3
When she was four years old, Dr. Montalban and Dr. Graber remembered their agreement and decided she should learn to read. Xen had been reading very well for some months by that point, but she obediently went about "learning" the process with Bunni. Since she had to learn exactly what to do and what not to do on each upcoming test, this actually took quite a bit of work. Therefore, it was not particularly surprising that she slipped up.
"Oh, we're in for it now," said Tori, who was hovering next to the curtain to the main lab.
"Shh, don't frighten her," said Bunni, and patted Xen reassuringly. This didn't help much. She could hear the argument going on quite clearly.
"It's answering them incorrectly on purpose," said Dr. Graber. "It probably has been for months."
"Don't you think you might be overreacting?" said Dr. Montalban.
"You and I were both early developers, doctor. Did you at any point enter the words cat, dog, ball, and microorganism on a vocabulary list?" demanded Dr. Graber.
"Well, no. But that doesn't mean - "
"The experiment is compromised," said Dr. Graber sharply. "If we can't reliably determine its developmental progress, behavioral research is pointless."
"Not quite," said Dr. Montalban. "She heard you talk about sacrificing her once she'd learned to read. She's figured out that she doesn't want that to happen."
There was a long, tense pause.
"It may be sentient," said Dr. Graber. "That doesn't make it human. We have to start over."
Dr. Montalban said nothing else. Xen listened to the sound of containers clinking. She got down from the chair in front of the computer and slid around behind Bunni, clinging to the stuffed handle on the back of the cylinder of padding. Dr. Montalban had added it so that she could learn to walk. She didn't need it to hold her up any more, but she wanted something to hold onto.
"Don't worry," said Bunni. "Everything will be all right."
Xen heard the curtain slide firmly aside, and the tick-tick of Dr. Graber's shoes on the tile floor as she marched in. "There," she said, and Xen shivered as the footsteps came closer, started to travel around the curve of Bunni's cylindrical chassis.
Bunni rotated on her treads. Xen scooted with her.
"Bunni, hold the subject for me," said Dr. Graber. Xen bit her lip hard, halfway expecting a long arm to reach back and pull her gently but firmly forward, the way it had happened so many times before. But this time Bunni said,
"That's not an empty hypodermic you're holding, Dr. Graber. What is it?"
Bunni's voice sounded calm and pleasant, just like it always did, but the question seemed to stop Dr. Graber for a second. Then she said,
"Never mind that. Hold the subject for me."
"My visual apparatus is a lot better than yours, fatty," said Tori. Bunni made a sniffing sound, even though she didn't have a nose that Xen had ever seen. "Laser spectroanalysis says it's morphine. Enough to just about kill a large adult, let alone an undersized four-year-old."
"Recognize voice override," said Dr. Graber. "Do what I tell you."
"Voice override has been permanently disabled," said Bunni sweetly. Xen saw her shadow move as she raised both her arms. "Your order is in conflict with a primary directive."
"What?" There was another tick-tick as she turned to Tori. "Tori, shut her off and get the subject for me."
"No way," said Tori. "You're not doing anything to Xen."
"Sherman," said Dr. Graber, using a name Xen had never heard. "What did you do?"
"I made one important change to their base imperatives, Jessica," said Dr. Montalban. "They won't obey your order or mine if it involves harm to the child."
"That is not a child," said Dr. Graber.
"Yes, she is," said Dr. Montalban. "Your child and mine. Small for her age, allergy problems, a fast learner... She's lucky that she'll probably never have my acne, with her complexion like it is, but she's definitely ours – Hey!"
There was a scuffling sound, and then Xen heard both of them breathing hard. She risked a peek around the circumference of Bunni's chassis, stifling a terrified sob. Dr. Graber stood with her hand up to Dr. Montalban's neck. Something glittered there. Dr. Montalban stood with his arms stiffly at his sides.
"I will not let you throw away our entire lives on one experimental subject," hissed Dr. Graber. "You give me the override codes or I'll press the fucking plunger."
"And then what?" asked Dr. Montalban quietly. "Anyway, it's too late. They won't listen to anything I do that contradicts a primary directive, including erase them and reupload their artificial intelligences."
