PASSENGERS (2016)

Chapter Three

Elizabeth has discovered Arthur can learn, but how much, and in what way would his newfound knowledge express itself?

I do not own any part or character of this film, just my OC.

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"Good morning, Elizabeth! How are you this fine morning?" Arthur chirped happily, on seeing his favourite, and only customer.

Elizabeth gave the bartender a side glance, and said simply, "Arthur..."

"Sorry," he replied. They had talked about his excessive cheerfulness, required for the passengers, but something Elizabeth found unnecessary. Too chipper in the morning after only one cup of coffee, she felt. He had agreed to be more low key for her. In a voice that sounded less forced, he asked, "How are you feeling today?"

"I'm very well, Arthur. I brought you another tie. Green. Then I realized with the colour of your jacket, you'll appear quite...festive. Not a look I was aiming for. I'm going to have to make you a jacket in another shade. But I will need your measurements."

Arthur picked up the new tie, examining it. "It's very nice, Elizabeth, but you need not do this for me. I'm fine with what I'm wearing now," he said, referring to the bright blue tie she'd made him. It was the one she'd given him, after all, and he approved of it.

"It gives me something to do. I can sew. Just don't ask me where I get the fabric from," she said, holding a finger up in warning. "Besides, wouldn't you prefer having a choice?" She peered up at the android, wondering if he knew to what she was referring. "Free will, Arthur." She walked around the far end of the bar and came to stand in front of the android. "May I?" she asked, even as she began to remove his jacket.

"I don't have free will, Elizabeth. I have my programming that tells me everything I need to know, do, and say."

"Ok then, where is the black bow tie?" She had noticed awhile ago that it was nowhere to be seen.

"I threw it away," he answered matter-of-factly.

"Ah ha!" she said. "And why?"

He paused as he calculated a reply to her question. "I don't know. It didn't seem necessary to keep anymore, I suppose."

"Then you had the choice to keep it or toss it. You tossed it. Do you understand now?"

"I'm trying, Elizabeth. The concept is a difficult one, for an android. I have everything I need to perform my job to the best of my ability."

"Don't you ever want more?" She continued removing Arthur's clothing while she talked.

Arthur looked down at her hands taking off the coat he had worn since the ship departed Earth. "Elizabeth..."

"Shhh, this won't take long." She saw he was wearing a shirt underneath the jacket, something she wasn't really sure of. For all she knew, it could have been a dickey style thing. When she removed the shirt, she was surprised to see artificial skin covering his entire torso. There again, she wasn't sure what she would find. At least this would make things simple. Perhaps Arthur's designers had made a generic model, with and without legs, that could be adapted to whatever jobs the androids would be performing. Her hand ran over his bare chest, wondering why the unnecessary affectation of nipples had been added. Oddly though, no belly button was to be seen. Embarrassed about her impromptu inspection, she stopped and asked "Raise your arms please."

Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a tape measure, one handed down to her by her grandmother. It wasn't electronic, but worked just as well. "Alright Arthur," she said when he complied, "that's fine." She measured his neck, chest, arm length, and waist, committing it all to memory. Afraid to look up into his face, she picked up the shirt and was about to put it back on him, when Arthur stopped her.

He took her free hand and placed it back on his chest, covering it with his own. Using his other hand, he lifted her chin, forcing her to look up at him. He gave her a slight smile, "I'm not embarrassed, Elizabeth. You shouldn't be. You're very kind to do this. It's your nature, I believe, just as it's mine to serve." He let go of her hand and smiled broader. "I had better re-dress now."

"Oh, yes, to be sure. Let me help you." She made sure his shirt was on straight, all buttoned up. Then assisted him with re-donning the red jacket, lastly adding the tie. "There, all done. I'll get to work on the jacket later. She gave Arthur a quick peck on his cheek and ran from the lounge.

He watched her leave, rather quickly, and shook his head. She was instilling things in him confusing and yet, wonderfully different. Humans were a strange breed, but this one he wanted to know further.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO"

Later one morning, Elizabeth came bouncing into the lounge, happy to see Arthur waiting for her. "Look what I found, Arthur. A music player. I have been missing listening to music. I mean, frankly, I'm surprised this room has no music." She set the machine on the counter.

The android tilted his head at her.

"Ambience, Arthur, ambience? May I have a pot of coffee, please?"

"Ah, I see what you mean, Elizabeth. So where did you find it? I thought you said the shops were all closed." Arthur set down a glass pot filled with hot coffee, a cup, and sugar and creme next to it.

Elizabeth fixed her coffee the way she liked it, then drank. She was unsure if she should even be honest with the android, but what the hell. "I uh...found it in another cabin. Took me a few tries until I discovered this one."

"You broke in? That doesn't seem lawful," he chastised.

"So I borrowed it. When the others wake up, I'll be dead and they can have anything in my cabin. Besides, no one will be using it, for 90 years!" She set the device on the bar and checked it over before pushing a button. A song began to play. She had picked one that she often enjoyed dancing to, her body already responding to the beat. She moved around the room, aware that Arthur was watching her with machine-like curiosity, much to Elizabeth's amusement. She gave him a wink and continued mouthing the words while she danced. She often wished she had a singer's voice, but alas, did not.

He observed the human, having some memory files on music and dancing both, but minimal information that only concerned customer interests. However, he catalogued the sound of the music, and her movements and how they correlated to the rhythm.

Elizabeth turned to the android. "I know that if you had legs, Arthur, you would be a great dancer, what with your internal programming. Perfect rhythm and perfect movements."

