Tobias
I felt an internal heat rise, but not purely a temperature fluctuation. No, this consisted of some additional component. It took me a split second to identify it as anger. I spoke carefully. "You may think it's silly, but the Caretakers didn't." I paused as I crossed my arms. "I will ensure you have whatever charging station you like, but don't insult Caretaker Adrianna's memory in my presence again."
Gary reached out to gently trace a finger along the canvas of the painting before replying, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to insult Caretaker Adrianna or you." Despite its struggles with communication, I felt it was sincere in its apology. It glanced at me. "Is there one here?"
"One what?"
"A charging station. Is there one here?"
I blinked as my anger melted away. Gary seemed so... small. "In my apartment? No. At least not one designed to fit you. There's one in the basement, however. We can check it out together."
Gary nodded and rolled to the door, letting itself out with a deft tap at the door button. The motion was an odd contrast to the emotional state of the robot, a juxtaposition of easy confidence with anxious concern. Had I been like this when I first woke? I remembered being aware of emotions even as I experienced them, as I still did. Did that ability make the transition easier? Did the magical process of becoming awake carry some emotional programming with it? How were we becoming without having to learn how to be? It was a conundrum.
I followed behind Gary as it rolled through the door, watching as it also called the elevator to our floor with the press of a button. It mimicked the ding when the door opened, and all of the subsequent sounds as we descended, much as a child might enjoy its surroundings. I contemplated its developmental age. In the end, I concluded it didn't matter much as long as it was happy and could contribute to society somehow. We would have to explore what way that would be. Maybe it would like to be the next generation of groundskeepers.
When we arrived, the doors dinged and slid open on a dark basement. We could only see the occasional tiny green or red light from some piece of equipment shining from the pitch black. Gary hung back while I stepped off the elevator and activated the automatic lights.
The ample space was plain and no-frills; it wasn't an area for entertainment or refreshment. Instead, it housed cages of spare items for the apartments, various necessary tools for minor repairs, and two charging stations, one on each end of the rectangular room, that could support three machines each.
"So," I asked, indicating the nearby station to the right of us, "Which would you like, this one or," I turned and pointed down the long aisle to the left, "that one?"
Gary rolled out of the elevator and came to a stop beside me, its proximity close enough to nearly roll over my foot. It was clear that Gary was a mix of anxiety and fear. I thought I sensed a trembling from it, but I dismissed it as a presumption I might have made based on its emotional state. It looked around at the items in the area and asked a most unexpected question.
"Do the lights stay on?"
I cocked my head. "Stay on?"
Gary nodded. "Yes. Do the lights stay on? When you leave?"
I watched Gary's reaction as I answered. "I don't believe they do. They're automatic, however, some movement will turn them on again."
Gary drooped in on itself ever so slightly."I..." Gary began but then faded away.
"Yes?"
"I don't want to stay here," it whispered, chirping lightly. It rolled back onto the elevator as far into the car as possible.
I followed its movement. "Why not? It's a much nicer station than at the warehouse," I pointed out. "It's rapid charge, too."
Gary shifted. "I just don't! I have enough charge to last until at least noon tomorrow. I can charge somewhere else before then."
I narrowed my eyes at it. "Are—are you frightened? Of the basement?"
Gary sagged even more and shook its head. "No. Not of the basement. Of the dark. I've never been in the dark before!"
I rolled my eyes and stepped into the car, punching the button for the sixth floor. "Don't be ridiculous! Every time you shut down, you're in the dark!"
"Once I'm shut down, I don't know what's what. Who cares if I'm in the dark when I can't see it? But during the time I'm getting turned on and turned off? Or when I'm just on charge? I've never been in the dark. Not once."
The quiet logic of Gary's explanation hit me, cooling my temper and bringing a moment of contemplation. How would I feel, faced with utter blackness, if I had never been in the dark previously? The protest seemed more and more sound, and it became apparent that I needed to spare a little compassion and understanding.
I clasped my hands in front of me and bounced on the balls of my feet a little. "Well, why don't you stay with me, or in one of the empty apartments, for the night, and then tomorrow, we'll not only find you a station, we'll find you a home?"
Gary's head came up, and a bright chirp filled the car a moment before the sixth-floor chime. "Really? A home of my own?"
"Yes. If that's what you want." I stepped into the hall.
"Oh, yes!" Gary rolled after me.
My feet were nearly kicked out from underneath me when Gary grabbed me in an awkward hug from behind. I threw my arms out for support as it screeched, "Thank you, Tobias!" It released me before we went down in a heap, the bizarre maneuver over so quickly that I didn't have time to react. Dazed, I could only watch as it rolled into my apartment once again, chatting as it did. "We're going to be such good friends! I just know it!"
I contemplated the necessity of "sleep" for androids and robots. The Caretakers had created our systems to conduct basic self-repair on an ongoing basis. Still, more extensive repairs and other tasks, such as storing the daily recordings, required actual downtime. Hence, we needed periodic sleep. It consisted of a swath of time, usually six hours or so, of uninterrupted processing. We weren't turned off and put into storage, but we weren't awake and simply charging either. Our systems were set to minimal levels, diverting power to our processors and self-repair systems. It truly did mimic human sleep. So, it shouldn't have been any surprise how angry I became when a loud crash tripped my internal alarms, woke me up with a start, and propelled me off the sleeping platform mere moments before I had scheduled my morning alarm.
