The virgin & the bad boy (Gravity)

Chapter 14/It's not what it seems and even if it was I can explain....

Image: Leo. Video Federico Pistono talking about the background of the book - the rise of robots and the future of a jobless world and how the 'unconditional basic income' might fix that.

/Earth/North America/Massachusetts/Great Grandmother'sSky-house 5,000 ft/Entrance hall 

"That was you wasn't it Kentro" I said when we got out of earshot. 

"I'm not sure to what, Madam references" said Kentro. As we walked along the deep corridor to the east wing.

"The shoe closet." I said "don't tell me it wasn't you."

"Madam guesses well.Well I hope madam doesn't mind me taking the liberty. It was clear we could not empty your grand mother's room in the allowed time. Your aunt Catherine didn't ask you to empty the room just ensure the room was not discovered. Which given your aunt Mallory's knowledge of the secret passages in the house was difficult."

"So the stack of bedroom toys are still there?" said George. As we turned into another corridor.

"Yes, their  all hiding behind the fake wall Kentro made" I said.

We arrived in the east wing decorated in the art-deco style. 

"Masters Dante,Leo and George clearing of the first few meters or feet of shelf space greatly facilitated the creation of the fake back wall. All that was then needed was dressing to suggest a purpose to the hidden space" said Kentro.

"Hence the shoes. You've been buying big girl pumps all weekend" I said realising the purpose of all the amazon delivery drones.

We walked through the hall turned into the wing where the visitor bedrooms were.

"On your account madam" said Kentro.

"WHAT?" I said "some of those shoes cost more than Paris Hilton's car insurance!"

Paris Hilton had been re-cloned several years ago as an economic boost to the planet's clothing and driving insurance industries.

'<ZING>Heart rate alert. Has someone attached another defibrillator to you or is it the photo of Harry Styles again? because which ever it is it's killing you.' said my earrings about my heart rate.

"That's the last time I share my amazon account password with anybody...but I guess it probably it might almost make the amazon prime membership I accidentally got, pay for itself" I said.

"The shoes had to be suited to your grandmother's choice and something she might hide away. They are however your size madam, fortunately it was also the size of your late great grandmother.

"Great, I get to be the Christina Aguilera of Mars." I said sarcastically. As we went into my bedroom and sat on a soft chair nimble chair. Secretly I was pleased. I'm quite a victim for crazy,silly, stupid shoes, I mostly hang around in sneakers but when the flight takes me I do indulge in shoe porn for no reason. I'm also wound upto tight to waste good money on shoes I will hardly wear. So if truth be told Kentro had done me a favour. I quite liked the idea I would have to push my self out to a few more parties to get my money's worth.

"Fortunately, I have also negotiated a deal with a museum in Holland which will accept all of your great grandmothers previously mentioned bedroom items for a new exhibition there. The container for their transport will arrive on Monday morning after your aunt leaves."

"When did you do all this?" said George Sitting down.

"Once enough shoes were delivered I worked quietly all night in the hidden passage miss. Fortunately the mechanical peoples don't sleep and your aunt, like many, is used to machines and cats going about their activities in her slumber."

"So why didn't you tell me your plan?" I said.

"Madam must understand that as a type 52 robot I do have affective components. Would madam like afternoon coffee ? A warm beverage is good after a shock. " said Kentro.

George sat down and nodded.

"Sure. Affective components ? Which in plain English is?" I asked.

"Type 52 robots process human emotions Madam" said Kentro putting his mask down for a second and opening a sideboard to get some cups out. 

I had heard of military grade type 52  robots. They would slice your stomach and pull out your guts but then give you a cushion for your head so you were comfortable while you died.

"It is a limitation of our make that we interpret the three laws of robot emotionally" said Kentro.

I knew the three laws of robotics, we did them at IT class at school. A robot can't kill you or hang around letting you get killed. They also had to do what you said unless you asked them to kill you. Finally they had to make sure they didn't get themselves recycled or anything unless they had to trash themselves saving your life or something. It had caused endless problems when they had first been introduced in 'Google servant' as a safety feature. The robots kept running away if there was a disaster somewhere in the world or suddenly trying to compute a cure for some disease. Google cars were famous for driving away to nearby accidents to offer to be an ambulance blocking the roads, during an accident, to real ambulances. During the big quake in California in 2051 most of the cars in the country sped towards California to help out some with their owners still in them.

Finally, they had dial back the whole three laws to be 'in the next ten minutes' you must not let anyone die. This meant the machines would stop an accident happening but not permitting the machines to think about any long term problems like global warming, saving the lives of anyone on another part of the world. It meant they hung around to do stuff for you which is what people wanted. People could smoke and eat fatty foods without the robots rushing in and shouting 'first law, first law'. This addition of short term perspective matched most people's life styles well enough while giving the reassurance that the machines would not strangle them in their beds for not investing in enough wind turbines.

Too much information? yeah well you try having to do your IT homework on the dented school robot because your one of the few people in your class who doesn't have so much as a roomba at home.

"So" continued Kentro "when we think about not letting harm come to a human this includes emotional harm. In this case, I needed to save you any possible embarrassment. If on discovery you could have had plausible deniability over the matter. You could have truthfully said you had no knowledge of my actions and will sell me on craigslist as malfunctioning. "

"Is this why you were being sold to me?" I said.

"I'm sure madam will understand that I keep my previous owners actions under the strictest confidence." said Kentro. " If I failed to do so, I risk you erasing all my memories on your departure after your years sojourn in this vexing high gravity. Repeating my early life after a factory reset is something I would very much prefer to avoid Madam"

"Very good Kentro" I said as Kentro passed me a warm coffee cup. 

I sat back job done, aunt Catherine would he happy so I could bask in the knowledge of a good girl report being sent back home to Mars. There things would have remained but then I had the misfortune, in a moment of weakness, to agree to accompany Dante and the others on their road trip back to Atlanta via a small place called "Salem".  

*****

A/N we are starting to like Kentro, how about you? George is growing on us as well. Join us next Thursday when we put the bad into bad-boy and see Dante at his most evil. This has just a few ramifications which kicks the main adventure off (in case you're wondering).

Speaking of which you may have noticed we have kicked into full #Justwriteit mode ( hence 5 bumper chapters this week).

Hugs until next thursday RK+Reb.