Winged Memories
The Golden Ostrich
Dorothy and I walked out to the roof upon returning home to the mansion, wondering what he was up to this time. There was no doubt in my mind that Schwarzwald was behind this latest escapade, but how? Angel told me his body had been found on the shore beyond the desert…even if it wasn't his though, why? Although depraved, he's obviously an intelligent being, so why would he go to all the trouble of stealing a bird that is afraid of his memories? Surely he must know that those traces are as intangible in animals as in humans or androids…
Something clicked in my mind.
"Dorothy?"
"What is it?"
"How was Beck able to utilize your memories for his MegaDeus if they're inaccessible?"
She turned and stared at me for a moment. "He didn't access them at all, only attached me to Dorothy One. She was able to use them to replace her own, which you destroyed in the first battle."
"So he still couldn't view them."
"No. It is not possible, to the extent of my knowledge."
"Do you think someone with memories of forty years ago could?"
"It's possible. I don't know if they were ever accessible."
I paused to consider this for a moment…if we can't even manipulate machines to do our bidding, what could Schwarzwald ever hope to accomplish with a parrot? No matter how smart, an animal will always be an animal, obeying only the most basic and primitive of emotions: hunger, thirst, fear…if Sunny is afraid of Big O, as Mrs. Rockefeller said, then he will always flee from those memories of MegaDeuses. The bird was useless to Schwarzwald.
"He must think he can force the memories out of Sunny."
"Humans are illogical creatures," Dorothy said. "They think they understand things that are incomprehensible."
"Not all humans are the same…"
"No, but they must have some common trait to make them human."
"Physical appearance."
"I look human."
"That's true."
Silence.
"Dorothy, do you ever wish Wayneright hadn't created you?"
"Doesn't everyone, at some point, desire nonexistence?" She looked up into my eyes with her pure black ones.
"Of course."
"Why would I be any different?"
"Well, you're…"
"An android? I can feel things too sometimes. No one knows entirely how I operate."
"Do you?"
"No." She paused to turn her gaze to the city. "I am human in that respect…I don't understand myself."
"I think you're human in other ways, too." I placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Thank you, Roger."
Thank you? Not exactly the response I was looking for…
"Master Roger, Colonel Dastun is here to see you." Norman appeared on the roof.
"I'll be right down."
"What is it this time, Dastun?" I asked the intruder scouring over my liquor collection.
"I found this lying on my desk this morning. Has your name on it…not sure why it was in my office, but maybe someone doesn't know you quit the force." He tossed me an envelope …'Roger Smith' was scrawled across the front in messy cursive.
"I made no secret of leaving…everyone knows."
"Yeah, well apparently they didn't, or else wanted me to deliver it for some reason."
I tore open the top flap and pulled out the contents…a simple typed page bearing no signature. It didn't need one though…I knew whom it was from.
"Thanks, Dastun."
"Yeah…listen, while I'm here…"
"Brandy, third shelf down, on the left…help yourself."
"What does it say?" Dorothy asked me as I scan over the letter from Schwarzwald a fifth time.
"Do you want me to read it to you?"
"Yes, please do."
"'This world, corrupted by the pretentious domes and black hearts of greedy politicians, has always been considered devoid of memories. The narrow-minded people of this earth look only into their own great minds and those wonderful souls of their fellow men, but never into those of the lowly animals. No, too arrogant is mankind to seek his history in something deemed worthy only of captivity and leashes.
'However, if one can overcome this arrogance, there is a whole civilization still thriving as it did forty years ago. Animals: cats, dogs, birds, fish…who's to say that they lost their memories? It was the egotistical humans who required punishment, not the innocent beings of fur and plumage. I suspect that they never lost anything.
'Unfortunately for my purposes, most of these animals are dead and hence forgetful, but a rare few still live from four decades ago. I have found one of these creatures, and with him will learn everything that happened to bring this world to this corrupt state! I will find a way to retrieve those memories, to gather all the knowledge, and then the world will truly know what happened here forty years ago!
'I suspected this would not be easy…of course, as always, the Paradigm Dog would come strutting into play, obeying his masters. This past concerns you, Roger Smith, more deeply than I, yet you continue to interfere with my research. Don't you want to know why you can pilot the MegaDeus? Doesn't it pique your curiosity that you're the only true…'"
"Why did you stop reading?"
"The rest is unimportant."
"What does he say about you, Roger?"
"Nothing, forget it…" I folded up the letter and put it in my pocket.
"Where do you go from here? Did it give you any ideas about Sunny's location?"
"Not a clue…I guess we owe the Military Police Headquarters a visit tomorrow morning. Dastun might be able to tell us something more."
author's note: the plot thickens...kinda like my oatmeal...more coming soon; please review :)