The Turing Test - [Open Novella Contest 2019 Shortlist]

16. Diamonds Are For Never

"Sorry."

I try and fail to hold in my wince as Davis wraps the ripped-up left sleeve of his shirt around my torn hands. "It's okay," I whisper through a forced smile.

"Tell me if you need a break," he mutters around the fabric he holds in his mouth, unwilling to set it on the grimy floor before using it to cover my wounds. I just shake my head and let him keep working. The sooner it's over, the better.

The robot equivalent of exhaustion drags at my eyelids, forcing them lower only to spring open again with each firm tug of the fabric over my skin. Davis ties off the final knot, then scoots around so that he's sitting beside me and leans his shoulder against mine.

I take a long, deep breath. A fire crackles in the middle of the platform, an echo of the blaze that engulfed our former prison. Fueled by pieces of track and newsprint, with my book of matches placed carefully off to the side, it gives us warmth. But it also reminds me that we've lost Ruby, and despite her hostility, I hope she survived. She didn't know any better. She only did what she was built to do: Please Sven.

I dig around in my pocket, leaning harder against Davis, until I finally withdraw the tiny diamond that once graced my fingers. Now, covered in blood-stained white cotton, they don't look capable of carrying such a beautiful stone; but the stone itself no longer holds elegance, or even meaning. Its memories are singed with Sven's betrayal.

"Hey." Davis's arm snakes around my shoulders, pressing firmly. "Don't look at that, okay? It's over."

I nod, even though he's wrong. It's not over. He still needs to eat. The stale snacks strewn around the abandoned platform won't last forever. Eventually, someone will have to risk going to the surface just to keep us alive.

But I can't help the way my muscles relax against him. Those are plans for another day.

The diamond reflects the flames, glimmering red and orange in its angles. I want to toss it over the edge of the platform, but I can't quite bring myself to do it in spite of what's right in front of me. I gaze from one android to the next—Maven, Linus, the bodies of Darwin and the other fallen man, whose name I've since learned is Alan. The others linger beside the fire. None of them speak, only stare at the flames as they hug themselves.

Can you call yourself a species when you're man-made, in numbers countable on two hands? We're the first and last of a breed that will never truly die out, not as long as humans never find us down here. All of us, tossed aside because we weren't quite the right mixture of possessive and lenient, attentive and hands-off, needy and independent. We weren't loving enough. Our bugs came to light the longer we lived, and eventually we became broken.

I close my hand around the tiny diamond. No. We aren't the flawed ones. We are the faithful ones. We are the ones who gave Sven what he wanted—attention and love and pleasure. We are the innocent ones, the used ones, the scorned ones, and no—we aren't perfect. But neither is he.

There will be more. I see now that I would have been replaced, eventually, just like the others. But we have nothing to be ashamed of. Not our origins, and not the people we've become. I see Sven in all of us—in Maven's clipped tone, and her protective crouch over Darwin's body. In the blank stares of everyone around the fire. In the way Davis holds me, like if he lets go I might vanish in a wisp of smoke, and the way I sink back into him, finding comfort in his steady heartbeat.

"They don't trust you," I mumble, dropping my head against his chest.

I feel his sigh. "I know," he says. "But it doesn't matter."

I look up at him, wondering how he can be so casual about being trapped underground with a bunch of robots who will never relate to him, maybe never even care for his biological needs.

"We'll figure it out," he continues. "Not tonight, or this morning, or whatever it is anymore. But we will."

He points at Maven and Darwin, then at Alan. "We'll get them up and running again. And maybe, in a while, when this all blows over, it'll be safe enough to go up top again. Just long enough to catch a flight somewhere. London, maybe. Or Toronto. Vancouver sounds nice. Not so freaking cold."

His hoarse chuckle bounces against my ear, and I can't help but smile too.

"That rock doesn't mean anything anymore," he says after a moment, and I open my hand again.

"I know," I agree, staring down at the diamond. I sit up long enough to chuck it down the tunnel, not even bothering to follow its motion. I don't care where it lands. I don't want to see it again. I hope no one ever finds it, so that it stays buried here among the gravel, just like my relationship with Sven should.

I lean back against Davis and close my eyes. I feel his long fingers ruffling the hair at the top of my head, and grin sleepily into his arm.

"We don't need all the answers," he murmurs. "Just each other."

I nod, and then the weight of his head settles on top of mine. I burrow into him, letting our breaths even out and synchronize, until the world around us slips from our grip.

But he remains.

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Guys! There's only one chapter left in this book and I'm so emotional right now! I freaking love these characters and I'm not ready to let them go (more on that if you keep scrolling....)

BUT! First and foremost, if you stuck with it to the end — from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!! Your comments, votes, even just those stealthy reads have made so many of my days.

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