I thought it would be fun to post the story I started for last November’s NaNoWriMo before I had to drop out. It’s an unedited first run so please forgive the misspelling or grammar issues. It was never revised.
The Mekantic and the Sexbot
“Fuck, Fuck, Fuck….” The water had made the metal joint slick when she had tried to tug at it. The edge cut through her brown work gloves. Crimson drops spilled to the ground concealed among the rain falling from the dark sky above. She dropped to her knees in pain into the now red puddles of murky mud and fresh plasma. The mud beneath her knees sucked her legs in. The saturated ground was very forgiving.
“Fuuuuuck’” she cried out trying to hold back tears. She was strong but this was a white hot pain. Maybe a wound too deep to continue for the night. The blood running down her arm made that idea seem more real. The drips disrupted the distribution of her holo image. The thinness of her arm waivered..not thinking she touched her wristband to steady the projection. Even in pain, that came first.
“Eddie!” She called out to the darkness. She knew he would come running. She was a frail nineteen year old with short brown hair. Cut to a bob. She looked almost boyish expect for her breasts which were unusually large for her frame. Her brown boots with buckles and straps dug into the mud. Her tan cargo pants that the held tools of her trade soaked themselves along her legs. Her brown belt held red suspenders over the matching red cloth of her long sleeve work shirt that seemed to have more pockets than her pants. Welding goggles perched on the top of her head held her bags from her eyes, except for the tiny strains that escaped to the freedom of her cheeks.
“Eddie!” She called again. A thin man with a plum belly and a grease stained jump suit plodded quickly, well as quickly as a lazy man can carry himself through the side path. “What’s wrong, Munchkin?”
He had called her that since she was little. At one time he was her Dad’s best friend. The falling out they had she never understood. She could never ask him though, or her father…. “I need a medkit, I think, this one is deep.” She was prone to injury. She couldn’t match the wound with the severity yet. “God damn it.” He hollered through the sheets of heavy rain and he slowly darted away. She didn’t know if he was more upset for her having hurt herself..again…or that he had to run the yards back to the main shed.
Sometimes she couldn’t figure out if Eddie genuine cared for her, wanted to fuck her or only let her use the Bone yard for fixing broken machinery to keep his business afloat. She was a natural mechanic…especially when it came to robots. Eddie ran The Bone Yard. A junkyard for old discarded robots. She would often fix the easy ones for resale which kept the business out of hock. Especially in this economy where robots were cheap and common place..well cheap if you had the money. Which not many of her social class had. The more she thought about it waiting for his lanky pot belly to return, she thought that maybe the robots aren’t so cheap, After all, she wouldn’t be here if they were. She needed one for school. She was starting college and it was a requirement for her all girls school. She dreaded the thought of leaving the barn and the comfort of her small home. Sure it was empty and lonely but it was hers.
A jolt of pain shot through her arm, “God damnnit, Eddie,” Calling into the darkness, “Please hurry.” In a fit she slung the arm that housed the metal joint that cut her hand against a row of Apollo Robots. Apollo robots were the most common robots of the latest batch to be retired. The popularity mainly came from their sexual prowess and technique. They were decent in bed but poor listeners when it came to verbal commands. The newer Apollo’s weren’t much better but they were sleek in appearance and not as clunky. It seemed everyone turned in their old Apollo robots for the newer upgrade for purely cosmetic reasons. The functions were basically the same.
The arm joint clipped the shin of a one of the Apollos and with the soft ground, his weight and the force of the hit, he toppled forward and like a chain of metal humanoid dominoes two stacks fell in varying directions. “Fuck!” they would be covered in mud now. She was digging through the various Apollos with varying degrees of wear and tear…and rust to find the perfect parts to refurbish one of her own. They may be last year’s model but they would suit her purpose. She was sure that at least some girls would have an Apollo at her new school and maybe she could fit in. God forbid she showed up with a synth or a Charlie or a Genicbot.
