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Mechanical Children do, infact, have souls. |
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The word 'perplexed' did not quite define my state of mind when I was notified that a ghost robot had been made known in Gaia.
I had been spending the night with White, my android boyfriend. There are so many things I could say about the mischevious, troublemaking and sometimes frustrating man.....how someone who had started off as a Gbot could be my complete opposite in terms of organization and structure but fit into my life like a gear I never knew I was missing is beyond me. But this entry isn't about him, although I could write about him for days.
He and I have been an item for around 2 months, and we were two Mechanical Children who enjoyed each other's company more than I could describe here. After some intimate exchanges, I laid in my bed in his arms contently while he whispered ridiculous nonsense to me. Just as I was about to retort, a message popped up on my screen. It was an e-mail from a close connection of mine informing me of a ghost. But not just any ghost, the ghost of a robot.
It took a few seconds and a good elbow to the chest to 'convince' White to let me go. Even then he was reluctant. I pulled my black silken robe around me as I slid out of bed and towards my office. Autumn had indeed hit Aekea early this year and I could feel it's crisp breath against my skin. It was late in the evening and Retrostacja, returned to his canine body, and White's own companion G-bot Jeffrey had gone to bed hours ago. Walking past I took a brief peek in and saw the two of them snuggled up against each other. I was grateful that I could work in the dark so I would not stir the light sleepers.
Sitting down at my desk, I flipped on my computer and re-read the e-mail on the larger screen. The concept of a robot ghost was something I had never contemplated. Sure, the debate on whether Mechanical Children of intense complexity had souls was always a hot topic. One that I could never quite take a stance on as passionately as I wanted to. My own brain, still almost entirely organic, told me that from my experience as a mechanic, that there was nothing that could replicate a soul. I had programmed personalities from scratch, but never a soul. But my heart always told me that the human soul was not developed physically either. Many define a ghost as the soul or spirit of a person. If this claim was true, then I never had to question what my heart told me in terms of this topic ever again.
White came into my office as I quickly read through this ghost's blog. He and several other ghosts had entries that Gaians could read. While the others were interesting, and I knew that I would skim over them later, this ghost Brainbox was my main priority. I felt my partner's hands caress my shoulders and I could not help but shudder as I translated the code of the ghost's entry. "Painful Memories Not Found". Reaching up, I rested a hand on his and squeezed it gently.
This robot was so alone. And I didn't know what to do.
I turned on a second screen for my computer, adjusting it so it hung to the left of the one I had already been using. On it I pulled up the Mechanical Child Directory, which had every registered robot, cyborg and android in Gaia along with dozens of ones that were not officially in the system. It was my job to keep all of them safe, happy, and equal to others in as many ways as possible. But no Brainbox was found amongst the hundreds of names. Either he had slipped through the cracks, or he had died before I established the Mechanical Children three years ago.
His code suggested that he was in fact from before I had even become a cyborg. Could he have been from the time of the War Robots? Did the Faktori Bots know of this Brainbox? His words oddly enough reminded me of Ribateau's, whose threats spoken underneath his breath haunted me as much as this new ghost haunted Gaia. Was there a connection?
As White slid his arms around me and rested his chin on my slumped shoulder, I wondered if I could even help this robot. I had sent him an e-mail but did not know if he truly understood my intentions. Did he know how much progress his kind has made in the recent years? Did he even realize that I was no threat, and was someone he could trust?
Only time could tell. And trust me, one thing that ghosts and Mechanical Children have plenty of, is time. I just hoped that it was enough.
 PQ and Retrostacja · Sun Oct 17, 2010 @ 02:37am · 0 Comments |
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