Teardrop

By Tetsuya Haga

 

A future where humanity and android coexist. Androids are destined to be distinguished from humans by the barcodes engraved on their bodies and the eyelids that never close, and to be disposed of when their activity expires. Also, in order to deter the rapidly increasing number of android-related crimes, police officers were granted the "right to shoot" to allow them to punish androids on the spot as needed.

Police officer No. 36, who belongs to the "Machine Crime Division" in District T, is unsure if he is doing the right thing. He feels guilty every time he disposes of an android. Meanwhile, in a battle with an android advocacy group, he finds a "human" in the android of a girl who is cornered and trying to self-destruct. At the moment of shooting the gun, No. 36 witnesses the girl moving her eyelids, which should not move. He suffers a mental breakdown.

It was the song of Karen, the singer of the music bar , what saved No. 36. He was ordered to take leave from work. A mysterious series of android destruction occurs before No. 36. He was able to return to work inspired by the power of her song. No. 36, who realized that the target was the singer androids, contacts a group called "Maria's Day". Meanwhile, Karen, who was selected as a "candidate" for "Maria's Day," is attacked by androids who have no barcode on their bodies.

No. 36 is proceeding with an independent investigation, but...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Royal Hawaiian Press
• Release date: Oct 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201921552

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by Tetsuya Haga

All material contained herein is Copyright

Copyright © Tetsuya Haga, 2021

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Originally published in Japan as Teardrop by pubful in 2018

Translated and published in English with permission.

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Paperback ISBN: 978-1-7377737-8-8

ePub ISBN: 979-8-2019215-5-2

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Written by Tetsuya Haga

Published by Royal Hawaiian Press

Cover art by Tyrone Roshantha

Translated by Tetsuya Haga

Publishing Assistance by Dorota Reszke

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For more works by this author, please visit:

www.royalhawaiianpress.com

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system without prior written permission of the Author. Your support of Author’s rights is appreciated.

The following is a work of fiction.  Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental, or used in the form of parody.

ONE

In the sea of electronic sounds, the only living thing was her voice.

The music bar named, Transformer was full of people due to a singing female android, which became famous lately. We were lucky to be able to book a table that night. I was enjoying my first day off in a long time.

She sings very well.

When I said this, my co-workers laughed at me. We belong to the Machine Crime Division (MCD) and treat crimes related to androids.

We are policemen and always keep serious faces, but today alcohol made us relaxed.

Of course, she can sing well because she is made for singing.

If singing androids can’t sing high notes, they should be scrapped.

I tried to explain to them that her singing is not only good but something special.

But I think that her singing is different from other androids’. Her sound is more human-like.

Hey, No.36. You can’t use the word ‘human-like’ for an android. We are off duty now, but it’s a very unsuitable remark. I admit that that android can sing well, but you know, it is just a machine. She is the same as any good audio player. Be careful of what you say.

No.94 who was the oldest person on the table gave me a warning. No.36 is my number. We use code numbers as identification to conceal our real names from criminals. Some time ago, criminals would research addresses and phone numbers of certain policemen and retaliate by killing family members. That’s the reason why we must use code numbers just like jail birds. Our area of jurisdiction is T, so my name is officially T-No.36.

People invented androids and sent them to the human society but it is not for symbiosis. Androids are approved only for the purpose of making human lives much more comfortable. In this age, their thinking ability improved and became nearly equal to humans due to the development of AI technologies. Now, humans may be threatened by the existence of androids as another species on earth. This uneasy feeling drew a line between humans and androids in society.

Androids often work with humans, but their status are much lower. By new labors law, people need to work for 7 hours a day, but androids’ working time is 15 hours. Moreover, there are many other rules to bind them. The two biggest features that differentiate them from humans are the androids’ eyes which can never close and bar codes carved somewhere on their bodies.

Machine Criminal Division deals with problems of androids, which arose since its initial development. We always need to be careful of not going over the boundary between humans and androids. Problems always happen on that border line. So, it was natural that No.94 glowered.