Frustrated, grabbing a broken head tumbling towards her splashing mud, with a firm grip she slung the metal oval back towards the pile with a grunt. Over shooting the mark there was a metal on metal clang against the rigged wall followed by a soft glowing rectangular light. She perked up curiously looking at the wall. The wall was blue covered in dark red rust. But a soft red glow now emanated from the structure at about an average man’s waist height. She picked herself out of the mud, the ache of her hand fading from her thoughts at this new curiosity. She stepped over the mess of bodies splayed from her tantrum and looked closely and curiously at the blue wall with its glowing light. She walked a few feet in both directions. It wasn’t really a wall at all but a cargo container. It seemed Eddie just displayed the Apollos against it. Maybe because the blue was a contrast for their odd yellow jacket coloring. Moving closer to the center towards the soft glow it was apparent that it was some kind of console. A very filthy console. Without a though she rubbed her glove soaked in blood over the crusted glass. The display now streaked with crimson and dirt. She tugged up a shirt tail from the front of her paints to wipe the glowing screen making it at least a bit legible. The ten keys of a numbered key pad were clear now.
Another wipe with her shirt and she saw it was a touch screen for a numeric code. No display just numbers. No return command screen to verify affirmative or negative..just red glowing ten boxes of numbers. Staring at it for a half second, She cupped it sideways and scooted in close. A move one would make when processing bank transactions in public at a vendor. She typed quickly, two numbers together two times. She knew it was pairs and a pair divisible by a number.
The red light, the numbers and their framing keys turned a soft green and gears clicked and hissed. A seamless door hissed forward. Sliding to her left. A rotten stench poured forth and she immediately drew a hand over her face. “Fuck,” Wrong hand, wiping the blood from her mouth with her sleeve. “I am totally gonna have to burn this shirt.” Synth parts littered the container. Syth flesh mimics human flesh but it has a slightly different texture and a worse smell when it decays without the proper fluids and maintenance. Syth flesh is only used among certain companies these days because though it can be cheaply maintained, the ease of self maintenance is preferable. No one wants a robot you have to take care of. They are there to serve when needed and in the background when not…especially when you have better things to do.
Light didn’t travel deep into the container. The cheap fluorescent lights attached to the over hang of the aluminum siding over head, supported by rotting wood covering the Apollos were not very giving. The immediate interior edges of the cargo container were littered with piles of syth arms, legs and exposed pelvises. She dropped her welding goggles of her dripping hair over her blue eyes fixing them tightly on. Flipping on the infra red she could investigate further. She stepped over stench and flesh making her way deeper into the darkness. One thing she was not was afraid. Some things scared her but one was not blind adventure. She gasped when she finally came within a few yard of what would be the back wall of the cargo space. From a few hundred feet there was a green nightvision glow of a boy..just an outline. He was huddled in the corner. Sitting on his bottom. He knees looked tucked to his chest, arms firmly wrapped around them. She didn’t feel emotional about the sight just curiosity of why a boy would be in a room of decay.
She could hear the echo of Eddies voice calling out for her.”Where are you , Katie?” She never liked that name but boys seemed to. She never really accepted it or herself. “In here, Eddie!” Her voice echoed back through the metal walls. She walked slowly to the boy. He didn’t move..maybe he was a body..maybe this was a container left by Skin merchants.
She was temporarily blinded by white light, the ceiling lights flooded her vision. “I found a switch,” Eddie cried out as her retinas found his remark painfully obvious. Pulling off her goggles. She blinked repeatedly to correct her vision. Here eyes were filled with spots and a minute later she was choking back vomit at the sight of the blood and fluid she had been walking in. She was a strong woman but the stench and the sight became almost overwhelming. She tightened her stomach to move on. She had to see the boy.
“You’re no boy,” She whispered to herself. Were her infrareds playing games? A robot sat on the ground, clenching his legs, head down between them. He was rather large maybe two heads taller than her height. That was an estimate. At five, four you have a different gauge. He was no robot she had ever seen before and she knew her robots. He definitely wasn’t a Charlie or an Apollo. He was probably a Gen knock off or someone’s at home hobby. Whatever it was it was definitely unique if not decayed and apparently damaged. The piping along the body made no mechanical sense. Neither did the stripping bands along his legs and arms. The protruding tubes but have meant unfinished work. He definitely wasn’t polished. His main parts were gunmetal grey and black. Definitely unfinished work. Definitely a broken robot.
Not interesting at all really. A hobby gen? She would be ridiculed at school. Her thoughts pulled back to her hand now that her short adventure was over. Synth parts and a hobby gen. Eddie would have no use for this at all in the Bone yard. Now focused on her hand pain ripped though her arm again. She grunted squeezing her fist reflexively..
