Tech Island

Johanna Royal wasn't just your average college professor--she was also the author of her own bestseller, "Tune Into Life." It has reached stores across the continent, but it has yet to reach a nearby city, on a lone island. Adjacent, though it were, it was extremely silent. That was what Johanna Royal had been trying to understand. Johanna may look a little chubby on the outside, but she was quite the athlete before meeting her husband and having about 3 children.

She was an excellent researcher with a caveat: if she felt like her research on a given topic made her feel like she would cause a great harm, she would quit it and research something else. Since then, her black pants, her white jacket, and her zebra striped top have seen her complete all sorts of documents in varying fields of study. It had been a year since she had come home, and she did now, just to pack up her things. Her husband came in.

He was younger than her by only about 8 years. However, he had the mindset of someone her age. He proved to be good at math (his wife is superior to him in that aspect) and he is certainly dependable as he mostly utilizes his physical strength, not to mention his culinary skills to help his family survive.

"Hi, honey," he said, grazing her cheek with a kiss, "Where you off to?"

"Oh, I'm taking a vacation," she said, "And I won't be back for a while, so that means--"

"Yes," the husband said grudgingly, "I'll have the kids taken care of."

"Alright, then." Johanna said, kissing her husband with his arm held, "Be good."

With that, she left and headed into her car. Johanna drove out of the area and headed to a cruise with parking for cars (Johanna loves all forms of travel, but her husband hates flying. She soon came to be a seafarer, like him.)

"Ticket, please," a dry man's voice said.

"I got it, I got it." Johanna replied as she found a ticket in her purse.

The man looked at it, and flipped on his eyepiece to allow him to scan the card's ISBN code like at the stores.

"Hm." Johanna thought, "I thought we didn't advance that far in technology, but okay. It's just ONE strange laser coming out of his eyepiece."

Johanna got her ticket back and parked her car on the parking area. She knew this was a cruise ship leading to her destination, but she didn't see much yet. That's because she was on the back of the ship. When Johanna got into the other side, however, she was shocked to see only a pool and some other lounge chairs. Nobody was swimming, no group of kids were even chasing each other around. There was utter silence (and some laughter, though brief). People were doing one thing--looking at their small handheld devices, and fingering away.

Johanna went over to a local barman and she rang the little bell.

"Can...I...have...your...order?" The barman said, looking only at the handheld computer in his hand.

"Yes," Johanna stated, "I'd like a banana split with chocolate syrup and a pastrami sandwich to go with it."

The man was still fingering away. "Okay...I'll have it ready..."

The man's fingers never left the handheld device and yet, the food was being made. One machine was prompted to grab scoops of ice cream, while another fetched a bowl. Another machine splashed frosting on it and another splashed chocolate syrup on it and placed a cherry on top of it. Finally, another machine took a sandwich from out of the microwave.

"You're welcome." The machine said, forgetting to ask for change. The man was still texting, and Johanna opted to make the most of her opportunity. She took a bite out of the sandwich and quickly spat it out--it tasted like paper. Then she tasted the banana split, or at least attempted to try it, as it was still hard.

"Did you even attempt to fix this?" She asked. Of course the barman was still texting. Johanna needed some human interaction now.

Johanna slapped the bartable loud enough to turn heads and and get the barman's attention.

"Whoa," he said, "Did someone shoot a gun or something?"

"No," she replied, "I'm not satisfied with the food you gave me, so I want you to redo my order, and this time," she said, snatching his phone out of his helpless hands, "I want you to make it by YOURSELF."

It took a longer time than usual, because the barman never really learned how to use this oversimplified machine, but nonetheless, he redid the order and it had a better quality.

After finishing her meal, Johanna smiled at him. "MUCH better," she said, "Next time, I come for something, I don't want to see this in your hands again." Johanna returned the device to a dry looking barman, who resumed texting.

The people went back to texting. Johanna went into the sheltered part of the ship and realized something fast: nobody was paying attention to where they were going. Things got more interesting when she saw a woman glued to her smartphone, completely ignoring her wandering child of 4 years, who was playing on the stairs, and it looked like she lost her footing, trying to play with her smartphone. Johanna quickly sprinted and caught the little one before she could get hurt. Johanna then got the mother's attention and returned the child to her.

"Maybe you should take your eyes off the phone, for a bit." Johanna said, directing the mother to her child who was now bawling.

"Hey, sicko," she retorted, "You think this is funny? You take your snobby self, and go back to where you came from! Trying to harm my baby!"

"No, I'm not trying to do that!" Johanna replied.

But by then, two men grabbed Johanna and wheeled her to her designated cabin, and locked her in.

Johanna tried to reopen the door, but there was no knob. Instead, it was one of those sliding doors. Johanna saw a bright map on the wall, and it showed how close they were to the island.

"I don't get it. There's no activity on the ship, nobody's paying attention, and everyone is on their phones. What in the world is going on?" Johanna's rant stopped when she saw a glistening, black handheld smartphone in her bed. As soon as she pressed a button, it displayed a beginner's guide to using a phone. Displaying very little interest, much like the people she encountered, Johanna skimmed through it all, and it had everything--Internet, Word processor, games, movie viewer, movie maker, and even Excel to name a few.

