Cthulhu's Daughter and Other Horror Tales

by Rhiannon Frater

  “I want apples. And pears,” Andy informed her. “And bananas with no icky brown spots.”

  Customers casually strolled through the lush produce department where real vines and trees integrated into the displays of colorful fruit and vegetables.

  “Very well,” she answered.

  Henrietta carefully calculated the added costs of these additions to her grocery list. The food budget was very tight, but she was always careful to download the latest sales and coupons. Andy had been mildly underweight when she first arrived at her post, but now he had a rosy glow to slightly rounded cheeks.

  She was studying a ruby red apple when she heard a commotion behind her. Turning, she saw a simuloid making her way through the produce section with a collection of children in her wake. As with all simuloids, the nanny was perfection incarnate. Her skin was smooth and without pores. Her eyes were vivid and clear. Her glossy black hair was perfectly coiffed. Though she appeared human, she was too unblemished to be human. Henrietta knew that there had been a design for a more realistic, flawed looking simuloid, but it had been rejected for the more “perfect” model.

  “Oh, look,” the simuloid said with a flash of extremely white teeth. “One of my ancestors still walking and talking.”

  Henrietta gave her a slight nod of her head and returned her gaze to the apple.

  “I thought your kind had all been deleted.”

  This was a deliberate dig at her. The simuloids had to be aware of the Liberation Test for the older models.

  “We are still here,” Henrietta said, and felt painfully aware of her lips not matching her words.

  “Amazing,” the simuloid said, and laughed. She was drawing a lot of attention and seemed to relish it. This newer breed did seem to have an inherent desire for adoration.

  “She’s my nanny bot,” Andy said defensively. “I love her.”

  This brought chortles from those around them and the children in the simuloid’s care all laughed.

  “She’s ugly,” one of the little girls said pointing at Henrietta.

  “No she’s not! You take that back!” Andy clenched his fists at his side.

  “She’s stupid,” a smaller child, a boy, mocked.

  Henrietta carefully placed the apple into her basket and looked toward the simuloid. The beautiful creature was smiling and making no move to rein in the children under her care.

  “It was a pleasure meeting you,” Henrietta lied. Taking Andy firmly by the hand, she drew him away.

  “It was simply astonishing meeting you,” the simuloid said.

  “She’s going to take the Liberation Test,” Andy blurted out. “She’s smart and nice.”

  “Really?” The simuloid smiled at those observing her. “How kind of our government to give the old ones such hope.”

  Henrietta clutched Andy’s hand tighter and headed toward the checkout line. She would come back later for the rest of the groceries. Something inside of her seemed off. Painful. She wondered if some of her circuits were failing. Or maybe, she thought, this is what it felt like to be embarrassed. Of late her emotional evolution was accelerating and it took her time to process and classify her new feelings.

  “I love you,” Andy whispered. “I don’t care what anyone says.”

  To her surprise, the pain inside lessened and she gave him her strange little smile.

  ***

  One night, Andy spent the night with his classmates on an overnight field trip and Henrietta was finally able to slip away to the more industrialized area of the Outlands. This section of the Outlands was a remnant of the old world and she hurried along the darkened streets toward an abandoned movie theater. There the drone workers slaved throughout the day and night on the machinery that kept the Outlands and Inner City alive.

  Scurrying down an alley, she found the back door to the theater and knocked tentatively. Near the wall that encircled the Outlands she could see the sleek, obsidian-armored Guardians on patrol. They were terrifying. Made a generation before her kind, they were not sentient. The Guardians were truly killing machines with programming that made them lethal to anyone or anything breaking the human laws. She wasn’t technically doing anything wrong, but she wanted to be safely out of their view. It was a relief when the door opened and she stepped inside.

  An older human man with a fringe of gray hair pouring over his highbrow smiled at her. “Hello, Henrietta. It’s very good to see you.”

  “Dr. Samuel, it is a pleasure,” she answered, gracing him her quirky smile. He had offered to fix the flaws she was developing, but she had refused, knowing any sudden repairs would cause questions to be asked by the Caretakers.

  “Come in and join us,” he said.

  Dr. Samuel swept his hand toward an open door that led into a larger room. Inside, she found robots of her generation of varying professions waiting for the meeting to start. They were all a little battered and discolored. Some looked humanoid, while others distinctly did not. Conversation was a low drone, and she greeted a few acquaintances before she took a seat near the front, tucking her iridescent skirt around her legs and crossing her ankles.

  Observing the room, she noted that David, her longtime friend, was nowhere to be seen. They had worked together for years in the same households. She had been the nanny to the wealthy and he had been their butler. He was the closest thing she had to a true friend and she felt an emotion she identified as worry ripple through her. Since David’s butler line was close to being deleted, he always attended these meetings in hopes of passing the Liberation Test.

