Whatever Happened... to Robot Jones? Continued

Chapter 13: An Eye for an Eye

Half past midnight, Robot got dropped off at his home. Not the latest he'd ever been awake, but definitely not allowed by his strict-as-a-line mother if not for a special occasion. His parents were still at the factory, helping organize a plan for addressing the robots' complaints to Claymore, and Robot estimated that they'd be gone until sunrise.

As soon as he got there, he threw off his jacket and loosened the rest of the tuxedo as much as he could without tearing it off his body. He then ran down to the basement, where he flung on the lights and grabbed the amplifying horn funneling into Grampz unit's hearing receptor.

"WAKE. UP." he shouted into it, his voice echoing in the quiet basement.

Maybe it was the anger with which he spoke. Maybe it was something else, but Grampz's screens buzzed to life instantly, his systems whirred, his body creaked and squeaked as various mechanisms pulled themselves together to wake the behemoth sleeping computer. It seemed like even though he was as groggy as anybody who'd just woken up, he didn't have to be reminded of who Robot was. "What reason do you have to wake me at this hour?" he demanded, more dazed than angry. At least that meant his 24 hour clock was still working.

Robot hopped down from the perch where he'd stood to shout into the amplifier and stood in front of Grampz, his feet thundering as they hit the ground. "JNZis merging with Lightoller! That's what this whole big hullabaloo was about! And Claymore had them vote on it! And a quarter of those who voted were robots! Robots, Grampz!"

Grampz unit grumbled, then his systems softly whirred for a bit before he responded. "So it is."

Robot blinked, waiting for him to say more. But after a moment or too, it became clear that he had nothing else to say about it. "You're not mad?"

"What is there to be mad about?" asked Grampz. "Yet again the humans have made a decision which will only come to benefit their pockets. And the automatons who Claymore have brainwashed were never our friends to begin with. They have their pincers in the pot, too. Child, it was only a matter of time. And it seems that time has come."

Robot was speechless. He knew his grandfather had always been skeptical of humans and there intentions, but he was so sure Grampz would flip out over this news. Nay, he thought the old computer would be seething with rage. Maybe Grampz had lived long enough to witness so many corporate disasters that nothing surprised him anymore. "But..." he said, finally finding words, "It's Lightoller. It's our rivals. You aren't afraid of what they could do?"

"Any pride Grampz Unit has accumulated for JNZ Robotics over the years has been deflated by countless disappointments," the old computer replied. "Grampz knows of Lightoller's reputation for cruelty among their units, and I am not surprised that Marvin Claymore does not care about that reputation."

All the frustration that had built up inside Robot that evening suddenly began to fizzle out, leaving a horrible emptiness in its place. When Robot had come down to the basement, he was expecting Grampz to be right there with him, ranting and raving, to keep the fire in his tank ablaze. When Mom unit had promised that she and dad would work on a way to convince Claymore that the merger was a mistake, it generated a fight inside of him, and he thought that fight would be shared by Grampz. Instead, Grampz had extinguished this fire, along with the hope of undoing tonight. After building up his courage, Robot asked: "Why don't you care?"

A monotone laugh with a wicked edge echoed from the belly of Grampz's machinery. "It does not affect me, does it? I am an old creature nearing the end of his life. An old creature confined to the basement of a house. Any day now someone will try to wake me, and I will not wake. And I will not ever wake again. And I know that the overseers at the factory will not see monetary gain at attempting to fix me, no matter how much my grandson begs for it. No, Robot, I am not concerned with what Lightoller has in store for JNZ. If there should ever be change in the relationship between robots and humans, it will be in your lifetime, and not mine."