But, she threw it back on the bed, and sat down. It proved overwhelmingly comfortable, and she complied with it as she picked up a nearby remote and turned on the television. On came a sitcom to distract her, while she pulled out her work from her suitcase and began to write up an entry of what happened so far.



The following night saw the end of the cruise. Even thought it was short, Johanna had never seen people let technology become so invasive to their lives. It just didn't seem healthy to her. Heck, it wasn't healthy for anyone to let their phones invade their every waking second in life.
The people went back out of their cabins and Johanna could hear beeping and booping;clicking and clacking; sometimes, a sharp click that can only be made when you close up your phone. Finally, though, one of the staff members input some code and the doors opened.

Johanna saw no one there and made her way to the exit of the ship, only to find a big grey castle-like structure standing before her. It looked like a living nightmare--the inhabitants looked like prisoners confined to their phones. There were no signs of nature here, just machinery. In fact, this island-city looked more like a military fortress from the distant future--just in a grey-ish hue.

Johanna saw a hovering golden car fly by and it stopped at her.

"Taxi?" She asked.

"Yes. Where are you headed?" The taxi replied.

"Take me to the local library." She commanded.

"Right away. Just climb on in."

The taxi had no one in it--there was a screen for a passenger at every seat, and there was also the window displaying the gloomy city. People were still standing there, texting, as information was being displayed at various screens.

After several minutes, Johanna made it to the library, but it clearly wasn't what she had hoped for. It was now just a hangout. There were books, but many of them were unused. Vending machines were available, but for some reason, food was the least of anyone's concern.

Johanna only found computers as far as the eye could see--and these were the same handhelds as before. It didn't take long for a local security robot to realize she didn't have one of these phones.

"RADICAL LOCATED," It said, in a monstrous voice, "COMMENCING APPREHENSION SEQUENCE."

Johanna turned around and made a quick move and avoided the drone. She didn't account for the second one and got captured as a result.

The drones dragged her to what used to be a public park and placed a smartphone in her hand. Next, they used some strange technique to connect the smartphone's adapter to her right wrist, essentially making it part of her body--much like the people she wanted to save.

"Ew!" She said, wincing at the connection between man and machine, "Get it off my arm!"

"I'm afraid it's for the best," a voice said.

Johanna turned her head and saw her former colleague, Mr. Tableau. He was tall, around her age, and had a smartphone hidden in his pocket. However, he appeared to be leaking of mercury, rather than blood, which was a complete mystery all on it's own.

"What's wrong with you?" Johanna asked, "Where's the doctor?"

Tableau just laughed, often closing his eyes, then he looked back at her, "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? The world, even? Humans are the problem."

"You say humans are the problem?" Johanna said, sounding a bit cocky, "Then I guess our problem was inventing technology in the first place."

"Professor, you're sounding like a freshman, if I may," Tableau said, posing with his hand behind his back, "Let's not forget that math and science made us who we are. Without that, we wouldn't even have all these achievements!"

"That's true," Johanna said, "But, imposing these people to this technology twenty four-seven? Look at them! They're tired, weak, and hungry!"

"But not you, my dear." Tableau signaled an order to install something in Johanna. She soon felt a shock in her back, and suffered the utmost pain to date. Just how he wanted to end her night.
"You have a lot of potential to be one of my finest tools. But first, you must learn to appreciate what is given."


In the next morning, Johanna first saw a static screen become normal vision and then she saw white circles locking on to things telling her quickly what they were.

"What happened?" She said, noting that her voice echoed somewhat, like some sort of kiosk. She then let out a gasp, "Oh, no. I don't think--"

Johanna raced out of the bed she was in and found herself in the city. She looked at her arm to find a more metallic looking one, with pulsing blue patterns. Johanna soon looked in the mirror and found nothing too unusual--that was, until she looked at her face. There were bright blue eyes, with two pieces shielding her ears. Johanna then thought of the barman at the ship. Johanna then picked up one of her nearby belongings and looked at the ISBN. A red light left from her eyes and she processed an insurmountable amount of info in a short amount of time. It almost seemed if she could do all the math in her head now--strangely she was able to control herself in a way. It seemed as if the drones worked too fast.

Johanna began her stride to the door, and she soon saw a warning sign in her own vision. It read, "RECHARGE as soon as possible."

Johanna felt serious fatigue, but her body was just fine. She then looked at her right arm, and suddenly, her smartphone was already out. Johanna quickly turned it on, but it was no use. Johanna found an adapter used for laptops, and attached one to her right arm, where her smartphone was and she began to feel much better.


It took only about an hour before Johanna was fully recharged. Then she headed out to the city, with her new form.

As soon as Johanna passed by someone, she realized he looked more like a robot, and nothing at all like the bone-like man she saw yesterday. Maybe the drones were busy upgrading people.
Within her sight, she soon got a white screen displaying a forum. The first words on it were, "Good Morning," and they didn't come from her, but from the robot she just passed.