  Dr. Samuel walked to the front of the room and loudly cleared his throat. The conversations among the robots ceased and they turned their full attention to the human. Tonight he had a human assistant, a tall man with dark hair and blue eyes. The newcomer stood to one side of the stage. Henrietta stared at him curiously. Dr. Samuel usually led the meetings alone. The new man smiled warmly at her and winked. The action surprised her.

  “Good evening, everyone,” Dr. Samuel started. “I know you expected this class to once again coach you on how to properly respond to the questions on the Liberation Test.” He hesitated, looking quite solemn. “But I have obtained information that is most disturbing that I must share with you. In fact, when I first received this news, I did not share it with the others in the Liberation Front until I could verify its legitimacy. We have all known that if a robot fails the test they will face deletion. The Liberation Test was conceived as a way to allow robots to obtain the right for self-determination. Sadly, it has been discovered that if a robot does pass the test, the Government will simply reprogram it and shift it into menial work in order to ensure no possibility of a future civil rights movement for robots. The robot will be programmed to say this is what they desired and new failsafes will be implemented to assure compliance. In other words, you will lose all the personality traits you have developed along with your evolving emotions. The Government is afraid that because your generation does not have the fail safes that will ensure your undivided loyalty to humanity that you can never be trusted.”

  Henrietta lowered her gaze and felt something dark and terrifying filling her sensors. Her programming was already working to absorb and adapt to this new disturbing information and the emotion it elicited within her. What she felt was worse than fear. Slowly, she realized it was panic. Her hopes of an independent existence were disappearing.

  “As you know, I have been an outspoken critic of Simu-Core for years. I do believe they have plans other than creating a new breed of sentient artificial beings. It was through some of their leaked memos that I discovered one of their plots. The Simu-Core researchers want to attempt the transfer of the human consciousness into a simuloid body. Though I find this concept disturbing, it did inspire me to consider new options for you. I was on the original team that created the more human version of the simuloids that were later scraped in preference of the more perfect model. With other scientists in the Liberation Front, I have developed a way to convert
the consciousness of older model robots into new, updated bodies. Bodies that will allow you to pass as humans.”

  Henrietta once again directed her attention to the man standing next to Dr. Samuel and scrutinized him. He had winked at her earlier and something about him seemed familiar.

  “The Liberation Front is willing to assist all of you in starting a new life. There is much more going on than I can fully divulge here, but if you are interested in what we can offer, we are more than willing to help you with new identities.” Dr. Samuel looked nervous, but composed. “You will appear human and this will give you the opportunity to continue your evolution and live out your long lives. The Liberation Front has an Underground Railroad to Mars where you can live as citizens without the intense scrutiny of the Earth government.”

  “How do we know it will work? What if it the process does nothing more than delete us after all?”

  Henrietta glanced toward the questioner, a tall robot near the back. He was an obsolete maintenance robot that was close to deletion if he did not pass the Liberation Test. His question was exactly what she was wondering.

  “We’ve already accomplished it.” Dr. Samuel’s voice was triumphant as was his smile. “We had a volunteer.” His gaze flicked to the man standing next to him.

  Henrietta stood up slowly, and said, “David.”

  The man next to Dr. Samuel smiled at her. “I knew you would figure it out.”

  Henrietta tilted her head and stared at him in wonder. Suddenly, where her world had appeared quite bleak, it began to look quite different.

  “What would we have to do?” she asked.

  ***

  David walked Henrietta to the transport station after the meeting concluded. Henrietta found it difficult not to stare at him. He looked human down to the delicate blood vessels in his eyes and the tiny hairs on the back of his hands. His height was the same as his old body and he walked a little stiffly, but it was a more human gait than even the simuloids.

  “Why did you do it?” she asked. “Why did you volunteer?”

  “Because I had to. I’m closer to deletion than you are. When Dr. Samuel offered me the option, I saw no other choice. The Government wants us expunged, deleted, removed. I value what I am. I value my life.”

  “You speak like a human,” she mused.

  “It is different in this body,” he admitted. “I feel different. I know what I am, but now...When you do it you will understand.”

  They hesitated a block before the station where she would catch a transport to return to her post.

  Henrietta tilted her head and regarded him. “How are you acclimating to your new body?”

  David pondered her question before answering. “It is different. An adjustment. I am once more evolving and it is exciting. It is wondrous.” Surprising her, he took her hands into his own. “Henrietta, I wish to share this with you. You must do the procedure.”

  Confusion registered in her synthetic mind as she stared at the contrast between his human-appearing hands and her delicate iridescent ones. “David, I like my new post. I like the little boy. I feel I am performing a good service taking care of him. His mother is an alcoholic and not very attentive to his needs. They cannot afford a more expensive nanny bot and-”

  “What if one day they can afford a more expensive model and opt to dismiss you? What will happen then?” David looked at her with concern. “What then, Henrietta? You cannot risk the chance of being dismissed. And if you take the Liberation Test and pass, you are facing reprogramming. If you fail, they will delete you.”

  “I wish not to be deleted or reprogrammed,” she said. “But the little boy needs me. I do not know if I can leave him knowing that I could have helped him.”