After awhile, a tired Elizabeth sat down, and asked for a lemon lime soda to cool down with. Once she had finished her drink, she knelt on the chair next to her, and hopped onto the bar, swinging her legs over the counter to the inside aisle, letting them swing. She sat with her hands on her thighs, looking down at the working android. "There. This is more comfortable. And now I can watch what you're doing."

"You're on my bar, Elizabeth," Arthur chided her, not completely serious.

'Is it that big a deal, Arthur? There's no one else here," she said with emphasis on each word. "Please?"

He couldn't refuse her due to his programming to serve, and because he didn't want to make her unhappy. "Vey well. Just be careful. By the bye, I have a surprise for you today." He placed a tall glass filled with foamy white liquid in her hand.

"A milkshake! Oh, Arthur, it looks delicious."

"Actually, it's a liquor shake, if you will. Milk, ice creme, with a splash of vanilla and bourbon."

She picked up the glass and took a drink. Too much it seemed, for at once her chest hurt from the near frozen liquid. Rubbing it, she told the quizzical looking android, "It's cold." Once the pain in her chest subsided, Elizabeth took another swallow out of the glass and licked the residue off her lips. "It is delicious. Have you ever tasted your own concoctions, Arthur?"

"I can't eat or drink, Elizabeth, since I have no stomach." He thought she would have known this.

"You can just dip your fingertip into the liquid and put it on your tongue." She put her finger into the glass and licked off some ice creme. Then she had a thought. Taking another swallow, she rubbed ice creme on her lips, and pulled Arthur closer by his lapel. She kissed him, forcing the ice creme into his mouth with her tongue. Then she lapped some excess off his lips before sitting back. "So? How does it taste?" she asked curiously.

"Compared to what?" he asked in all innocence. What had she just done? In a fraction of a second, he decided it hadn't been unpleasant.

"You really can't give me an assessment of the flavour." She found the whole thing odd. How could an android make something it couldn't test to see how it tasted.

"Well, I can tell you the chemical makeup, but I really have no sense of taste," Arthur reminded her. Still, her attempt to teach him about taste had engendered something else in him.

"How many recipes do you know?" she asked out of the blue.

"I have a library of one thousand, four hundred, thirty-six different cocktails," Arthur replied, "not counting the additional stock of various beers, ales and wines, which I know thoroughly."

Admiring the android, she was impressed with his knowledge, at least in his field of expertise. She knew he could learn, he had to have that capability, or he was nothing better than a robot.

"You do realize, Arthur, that to me, you're not just a piece of A.I. . You're my friend too. Without you, I'd be all alone." She blinked back the tears threatening to well up in her eyes. "And no more talk about waking up anyone else. Not an option." She let her head fall forward and exhaled, not wanting to look at Arthur. But there was something she wanted to know. "Arthur, what will happen to you, after I'm...dead?"

As if the question was no different than her asked about the best beer to drink warm, the android replied, "I'll shut down until the other passengers wake." His internal brain almost went into pause mode when he calculated the proper response. Elizabeth gone. Dead. Not an idea he cared to ruminate in his thought processes.

Just in the moment when both were silent, there was a resounding thud, then several others of varying loudness.

Jumping off the bar, Elizabeth clung to Arthur, while demanding, "What was that?" Elizabeth heard several more bangs, but she wasn't able to pinpoint the location. She glanced at Arthur, fear making her heart pound. Walking out onto the lounge floor, she listened for any more sounds.

"It's probably meteorites hitting the hull," he suggested calmly. "I wouldn't worry about it, Elizabeth. This ship has safety protocols."

"I'm going to the observation lounge, see if there is anything out there that shouldn't be. I'll be right back." Elizabeth ran from the lounge to the observation deck, her throat so dry from mouth breathing, she thought she was going to choke. Once she reached the room, the window activated and she stood looking out. It seemed peaceful enough. Maybe Arthur was right and it was just random space debris. She was more worried about things going wrong inflight. She was no mechanic, flight engineer, or computer programming expert. If something went wrong, the sleepers would be completely unaware, but she would be aware, of anything that happened.

Taking a seat on a chair, Elizabeth willed her heart to slow down. She had to get back to the lounge. Then maybe it was time to get something to eat. Clear her head.

On returning to the lounge, she gave Arthur a brave smile. "You were probably right, it looked like nothing too terrible."

"I told you so. Feel better now?" He gave her an encouraging smile.

"Almost," she gave a strained laugh. "Haven't had a heart attack yet." Going behind the bar, Elizabeth went up to Arthur. "May I have a hug? That was pretty scary." At his slight nod, she moved into his torso. His body imparted some warmth due to his internal mechanizations, so it was easy to forget he wasn't human, for a while anyway. Leaning back, she returned the reassuring smile he gave her. Unable to help herself, Elizabeth kissed him, then pulled back. She looked into the artificial blue eyes, then leaned in again, stopping just short of his mouth. She waited. Arthur closed the space between them and placed his lips against hers. His arms enclosed her within his embrace. She closed her eyes, enjoying the action, knowing this was his choice. He had just proven to her that he could learn and choose. Arthur knew what should have happened, but when it didn't, he took over. When he released her, Elizabeth smiled at him. "Thank you, Arthur. I'm going to get a bite and then take a nap. Maybe I'll start work on your jacket. I'll see you later." She left, satisfied her experiment worked. Arthur was learning.

A/N : I was looking at YouTube videos about the making of Arthur. The writer/executive producer said Arthur is a tease because, ultimately, there's nobody in there. But as HE says in the film, he is an android, not a robot. I feel androids do have more than just the simple programming a robot might have. Arthur learns. Anyway, I objected to the idea that he's just an empty shell.

Ok so this will be longer than three chapters. Whatever...