“Plop.” The almost inaudible sound of the drop of her blood splashing into the synth liquid at her feet. The “boy” raises his head. His ocular lenses glowing a brilliant turquoise. Robots don’t have turquoise eyes she immediate thought looking at his reaction. She steps back cautiously. The Boy stands slowly. The gears of his knees spinning him up right. He stands against the wall much like a superhero from a book. She stands frozen as he clumsily moves forward to her. His large hand quickly yet gently grabbing hers like a ill mannered person. Boy speaks in a fragmented and weak mechanical voice, “You.. a..re…hurt.” His cold hand feel soothing..large metallic fingers cupping the back of her hand as if to inspect her wound. “I will protect yoooouuuu…….”
Boy’s eyes grow dim the turquoise luminescent fading. Standing in a fixed position, a frozen metal statue. “Eddie!” Her mind races. “Where did you get this container?”
“Beep, Beep, Beep,” slamming her hand down on the clock sphere. “Long night, it’s too early….” Katie mumbled into her pillow. Lying face down under the white sheets and lime green comforter of her queen sized bed the sounds repeated, “Beep, Beep, Beep….”
“What the fuck?” One eyeing the clock, brushing her brown hair back from her one squinting yet open blue eye. The yellow illuminated number reading 12:03 pm on the clock face. She filtered through her groggy memory of sounds…..”The fucking phone……” She flipped herself over on her back, her white t-shirt twisting against her waist. “Audio chat only…..Answer, Hello?”
“Katie, are you still asleep?” The voice was the familiar sound of her bubbly friend, not her best friend. She didn’t really have one of those but Kimmy was the closest person that she had that could fill that moniker.
“Yes I was up for like ever last night. What do you want?” She didn’t mean to sound snippy but she was exhausted. She almost felt bad about her tone and maybe felt a little worse that Kimmy would be accepting of her shortness though it may have hurt her feelings.
“Do you want to come over today? I have a ton of shopping to do before school starts. I barely have half of the required materials that we are supposed to bring to school and I would like to buy some new clothes as well..and maybe a augmentation or two for my robot.” She heard a few soft moans escape her friend’s lips while she finished that last sentence.
“I have a bunch of stuff I have to do so I don’t think I can make it out today. I’m probably gonna be in The Barn all day.” She heard a slight gasp. “What are you doing? Do I want to know?” Kimmy giggled on the other side of the audio feed. “Vid!” Kimmy had been user tagged to her data stream for emergencies and sometimes to help on projects. She was a beautiful little machinist in her own way. She sometimes she saw problems in her projects that Katie would overlook. Not often but enough to be usefully impressive at times.
By saying vid, she had overridden Katie’s audio only communications command and enabled video chat. Katie quickly glanced down at her holo band to make sure it was activated. Sometimes she disabled it at night. She sat up, her loose breasts shifting under her shirt that read, “Fix It!” in bright red bold letters outlined by thick black lines. Her hair hung in her face, she almost looked undead. A rectangular screen of light the size of a notebook popped into view two feet from her face. Kimmy’s head filled most of the screen. She had a full face with puffy cheeks. Her skin was a faded olive tone, soft. It suited her plus sized frame. Her long black hair was streaked with dark purple pulled back into what was presumably a pony tail from this angle. Her eyes were a light brown and right now a little glassy. Her face was rocking back and forth slowly towards the screen. By the look of her squished cleavage, she could tell Kimmy was lying on her stomach in bed and by the sounds of servos she knew that her robot was most likely…
“Vid off!” Katie blushed. “You are not right!” She said in a teasingly angry giggle. Kimmy was by no means a shy girl, another trait that Katie admired.
“You like it prude,” Kimmy quipped back, “Have you go your robot yet? It’s a requirement you know.” Yes, she did know. All the girls at school had robots of various makes and models and it was well know what they were really a requirement for. Not just the schools standard academic requirements. She didn’t even know why it was really a requirement anymore. Brookwell had gone co-ed last year so the campus had boy’s dormitories now though only some of the classes were mixed. “I found a bunch of parts, mostly Apollo’s, a few other models. I think I have mostly what I need combined with the bits I have been working on.” She didn’t think to tell her about the one in the container. She wasn’t really concealing it; she just wanted to know more about it first. She would hate to have to admit to someone that she found a machine that she couldn’t identify. She wanted to solve that puzzle first.
