Crain abruptly sat up in his bed, experiencing a moment of disorientation. His pajamas stuck to his back, soaked in a cold sweat as he stood up. For some reason, he was shaking, though he had no idea why. To calm himself, he went over to the window and gazed over the city of Mechanica, shining in the morning light. Looking towards the center of the city, he saw the towering, monolithic headquarters of the SiliCan company, a majestic demonstration of the company’s prowess. However, the longer he looked at the towering superstructure, the more uneasy he felt. Was he forgetting something?

With a sigh, Crain went to his closet and picked out one of the many identical SiliCan standard issue suits, grabbing his company ID badge on the way. Down in his kitchen, he turned on his SiliCan autocooker and watched as it pulled two eggs from its refrigerated storage and scrambled them, adding just the right amount of salt and pepper. After a few minutes, he grabbed the finished dish, sitting down at his table.

As he ate, Crain turned on his SiliCan televiewer, a hologram popping up in front of him to display a newscaster.

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“This just in: we have some breaking news for you. Last night, the SiliCan company headquarters in our great city of Mechanica were attacked by an armed group of militants. These heinous criminals sought to bring down the company due to their dissatisfaction with SiliCan’s humanlike androids. As of now, all fifty one of the attackers have been apprehended, according to SiliCan’s private security division. This raises questions…...”

While the news broadcast droned on, Crain froze for a moment, overcome by a sense of complete wrongness. Something was off. A vague recollection passed through his mind, fragments of memory showing a blurry video of ancient human protesters; then the growth of a movement, his movement, Naturalists; then a fight, followed by a terrible realization of … of something, but he couldn’t recall what. Then, as suddenly as it came, the flashes were gone, and Crain was left panting. Perhaps it was a dream, no, it must have been a dream. Really, why would humans have a problem with SiliCan androids? After all he was definitely a human and he loved the SiliCan company, right?