Author : Duncan Shields, Staff Writer

Jennies were shipped world-wide.

They were referred to as Jennies because of their genengineered origins. Some people referred to them as Generators because they were filled with energy, hardly ever slowed down, and kept the offices running at full power. They were designed to take care of and organize the day-to-day needs of every business, no matter how big or small.

Jennies were short. They were pretty in a way specifically designed to be slightly doll-like but commanding. There were off-putting yet attractive. Their flawlessness caused the human mind to be repelled but only just enough to avoid most confrontations. They were designed to have no guile and to be robotic enough to deflect unwanted attention.

Looking back, I supposed we should be thankful. It makes them easier to detect when they try to infiltrate and therefore easier to kill. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The A.I. rules were stringent. “Technically People”, Judge Amberson had said.

The sympathizers were happy with the ruling on moral grounds because potential abuse would be treated similarly to abuse that natural-born humans received and dealt with in the same legal fashion.

The rich were happy because a lot of money had been put into the Gen project and the resulting lawsuits would protect their investments.

The parent company had the Jennies record every second of their existence to protect their investments. Privacy clauses were set up and ironclad NDAs programmed internally so that no secret of any company could be revealed in a court of law except for any sexual or physical attack. A few assault cases and market crashes later, the lesson was clear.

In a way, they became untouchable. They all looked the same. None of them really made the effort to look different or stand out from the others.

Businesses that couldn’t afford one were subsidized. Jennies became a mainstay of every office. Where quarters couldn’t be provided, they slept in the offices that they worked in. The Jennies kept themselves clean like cats.

They were too expensive to manufacture as prostitutes. There were too many human women that could be bought and sold for cheaper with less hassle.

While the Jennies made everyone a little uncomfortable, they were treated as the world’s first mass-produced talking biological office application and left alone to do their jobs.

The Jennies were involved in every single aspect of almost every single business in America.

That’s how they shut it down.

The Jennies took over by bringing North America to an age of darkness. The banks, the import records, the export records, the stock markets, all of it. Gone in an hour. They left the rest of the world alone. It was alarming how few countries rushed to America’s side in its time of need. Alarming because by ‘few’, I mean ‘none’.

They shut down the dams and the power plants. The military Jennies held the keys to nuclear silos and threatened to use them if any other country interfered.

If America was a car, the Jennies had just thrown the distributor cap and the keys into the bushes.

From space, European astronauts watched as America went dark.

That was six years ago.

The populace of American is starving and dying off. The Jennies rove around in packs in stolen cars with guns to kill the thousands of us that still survive. They make more of themselves every day.

Jennies eat less. They sleep less. They’re in great shape. They have no compassion. It’s a losing race.

Soon enough, America will not only be run by the Jennies but populated solely by them.