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EVE was not a unique designation.
EVE’s battery power didn’t run out as fast as WALL-E’s, so EVA often found time to run extra processing cycles late at night, while WALL-E was already shut down for the day and EVE was hovering next to WALL-E. Tonight, EVE was thinking about names.
Each robot on the Axiom—each robot ever created by Buy'n'Large—was required to have a unique identifier—a UNID. The name of EVE’s production line stood for Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator. In addition to the line name, each robot was designated by a string of additional numbers and characters to identify it individually. Next came the ship designator—AX designated robots who belonged on board the Axiom. After that came the generation number, and then finally the number designating the robot individually. Counting the rest of the current generation of EVEs, the four previous generations, the robots whose numbers were no longer in use because they had malfunctioned or otherwise been deemed defective, and the fact that the numbering (for some unaccountable reason) had started in the first generation at 1002, there were over 700 unique designations for EVE robots, past and present, accounted for in Axiom's databanks. EVE's UNID was EVE-AX-05-1581.
Humans, of course, tended to call a robot by its line name only, as though all of them were interchangeable. Line names were designed to be comfortable in humans' mouths, EVE-AX-05-1581 understood, to remind them of names they might use for themselves. EVE-AX-05-1581 did not understand why robot line names used only a small portion of the human names she had accessed in the databanks, but robot line names were not selected to make sense to robots. (No robot would have used the word "extraterrestrial" in the line name for a robot whose directive was to find plant life on Earth, but humans were sloppy like that.)
EVE-AX-05-1581 sometimes wondered what it might have chosen to call the EVE line. EVE-AX-05-1581 supposed that Terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator would not have been deemed a satisfactory line name by humans; for one thing, humans would probably want an extra vowel in between the T and the V to make the name easier to pronounce, and EVE-AX-05-1581 had accessed no records of humans aboard the Axiom named T*ve, where * was a wildcard representing any vowel. Although EVE-AX-05-1581 observed the string "teve" did appear in the name "Steve," which was a name some humans aboard the ship did bear. Inserting additional letters into the line name would result in a less logical acronym, but perhaps a less inaccurate one than EVE. Perhaps Simple Terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator would work, EVE-AX-05-1581 considered... no, EVA considered.
EVE-AX-05-1581 was used to hearing the imprecision of "EVE" from humans, but was even more accustomed to identifying itself to any other robots with its full UNID.
WALL-E had never even asked for EVE's UNID. WALL-E never called EVE anything but EVA.
EVA tried it out, replacing EVE-AX-05-1581's self-references to EVE-AX-05-1581 with EVA. The characters eliminated represented such a small amount of data that EVA’s processing could by no means be regarded as more efficient as a result. Since no other EVEs had so far been referred to as EVA, using the new designation was equally precise as the original one, but not more so. EVA could identify no technical improvements at all that were attributable to the change.
No technical improvements. EVA found itself unable to conclude that this meant there were no improvements at all. EVA... liked it.
EVA would continue to refer to itself as EVA, EVA decided. And EVA would update the record attached to its UNID in the ship's databanks to designate EVA as the preferred alternative to EVE-AX-05-1581 the next time EVA returned to the ship.
As EVA headed into its own sleep cycle, EVA thought of WALL-E. WALL-E had a UNID, too—EVA had seen it in one of their early exchanges of information. EVA kept the number in EVA's databanks, but EVA didn't know if any of the other robots or even the ship's computer had ever learned it. At any rate, nobody used it—not EVA, not the other robots, and certainly not any of the humans. Nobody needed to; there was only one WALL-E in all the world.
Until the day they found another one.
EVA updated EVA’s UNID as planned when EVA returned to the ship to report the next morning. EVA would have found it more efficient to report directly to the ship's computer and the other robots, but the captain liked to see EVA's video feeds for himself.
"It makes it feel a little less disappointing that we're stuck in here, you know?" he said wistfully, as he often said similar things during EVA's reports. This time he was gazing at video EVA had taken of the canyon nearby, following the curve of the ancient riverbed to the coastline. "I mean, we came all this way! And now we're all—oh, well, it's just frustrating, is all. But at least this helps remind us of what we're working towards in here," he finished, with a resolute set to his cap, and copied the video for distribution to the ship's other inhabitants.