“Kay, I don’t know why you don’t just buy one. All the girls in school are going to have this year’s newest model and if you show up with a raggy old franken-robot we will both be the laughing stock of our class.” There was a long silence….. “I didn’t mean to Katie, I’m sorry.”
A soft, “its okay,” barely escaped Katie’s lips as she started at her holo band and thought about the empty master bedroom down the hall. Kimmy bubbliness sprung back, “Look I really have to pick some stuff up but I’ll swing by later this evening and lend a hand. I’ll wanna attach the new toys I plan on getting anyways and half my tools are in The Barn. School is like a week away and we don’t have much time. You’ll need all of the help you can get.” She could hear the sound of Kimmy blowing a kiss and she mimicked her friend.
“End call,” Katie spoke trying to make two words sound cheerful. She was never really one for small talk so their conversations usually ended abruptly. She pulled back the white sheets, swinging out of bed. Her pink sweat pants were probably the most feminine item of clothing she wore. She liked them and they were soft and comfortable. The white shag carpet of her room tickled her bare feet. She was a bit of a minimalist when it came to decorations, even of her personal space. Other than a closet full of clothes she had a white oak chest with a companying dresser, mirror and two nightstands that flanked her bed. Two simple metallic lamps that were hardly ever turned on sat on the surface of the nightstand along with her metal ball clock and various bits of tech she would tinker with at night. She built a holo grid into the wood of her head board and into the walls and ceilings that utilized hard light technology. If she did want to work on something, read, watch TV, play games or modify the room in any way she could do it from the comfort of her cave. She could also work virtually in The Barn from here on the days she was not feeling well or in one of her, “I don’t socialize with others,” moods.
Katie stretched her arms in the air with a quiet yawn. Even with an empty house she always seemed to never make a sound. Maybe it was a force of habit, respect for others comfort levels of noise but even a lone she was always quiet. Even her foot falls were nearly undetectable. Scratching at her stomach, she made her way out of the door frame on to the cold wood panel floor of the short hall. To her left was a staircase leading downwards to the living area and kitchen. To the right was a bathroom or the immediate right, another unused bedroom after that and the master bedroom at the end of the hall. She stared at the simple white door for a moment. She general did when she first woke up. “The door that ever opens,” she thought to herself taking a few steps and making a quick right into the open bathroom.
Looking into the rectangular mirror she rubbed her eyes. She had dark circles, she looked haggard. It had been a long night. She glanced over to the shower. “Not today buddy, I’m about to get dirty again anyways,” she thought to herself. Opening the mirror revealing a mostly bare medicine cabinet, she grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste. She winced a little bit brushing her teeth. She grimaced staring at her open hand while holding the toothbrush in place with a white frothy mouth. The cut wasn’t as deep as the blood lead her to believe. She didn’t need stitches. She self diagnosed and had gummed her wound with medial syth-flesh from the medkit Eddie had brought her. The synth-flesh would accelerate the healing of the cut and dissolve away during the process. The wound is almost unnoticeable unless you draw attention to it.
Finishing up her bathroom maintenance, meaning a rinsing her mouth, barely splashing water on her face and pulling her hair up into a pony tail with a black elastic band, she made her way through the kitchen through the sparsely furnished living room downs stairs. The interior of the down stairs living area was just as simple as the upstairs. All hard wood floors with a few rugs scattered in appropriate spots, under an antique coffee table, in from the brown oak front door. The Sofa and chair were antique as well and the red fabric was faded and dusty from neglect. She couldn’t remember the last time she even sat down here and enjoyed someone’s company. The white walls were bare and some faded squares decorated the walls where pictures presumably once hung. The fire place was cold though she did light it occasionally just to feel the warmth and cracked throughout the house. The kitchen was bare except for the usual requirements for a kitchen; cabinets, a stove, an old white refrigerator and light brown cabinets with creaky hinges. A circular table with a bowl of plastic fruit stood in the middle surrounded by four wooded chairs with handmade quilted pillows tied to the seats acting as cushions. This table she did spend time at. The only other place in the house she actually sad down and worked at or had a cup of tea with Kimmy other than her bedroom was at this table.