Though I didn’t care, I was fascinated by the singing of the female android. She was thin and had long arms and legs. The white body suits which are typical for female androids emphasized her type of physique. She had brown bobbed hair which was softly waved and blue eyes. Her nose was a little flat but cute and her mouth was small. She seemed young and her face retained girlishness.

She sang songs alone on the stage. Sometimes, androids accompany human beings on musical instruments. However, it never happens that humans play instruments for android singers. So she was singing alone with electronic sounds.

That android singer looks good, but there are a lot like her around. They were made for being liked by men, attracting only pathetic men who have never had human girlfriends.

Someone said something like this, but I didn’t respond to it. I just wanted to listen to the transparent singing voice, which gave me a feeling of floating.

After she finished singing some songs, she bowed to the audience and left the stage very quietly. Everyone applauded, but it was not for herself per se but for her artificial vocal cords. Humans can evaluate androids only by their performances.

The next singer came out. It was a blonde female android and she was almost naked. I didn’t like her singing but there were some in the audience who did. I saw people dancing to the noisy and goofy dance music with disappointment. Fortunately, my co-workers didn’t take part in dancing because we must always remember our position as police. If trouble happens here, we have to solve them. We understood the circumstances even when we were drunk.

My co-workers ate, drank, and talked a lot, listening to the dance music. They always talked about work, even on a holiday. It was sad that we don’t have any other common topics to talk about.

I didn’t speak a lot but smoked cigarettes. Smoking has become unpopular, especially among health-conscious young people.

You still using such bad stuff. Stop smoking or you will die young.

No.128 said to me. He noticed that I didn’t join their conversation and was considerate to me. But, for a while I just wanted to forget my busy life which has some savageness in it. You see, I shot androids a few days ago.

It is permitted for policemen to destroy androids when we arrest them. If androids act violently against arrest, we can shoot them. This is called Right of Shooting. This rule is enforced to decrease crimes by androids and to decrease the cost for disposal of them. When androids break the laws and when they harm humans, they must be executed. They don’t have any rights to keep silence or to request a lawyer. The only fate for them is to be destroyed and burned in the incinerator. On the other hand, human rights are getting much more powerful and important.

You may think that it is very easy to destroy androids, but it is not for me. I always had unpleasant feelings when I killed them. There were some androids, which begged for their lives. Though my co-workers say this behavior is just a kind of function for self-defense, I can’t agree with them. It sounded so real. The two androids, which I shot, previously begged for life, too. They were a couple and sold illegal drugs for a crime gang. The couple was shivering with fear and both of them asked me to save the life of its partner. I lied to them saying that if they leaked information about their group, I could save their lives. After they told me about a group, I shot the female android first. I can’t forget the anger and sadness, and hate on the male android’s face. Right of Shooting had already been enforced, so it was all I could do for him, to kill him by one shot, without pain.

I felt a bit lousy remembering that incident or maybe I had too much to drink. I put out my cigarette and left the table saying I’ll go to the toilet.

It made me sick walking to the toilet, pushing aside people in the crowded bar. A lot of dancing people looked like machines to me, which gave me a strange feeling. I wanted to puke. I bumped into somebody’s shoulder in the crowd. There was this guy who wanted to say something to me, but I ignored him and went straight to the toilet. I didn’t want to deal with a drunk on my day off. But I found myself not being able to walk straight, and realized that I was drunk. Actually, I had imbibed too much.

After I vomited in the toilet, I felt much better. I washed my hands and face. When I looked at my face in the mirror, I thought that I was getting really old. If my co-workers had heard me, they would have laughed at me again, because I was the youngest. However, my face changed into strictness instead, because I know how to control things by using given powers and rights. I think that I am strange to feel like this. But I am not the only one who is strange. Everyone becomes strange, the powerful and the weak. Now I can’t tell humans from androids without making sure if they have eyelids or not.

