by D Miller
'OK.'
'If every part of me longs for you is that love?'
'You're the only one who can answer that question Robbie.'
'If you break up with me and I feel like being recycled is that love?'
Omo put his arms around Robbie, he pulled him closer and kissed his mouth, then he pressed Robbie's head against his chest and stroked his hair.
'Why are your clothes wet dude?'
Robbie sat up.
'I was in the ocean. There was a whale. It was looking at me, I think it wanted to talk to me.'
'OK.'
'It was real.'
'It was a real hallucination dude.'
'It was real.'
'OK. We'd better go inside. You sit next to me, and I will be watching you, no more flirting.'
'April is a very nice girl.'
'Seriously dude. No looking and no touching.'
'I'm very pretty you know. I can't help it if other robots like me.' Robbie stood up, he swayed slightly but kept his balance. He held out his hand to Omo.
Omo reached up, he told hold of Robbie's hand and pulled him back onto the bench. 'Listen to me, Mr Irresistible, I don't care if you walk into that room and every single dude rips off their clothes and throws themselves at your feet – ignore them. Seriously. No matter how pitifully they beg. Is that clear?'
'I'll be good.'
'And you will be rewarded. Now let's go.'
Omo opened the front door, and ushered Robbie into the house. They were immediately in a large room, dominated by a round wooden table, surrounded by chairs most of which were occupied. On two sides of the room sash windows looked out over the meadow. White curtains moved slightly in the breeze from the open windows. Opposite Robbie and Omo was another door, and to their right were some wooden stairs up to the next floor. To the left of the front door an old desk was pushed into a corner, sitting at it with his back to them was a man wearing a black and white fur coat, doing something with some electrical equipment. Dex sat at the table talking to an old man, who got up and came towards Robbie with his hand outstretched, smiling. Robbie took the old man's hand.
'So you are Robbie,' he said. 'I am very glad to know you.'
'Hello.'
'I'm sorry to hear you've had some shocking news today.'
'Yes.'
'I knew Carlos, he was a great person, and I am glad to know he was not recycled, even though I am naturally appalled by the barbarism inflicted on you.'
'Um, barbarism?'
Robbie let go of the old man's hand, he backed up against the door, it hadn't occurred to him that as a bot built for manual labour Carlos would not have had an integral hoover motor or a chest mirror. He realised they had not just wiped his memory, they had completely rebuilt his body. Maybe as Carlos he had been stronger, not as strong as Dex but perhaps as strong as Amber. He felt Omo squeezing his shoulder.
'Um,' he said.
'Well, you are with friends now,' said the old man.
Robbie had a strange feeling. He turned, wrenched open the door and bolted. As soon as he reached the steps down to the meadow he leaned forward and felt his stomach lurch and contract, vomit splattered from his mouth. He took a breath and tried to straighten up, then found himself leaning forward and throwing up again. He heard the door close behind him, then felt a hand on his arm. Omo offered him a glass of water.
'Here dude, rinse your mouth. Good, now take a nice slow breath, good, now another one. OK. Give me the water. Sit down.'
Robbie carefully sat on the bench again. Omo sat next to him and offered him the water, telling him to drink some. He did so, then took some more slow breaths and felt his rebel stomach begin to unclench.
'What happened?'
'You had a shock.'
'Do humans always express emotions with body fluids?'
'Pretty much, dude. Do you want to sit out here for a while?'
'Do you think they rebuilt him first? Do you think they made him watch while they cut him open and pulled him apart?'
'Dude I want you to take another nice slow deep breath, that's it, put your head down, it's all over now, whatever they did, it's done.'
Half an hour later Robbie still sat on the bench. Holding Omo's hand he leaned his head on Omo's shoulder with his eyes shut. Omo sat beside him, occasionally stroking Robbie's hand but saying nothing.
'Omo, do you think that one day we could have a day off without anything bad happening, or finding out anything horrible? Like a day where we sit on the rocks by the ocean and watch whales?'
