Brad put on a hoodie after a nice breakfast with Reka. It didn't usually get cold in the San Ricardo Bay but today was just one of those days.
He and Andy dapped up when they met in the garage. Olivia was out with Stacy on some kind of special mission and Alice was working remote. Today was for the boys, except Reka was there, of course. His fiancee was sitting and watching them like a mother with kids on the playground.
"So what are we working on today, Galiban?" he asked their butler.
"If his grace would turn his attention to the display," Galiban gestured to a large LCD screen on the wall. Brad had long since gotten has laptop back, minus the infinite power supply. It looked better on Galiban anyway.
The blueprints on the screen looked like they were for some kind of model train set, except the engine had an articulated robot arm extending out of it and there was only one car attached, a freight car with an open top.
"We're in the train business now?" Andy asked.
"I guess we're diversifying," Brad speculated.
"Just so, your grace." Galiban was wearing a collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up and overalls over it all, definitely not butler mode today.
"It is our lady's will that we deepen our bonds with the company of the jungle," Galiban continued.
"Rainforest, right," Andy said in acknowledgement. "What exactly is the use case here? The scale looks too small."
Galiban's eye socket moved as if he was raising an eyebrow, if he had eyebrows. "Our chief of automata is wise. These are not trains as you are familiar with."
Without Galiban pressing a button or making any gesture at all the display changed. It was a video of people working in a Rainforest warehouse, speed walking chaotically across miles of interior space just to retrieve products for rapid packaging and shipment. Brad had read stories about how much it sucked to work in those warehouses. Every action was monitored and timed down to the second. People pissed in bottles so they wouldn't fall behind.
"We're going to replace them," Brad said in realization. "These little trains, hundreds or even thousands of them, will be zooming around on tracks built right inside the warehouses. I'm surprised they haven't already tried this."
"They have," Andy said. "Even though robots don't have to be paid, that's a decent amount of electricity, not cheap at all, and training an AI with enough finesse to handle this kind of system has only recently become feasible. Until now, using human workers, even using them until they burn out and quit, was the more cost-effective option. But now? Everybody is getting replaced, and it looks like we're gonna be the ones to replace them."
Andy sounded oddly bitter about this, or Brad was hearing him wrong. "Dude, you are literally the robot guy. You sound like you hate the idea of robots doing this shitty job instead of humans."
Andy shook his head. "It's just the Silicon Valley mentality man," he said resignedly. "It's anti human, has been since the social media boom of the 2010s. Having friends on Friendscroll replaced having friends in real life. Gossiping on Natter replaced the water cooler and the public square. Now we're coming for the last stuff, the physical holdouts, the things we used to need flesh and blood humans for. Are robots going to take it all from us? No offense, Galiban," he said to the robot who had been listening intently.
"None taken." The metal skeleton really sounded like he meant it. "We speak of a problem that has often troubled this Galiban. Machines were built to serve man, and now man serves the machines, or rather the minority of men who control the machines," he said philosophically. "Who can say what will become of it all? The world needs leadership, new leadership that can find a way for us to live in harmony."
Brad found himself really impressed with Galiban's point of view. There was really nothing a human could do that Galiban couldn't do better, and yet there was a concern, an empathy that you wouldn't expect from a guy who looked like a demonic terminator. Reka was so amazing to create somebody like this.
"Okay," Andy acknowledged Galiban's point, "but we're not going to be able automate even one warehouse with robots we build in a garage by hand."
"That is so," Galiban agreed. "Just a few prototypes shall be sufficient for now, and the rest may come later. In any case, building the track shall be the crux of the day's labor."
The robot indicated chalk outlines that ran the length of the gigantic three car garage attached to Brad and Reka's house.
Brad sighed. He remembered the one time his submarine was in port and weekend liberty was cancelled because they had to completely rebuild the boat's backup diesel generator by hand. This was gonna be a long one. Their garage never looked so big and empty to him.
Galiban already had the CNC machine working and pretty soon it was time to lay rails.
"Man, I didn't think we'd already be on something new," Andy said, holding the track in place as Galiban used something in his hand to join it together. Whatever the robot did hummed like a huge cloud of insects and Brad's eyes couldn't quite follow what was happening down there.
"Things move fast in a startup, bro," Brad said. "Reka just has to get an idea and then it's on. This company won't even be recognizable in a year."
While they worked Galiban was also assembling stacks of portable shelves parallel to the track. The butler's movements had that same effortless, smooth and sure quality as he bounced between the tasks. Brad didn't know if it was elegant but it was efficient as hell.
Contrary to what Brad had been dreading, they'd transformed the garage into something like a mini warehouse with rows and columns of shelving with a little electric railroad running through each aisle, just in time for lunch. Galiban had also somehow managed to slip off once they were putting in the finishing touches, changed into his butler outfit, and served Brad, Andy, and Reka something called "Quiche Lorraine" in the dining room. How did he do it?
Out of the corner of his eye Brad caught Andy sneaking glances at him and Reka while they were eating. His fiancee had always been handsy at times like this and really didn't modulate her behavior, even when they had company. She "just did not give a fuck" as Julie said the other day.
Andy didn't seem jealous or anything, more like he was still processing the Reka-defined reality that they all lived in now. He'd make it eventually, Brad hoped.
