Brobots

by Trevor Barton

  Nobody but the sparrow itself knew that it had watched the gleeful play. It observed them with delight and made the chirrup sound meaning ‘happy’.

  The President

  Eight weeks passed. Jared tried to make up for Byron’s absence by seeing Jason as much as possible. But with that often came Steven; not so much awkward as boring. Either that, or Mike: mouth wateringly attractive, full of ego, always a tease. He felt lonely again. No family; and the family he was making for himself felt distant and far away. Perhaps it was even far fetched. Doubts crept in again about ever saving Byron and the influence doing so had had on his simple life.

  Once upon a time he’d had a Yana. Yana had been his grounding much as he’d been hers. Together they could be adults setting an oft-immature gay world to rights. Without her, Jared realized that the Palm Tree Club was a freak house of arrested development juveniles much like the farm. Was the straight world any better, he mused? Then he remembered. In the straight world there was a veneer of maturity under which all the childishness was pushed in multiple passive-aggressive or psychotic ways. Generalization. But it occasioned to have a truth.

  It was the day of hearing for Susan’s bill. Jared ran news headlines as a ticker tape across the base of his work desk monitor. Susan did much the same in her office several blocks away, as did Yana sitting with a laptop in DC.

  In the afternoon a live feed showed President T. Junior standing on a parapet preparing to give a speech.

  ‘Based on work begun by ethicists and scientists as far back as 2016, and after careful consideration of all the facts, the United States government has determined that starting October this year Sentients who wish may be granted full citizenship of our free and wonderful country. Several thousand units are known to have already appealed for rights. Many are in safe houses that are known to our officials. They have been unable of late to contribute to society. Making them citizens is one way we can give that opportunity back to them and thank them for their honest work of many years.

  ‘Why not all Sentient models have appealed for rights is not known. What is known, resting heavy on our shoulders, is the responsibility that comes to us with the creation of artificial life. Much like parents setting an example for their children we must now show what we, as people, are capable of in our acceptance and honor of them.

  ‘I also wish to take this opportunity to announce to you all that as of this day any future military asset agreements will be given full and proper consideration by your government. This measure is taken to ensure that your military not only protects and defends your freedoms, but itself remains sovereign to this country. General Caslerow has been found guilty of disregarding State procedures, resulting in his dismissal this morning to face trial. The military units, which were never delivered, have kindly been destroyed by the Italian government and I am happy to tell you that we are now looking at how best to use American expertise for American security technology as is right and proper to do.’

  Yana dropped a pen from her fingers and looked out the window. Perhaps she could pay Jared a visit now.

  Jared dropped a pen from out of his fingers. Perhaps he could visit the farm again soon.

  Susan dropped a letter opener into a cork with satisfaction. The battle was over. Now the fight would begin.

  The Month of September, 2062

  Susan leaned across the kitchen table and handed Byron an envelope. Byron looked at Jared, who just smiled back. ‘Aren’t you going to open it?’

  Staring down at his first ever piece of mail, Byron edged the corners open with a thumb and index finger, then tore along the edge. Inside was a letter and a credit card sized piece of plastic.

  ‘It’s my citizenship. How’d you get it early?’

  ‘Thank you, Susan. Thank you so much. I got you something, too.’ Jared reached into his side cargo pocket and produced a rectangular box. He slid it across the table to Susan.

  Opening it, Susan found inside a fountain pen. It was engraved. “Love from Byron and Jared.” ‘Thank you both. Very touching.’

  ‘Does everyone get a pass like me?’

  ‘Yeah, these ones came through for everyone except Harris. Harris was the first one on the farm and when he contacted me originally we forgot to make his requests official. With everything coming after that we both put it out of mind. He’s gotta stay here on the farm while his case gets looked at.’

  ‘That’s Okay, isn’t it Byron? We can come back and visit?’

  ‘Yeah. The others are staying here anyway. I guess I’ll be coming back a lot to help now and then.’

