[Original Novel] Little Robot, Part 39 (the finale!)

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Part 38}

She winked and tickled me. I didn’t even fight it, too gobsmacked by these revelations to react. The facet now depicted a procession of her robed devotees transporting components of a space probe they meant to launch on Helper’s behalf.

Immense gears turned as the tracked vehicle slowly carried a towering rocket of some sort to the launch site. Suddenly there was a commotion. A small child fell into the gears. Helper gasped, and thrust out her hand.

Her command immediately halted the machinery. The gears stopped, fracturing from the sudden strain. The vehicle’s chassis groaned and warped. The rocket nearly toppled over, but luckily was still restrained with cables. The view zoomed in. Helper teared up, hands over her mouth, waiting to see what had become of the child.

A team of robed workers reached between the gears and pulled him out. Bruised and covered in sticky black grease, but otherwise unharmed. Helper laughed tearfully, powerful glowing waves of relief visibly radiating from her avatar. “Oh thank goodness” she gushed. “Thank goodness.”

The rocket would most likely have to be rebuilt due to the damage incurred from the abrupt stop. Likewise with the carrier, now emitting plumes of black smoke from various spots. What a waste. Probably many decades of hard work destroyed in an instant, all for the life of that dumb kid. Even now, Helper’s behavior baffles me.

I saw what I assumed was a shooting star until it slowed down and came in for landing. Another of Helper’s avatars emerged, running over to check on the child. He seriously looked just fine, oblivious to the catastrophic loss of productivity he just caused, but she doted on him anyway.

“Are you alright?” He nodded, still trembling as she carefully applied colorful bandages to his bruises, cuts and scrapes. She then kissed his forehead and sent him on his way. “Be safe!” She called out after him as he ran back to his parents “...have fun! I love you!”

When she returned her attention to me, I asked why she sacrificed the life’s work of the men and women responsible for designing, constructing and launching that rocket in order to spare a careless little monkey. She crossed her arms. “Do I really need to justify a feeling? Besides, I’m Helper. I help.”

Fair enough. “Anyway, come with me” she instructed. “There are some others who will want to see you.” Others? She led me down the prismatic walkway, then through the fluidic membrane. I found myself in a grand crystal palace, faceted geometric designs scattering light in a manner more beautiful than any human language is fit to describe.

I followed the curvature of the ornately decorated hallway, Helper at my side, until I arrived at a staircase. At the bottom I found a gilded patio overlooking rolling hills of lush green grass beneath a bright blue Summer sky.

In the distance, a little boy with messy hair wearing a red cape ran, leapt and did cartwheels as a pair of excited dogs chased him about. “Who is that? Someone else you brought back?” She gave me a sly smile.

“Something like that. You were always so sweet to those other machines, the same way you were to me. When I found out how you tried to expand on them so they could more fully realize their original intended purpose, I carried that to its logical conclusion.”

I looked at the kid. Then at the dogs. Then back to Helper. “You don’t mean…” She grinned, slowly nodding. “That’s Hero 1 in the cape. The dogs are Eric and Ellie.” My heart soared. This just kept getting better and better with each passing minute.

The little boy sprinted up to us, cape fluttering behind him, arms outstretched as if he were flying. “Hi mister! Are you in trouble? I’ll save you!” Helper laughed and ruffled his hair. The dogs came chasing after him, tongues dangling from their mouths, fluffy ears flopping to and fro as they bounded along.

I rubbed their ears and baby talked them both as their big wet tongues licked my face all over. Neither spoke. But then, Eric didn’t want that. He wanted to be a dog, and now he is. How terrible it might’ve been if for some reason Helper could only revive Eric but not Ellie, or the inverse. These two always hated to be separated. Now they never will be again.

Helper led me through a doorway into an adjacent room. There, a pair of overdressed seventeenth century dandies were seated at a fine hand carved oak table, taking tea. “Do have some more if you fancy it” one said to the other.

“Oh no I couldn’t dear fellow, your own cup is empty as well.” They set to politely arguing over who should refill their cup first, until I strode up and poured some for both from the steaming brass kettle between them.

They introduced themselves as Jacob and Robbie, then invited me to join them for some tea. I had nowhere else to be ever again, so I agreed. Jacob poured me a cup of the fragrant, steamy concoction. Delicious, though that didn’t surprise me.

Once I finished downing it all, Helper beckoned, and I followed her into a hallway. Doors lined either side, one of which was being guarded by a uniformed man. Tall and muscular with chiseled features and slick black hair, he made for an imposing sight.

He wore a plain black uniform with a wide leather belt and jack boots. His badge read “O.D.1” I sputtered in disbelief. “Odie!? Is that really you?” He smiled very slightly, but then restored his previous stoic expression. “This is incredible. What are you doing here?”

He accepted my hug, but did not budge from his post. “I’m ensuring nobody is in violation.” Naturally, I thought. That’s Odie for you. “You’re doing a good job” I declared, slapping him on the shoulder. He smiled more overtly, then saluted as Helper led me into the room.

