Caretakers 2.0

A Special Case

Gary

Tobias pulled the door and held it as I rolled into the Maker's shop. My heart jumped when I rolled into the darkness, but the lights flicked on almost immediately. Their intense blue-white light revealed a robot slumped against a counter with an enormous backdrop of junk behind it. I started when he beeped loudly to life, squeaking as he moved, to grab a grease-stained rag and wipe a spot on the counter clean.

The leaning wall of crap behind the overly animated robot was, in a word, impressive, more like a towering work of art than a filing system. Of course, I could only assume it filed something important away. The more I studied it, the more detail I uncovered. Arms, feet, snouts, fingers... it looked like spare parts. They all existed like some gruesome chop shop in a pile. I shivered.

The door slammed shut behind my friend, bumping him forward and making him stumble an awkward step. The robot at the counter lifted its round head and squinted as if near-sighted. I looked at Tobias and beeped a question when I saw that the robot had wire-framed glasses mounted on his nose. Pointed back to it with my thumb, I asked, "Is he awake, too?"

Tobias grinned. "Oh, no, not at all. It's just that Caretaker Jerry found it amusing to alter his programming to make him mimic a brilliant but grumpy old man. Patterned on his grandfather, he told me once."

Right on cue, the robot bellowed, "Tobias! What the hell do you want? Tell Adrianna I'll have that coffeemaker fixed when it's fixed. I don't know why she has to have that one..." his voice faded as he wiped his hands with the rag. "Damned thing is older than me and my mother put together."

"Mark," Tobias greeted as he leaned on the counter as if to 'shoot the shit' with the old robot. Long lost friends and all that. "I hate to say that Adrianna's passed away. So, there's no need to fix the coffee pot."

Mark stopped polishing the counter, eyes wide. "Dead?" The disappointment in the robot's voice was palpable. Almost as if it was real. Whomever Caretaker Jerry had been, he'd been a personality program genius. "So, they're all gone, then?"

"'Fraid so. But," Tobias pointed his chin in my direction, "we have a challenge for you, nonetheless."

Mark brightened and motioned me forward. "A rollerball, eh? Don't see many of you in here."

I narrowed my eyes. "Well, I'm here. And my name is Gary."

Mark stared at me for a moment, blinked, then laughed. "A rollerball that has a name! What will they think of next!"

Before I could give him a piece of my mind, Tobias held up a hand. "He's not awake, Gary. It's all programming, I promise."

I crossed my arms. "Fine. Can he make what we want?"

"Mark, we need a special container for spark for Gary. A dispenser, really. We want to be able to fill it up, then, when Gary activates the port, a little bit of spark will be ejected. Can you do something like that?"

Mark paused and rubbed his chin while staring at the ceiling. Only, he thought for a very long time. After a minute or so, Tobias and I giggled at how ridiculous he looked, stuck in his thinking loop. We laughed outright when a bell dinged to alert us his processes were done. In truth, I felt bad for laughing, as if he were truly real, but I couldn't help myself.

Mark turned the terminal's screen at the end of the counter toward us. On it was a drawing of exactly what we wanted. I was so excited that, for the next two hours, I forgot that ol' Mark wasn't awake as I told him all the specs of what I wanted to carry and access the device.

"When can you have it ready?" Tobias asked. Had I had breath, I'd have held it.

"Oh, I'm thinkin' a week, on the outside," Mark answered. "Maybe sooner, if nothin' slows us down. Emergencies happen, you know."