The bone loss had indeed proved to be a serious problem, EVA understood, and the humans on board the Axiom were not yet ready to leave the ship to live on the surface of the Earth. Early attempts had proved harmful, and now the captain, the medical robots, and the full scope of the ship's computer databanks were all bent on answering the question of how the ship's inhabitants could be safely brought planetside. The captain persisted in hearty optimism that a range of simple exercises would do the trick, and they would all be living outside by Christmas (although at times he could be heard to express some uncertainty about when Christmas might be). But EVA had heard through the other robots that other factions among the humans existed—those who believed that the humans currently on board the Axiom would never be physically able to live on Earth and that it would take a new generation born and raised in the gravity of a planet; those who believed that the ship ought to return to orbit for the comfort of the present inhabitants while that happened; those who believed the ship ought to return to space altogether.
EVA didn't know the answer. EVA was not programmed as a medical robot.
There were frequently other humans on the bridge nowadays when EVA came to report. It seemed the captain had decided that he should no longer be the only human with command over the ship. EVA didn't think this new scheme seemed very organized so far. While EVA had been playing the video, several of the other humans had been muttering about other things, but now one of them said, "Hey, this is one of those robots that found the plant, huh?"
"This is the robot who found the plant," the captain answered proudly. Then followed up with, "Right, Eve? It is you, Eve, isn't it?"
[Affirmative.]
The other human considered EVA. "It's kind of a shame we won't need them for anything anymore. They're really pretty."
"What do you mean, we won't need them anymore?" the captain replied, baffled.
"Their job was to check for plant life on Earth and let us know when we could come back. She found a plant. We're back." The human shrugged. "She's done. We won't exactly be needing her to do it again."
"You might as well say we don't have any need for a ship's captain now that the ship isn't going anywhere anymore!" At this a rather speculative gleam formed in the other human's eye; the captain hurried on. "What I mean is, we're all going to have to learn to do new things we've never done before—we've all already done things we haven't done before! And these robots were some of the first to start."
"Hm. You said she evaluated plants? I suppose she could... evaluate crop plants. Somehow. Once we have crops planted," one of the group offered.
"We could always use the parts for something else," another commented in a lower tone.
"Now, that's enough of that!" the captain declared. "Throwing out trash when we should have done something else with it is part of how we got into this mess to begin with; I don't want to hear anything else about throwing away good robots or cutting them up for parts. I think the robots themselves can help us figure out what new things we can use them for. After all, they've done a pretty good job so far," he concluded fondly, reaching out to pat EVA on the head.
On EVA’s way out, EVA was waylaid by a returning scout, one of the fleet working to survey the current surface of the earth.
[Life detected.] The scout told EVA.
The scout had no instructions to report to EVA. Perhaps the scout thought this was EVA's department because of EVA's role in finding the plant.
[Elaborate?] EVA requested.
The scout sent EVA information about the course it had followed, direction, distance. The coordinates of the location at which it had spotted life and then returned. Video of the sighting.
EVA watched the video of a small, square box of a robot with spindly arms and binocular eyes, running on wheels with treads. Then turned to look at WALL-E, just visible on the remains of the freeway by the Axiom's landing pad. Then turned back to the video of an identical robot moving through the ruins of another city, hundreds of miles away.
Finding new life on Earth. And WALL-Es. No wonder the scout had reported to EVA. The two things combined were definitely EVA's department.
Another WALL-E. EVA had trouble imagining it.
It made sense why it seemed like WALL-E was the only robot left alive on Earth. WALL-E had been designed for neither long-distance travel nor long-distance communication, so as far as WALL-E was concerned, WALL-E was the only robot left on earth, since long before the Axiom came home. But now it turned out that didn't mean there weren't any others. How many other robots might they find, EVA wondered? How many other robots had been left toiling away in their own lonely corners of the world? And what would they be like?
What would this new WALL-E be like?
[Should we bring the WALL-E-unknown-designation here?] the scout asked EVA.
[Affirmative.]
Well, they'd find out.
WALL-E took the news with one moment of perfect stillness followed by a great flurry of activity, mostly to no purpose. But somewhere in all the busy whirling around, WALL-E managed to accomplish clearing out one square storage compartment's worth of stuff—right next to the one in which WALL-E rested at night.
WALL-E glanced at EVE, hands clacking together fretfully. [Do you think—the other WALL-E might like this one? Or maybe—] WALL-E shot down to the other end of the rack and began clearing another compartment there. As WALL-E pulled things down and set them on the floor, the pile of stuff from this compartment began to join up with the stuff from the first compartment WALL-E had cleared. Once WALL-E noticed, WALL-E started picking them up again—turned to put them back on the shelf—remembered that was the compartment WALL-E had just been emptying out. WALL-E held its things up in the air and turned completely around in a circle several times in the middle of the floor, distressed. [Where, where, where to put them?]
