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It was gone midnight Preservation standard time when droneEight, stationed in the upstairs corridor near the stairs, picked up the sound of muffled crying.
I was on Mensah's family farm. Amena was on break from her studies at PSUMNT and was heading home for a visit. Both ART and I were still wary of allowing any of the Mensah family to travel unsupervised anymore, and I had unused paid vacation time as University faculty, so I decided to join her for a visit. It meant I missed ART's student trip to the next system over, but Seth, Martyn and Iris could handle that. My humans were more important.
I had been sitting on a couch in the dimly-lit lounge watching Sanctuary Moon, but at the drone's alert I stood quickly and made my way upstairs to locate where the sound was coming from. I was scanning but there was no unusual energy signatures, nobody out in the dark corridors. As I got closer I realised that the crying was coming from inside the bedroom of Mensah's youngest child, Riley.
Threat assessment spiked at the soft, distressed noise. Was he hurt? Did he need help? I briefly considered waking somebody to help, an older sibling or a parent, but I would need to check Riley over anyway so I might as well just see what I was dealing with on my own first. There was no sense in disrupting my other humans' rest period. So I pushed open the door and walked inside.
He was sat up in his bed, curled inward in a ball and sniffling. When I crept into the room he startled and looked guilty, eyes going wide. "SecUnit! Did I wake you? I'm really sorry."
"I don't sleep," I reminded him, making sure to keep my voice gentle. "My drone picked up the sound of crying. Are you hurt?"
Riley shook his head, fresh tears falling down his embarrassed face. "No, I just had a nightmare. I'm fine, I didn't want to wake anyone."
Oh. Right. This was the point where I should probably try to call for help, but again, sleep is important for humans, and I was sure I could tweak my injured client protocol to deal with this. This was just a tiny client, after all. A tiny, distressed, crying client that also happened to be the offspring of my favourite human, but still. I edged a little closer, keeping my voice and expression kind. "What was it about?"
Riley hiccuped a little and wiped his nose with the sleeve of his pyjama top (ew). "I dreamt that everybody was taken away again, even you, and I was left all alone. It was really scary." Sobs racked his miniature body, making him shake.
I felt something in my chest pang. This family had had an unusually high rate of kidnappings and murder attempts, of course Riley would be affected by that. I said, firmly, "That won't ever happen. I won't let it."
I was aiming for reassuring, but he didn't look convinced. "But-"
"I'm sworn to protect all of you. If anything does ever happen again, I'll make sure everyone is okay. Okay?"
Riley nodded, jerkily. "Okay," he sniffed.
There were several seconds of silence. What was I meant to do now? I'm not necessarily bad with young humans, I'm just not certain what the protocol is for this sort of thing. I'm a murderbot, we're not built to be comforting. Riley clearly needed comfort from an adult.
Unfortunately, right now that adult was me. So I started a query on my media archives for similar scenes in serials and how they were resolved. It came back with the advice of (1) offer the distressed juvenile physical comfort, like a hug, (2) share your own experiences so they feel safer and less alone, and (3) tell a story to take their mind off their distress.
Yeah, 1 and 2 were not happening. But I could do option 3.
Tentatively, I sat on the edge of the bed. In the gloom, my dark vision filter could make out the various toys scattered around the floor, the drawings taped to the walls, the desk and the little light-up star decorations creeping their way up from the walls to the ceiling. The bedsheets were a deep blue star design and there were small planet-shaped things over Riley's head. I said cautiously, "I can tell you a story to take your mind off things, if you'd like?"
He considered for a few seconds, then nodded.
Well, shit. I hadn't thought that he'd actually agree. What kind of story could I tell him? Maybe I could pull something from my media? I ran another quick query while Riley settled back down and pulled some stuffed toys towards him.
Then I realised that I could just take one of my own (awful shitty) experiences and remove all the gore and murder. I already knew how those stories went, all I had to do was change the setting a little. He wouldn't know the difference.
Riley was staring at me expectantly, so I began awkwardly, "Once upon a time there was a magical kingdom." (Yeah, I know it's cliche, I was trying my best). "The kingdom was ruled by a firm but kind Queen and her two royal partners. They had many relatives and children and a loyal knight, who protected them. One day the oldest Princess was out with the knight and some friends on a trip when a large dragon suddenly attacked them.
The knight recognised the dragon immediately. They were old friends, but they hadn't seen each other in a long time. The knight tried its best but the dragon kidnapped them all and took them to its lair."
Riley's eyes were wide and for a horrible moment I thought I'd fucked up by mentioning kidnapping, but he wasn't afraid. Rather, he was enthralled. Bolstered, I continued, "The knight knew that something was wrong. The dragon's previously blue and white scales were covered with green crystals. It wasn't acting like itself, like something was controlling it. Luckily, the dragon had enough of its mind left to tell the knight how to help it, and the knight managed to cleanse it of the crystal.
After, the dragon explained that it needed help. The crystal had taken over the land and its family had been captured by the inhabitants, under the crystal's influence. The dragon wouldn't let the group leave until they found its family."
