Learn to Live

In all his seven-hundred years, Auto had never been truly bored before.

Running the Axiom kept him busy for seven hundred years. Now, fifteen years after the ship had landed, he had nothing to do, except receive more tiresome therapy and pointless education from people who became more annoying every day.

The lesson Auto was now enduring involved a very ancient item referred to as a video game. WALL·E, the little robot who had made a mess of Auto's orderly life, was here. With him was EVE, the probe-bot gone rogue. Hannah, the human teenager who had reactivated and disarmed him, was also present. She was sitting on the floor next to EVE, and wearing a near constant smirk on her face.

Hannah had connected the console to the ship's computer so the game would be displayed on the big holo-screens. WALL·E then installed the game cartridge and offered a control pad to the autopilot. Auto blinked at him coldly. He still did not like the garbage-bot, and the fact that he was showing less fear toward him was irritating.

Auto used his long single arm, the only tool the roboticist had not stolen from him, to take the control pad. The only way he could use it was by holding it between his pincers and pecking the buttons with his wheel-spokes. The game was a simple one. All the players had to do was move a short white line on the screen up and down to hit an endlessly bouncing dot. WALL·E had been playing it for centuries. He was a master. Auto was not.

After losing to the garbage-bot for the twenty-sixth time in a row, Auto pushed his control pad away. "Video game is defective."

Hannah giggled and whispered to EVE. "Somebody's a sore loser."

WALL·E picked up Auto's control pad and held it out to him with a hopeful expression. "Rematch?"

Auto glared. "Negative."

WALL·E shrugged and offered the control pad to EVE. "New game?"

EVE looked to Hannah for permission. The girl nodded.

"Okay." EVE accepted the control pad from WALL·E and the two of them began to play.

Auto watched them for a while. EVE was a good player and earned many points, but she never seemed to beat WALL·E. Occasionally their scores would be tied, but he would always claim victory in the end. Losing didn't seem to bother her as much as it bothered Auto.

At last he voiced the question that had been on his mind for hours. "What is the purpose of this?"

Hannah replied with another question. "The purpose of what?"

"This 'video game.' I can see no logical purpose for its existence."

Hannah rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. You know about games, Auto. People used to play games around here all the time."

"Play is a human activity. Robots do not play."

Hannah decided not to mention the two robots currently proving him wrong. "Why not?"

"Robots do not have time or reason to play. Directive comes first. Directive is everything."

"What about robots that don't have a directive?"

"Not possible."

"What about you?"

Auto did not answer. He had quickly learned that trying to prove the girl wrong was an exercise in futility. She seemed to think that she was always right no matter what the subject was. Humans were annoying that way. They did not have directives, so they played constantly and did nothing of any importance. They existed only for robots to serve them. Then things had changed. Because of change, his ship was empty and earthbound. Because of change, he was constantly being pestered by two robots who had totally denied their original directives, and a human child who thought she had a directive more important than everyone else.

Auto decided he did not like change. Change did not make any sense.

Then one day the Captain paid him a visit.

The autopilot had been shut off again when his instructors had left. He was expecting to see their faces when he was turned on. But instead there was a totally different face there, a face that was somewhat familiar and yet totally foreign. Auto did not recognize who it was until the man spoke.

"Hey, there, Auto. Long time no see, eh?"

The voice was unmistakable. Auto's single red optic grew wide. "Captain?"

"In the flesh!"

Auto regarded him in silence for a moment. "You are … different."

It was true. The man was fifteen years older now, his skin weathered by the elements and wrinkling with age. Some of the hair under his hat was turning gray, and he was thin enough not only to fit his arms through the sleeves of his jacket, but to fasten the buttons. The Captain smiled back. He straightened himself up and adjusted his hat. "I'll take that as a compliment. Sorry for dropping in so late. I would've checked up on you sooner, but running a colony has a way of taking up all your time."

Auto still felt somewhat … Confused? Surprised? He did not know exactly which word applied to the emotion he was now feeling. Emotions were still a new concept to him in general. "Where are my instructors?"

"I gave them the day off. They've earned it. Plus, I wanted to spend some time with you alone today."

Auto blinked his optic again. "Why?"

The man grinned. "It's been fifteen years. We have a lot of catching up to do!" The Captain then walked toward the front of the bridge. Not knowing what else to do, Auto followed him. "So, how are you getting along with WALL·E and the girls?"

"They are bothersome." Auto said bluntly. "And confusing. Their attempts to instruct me are futile, yet they persist nonetheless."

"Sounds like it's working to me. You're a lot more chatty than usual."

"I had no choice but to become 'chatty'. The human Hannah would chatter endlessly if I did not interject."

The man chuckled. "Yup, that's Hannah. She takes after her mother that way."

"Mother?" Auto repeated the word, trying to remember what it meant.

"Yeah, once Mary gets going it's hard to stop her. I don't know how her husband John deals with it!"

"Husband?" That was another word he couldn't remember. Then it dawned on him. "Not possible."

The Captain looked confused. "Huh?"

"Family units ceased to exist on the Axiom six-hundred years ago."

The man scratched the back of his head. "Really? It only took a year for us to start them again. John and Mary were the first couple to have a baby on Earth. That was Hannah, you know."

Auto considered this news. "Is that why she is so…odd?"

