Maxwell Empire Scripted Book 4 Chapter 15
Dad and Davey Roboairships Deadly sin
Davey and his family are touring the middle of Australia and are in a roboairship. They have left the hotel near Uluru in their roboairship and are headed towards Kings Canyon to see another of the scenic wonders of Central Australia.
DAVEY
Well dad, yesterday was great. Standing in front of Uluru and being confronted by its hugeness was just something. Definitely a view to be on everyone’s bucket list.
DAD
Thanks Davey. I’m glad you liked it. And that you got your movie of kangaroos charging across the countryside.
DAVEY
Are we going for a walk at Kings Canyon?
DAD
I think dad is a bit worn out after two longish walks yesterday. We might give walking a miss.
DAVEY
But we could go for a swim when we get to Ormiston Gorge.
DAD
For sure. Dad likes swimming. Good idea.
DAVEY
So we are now in Kings Canyon.
DAD
Yes, gorgeous isn’t it. If we were all fit we could take a walk but we had better not.
DAVEY
We are getting loads of images for our holograms. It will make it good to remember what it was like to move at treetop height through the gorge.
DAD
It does look good, Davey. Just as well our ship knows where all the other ships are. It is positively crowded.
DAVEY
Yes, good time of the year to be in central Australia. It used to be arid but with all the trees to try to reduce the carbon dioxide it is very different. My last Geography Stage included a lot about greening Australia.
DAD
Well, it might be green but it must be a bit dry. There is smoke up ahead.
DAVEY
Look, the roboairships are sucking up water from the gorge.
DAD
And they take a lot. They look like the two hundred tonne variety.
DAVEY
Yes, lots of water in each one and there seems to be a continuous line of them.
DAD
That fire has no chance. With each one soaking the ground in front of the fire it will soon be out.
DAVEY
Well, this is different. Not every day we get to see a real life bushfire being put out.
DAD
And there goes another one dumping tonnes of water on the ground before the fire.
DAVEY
Yes, they wouldn’t want to drop it on the fire. The draught would upset an airship.
DAD
It is unusual for a fire to get away that much. I wonder why the robofiries did not put it out immediately.
DAVEY
And why would it start anyway? There has been no lightning or anything else to start a fire.
DAD
One of the roboairships has a problem. Its roboserves are spreading all over the top. What is going on?
DAVEY
Dad, look. There are some shooters on the ridge over there. They are over a kilometre away but you can see they are shooting at the ships putting out the fire.
DAD
Behaviour like that is going to get them in a heap of trouble. How can any human think it is acceptable? They are going to end up in the Arena.
DAVEY
The fools are now shooting at us. Dad, they definitely need to get to the Arena before they kill us.
DAD
There go our robocops. Roboairships are vulnerable to the gas leaking out and we will crash if they hole us. That is if the roboserves can’t fix it.
DAVEY
Well, the screen says we are holed; that the roboserves are fixing it; and the robocops have cocooned the baddies.
DAD
Criminals shooting holes in roboairships are endangering life. Item three of the Octet was comprehensively broken.
DAVEY
Dad, because the conduct of the shooters has deliberately endangered us, the occupants of the roboairship, and we are fortunate not to die, the shooters will have their life removed because it is unacceptable conduct.
DAD
The shooters have been cocooned by the robocops and now will be taken to the Arena. This will be one Arena event we will be particularly interested in.
DAVEY
Their fate will be highly publicised to deter others from being equally antisocial.
DAD
It reminds me of in ancient times antisocial humans in America were allowed to continue to run riot by claiming that police trying to do their job were behaving badly.
DAVEY
Yes, in one event described in the 22nd century by my History Input they could have done with cocooning but they did not have it and eventually the Save America Now (SAN) took to the streets with their arsenal of weapons and produced more deaths than the pandemic of Covid 26 we know about.
DAD
The police would have been thinking they should be out there stopping the baddies get shot. That was how they thought in ancient times.
DAVEY
Well, they had told the police to stay indoors because the humans behaving badly were also attacking the police.
DAD
These days antisocial humans running around looting and burning will be cocooned and then carted off to the Arena. Not that I remember any people doing things like that.
DAVEY
These days they are careful. They know they would be entertaining the world’s online viewers as they get chased by hungry pigs or dogs. I love seeing baddies having chunks bitten out of them until they succumb and fall over to be finally consumed.
DAD
Nowadays we realise that bad humans can be treated the same way as any other bad animal. Be bad and cease to exist. As an ex-human they are useful for fish food or pet food or any number of ways to make up for having been a difficult human. That is if there is any of them that has not become pig poo.
DAVEY
Yes, it’s the same for all animals. If you don’t fulfil the function you are meant to have you can be converted into something that makes you useful such as fish food.
DAD
In ancient times that was another confusion people had. If a race horse was not good at racing they did not want to make use of it in a more appropriate way such as pet food.
DAVEY
They just had funny ideas, dad. If a cattle dog could not control cattle they did not think it was useless and needed to be fish fooded.
DAD
So much for ancient times, Davey. Today I think we will just be heading to Alice Springs to meet some sensible people.
Structure of the roboairship
There is an upper surface converting sunlight to electricity, a rigid framework for the cladding, with many discrete panels to provide stability in case of a leak of hydrogen, cells holding water, many electrolysis units converting electricity to hydrogen, a layer below the envelope consisting of the robot controls and of storage units for the roboserves and robocops, and below that a long passenger compartment providing all the facilities necessary for comfortable touring over the countryside.
The hydrogen is used in fuel cells to produce electricity to run the roboairship.
The passenger compartment can be detached and replaced with water storage units for fire-fighting.