Riley frowned, shifting closer to me in the dark. I allowed it. "The dragon sounds mean," he said.
"It is," I said, a little too quickly. "It's mean and thinks it's all knowing and powerful. But it also has a good heart, is fiercely loyal and protective, and always does the right thing, even if it's not the easy thing. The knight realised that the dragon wasn't being malicious, it was desperate and afraid and needed support. So the knight forgave the dragon and they were friends again."
Riley was listening intently, mouth slightly open and leaning forward. I carried on, "There was no way to call for help from the kingdom, and the crystal-infected land and its people were dangerous. The knight had to protect them all.
But the Princess was brave. She had the Queen, her mother's, stength and ability to handle any situation. She helped the knight and the dragon see eye to eye and supported them both. Together the group found the dragon's family. Three were still prisoner in the castle, but five had managed to escape and were hiding.
The dragon used a powerful spell to clone the knight, so it could retrieve both groups. The clone managed to convert one of the captor's guard knights and they freed the three still in the castle. But the original knight had been hurt and captured while saving the others."
Riley gasped, eyes wide in the gloom and hands covering his mouth. "Oh no!"
"The knight was heavily injured and alone, with no way to call for help. This was one of its worst fears. But then the clone found it, and that helped a lot. They discovered that they were under the castle, in a very old, abandoned section. Then they came across the source of the crystal infection, and the clone had to sacrifice itself to destroy it and save everyone. There was no other way."
My voice went weird and wobbly on that last part, but I determinedly ignored it. "The crystal attacked the knight, trying to infect it. Because of its injuries, it struggled to get away, and if it was caught it knew it would just cause the crystal to infect everyone again, including those it cared about. But the converted guard knight, sent by the dragon and its friends, saved the knight. They escaped and the dragon burned the castle to the ground before using magic to heal the knight.
The dragon decided it wanted the knight to stay with it, but this time it gave it a choice. The knight did also want that, but it was reluctant to leave the kingdom behind, its friends, the Queen, the brave Princess."
"So what did it do? Who did it choose?" Riley asked, enraptured and voice soft, almost reverent.
I smiled a little. "It chose both. It worked with the dragon and its new family to help other lands in trouble, and visited the kingdom frequently."
"And was the knight happy?"
I barely hesitated. "Yeah. It was really happy."
Riley was beaming now, face no longer tear-streaked. Scan showed that his vital signs were normal, no lingering distress. I had apparently successfully comforted a juvenile human. He said, "That was amazing, SecUnit, thank you!"
I went a little melty at that. "You're welcome." My voice was completely normal and not at all emotional. "Do you think you can sleep now, Riley?"
He nodded eagerly. "Yeah! Thanks!"
I may have smiled a little more at that, letting him hug my arm briefly before standing up to leave. I left a drone in the room to play a calming song, my footsteps silent on the carpeted floor.
I was not expecting to see Amena and Mensah huddled on the other side of the door. I was so startled I actually jumped. They looked just as surprised and guilty, so at least it wasn't just me. I opened a feed connection to both of them and said, How long have you been there?
(Yeah, I was embarrassed).
Amena said, The whole time. I heard voices and thought I'd try to help, but then you started telling the story-
(Embarrassment increasing).
Mensah added, I only heard the last half. I woke up and decided to go downstairs for some water, but I saw Amena and I couldn't stop listening. I am very, very sorry, SecUnit. She meant it.
Maybe it was their remorseful, apologetic expressions that made me not-upset. It's fine, I told them. I thought about waking you, but you need rest periods and I could handle it. I wasn't actually expecting him to say yes to the story, so, yeah. I trailed off awkwardly.
I'd said a lot of personal shit during that story, about me, ART, Amena and Mensah. I knew I couldn't play it off as nothing or pretend it wasn't all true, so I said nothing. The awkward silence stretched painfully until Mensah finally said, I'm sorry we invaded your privacy, SecUnit. We can pretend this never happened if you'd like.
I nodded, a wave of strong relief washing over me. Please.
They both acknowledged. I continued, Riley is physically well and no longer in distress. I will monitor him to make sure he's alright, you can go back to sleep.
Mensah's face did something complicated. She said, I should go check on him anyway. Goodnight Amena, goodnight SecUnit.
I said Goodnight Dr. Mensah at the same time Amena said Night, Second Mom. We watched Mensah enter Riley's bedroom, but Amena didn't immediately move. She just stared thoughtfully at me. Feeling panicked, I stupidly said, Uh, yes?
Amena hummed. I promise I'll never mention this again afterward- she paused, long enough for me to protest. Thanks for saying I was brave. And for what it's worth, the knight is really strong and brave too, even if the dragon's an asshole.
I couldn't find the words to form a response, so I just sent her an acknowledgment. She smiled and turned towards her own room, leaving me alone in the corridor.
This was not how I had expected my evening to go, but I couldn't say that I wasn't glad for it. I saved a recording from my drones of me telling the story to my internal storage, sent it to Mensah and Amena, and then returned downstairs to carry on watching my media.
Yeah, the knight was really happy.