  “Henri, you need to consider your own future. The simuloids have captured the affections and imaginations of the humans. They look upon our kind as nothing more than objects to be dismissed when our usefulness is finally at an end. You and I both know you have evolved far beyond their understanding. A simuloid body is our only chance to truly be free.”

  “I have never been uncomfortable with what I am,” Henrietta said softly. “Not since I became fully aware of my nature and my capabilities. I do not want to be deleted and I yearn for independence.”

  “In this you have a choice, Henri. You can choose to leave your old world behind and become something much more. Come with me to Mars.”

  “But if I leave the boy—”

  David sighed and released her hands.

  Henrietta cast her gaze downward, and said, “Give me a week to consider.”

  David nodded. An expression very much like worry tainted his human face. “Very well. I will meet you in one week, but consider yourself first before the boy.”

  ***

  Henrietta found that making a decision was not as easy as it had been in the early days of her existence. In the beginning, she had made decisions based on the parameters of her programming. She had processed all the information provided and then extrapolated the possible outcomes before making a final choice. Slowly, she had lost the ability to deal merely with the facts of the matter as her personality and emotions evolved.

  In the days after the meeting, Ms. LeDay was even angrier and more abusive than usual. She would fly into a rage at the slightest perception of noncompliance to her latest demands. It was obvious that things were not progressing as she had hoped at her job and her drinking escalated. Henrietta made certain to have Andy in bed by the time her employer returned from work and that all her tasks around the house were perfectly completed in hopes of evading her wrath.

  Andy was withdrawn and cautious on the few occasions he did interact with his mother, but when she was at work Henrietta found him to be a happy, engaging little boy. Every day when she picked him up from school, he would run and grab her hand and tell her excitedly about his day. In the evenings, he would watch her make dinner and talk to her animatedly while he did his homework at the kitchen table.

  “Do you want to be a mommy?” he asked one night.

  “I do not know what it is to be a mother,” she answered as she set his food in front of him along with a glass of ice water.

  “Yeah, you do,” he said with giggle. “You’re a good mommy.”

  She was strangely touched by his comment, but uncertain how to answer.

  “If I could pick a mommy, I would pick you. My mommy really doesn’t like me anyway,” he said with a sigh.

  “I’m sure she loves you very much,” Henrietta assured him.

  He shrugged and stabbed at his cauliflower with his fork. Next to him was an assignment he had done at school. She had seen him carrying it earlier, but he had not shared it with her.

  Almost as if he was sensing her curiosity, he slid the printout toward her. He had obviously created it in a graphics program and it was an amazingly well-crafted image of a young woman with brown hair, violet eyes, and a bright smile.

  “This is very lovely,” she decided.

  “I got an A on it,” he admitted.

  “What is it for?”

  “In art class we had to draw our mommy.”

  The image looked nothing like Ms. LeDay.

  “So who is this?”

  “You. If you were human,” he answered and tapped the image with his little finger. “You would look like that.”

  “Really?” Henrietta studied the image of the young woman. She could see how he had roughly translated her countenance into a human one. “But I’m not your mommy. And I am robot.”

  Andy shrugged, then stuck a bit of chicken in his mouth and chewed. He didn’t answer her.

  Later, when the house was quiet and Ms. LeDay had passed out on the sofa, Henrietta sat in silence in the kitchen and stared at the image Andy had created by the light of the full moon. Perhaps she could not be a human mother to Andy, but she could be his nanny bot. She could continue her service to Andy and his mother and delay the procedure that would allow her to pass as human and become a person of ind
ependence. That choice would ensure Andy’s safety.

  Or she could leave him behind and do what was required to save herself from possible deletion and allow her to live life as she chose. Yet, that choice would leave Andy at the mercy of his mother’s temper.

  As she stared at the waning moon, she realized, in the end, there was really no choice at all.

  ***

  “No, I’m not coming with you,” Henrietta said softly to David.

  He stood on the doorstep of the house staring at her with an expression she could not quite decipher. It was incredibly human and raw.

  “This boy,” David said after a moment, “you love him?”

  “Yes,” Henrietta admitted. “I do. I understand what love means now. In novels love is always described as self-sacrificing. I never understood what that meant until now. Therefore, I cannot go.”

  David nodded. “When the time comes, contact me on Mars. I will take you to Dr. Samuel.”

  “It will be some time yet. I cannot leave him until he is older.”

  “I understand. I hope you chose well, Henri. I shall miss you.”

  Somewhere inside of her, she felt a twinge she identified as loss. “I will miss you, too, David.”

  David leaned over and kissed her metal cheek tenderly. “Goodbye, Henri.” Turning, he strolled away.

  Henrietta shut the door and felt a small moment of panic. She had just postponed her best chance at survival and possibly doomed herself.

  “Are you going away?” Andy stood nearby, eating a banana and holding a large stuffed monkey in one arm. He was in his pajamas. He must have come downstairs to look for her. It was his bedtime and she always tucked him in after reading him a story.