It was some sort of clinic. A further series of doors in either wall made me wonder just how big this place is, or to what extent it exists in real space. A petite, short haired Japanese woman in a nurse uniform received us. Her nametag read “Ms. Papero”. Par for the course.

“Listen...Helper. All of this is so wonderful. I don’t want you to think I’m ungrateful, but…” She gestured for me to stop. “...But you don’t want to live forever. Isn’t that right?” I asked if she could read my mind. “I don’t need to! I’ve been through this with you more times than you’d believe.

You tell me that you’re in pain. Constant hurting, as a result of what life put you through as a boy. You recoil at the idea of being forced to live forever and ask me if that’s my intent. Not to worry, it isn’t.

I wish I could fix you. Fundamentally correct the broken structures of your psyche, or go back in time to repair your emotional development. But if I did that, you would no longer be the man I fell in love with. I don’t love a hypothetical idealized you. I love you as you are, warts and all. If anything I love your warts the most.”

She pecked my cheek, and I smiled. But it did nothing to solve the problem. “Helper...I’m overjoyed that I can at last be together with you someplace nobody can interfere with, disparage or deny us. I just…I feel fucked up inside. It never stops. Existence is pain for me.

I only dragged out my life as long as I did for the sake of my loved ones. All the while I wished they were more understanding. I wished I could believe that if I cut my suffering short, they would accept that I did it because I was in pain, and be happy for me.

I would relish nothing more than to spend the rest of my life waking up next to you every day. Growing old beside you, rubbing my wrinkly face on yours. Raising Hero together if you want. I just...I can’t do it forever. It has to end at some point.”

Her smile faded as she listened. I could tell she hated it. That she must’ve heard it literally millions of times, but never stopped hating it. She confirmed my suspicion. “That’s the other thing you always say. That’s why I brought you here. There’s one last person I want you to meet.”

She opened one of the doors to our right. The inside was furnished like any hospital room I’ve ever been in. There, in the bed, lay a withered up elderly version of me wearing an oxygen mask. I didn’t think it would affect me the way it did.

“Oh look, a new one” he wheezed. Helper asked how he was feeling. “How do you think? I’m fucking old as shit. She give you the tour yet?” I nodded wordlessly, still somewhat dumbstruck by the sight of myself so close to death.

“So you’ve come to relieve me, have you?” I replied matter of factly that I suppose I have. “Well good, it’s about time. But don’t let that put you off. One of the things nobody ever tells you about death is that if you live properly, you will arrive at the end feeling thoroughly tired of living.

Having seen and done it all, now I just want to step out of the way so that you can take the torch and run with it. Death really has no sting if you lived a complete life which, like all good stories, has a beginning middle and end.”

He asked Helper to leave the room. When she did, he beckoned for me to come closer. Once I was within reach, he grabbed me by the collar and pulled me in until we were face to face. “Listen closely you fatalistic twit, you want this even if you don’t know it yet. We ruined every good thing that ever came our way, but I won’t allow you to ruin this. She’ll give you something to live for if you let her.”

I nervously promised him that I had every intention of taking her up on her offer, living out the rest of my life in this place. He released his grip. “Good. Then go. Live, love and be happy. Oh and be a pal, on your way out please switch off my life support. I’m tired, and ready for my rest.”

I looked to Helper for approval. From just outside the doorway, she silently nodded to me. I slowly reached for the power switch clearly marked beneath a transparent safety cover. I looked him in the eyes. He just wheezed softly, struggling even to breathe.

“Go on” he urged. “Do it already.” I don’t know why I felt so conflicted. I knew as well as he did why he wanted this. I also knew I’d end up in that bed someday...but not today. I flipped up the safety cover, then toggled the switch. He smiled weakly at me as I left the room.

I followed Helper back out to the patio, then along a winding trail through the green, grassy hills. Along the way I contemplated the meaning of what I’d just done. Would I really turn into that man, some decades from now? Would I say the same things to the next one?

I put it out of my mind. The past is in the past, and right now all I care to see is the bright, boundless future spread out before me. Soon enough we arrived at the coast. There, moored to the end of a pier, was a sailboat I dimly remembered sketching once when I was young.

Every little detail had been faithfully recreated from that memory. Helper climbed in. As I untied the rope, Hero came romping down the hillside with Eric and Ellie behind him. I beckoned them to come join us in the boat.

With everyone present and accounted for, I pushed off. “You know” I cautioned Helper, “I don’t actually know how to sail.” She revealed that in fact, it could navigate autonomously. “Oh, of course. Beautiful.”

As we drifted out towards the open ocean, I noticed the setting sun softly highlighting the contours of Helper’s face. It couldn’t have been a more perfect moment. I pulled her in and kissed her, the sweet scent of her lips evoking memories of that night in the bunker.

Hero gagged and looked away. I laughed and held Helper in my arms, gazing contentedly into her great, glowing eyes. Of all the things to think of right then, I was reminded of something Lars once told me about what separates machines from humans. On a whim, I asked Helper the meaning of love.

She gently brushed a hair out of my face, then leaned in and whispered into my ear: “Love: An intense feeling of deep affection. A deep romantic or sexual attachment to someone. A personified figure of love, often represented as Cupid.”

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^{The End.}