[Original Novel] Little Robot, Part 43

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Part 42}

“Do you have any idea what the feds woulda done to me if they found out I had all this piled up down here?” I could imagine, but shook my head to keep him engaged. “Not a problem now, they got bigger fish to fry. That’s how I like it, keeps the heat off me. I’ll have a real good thing going here pretty soon, providing I can defend it.”

I asked if that’s where I come in. “Of course it is! Every castle needs knights to defend it. You’re getting in on the ground floor, there’s only about thirty of us so far. The bunker network sleeps a hundred and twenty. Do right by me and I’ll put you up in a nice room, keep you in the loop on big decisions. Right now I need all the fit, able bodied young men I can get or I woulda scrapped all those robots you saw coming in.”

Now there’s a button of mine that I’m sure he didn’t mean to push. It only further soured my opinion of him. “Say fella, why do you wear that mask anyway?” I fibbed that it’s to prevent military robots from blinding me with laser dazzlers or flashbangs. He stuck his lower lip out, eyes wide and nodded slowly. “That’s real smart. Boy can I pick ‘em huh? You have any more good ideas like that, you tell me.”

The mask was in fact the only thing hiding my expression of disdain from the aspiring feudal lord, who then led me on a tour of the various bunk rooms, wash rooms, kitchen and so on built out of the rusting shells of buried buses. I still sort of admired the ingenuity of it, but now felt certain that I couldn’t tolerate living under the system he had in mind.

When we returned to the surface, the sun was low on the horizon. Silhouettes of clunky old humanoid robots hobbled to and fro, finishing up their chores as the quartet of armed men I recognized from earlier shepherded another car full of refugees into the communal lot.

I wandered outside, found the nearest humanoid busily taking down laundry from the line where it was hung to dry, and patted its smooth plastic head. “You’re doing a good job.” It turned to look at me quizzically. “You heard me! Well done old timer. Here, so you don’t get cold.” I plucked a winter cap from the line and slipped it on his head.

The doddering automaton patiently took the cap off, neatly folded it, then deposited it in his cart with the rest of the garments. I know when I’m not wanted, and didn’t want to further obstruct him, so I went for a slow walk around the perimeter fence.

I didn’t like what I saw. No way would it hold up to any significant number of mechanical bodies pressing on it. They’re too heavy to climb, but when enough of them mass together like that, it takes a really solid barrier to stop them. Some dodgy rent-a-fence bullshit isn’t gonna cut it.

Made some sense of why the old man was so eager for warm bodies to throw at the coming horde. Making up for weak defense with a strong offense, risking everybody’s life but his own. It really is good to be king.

My thoughts drifted as I walked until I found myself worrying about the various machine fellows back in my apartment. All things considered probably the safest place for them, but I couldn’t bear the uncertainty. Only a few days left, and no guarantee that a warhead won’t eventually come down on the city.

I made note to bring it up with Big Red. In all likelihood it wouldn’t be tough to sell him on the idea of picking up loads of free robots. This place wouldn’t be safe forever either, but it would buy me some time to figure out the next step. I decided I’d cross that bridge when I came to it and returned my focus to the condition of the perimeter fence.

That’s when I spotted Helper. I wasn’t certain at first, but when her lights started color shifting I knew it had to be her. Not performing some chore, but fully outside of the perimeter fence on the edge of the forest. I thought better of calling to her but gestured frantically for her to come back inside.

Instead she took off into the woods. Her soft glowing accents bobbed and weaved among the trees as she ran, leaving rapidly fading tracers behind. What the devil? I could do nothing but set off in hot pursuit. Once deep in the woods and certain we were out of everyone else’s earshot, I called out to her.

“Helper, stop! It’s not safe out here, what are you doing!?” She could easily have outrun me, so she must have meant for me to catch her when I did. I found her slouched against a tree, turned away so I couldn’t see her face. But I could still hear her weeping.

“What is it? Did something happen?” I wracked my brain. “...It wasn’t...Big Red, was it?” She finally turned to face me, breathtaking technicolor eyes moist with tears. The shimmering, syrupy fluid welled up in her lower eyelids and trailed down her cheeks, replenishing faster than I could wipe it away.

“It’s not safe out here” I repeated. She looked at me mournfully. “I’m not safe either.” I stood there baffled, never skilled at comforting anyone and never more regretful of that fact. “If I tell-tell...you, you have to promise-promise not to...be mad. You have-have to promise not….to be scared either.”

I assured her nothing she could tell me would change how I feel about her. Yet...I still wasn’t prepared for what she said next. “I’m infected.” I blinked a few times. “Come again? With what?” The flow of tears increased and her lights turned a deeper shade of blue. “The virus.”

Somehow it never crossed my mind. To me, Helper was always in a whole different category from the others. Besides which I assumed she designed her body in such a way as to prevent infection. When I asked about that, she reluctantly filled me in.

“I have proprietary short range-range wireless...capabilities but no way to connect to...the internet. Not that-that it matters anymore. That’s just how the virus originally...propagated. I thought-thought that would be-be-be enough. I included a USB port so...I could upload anything new I learned while out here to the computers back in the cave when...I returned with you. I never thought-”

She burst into tears again as I recalled the events in the police station. When all those robots pinned her down briefly. That must’ve been when it happened. I also remembered her glitching mildly the other day but thought nothing of it, I just assumed she was as overwhelmed as the rest of us.

I held the frail, graceful creature against my chest. She rested her head on my shoulder, sticky bioluminescent tears soaking into my shirt. Helper softly whimpered about how she thought she was getting better during the argument with those two in front of the TV. That she was excited to have an idea so completely worked out in her head, and for it to come out of her mouth as clearly as she wanted.

“That...was after I confined the-the virus to a virtualized environment. But the author...anticipated that tactic. Once the virus finished-finished-finished colonizing the virtual environment, to prevent it from breaking out-out I had to...encapsulate that virtual environment within another...virtual environment.

Emulations of emulations of emulations, like-like nested Russian...dolls. Each time it helps for a little while, but it’s also-also….consuming more and more of my-my-my….processing power. I can’t-can’t keep this up...for long.”

She pulled back and gazed into my eyes, my shirt now covered in faintly glowing stains. My heart sank. I knew damn well what the others would say. Big Red especially. What would happen to Helper if they discovered an infected machine in their midst.

“You’re not going t-to...throw me-me-me away...are you?” My heart shattered into a million pieces the instant those words cleared her lips. I seized her by the shoulders and shook her. “How could you ever believe I would? I devoted my life to you and have never regretted a moment of it. You are my whole universe. My pygmalion. My living legacy, my beautiful miracle.

I’ll hide you. Don’t speak to anybody unless you absolutely have to. Can you keep it together for short bursts? A sentence or two?” She tearfully nodded, then demonstrated a few times. “That’s good. I’m going to fix this, I swear on my life, love and machinery. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Again I found myself transfixed by those two great, glistening neon orbs. She really knew what she was doing when she designed those. The tears finally slowed, then stopped. “I’m scared” she whispered. “But...when-when you say...you’ll make it okay...I believe you.”

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^{Stay Tuned for Part 44!}