This story was written for The Ardent Quill guild in GAIA. The requirement for this pice is the following.
Sci-fi topic: Write a story on human interaction with robots. It must involve at least one person and at least one robot. The robots should be self controlled. Other than that, it can be on any subject (love, war, benefits/dangers of robots, or whatever) The robots should have major roles in the story.
The Wings of an Angel
by Cipheralex
Edited by MaDMiDgEt, PN
Chapter 1
The first time I saw him, he was sitting in a dirty storage house. The whole place was filled with broken parts of machines. The roof of the warehouse had been damaged; sunlight poured through the holes, striking every piece of dust in the air and leaving sharp edged trails of light. He was sitting backwards on a rotten chair, with his hand on his arms resting on top of the back of the chair. He looked like he was sleeping in the sunlight. His clothes were outdated, dirty and covered with dust. His hair was a mess, and I could not tell what color it was. I, on the other hand, was not prepared to see him. Ok, I had sneaked into this forbidden place, not expecting to find anyone.
Why am I here? Because I did not want to be where I should have been; because I simply wanted to be alone where no one can find me; because I want to....
I am Alex, a 6-year-old - philosopher, a world known genius, and a nobody other than the 250 IQ that I was given against my will. I was created to be the future leader of this world that I know nothing about other than what I have read. I have lived a carefully monitored life in a glass cage covering over a square mile. This "crystal", as everyone called it, is a specially designed living unit for the "special" person. Crystals vary in sizes: some are large; some are small, depending on the person's ability and IQ. And yes, I have the largest and the best unit there is. But it is still a cage.
Today is my sixth birthday, and they have decided to let me meet my new friend, and my future wife, not by my choice, and whom I have no intention of meeting, ever... I did my homework on her and found out that she has the second highest IQ in the world. She is also the "suspect" in the murdering of the former second place holder. But being a day younger than me, she is not persecuted by the law. Her caretakers, on the other hand, had a different life after the murder.
Yeah, just great, my life has been set before me, for me, and not by my choice. I did all that I was asked, and this is what I got for being good. So, here I was, not wanting to do what I was "supposed to do," but I had no idea how I ended up there. All I know is that, I was angry and, while running away, I managed to crack fifteen different encoded doors, and got through many rooms of mazes covered with booby-traps, which I did not even know existed in my living unit. Well I think this was still part of my unit anyways.
Now, back to him, this person who was sitting in front of me, sleeping. Well, anyone could tell this person had been here for a while. A very long while; in fact, I would not have been surprised to see a skeleton covered by the dusts and clothe.
I don't know what made me walk over to him and put my hand on his knees, and wake him up gently, if he were alive. To my surprise, he asked who was there without lifting his face. I answered, and he looked up then down at me. His face was youthful like a teenager. A beautiful work of old style android; made by the engineers who had lived ages ago. He straightened up his back and stood up from the chair in a fluent movement. He was taller than I had suspected. Well, at least to me, as I was looking at the man face to face as best as my height allowed. He seemed to understand my problem and kneeled down in front me, letting me look him in the eye the way I am comfortable with.
"I am Andrew, nice to meet you." He held out his right hand. His voice was made to match his looks: the teenager voice, soft and sweet.
"Nice to meet you, too." I took his hand; it was colder than mine, but soft and comfortable to the touch.
His face animated to a bright smile. His blue eyes filled with happiness and trust. He was too human-like. Even though I knew what he was, I was fighting with myself about it. His eyes seemed to see through me, and understand me more than anyone who had lived around me all my life.
"What can I do for you..?"
I was some what taken back to reality, like the sharp edges when the illustrations are broken. For that was a standard response programmed into all androids and robots in the old times; a sign of submission and prompting for data input from the owner.
"No, nothing, I was...kinda hoping to find.. a friend..." my voice trailed off, looking away from his mesmerizing eyes...and I thought he was different, well he is only an android...
"I can be that." He tilted his head to the side trying to meet my eye.
"What?" I was surprised, staring at him bug-eyed.
"I can be your friend if you like." He smiled again.
"..Can..?.. If I like..?" I went through all my knowledge of android in my head. For all I knew, android are just mimics of human beings; they did not provide choices like what he just did. "You are an android, right?" I blurted out.
A sad frown showed up on his face. He turned his head. He looked hurt.
"Ah...sorry... I didn't mean... umm... sorry..." I struggled for words.
He looked at me again, surprised, and then the smile came back. "It is alright, you are not the only one who is confused; I too am confused. About what I am and why my creator made me the way that I am." The sadness came back for a short moment, then he stood up, and in an effort to break away from the sadness, he started talking again, still holding my hand, "Well, I think we need to clean you up, you are covered with dust." He said, looking at me.
"I am not the only one..." I gave him a look, somewhat unhappy that he was treating me like a child.
He blinked and then looked at him self, "oh, I am sorry; I did not realize that I was this dirty. Thank you for letting me know. I guess we both need a good bath." He looked somewhat embarrassed. "Please come this way." He started walking toward the end of the warehouse.
He is different... I smiled, feeling good after getting back at him.