."
Wish granted!
