Henry apprehensively creaked the barn doors open. His worst suspicion being that the B1 had gone back into combat mode or had somehow escaped and was wreaking havoc somewhere out on the farm.
He let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the B1 still powered down in its position at the far end of the barn.
"Is he up?" Todd asked from behind.
Henry jumped in fright, "Don't do that," he ran a hand over his face, "No, he isn't up just yet"
"Maybe that repair you did broke him," Todd said patting Henry on the shoulder.
"Let's just wait another day, I need to see him-"
Before Henry could mouth another word, the B1 had suddenly begun to move on it's own again like a statue coming to life.
Todd let out a yelp, nearly stumbling onto the ground in fright.
Henry cautiously approached the B1.
"Hello there, uh…" Henry looked back at Todd for a moment, the expression of abject horror on his face drained Henry of all fear that had formed in the last couple of minutes, "My name's Henry and this here's Todd"
Todd awkwardly waved his hand.
The B1 froze for a moment before reciprocating the gesture.
"Hello, my name is…" R-DA9 thought for a moment.
What was his name?
"My name is R-DA9"
The B1 stood from his position but stayed at the back of the barn, still suspicious of the two.
"That's no name, just a unit number," Henry walked closer but abruptly stopped after seeing the B1 take a step back in response, "We tend to give all our droids a name. Doesn't feel right callin' you a number. How about you choose one?"
Todd finally conjured up the courage to step out from behind Henry, "What about Johnny like old Johnny boy from the market," he turned to Henry, "He always wanted a son didn't he? Well he can have one in spirit now. Was a good man, hard worker"
"Johnny," the B1 said aloud, feeling the name in his own voice, "I accept this replacement"
"Alright Johnny, we have last names too but we'll worry about that another time. Listen here, we fixed you up and gave you life again so in that way you're indebted to us"
"Of course," Johnny stepped forward, intrigued once again by the notion of living another life where war and fighting was absent.
"These grounds are a farm and we have quite a lot of work to be done here and we're getting a little too old. You'll be doing some manual labor for the time being"
"Wonderful, I will do anything but fighting," Johnny stepped even closer, nearly a foot away from the brothers.
"No need for fighting around here, not anymore at least," Henry fought against the memories from the war that surged into his head.
"We haven't had another worker around here in...years," Todd looked to Henry for a moment, afraid he'd hit a nerve, "We'd always have a celebration for newcomers back in the day, how about we throw one for Johnny"
"Under normal circumstances I'd say no since our supplies have been down, but since we haven't had a new worker in such a long time, I'll agree to it," Henry said.
"A celebration? For me?" Johnny said.
"Of course. I don't think you're capable of eating any food but we'll throw you a small little party then we'll get you set up for work tomorrow. Besides, we haven't had a break in our work in who knows how long, it'd be great for us to finally take a load off," Henry cautiously took another step forward, wary of Johnny reeling back in fear, but he didn't. Instead, he stepped forward.
"Thank you...for giving me a new life," Johnny said.
He felt a strange surge of heat flow through his circuitry, it was the third time he'd ever experienced such a thing. The first time being the day he was accidentally set free from the control ship.
"We'll be thanking you soon, welcome to the family," Henry closed the distance between himself and Johnny. He clasped Johnny's hands into his own, shaking them vigorously. Johnny was confused at first but returned the gesture nonetheless.
'I have another chance to live,' Johnny thought. His circuits were alight and his CPU burning hot with too many artificial emotions for one droid to feel at once, 'How...exciting'
Johnny was set at the end of a long wooden table marked with the scratches and drawings left behind by all of it's past recipients. It served as a memorial to every life, human, droid or pet, that had once been part of the farm's long and tumultuous life. A life that was beginning to wear thin thanks to the Empire's death grip on the planet. Henry was caught off guard by the strange wave of nostalgia that washed over him as he set his eyes on the table, noting the marks for the first time since the end of the war.
For a moment, he thought of all those lost during those times. All their laughs, tears, and blood that had stained the house in times of celebration. He longed for the past to return but he knew deep down, things had ended for them long ago. It was only just now that he realized it. This was most likely the last celebration they'd ever have.
"Us farmers would usually have a big feast for newcomers but seeing as food is...not in abundance right now, we're only having a little"
Both brothers sat on either side of Johnny who awkwardly looked between the two, unsure what to do with the small sticks of fire lit before him.
"What am I supposed to do with these?" he said pointing to the candles.
"Well, usually you blow them out but we'll do that for you. Don't worry about this all being unusual, this is a very special occasion"
"Special?"