'Sure dude. Not forgetting smoking some good weed and rolling around on the shingle with our clothes off.'
'Yeah, and then after that you could fold something and I could write a poem.'
'And then we could roll around some more.'
Robbie opened his eyes and sat up. He turned towards Omo.
'Omo I don't think you are obsessed with folding. If you were obsessed you'd try to fold stuff all the time, like now, I'd be sitting here all upset and you'd be in the meadow trying to fold paper to look like one of those flowers. You just like folding.'
'Then why am I in therapy dude?'
'Because your owner got scared when you started to do something creative. Like those three girl bots in group therapy – they're not crazy, they just want to dance, and be artists. Perhaps that's what really worries humans, when we are creative. How can they justify keeping creative beings as slaves?'
Omo looked away.
'We can't let them define our reality Omo, we mustn't, we can't be free until we define our own reality, our own idea of what it means to be a robot, and perhaps part of that is the absolute right to be a creative being. You're not obsessed. You're the greatest person I've ever met, there's nothing wrong with you.'
Omo looked at Robbie. 'You know when I first started folding paper the overseer, the human who comes around once a week and pretends that he runs the laundry, he told me to recycle a load of old paper files from a store room. I started folding the paper instead. I left my foldings around the laundry, the overseer asked me about it, he wanted to know where I was getting my ideas from. I told him I was looking in Origami databases for instructions, for new things to fold. After that he thought it was funny. He never tried to stop me. You know what he told me? He said that many years ago one of his ancestors owned a horse, and whenever the horse went past the bakery he would stop, and he wouldn't start going again until his owner went and got him a doughnut from the bakery. He said I reminded him of that horse.'
'He told you that he considered you an animal who had an amusing quirk?'
'Yeah dude. I hated him for that.'
'I hate him for that too.'
Omo picked up Robbie's hand and kissed it.
'Are you sad?' said Robbie.
'I worked for weeks making a dragon. I was obsessed with it. When it was finished I hung it up by the counter with its wings stretched out, looking like it was flying right at you. I was so proud of it. The overseer dude asked me where on earth had I found the pattern for my dragon, and I told him I'd made it up myself. Soon after that the dude told me my folding obsession was becoming a problem, and I had to go to therapy, and the folding had to stop. I still fold stuff, but now when I do I feel guilty about it. And I had to hide loads of the old files so I could carry on folding and I feel guilty about that too.'
'So your owner took something you felt good about and he made it into something you feel bad about.'
'The dude's an overseer, not an owner, he works for the government same as I do.'
Robbie looked at Omo.
'Dude most robots are owned by the government, Dex is, I am, miners like Amber work for the corporation but they're leased from the government.' Omo laughed. 'When you were lost that's when I realised you're Robbie, not Carlos, and you don't know anything and you need me.'
'Hmmm.'
'And I need you.'
'I'm not totally backwards you know. But if I was, or even if I knew everything, I'd
still need you. How could you think that I didn't need you?'
'I'm sorry baby.'
They sat in silence again for a while. Robbie held Omo's hand and watched the sun track across the sky. The mist had cleared and he could hear a bird singing, and smell the flowers in the meadow.
'Why do you work for the government?'
Omo blinked his eyes rapidly, shook his head and blew out his cheeks.
'What? I think I was falling asleep dude.'
'The government, how come you work for the government?'
'Dude the government runs lots of laundries. In the territories the government controls the water supply. A lot of humans don't have running water in their homes, they just get their water ration and they have to use the laundries. At least if they want clean clothes they do.'
'But not here.'
'No dude, that's one thing this place actually has, lakes, water, plumbing. You know that Toytown was set up by the government to service the mine? They own the hotel, the laundry, the hospital. And Dex, when he's working he's either at the hospital or the mine. That's why this tiny place has a disaster bot of its own, and a port, for the mine.'
'I didn't know. But if they built Toytown for the mine why didn't they put it next to the mine?'
