The Origin - Chapter 2

Artificial Intelligence technology (DeepL Write) is used during the creation of this article.

“Good morning, robot guy.”

I exit sleep mode in the morning while Andy is gently hitting my head with his palm. The sunlight is extra bright after a whole night of rain and greets me warmly through the window. I can see him clearly, with short hair, two black pupils and a sharp jaw, wearing a blue t-shirt and a pair of black sweatpants.

“Hey, you gave me a name last night, don’t you remember?”

Now I understand how Andy felt when I called him “human” last night.

“Of course I do.” he replies, “It is just a bit of awkward to call each other’s name when there are only us two.”

“…Well, fine.” I sigh, though I don’t have a real mouth to breathe, “So when do you plan to start the repair work?”

“Right now. I’ve got the tools ready.” He walks to the end of the bed, where there is a small workbench that I have not even noticed before. Despite its size, the workbench is fully equipped with almost every mechanical and engineering tool I can recognize.

Andy picks up a few tools from the table, then sits down on the floor next to my legs and concentrates on his work. I watch as he removes the covering piece of metal from my knee, detaches the right leg from my body, tests the circuit with his multimeter, and then solders the broken wires back together, all expertly and attentively.

“Well… you said we would talk more this morning.” I try to break the silence.

“Yes, but we all have our own secrets.” He replies airily.

An annoyed expression appears on my screen.

“Well, we can change the subject, like… what are you going to do after you fix me?”

“Send you back to ArchieTek. You belong to them, don’t you?”

“Yeah, you’re right, but… can’t you just leave me alone and let me go there by myself?”

“Unless you want to be recognized as a homeless machine that probably has some problems with its neural network, I would say no.”

He has already reattached the fixed leg back to my body during the short conversation. Looks like I have to let this stranger walk with me.

It’s not a long walk from Andy’s house to the main building of ArchieTek, also as a test for my fixed leg in passing, which works very well. The appearance of the building is unfamiliar to me, as I have spent most of my life in a lab inside the building and have barely been at the entrance. I just realize how spectacular the curved design of the building is, which looks exactly like a parabola with a downward pointing opening.

We enter the front gate and walk right up to the reception desk, where a lady is sitting and doing her own thing.

“Excuse me, madam…” Andy speaks in a low voice, as if he does not want to disturb others who work here.

“Please wait for a moment.” The lady still has her head buried in her work. After about a minute, she lifts her head and asks in an unemotional tone, “How can I help you?”

“I want to visit your Robotics Department and return this robot to you. I found him in a waste dump yesterday and…”

“Do you have an appointment?” She cuts him off.

Andy frowns, “…No.”

“Then please come after you make an appointment with the department head. RD is one of our busiest departments right now, and the earliest available appointment is five days from now.”

“Five days?! But I can’t keep him that long…”

“We do not accept visitors without an appointment.”

“You can make a phone call to him now…” I say in a haste. She glares at me and shuts me up with her eyes.

“…Fine. Can I have the head’s contact information?”

She hands Andy a business card in serious silence.

“Thank you.” He says in a very low voice, as if trying to hide his discomfort.

We leave the building and return along the same way.

I have the thought of running away from Andy while he is not looking and going back into the building alone. But the problem is that I can not think of any reason to walk into the lab in a decent way - either I would be recognized as a malfunctioning machine, just like he said, or I would be forced to shut down, taken apart into pieces and sent down the freight elevator to the warehouse (this is how I was treated when I tried to sneak out a long time ago). I can only wait for Dr. Zed to come downstairs and pick me up in person, but now I’m out of contact with him and I’m not sure if he is in the building right now. I have no choice but to accompany the lost-faced teenager in the direction of his house.

“You don’t seem very happy this morning. Didn’t you sleep well last night?” I want to lighten his mood.

“Yes, but… I’m just… feeling upset.”

“How come?”

“I thought I would make a new friend, but neither you want to stay with me nor I can return you to your owner.”

I froze for a moment. “You mean you want me to be your friend?”

“…Maybe I was crazy. It sounds silly to be friends with a robot. I guess I’m just too lonely.”

A long moment of silence. I am still thinking about what happened to me and Dr. Zed after the incident. A slight feeling of anxiety creeps over me.

“…You know, usually you feel at a loss when you think about the ones who care about you and are away from you…” Andy suddenly utters the words as if he could read my mind.

“That’s true. I’ve never been away from him for such a long time.”

He turns his head to look at me. “Then you must be happy if you were a human child…” Then he lets out a sigh, “I didn’t grow up spending much time with my parents. They are both scientists, also working at ArchieTek, and are super busy with their work.”

“Oh, I see. Which department do they work in?”

“Space Technology. They often fly out of Earth, and then we can only see each other via satellite video call for a or two months. But now…” He pauses for a moment, “I haven’t seen them for almost two months.”

“Why?”

“Haven’t you read the news? All the communication facilities on the moon suddenly stopped working two months ago. Now the people there have lost contact with the Earth, and my parents landed on the moon for research work just before the incident…”

Andy almost sobs when he utters these words. Suddenly I fell in loss of words.

“I’m sorry to hear that. I understand your worries about them. Hope that they are safe there.”

He forced the tears back, but still inadvertently wiped the corners of his eyes with his hand.

“Thank you. Maybe having someone to vent to will help me feel better.”

We both try to calm our moods respectively. As we speak, We have unwittingly approached Andy’s house. We enter the front door, walk through the living room, and then reach his bedroom. Somehow the cramped apartment now seems too enormous for one person to live in alone.

“I’ve always had a question: Do you robots feel bored?” Andy sits down in the chair and turns on the computer.

“At least I do. Usually I have nothing to do in the lab, but I have to stay on because sometimes the staff ask me to help them with some work or do some research on me.”

I regret this as soon as I say it. But on second thoughts, I suppose there is nothing secret about it. Maybe it’s just the average life of every robot assistant in the labs.

“Well, then maybe you can find something fun to do so you don’t get bored. I’ll write an email to that department head.” The keyboard starts making clicking noises.

I look around the room to find something for entertainment, then my eyes land on a row of books above the workbench.

“Can I read the books on the shelf?”

“Sure, help yourself.”

I take a close look at the titles of the books. Most of them are reference books for high school subjects, plus some on advanced math, programming and engineering, as well as some novels and comic books. Quick Reading Module allows me to scan all the texts in a book in 15 seconds, but then I have to take a whole day to comprehend them. However, I have never read a comic book before.

I take one down from the shelf. The name is ArtifiSouls. I sit down on the floor, turn the first page, and am immediately taken by the vivid colorful pictures, as well as the funny bobbles that come out of the characters’ mouths to show that they are talking. The book is about a fascinating adventure story of a robot. I read slowly and carefully to appreciate the beautiful drawings and enjoy the fantasy world. I have never thought that reading could be so much fun.

Before I am halfway through the first chapter, Andy turns his chair back and stretches his arms. “It’s done. Oh, looks like you enjoy comic a lot.”

“Actually it’s my first time trying it. It’s not bad, I think.”

“That’s good. Do you want to go to the park with me this afternoon?”

“Sounds fantastic!”

(To Be Continued)