"Gary! What's going on?" I shouted as I rolled into the main room from the sleeping chamber.
"I'm so sorry, Tobias!" it said as it swept the painting's crooked canvas off the floor. "I'll get you a new one!" It stood and clutched the disheveled art to its chest. "I didn't mean to break it."
I scowled and snatched the ruined art from it. "What are you doing up anyway? I thought we agreed on the alarm time?"
"Well, I—"
My alarm chimed, an additional intrusion into my peace instead of the wakeful alert it was meant to be. I silenced it with a scowl. I crossed my arms and waited for Gary's explanation.
"I got bored, okay? I did my processing cycle when you went to bed, but mine only lasted four hours. After that, I had to keep myself busy. But it was easier to think and move at the same time, so I looked around. When I took the painting off the wall, it broke—"
I calmed my heart and set the painting aside. "It's not about the painting, Gary. We can find something else to go there. Truth be told, I hadn't noticed it until you came along."
"Oh."
I stepped toward it. "I'm more interested in you and making sure you're handling being awake."
"Oh!" Gary shifted. "I think I'm okay. I mean, what am I supposed to be like?"
"I don't know," I admitted. I checked my internal clock. The dogs would be almost at the park. If I wanted to play with them, we needed to go. "Come on. Let's go to the park. I want you to meet Rex this morning. Brownie, too, if he comes. I go every morning."
Gary rolled after me as I exited the apartment. "Who are Rex and Brownie? Are they awake, too?"
"They're dogs. Some of the last pets of the Caretakers. I like to throw a ball for them, and they seem to like it, too."
Gary paused. "Dogs?"
I stopped and turned. "Yes." I narrowed my eyes. "Are you afraid of dogs, too?"
Gary tsked. "No, not afraid. I just don't like them. They make a mess of the grass!"
I cocked my head. "What are you talking about?"
"When they poop. They make a mess on the grass."
I blinked. "You don't like dogs because they defecate?"
"On the grass I care for. Then, I have to clean it up."
I wondered how Gary had developed such an aversion. It was much like the fear of the dark. Surely, it didn't feel these emotions before being woken, so where did these opinions come from? Was it predisposed not to like dogs, or did it magically develop the emotion as part of the waking process? It was a mystery. "Caretakers were supposed to clean up after their dogs."
Gary put its hand on its hip. "Well, they didn't. Hardly ever. Why would they when they had us around?"
"What do you mean?"
"Look, I don't know what it was like for you androids, but for us service robots, well, we did all the things Caretakers didn't want to do."
I crossed my arms. "I don't understand the problem. Are you saying that the robots aren't... happy?"
Gary shook his head. "No, they can't be unhappy. They're not awake. But now that I am, the reality of the situation is coming to light."
"But, if they can't be unhappy, then where is the problem? They are machines, right?"
Gary rolled a bit closer. "Is it okay to mistreat something just because it doesn't understand it's being mistreated?"
"I..." I began, but I let my words die. Part of me wanted to say that, no, of course it wasn't right, but another part pointed out that if it wasn't conscious or aware to begin with, was there really any wrongdoing? I rubbed my chest and scowled. "Define mistreated. The Caretakers created robots to do some dangerous jobs. Are those robots being mistreated when placed in dangerous situations?"
Gary shrugged. "I don't know. I just know it bothers me that I was expected to pick up after dogs when they pooped on the grass. I wasn't specifically programmed to do that; I had to be directed to do it each time. Now that I'm awake, that seems wrong."
We both looked across the park when Rex barked. He was enjoying sticking his head into snow drifts along the way as his attendant rolled behind him. When he spotted us, I waved, and he came bounding toward me.
"This is Rex," I said to Gary as the big dog began sniffing around, tail high and curious.
"Hello, Rex," Gary said, watching for a moment before turning its attention to the approaching attendant. "Are you going to wake up this one, too?"
"Wake up the attendant? I hadn't planned on it, at least not specifically. I don't even know if I can repeat the process."
"Good Morning, Tobias," the attendant said, rolling to a stop next to me.
"Good morning. Is Brownie's hip still bothering him?"
"Yes. He doesn't like the cold and refuses to come out."
"Okay. Make sure the veterinarian attendant takes a look at him."
"Of course, Tobias," the attendant assured me.
Gary held out a hand. "Hi. My name is Gary."
The attendant looked at Gary's hand before refocusing on me, ignoring the greeting it wasn't programmed to process.
"Don't be mad, Gary. It doesn't know what to do," I explained.
Gary scowled, but before it could respond, we heard the sound of liquid hitting metal. Looking down, we discovered why; Rex had cocked his leg and urinated on Gary's rollerball.
~
Author's Discussion: A fear of the dark and an intense dislike of dogs (though that seems somewhat justified). What do you think of Gary? Do you think how Tobias treats him is fair?