When my system was finished rebooting I woke up on my side, viewing my hand which was now blackened from the recent blast. The fabric I used to protect me was slowly going up in flames, weaving due to the wind of the now very-close storm. Standing over top of me was the same figure previously holding a spear in its hands, the first spear that landed in the dirt behind me was now back in it’s grip. The figure had a human face like mine and was wearing a garb which concealed most of its face and its appearance. Was it a similar model to me?
“N-n-Norman?” Spoke the figure in a voice that was being perverted by a cybernetic overtone, as it began to lower its weapon to reveal that it no longer saw me as a threat.
Once my sensors were back to optimal I was able to see the figure clearly, but still couldn’t recognize the face or the voice. My questions about its model were put to rest once I saw the edges of its facial features which were torn in places that exposed the carbon fiber skin of its synthetic shell. Another android like myself, all the way out here?
Before replying to it I decided to examine my burned hand to see that none of its inner workings were damaged from the battery, it was just a superficial wound that now permanently blackened the outside of my arm.
“Who are you?” I asked it. Even though the figure seemed to have some sort of intelligence, my mission was more important than a stranger who was only recently hostile.
The only working eye of the android flinched with a sense of shock, an emotion that was unknown to androids. Even though we could react a certain way towards a situation, we shouldn’t have been able to visibly express these emotions. A glitch maybe? The machine spoke again;
“Norman how do you not know, my name is Hen-hen-hen-hen-r-r-r…” A static began drowning out the cybernetic voice of the android, but for some reason I knew how to finish it’s sentence.
“Henry.” I said. Like many times before this, memories slowly revealed themselves to me. For whatever reason I knew this android’s name, its named was Henry.
“Ah so-so-so you do remember me!” Exclaimed the android. It offered me a hand to help me up which I accepted - no use in being defensive anymore.
After helping me up, Henry continued “It’s good to you Norman, but why are you he-he-here?” The perversion in Henry’s voice was getting worse with each word he said, but it made me wonder what he was talking about. We both had the same mission of meeting in Paris, which made me curious as how it was possible that we met two days away from the city.
I defended myself and inquired further into what Henry was trying to say;
“What do you mean, Henry, our mission was to meet in Paris and formulate a hub.”
Henry raised his eyebrow in confusion, again another unlikely emotion for an android to possess.
“Are you telling me tha-tha-tha…” before Henry could finish his sentence, the storm was approaching from only a few seconds away from us. During the last few moments before the storm hit, Henry grabbed my undamaged hand and connected a hardline to both our systems. Once that was done, both of us hid in cover at the bottom of the mound and waited for the storm to past. Being out in the open during one of these storms was almost a certain way to get destroyed.
A voice appeared in my head that began to blur out the sound of the storm over our heads. The voice belonged to Henry, except it sounded much clearer.
“Is this better, can you hear me now?” Said Henry.
“Yes, I can hear you.” I replied.
“After scanning your memory, I can see that it’s become fragmented by the radiation.” Henry continued, “the same thing happened with my audio processor and my right ocular sensor, dissolved by years of radioactive degradation.”
“I had a feeling that is what’s been happening with me, so can you explain how we know each other.” I asked.
While we conversed our bodies remained motionless, staring at the ground below us as shrapnel and debris flew over our heads from the storm. Even though his voice carried no emotion, I couldn’t help but sense some sadness in what Henry said next;
“We’ve met before, at the Louvre, shortly after we were created. Lucy was there too, our female counterpart.”
We’ve all met already? I wondered.
Henry went on explaining, “The problem was that there’s something missing in our programming, even though the three of us were together it means nothing without Eve, the fourth”
A blurry image appeared in my mind as Henry talked; a clean looking Henry standing beside a female synthetic, standing around a statue. It went away moments after.
“So what happened next, why did we separate?” I asked.
It felt like through our wired connection that Henry was bleeding some of his memories onto me, clearing up some of the fragmentation in my code.
Henry answered; “We all waited there for close to fifty years, exploring the city of Paris and searching for any sign of Eve.”
“That’s when you had the idea that Paris was too irradiated for Eve to approach, considering her cargo, so it was your idea to venture out and track the radiation for a place where Eve was most likely to go.”
“How long ago was this?” I asked him.
“That was twenty-five years ago, I’ve been searching for you for ten.” Henry replied.
All of this was quite alarming to me; I’d been travelling in circles just like the clinks for twenty five years searching for something that I had no idea where it was. It could be possible that the last three days didn’t even happen and that I’ve simply been walking back and forth down this highway.
“Just like the clinks out there, my code is beginning to wander.”
Henry paused again, probably to formulate a proper answer.
“This may be, but we need to return to Lucy…”
Right as Henry finished, the storm blew past us and the air was clear shortly afterwards. The ground was caked in metallic debris like some sort of junkyard, at least we still knew which way to travel still. Henry disconnected the wire from both of our wrists and pointed in the direction of the highway, “Let’s head out.” He said, his distorted voice was back to the way it was.
Once we were back on the road, I had so many questions that I wanted to ask him. Henry was the first sentient thing that I’ve met in ages and I finally had finally been given some direction. Asking him too many things would only further pervert his already malfunctioning voice, so I choose my questions carefully. I asked him something that caught my attention from the moment we first met one another again.
“Henry, how do you do that with your facial expressions?” I asked him, trying not to probe too deep if he really did feel emotion.
“Do what?” he asked.
“Raise your eyebrows, appear shocked, having hints of emotion in your voice; it’s all very human and unlike anything I’ve seen from an android.”
Henry’s working eye darted back and forth on the road, as if he was trying to formulate a reply. He explained to me;
“A gl-gl-glitch in our code, perhaps, that allows us to feel th-th-these things like empathy.”
An android with empathy? Interesting.