  ‘What about the rest of you?’ Yana had come down from DC to experience the curious farm now the dust had settled on the news stories and her own involvement thereof. Much like Susan, she wasn’t completely “guard down” yet – but they were both getting closer to that as time healed the wounds of change for the public.

  ‘Byron’s moving in with me permanent’, Jared beamed. ‘And Tasley, Chuck and Ned are coming too.’

  ‘Wow. Full house!’

  ‘We get to make a mini farm in Scrinton. It’s gonna be so swell!’ Byron beamed at Yana.

  ‘You got enough room for five men and a big dog?’

  ‘Well… Chuck and Ned have to battery-share, so they won’t both be around at the same time. Plus it sounds like Christopher at the Palm Tree is up for seeing how it goes having Byron and his bro’s work the bars from time to time. Means they get to get out and do something together.’

  ‘Hey! That’s a neat plan!’

  ‘Provided no more muscle Mary’s try to beat them up!’ Jared chuckled. ‘But, yeah. It should be good!’

  ‘How about you, Yana? You coming back?’

  ‘Uh, no. You know I can’t. Scrinton City Globe won’t take me. Besides, I’m out of their league now. I got a permanent place at the Times if I want it. Looks like DC might be seeing more of me.’

  ‘Yeah? You gonna take it?’

  ‘I want to, yes.’ She reached out and put her hand on Jared’s arm. ‘I’ll still come visit, though. I can’t wait to see what y’ahll get up to back at the city, or here on the farm.’

  ‘What about you, Susan? Where does all this leave RAI?’

  ‘We’re in a strong position now. In fact it looks like we’ll be managing every request for US citizenship – not just the local ones who find us. That’s keeping us busy. We’ve had almost seven thousand now.’

  ‘Are you serious? That’s amazing!’

  ‘That horse has well and truly bolted.’

  ‘What came of the farming plan?’

  ‘That’s still going,’ said Byron. ‘Harris and the old boys will work on that. It was never really Chuck’s plan. But when me and the Bro’s come visit we can help out for holidays.’

  ‘Do you think they’ll get to sell produce now too?’

  ‘They’ll still need a human helper’, Susan remarked. ‘Someone like you.’

  ‘Well…’

  ‘Never say never!’ Yana smiled. ‘I can see you as a farm boy!’

  ‘Shit that’s cliché. Gay robot-loving farm boy getting all butch-like and helping out the Bro’s! Tumbles in the hay…’

  ‘The farm is about to go public too’, Susan added. ‘Not for the produce. I mean as a rehabilitation center. A stepping stone into civilian life for AI’s who want that. It’s a bold step. I feel precious about this place and what the Bro’s have all done here for each other. But a pattern that works has formed here, and a whole bunch of new Sentients are going to need it. The location won’t be advertised.’

  For the first time, none of them had to hide as much.

  Jared had hired a car and driven himself and Byron to the farm with Yana yesterday. Susan would take Yana back to the airport, and Tasley, Ned and Chuck would travel back in the car to move in with Byron and Jared at Jared’s home. Jared would not have to make pretend trips to Hawaii to see the farm or visit his man. Byron would not have to stay indoors. It wasn’t a green light to be all car
e free; they’d still have to keep things low-key. But it would be a start. A very wonderful start with a new kind of family: one that he and Byron were building together.

  ‘You finally fixed your man.’ Yana exclaimed.

  ‘What did happen to you, anyways? Like, when you were small.’ Byron asked Jared.

  Jared looked around the table. Susan wasn’t close to him, of course. But he trusted her. Perhaps it was time to open up. It was one of the biggest things about Jared that Byron still didn’t know.

  ‘Mmmnh. Well… My father was a mechanic. A biker. He had a road traffic accident – not his fault – when I was nine. After life support for three months he was brought back home. But he had brain damage, mental health problems, a whole change of character. He also had pins and prosthetics. He had to learn to walk again; write again…’

  Jared began to sob. Byron would have leaned over to comfort him but sensed that Jared just needed space.

