The Gettysburg Redress

Robots are running for their electronic lives. That's because Lysander Bryan Hunter pushed his father out a window and faked a suicide in order to inherit the Lyceum of Americana in Orlando. His father and grandfather established a tradition of the Lyceum teaching about U.S. history as customers interacted with robotic figures of Washington, Davy Crockett, Dolley Madison, and dozens of other figures, but Lysander wants to sell off the property and restage key events, including the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth. The robots (called "actors") would perform the roles during a live TV spectacular. Lysander's father and a senior executive, Joshua McGruder, using "the McGruder chip," have given several of the robots sentience. During rehearsals, the robots Abe and Doc become self-aware and are afraid of being killed. They escape and manage to steal a car in order to drive north to Jacksonville. Day 1 of "Robots on the Run" occurs when they disconnect their electrical cords and shuffle like Herman Munster as they escape the Lyceum in a golf cart. Abe is mainly a creature of the 19th Century, but Doc draws upon 20th Century knowledge (e.g., Ralph Bunche, Thurgood Marshall, W.E.B. DuBois, and Dr. King) to steal a car and figure out ways to keep "alive" by utilizing batteries. In Jacksonville, some helpful African Americans in Springfield inadvertently create an Underground Railway to protect them. Lysander Hunter wants them captured and destroyed in order to collect insurance money. They stop at Roscoe's Good Morning Diner, which is now operated by Nehemiah Renshaw, his artist son Tyrone, and his technical son, Steve, an I.T. employee at Florida State. They seek the wisdom of an elderly matriarch, Miz Ephra Williams, who had marched with Dr. King. Should they turn them in or help them to hide. Miz Williams says Doc is closest to Dr. King they will have, and Springfield needs them.