Johanna was confused, and this led her to walk into a huge plaza, where everything was being computed. All of life's tangible items seemed to have vanished instantly. Johanna blinked once, and that forum was gone.

"So, now that I'm a walking computer," she thought aloud, "What am I going to tell my husband?"

In an instant, small audio recording devices picked up her sound and immediately displayed it on billboards, and in the brains of the robots. There was no reply, or any attempt to try and help. Only Tableau's reply came.

"Get to the warehouse."

Johanna ran her hand through her hair, and walked over to the warehouse.

"How do I get to the warehouse?" she asked herself. Soon enough, her vision showed a map of the city's coordinates, and it showed her an arrow to lead her. Johanna though about the distance seen on the map, and quickly calculated a huge amount of traveling time.

"This'll take forever," she said, "But since I'm a robot, I think I can do something."

She was right--as soon as she tapped her arm, a smartphone, with all of her available actions displayed on its screen, appeared. She then tapped the item which summoned ignition from her back and she found herself flying like jet to the destination. She was surprisingly able to control her flight despite the speed--and it was only her first try.


The warehouse automatically opened up its doors for her, and the lights went on.

Tableau smiled, and held out his pale, human arms.

"Welcome," he said, "To the new working world."

Johanna said nothing, expecting him to finish.

"I see those enhancements made you better, professor. You have a new job to do, and that is to process all of these files."

"And what am I going to do with them when that's finished?" Johanna asked.

"Simple, upgrade the though processors on everyone,"

Johanna used her smartphone to make a quick scan of everyone in town, and it looked like a whopping number of people.

"How am I to do that with everyone?" She then asked having no idea of how to modify computers.

"I'm sure you know. Just ask for a little help--you humans always do." He left with maniacal laughter following him.

As soon as his doors closed, Johanna left the warehouse.

"I could process all that, or I could see what's really going on." She said as she hid at a nearby area. From here, she saw Tableau on some sort of floating hover car, travelling at the most desired speed possible--almost one thousand miles an hour. Johanna waited for the coast to clear up, and then she made her move.

She activated that jet-propulsion system and blasted off to the building next to the warehouse. That was where Tableau got his hover car from. In it, it looked as if several robots were sitting in arranged seats, like the legislators. In front of them was a weighty machine with green lights everywhere. Each robot seemed to be living channels of information, feeding the server. Johanna began to observe everything. Then she heard someone calling for help.

Johanna found that person on a computer screen. He looked human, but to a point. His hair was large and spiky, while his wardrobe consisted of something from a medieval era. Perhaps this big machine was a server, and the person was inside on of those huge online sites, where people can connect with others online.

Johanna noticed a webcam and then began to speak.

"What's the problem?"

"We're stuck in here, trying to reprogram this server, but it's not working! Two of my buddies already died!"

That was unsettling, but Johanna could see that two people died, because two robots (formerly humans) perished, or in other words, went offline.

Johanna began to inspect the robots carefully, noticing that each of the two did show signs that they were former humans before they were converted like she was. It was clear as she managed to open up their bodies and discover their stomachs. Her vision also detected signs of penetration of the human bodies. This was a little serious.

Suddenly, the lights flickered on.

Tableau had a dry looking scowl on his face. "So, where were those upgrades? The processed files? I needed them seconds ago!"

Johanna turned right around, "You probably may not realize this, but you know eventually, your machines are going to turn against you. Just look at what happened to two of your workers."

"They can be easily replaced." Tableau said, signaling for two other robots to take their places.

Nobody came.

"What?" Tableau snapped his fingers, and still no one could adhere to his demands.

They both knew what was going on at this point. Since the people had been confined to their technology, they haven't really been living. They were only alive through the digital world, and if they died in the real world, their digital selves would be seen on a screen just standing there.

In a few short moments, Johanna was starting to lose some energy. That icon showed up on her sights again.

"Dang!" She said, "I have to recharge!"

"Actually, why don't we fix you up, so that you DON'T have to recharge?"

Tableau decided to hot wire Johanna to the server, where she'd end up trapped in cyber-space.
However, he was countered as Johanna used whatever energy she had left to submit an emergency phone call to her husband, and simultaneously threw Tableau over to the server.
The result ended up being a mess, but Johanna couldn't document it, as she herself went offline.


Within the next thirty hours, Johanna's husband and some other buddies came with a high-class motor boat and they scoured the city with their eyes, ears, and their handheld computers. They saw all that Johanna saw eventually and soon enough, they found an odd building.

It didn't take long before she was found. Thankfully, she was still recognizable to her husband. The only question was how to bring her back to life. The answer lied with two things: a battery lying on the floor and a slot in her back to place the battery.

"Johanna," he said, as he began to install the battery in her, "What happened to you?"

She turned right back on, and saw her husband and his friends through her eyes. Following a smile from her, there was a brief, but emotional celebration. While the party left the island, Johanna saw the prison-like city shrink, as they headed back to their home.