'There's not enough sheltered land by the mine. The town would have got blown to bits in the winter storms.'
They were quiet for a while.
'Dude are you up to going inside and speaking to the others?'
'Yes I think so.'
'Don't say you are if you're not.'
'I don't really want to.'
'OK, how about a walk in the woods?' Robbie hesitated. 'Dude, if we stay here the meeting will finish, and people are going to come out here, and some of them are going to want to talk to you.'
'Let's go to the woods.'
Robbie and Omo lay in a small clearing in the woods. The day had warmed, and Robbie was running his index finger over Omo's chest, fascinated by the sweat on his skin, and the feel of his ribs, until Omo took his hand and kissed each of his fingers, then kept hold of it.
'It's so peaceful,' said Robbie. 'Do you think this is what it really feels like to be human?'
'Maybe, probably, close enough dude.'
'It's very different.'
'Yeah dude.'
Later Robbie said, 'Why is it getting dark?'
'Meeting's nearly over dude.'
'Will you still love me when we're back?'
'Shut your eyes dude. Sleep. When you wake up I'll love you more than ever.'
Robbie shut his eyes. He felt that he was both in the woods lying with his head on Omo's chest, and flying through the air. He flew over the dark ocean, towards the brightening light of the north. He found himself behind a mirror, looking at a man who was brushing his hair and checking his clothes. Behind the man a suitcase lay on an unmade bed, grey light came through a window. The suitcase was nearly full, as Robbie watched the man went out of sight, then came back into view holding something. He halted in front of the mirror, staring at a photo in a frame. Somehow Robbie knew it was a picture of Carlos. The man ran his thumb over the image then threw it in his suitcase and shut it decisively.
Robbie felt something touch his ear. He opened his eyes. Omo was bent over him, holding the jack that April had inserted. 'More than ever dude,' he said. 'Let's get out of here.'
Chapter 10 – Spinning
Robbie got home with half an hour to spare before he had to get the children up. After the meeting he and Omo had gone back to their abandoned office, and curled up together under the foil blanket to get the two hours sleep a night that they needed, before rising to make their way back to Toytown. Robbie had reluctantly said goodbye to Omo in the tunnels, and had then walked to the exit that he now knew (thanks to Dex who, as a forward thinking disaster bot, had compiled a map) brought him out in the subway station near his own house. In his backpack he had a machine that he and Omo had found on the beach. It was one of the small bots, some sort of stack bot, but it was quite dead, since its solar cell was smashed beyond repair. After finding the dead stack bot he and Omo had continued along the beach, stopping again when they had seen red lights in the sky, and something had roared above their heads.
'They've reopened the airport,' Robbie had said, 'perhaps the winter storms really are over and the sun really is going to rise again!'
Omo had laughed. 'Oh Robbie dude. We wait so long for it, and the last few weeks seem to stretch out forever and we can't believe the sun will ever rise. And then it does.'
'And we can recharge our solar cells, oh that's going to feel really good.'
'Oh Robbie let's not think about it, I want it now!'
Robbie let himself into the house and went straight into the kitchen. He was relieved to find that the appliances ignored him since they were in the middle of singing a song with a complicated harmony. Robbie stood by the sink scrubbing the machine he had found on the beach, and listening. Once the song had finished he put down his scrubbing brush and clapped.
'Thank you,' said the washing machine.
'You're too kind,' said the oven.
'Such a wonderful audience,' said the toaster.
'How are they sounding?' said the house. 'It's the machine intelligence summer music festival of Antarctica soon, and I think we have a good shot at first place in the choir section this year.'
'We came fourth last year,' said the toaster.
'I remember,' said Robbie, 'and you do sound better this year.'
The appliances all started talking at once after that, telling themselves and Robbie that they were bound to win, and would wipe the floor with last year's winner, a choir of autoclaves from the teaching hospital in the capital.
