[Original Novel] Little Robot, Part 49
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
Part 32
Part 33
Part 34
Part 35
Part 36
Part 37
Part 38
Part 39
Part 40
Part 41
Part 42
Part 43
Part 44
Part 45
Part 46
Part 47
Part 48
The woman thanked her, then asked what was wrong with her voice.
Helper suddenly became self conscious, placing one hand over her mouth and shooting me a frightened look. “Damaged before we got here” I fibbed. She seemed to buy it. “What a shame. Such a lovely voice. I hope it can be fixed.” She again stroked Helper’s hand and smiled warmly at her.
I smiled at the woman too, wanting to be included. When she noticed, she glared at me, then turned away. So I waited outside the room for Helper. When she appeared in the doorway, she nudged me down the corridor until we were out of earshot of that room, then demanded to know what’s wrong with me.
“It’s a shorter list of what isn’t” I admitted. Apparently not the right response judging by her brief flash of red. I turned the tables on her by asking what she was thinking, speaking to someone we don’t know at sufficient length that her voice glitched. “What if she connected the dots? What if she tells Big Red, and he figures it out on his own?”
She cogitated over that for a moment. Then shrugged. “I am Helper” she stated matter-of-factly. “I had to help. How could I not?” Reason enough to risk being scrapped, apparently. I admonished her to remain silent going forward except when we’re alone, or at least to speak only in short bursts.
She crossed her arms and glowed a dim red as if I’d said something wrong. All I ever do is try to protect her, but more and more lately I feel as if she thinks she doesn’t need my protection; That there’s nothing I can do for her that she can’t do better by this point if her development. Worse still, I suspect it’s true.
Of all the ways she might’ve surpassed me, consolation was the most humiliating. An area where I, as a human, should forever exceed her even if it’s never been...a strength of mine. I wonder how she sees me now.
Once a seemingly all-powerful, benevolent teacher looking down on her, now someone for her to look down on. Nothing left to teach that she cannot learn faster on her own through interaction with other humans. No protection I can offer that she has any use for. Am I now obsolete? I’m the one who should be thrown away.
Yet there was something else. Amid the feelings of inadequacy, pride bloomed. This is what I wanted, surely? For Helper to surpass me. To surpass all of humanity, not an extension of us or a tool to be used for our benefit. I just didn’t realize how bittersweet it would feel when that day finally arrived.
What a relief it must be to skip all of the existential angst humans go through during adolescence as they search for their identity and place in the world. She’s Helper. She helps. But what about me? My function all these years was to nurture Helper. To protect her from a world I knew would destroy her if I didn’t stand in the way.
What am I going to do now that she doesn’t need me anymore? An ugly, selfish part of me wishes she hadn’t developed so quickly. Just so I could go on being useful to her. So she would continue peering up at me with those big, curious eyes in quiet awe.
I felt like the cocoon which is destroyed when the butterfly inside emerges, or the egg which is shattered upon hatching. When Helper found me huddled in the corner of a storage room, I’d begun weeping without realizing it. Somehow she knew.
She didn’t say anything at first, just came up behind me and put her arms around my waist. She rocked me slowly side to side and rested her head on my shoulder. When she finally asked me why I was crying, I turned to face her.
“You don’t need me anymore” I tearfully muttered. She looked shocked. Then smiled warmly, and took off my mask. “Is that what you think?” she cooed while gently wiping away my tears. “I suppose it’s my turn to do this, isn’t it.”
She leaned in and kissed me, arms working their way up to clutch my back. Our lips lingered, tenderly touching but motionless. She then turned to whisper in my ear. “Of course I need you. Maybe not to protect me, or to speak for me. But my heart needs you. Whatever I become after this, however I change, I will always love you. Until the stars burn out. I can’t help myself.”
I stared up at her, awed. “You didn’t stutter.” She gave me a confused look, processing the statement until its meaning clicked for her. Again I wanted to confess that I love her. To pour my guts out. She looked at me expectantly with those big, bright eyes. But I still couldn’t do it. Damn my cowardly heart, only human after all.
When I said nothing, her lights eventually began to dim. I longed to shout that I love her for everyone to hear! To fly a defiant black flag with my heart on it for all the world to see! But all I could think about were the stern, disapproving stares of the others when they found us in the woods yesterday. What would they think? I insisted to myself that I don’t care. But the fear remained, pinning my lips shut.