She opened the refrigerator door and it was fairly well stocked. One of the least barren things in this house was this clunker of a machine. Reaching in grabbing a whole raw carrot that was bundled with quite a few others, she stuck it in her mouth and closed the refrigerator as quickly as she opened it. She walked out the front door its hinges creaking supporting the heavy oak, they weren’t as loud as the metal frame of the screen down when it banged behind her as she made her way down the stairs of the porch. She hadn’t bothered to put on shoes, she rarely does unless she is leaving her property, she loved the feel of nature on her skin. She plodded down the dirt path towards the front gate about a half mile down the road. He breasts bounced as she navigated the uneven dirt of the road. Her were soles quickly becoming stained with soil, another thing she didn’t mind, dirt. She liked this walk to the mailbox even though it was almost always empty. The walk was her quiet time to think about the coming day and to reflect on events of the previous one. Many important decisions are made on this walk.She pulled at the carrot in her mouth crunching off pieces slowly chewing.
Opening the rusty door of the mailbox she leaned over to look inside, when she was younger she would just stick her arm in to check for letters but one day a stray cat that was looking for shelter taught her that that wasn’t a good idea. Empty again, “No surprise,” she thought to herself. She spun on her heel and made her way back up the long slope to her house. From here it looked almost dilapidated. She was surprised authorities had not condemned it by now. The windows were intact but some of the wood did look to be rotting and the white paint was sun dried and chipped. The small house was a contrast to The Barn that was off to its back left. The big red structure resembled a normal barn in typical fashion. That’s her destination of the day, that’s her puzzle.
Katie contemplated grabbing another carrot as she walked by the house towards The barn. She thought about Kimmy’s words and half smiled at the thought of being called rabbit by her middle school peers as she rubbed her holoband. The Barns doors seemed massive as she approached the back of the house. Like the rest of the land it was surrounded by tall browning grass. An old yellow tractor sat to the left side of the barn. “Maybe if I fixed that..and had help I could keep this place up.” she thought to herself.
The Barn doors were slid wide open, and smelled of old hay. From the outside it looked dank and barren. She stood close to the wall placing her hand against the frame of the wide door as it closed shut. The wood hummed and a lit keypad became visible. “A pair made of pairs, four four infinity infinity,” she typed the code into the keypad as the doors slid closed. That was her dream. A dream she had since a child. She would say four then he would repeat it, she would say infinity questioning and he always confidently repeated it, “Infinity.” It was a child’s game, a fancy of imagination. “It’s been here ‘bout nine years, just dropped off. Could never get it open,” she remembered Eddie’s words about the container. She had childishly yelled “finders keepers” which always seemed to work anytime she found something that she thought of value in the Bone Yard. Eddie always let her keep her find. They had spent the rest of the night salvaging the synth parts that had not rotten away and put them in liquid stasis wells. They then plodded through the mud to get the loader which resembled and old pick up truck with a make shift fork lift on the back and taken “boy” and her other salvaged machinery the few miles back to The Barn.
The barn doors slid open, gone the hay and stench replaced with a large machinists shop. It was by no means clean or immaculate. Metal bits were strewn all along the floor. She walked in, her toes pressing against cold concrete as she surveyed her familiar workspace. It was a clutter of machinery and vid screens surrounding a table on the left. The “work bench” as she liked to call it. Tools and arms littered the top of the chrome table. On the right were piles of metal, diagnostic machinery and storage units. On the back wall that’s where the magic happened. The Grav board. She designed it herself. It was a fully functional diagnostic system with built in gravity well and rotational system. The initial concept won her the V Johnson scholarship that was paying her way to Brookwell on a full ride but she would only share the concept and theory not the practical device itself. She knew that they wanted her to actually build it from theory; why else would she get into such a prestigious school but this is one card she would keep close to her vest. It was cynical but she thought, let them think they are trying to use me while I actually use them.
Boy, the robot she found the night before, was still standing motionless in front of the Grav board, frequency diagnostics still running exactly where she left him last night, mud from Eddie’s tire tracks still fresh on the floor from dropping him in place. She gasped as she thought his turquoise eyes seemed to glow in recognition of her approach then fade. She chalked that up to imagination. She did tend to be a dreamer. She dreamt about Boy last night and blushed at her thoughts and at the thought of Kimmy’s vid call. “Hello,Boy,” she flicked his chestplate with her index finger, “let’s find out what makes you tick.”
Katie rubbed her chin between her thumb and her forefinger contemplating her first move. The smart move would be to proceed virtually and avoid contaminates but she was more of a hands on person and preferred a practical approach.
C. A. Ostrout 