Chas
was not at home when I arrived that evening after buying a second cell phone
and a few other things at the store. The
empty house gave me an idea.
Although
I knew that odds were not in my favor, I decided to snoop around in Chas’ home
lab looking for any information that might help Noella and I break into his main lab.
First
I checked all of the drawers, but found nothing but metal scraps and mechanical
parts. I also checked through all of his
files and notes, but came up short of any real information.
Last
thing I checked was the trash bin attached to his workbench and found nothing
but trash. Chas had been careful not to
leave any revealing information around for me to find.
Slightly
disappointed, I turned my attention to another important matter. Something that I’ve been putting off for a
little while. I headed to my computer to
find a bit of information that I needed.
I
woke up very early the next morning, before Chas this time, and prepared to put
my plan into motion. First I headed into
our kitchen and cleaned the cabinets and refrigerators of any and everything
edible by humans.
Although
we bots primarily eat scraps, from time to time we still enjoy a human meal. It
gives our emotional systems a boost, although our system does nothing but
completely dissolve the food.
I packed what I found into three picnic baskets.
Today
was the day that I decided to make contact with the humans. I knew that the bots of Lunar Lakes would be
looking to me, their new leader, to get to the bottom of the president’s death. After all, I had no hope of the police
finding answers, but maybe I could. I
would question the humans first.
But
before that, I had something even more pressing that I had to do, and I wanted
to do it before I was expected at City Hall.
The
sun was still low in the sky when I directed my driver to a very isolated part
of Lunar Lakes; using the address that I jotted down last night after searching
for it on a Lunar Lakes database on my computer.
I
got out once we arrived at my destination; a fairly nice home on a hill.
Because
we bots are not accustomed to knocking I entered without announcing myself,
taking the occupant by complete surprise.
The
old lady turned around and gently placed the baby that was in her arms down on
the ground.
For
a brief moment I saw an older version of Frida’s face, but only before it morphed into complete
terror. I realized that this must be Frida’s
mother.
“Why have you come here? I’m just an old
sick woman…I…I’ve committed no crime and I
have nothing to offer you!”
“I
have not come to harm you,” I said in a gentle tone, but I realized that my
mechanical voice may not be very soothing to a human whose daughter has been
falsely accused of a crime and thrown in jail by a bunch of bots.
“Please! I’m the only one here to care for Leah,” she
said, and her voice trembled to the rhythm of her shaking, weak
body.
“I am here at the request of your daughter,” I said hoping to put her at ease.
“Frida? Frida sent you?” Her
tone now mixed with a bit of surprise to accompany the fear.
“I
am a friend. I am here to help you,” I
said standing as still as possible so as not to alarm her any further with any
sudden moves.
Only
when her face and stance began to relax a bit did I slowly step forward a
little.
However, her tone was still suspicious, “Why would Frida send you here?”
“Nana
na na na nana,” the baby at
the old lady’s feet began to babble, helping
to put the old lady at ease.
With
the old lady’s attention on the baby, I stepped forward until I was close to
the old lady and the baby. “Is that Frida’s daughter? Leah is it?”
I asked never before being this close to a human baby.
“Yes
and I’m the only one who is here to care for her,” the old lady said once again
defensively.
I quickly glanced at the old lady’s frail body and face. She was ghostly thin and was obviously very
ill; her skin appeared as if was barely thick enough to contain her
skeleton. “I would like to help,” I said
with what I hoped registered to her as a sincere smile.
“And
why would you do that? I saw you on TV
when the president made his announcement.
You’re with them.”
“You
are aware that the president has been murdered?” I said in slight questioning
tone. I did not wait for an answer
before continuing, “Well I am the
president now and I want to change the way things are.”
Frida’s mother did not
respond, but I saw what I thought was a flash of hope in her eyes. I saw that as a sign to continue
talking. “I want to find a way to have
your daughter’s sentence reduced.”
“She
should have never been sentenced in the first place,” the old lady said as Leah
continued babbling at our feet; clueless that we were discussing her mother.
“I
realize that and I know that it is my fault.
I want to make it up to all of you.”
Frida’s mother laughed, but
there was no humor in her eyes. “Make it
up to us? How’ll you do that with those
vicious bots out there? They killed one
president…what makes you think they won’t kill you?”
“I have to try.”
“You
can try, just like you did with Frida…but look where she ended up.”
Frida’s mother
continued, “I think you should just go
back to your part of town.”
“I
really want to help,” I said pulling out a doll for Leah. “I am sure that you and your granddaughter
are not getting enough to eat. I will
make sure that the two of you never spend another night hungry.”
Frida’s mom looked as if she
was thinking about what I said. There
was no way she could deny that she and Leah were in trouble there alone;
especially with her in her current condition.
While
she was busy thinking about what I had said, I took the opportunity to place
the doll on the ground in front of Leah.
Leah
smiled and began babbling to the doll, “nana na na na,” she said
cheerfully.
Finally
the old lady seemed to snap back, “I’m sorry if I don’t trust you
politicians. That President Aron was a tyrant and I
just don’t know how you can be any different.”
I avoided the old lady’s eyes because I could understand her hesitation. We bots have treated the humans terrible
since their arrival.
She
continued, “As soon as you get any resistance from your fellow bots, you’ll be
right back to treating us like trash.”
Again, her words had some truth to them.
Going against the other bots regarding the treatment of humans would be
hard and could cost me a lot. I would be
forced to find some sort of balance.
“I
want to believe you, but how can I?
Especially with my daughter still being imprisoned and scheduled to die
in a crystal mine. Even if she survives,
she’ll never be the same.”
All
of this time, part of me wanted to believe that I was doing the right thing in
having the humans, including Frida, serve their sentences in the mine. But there was no justice in it and Frida’s mom knew it. I felt demoralized in knowing that nothing I
had done up to now was even close to being enough.
Then
the old lady surprised me. “But…if Frida trusted you enough
to send you here…I am going to do my best to put my trust in you as
well.”
My system sent me a smile response, even though I would probably have
automatically smiled anyway.
“Thank
you. I cannot promise you that I will be
able to get your daughter out of jail, especially if I want to keep my position
and change our unfair laws. But I can promise that you and Leah will never see
another hungry day as long as I am here.”
“Then that is enough for me. My priority
now is Leah.”
Leah
pulled her doll close and hugged it tight.
I
watched the old lady retrieve a bottle and struggle to reach down and hand it
to the child. How had she managed to
care for Leah thus far, when it appeared that she herself had been slowly
starving to death?
Leah
eagerly grabs the bottle from her grandmother, her sole caretaker.
I
stared down at them realizing that I had just crossed a line that I could never
undo.
If
Chas or even Noella knew what I had just
done…what I will be doing, I knew our relationship would be forever severed.
Still,
I felt a response command that I could not even name, but it kept a smile on my
face.
I
placed the picnic basket containing at least a week’s worth of food down on the
counter; realizing that it did not come close to being enough to make up for Frida’s injustice…
But
at least it was something.
Labels: Metallic Heart
