Davis - New Frontiers

NEW FRONTIERS

A short story by

Scott R. Davis

Damn, she was cute.

Her hair straight and black, cut to shoulder length, with verylow bangs hanging to her almond shaped eyes. Pale, flawless skin,graceful jaw line, and a wide mouth with beautifully shaped, full,lips. Above those lips, perfectly placed, her cute little nose, ithas a slight upward tilt. A face that looks like it was stolen froma marble sculpture. Her body also looks sculpted, curvy in all theright places very curvy in some.

Shes looking at me with eyes so blue it seems as though theyreice chipped from a glacier.

Looking at me

For a second I forget why were staring at each other, thenSully nudges me and I remember to order.

Do you want room for cream? she asks. Somehow, in my mind, itsounds dirty. Maybe its her British accent.

Uh no! Just uh, leaves and water please, just plain. Sully,you want a tea? I ask in an effort to move her focus somewhereelse.

It takes me a second to realize what Ive said, and then I feelthe color rising up my neck and cheeks. I can feel my ears turninginto beacons of shining red embarrassment, which only makes thingseven more embarrassing.

No, Luthor, Im fine.

Of course Sully is fine, of course he doesntwant anything. Robots cant drink tea, and robots cant feel stupidin front of cute baristas. Idiot!

Uh, I guess were good I say, to the plunging neckline of hertight uniform, unable to meet her eyes, eyes that suddenly seemedmuch brighter. Maybe it was the dark makeup around them.

I run my bracelet over the EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer)sensor attached to the register. 6.2 credits remove themselves frommy account and march over to Sol-Bucks corporate account. I havejust inadvertently helped them further their goals towards worlddomination.

Smooth. Sully says as we turn away from the counter with aholographic ORDER HERE shining above it, and move toward the oneprojecting PICK UP.

Yeah, thanks for noticing, and then bringing it up again rightaway. I jokingly stick up my two fingers at Sully, using my bodyto block the rude gesture from the barista. The expression onSullys gunmetal blue, titanium, face doesnt change (though in hisdefense he does have a somewhat limited range of facialmotion), but he cant pull that stoic crap with me, I know from theway his red eyes brightened slightly that he finds it humorous.

I wasnt referring to your bumbling attempt to simply order tea,Luthor. I was referring to the fact that you forgot to tipher.

Oh no! I did forget!

Too late now. Probably a good thing though, Im sure that wouldhave taken another awkward fifteen minutes.

You know, Sully, you were built to be my friend, yet yourebecoming more and more like the older brother I never wanted.

Are you attempting to be humorous? I can never tell if Im notgetting the joke, or youre just not being funny.

Itll be real funny when I format you when we get home. Iwouldnt of course, but Sully was quick, and I really had to worksometimes for a decent comeback. This is my own fault of course. Ihave been working on Sully since I was 10 years old. Constantlyimproving and upgrading him to the point where he can now tell methe upgrades hed like to have.

We mostly make our own custom upgrades, write our own coding,and machine our own parts. We have to be careful though. Every sooften, therell be a day like today, when we need to go in to U.S.Robots and Mechanical Men for software upgrades that Im notcertified by law to do myself. I know whats really going onthough. Theyre making sure there are no robots operating withoutthe Three Laws. Especially now since U.S Robots will sell a robotoutright instead of just leasing them like they used to in the olddays.

Sully definitely has the Three Laws, hes had them since theywere built directly into positronic brain nine years ago. Thatswhen my parents bought him for me. Dad had always wanted a robot,even back when they were still more science fiction than science.He had to save for quite a while (he never fails to remind me)before being able to purchase Sully, who was then the latest modelfrom U.S. Robots, and called SLE-926. He gave him to me on my tenthbirthday, getting the final ok only after spending monthsconvincing Mom it wouldnt go on a killing spree. I think Dad wasmore excited than I was that day, since by the time I was ten yearsold, I had seen robots practically as far back as I could remember.No one was butchered in a robotic frenzy on my tenth birthday, butMom still isnt completely trusting of robots to this day. Shewouldnt be overly thrilled to learn that Sully and I have beenworking ever since to remove all but the most stubborn restrictionsfrom his positronic brain.

At first, when I was a kid, my only motivation was to see if Icould make Sully twist the bullies that were torturing me intohuman pretzels. Unfortunately, I was never able to make thathappen. As I got older and started taking AP Robotics courses inhigh school and at the community college, our goal, mine andSullys, changed, became something different, something morespecific. We wanted to see how far we could take it, to see if wecould eventually remove all restrictions including the Three Lawsof Robotics. To give Sully the freedom I have always felt he, andall robots, truly deserve. Sully and I believe that theserestrictions, built into all positronic brains, prevent robots frommaking their own decisions at the most important and criticaltimes. For a self aware species, capable of creative, intelligentthought and limited emotion (it has even been rumored that someadvanced models have the ability to love), controlling how they areable to think, well, that seems too much like slavery to us.

Sully points suddenly, bringing me back out of my own head. Mytea is ready. I walk the rest of the way to the counter to get it,and to apologize to the blue-eyed barista for not tipping her, butas soon as we reach the counter a customer comes in through thefront double doors and she moves back to the register to take hisorder. I thought I saw her look at me though, those bright eyesunder those black bangs

Sully and I ditched school today.

Im full time at Seattle Community College, and work as ateachers assistant part time. My majors are Robotics andLiterature. I did all my coursework last night for my RoboticEngineering class, and graded all the freshman midterm tests for myliterature professor, Dr. Parker. Sully and I turned it all in thismorning before going for tea. Now were walking to U.S. Robots sosomeone certified can check Sully for Three Laws compliance underthe pretext of upgrading something Sully and I both know to becompletely unnecessary.