Rogue Robot

Correcting an Error

Eve stared at the white door, excepting a knock on the door. The tea in her mug was growing cold and she had lost her page in an old fashion book. It was at least nine o'clock at night, but Eve had a feeling someone would be at her door soon enough. She sat in an armchair in her small rented house, thinking.  But as her tea lost all heat and the clock's hand came to ten she knew it was time to retire and give up. She poured out her tea reluctantly, shoved a bookmark in her page and sit it on the table. She was about change when she heard the soft rap of a hand on metal.

Eve rushed to the door, fixing her hair quickly and opened the door with a polite smile, hoping it wasn't the friend she had left at the cafe earlier that day. Luckily it wasn't. The person on the other side was a woman in a steel grey suit, with brown hair wrapped strictly in a bun. She had dark brown cold eyes that were almost black, a smooth pale face, and an average figure. She smiled tightly, as if she didn't know how to.

"Hello. Can I help you?" Eve asked, trying to control the panic in her voice. What if this woman had come to take her?

"Perhaps. I would like to ask you some questions." the woman's voice was carefully measured.

"Oh, well come in!" Eve stepped a side. The woman glanced inside, frowned and shook her head.

"I'd prefer if you would be kind enough to walk with me."

"Of course! Just let me grab a jacket." Eve left the door open, spun around and walked to her room. It was tidy and neat, everything had it's own spot. She took a grey jacket from behind her door, threw it on and took her ComLet with her. It was small bracelet that had a tiny screen and a hologram device. It could access anything you needed and make calls. She had modified this one to also have a switch blade. She might need to fight her way from this woman.

She came to the door, stepped outside with the woman and locked the house with a fingerprint reader. The woman smiled and tsrated to walk down the street. eve followed, walking beside her, waiting for the questions to come.

"When did you move here, Eve?"

"Oh..well, it would have been two or three years ago now."

"Where were you before then?"

"A little town to the west. It was a nice place." Eve lied. Funny enough whenever she lied she never sweated, looked to the left or any of the other things people usually did when they lied. Maybe that was because she had been lying about her origins for years.

"Ah. Why did you come to the big city then?"

"Needed a change. The place over there was a little to small for my taste."

"Where did you live in the town?"

"Next to a abandoned factory of sorts. It might have been a lab at one point." that was at least part of the truth.

"Hmm. Do you know why it was abandoned?"

"No. It just was."

"What about your parents? Where are they?"

"I..I moved away from them the same time I moved here. A relative stayed with me until I was sixteen. Then she moved out." another lie. She had never known her parents.

"Do you still keep in contact?" Eve glanced at the woman. She spoke like a...a robot. Monotone. Uninterested.

"No. I never liked them much." Eve blinked, wondering if the woman would see through these lies.

"Interesting. What side of the debate are you on?"

"I guess I side with the Mechinas."

"Why?"

"I..I believe that robots are people too. People kill, and maim, but they're also heroes. Robots deserve those chances as well."

"Are you not afraid they will overcome us, given the chance?"

"In a way. Sure, maybe they will become corrupt and decide it's their time. But really, who are we to say no? Everything has it's times. The dinosaurs had theirs, and the ice age and the birds. Our time just hasn't ended yet." silence fell after that sentence. Eve wondered if the woman was an Anti-Mech come to take her hostage. But then she spoke again.

"Fair point. May i ask why you call yourself Eve Wires?"

"What do you mean?" panic flared in her chest.

"It's not your true name, is it?"

"How do you know that?" Eve had stopped, staring wide-eyed. the woman turned towards her.

"We've been watching you, Eve. For quite some time now. Now answer my question."

"No! I won't! You don't control me!"

"But we can.  We can, and we will. I just want to know why you chose the name Eve Wires. You've already told me so much. Why not just one more thing?"

"Because! Because if you were really watching me you'd know why! You'd know why I chose Eve Wires!"

"There's only so much we can tell." the woman moved closer, and grabbed Eve's wrist, sliding the ComLet off. "We can't have you calling someone." the woman took Eve's shoulder with a grip of iron, and steered her down the street.

"You're not going anywhere until I get an answer." she hissed. Eve stubbornly kept quiet, thinking hard and fast. She could try and run but she had  feeling the woman had backup. And that backup could catch her before she got two blocks away. Her ComLet had been taken. She had no other weapons, no other ways of defending herself. No way out. She sighed.

"Symbolism." she said bitterly.

"I'm sorry?" the woman looked at her.

"In some religions Eve was the first woman. Wires is the new age."

"Interesting. You want to forgot the past, don't you Error? Because that's all you are. An error." the woman smiled coldly and stopped Eve. "We can fix that." she raised her wrist to her mouth, speaking into  her own ComLet; "We've got her."

Eve heard a hover car start up, and the pounding of feet. Suited men and woman, ten in all came out of the two closest streets, surrounding them. The hover car was over head, and fairly small. Eve looked up in fear, struggling, but knowing it was no use. The hover car descended, landing in the ring and the woman took her inside.

"You can't do this! I haven't done anything! I haven't broken any laws!" Eve shouted, hoping they would see she was right. But it was futile and the woman just lead her into the machine, the others following behind.

"Oh, we know. But that's not why we want you." the woman said as they took off, pushing Eve into a seat. She snapped her fingers and wire-like ropes wrapped themselves around her.

"We want to correct an error."