Chapter 5: A Lonely Number
Roxanne woke up early to the sound of an alarm emitting from Abrahams core. She groaned and rolled over in bed to face the teddy bear sitting next to her head, "Okay, okay, I'm awake Abs…" The beep-beep-beeping ended at that. She stretched and sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Abraham stood up on her pillow "Good morning Ms. Ritchi, your clothing for today is folded at your feet." She smiled a warm smile at him tiredly. "…Guh'morning. Thanks Abby, you're so helpful." She picked him up and hugged him once, then sat him back down. "You are welcome. It is only my duty." He replied.
She got out of bed, shrugged out of her sleeping clothes and into her day clothes, which as usual comprised of a tight white long-sleeved shirt with a high collar and tight white pants, both had glowing green streaks. The color green signaled her current occupational situation – a young learning pupil attending shool. Too finish her outfit she slid on some white gloves and boots. Out the window she could see the morning star, which was named Igneefe in this solar system, had not yet rose, and the starry blue sky was paled by the celestial body's steady approach toward the horizon line. Roxanne was now ten years of age and had been waking up early to get ready for shool for three years now. At age seven she had decided to stop riding the shoolshuttle in favor of walking to shool instead. It required her to wake up early so she would arrive on time, since walking took longer than riding, but she found it rewarding. Every morning she was able to enjoy watching Igneefe rise, and the peace of not being surrounded by other bothersome kids.
Once dressed, she let Abraham climb onto her back, popped a quick meal in her mouth, and exited the Life Center she called home to start her daily stroll. The crimson grass in between buildings and streets glittered with dew, and hidden critters chattered and stirred as they woke up, while more nocturnal creatures settled down for the day. Trees, where they could be found, swayed in gentle breezes, their red leaves shinning scarlet in the growing light of the dawn. Roxanne took a deep breath of the crisp air and set stride. She gave a small smile to her surroundings, thinking of Earth and the similarities and differences of her two worlds. She wondered briefly what green grass would look like in person, and if it would have a similar texture to the red grass here, what it would smell like, and if it, too, would feel cool under bare feet.
The device that held all one could wish to know about Earth had told her a lot of what things were like there, like the terrain of different places, and the customs of humans. She liked to call the device her Earth Encyclopedia and she tried to learn from it every night before she went to sleep. Knowing more about the place of her origin cheered her up and let her feel less lonely, if only for a little while.
A noise from behind told Roxanne the shoolshuttle was on her tail. She watched as it wooshed by, and looking ahead she spotted the shool building. Roxanne frowned and slowed her pace. The worst part of her lovely morning walks was the end. She dreaded her destination with a passion, and wished her walk was longer – not that it would matter, it would always feel too short once she arrived.
She waited a fair distance for the others get off the shuttle and enter the building before going in herself, she wanted to avoid getting 'accidentally' tossed and trampled. Like it was avoidable. As soon as she made her way into the crowded hallway she was roughly shouldered so that she tripped on her own feet and fell into the person in front her. Whoever knocked into her slipped away before she could punc-see their face, but the person she bumped into was clear when she whipped around to face Roxanne before tipping over backwards.
Vivinie yelped when she felt herself going down, her arms flailed for a moment. The eel minion in Vivinie's backpod twirled in its dome before taking action. In an instant two arms that looked more like grappling-hooks shot out from either side of the mechanical bottom of the backpod and reached for the floor, catching Vivinie's fall with rubbery finger-tips. The blue girl stopped mid-fall at an angle, wide-eyed and blinking.
Roxanne gasped, "I'm sorry! I actually didn't mean to do that this time. Here, let me help you up."
"No thank you!" Vivinie scoffed, awkwardly straightening herself with her minion trying to assist. "Of course you meant to do it."
"I didn't knock you over intentionally, someone ran into me – that was probably on purpose."
Vivinie chuckled, "Don't try to act innocent. Everyone knows you can't help but be barbaric, it's like…some kind of primal instinct for you."
Rolling her eyes, Roxanne replied with thick sarcasm, flaring her fingers out in effect, "Yep, that's me, Roxanne the barbarian! I wish your minion hadn't have caught you, maybe your head would have cracked open like a giant blue egg."
"Ahah, oh, that's humorous Roxy. Tasslers here is the most impressive minion in the shool; he'd never make such a mistake."
"Abraham is more impressive than that purple worm of yours; your minion can't even talk. Abraham has been talking and using his hands and feet since before I can remember." Tasslers puffed up aggressively at this and hissed something that sounded like an attempt at works but sounded more like a baby talking while gargling rocks. Vivinie sent Tasslers a meaningful glare.
Roxanne's comeback would have been valid if Abraham was a scientifically engineered fish. The development of a minion's mind-to-robot coordination was gradual. It began with small computer and antenna being implanted somewhere on the fish's body where it could connect with the organism's brain, usually on the back extending into the spine, or occasionally directly atop the animals skull or forehead. Only fish species that already showed signs of being smart were chosen for minionship (an earth octopus would be a prime candidate). The computer and antenna not only enhanced the fish's intelligence, but allowed the fish to communicate and control technologies designated to the frequency of the fish's antenna. As the fish's brain developed and matured, its efficiency in using its antenna this way improved. They would start with simple tasks like starting and powering down a computer to twitching robotic fingers to using robotic arms and hands. This was the reason young minions were carried on their master's backs in backpods, they were not yet capable of using legs and were only beginning to adjust to upper body movements. A fully matured minion would be able to control a full body confidently, as well as other machines if necessary. If Abraham was a fish minion who had been talking and controlling a full body since it was first engineered, the feat would have been miraculous. But this wasn't the case. Tasslers being this competent with his backpod arms at his age was impressive enough.