"Yes, you will be the last inheritor of the farm. It's been a long tradition of passing down these lands from generation to generation, hundreds of years have passed since the beginning and now it will all culminate with you," Henry said in a shaky voice, attempting to swallow the tears that were threatening to fall.
At that moment, Johnny felt the same warmth from before. He logged the memory of it, wishing to dissect it further in the future now that he had one.
"Let's get started, we'll have lots to teach you tomorrow," Henry moved closer to Johnny.
"Oh I love starting it, may I?" Todd said from across the table.
"Why not, you've always been the one to start it since you were a kid"
Todd laughed, "That's right, I'm surprised you remember," He took an exaggerated breath, "And one, two, three"
Johnny looked between the two brothers, a strange melodic sound came from their mouths as they spoke or whatever it was that they were doing. He was still quite confused as to what he was supposed to do but he trusted the farmers to lead him to achieve their goal of...celebrating. Something about the air and atmosphere felt just right to Johnny. His sensors told him the air quality was decent but nothing amazing. The weather at night was cool and allowed his systems to operate at a more efficient rate. Perhaps it was that. Nothing but the coolness of the night.
'No, these farmers, they're what makes things...feel right' he thought.
He still couldn't quite put words to the feeling other than something that invoked an electric sensation in his central processing unit.
Before he knew it, they were done making those melodic sounds. Henry leaned forward and blew the candles out and promptly clapped.
"Welcome to the Sol family, Johnny!" Henry wrapped an arm around his shoulder and brought him into a side hug. Once again, Johnny was confused by the gesture at first but awkwardly reciprocated the hug and did the same with Todd.
"I gotta go get your work gear ready," Todd said with a slap of his leg.
"We can do that tomorrow, what we'll do today is set up Johnny's room. For now, let's finish our food," Henry said.
"Oh right, forgot. That song always gets me excited, makes me forget what I was doin'" Todd happily devoured the rest of his steak.
"What do I do now?" Johnny said after witnessing both brothers quickly finish their food. An odd sight for a droid who'd never seen such a thing before.
"You can help us get your room set up, follow me," Henry waited for Johnny to get up before he began walking out of the kitchen through the entrance at the opposite end of the table.
Johnny took a glance over the several pictures framed on the wall of more humans of varying shapes and sizes.
"It's common courtesy for us to make visitors feel right at home by providing for all their needs but you have to understand, we're getting old. We'll need a little help this time around," Henry said over his shoulder while leading Johnny to his room.
They passed by dozens of rooms filled with all sorts of equipment and storage units full of crops. Johnny looked on in fascination wondering just what every single little gadget did out in the field and what those yellow stalks of beaded strings are and what they're used for and how to collect them and-
"Here we go, now I'll warn you, this place hasn't been cleaned in quite some time so you'll have to excuse the dust. Don't worry, we'll be cleaning it today, it shouldn't take too long," Henry said stopping at the door to the room. Todd was standing beside him still giddy with excitement from their small celebration and even more so to be doing something new for once. All those days of collecting and storing crop had finally begun to bug him after so many years.
A plume of dust shot out as the door swung open. Much of the room was left in an orderly manner. There were towels left on the bed which was already made but covered in a coat of dust. There was a dresser on one side of the room, directly across from the bed. On either side of it were two smaller rooms. One being the bathroom and the other being an old closet with abandoned trinkets from long before the war, when the farm still operated on hand made tools.
"I wasn't expecting it to be this clean," Henry said after stepping in and taking a look around.
"Mom tidied everything up one last time before we shut this room off don't you remember?" Todd said leaning on the doorway, one hand on his belt.
"Huh, I don't actually"
Meanwhile, Johnny had moved further into the bedroom. He took one swipe at the dust on the bed, his childlike curiosity still getting the best of him. He examined every speck. It was fascinating to think that this dust could be the last remnants of a bygone era or of a life that had ended long ago. His sensors told him it was useless, that the material was not useful whatsoever for battle but he didn't care, he would imprint every bit of information into his memory.
"Let's get started then," Henry said clapping his hands together and immediately regretting it as a plume of dust rose right into his nostrils causing him to have a sneezing fit.
Johnny was frightened by the noise and reeled back in surprise, "Are you alright?" he scurried over to Henry.
Todd stifled a laugh.
"I'm fine Johnny, just sneezed that's all," Henry said chuckling a bit.
"Sneezed?"
"Yeah, look we're living beings alright. We have more senses than you and some that we can't explain, now let's just get to cleaning already"
Johnny dusted off his hands, careful not to make the same mistake as Henry.
'What interesting beings'