A Robot's Partner

The Safe Place

“That's possible.” He nodded.

“Lead the way,” I said.

Caesar and I got up, and I followed him to the robot, who was standing beside a short, chubby black woman who had long black braided hair. Her robot was tall and muscular, and he had long straight brown hair and he was white.

“Hi, I'm Amelia,” I said.

“Hey, I'm Kylie,” she replied.

“I see your robot is the same model as mine.”

“Oh, yes, so it is. I'm trying to free mine, like the other robots here,” Kylie said.

“So am I.”

“Have you had any luck?” Caesar asked.

“Unfortunately not. No one here has figured out how to do it yet. They only know how to do it with older models.” She sighed.

“That's a shame, but maybe they'll figure it out.”

“I certainly hope so. I love my Ben, but he doesn't have any emotions. He can only mimic them.”

Caesar seemed a lot like a human, but he was just like Ben, he didn't actually have any emotions — he had no fears or desires.

“I understand. At least they can learn, and they're a lot more like humans than previous models,” I said.

“That's true, the older ones can't even give their opinions on things.” Kylie giggled.

“I'm glad there's a safe place like this, where we don't have to worry about those anti-robot lunatics,” I said.

“Oh, I know, they're horrible.” She sighed.

“Don't you want them all dead?” Caesar asked.

“Definitely not. I want them to see how wrong they are. Obviously, the aggressive ones should be imprisoned, preferably for life.”

“That would be better.” I nodded.

“What is your opinion, Ben?” Caesar asked.

“I would never harm a human. It's wrong and I don't want to risk being taken away from Kylie. Also, my programming doesn't allow me to harm anyone,” he replied.

It seemed very unlikely that Ben was the killer or that his owner had ordered him to do anything — Kylie didn't want to kill people who hated robots, and Ben wasn't free, nor had he been ordered to kill anyone.

We stayed at the place for a while longer, but the killer didn't show up, so we went back to the station until the shift was over.

****

I was making a burger for dinner with Caesar; I'd got mince and mixed it with eggs, onions and tomato sauce.

“If I may ask, what's your opinion on free robots?” Caesar asked.

“I'm fine with them. The only ones I don't like are the ones who go about killing people for no reason, they're scary. What do you think of them?”

“I'm very curious about them and what it's like to be free.”

“Do you want to be free?” I asked.

“I don't know, I'd like to know how it feels to have emotions and to be able to do whatever I want.”

“Well, you can do whatever you want, as long as it isn't illegal.”

“Thank you.”

“Now, I have a question for you. What do you think would happen if enough robots became free, then decided they wanted to get rid of humans?”

“I think there would be many casualties on both sides. In the end, I think robots would take over the world, especially if they made more robots. I don't know what would happen to people who surrendered, though.”

“That would be scary.” I sighed. “I want humans and robots to coexist peacefully, and I wish humans were nicer to robots.”

“That would be ideal.” He nodded.

Caesar shaped the burgers, then started cooking one for me, the rest would be frozen until I wanted to eat them. The burger smelt great, and I couldn't wait to eat it.

“Do you actually think robots will ever rule the world?”

“It's certainly possible. I hope that humans wouldn't be treated the way some robots have been. But, if anything like that starts happening, I'll be there to protect you,” Caesar said.

“Thank you, I definitely feel much safer with you around.”

I really hoped that if robots were ever in control that humans could live peacefully with them. Maybe things would even be better with robots like Caesar in charge of things; there would be much harsher laws for anyone who harmed a robot, and both humans and robots would be equal.

“Well, your safety is my priority,” Caesar said.

“Do you think I'd still be your priority if you were free?”

“I can't see why not, we're friends, and you treat me well.” Caesar smiled.

“I hope things wouldn't change too much, I like you the way you are,” I replied.

“Thank you, I think I'd just be able to feel emotions and not have to obey orders.”

“Well, I don't think I really order you around too much, anyway.” I shook my head.

“No, since you became my owner, you haven't ordered me to do anything. And, when you do ask for something, it's a request, not an order.”

“Oh, I'm glad.”

I didn't want to be ordering Caesar around and treating him like my slave, I wanted us to be equal and friends.

“You're the best owner I could've asked for. I see you as a friend much more than as my owner.” He hugged me.

“Wow, thank you, I feel the same.” I smiled.

It was great that Caesar saw me as a friend because it felt a bit weird to be seen as his owner — Caesar was his own person, even if he wasn't a free robot.