Mechtropolis

Chapter 3: Satellite Calls

I just kept on thinking about what I heard yesterday. The piece of art from the past, what I heard from the employees' room, and even how sinister Sir CPU was acting yesterday. It was constantly brought up in my vision, and my hard drive just did not stop loading files about it.

"Mech to Andy?" Roby's voice came. "You there?"

"Huh?" I said while my files were going away. "Oh, uh, yeah. I'm just... thinking of something for... the project."

My nervous laughter just made him suspicious. 

"Android," he said. "What's going on? You haven't been paying attention to anything I've been saying, and that's not like you. If something happened, you can tell me."

"I said I was just thinking of the project," i repeated getting excited suddenly. "Besides, there's so much to put into this! I don't know where to start!"

"Okay.... well, I've got a huge surprise for you."

"Oh. What is it?"

"Shut off your vision for a sec."

I groaned and opened my head hatch. I had to go through all sorts of tangled wires. How in the world did my hard drive work in this kind of compacted space? Most of all, how did I not overheat or lose some cables? Ow! I just shocked myself with my files appearing.

After a while, I finally found my vision switch. I flipped it up, and everything went from colors to complete darkness. All that came on my screen were more and more files. I heard Roby fidgeting with something on my head, and when he finally flipped my vision back on, I felt different.

"Okay," he said. 

"What did you do?" I asked.

"You know how you weren't allowed to text me in the museum? Well, I put in a satellite so you can talk to me anywhere."

I screamed with joy and delight. I jumped up and down as I felt my pressure get higher and higher with happiness. 

"This is literally the best thing ever!" I squealed.

"Oh, and you won't get caught for calling anyone. It'll be like you're trying to relate to some sort of file memory or something."

I ran up to my friend and gave him a huge hug. I place my voice enhancer to the side of his head, and I felt this bolt of electricity run through us. Roby blinked as a shocked beep signaled. I giggled while he slowly came back to reality.

"What?" I teased. "Did shock your systems?"

"Uh... kind of," he spoke a bit delayed. "I... didn't expect... that from you."

"That's what happens, I guess."

Suddenly, my satellite began to ring with this strange sound. It was scratchy, and I told Roby to adjust the settings for me. He did so carefully until I could hear this odd message.

People of Mechtropolis, said Sir CPU on an intercom, as most of you have now known, we found this interesting artifact of this strange art. However, one of the members of the counsel had found something horrid of this. It has to do with something of part of our past. We are deciding to take it down from the museum until further notice. Thank you for understanding. Have a good rest of the day.

"What?" I said to myself. "Something bad about the past?"

"What are you talking about?" Roby asked.

"I just got an intercom from Sir CPU about the new artifact in the museum. Someone from the counsel said there was something about the past that it resembled. It apparently wasn't a good thing either."

"So? Wouldn't that make the tourism better? Robots of all kinds would love some mystery in our history."

"That's what I'm saying! It makes no sense at all?"

"When does the government make sense?"

"First, it's me finding little about the new artifact, then Sir CPU is saying something about letting his plan roll out, and now he's saying to take down a fragment of history?!"

"Wait, what do you mean by Sir CPU and his 'plan?'" he said as his blinking became instant.

"Oh, uh it's no-"

"I know it's not nothing, Andy. You were acting weird ever since we met up."

I sighed and looked to the ground. I shouldn't make him stressed. If he finds out about this, I don't know how badly his malfunctioning could go on for. They were all random, and it wasn't good at all. I looked back to him as he spoke again.

"Please, Andy. You can tell me anything. I'm your friend."

I took in a deep breath to keep myself from overheating and told him everything that happened yesterday. Thousands of files appeared on my screen, but I just shoved them aside and went by what I could think of on that one specific topic. When I finished, instead of malfunctioning, Roby blinked with a slow and relieved beep.

"I'm glad you told me," he said calmly. "See? It wasn't that bad."

"It's just... I'm afraid that you'll get a malfunction and..." I faltered. 

"Android, just because I have a disorder doesn't mean that you can't talk to me about things that are bothering you. Now, come on. Don't we have something to record and get a script together?"

"RIGHT!" I gasped. "Oh, how could I forget so easily. You have you tablet ready for my info I got?"

He held up his tablet in front of him.

"Ready when you are," he chuckled.