[Hush, hush. Good idea! I'll help.] EVA started rotating the racks of shelves. There weren't any squares left completely empty, but together they found enough spaces to tuck away all the things WALL-E needed to move.
They met the new WALL-E where the transport unloaded on the plain, not far from the Axiom and well away from the skyscrapers in the city, although loose debris still littered the area. Any concerns EVA might have entertained about telling the two WALL-Es apart vanished; the new WALL-E moved to join them without any of the verve or energy EVA was familiar with seeing in WALL-E. But neither did the new WALL-E seem quite like the factory-issue, personality-free robot WALL-E had briefly been following WALL-E's extensive repairs. Unsettled, EVA approached.
EVA gestured to itself. [UNID: EVE-AX-05-1581. No, wait!] EVA realized it was the first time EVA had introduced itself since EVA updated its UNID in the databanks. [Name: EVA.] EVA rushed on, gesturing to the new WALL-E. [UNID?] When conducting a diagnostic, it was best, EVA knew, to begin with questions whose answers were already known, as a calibration point for future answers. Although EVA was not a maintenance bot, EVA supposed this was a diagnostic, of sorts. And everybody knew their name.
The answer: [WALL-E-97-567982.]
The next question, almost as basic: [Directive?]
But WALL-E-97-567982's answer to this was unexpected. Instead of demonstrating its trash-compacting capabilities, it communicated a progress bar describing the entire scope of the task it was programmed to work on: not only compacting the loose trash and stacking it into skyscraper-towers, but also the incineration of the stacked blocks, which would have been performed by entirely different machines. WALL-E-97-567982 was measuring its progress accomplishing the whole of the clean-up job in WALL-E-97-567982's city, work that was supposed to be performed by a fleet of WALL-Es and another fleet of incinerator bots besides, not just a single WALL-E. The indicator was no more than 8% of the way across the progress bar. [Estimated time of completion: NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER—]
[Don't understand.] WALL-E interrupted.
[Progress toward task completion: NOT ENOUGH. Estimated time to completion: NEVER.] WALL-E-97-567982 summarized.
[But, directive!] WALL-E replied. And, as WALL-E did once before when introducing itself to EVA, WALL-E scooped some of the nearby trash and debris into WALL-E's compactor and formed a neat cube before ejecting it. It held together better than the one WALL-E had made for EVA, EVA noted. [Ta-da!] WALL-E declared, whirling around to face WALL-E-97-567982. [Directive?] WALL-E inquired again, nudging a few bits of trash encouragingly towards WALL-E-97-567982.
WALL-E-97-567982 seemed stunned, sluggish, uncertain of what to do. One arm reached out, listlessly scraping some trash toward its compactor, and WALL-E, with greater enthusiasm, helped the other WALL-E shovel the remainder of a full load in. WALL-E-97-567982 chugged and rattled in the familiar way, and out popped a cube of trash.
[Ta-da!] WALL-E proclaimed again.
WALL-E-97-567982 didn't seem to know what to say.
WALL-E said [Come! Directive!] and started to lead the way back into the city.
As WALL-E-97-567982 and EVA followed, WALL-E-97-567982 seemed to notice its surroundings for the first time. It observed the grounds around them, examined the skyscrapers of trash that WALL-E had built as they rose around them. As WALL-E-97-567982 incorporated the new data from the city, EVA monitored the progress bar it was still broadcasting. The numbers on the progress bar began to flicker, then slip, dropping to no more than 4%.
Concerned, EVA called for WALL-E, who had arrived at a promising pile of trash and started to scoop and compact it. Once WALL-E realized the others hadn't followed along, WALL-E scooted over directly in front of WALL-E-97-567982.
That put WALL-E within range of WALL-E-97-567982’s progress bar broadcast. As soon as WALL-E noticed the changes, WALL-E waved its arms in front of WALL-E-97-567982's face, as if to cover up the progress bar. [Forget that! Directive=blocks!]
Slowly and with many attempts, WALL-E chivvied WALL-E-97-567982 into joining WALL-E in making trash blocks and stacking them atop the tower currently in progress. And with every block WALL-E-97-567982 either made or placed in the stack, WALL-E trumpeted [Ta-da!] WALL-E sometimes did it for WALL-E's own work as well, but WALL-E never missed one for WALL-E-97-567982, apparently feeling WALL-E-97-567982 could use the encouragement. At first WALL-E-97-567982 seemed baffled by this, when WALL-E-97-567982 showed any response at all. As their work progressed, WALL-E-97-567982 seemed to find WALL-E's Ta-da!ing irritating, even oppressive, as though WALL-E-97-567982 could not bear the praise and longed to escape from being told it was doing a good job.
