Page 77 of The Mentor
James frowned and shifted his balance to one leg. “What an interesting question, and one that has been discussed for many years now. It is true that the Toxic War set us back technology-wise. With the old Internet being completely corrupted and for the most part useless, it has taken many years to get to where we are now. It was a proud breakthrough when we recreated virtual reality and holograms, but despite our great efforts we have yet to discover the technology behind beaming people and things from one place to another.” James lifted his hand. “But I have to be honest with you, there are those among our finest scientists who speculate that this technique never existed in the first place.”
“It did, I’ve seen it in old movies,” Storm argued.
“Yes, we all have, but just like time travel, 3D printers, and invisibility, we are unsure if what was described to us in books and films from that time is an actual technology, or maybe pure fiction,” James said with a slight tilt of his head. “It’s hard to tell, but then again, cleaning the earth has been our priority for centuries.” With a wave of his hand, he motioned for us to follow and pointed to a production line in front of us. “Over there, you’ll see our latest household model called Alex. The robot performs household chores with the highest efficiency yet seen.” James was obviously very proud.
My head swung to see what had all the boys laughing. It was a display of robots by the wall.
“What kind ofchoresdo they perform?” Storm asked while cracking up.
“I think you know that,” Kya said dismissively, but our tour guide didn’t seem to think sex robots were anything to be ashamed of.
Whipping his arms in the air, James excitedly exclaimed. “Number two on the right is our best-selling female sex-bot, and can you guess which part of the world is our biggest market?”
“Let me guess; the Northlands?” Shelly said dryly.
“Ahh, yes, I thought she looked familiar. Finn grinned and nudged his elbow into Marco’s ribs. “Have you tried that model?”
“Can we see it up close?” some of the boys asked, and like a child excited about sharing his toys, James steered us right to the display models.
Shelly and Kya stayed in the background while the boys discussed the dimensions and looked closely at the different robots.
“I can’t wait till I turn fifteen!” Solomon declared.
“And when is that?” Marco asked him.
“In seven months.”
Marco smiled and patted Solomon on the shoulder. “Lucky you. The first time is always special.”
“Archer, what is he talking about?” Shelly asked me.
“The boys have to be fifteen before they can…” I nodded toward the robot. “You know.”
“I see. And how does that work? I haven’t seen any at the school.”
“We have whorehouses, just like you do,” I said.
Shelly gave me a disturbed look. “We don’t havewhorehouses.”
“So, what would you call the places where your sex-bots are?” I asked.
“Pleasure parlors,” she said with her eyes fixed on the ground.
It was easy to forget that Shelly was only fifteen when you saw her teach or heard her debate, but right now she looked every bit the shy teenager.
“Do you ever let people test them?” Marco asked James.
“Yes.” The man clapped his hands together and lit up. “We have a focus group that gives us feedback.”
Finn narrowed his eyes. “And who is in this focus group? Only Motlanders, I’ll bet.”
“I’m afraid so,” the man admitted. “Obviously, we would love to have a focus group in the Northlands, but as you know, communication between our countries have been…” He frowned. “Well, limited.”
“Ha, it would take me five minutes to put a group together,” Marco declared. “I mean, if we’re your biggest market then we should have a say in what we want.”
The guide agreed, and happily gave his contact information to Marco and Finn, who gladly volunteered to test any robot he might have.
“How about you?” he asked me.
