Retro Tech

This is a work of fiction. No real people, places or events were used. Copyright ã 2011 Plot Roach.

Retro Tech

By Plot Roach

Alyssa switched the videotapes in the VCR, putting on a new movie for Junior while setting the finished one in the rewinder. It was old, and screeched unless she held the lid down, but it worked all the same. The DVD player had died their third week out in the desert, sand had gotten into the works and scratched the delicate crystal. She preferred the graininess of the old videotapes anyway, they somehow made the experience more real than the crisp, clear images from the discs.

She got the toddler another bottle of milk from the refrigerator, also a dinosaur not yet extinct. It runs on more energy than a small town, I’ll bet. She thought, opening the door not with a fixed handle, but with a type of latch to keep the old thing closed. She had rigged most of the things in the house this way, working with the pieces of old technology that still worked and trying to mesh it with the existing technology of the day. Danny had brought her a couple of solar panels, which she used to power the house, they seemed the only really ‘new’ things in their lifestyle, everything else having been scrounged from second hand stores, pawn shops and the city dump.

They heated their food over an old woodstove, which kept them warm in the winter. They heated their bathwater in a makeshift camping shower that was heated by the sun itself. What didn’t run on electricity from the solar power panels, ran on gasoline or wood. They learned much of their technology from books written by those that survived harder times in harsher climates, or by old timers passing through their little makeshift village who remembered growing up on farms during the Depression, and other places that had to be self sufficient. They hauled in their water from town, cut up the dead trees that died during the summer heat, and traded for any other fuel that they needed throughout the year.

Danny was good at bringing home parts and pieces of things that the others in their encampment needed for their own use, like parts for cars and engines for generators. He worked at the same junkyard where most of their home had been assembled piece by piece. It was not a beautiful life, but it was theirs. Living this far away from the cities meant that they had to police themselves, but it also meant more privacy and less taxes. They lived for free in what they could build, but sometimes the price of daily survival was a little too much for some to bear. They left behind their makeshift homes like hermit crabs, and scuttled back to the 'civilization'.

She heard the rumble of an engine and looked out the cracked and taped window out of the front of the house, Danny should be home anytime now, and he would want her help unloading the truck. She put another bowl of dry cereal in with Danny Junior and retrieved her heavy cotton gloves from the box next to the door. She pulled them on, not wanting to get grease under her fingernails, since it was hard to get out without soaking in hot water that was too precious to use this time of day.

She left the house, secure in the knowledge that Junior was fine in his playpen, dazzled by the television, with his bottle and his food to keep him company. A small whirlwind of sand danced about her and she made a mental note to have Danny put up the screen door as soon as possible. Maybe it will cut down on some of the dirt getting in, she thought. A large shadow passed in front of her and she squinted against the sand to get a better look. God I hope it’s not the police again, she thought. They had done a raid a few months back, arresting anyone growing marijuana. And while she and Danny had nothing to hide, they were still treated as criminals just the same.

But what landed in front of her was no police helicopter. Though it was streamlined and looked like polished silver, it did not look like anything Alyssa had seen before. It was about the size of a school bus, but shaped like a peach pit laying on its side. It came to rest in the sand, the humming of what could only be its engine stopped and Alyssa held her breath. A door in its side slid open and a staircase emerged.

About that time, Danny pulled up in his truck and parked by the far side of the house, as he always did. She heard him slam the truck door closed and yell for her to help him unload from the day’s pickings at the junkyard.

“Uh, Danny. You gotta come see this.” She yelled back at him.

He was in such a dither at having to wait to unload that he almost missed the ship in front of their home. His mouth was still open, his question unasked, when three beings climbed down the stairs and exited the craft. They shielded their eyes from the sun as they viewed the little ramshackle village in the middle of the desert. Two of the beings, looking like a cross between a small person and a shaved hyena, left to peruse the rest of the village while the third waited with the craft.

“Um, hello?” Alyssa said tentatively.

The creature pulled out what looked to be a small silver pad, the size of a cell phone, and began to type on it with a long claw.

“Greetings/ hello/ salutations fellow sentient being. We have come here to buy/ shop / trade/ barter. Do you have any good that you are willing to part with?”

Danny nodded absently and showed the creature around back to the shed where they kept the parts he hauled home until they could be used or traded to the neighbors. They creature pawed through the parts, taking a handful of them back to his ship. Then he returned to the front of their home and motioned that he (at least Alyssa assumed that it was a he) would like to look inside their home.

“Sure, dude.” Danny said. “But somehow I don’t think you’ll want what’s inside.”

They followed the creature as he inspected every item on the shelves, the tables and in the cupboards. He pointed to a few things, including the television, VCR and the refrigerator and handed Danny a small silver box, tapping the top button. Danny pushed the button and watched as all the appliances the creature had chosen were sucked into the box, replaced by something similar.

Their new refrigerator was three times as large and now held the groceries that had been stored in the old Frigidaire. When Alyssa pulled out the gallon jug of milk to test its freshness, another one materialized in its place. She tried the same thing with one of Danny’s beers, and the same thing happened, as many times as she pulled out the bottle.

Junior cried once the television and VCR had disappeared, but was now elated when he viewed what had taken their place. It took up the whole of the wall it had been placed against, and appeared to send out three dimensional images without the need for glasses. It was currently showing a nature movie based on the animals of Africa. And it looked to Alyssa as if the wildebeest drinking at the water hole was actually standing in their living room.

The creature made a soft click and tilted his head to the side. He tapped a nail on the silver translator and asked, “Are you happy with the trade?”

Danny looked behind the new television and the refrigerator. “There’s no power plugs. How can these things be running?”

“Maybe they're nuclear, or maybe they perfected fission?” Alyssa offered.

Danny looked to he creature and nodded. Alyssa and Danny followed him out the door. He had wandered around to the back of the house once again and tapped a nail against Danny’s truck. By then the other two creatures had returned to the ship, each carrying items that they had traded from Danny and Alyssa’s neighbors.

Their creature looked up and whooped at the other two. They spoke for a while in snaps, clicks and whines. Finally coming to an agreement on Danny’s truck. Their creature snapped its fingers and a silver orb flew from the inside of the ship to its paw. He set it on the ground and whistled, where it grew in size to the exact shape and likeness of Danny’s truck. He motioned to Danny to get behind the wheel. And as soon as the door was closed, the truck whisked itself away and back in the blink of an eye.

“What the hell happened, Danny?” Alyssa asked.

“I was thinking about my job at the junkyard and how I needed the truck to get there and back. And then this thing just ‘appeared’ there. Then I got worried about you and the boy here alone with them, and it brought me back. If it moves this fast normally, I’ll never be late for work again.”

Their creature tilted its head as if to ask if they approved of the trade. “Hell yes I’ll take it!” Danny said, tossing the creature the truck’s keys. The creature pointed a device at the tuck and it was sucked away as had the refrigerator and other various things that had been traded. It smiled, a rather toothy grin that would have been unnerving if they had not already been sure of its intentions. All thee walked up the stairs back into their ship, where the engine powered up and was gone in almost a blink of an eye, leaving a whirlwind of sand in its wake.

Danny smiled and patted his new vehicle. Alyssa thought of all the money that they would now be saving on groceries. Eventually they wandered back into the house, where the toddler was attempting to pull the beard on the wildebeest hologram.

“But why would they trade all that for my truck and the other useless junk when they can get jets and things from the government?” Danny asked.

“Maybe they like retro tech too.” Alyssa said.