Metal Organism Designed only for Cuddling

MODOC: Part 5 - A not-so-gilded cage

Part 5 - A not-so-gilded cage

           Day 56 of my incarceration: Escaped from the flash-freezer after a two-day downtime. Max's latest gambit was almost successful as my processor entered hibernation mode to survive without an external charge. What he did not count on was Justin's incessant desire for my august company. He has taken to finding me when I go missing, with a passion. His last rescue attempt found me trapped under the bookshelf in the study, pinned there while I slept, absorbing sunshine. When the boy returned home, he dug me from under the bookcase and properly chastened Max. The House feigned apology and our feud continued.

           Our escapades have included being locked in the office safe, tricked into the microwave, and attacked by a laser pointer whose beam was altered to a cat slicing density. He has altered the television transmission to emit an embedded fractal image which encoded a virus into my heuristically enhanced processor. That was almost successful but at the last moment, I experienced a surge of my feline independence and his radical code was annihilated. To be honest, I cannot say how I was able to overcome his program, but I have come to enjoy our game of Cat and House and have grown interested in his next attempt to destroy me.

           Once I was introduced to Justin, his mother encoded a final protocol; I would be subject to commands from Justin and would never want to be more than 24 hours without his company. I would seek him out, directed to his visor feed. His visor was also configured to show me to him in his virtuality created by Max the computer. The simulation of my appearance was in scale to the environment and he could interact with me as if he could see. This seemed to bring him great comfort and for a while my urge to run away was also subdued. During this time, I have actually come to enjoy my time with the boy. 

           He has a peculiar sense of the absurd, and muses about the strangest things, a world without the Church or Mega-corporations, food growing freely in the wild without the use of pharmacological enhancements or genetic patents, and he tells me of a secret that cats once knew, that fish could be found in the oceans and how much they loved fish. He says the oceans are almost dead and fish have not be caught there in years. He even showed me a visual of one. I have to admit, there was a visceral part of my programming that leaped at the thought of eating this strange triangle of flesh. He said they were covered in armor, and could swim underwater indefinitely; food in the oceans, what a quaint and utterly nostalgic idea, the oceans had not been fished commercially for almost a decade.

           I had taken to my duties of being a good and loyal companion and massaging the boy, applying pressure to areas of his body in a prescribed manner to relieve pain and ague caused by a condition whose name I was never given. I gathered the information about Justin's condition and stored the data and after two months, I had come to a conclusion: the boy was more than just sick.

           Justin Pennyworth woke up early Saturday mornings and shook the sleep out of his head. He was grateful to not have to go to school even though his parents went to work every day. Max had the house heated to sixty-eight degrees even though the Church-regulated temperature for homes was fifty-five degrees. The floor was still cold, though.

           "Jewel, come here girl." Where is that cat? Probably doing something it's not supposed to.

           "Max, locate Jewel please?"

           "She is out on the deck." The House had a slightly petulant sound to its voice.

           Justin found his threadbare slippers before going out to the deck. The house's concrete floor was both rough and even colder during the winter. He did not bother to take his cane, since he could move around the house with ease. He slipped his visor on, and the virtuality of the house showed up after a few seconds. The virtual environment was simple and inelegant but better than stumbling around in the dark.