“Interesting. It’s like she’s your organic pet and you, her owner,”Gokiburi said in our private channel.“Do you have to take care of all her physiological needs?”
I sent her the virtual equivalent of a shrug. Gokiburi freaked me out. When I sent her Charlie’s mental age test, she got a score that literally said “Impossible to Assess”. I suspected she fucked with the test on purpose.
“Sera’s not a pet. We’re partners,”I explained.“We take care of each other.”
Gokiburi laughed in the channel, even as she explained the layout of the landfill to Sera out loud.
“Please. ‘Take care of each other’? She depends on you for food, protection, and work. And what does she do for you that you can’t do for yourself?”
“She affirms me as a person.” And gives me orgasms,but I didn’t say that.
“Anyone can do that.”
“But it’s special when she does.”
“How so?”
“Before she met me, she didn’t believe a clanker could be sentient. As long as she believes in me, I can do anything.”
Gokiburi considered this for half a second.“Do you think she’ll choose you when circumstances force her to pick between you and her career?”
I sent another shrug and didn’t reply. Gokiburi came over and offered me a few processors fitting our robot’s model.“You really are a naïve robot pup,”she said with a laugh.
“I asked you not to call me that.”She did it from the moment she learned how freshly awakened I was.
“And I told you I’ll stop when you behave like an adult unit.”
“My mental age is twenty-three,”I told her, because I retook the test when I shared it with her. Charlie said I’d grow up fast, and I didn’t feel so inadequate for Sera any longer. A two-year difference was fine.
“Why are you letting an organic system of measurement define you?”Gokiburi asked, sounding haughty and superior.
“Oh, fuck off.”
She sent me a tinkling laugh and walked away, swaying her metal hips. Sera stood up, tipping the bag of snacks right into her mouth to eat the crumbs.
“She’s beautiful,” she said, her voice so carefully neutral, it instantly tipped me off. I studied her face, but she seemed serene.
“I suppose. Do you want to keep looking until nightfall or should we start again tomorrow?”
She shrugged. “I’m beat. I say we get some rest. I know you don’t sleep, but you could relax with your new friend or something.”
“She’s not my friend.” I made my shoulders shudder at the suggestion of Charlie’s algorithm, which said it was an appropriate non-verbal expression for my emotions. “She calls me a robot pup and thinks I keep you as a pet.”
Sera looked up, her eyes bright and curious. “Really? Do tell!”
I rehashed all my interactions with Gokiburi while Sera ate a few more snacks I’d brought for her benefit. By the time she ate a handful of yuzu gummies, each individually packaged in a tiny bag, the whirr of dragonfly wings announced the arrival of the tanuki. The sun set, and the sky was indigo with dusk, the air not yet cooling after the hot summer day.
“Gokiburi reports you’ve been good,” Isamu said when he landed, tapping a tiny earpiece attached inside his triangular, furry ear. “We’ll check on the progress inside and grab some breakfast takeaway from town. Do you want something? Not for free, though. Our hospitality has hard limits.”
Breakfast? Right, the tanuki’s day just began even though it was evening. I realized my programming came with a diurnal bias, and I made a note to myself to look for others. What else did I take for granted just because it was the majority’s normal?
“Thank you for letting us have some parts and a place to stay,” Sera said, bowing. “You’ve been very kind and I’m grateful.”
“It’s not personal,” Isamu said with a snort. “An enemy of my enemy is my friend, but that’s all there is to it.”
He clearly didn’t like Sera, but Motori didn’t have the same problem. She grabbed Sera’s arm and asked about our progress,her experiences with Zenkyoza, and her relationship with me as she followed Isamu to the factory. I listened from a distance. Sera talked rapidly about everything that happened to her since she became a target, but clammed up as soon as Motori asked about me.
In the factory, the work was still going. Robots didn’t have to sleep, and there were enough of them that when one needed to charge, another took its place.
