Forever Magazine Issue 46 by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: magazine, science fiction, science fiction magazine
Publisher: Wyrm Publishing
Published: 2018-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

Human Drivers Only.

No Auto-Drive Beyond This Point.

Luke pointed. “Mine’s over here.”

The vehicle made Tipper gasp and laugh at once. It was a courier truck, squeezed between two streetlight pedestals, the logo of the company still showing under a hasty spray-paint job. The thing was modded in a serious way: integrated tire-wheels, expanded cab, tinted windows custom-cut and sealed into 3D-printed panels hung on a modular frame. The cargo box rode low; Tipper suspected more than package-sorting machinery had been stored away back there.

“Home sweet home.” Luke pounded the box. “Got a bed back here, internet, built-in fridge, the best game hookup you’ll ever see. With a ride like this, who needs property taxes, huh?”

Tipper followed him along the vehicle’s fiberglass flank. The compact design, the lightweight frame, the aerodynamic lines . . . it was obviously a computer-driven truck, built for maximum speed on the shipping-only roads. Never meant for a human driver.

She peered at him. “So you drive this thing?”

“Trying to. That’s why you’re here.”

He popped open the door, a maintenance hatch he’d expanded to fit his makeshift cab. Inside, the components had been shifted and rebuilt, making room, just barely, for a driver and passenger. A carbon-fiber NASCAR seat, crudely cabled to the frame, took up most of the space. An ancient Mini Cooper steering wheel bloomed like a thistle from a two-foot exposed column. The pedal system looked like something from an old church organ. Although the interface for the computer was in place, showing all systems normal, Tipper assumed it had been clipped out of the loop.

Her older brothers, car jocks all, would have heartily approved. Cars ought to be an open book, they thought. No hidden triggers, no mechanical turks. They wanted to pull back the curtain from the autodriving wizard. Put the driver in control.

She ran her hands over the welding. “No way this is legal.”

“No way,” Luke agreed with a grin.

He grabbed the hatch, contracted his body, and half jumped, half tumbled into the jackleg seat. “They’re still using the same parts as the trucker days. You just have to load ’em up with different stuff. Legacy line systems, right? All the same tools and dies, injection molds. So it’s not too hard to pull everything out and retrofit.”

Tipper ducked in after him. “You crash in this, you’ll crumple like a beer can.”

“Yeah, I’ll be chewed like Trident, huh?” He laughed silently, running two fingers round the wheel. “You know about cars?”

“My family does.”

“Well, it’s this queen bee that’s giving me problems.” Luke tapped a knuckle on the autodrive. “I clipped everything I could think of, but I can’t seem to shut it down for good. I still need it to—”

“To check in at the toll gates, right.” Tipper knew how this stuff worked. “Or they’ll snap your plates and call it in as a malfunction.”

“Right. So mother brain here has to be awake and talking. Only thing is, I tried to code feedback in for all the connectivity checks. Edge-stitching, they call it.

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