Vivinie narrowed her violet-brown eyes and smirked, with a huff she responded smoothly, "Well, I can't imagine you can remember much with a puny brain like yours. And that fuzzy whatever-it-is isn't impressive. He isn't even real."
This gave Roxanne pause, "What do you mean?"
"Well, memories are stored in the brain, and –"
"No, not that. Of course Abraham is real."
"Is he though?" Vivinie knocked on the metallic part of Tasslers' backpod with one hand, and pointed to where her heart would be in her chest with the thumb of the other. "Come now, Pox, even you can figure that out. I'll let you digest that, I'm going to class before I'm considered tardy." As she walked away Roxanne could hear Vivinie scolding Tasslers harshly, "…how dare you...trying to talk when you know you can't…don't ever embarrass me like that again…"
Roxanne let her body take her where it was supposed to go while her mind churned fretfully. What did Vivinie mean, Abraham not being real? Of course he is, he's my best friend. She chanced a glance toward her faithful teddy and saw his eyes swarm with binary. He too was in deep consideration over what he had just been confused of. She didn't want to think about it. She wouldn't. Not yet anyway, not during shool. When she went home she would confront it.
It set her on edge for the rest of the day. The others must have sensed it, too, because kids who normally gave her grief kept their distance for once, not wanting to face the wrath of an extra-touchy human. When she finally made it back to the Life Center, after a walk home from shool that, for the first time ever, felt too long, she almost made it to her room without breaking. That was, until Nannarry said something to her that pushed her over the edge she had been set upon.
Seeing her walk in, Nannarry smiled and said, "Welcome back, Human. When you have time, the Rolphino habitat needs cleaning; the Rolphinos are starting to get restless about it – freshen it up for me, would you?"
The little girl clenched her fists, "Why do you call me that?"
"What?"
"Human. Why do you always call me Human? Why don't you ever me by my real name? Do you even know it?"
Nannary's silver gaze was suddenly guarded. "Of course I know your name. I just prefer to call you Human."
"But why? Why do you prefer 'Human' to 'Roxanne'?"
"That's not important."
"It is to me! I hate it when you call me Human! Am I so unbearably different you have to call by my species name?"
"No, that's not the reason, but –"
"And why am I not allowed to call you Mother? Or Mom even? What's the harm in it, honestly?"
"That is enough, Human!"
"Don't call me that, Nannarry! If I can't call you what I want, then the same goes for you!"
"I said enough! Don't talk to your elders that way! Now do as I say and clean the Rolphino habitat, or go to your room and stay there!"
"Just make me understand, I'm so confused! What aren't you telling me?"
"NOW, Ritchi!"
Roxanne doesn't reply after that. Nannarry didn't call her Roxanne, but she called her Ritchi, which was better than Human. With a quivering lip and watery eyes threatening to spill over, she went to her room in silence, slamming the door accidentally in her flood of emotions. The elder woman watched her leave, her silver just as glazed, and coughed a raspy cough into a boney knuckled fist.
In her room, she curled up on her bed against the wall, fighting tears. She clutched Abraham to her with one hand while the other hand rubbed Abraham's nose in that soothing way she used to do when she was younger and was upset. The bear's black nose now had a hole in its center from over-rubbing; white fur peaked through the gap and was framed by the remaining black thread. The pink ribbon bow-tie that used to be around his neck was long gone, lost and never found. Slowly she stopped rubbing his nose when she remembered what she had originally been upset about. She held Abraham away from her so she could look at him. Sniffling, she spoke. "Abraham, what do your initials stand for?"
There was a moment of silence, as though the teddy was hesitating. After a while he responded in his never-changing child tone, "Ms. Ritchi, you are aware of what my initials stand for. 'A.I' is the abbreviation of my full given name, Abraham Inkling."
Her lip starts quivering again and she set him down to stand on the bed. "No, that's not what I meant. What do they really stand for?"
"…I do not comprehend the query."
"Abraham, 'A.I' stands for 'Artificial Intelligence'. That's what you are, aren't you? You were just programmed to like me. That doesn't count. That's not real. That's fake. You're just fake. You're my stupid fake friend." She said harshly through broken sobs, tears finally running freely down her face. It was actually something she knew for a while now but refused to acknowledge. Now that it had been pointed out to her, however, she could no longer ignore it.
Abraham's eyes were practically solid green with ones and zeros as his electronic conscious streamed with doubt. The little fuzzy white teddybot had never been so stumped. He was indeed electronic. He held no organic matter with in him. Logically his personality must have been, in some form, downloaded into him. He loved Roxanne. At least he thought he loved Roxanne. He was ever-devoted to the wellbeing of the earthling. His directive told him to care for her. This was not of his choosing though, was it? In his recorded memory he recalled being activated with that sole desire, it was the first thought to run though his mind. Did that make it fake? Was he fake? Was the things he felt only of his programming? Why did that bother him?
He took a small step toward her. "I would like to believe my emotions toward you are authentic and my desire to protect you is genuine, Ms. Ritchi. I would also like to believe my motive to want to believe such things is not simply because I have been programmed to want such things."
"But how can you tell they aren't just because of your programming?"
"…I cannot."
She shoved him away, "Just don't talk to me for a while." She buried her moist face in her arms which rested on her knees. She hated to think her only friend in the world wasn't real. She couldn't look at him right now.
He resigned to the opposite edge of the bed and sat down with his legs flat in front of him, arms limp at his sides, head slumped downward, back to the wall. "As you wish."