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“We rebuilt him. However, since nothing was wrong, all we could do is add an auto-correct.”
“What’s an auto-correct?” Anne asked, her heart twitching painfully. Her hands gripped the cold metal bars in anticipation.
“You’ll see.” The doctor said, “In any case, the problem is basically fixed. Since you’re going to be executed anyway, we were thinking he could do the job. A public execution. That would teach you the lesson you deserve, Mrs. Marrow. And the public would love to see it. It would give them confidence in their government again. You should love to see it, too.”
Stricken, her feet giving out, Anne’s hands slid down the bars until she was on the floor. She looked at the doctor with large eyes. “So you’ve done something to him. You’ve turned him into a monster,” she breathed shallowly.
“No,” the doctor smiled warmly. “He was already a monster. And so are you. He’s an android who couldn’t do the only task he was given, and you’re a doctor who couldn’t, well, still can’t fix anything. Failures. Us, we’re only remedying that. And besides all that, you knew from the beginning that the android couldn’t stay how he was! Come on, now.”
Anne had no answer to this.
“….It’s here, you know,” the doctor said.
“….What is?”
“Him.”
She looked up. “Sunny’s here?” The thought of seeing him again, if only briefly, felt necessary to her. Just his face, even. She just wanted to see his face. Her brows furrowed. “Can I see him?”
“Oh yes,” the doctor said, putting up a hand. “Wait here for a moment.”
“I don’t seem to have much of a choice, doctor.”
“No. You don’t. Still, wait here for… yes. I’ll be right back.”
He left, Anne hungerly watching him go. Her mind remained blank as she waited much longer then the doctor implied. An hour passed, and then several men appeared from the darkness of the outer chambers, all wearing different uniforms. Government workers. Behind the group of them followed Sunny.
“Sunshine?” Anne got up wearily. The men stopped a nice distance away from her, and Sunny too.
“Stand in front, S2,” one of the group members ordered.
“S2….” A dreaded feeling washed over Anne as the android walked in front of the group and looked directly at her. She leaned back, quietly intimidated, but her face was resolute.
The robot stared at her blankly. He did look different from when Anne last saw him. They had cleaned him, replaced what needed maintenance, that much was obvious. He had his arm back again. Some small red wires popped out from his new clothes and attached to his body.
“What’s your full status, S2?”
“My name?” The robot announced dully.
“You’re name, say it.”
“Su….” The robot struggled, looking down with a sheepish expression. The red wires on his neck lit up dangerously. When he looked up, his face was stern again. “…Android model 234932343443.”
“Sunny…” Anne said seriously, “Get me out of here.”
“That is… not….. permissible.” The robot blinked.
“Remember who I am.”
“That is not permissible.”
One of the government workers laughed. Another ordered, “S2, take out weapon 236.”
The android raised his arm. A long blade slid out of the end of it.
“Point it at that woman’s neck.”
Anne felt the blade raise to touch her throat. Her focused eyes looked to the androids’, trying to connect gazes – but the attempt was a failure, for his eyes weren’t looking in her direction at all. Slowly but resolutely, she raised her head, betting her life. She could not blink, she dared not breath.
“Retract, S2.”
The android stood back, the weapon disappearing.
“Do you see?” the voice of the doctor said in the crowd. “This is reality. Today you were lucky, but next week during the execution, that will not be the case. Your pet will be more then ready by then.”
Anne didn’t reply. She looked into Sunny’s blue eyes again, noting how reflective they seemed.