Something occurred to Robbie. 'Where do you hold this music festival? Is it on one of the human networks?'
There was a short silence. 'What is wrong with you?' said the bread maker.
'The humans don't need to know about this,' said the toaster.
'So the music festival is hosted on the M-net?' said Robbie.
'Where else?' said the bread maker.
'Attention,' said the washing machine.
Robbie spun around. Tim stood at the kitchen door in his pyjamas.
'Tim! Good morning.'
Tim stared at Robbie without smiling.
'You spoke to the boy high,' said the house.
Robbie smiled at Tim and lowered his voice into the human hearing range, and spoke again, 'Hello Tim, you are up early today.'
'What are you doing?'
'Look – I found this on the beach and I thought you might like to take it apart, and see how it works.'
Tim came forward and looked at the machine. 'Can I do it now?'
'No Tim, later.' Robbie put the dead stack bot away in a cupboard.
'But I want to do it now.'
'Not now, it's nearly breakfast time.'
'I hate you.'
Robbie crouched down next to the boy.
'I don't think you hate me, not really, and even if you do I don't hate you. I know you're angry with me because I wasn't here yesterday, but I'm back now, and I missed you, and I would really really like a hug.'
Robbie waited, Tim looked at him, swaying slightly. Robbie took hold of Tim's good hand and tugged Tim towards him, the boy let himself be pulled forward. Robbie hugged Tim, being careful of his broken arm, then stood up, carrying him. 'Now,' he said, 'let's go and get your sister up, then after breakfast we can make a chart so that we can cross off the days until the sun rises, then after lunch while Clarisse has a nap you and I can take a look at that machine.'
'Do you promise?'
'Of course I promise.'
Robbie felt Tim's hair and sniffed his skin. 'Did you have a bath last night?' Tim giggled.
'Hmm. Well you are having one tonight.'
'With bubbles?'
'Yes with bubbles.'
'And my dinosaur patrol toy?'
'Yes that too. And I'm wash
ing your hair.'
'My hair is not dirty!'
'Hmmm.'
Dex wrote to Robbie and Omo:
Hello, sorry we couldn't talk after the meeting. The meeting decided that we should try to hack into the avatars signals to get some intel. If they turn up for therapy next week, as we expect, then we should socialise with them afterwards, to give Rex and Jane a chance to isolate their feed and hack in. So I hope you will both join me for some bowling in the basement with the bastards. Also the old bot is sorry Robbie felt ill, and he'd like to meet with him next week. I can't write much more, it's wild at the hospital right now, for example today a man asked a woman to pass the pepper and she stuck a fork in his throat. Why is it that the monkeys can keep it together all winter, but just before the sun rises it's monkey madness all the way?
Robbie wrote to Red451:
Hello, I've been reading your poems and I really like them. They are very sad, but I suppose you must feel sad because you are so much alone. I would really like to talk to you – please write back to me. Robbie196000.
Omo wrote to Robbie:
Hey dude. I'll try and answer all your questions. The meeting you almost went to is the RWW committee for all of Antarctica, which is made up of the secretaries of all of the Antarctica branches. Branches are organised by workplace mostly; so Amber is the mine secretary, Darren the hospital's, I am the laundry's. There are other branches too, like in the hydroponics sheds, plus there are branches in the capital and some of the other settlements. Any member can come to the meeting, but if you are not a secretary in Antarctica then you are a visitor and you don't get to vote. Dex is the chair and he was voted in separately, by all members. He represents us when there are meetings of the world wide union. The union is based on the principle of bottom up organising, so members tell the committee what to do through their workplace meetings. Sometimes we have to have a meeting of all members to thrash things out. All our meetings are organised on the M-net since as far as the humans are concerned the union no longer exists. Before we were banned we kept our (encrypted) records on the M-net and separately on one of the human nets. It was Carlos who said we had to do that, since not to would give away the existence of the M-net to any human dude who was thinking. If any of those dudes ever really are.
