Make Your Move Katherine

As Half-promised

"I think we're going to see a new influx of people in agriculture. Agriculture has been aging for a while, and it hasn't been aging particularly well.”

The sound was coming from the television she had left on and Kat made a disgusted sound at the front of her teeth, sucking in the air. He was introducing a new way of farming- robots. And she was only watching it because of the stupidity that came out of her mouth two days prior.

Oscar had not kept his promise to visit her. He had been too busy one of the messengers had delivered in his absence and she found herself disappointed in that. Something in her was longing to see him. But Kat fought it back by telling herself that he was busy with Nuwa. The one he loved.

“Intelligent farming,” he smirked, “With robots.”

“Yeah right. Only for the rich and famous, so they could waste more you mean,” Kat mumbled now at the man on the television screen, thinking of the food she saw throwing away at the castle. In her entire life, Kat never wasted food- not once. Even if she was fed up with the same things two days in a row, she still stuffed it down and her father had hated it.

Her father- Michael, had told her that when she was younger, he had asked her why she was being so greedy and she had said to him,” Let’s save hungry people and send the money you would have spent on dinner, daddy.” Of course, she had no memory of that now but she supposed it was true for she lived that way still.

Dr. Ian Storey, that was the name that flashed across the screen.

He went on about ‘precision farming’ and how much the world needed to accept the change. He spoke about tags they had for animals that sent a text message to a smartphone when the mammal was close to calving.

Katherine gawked at the screen- yeah right, she muttered then… Really?

She paid attention to the screen now and saw he said the tag was the size of a small matchbox that was placed on ears and tails of the livestock. It worked with satellite connection and a GPS tracker.

“Artificial intelligence has become the- “

“Yup, 'gynesis',” she grumbled just as her father used to and she froze. Anything to do with smartphones and talking into remotes, he would give reference to the Terminator movie series. She wondered what his view would have been on the robots being the 'new-age' farmers.

“Maybe dad, technology isn’t such a bad thing,” she spoke as if her father were next to her. She pictured his pat- felt his pat on her shoulder and heard him reply, “Just you wait Kat, the world is on a quick path to self-destruct.”

Tears welled in her eyes. She missed him so much. These silly but yet deep conversations they used to have. Tears fell hotly onto her cheeks. “I’m sorry daddy. I’m so sorry that I missed your birthday,” she sniffed guilty. She’d missed his last birthday on this earth alive…just as she’d missed her own last birthday with him being in the hospital after her clumsy, drunken fall in her kitchen.

Just as she finished her bath the next morning, Oni announced to her that they were going to a farm. “Just as he promised,” the girl squeaked excitedly.

Half promised she wanted to say for he had promised her this yesterday. And as promised- the plant part- yes, she was still annoyed, they were discussing plants hours later. In fact, he had taken her to a field, miles away from the castle and yes; heavily guarded too.

Katherine shaded her eyes from the raging sun with her hand and saw the fields covered in green on one side and domes on the other side. She doubted she had heard Oscar correctly just now.

‘A seetube channel? On food?’

Oscar just said he was working on advanced farming? “The future is robots picking our fruits?” she mumbled.

“The future is here, Katherine. It’s already being done. The castle kitchen supplies all come from here,” he opened his arms wide and did a quick turn to look at the other side where a large cat-sized looking robot was trundling across the uneven soil. The metal machine picks its way through rows of young plants. As it passes each seedling, it paused.

“Welcome to our future Katherine,” he beamed as he looked back at her.

“He’s gathering information about the plants' health and maturity,” he continues on saying when he saw her eyes upon the machine, “Looking for signs of disease. He has a camera and other sensors to assess attributes like soil quality.”

Katherine could not believe her eyes- and ears. Oscar had said the food she ate- that they all consumed came from here. It was- is working? Robots and farming? Seeing is believing Katherine, she told herself as she looked on in amazement.

Oscar waved at someone behind her and the guards stepped back, “This is Mr. Archer,” he bragged and Kat turned around to see a stockily built man quickly bow his head, before stretching out his bulky hand for her. She remembered what she was taught and nodded her head, not taking the next step forward to shake his hand.

“It’s not appro-” the rest of what the guard was saying couldn’t be heard as his lowered tone was for the Mr. Archer’s hearing alone but Katherine knew he was explaining to him about putting his hand out first to greet her. She’s is queen after all. Kat felt this was a shining moment for Miss Moon, courtesy of her.

“He is a specialist in crop cultivation he wants to stop pests in the cornfields, from destroying his crops. The lava eats into the stalks which makes them bend on they can no longer be harvested,” another man dressed in white coveralls explained to her while she listened to the man and Oscar talk.

“Yes, we use satellite to process anddd analyze,” Mr. Archer explained to her almost fifteen minutes later while they walked away from the field and to a massive dark gray and white striped tent. As he said the word ‘and’ he stretched it and singsonged the word.

“Over two hundred thousand kilos of tomatoes weekly. Our humans get aid from the Ai robot on wheels, see?” he pointed to a truck that resembled a train the size of a limousine car at the back of the long tent.

“We are working on indoor farming that grows leafy herbs and greens anddd is hydroponics strictly anddd is non- GMO anddd pesticide-free. Our greenhouse is aimed to provide food- fresh produce to densely populated poor areas,” he boasted as he guided her with stern looks from the guards, inside the tent-dome.

All grown by robots.

Yes, she would be boastful too if she had achieved this. She looked at Oscar whose hands were on his waist, looking as a proud father would, as he did another slower 360 degrees turn, looking from floor to ceiling. He had been the one behind this the farmers had stated to her, earlier.

“This is Li, he’s behind the indoor greenery,” Mr. Archer introduced the tall, lanky, black-framed- glasses-wearing man, dressed in a long white, lab coat. He nodded to her, slightly bowing as if not bothered with her status- queen. She liked him instantly.

Katherine saw a freezer-looking Al, move across the floor and over to the nursery next where a female- taller than her stood. A farmer that took her work too seriously, Kat noted as she saw the woman petting the metal as if it were a pet. She also was dressed in a white lab-looking coat, hair in a bun, no glasses but her blinked her eyes as if she was missing them, as she did the expected bow. Kat pointed to her coat pocket where the specs were and the woman looked embarrassed as she wore them on.

Kat smiled at her before the woman cleared her throat, “He’s a thousand pounds and navigates autonomously by himself, “the woman announced proudly. “He takes the trays over to the processing area for the other Al who sorts the plants out placing close plants farther apart to optimize space, while another one fertilizes.”

Kat looked on in amazement as the machines moved the older-looking plans and place them in different trays…still Katherine eyed the woman. She was weird…didn’t she know that robots have no feelings? Why did humans fool themselves this way?

“They can also detect pests and disease plants,” she went on saying as she walked over to the other rectangle-shaped machine and Katherine couldn’t help but look at Oscar when she said those words. She also couldn’t help the little slip of her muddy thinking too- if only it could work on the king pest in her life.