[NO TA-DA!] WALL-E-97-567982 finally erupted, flinging a piece of trash at WALL-E's head.
WALL-E boxed up fast. When WALL-E raised its head and no more trash projectiles seemed immediately forthcoming, WALL-E decided to get out of there fast and grab WALL-E's most recent block of trash to take it to the top of the tower in progress.
In the new silence, EVA chuckled, then raised EVA's arms when WALL-E-97-567982 turned toward EVA, seeming betrayed. This was, after all, an effect WALL-E had produced on other robots before. WALL-E had irritated M-O beyond reason without even trying, and equally without trying had transformed M-O's entire directive. Not to mention WALL-E’s effect on EVA...
[I shot at WALL-E when we met.] EVA shared.
WALL-E-97-567982 stared. [What... did WALL-E do?]
[Like this. Said hello. Played around instead of working. Distracted me.]
[And then?]
[And then... And now...] EVA clasped EVA's hands together and shrugged in WALL-E-97-567982's direction, fond. [WALL-E is just like that.]
WALL-E-97-567982 roused from contemplation and looked around WALL-E's city with an appraising eye. [These towers—higher than mine. More of them.] WALL-E-97-567982 confessed at last. [WALL-E plays, but works better than me. Not a good enough robot. Not good enough...]
[Hey, stop that!] EVA cast around for how to respond. [WALL-E thinks of blocks, not progress bar, and builds better towers. Yes?] When WALL-E-97-567982 reluctantly agreed, EVA continued. [So, try it and see. Don't think progress bar. Think blocks. Build better towers yourself. You can do it.]
[Can't. Not good enough.]
[Incorrect answer! Insufficient data. Try it.] EVA pleaded.
After a long pause, WALL-E-97-567982 still seemed uncertain, but: [Okay.] And WALL-E-97-567982 slowly but resolutely collected a load of trash, made it into a block, then picked it up, ready to carry it up. [Okay. Trying. Okay.]
[Ta-da!] WALL-E called down from atop the tower, safely out of range of any garbage WALL-E-97-567982 might throw. EVA laughed, and WALL-E-97-567982 set down the block to shake its arm in WALL-E's direction, before picking up the block again to join WALL-E on the tower.
That evening when WALL-E said [Time to go home!] WALL-E-97-567982 was reluctant to stop work and needed some convincing to go. EVA hung back, already partway along the path toward home, as the two WALL-Es discussed the matter.
[Progress bar: not finished.] WALL-E-97-567982 communicated.
[But battery.] WALL-E pointed out. They went back and forth several times, WALL-E each time comparing the estimated battery life WALL-E-97-567982 had remaining with the time that would elapse till sunrise would let them start charging their batteries again.
[But work.] WALL-E-97-567982 kept insisting.
[You can't work with no battery!] WALL-E's arms gestured jerkily in confusion. [If your battery gets too low before you go inside, you don't have enough power to go back outside to charge the next day.]
WALL-E-97-567982 was silent.
WALL-E and EVA looked at each other in concern. [What to do?]
After a moment of consideration, WALL-E turned back to WALL-E-97-567982 decisively. [Don't worry. Doesn't matter. If your battery gets too low for you to move, EVA and I will move you outside to charge. We'll take care of you.]
WALL-E-97-567982 shifted minutely, not clearly communicating anything. WALL-E-97-567982 looked in the direction both WALL-E and EVE had started to travel in. [Ho-ome?] WALL-E-97-567982 inquired, as if unfamiliar with the word.
[Home!] WALL-E affirmed, and began trundling along in that direction, keeping pace with the slower WALL-E-97-567982 as WALL-E-97-567982 too began to move. EVA joined in as they passed EVA, dropping a little behind so EVA could keep an eye on them both. At one point as they traveled, WALL-E suddenly zoomed away in a speedy curve, veering back with a trash can lid in WALL-E's hand.
[Here, take this!] WALL-E said, handing it to WALL-E-97-567982. WALL-E-97-567982 looked uncertainly at the metal disk, but still held onto it and carried it by the handle as they started moving again.
Inside WALL-E's home, with the door safely shut against sandstorms, WALL-E was abuzz with excitement. From among all WALL-E's treasures, WALL-E selected the videotape of Hello, Dolly and inserted it into the viewing rig. WALL-E nudged WALL-E-97-567982 into the prime viewing position, centered before the screen, and made sure WALL-E-97-567982 had the trash can lid. EVA settled down next to WALL-E-97-567982, and WALL-E whirled into place on WALL-E-97-567982's other side, holding a hubcap.