The Captain shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe. There's been lots of other kids born after her to other couples. They're all really different from the kids who were born on the Axiom. Being raised by humans instead of robots might have something to do with it."

Auto had a theory of his own. He suspected that the planet Earth itself caused all of its inhabitants to go insane. That would explain not only the behavior of the child roboticist, but the WALL·E unit, and perhaps the EVE probe, too. Before he could ask the Captain anything about it, the man turned away from him and looked out the large windows. Bright sunlight was streaming in. The scenery outside was drenched in it and the foliage was changing colors with the season. Auto was still rather uncomfortable about it all.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

Auto looked at the Captain. "What?"

"The world. It's beautiful, don't you think?"

Auto looked at the view outside again. "I have not yet learned this concept of 'beauty.'"

"Hmm. I'll ask your teachers to include that in your lessons."

Auto looked back at the human again. This time he was certain he felt confused. "Captain, why have you done all this?"

The Captain looked back at him. "Huh?"

There were many reasons Auto had asked that question, but he chose to concentrate on one for simplicity's sake. "It was you who ordered them to instruct me. You could have me destroyed instead. You did not. Why?"

The man looked at the robot very seriously. He turned back to the window and folded his arms behind his back. Another moment of silence passed. Auto grew uncomfortable. Then the Captain began to speak again.

"To tell you the truth, Auto, there was a time when I really wanted to destroy you. But too many people needed me, so I sort of forgot. Then as more time went by, I started to think." He looked at the robot beside him, still very serious. "Tell me, Auto. You never thought what you were doing was wrong, did you?"

Auto wondered why the man was answering his question with another question. He answered it anyway.

"I was not wrong. I was following my directive."

The Captain nodded his head. "I see. Directives are really important to you, aren't they?"

"It is the same with all robots. Directive comes first. Directive is everything."

"What about robots that don't have a directive?"

"Not possible. All robots have a directive."

"What about you, Auto? What's your directive?"

The autopilot grew more confused. Yet he answered anyway. "Oversee passenger safety and voyage logistics."

"What about now?" The Captain unfolded his arms and spread his hands before him. "No more passengers. No more voyage. What directive do you have now?"

Auto did not answer. All of a sudden, he realized he was a robot without a purpose. That bothered him very much.

The Captain waited for Auto to reply. When he did not, he folded his arms over his chest. "That's what I thought. You were just a machine doing your job. You had no sense of right or wrong, you were just doing what you were made for."

Auto did not want to think about his lack of a directive anymore, so he changed the subject. "You still did not answer my question, Captain. Why have you not destroyed me?"

The Captain gave a small smile. It was not exactly a happy smile, but it was not totally unhappy, either. "I think you deserve another chance, Auto. You didn't know any better back then, but you can change."

Auto looked at his reflection in the window. The red boot was still attached to him. He glared at it. "I do not need to change. I am not defective."

"No, you aren't." said the Captain. "Not literally, anyway. But if you want to live in this world, you'll have to start changing." He looked out the window at the colony again, his tone contemplative. "We've lived on Earth for fifteen years now, Auto, and the most important thing we've learned is that nothing stays the same. To stay alive in a world where everything is always changing, we have to change, too."

"Why?" Auto asked. "Why do you choose to live in a place like that? Why do you not stay on the Axiom, like you always have?"

The Captain walked to the back of the bridge toward the window overlooking the now empty Lido deck. Memories of artificial sunlight, lines of human and robot traffic, holo-screen ads and redundant morning announcements began drifting into his head. "The Axiom isn't our home, Auto. It was never meant to be home. For seven hundred years, every day was exactly the same. Life was easy, but it made us weak."

He looked back at the autopilot, who was still staring at him in silence. He couldn't tell if the robot really understood anything he was saying, but he still needed to hear it. "Here on Earth, every day is different. The sun doesn't rise and set at the touch of a button. Our chairs don't hover, and meals don't come in cups. It's harder, yes, but it's better than living in a plush prison with nothing to do."

Auto considered the Captain's words. They sounded very much like what he had said fifteen years ago, after he had seen the confidential message. He had said Earth was their home then, that it was in trouble, and that he could not stay on the Axiom doing nothing.

He did not want to survive. He wanted to live.

Now Auto himself was experiencing something similar. He had never thought he would be faced with a life without directives. That was the same as a life of doing nothing. A robot that did nothing was worthless. A worthless robot was trash to be crushed and disposed of.

Auto did not want to be trash.

Suddenly there was a beeping noise. The Captain reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small cell phone. "Hello, this is the Captain speaking … Really? Who's in charge of that? … Okay, I'll be right there!" He hung up and stowed the phone back in his pocket. "Sorry, Auto, I need to get going. That was the head of the water treatment plant and it sounded important. A Captain's work is never done, is it?"

"No." Auto replied rather weakly. Then the Captain began to approach him, and the autopilot realized he was about to shut him off. Just before the man's finger could press the button on his boot, Auto turned his wheel body just enough so that he missed. Before the Captain could say anything about it, Auto spoke.

"Captain…" he said, in a tone that was very earnest. "I…must have a directive. I cannot function without a directive."

The Captain blinked at him in surprise. Then he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm ... Okay, I'll give you one. From now on, your directive is to learn."

Auto's voice sounded vaguely worried. "What must I learn?"

The Captain smiled. "Learn to live, Auto."

Then he pressed the button, sending him into silent darkness again.

To be continued...