"You're not getting rid of us that easily," said Tori. Xen watched her rotate in the air until one of her arms faced the two Doctors. The end irised open to show a small, black hole. Neither of the two adults seemed to notice.
"Do something, Bunni!" Xen whispered through her tears.
"I can't, Xen," said the robot. "They're not attacking us, and I can't do anything unless they do. It's in my programming."
"Mine's a little different," said Tori. There was a pop. Dr. Graber screamed, an incredibly loud sound in the small room, and staggered away from Dr. Montalban. Something made of shiny metal stuck out of the side of her neck. Blood spurted around it. Dr. Montalban plucked away the hypostim and threw it on the floor. Xen watched it spin toward them, glass rattling on the tile and leaving a small spiral of red as it went. It was empty.
The two bodies hit the floor at almost the same time. Dr. Graber's scream trailed away into a wheezing hiss as she jerked in place, one hand still clamped around the handle of the .25 Marion head screwdriver that Xen knew very precisely had pierced her left carotid artery. That was in her encyclopedia. She thought wildly of the other carotid pumping all that blood up into her brain, only to have it flow back out through the veins, and so quickly around and back up to the one that was bleeding...
"Don't pull it out, you stupid bitch," said Tori, but Dr. Graber did it anyway. More blood pulsed and flowed, spreading a puddle around the writhing body and out to Dr. Montalban. It soaked into his lab coat. Xen watched it wick up into the fabric and spread, hypnotized. Dr. Montalban didn't move.
Doctor Graber made a horrible gasping noise. A minute or so after that, she stopped twitching. It was quiet. The two robots didn't need to breathe. All Xen could hear was her own heart hammering in her ears, her own voice sobbing. A long, flexible arm snaked down to scoop her up as Bunni pivoted, belatedly hiding the sight of them from Xen's eyes.
"It's all right, Dear," said Bunni. "It's all right. No one will hurt you."
"What a mess," said Tori. "I guess I'd better initialize that first aid subroutine. Not that it's likely to do any good. We don't have a morphine antagonist."
Xen huddled against the gray padded chassis, crying quietly. Bunni held and patted her and made soft little noises as Tori bobbed over behind them, out of sight.
"Yep," said Tori a moment later. "They're dead."
"I thought they might be," said Bunni. She carried Xen over to one of the two single beds and set her down carefully. "Xen, my Dear, I need you to stop crying now. Can you do that for me?"
Xen sobbed and hiccuped for another minute or so, but she could tell something important was happening. Eventually, she got the tears under control.
"That's my good girl," said Bunni, producing a paper hanky for her. Xen wiped her nose awkwardly, holding the tissue with her long, thin fingers. The room was starting to smell bad in a way she had never smelled before. She wrinkled her flat little nose. Bunni was still between her and the two dead bodies.
"We're pretty special, as robots go," said Tori, from over out of sight. "We can do a lot for ourselves. But sometimes we're gonna need you to tell us what to do."
"But how will I know?" said Xen.
"We'll help you decide as much as we can, Xen," said Bunni. "You're very smart for your age, and we're very smart, too."
"Well, I am," said Tori. "The Robobrain there isn't too bad. For her model year."
Xen giggled, although she didn't know what a model year was. "Okay. So what do I do now?"
"We need to know what to do with Doctor Graber and Doctor Montalban," said Bunni.
"Oh," said Xen. "That part is easy. Put them in the field stations. That's where people go when they die, isn't it?"
"Works for me," said Tori. "We don't have an incinerator big enough, and if we toss them out onto the tracks, somebody might find them. At least they won't rot."
"We'll have to clean them up a bit first, so we need to get started right away," Bunni said. "Why don't you lie down and rest a while, Xen? It's been a very hard day for you. I'll wake you up when it's time for dinner."
"Okay," said Xen. She lay down on her side, and Bunni took the tissue and pulled a blanket up over her shoulders.
"You just shut your eyes, and we'll have it all taken care of before you know it," said Bunni.
An adult might have had trouble sleeping under the circumstances. The same was by no means true of an emotionally exhausted four-year-old. Xen rolled over to face the wall, pulled a pillow down over her ears, and was asleep a minute later.