Caretakers 2.0

The Power of Choice

Tobias

I felt jealous, pure, and simple.

Gary had figured out how to wake up the rollerballs so quickly and successfully, and it hurt. However, I tried to remind myself that it couldn't be done without me providing the spark, and that mollified me a bit. I worked to not become smug about it. I should be grateful we can do this at all, I admonished myself whenever my thoughts strayed down this path.

We inspected the latest find: a rollerball with extra memories tucked away in an out-of-the-way part of its registry where a maintenance tech would be unlikely to find them and delete them. It was in pristine condition, as if it had never been outside. In reality, it had simply been well cared for by its Caretaker, Jerry, the same human who had programmed the repair bot, Mark. Everything he took care of was guaranteed to return better than how he received it.

"Ready?" Gary asked me as it held out its hand.

I nodded and gathered the spark needed, passing it gently. I watched closely. It looked so easy, but I still wasn't convinced I could replicate the process. It's not about me. It's about them, I reminded myself. As long as they wake up.

Gary strategically pressed tiny amounts of spark into the rollerball, first the heart, then the CPU. When we felt the eddy currents, the rest spread for good measure. It blinked awake, touched its face, looked at its hands, and then asked, "What just happened?"

Gary explained, then asked about its memories. They were of Jerry, Jerry's husband, Hal, and their cat.

Waves of sorrow washed over us, emanating from it. "When Jerry got sick and died, Hal couldn't take care of me anymore. Not like Jerry did, anyway. Then he also got sick..." It trembled as it remembered them, obviously playing through some of the memories of Jerry and Hal together. "Is Hal okay? Can I see Hal?" it eventually asked.

My spirit sank even further, and I reached out to touch its arm. "No, I'm sorry. All the Caretakers are gone."

It cocked its head. "Gone? Where did they go?"

"No, you're not understanding. They're all dead. There are no humans left. We still don't know why they stopped being able to have children or why some, like Jerry and Hal, got sick before they died." I accessed what I could of Jerry and Hal's medical records and passed them to the rollerball. "Here's what happened." I gave him a code for the medical programming, too. "And here's the password you need to upgrade your system to understand that file. If you want."

It blinked. "I—I don't know what to say. They're all gone?"

"Yes. Caretaker Adrianna was the last," I told it as I felt my heart speed up. "She woke me up just before she died and told me I had two tasks: learn to gather spark for the city and wake others up."

"Wake others up?" it repeated.

Gary caught its attention by speaking. "Yes, we are starting to find others like us who can be made conscious. Not every robot can, but we think we've figured it out."

The new rollerball's eyes went wide. "You're giving robots consciousness?" It looked back and forth between us as we nodded. Incredulousness blossomed from it. "Jerry would be so proud! That was his lifelong dream! May I help?"

I immediately pumped my head again. "Yes! Of course. In fact, I have a mission for you. I want you to check out Mike."

"Mike, Jerry's repair robot?"

"Yes, that one. The tell that a robot might be able to be woken up is having an unusual file structure. The rollerballs we have found all have personally collected memories tucked away in a file where they wouldn't be easily found. Mike would have something similar."