I washed my face again to wash away such a foolish idea. I told myself that I was just a little tired and needed to relax without thinking. As I went back to our table, I didn’t want to crawl through people again, so decided to go toward the bar counter. There were not many people there as they were engrossed in dancing.

Passing through to the bar counter, I ordered a glass of beer. I recognized the waitress was the female android which was singing songs on the stage when I had given her some tip. I was sure that she was the singer. She must be forced to work as a waitress when not singing.

I sat down at the counter casually, and tasted the beer, which was in a very cold glass. I decided to initiate a conversation with her, so I finished drinking the glass of beer in a hurry.

Another beer, please.

She nodded, and gave me the beer quickly. She looked more awkward then when she was on the stage. I spoke to her as she was leaving.

Did you sing on the stage a minute ago? Yes, I did. What is the problem?

I had never talked to androids before like this, so I didn’t know how to keep communication with her. I was wondering what to say and put a cigarette to my lips.

Would you like a cigarette?

No, I would not. We can’t do anything besides our given tasks during working hours by rule. Is there anything else, sir?

No. I just wanted to say that your singing was great. ...Are you an android, too?

She said to me after a while. I said No and asked why she felt so.

I have never seen humans directly praising androids. So, I thought you might be an android.

I don’t care if you are a machine or not. A good thing is just good. Your singing was just fantastic. I will come again to listen to you.

I did not intend to bother her working. When I left the counter, I asked her name. She said that she was given Karen as her name. I introduced my name as No.36. Maybe she thought it was a joke. Her eyes, without eyelids, were staring at me in puzzlement.

TWO

The next morning, I had a terrible headache, and took some aspirin tablets. There was still time before going to work. I needed to wait out this terrible headache till it got better by lying in bed.

My room is located on the fiftieth floor of a seventy-storied building. When the curtain is drawn open, I can overlook this town very clearly from my bedroom. I like to look down on this town in the morning. Today is raining and dark outside. It doesn’t bother me for I like rainy days.

No sooner, my headache was gone. I took a shower and made coffee. The black coffee woke me up. I smoked a cigarette whose packet had a lot of warning messages. Lately, I always have ambivalent feelings before going to work. I needed to lock my true emotions inside myself, not to let it out after I wore my badge and gun. The beautiful view from this window becomes really nasty and the city a dangerous garbage dump when I go out there as police. Before eight o’clock, a monitor screen at the entrance of my apartment turns green. It means that an armored car will come to pick me up. I understood a battle had started somewhere. I prepared for my work with a feeling of tension.

I went down to the basement of the building where the armored car was parked. As I got into the car, there were eight policemen already there. No.128 whom I hung out last night was there, too. We often made a pair and he was a reliable partner.

Good morning, buddy. You drunk a lot last night. How is it going this morning?

All’s fine. How about you?

It’s a bad morning as usual. We are going to be sent to the battle place by this stupid car. In addition, we must eat a terrible breakfast in this car. I seriously want to have a wife who can cook breakfast for me.

No.128 was eating a roast pork flavor energy bar. This is standard breakfast for single persons. We don’t know how to cook because we never had time to learn. He offered me one of the bars, but I turned it down. My headache was getting better but my stomach was still upset.

It was unrealistic to invent flying cars due to a lot of safety problems. Our armored car was running on the sky highway. Inventing the sky highway contributed to decrease traffic jams and accidents. Every car needed to equip a gravity system to run on the sky highway, spreading like a spider web in the sky. The magnet, which is in the roads and the gravity of the cars make repulsion. As a result, cars can float a little above the ground. I had watched a movie, which predicted that in the future people would ride on cars, which could fly in the sky freely. Like the movie, our heavy armored car runs on the sky highway without making noise.

There was a newcomer in the car. He was here to replace police who had died. This young man looked so nervous. I remembered what I was in my rookie days. I used to fear death. There is no way to know when death will come. We just feel that it will definitely come. Today may not be the day, but maybe tomorrow. I always thought like this. The new face sitting on the opposite side must be afraid of death, the same as every newcomer. I wanted to tell him such a feeling would subside, but I didn’t. These days, I sometimes thought that I was getting mad by losing fear.

