by Gabe Sluis
~"Child, stop assaulting my casing. I am functional."~
The boy jumped off the back of the chair the robot was seated in and drops the tool. The three congregate to the knees of the seated robot and look up at the machinery. The boys appear to be twins with matching facial features, one with bristles for hair, and the other a mop above his face. The girl is slightly larger; big cheeks and bigger eyes. All look to be in old enough to be out of dippers but not yet old enough to dress themselves.
~"What are you three doing in this station room? The area is off limits."~
"Get up, robot!" the short-haired boy commanded.
~"I have been locked down in this position. I repeat, what is your purpose in this room?"~
The long-haired boy burst into tears, face to the tall ceiling, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Drabby! Knock it off already!" The girl shouted at the crying boy who stopped on command.
"Robot!" The girl said. "We need you to call for help. After you call some adults, we are hungry, so you have to open the cafeteria for us."
~"I am lacking information. Why was I activated? I was to be stored here indefinitely. Why do you request access to the cafeteria?"~
"Where we live on 392 was damaged by a meteor strike," short-hair said. "Everyone left abandoned the station, so we left in our trundle and came here."
~"Why did the defense mechanisms for meteor deflection not work on your station?"~
"The sun's burnt out and gunna go super nova!" long-hair cried and began to ball again.
The girl pushed the long-haired boy to the ground with one hand, making him stop crying once again.
~"The sun is not due to run out of fuel for another 5 billion years. Unless my timing systems are off, nowhere close to that amount of time has passed. The event you described could not possibly be happening."~
"Awe-huh!" The short-haired kid said, running across the room, opening a blast shielded window to space. A dim orange ball hung in the void, emitting a small amount of the normal light with visual disturbances of dark colors crossing the orb.
~"This is an unforeseen turn of events."~
"See, told you, stupid robot! Everyone has abandoned Earth and the stations. We need to get some snacks and then leave too," the girl said. "And anyway, why are you not doing what we say? We are the masters now and we say help us find a way to a ship!"
"And snacks!" long-hair added from his crumpled position on the ground.
~"You must understand, children. I am not a standard servant robot of the kind you are no doubt used to. I have been contained in this room because I am a fully articulated artificial intelligence."~
"So you can think and feel just like real people?" short-hair said, inching closer to the robot, placing a hand on its leg.
~"That I am."~
"Then why are you locked in here?"
~"The two prior attempts to create a socially functional robotic intelligence such as myself became dangerous in their maturity."~
"They hurt people?" short-hair asked.
"Their mental processes were too swift compared to human cognition. The first terminated its own existence, while the second attempted to take over all functions and acquire data through forceful manipulation of mechanical and organic individuals."~
"And they made a third one anyway?" the girl asked.
~"My processing was slowed so as to curb any terminating conclusions that could be reached faster than humans would like. Yet despite this fact, I have been locked down in this room as a precaution based upon past experience."~
"Well, we gotta get out of here! Can you help us find a ship to take us to Cyn or Greenwell?" the girl asked.
"But snacks first!"
"I told you to shut up, Drabby!" the girl scolded. "I won't forget the snacks!"
~"I must be unlocked from the containment chair for me to help you find a ship and rations."~
"Do you think its safe?" short-hair asked the girl. "He did say his dad tried to enslave all humans..."
"Your not going to make us slaves or flush us into space or anything like that, are you, Robot?" the girl asked.
~"I have no such desire. The unlock is on the terminal to the right."~
"Here it goes!" long-hair said, screwing his face up tight to the moment when the hit the big release button.
~Mobility returned.~
~"Thank you, children. Let us proceed. Your trundel is nothing more than a child's shuttle, surly not capable of transporting the four of us to distant stars, as well as placing you in suspended states for the voyage. We will have to scour this station and others as necessity requires..."~
"But first, snacks!"