Then the lights went out. I waited for them to come back on, expecting it was just another momentary outage. Frightened chatter and a few screams echoed through the subterranean network, strangely distorted by the time it reached my ears.
“EVERYBODY SETTLE DOWN!” I heard Big Red bellowing. That did the trick. The chatter continued but more quietly, and I heard no more fearful cries after that. “That’s just the mains power going out. Nothing says they disconnected it, more likely another airstrike on last of the local power plants. We’ve still got batteries and generators.”
At times like this, the value of having a single strong figure to reassure and organize people becomes clear. After all if there were no benefits, nobody would be willing to pay the steep price of such an arrangement.
I still had no intention of staying here any longer than necessary, but without one loud voice to decide for everyone what our course of action would be and to allay our fears, we’d likely be trampling each other by now in search of flashlights.
Instead, Big Red went from room to room handing them out. “Leave it to ‘ol Red” a shaky but grateful sounding voice echoed. “He always knows what to do.” When he reached the storage room, Helper tried to hide behind me. No use, if anything the darkness just made her illuminated sections stand out more.
“...What’re you two doing in here alone? I thought we had an understanding, son.” I assured him we were only talking. He raised one eyebrow. “Talking. Uh huh. Get out here with the rest.” We did as we were told, waiting nervously in total darkness except for the flashlights.
“Don’t waste ‘em” Big Red advised. “Those batteries won’t last forever. I got more down here but they’ll be real hard to put in if there’s no light to do it by. Keep ‘em turned off unless you need to go to the bathroom or something.”
The lights were dutifully extinguished in rapid succession until Helper was the only thing still glowing. It had the unanticipated effect of focusing all attention on her. When she realized the sparse whispers were mostly about pervert this, robosexual that, she dimmed until the lit portions of her body emitted only barely visible residual light.
There was nothing to be done about her eyes though, as she quietly explained they’re illuminated electrically rather than bacterially. One of the women quipped that her eyes don’t glow at all. A man’s voice then replied “That ain’t true sweetheart, your eyes always look like they glowin’ to me.” I could hear the two embrace and dote on one another.
“I think it’s cool!” This time, the voice of a young boy. The stern voice of his mother followed. “No you don’t, Daniel. Don’t you ever bring one of those home to me, neither.” Mild laughter resulted. Little by little, mostly to quiet our fears, we began talking to each other.
It quickly turned into a Q and A session with Helper. Simply by being the only light anybody could see most of the time, she inadvertently became the focal point of discussion. They wanted to know things like who made her (and couldn’t believe she made herself), what she can do, how long she runs on a charge, why so much of her glows and so on.
The questions were hostile or suspicious at times, but less and less so as the night wore on. They went from accusing her of being an infiltrator, to marveling at her bacterial insides, to laughing with her about my reaction when she purged some of it back at the military base in the span of just a few hours.
Stay Tuned for Part 50!
This is one of the saddest chapters I have read, I feel we are getting closer to something big.
Alex, you are a genius writing.
Very nice novel!
Seems like helper almost exposed her being affected while talking to that woman. She has to be really cautious from now on. At leas that’s what he recommends. At the end Helper does what she think needs to be done. He feels kind of like being abandoned be Helper since she does her own decisions now.
That’s what Helper told him when she found him crying. As of now, they are still hiding underground. The only question remains “what’s next?”.
I want a Q and A with the helper. The robot seems so sophisticated. I want to know how it was technically made, and the kind of AI software it has. ..😀
Your robot story us very nice .
I really like it .
Thanks for sharing @alexbeyman
This chapter can be observed repentance since he regrets not having shouted that he loved her.
On the other hand, one must do and say what one thinks or feels without fear of what others are going to say, because if something is done or said the same, bad people will intensely vam to shout one's actions but one has to think and do it well and beneficial for one.
I liked very much this chapter mentions us the love that they feel for each other, also the fear that he had when telling what he felt for her to be judged that they did not understand it. The fear I felt at knowing that she no longer needed someone to take care of her but love her that beautiful chapter.
It's been a long time, I think I've missed a lot of other chapters, this one seems a bit emotional at the end, I will have to look at others to catch up.
I think you should be calm and not worry about whether helper needs you or not because I already make it very clear, she can defend herself speaking alone and communicate alone without your help as you noticed, she needs you all your love and company to support her in those moments when they are in everyone's sight.
Big red has you in your sights try not to do anything wrong so you do not get thrown out of the bunker, we all know that you and helper love each other but it's not the time to give shows inside there, it will be time for you to tell helper that you love her too