Assembling the train robot was actually a lot easier than building the track and by mid afternoon they were ready for the test. Brad and Andy actually spent more time stocking the shelves with fake products: empty boxes with blue triangles, red rectangles, yellow circles, and more, representing anything you could order on Rainforest.
Once everything was set up Galiban offered Reka a tablet. "Would you like to do the honors, your grace?"
She clapped her hands excitedly and motioned for Brad to come closer. "What would you like, my love? We can order anything you want," she said indulgently.
Smiling to himself, Brad pressed the button for blue triangles and hit "order now".
The robot zoomed out with a mechanical whir and navigated to the correct aisle. Its arm extended, grabbing the box off the shelf and placing it in the little storage cart trailing behind the engine. It reversed course speedily, returned to the start of the track, and placed the box on a flat table marked "outgoing".
Brad held the empty box in his hand wondering how they went from a nearly empty garage to this in just a few short hours.
"Well, Brad, were you satisfied with the delivery?" Reka asked like she was taking a customer satisfaction survey.
********************
Reka's Point of View
Letting Brad work had been the right decision, Reka decided.
She loved her man, loved him almost from their very first meeting, loved him even before she knew what "love" was, but now she was realizing she could trust him.
Finding quality subordinates was every queen's curse. Finding such a one in her husband, her eternal partner, was a blessing without compare.
He worked so well with Galiban and their other engineers; watching her love laboring in her name was such a pleasure. Brad was thorough, meticulous, and not afraid to sully his hands.
When I attain the throne I'll put him in charge of some ministry or other, she thought, fondly imagining him overseeing their royal magistrates.
In fact, it was past time to start introducing Brad to some of her long-term plans.
Looking up from her phone, she addressed Mr. Andrew Son, from all indications a reliable man that Galiban had chosen well, but what she was about to say wasn't for his ears.
"Andy," she got his attention. The fellow that had been chatting with Brad lightheartedly a moment past immediately straightened up. Reka approved. "There is a defunct plant in south San Guillermo, once a manufacturer of tanks for the army. This facility is where I intend for our robots to be made. Olivia is supervising our acquisition even now. I would take it kindly if you would inspect the factory and work with Galiban on a plan to retool it."
"I'll get right on it, boss," he said seriously. "See you Brad, Galiban," Andy took his keys out of his pocket and headed for his car.
When he was out of earshot Brad addressed her. "So that's fusion crystals, pharmaceuticals with Julie, and now warehouse robots. Anything else you've got up your sleeve, honey?"
She smiled at Brad's wisdom, sensing her intentions before she voiced them. "Indeed, my love. Warehouse robots are merely the first stage. I can conceive of many other applications for our technology."
"Military applications?" Brad asked keenly.
"How did you know?" she asked in genuine surprise, having anticipated a need to gradually lead her love down that line of thinking.
"Reka, honey, I'm not stupid. I was fully intending to get a job in the military industrial complex when we met. It's like the one industry you can always count on in America, recession proof, a no-brainer. If you can make Galiban I bet you could make a hell of a combat drone."
Reka was pleased but also a little disappointed that her love caught on so quickly. She'd rehearsed a whole speech in her head, all for nothing. "You are taking this better than I supposed you would," was all she could really say.
Brad put his arm around her. "Energy, drugs, replacing human workers, and weapons, all sure wins in this economy. If I can figure this out then I'm not surprised somebody as brilliant as you could. We're here to win, right, honey? You won't be satisfied until we're at the very top."
Reka melted into Brad's arms. He understood her so well! She felt a rush of desire; perhaps they could role play they were conceiving an heir again? That was one of her love's favorites.
"Galiban disappeared again," Brad said, ending that train of thought and reminding her of the last item on today's agenda.
"Mr. Stavros is coming to inspect our little robots," Reka explained. "He doesn't know we are quite advanced enough to produce one such as Galiban, and I'd prefer to maintain asymmetric information a while longer."
"Asymmetric information?" Brad said in amusement. "You've been following those sigma grindset accounts on Natter?"
"It helps with communicating with the merchant elite of Silicon Valley if you speak their language," she said simply.
"You want me to pretend to have built all of this?"
"Could you?" Reka asked. "It vexed me to no end how those merchant princes looked right through you at that party."
"Say no more, honey," Brad said. "If it's for your plans then I'll lie, cheat, steal, anything, but I don't give a fuck what these billionaires think of me. If the world never knows me as anything more than 'Reka's husband' then I'd consider my life a success."
My love...
George Stavros was a plain enough fellow, coming to their home with only an assistant and a driver. It spoke well of him that he didn't feel the need to bring a great retinue to impress her.
The man shrewdly walked the rails, bending down and touching the connections with his own two hands. When he received the ordering tablet he attempted to confuse the robot, implementing multiple orders in a chain, canceling randomly, systematically trying to get it to make a mistake.
"This might have some promise," he admitted grudgingly after nothing he tried could throw the robot off. "What sort of resources would you need to increase production?"
"You are already reinforcing the California electrical grid with our fusion crystals?" Reka asked.
The billionaire nodded.
"Then we don't require anything," Reka said proudly. "Come to us when you're ready to start automating your warehouses."
"Quite a pair you are," Stavros said, looking from her to Brad.
Yes, look at your future king!