Chapter 5: Brother

An alarm flashed onto Auto's darkened lens. For the first time in a while, he had failed to reactivate on his own that morning.

He switched the alarm off with an audible 'click!', and his eye gradually returned to its usual red tint.

The hatch below him opened quickly, and he dropped through it, into the dark Axiom bridge. Turning to the control panel, he moved over it and pressed a small number of buttons. The bridge lights lit up, and the windshield shell opened up, bathing the room in bright sunlight.

Staring out the window, a small, circular, lighter area of red slightly moved around his lens, indicating his 'pupil'.

'Good mooooorning!' a cheerful and young voice came from behind him. Auto recognized it immediately as EVELYN's. He debated on heartlessly tasing her on the spot.

Swiveling around, he expected EVELYN to be messing around with something, but she wasn't, on account of there being another robot holding onto her, piggyback-style.

'Hi, Auto,' she spoke in robotic code. She turned her head to almost face the other robot. 'WALTER, say hi to Auto.'

Auto looked up above EVELYN's face to WALTER's which was a dirty yellow rectangle with a smaller black one on its front. On his face was a single, colorless glass eye, with what appeared to be a bubble moving around as a pupil. On the top of his head was a red alarm light, similar to the one M-O had.

The robot looked at Auto, then hid his head behind EVELYN's.

'No.'

EVELYN gave him a small glare. 'C'mon. Don't be a meanie.'

'No, Evie...'

'If you won't stop being mean, I won't go to that hill with you.'

WALTER didn't answer, and remained silent. Auto began to feel greatly irritated with the pointless chatter from the robots.

Finally, WALTER extended his hand, which stretched pretty far. Auto gazed at it.

WALTER's hands were simply silver boxes, each with two sharp prongs as fingers. His arms were long rods, the same color as his body.

A handshake. Auto wasn't accustomed to performing this action firsthand, but had seen humans do it many times. It couldn't be too difficult.

Switching one of his spokes to a claw, Auto grasped the hand, and slowly shook it up and down.

After a few seconds, Auto released WALTER's hand. EVELYN seem pleased with the action.

'Auto, this is my brother WALTER,' EVELYN said before slightly groaning.

Another kid? Auto hoped he wouldn't be as annoying.

WALTER took notice to her pain and released his sister, rising into the air.

His head was connected to his boxy body by a steel beam, bent in the middle. Behind him, to the the sides, were two small white rockets with red points, which were connected to his back by iron beams. On the bottom of his body was conical-shaped figure which released purple rings toward the ground, keeping him aloft.

With the weight of WALTER no longer on her, EVELYN straightened up.

After a moment, Auto turned back around to the control panel, and pressed a button. Exactly what it did wasn't clear. Auto then began to spin once more.

EVELYN sighed. 'Again? The. Ship. Has. Landed. What part of that don't you get?'

Auto quickly responded, 'I BELIEVE WE HAVE DISCUSSED THE SUBJECT MATTER AT A PREVIOUS TIME.'

'But still, I was hoping we'd be able to play or something.'

Auto both couldn't and did not want to "play", whatever she meant by that.

'NEGATIVE. I MUST CONTINUE WITH MY DIRECTIVE.'

'But I want to play something!' EVELYN was becoming the whiny, annoying child robot she appeared to be. 'Come on!'

'ABSOLUTELY NOT.'

EVELYN didn't answer, and Auto was pleased by the silence. He reassigned his attention to other matters.

After a few moments, Auto's audio sensors picked up a quiet whir, then a click.

He swiveled, and his eye ran over EVELYN, seeking out anything she may have done. She simply gave him a confused look.

Ignoring it, Auto turned back to the window, spinning some more.

Moments later, a small burst of water hit his eye, causing him to recoil backwards. He turned back to EVELYN again, who was giggling madly. Auto noticed that her right hand was reconfigured into a hose's nozzle, a few drops of water were dripping from it.

EVELYN stopped laughing for a moment to squirt some more water at him. Auto spun around in an attempt to dry off.

Having fun, EVELYN began to dance around him while shooting water at the wheel. WALTER stood back watching, not wanting to get involved.

'CEASE THIS FOOLISHNESS. STOP. HALT.' Auto ordered. EVELYN didn't hear him, however, and kept blasting him.

'DESIST.'

Fssshhht!

'STOP AT ONCE.'

Fsssshht!

'LAST WARNING.'

Fssshhhttt!

And they say that at that moment, something fragile inside Auto just snapped.

Auto yelled as best as a monotonic robot could yell.

'ENOUGH!'

The windows shut, and the lights went out. The room flushed a shade of red that matched Auto's eye. He turned his claws into tasers as an act of intimidation. WALTER hid under a desk, scared.

'YOU ARE A HINDRANCE TO MY DIRECTIVE. FURTHERMORE, YOU ARE SIMPLY MAKING A BOTHERSOME PEST OF YOURSELF,' Auto spoke with hostility. 'IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE TO ACT THIS WAY, I MUST ASK YOU TO LEAVE THE BRIDGE.'

EVELYN's eyes grew wide. 'WHAT!' She snapped. 'You can't tell me what to do! You aren't my daddy!'

'THAT DOESN'T MATTER. I HAVE AUTHORITY OVER YOU. I AM THE AUTOPILOT OF THIS SHIP, AND I DO NOT WISH TO CALL THE SECUR-T UNITS.' For some reason, Auto hated those things...

EVELYN yelled back at him. 'Who cares? Call them! I'm not going anywhere!'

Auto began to spin quickly, the sparking tasers creating a ring around him.

'I AM VERY IMPATIENT WITH YOU AS IT IS. LEAVE THE AXIOM AT ONCE!'

EVELYN trembled, then had an outburst, 'Fine! If you want to be a meanie, well then I'm not coming back!'

EVELYN turned and dashed out of the room, grabbing WALTER's hand and dragging him into the elevator. EVELYN looked back at Auto, half-expecting an apology.

When she didn't get one, she huffed, and the doors shut. The elevator lowered to the first floor.

As the immature robots left, Auto locked every door behind them.

Once they left the Axiom, Auto decided he had enough. He fell onto the panel again. He shut off the lights and raised the window cover. The hatch opened up in the ceiling, and he rose up to it. His position didn't allow him access, however, and he hit the ceiling. Instead of doing it properly, he took on one of the human's skills of maintenance:

Keep pushing it harder until it fits.

Soon, Auto entered with almost no lasting damage, and he shook violently again.

The hatch shut and he stayed there for the rest of the day.