Reboot

Part 4

Sara smirked at the smile on Reb's body, and Jacob cracked a grin at the picture. "Pretty!" he decided then ventured forward, and began to explore the robot, weaving between Reb's legs and jumping to touch the body. 

Sara smiled, pleased that Jacob was warming up to the robot- and that Reb seemed to be good with kids.

"You know," Sara said, looking again at Reb's picture, "I think this is what throws me off so much about you. You don't have any expressions for me to read; I can't tell what you're thinking from your behavior."

Reb was still, as Jacob inspected one of its legs. A new message soon spit out.

Would my presence cause you and others less distress if I had human like qualities? 

Sara shrugged as she thought about it, "I mean, everyone knows that robots who look too much like humans are creepy! But... some kind of face might be nice," she decided.

They were quiet as Jacob climbed up onto debris to look at Reb, "Can it move?" he asked.

Sara grinned, "Go ahead, Reb, show him!" she sat down on an old tire and removed her backpack.

Jacob's jaw dropped as Reb came to life and walked toward the shipping crate home, its legs moving gracefully across the uneven ground. Once reaching the crate, Reb climbed up onto it without hesitation.

"Cool huh?" Sara asked Jacob, watching him to gauge how he felt about the robot.

"Jump!" Jacob ordered, never one to be satisfied, he demonstrated with a little jump of his own.

Before Sara could respond, Reb surprised her by leaping to a van twenty feet away, the roof of the van collapsed slightly under the weight of the huge robot.

"WHOAW!" Jacob squealed in delight and Sara laughed; there was no end of surprises from this robot!

Reb wandered off the van and seemed to investigate the area.

"Snack time?" Sara asked, knowing that Jacob never turned down a snack.

'Snack' for post apocalyptic humans in Ontario consisted of much of what humans ate before the industrial revolution in the 1700's. Fresh goat cheese wrapped in waxed cloth, hard tack that would last through another apocalypse, and raw green beans. Sara had packed enough food for four days in the city, she would go for longer, but without preservatives, food didn't last long, and she could only carry so much scavenged electronics with her.

She would have preferred to eat in the safety of the shipping crate, but Jacob wanted to watch Reb. So, with a weary eye on the dark storm clouds, they set up a 'picnic' outside.

Reb had wandered further down the street but made its way back towards them when they came back outside.

"Boy?" Jacob asked pointing a sticky finger at Reb, Sara paused as she raised a metal water bottle to her lips.

"That's a good question," she admitted and glanced at Reb.

Once close enough, Reb printed a message, only instead of shooting out, it stopped short and sat in the slit like a receipt.

Sara raised her eyebrows as she stood to retrieve the note, "That's new!" she commented, before she could grab the message, Reb 'printed' more onto it.

My voice is simulated from a human woman's voice.

Yes, I have successfully modified this message system. Is it more helpful?

"Yeah, it is better," she answered, surprised at how easy it was becoming to converse with the robot.

"Reb is a girl," she told Jacob. She aimed a shrug at Reb; how was she supposed to explain that robots don't have genders to a child?