  ‘…Mom was busy working, so it fell to me to give him his pills and help him to exercise. Learn how to write. Speaking again because he’d also had a stroke. Then… to cut it short… about seven years later he was physically able enough to go biking again? Nobody expected that. Not the medics at least. Mom went with him one day. They had a day trip. I was happy for them to go. I even remember telling Mom that she should go and enjoy herself.

  'Mom never came back. Another accident. Again not Dad’s fault. He survived, but his health was much worse than even before. He died thirteen years later; he was a broken man.’

  Byron didn’t know how to react, so he just sat there, listening. Yana stepped in. She already knew the facts but had never heard them pieced together so succinctly before. It would be tough to do, but she felt that Jared needed pushing gently now. ‘So, you go figure that, Byron. When Jared found you he’d found a broken man needed fixing. Fixed you up and then something else needed fixing, because you didn’t know who you were.’

  ‘And that’s what you and Alma have been banging on about. Like this isn’t love. Or it’s the reason I’m gay.’

  ‘If you’re “bro fit” you’ve always been “bro fit”, bro’.’

  The words could have been Byron’s, but thankfully they were Yana’s. She was right, of course. Even when he and his mom and pop had moved to Scrinton he was choosing male friends based on their looks and screaming round the playgrounds like a queen. ‘But did you have to go through such an ordeal to find your perfect man?’

  ‘Looks like I did. And I’d do it all again.’ Jared looked at Yana and then Byron rubbing his sore eyes. Unfair. ‘But… why the interrogation guys?’

  ‘I… put Byron up to the question. Guilty as charged. The thing is, I don’t know when I’m going to see you again Jared. Just… I wanted to say enjoy what you have, for me, now that the coast is clear for you two. Will you? Stop analyzing, stop fixing, just live. It doesn’t matter to me how you found a way to build a new family and find someone to love you back for real. It just matters that you did. Now that you have, I want you to enjoy it.’

  Jared nodded. The connection was finally going to his heart. Whatever motivations there had been for finding a broken man to fit his sense of ‘perfect’ and however those were connected to his family’s tragic past (growing up, effectively, with a broken cyborg parent), Byron was perfect and he’d fought for him. He resolved to take his loving friend’s advice. Enjoy what he could, when he could; and perhaps even break the mold of trying to fix all the time.

  ‘Figure it’s my turn to fix things up’, Byron said.

  ‘Oh! You having a go at me now too? What sort of fixing do I need from you Byron?’

  ‘No. Wasn’t thinking about that. Palm Tree Club stinks.’

  ‘Oh yeah? Does it need a make-over? You gonna go all artsy big boy? Start choosing soft furnishings and color schemes?’ Yana teased.

  ‘No! I’m leaving that part to Chuck!’

  ‘Who’s doing the lap dance?’ Yana enquired.

  ‘Definitely Tasley’, Jared mused.

  ‘Yeah? You got the hots for him?’ Byron’s needing to know was sweet.

  ‘Yeah, baby! That dude is sex on legs!’ Yana exclaimed. ‘I’m there.’

  ‘You might be in luck’, Byron replied. ‘He’s one of those “sister fit” types.’

  ‘One for you! One for me!’ Jared sang to Yana.

  ‘No, thank you! But Tasley can sure give me a dance when I come to town!’

  --

  Chuck and Ned took up residency in the guest room so that they could swap out on the battery with one charger. It meant sharing a bed, and Jared was a little concerned that with the bed and battery sharing, Chuck wouldn’t be getting the extra time he actually needed to sort out his extra pile of emotions or fears of the outside world. It was how it was. Tasley had a room to himself. It was small, but he didn’t mind.

  During the daytime, Byron would work the garden and help Jared with errands as long as heading out wasn’t involved too much. He’d fixed one radio and was now onto another. Chuck (or Ned) and Tasley started doing the proffered occasional day shifts at the Palm Tree. It was never busy, and very low paid, but they had fun and it kept them together. Some weekend nights, Byron would join them all for a shift. He’d work the bar while the others worked the crowds. Every gay man in the city wanted a piece of Tasley. Being straight he’d tease and play, loving every minute and sending them wild with a strip-off. Once he even used his old work gear for a costume and Christopher let him do a dance routine. Old camp classics were his backing tracks as he flexed his muscles at the crowds and jiggied his booty on stage. Christopher didn’t want the guys becoming a known feature of the venue without being “out” from the start. Hiding facts would only lead to later trouble, so one stipulation of employment was that they had to do it as Brobotics.

