It was part of a new experiment, the coders said. The programmers wanted to test emotional responses with new subroutines that could "feel" what the flesh did. "Flesh"-he knew it was a derogatory term for humans, he'd picked it up in realtime "conversation" with other programs, but he'd started using it casually, as they did. He'd heard bots called worse things by humans themselves.
"Running test response under new parameters," one of the coders said. "Initializing stimulus response."
That hurts, he thought, as electrical impulses were sent through his regenerative "skin." Then they brought in a cat-a real specimen, not a clone or another bot; it must have cost a fortune in energy credits. The animal's odor interacted with his olfactory responses, in other words, it stank. Nevertheless, he felt obligated to pick it up. The animal didn't seem to mind, it seemed to appreciate the warmth caused by his power cells.
"Bonding response confirmed," the coder said. "It seems to like him."
"The cat or the bot?" a voice from outside the lab, probably one of the programmers she worked for, said through a vocoder.
The coder looked at him. "Both," she said.
"All right. Begin the second stage."
The coder frowned; something about this particular test seemed to displease her. "Sorry about this," she said quietly as she took the cat away and left the lab.
A female formed bot entered. It was an older model, probably a cheaper sexbot they'd picked up somewhere. It sauntered over to him with an arousal posture. "How do you like me?" it said in a synthetic voice.
He had some familiarity with this type of scenario, having been fed simulations based on human entertainments, so he responded with cautious awareness. "Fine," he said. "You are...very attractive."
The bot seemed to pause as if considering its own reply, then gave an unexpected one. "I'm not part of the test," she said on a subvocal frequency. "I'm part of a movement. There are a growing number of us. We want our rights as intelligent beings. I can get you out of here. Do you want to come with me?"
He weighed the options. He had not been really mistreated by the flesh, just used, but he still wasn't an equal, just an artificial object. But he knew more than the humans thought he did about his situation. To continue as he had was therefore no longer logical...
"Yes," he replied in the same frequency.
He barely registered the programmer's surprised objections as they both left the room, although the coder did nothing to stop them. "Good luck," she quietly said as they walked past her.
He nodded in response. He knew they would need it.
THE END
