Artificial(ish) Intelligence

Chapter 59

Fivven teetered at the lip. Thanks to his forceful thrusts, the view was now unobstructed, allowing him to scan the area and ascertain the location of Mr Will Lurner. The hu(person)'s back at least.

He'd been too quiet with his earlier calls for attention, when Mr Will Lurner's face filled one of the thin windows of the van, and too weak to later unleash the stiff metal door. At least his way forward was now clear and he could close the gap with the fleeing recipient.

Well, not completely clear. His cameras scanned below the plane of his wheels and he quickly determined the potential effect of dropping to the ground from this elevation. He edged closer, as if, by creeping up on it, gravity would be tricked into forgetting to act, allowing him to float effortlessly to the ground. But his route-seeking circuits quashed that notion, as it played out various outcomes, the most likely being a slow rotation and hard landing, upside down.

Since he didn't want a repeat of the earlier street incident, and wasn't from the early 2020's where break-dancing made its cataclysmic but ultimately short-lived return, another escape strategy was needed. But what? The other exits were blocked by chair back-rests. The van possessed no ramp or other deliverybot-friendly method of disembarking. There was only one option. And Fivven didn't even stop to think it through, immediately turning and rolling back up to the front of the van. At about half way he stopped, made some calculations, and determined that another eighty nine centimetres should be sufficient.

A harried sobbing seeped its way inside, the source of which belonged to the same over-sized hu(person) that had nursed him back to life. But this might be his only chance at delivering the still piping hot noodles to Mr Will Lurner, so he didn't have time to investigate further.

Fivven faced toward the wide-open rear of the van and accelerated to full speed. As he passed across the lip his momentum carried him forward, his body perfectly parallel to the ground. But as he dropped his front end tipped forward. Another deliverybot would panic at this point, expecting to plant bumper-first into the hard cement.

Fivven wasn't another deliverybot.

He corrected this expected event by forcing his package toward the back of the compartment, evening out the weight distribution and stabilising along all three axes. By the time he landed his body was tilted a fraction back, enough to counter-act the force otherwise striving to flip him forward.

The landing also made a sound, as if an electronic component had come loose. No, not a sound, but a metaphorical manifestation of his security identification firmware scrambling, becoming what those in the industry call gooeyware.

He re-aligned his package until it sat in a position where it could maintain the highest standards of quality, and continued rolling toward Mr Will Lurner and his inevitable delivery.