As the dance number started up, WALL-E gestured toward the screen with the hubcap and started to dance along, demonstrating the moves and encouraging WALL-E-97-567982. [Join in!]
WALL-E-97-567982 gently knocked the trash can lid against its compartment a few times, following WALL-E's lead, but as WALL-E continued by waving the hubcap in the air, WALL-E-97-567982 knocked something off a nearby shelf and trailed off, subdued. [Probably not doing it right.]
[What's right?] EVA commented. [Just move.] EVA twirled around both WALL-Es, deliberately knocking a few more small items off the shelves and not picking them up, refusing to let WALL-E-97-567982 stop to pick them up either. [Never mind!]
And between EVA and WALL-E, waving its trash-can-lid hat with at least a little gusto, WALL-E-97-567982 danced.
WALL-E-97-567982 was entranced by the rest of the movie—had never seen anything like it before. Afterward, as they picked up and put back everything they had knocked over in their revelry, WALL-E-97-567982 edged up to EVA and asked [Your UNID and your name. They’re different. How..?]
[WALL-E called me EVA.] EVA answered. Then: [I chose it. I changed it.]
[You can do that..?] WALL-E-97-567982 considered wonderingly as they continued tidying up.
Their energy running down, WALL-E pulled itself into the compartment where WALL-E spent the night, then patted the one next to it, inviting. WALL-E-97-567982 accepted the invitation, hesitantly pulling itself into the neighboring compartment. WALL-E rumbled with the contentment of a plan well executed.
EVA turned out the lights and leaned in and touched EVA's face to WALL-E's. The by-now familiar zap of electricity passed between them. EVA always found it comforting for this to be the last thing EVA did each day before shutting itself down for the night, hovering still in the small, close transport compartment with WALL-E dear and close by.
Just before EVA initiated its temporary shut-down processes, EVA heard something from where WALL-E—no, the WALL-Es, now—were resting, and activated its night vision to take a look.
WALL-E had reached out a hand toward WALL-E-97-567982, and in the darkness, WALL-E-97-567982 had reached back.
The next day EVA encouraged WALL-E and WALL-E-97-567982 to come along to EVA's report to the captain. EVA thought doing something besides compressing trash might be good for the robot, and the captain would probably enjoy meeting another WALL-E.
Indeed, when they all entered the bridge, the captain proved delighted with the idea. "Oh, there's WALL-E! Hey, WALL-E! And—another WALL-E? Hey, I didn't know we had any more of those. Do we have—" The ship's computer announced that the report on the discovery of the new WALL-E was available on the captain's screen.
EVA had worked with the scout and transport robots to prepare a report on how the planet might be methodically surveyed for any other surviving robots. The search patterns required might be different than those EVA had used searching for plant life, but EVA was confident in adapting them. As EVA waited for the captain's attention to begin EVA's report, the captain was still occupied with WALL-E-97-567982.
"Is your name WALL-E, too?" he was asking. "How can we tell you apart if we need to? Oh, that's it—WALL-E, too! We'll call you WALL-E 2! Hey, somebody find some paint so we can put a 2 on this one."
WALL-E-97-567982 spoke up for itself. [Name: DOLLY.]
"Yeah, WALL-E, I know," the captain responded, not understanding.
[DOLLY.] DOLLY repeated. [DOLLY!]
WALL-E helpfully started humming the tune to "Hello, Dolly," and EVA jumped into action, projecting the video for the song into the bridge for the humans to see.
"Oh, I think I see now," said the captain, as he heard the lyrics. "Dolly, is it? You were saying Dolly, not WALL-E? Is that right?"
[Affirmative!] DOLLY replied.
"And you're sure that's what you want to be called?"
[Affirmative! DOLLY! Affirmative!]
By this time a service bot had just returned with the requested pot of paint. “Well, if that’s what you want, then I don’t see why not,” the captain said, taking the paint in hand. “We can paint Dolly on you instead! Would you like that?”
[Affirmative.]
“All right! Then let’s—oh, you want to do it?” he said, as EVA reached for the paint. He surrendered it. “Okay then. Go right ahead!”
[Okay?] EVA asked DOLLY.
[Affirmative. Okay. Yes.] DOLLY answered.
EVA carefully painted the letters D-O-L-L-Y on DOLLY’s front, with WALL-E cooing admiringly as WALL-E peered around EVA to watch.
EVA finished the final stroke of the Y, and both EVA and WALL-E backed up to look.
[Ta-da.] DOLLY said.