  Chuck, of course, was the one who wanted the attention. But fortune would have it that this meant he was the one who didn’t get it. He couldn’t dance, so he just made the most of collecting glasses and doing small talk. (His re-fit scheme had worked a treat. The redecorations were camper than ever.)

  Christopher, of course, was extremely happy. It meant he could sit and keep the customers entertained, enjoying it all with them. Either that or escape away entirely and leave them to it for the nights.

  --

  It was Saturday night. Early October, but the night was hot. The bar had opened the roof terrace. Everyone was out. Jason, Jared, Mike, Todd. Byron was out with him and not working. Tasley would be on stage later: his first advertised appearance. Chuck was collecting glasses.

  Jared and Jason had found a small table with a tea light up top in the terrace. The place was heaving. It had even become somewhat of a curio to humans of all persuasions and genders, what with its machine men staff. It carried some risk, of course, but there was safety in numbers, bouncers, and a lot of muscle Marys and butch dykes to take anyone out if they tried something funny. He sipped Jason’s Piña Colada.

  ‘I knew I was right about Byron.’

  ‘Yeah? When did you know?’

  ‘The day I freakin caught you looking at all that stuff in the office, man.’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘For sure!’

  Doubtful. ‘Do you like him?’

  ‘I love him, Jared. He’s amazing. I’m so happy for you.’

  ‘What about you? Still getting tied up with guys who’re no good?’

  ‘Only “no good” in the sense that they’re bad boys!’ Jason wiggled his eyebrows.

  ‘OK. Interesting. Any romance?’

  ‘Maybe!’

  ‘Oh there is! Well now I’m all ears and social media.’

  ‘Be interested all you like, monkey. My turn to have secrets.’

  ‘Ha! That’s fair.’

  ‘Hey, what time is Tasley on?’

  Jared looked at his band. ‘Shit!’

  ‘What?’

  ‘We’re missing it!’

  They scarpered for the ground floor bar scatteri
ng twinks and bears right and left as they did. Jared found Byron doing his best to jig to dubstep in the middle of the dance floor. Sweet but clumsy. Jason, curiously, found Chuck at the bar and went to join him there. A dubbed up version of “I am every woman” was gnarling through the woofers and the crowd was in a hype.

  At the end of the track the music stopped and the lights went out. Dancers erupted in cheers and blowing of whistles. A single white spot light appeared on the center of the stage. It revealed the figure of a man in a hard hat and highvis. The light played on the fabric of his clothing in a way that Jared had seen more than a year ago.

  With whoops and cheers, an electronic track about dancing robots started to play. The crowd went wild. Tasley gyrated to the beats with all-too-real robotic stutters. He twirled round neat on his heel and threw his hard hat to the crowd. Perfectly-timed moves were both sexual and mechanical, sending women and men into screams for more. Strobe light accentuated Tasley’s moves as he glared at the crowd with a wicked hot beam.

  Chuck already had plans to glam it up for Tasley in future with a space opera or cyberpunk number. Tasley wasn’t quite ready to go that costume camp quite yet, but he’d done the odd practice duo with Mike dressed as a blue diva from outer space. When those two paired, he figured he would ditch the chunky robot tool fantasies and go for something more traditional. If it was a mixed crowd Chuck thought he should dance to a song about an other-worldly machine-goddess with a female volunteer. If it was more bro-fit male he could do robot dance or something else.

  Chuck lent over to Jason. ‘Do you love it when Tasley dances?’

  ‘It’s the hottest thing! How does he do those stutters so well?’

  ‘He turns off the actuator smoothing.’

  ‘And you? You love it?’

  ‘He’s kind of my brother, so not really. But… I helped him choose the tracks and outfits.’

  ‘You did?’

  ‘Yeah!’