Our car got off the sky highway and landed on the ground. When the car stopped the gravity system, I felt the uncomfortable gravity under my bottom. As the car started to run on the normal road, simultaneously, we got information about the scene of battle where we were heading toward.

"We are fighting an anti-government organization now. The organization started to shoot citizens and police in the city, and they have barricaded themselves in a meat-processing factory.

Listen, we are allowed to take control by force of arms. I repeat. We are allowed to take control by force of arms. We are ordered to destroy androids there. Try not to kill humans and arrest them. But it is allowed to attack them if they are against us.

Right of Shooting came into force. We are going to fight with one of the radical organizations, which defend android rights. We just had a battle with the radicals lately. They are increasing one after another. Radicals are regarded as heretics asking for the same rights for androids as human rights. They are extraordinary people who don’t see androids as just tools. It often happens that such kinds of radical organizations and gang groups or terrorists combine together. This is the reason why armed conflict between police and anti-government organizations happens. Demonstrations used to be regarded as a way to kill time for people of leisure long time ago. But it is not true now. Demonstrators force on their opinions by injuring people. We are afraid that such kinds of underground organizations will increase and become more dangerous. So we must beat them up in battle every time.

We look like soldiers in war, who wear bulletproof vests and carry shotguns. I put my shotgun aside and started to check my handgun. This is my best partner, which has saved my life so many times before. I prefer this weapon to a laser gun, which is used in some science fiction novels. I loaded my gun with armor-piercing bullets.

Nobody chatted until we arrived at the battlefield. I took a glance at the new face. His face turned pale and his teeth chattered. This is the first test for newcomers to overcome fear, which they have never experienced at an academy.

After a while, we got off the armored car at the warehouse district in the suburb.

The situation remained deadlocked when we arrived.

Policemen who came first were holding shotguns behind their armored cars.

Take a deep breath, boy. Don’t be too nervous or you are going to shoot yourself.

I said to the new face next to me. He was scared but tried to do his best in this battlefield. We shot shotguns toward the meat-processing factory where the anti-government organization was held up. At the same time, they started to shoot back. We used the armored cars as our shields.

They sometimes shouted very noisily with a loudspeaker. "We just ask for a change of the law! Give androids rights!

They are not just machines! They have emotions like human beings! They should not be treated as disposables!

They are really afraid of being thrown away like home electrical appliances! Again! Give androids rights   as human! We will never stop unless this request is accepted."

We waited for an order to rush the enemy’s position, listening to their agitations.

There was no other way except rushing. I didn’t feel fear. I just wanted to deal with this halfway situation. I thought that I might have a lust for killing myself.

After we had waited for a long time, we finally got the order. We wore goggles and shot some flash grenades toward the factory. Flashes from the light would prevent the enemies from seeing us. I always thought that I could see death so visibly through these goggles.

When I entered the factory, I smelled artificial meat. It was stink and hot. Air conditioners were broken down in this factory. Workers lay on the floor. I saw their blood on the working clothes. I couldn’t afford to confirm if there were survivors or not. I made a pair with the new face. We made ourselves go as low as possible and went forward. The sweat was dripping from my face. The flash grenade was so intense that the effect would keep for a while. If we didn’t use goggles, we couldn’t see anything. Even so, enemies shot at us from somewhere. They expected our means to attack.

A bullet hit a lump of flesh near us. We returned the enemy’s fire desperately. All of a sudden, some of the enemies were rushing toward us, shooting guns. It was a sign to start an all-out war. A lot of them hid on the second floor, but they came out and ran down the spiral staircase. We exchanged shots.

I tried to shoot the enemies’ heads to break their brain chips. Androids stop functioning when their brain chips break down. I was good at shooting and succeeded in shooting almost all their heads. When I was 15 years old, I won the first prize at a shooting contest. This was the occasion and reason of my being police. After I entered the academy, I trained by shooting harder and harder to have more confidence in my