Automaton Love

Finding a relic

There was a woman who was in her late twenties, she was driving to work in an old pick up truck. She worked as a robotic engineer for the biggest robotic company in the East Coast, "Marshall Robotics" She pulled up in the parking lot of the MR building, she stepped out of her truck and a man patted the truck. "Come on Jess, it's 2028 and you're still driving in this hunk of junk." The man said in a playful manner. "Geoff, don't be jealous, you know I'm a sucker for old relics. Plus this "hunk of junk" has been in the family for over two decades." She said to Geoff as she got the rest of her stuff out of the truck before shutting the door. They had walked into the MR building where there was a lot of fancy robots and technology. Geoff went through two double doors leading to the "Programming Area" of the building, Jess went through similar double doors that lead to "Robotic Engineering Area." She went into her office and sat down at the desk. She looked through the papers on her desk before she got a call on the office phone. "Jessica Rollins." She answered the phone. "Hey Jessica, how are those inspiring ideas coming along?" The man asked. "Not good, I haven't had any new ideas for products." She answered him. "Well take your time, production isn't slowing down, so that'll give you some time. That's all I wanted to ask." The man said in a cheerful voice. "You got it boss, talk to you later." She said before hanging up the office phone. Later that day her desk was stacked with a mountain full of crumbled up paper, she had her head lead against her desk, arms sagged down to the ground, she then lightly hit her head on her desk. Someone then knocked on her office door. "Come in." She said still having her head on the desk. Geoff opened the door and chuckled. "That hard to something so simple?" He said as he laughed. "Oh ha ha, very funny. And yes, it is. I haven't had a single good idea." Geoff stood and thought for a moment before saying. "Junkyard? Probably there'll be something there that can spark some inspiration." She sat up and looked at him. "That's actually not a bad idea. Since Tuesday and Wednesday is my day off i guess I'll head over there." Geoff smiled. "That's the spirit, I gotta go now, the misses made some awesome homemade hamburgers." She chuckled and stood up gathering her things and walked out of her office, locking the door. "See ya later Geoff." She walked to the double doors. She left the building and got into her truck, she drove off to her house. An hour had passed and she had arrived on her dirt drive way where there was a big farm house with trees all around it. Jess parked her truck and walked into her house. There were little flat vacuums roaming around and another small humanoid like robot, it was barely the size of a 5 year child. "Cody, may i have some water please?" She asked the small robot, it came to her with a bottle of water in its hand. "Thank you Cody." The small robot bowed and went back into the kitchen to its charging station. She turned on the tv and took off her shoes, she then sat down on the couch and propped her feet onto the coffee table. She watched a movie for a little bit before growing tired. She turned off the tv and went to her room. She got into comfortable clothing and layer down on her bed where she fell asleep. The next morning she had woken up by her alarm clock, she sat up and stretched. Jess got out of bed and walked into the bathroom, she took a shower and brushed her teeth. She got dressed and walked to her truck. Jess opened the GPS on her phone and it gave her the location of the nearest junkyard. Jess followed the directions of the GPS to the junkyard. She got out of the truck and walked around, a Junkyard employee walked up to her. "Hi, is there anything I can help you with?" The employee asked her kindly. "Yeah, where do you keep the robots?" The employee chuckled and guided her to the robot storage. She looked around seeing all of the older robots hanging from the racks or laying down on tables. She sighed and turned around, she accidentally knocked stuff over. She apologized to the employee, she then started to pick up what was knocked over until she found a metal hand sticking out of the ground. "Hey, why is this one in the ground?" She asked the employee before standing up. "I dont know, it must have fallen off the racks or one of the tables awhile ago." She thought for a moment before going back to her truck and getting a shovel. "You don't mind if I dig it up do you?" She asked with the shovel on her shoulder. "Be my guest, do you want help?" He asked her as soon as she started to dig. "No thanks, you got a job to do. I'll be fine digging it up myself." She said with stopping, she already uncovered the robots arm by then. "Ok, don't hurt yourself. Call if you need help." He said as he started to walk away. Many hours had passed and she had the robots torso, head, and both arms uncovered, the legs were still in the ground. As it layer in the ground she was tired, she sat down to catch her breath. The same employee came to check on her. "Hey, you're still here." He looked at the male robot that was almost dug up. "Woah, I've never seen a robot like this before." He said amazed by it. "Because he's a generation three automaton, they are very rare to come by. Made in the early 1940's they didn't use electricity to power these robots, they were steam powered." She said as she wiped sweat off of her forehead and cheeks, she then pushed some of her brown hair out of her face. "Cool, what were they used for?" He said as he looked at her. "Don't know, they were used for a lot of things, this is an awesome find. Do I have to fill in paperwork to take it home?" She asked as the employee stood up. "Yeah, just go up to the bosses office." He pointed at a trailer near them. "Thank you." She said as she then walked to it, she opened the door and talked for a little bit with the boss. She signed the paperwork and payed for it. She then went back outside and dug the rest of the robot up. Using a trolley she picked up the robot and put in the back of her truck. Jess got into the truck and drove home. After she got home she put the automaton in the barn. The wasn't used as it was built for, now it's used for making her personal small robots, such as the small vacuums and Cody, the small beverage robot. She cleaned off the automaton and looked at what it looked like, the male automaton had bronze and copper metal plating with some tattered clothing, gears showed on some parts, the creator of the robot meant to make it like that. "Alright, tomorrow morning, I'm gonna know everything about you." She yawned and stretched. "But first, I'm gonna take a shower and go to bed. I made a quick modification to you, so now you can use electricity and not steam." She plugged a huge power cord to his back. "This will charge you over night. Good night, see you in the morning." She left the barn and into her house. She took a shower and layer in bed, she was so tired that she had quickly fallen asleep.