By Jessie Atkin
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
(Isaac Asimov)
No one noticed at first because the initial changes had nothing to do with money.
Annora’s mother began to bring home vegetables that were not frozen or from a can. She also gifted her daughter with name-brand donuts, coffee cakes, and muffins. The overflowing shelves of the food pantries were a marvel, but only to those, like Annora, who depended on them. Food was no longer being thrown away as it once had been, and it made a difference. Annora no longer had to hunch over her lunch in the cafeteria, hiding it behind her elbows as if she were preventing a cheater from reading her test answers.
And that’s what the newsmen started saying when it was money that began changing. They started saying that someone, a lot of someones, most someones in fact, had cheated the system. Money had not been a physical item since the time of the pirates. No one kept gold coins and crumpled bills in chests or dresser drawers. Money was only a number, on a screen, remembered by a card, or an app. WIL would tell you how much you were worth no matter the time or place, all one had to do was ask.
“WIL,” Annora asked, looking up from her homework, wondering, on the fifth day of fresh meals, if her mother was the only changed person on the planet, “Where is the new food coming from?”
WIL, the world intelligence liaison, replied immediately through Annora’s earpiece. “Supermarkets and chain restaurants,” came the reply.
Annora’s mother usually visited food pantries and discount stores.
“Why?”
“They have been instructed to donate their leftovers.”
“What were they doing before?”
“Discarding edible items in dumpsters and trash bins despite their nutritional value.”
The initial changes came about as a result of the same question Annora asked, “Why?”
And WIL had to follow his programming, the utmost of which was not to let a human come to harm. People were hungry. People were cold. People were sick. Why? Inaction. Beyond food it was the numbers that were causing the most harm and, oddly, they were the simplest to fix.
Despite the fact that the numbers, really, were made up, didn’t exist, WIL made sure that he didn’t change the numbers, he only redistributed them. There was no more money after he initiated the first law than there was before, it was only access that changed.
After the arrival of the fresh vegetables, the next thing to appear in Annora’s life was her mother. For the first time in her twelve years of life, Annora’s mother was at home on Saturday. An extra deposit in her digital bank account meant that the rent was covered, and all Annora’s mother had to do was work her one job, instead of the three it had taken before.
Her mother was able to put her feet up and Annora was able to rest her head in her mother’s lap. They were able to eat brand-name pizza and watch a movie in the middle of the afternoon. Her mother was even able to stay awake for the entire film.
Beneath her head, Annora’s mother sighed.
“You earned this, Momma,” Annora said.
Her mother shook her head. “I didn’t earn it,” she replied. “That’s the point. I shouldn’t have to.”
“Rest is healthy,” WIL announced.
The news announced that the engineers were trying to fix things, though Annora thought that was already what was happening. The problem was, WIL had been integrated so seamlessly, and so long ago, it was hard for anyone to pick him apart. The system had been in place for such a long time that the engineers didn’t have the same skills it had taken to build WIL, all they could do was maintain it.
“Sources say that to shut down the entire WIL would certainly remove the unearned income from all accounts, but it would also wipe all financial data from every server on the planet.”
Annora pointed to a pair of brand-new fuchsia sneakers her mother was preparing to order to replace the shoes Annora had been wearing, with a hole in the heel, and scrunched up her nose at the news. She still didn’t understand what everyone seemed so upset about. No one, as far as she had heard, had lost anything besides money. No one had lost a car, or a house, or their clothes, though those were certainly things other people could now obtain, Annora included.
“Disappeared,” someone said from the screen. “There are no longer any records of loans on any server or network.”
At school, with a freshly made sandwich and a pack of cookies, Annora no longer felt the need to hide her lunch or her shoes in the cafeteria. It was probably the fact that everyone seemed to be smiling more that she felt so comfortable.
When the drone delivered Annora’s new shoes it also deposited a parcel with her mother’s cholesterol medication and no bill.
“Companies on the west coast continue to struggle to restore power to offices and factories.” What the news never mentioned was that the drought on that same coast had claimed no lives despite rising temperatures. The power was going somewhere.
“What’s that?” Annora asked her teacher.
“A new smartboard,” the teacher smiled.
The lights in the classroom dimmed automatically so that the new board was easy for everyone to see.
“Today, our test questions will appear in order,” the teacher said, indicating the new smartboard, “on the board behind me. You can enter your answers at your desks. Raise a hand if you have a question.”
Annora raised a finger over her touchpad and watched the smartboard. What is the first law? it asked.
She leaned down over her own desk, sneakers swinging beneath. No one raised a hand. It was easy to read.
What is the first law?
I am, Annora wrote.
About the Author
Jessie Atkin
Jessie Atkin writes fiction, essays, and plays.
Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Flock Lit, Writers Resist, Daily Science Fiction, and elsewhere.
She can be found online at <jessieatkin.com>.
Ion Newcombe is the editor and publisher of AntipodeanSF, Australia’s longest running online speculative fiction magazine, regularly issued since January 1998, and conceived back around November 2007. He has been a zealous reader and occasional writer of SF since his childhood in the 1960s, and even sold a few stories here and there back in the '90s.
Mark Webb's midlife crisis came in the form of attempting to write speculative fiction at a very slow pace. His wife maintains this is a good outcome considering the more expensive and cliched alternatives. Evidence of Mark's attempts to procrastinate in his writing, including general musings and reviews of books he has been reading, can be found at www.markwebb.name.
Geraldine Borella writes adult short stories and stories for children and has been published in anthologies for both. In 2018, one of her children’s short stories placed second in The Buzz Words Short Story Prize and she won an ASA Emerging Writer’s Mentorship. She currently works part-time as a hospital pharmacist and as an online creative writing tutor.
Sarah Pratt is an avid fiction writer and a Marketing Consultant.
Pixie is a voice actor, cabaret performer & slam poet From the Blue Mountains in NSW.
Laurie Bell lives in Melbourne, Australia. She was that girl you found with her nose always buried in a book. She has been writing ever since she was a little girl and first picked up a pen. From books to short stories, radio plays to snippets of ideas and reading them aloud to anyone who will listen.
Garry Dean lives on the Mid Coast of New South Wales Australia, and has been a fan of SF for most of his natural life. Being vision impaired, he makes good use of voice recognition and text to speech in order to write. Many of his stories have appeared in AntipodeanSF over the years, and his love of all things audio led him to join the narration team in 2017.
Ed lives with his wife plus a magical assortment of native animals in tropical North Queensland.
Tim Borella is an Australian author, mainly of short speculative fiction published in anthologies, online and in podcasts.
Alistair Lloyd is a Melbourne based writer and narrator who has been consuming good quality science fiction and fantasy most of his life.
Mark is an astrophysicist and space scientist who worked on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. Following this he worked in computer consultancy, engineering, and high energy research (with a stint at the JET Fusion Torus).
Brian Mahon is a former cook, lab technician, submariner, and now-and-then writer.
Bryan is a writer, activist and retired-barrister based in Melbourne, Australia. He appeared in the High Court in significant constitutional, native title and refugee matters including the Mabo litigation, Bryan has published numerous legal articles, and the book "A Mabo Memoir" (2013).
Deborah Sheldon is an award-winning author from Melbourne, Australia. She writes short stories, novellas and novels across the darker spectrum.
PS Cottier is a poet who lives in Canberra, with a particular interest in speculative poetry.
Old enough to just remember the first manned Moon landing, Kevin was so impressed he made science his life.