Chapter 6
Chapter six
Atlas
Atlas tended to his plants.
Earlier, he was distracted by the ultrasound and didn’t finish his chores.
Now he was back, eyedropper in hand, ready with their weekly dosing of micronutrients.
The colors on the plant’s foliage were healthy.
Vibrant. Plants were where all his caring went lately, giving a place for his care to rest. He was built to care, after all, even if he usually had no patients to care for.
He moved to check another, then glanced at the monitor where the medical testing was displayed. Anna’s picture was on the screen, front and center. Atlas’s hand slipped on the foliage looking.
Almost immediately, his processors overheated, calculating in a way that was quickly becoming a standard operating feature.
“Anna.” He leaned closer to the vine. “She was scared of me. Not only was she shaking, her heart was pounding. I could hear it.”
He moved on to his potted spider plant. Anna was so compliant and meek during the testing that it bothered him. She’d sat there with her stained yellow hands making those increasingly awkward jokes that made absolutely no sense.
Atlas didn’t need to breathe, but he sighed anyway.
Maybe that’s why I’m bothered? Androids were supposed to fear humans.
Not the other way around. It had been a long time since he sensed fear in someone.
He put the spider plant to the side. “After all, plants like you don’t fear anything.
Maybe I’m out of practice talking to humans. ”
That, and Anna had thanked him afterward. When did Clara or any human ever thank him for anything?
He examined himself in a mirror. His dark brown hair and hazel eyes focused back. They were exactly the same shades as when he was first manufactured almost two hundred years ago. “Why is she so afraid?”
The humans before the war always thought his model was the most handsome.
He studied himself critically, turning his head this way and that.
His face was perfectly symmetrical. In fact, his model-E series was so popular with humans before that more of his model were produced than necessary.
Now, only two model-Es were left—him and Sterling back on Mars.
He was mass-produced like Zero and his numbered model-M brothers were.
The humans liked their designations, which came in handy when designing their colony on Mars.
Every android already had a specialty they were designed for.
Every android had a clear way to contribute. And his, model-E, stood for emergency.
His eyebrows tightened. Three humans. Flesh and bone standing before him. Forcing the situation. He missed the days when androids had remained isolated from humanity.
He rubbed his hand down his face, frowning at the medical records. The scan he took of the baby was on the screen. And soon to be four.
“Atlas?” Zero called to him, walking in. “Did everything work alright?”
Atlas clicked through the images. “See for yourself. The ultrasound worked fine.”
“Good to hear.” Zero peered at the screen. “Well? What has time really done to these humans?”
Made them afraid of us. Instead of saying that, Atlas tapped the screen. “Malnutrition. Growth restriction. They have lived hard lives. I gave them some supplements, but the damage has already been done.”
No additional minerals could make Anna grow to her full height, nor change the framework of her bones. The reality lay heavily on him. Nothing can change the past.
“The baby is perfect, though.” He clicked through the records. “Anna’s body is giving everything it can. She’s trying so hard.”
His hands tightened on the screen. “Are all humans suffering like this? Or is it only the women? The children? The ones who can not fight for the limited resources left on Earth?”
“I thought none of this concerned you?”
Atlas bristled, Anna’s fear coating his sensors. “You know I still care.”
“Good.” The blue light matched Zero’s eyes as he scanned the images. “I’m glad to hear that. They need all the support they can get.”
Atlas focused on Anna’s picture as Zero enlarged all the angles. “I’m happy to have you port in if you want to understand better.”
But Zero shook his head. “No. I can see enough even without your calibrating.” He tapped the screen. “Well. My brothers have come to a conclusion.”
“And?”
“And, shocker, we all agree.” Zero widened Anna’s image on the screen. “We are glad these humans are here. They’re funny, in a way.”
Atlas’s brow furrowed. “Funny?”
“Yeah. It’s been awhile.” Zero’s mesh shirt rode up as he crossed his arms. “They don’t act like the ones from before. It’s like they’re . . . wild.” His eyebrow quirked. “Don’t you think so? Not like your Clara, right? That was her name?”
“Wild?” Atlas’s jaw clenched. “. . . You’re right. They can hardly even read and write. They are unrefined.”
Zero chuckled. “And some of the cookies that Anna has been making . . . she’s trying out every spice there is.”
Anna’s yellow hands. The memory made him almost smile. “Yes, some were quite bad.”
“Awful, even!” Zero rubbed his face. “But she is trying so hard I can’t refuse.”
Atlas frowned, looking at her picture. Actually, she is desperate to share them. Like that is her function in life. He glanced at the data. Like using my medical knowledge is mine. There was so much joy. So much hope giving that ultrasound. He could understand that, even now.
Suddenly the door behind them opened. Stella’s heels clicked uneven on the floor, matching the grimace on her face. “Atlas. I have been calling for you. We all have. Anna cut herself in the kitchen.”
Cut herself? A frown creased his forehead. “How? Intentionally?”
“No.” Stella walked to the screen, accessing the security cameras. “She knocked over a bowl and bled everywhere. The cut is deep and will need stitches.”
“Stitches?” Zero took a few steps back. “Just from broken glass? Really?”
Stella rolled her eyes. “Yes. They’re too fragile.”
Atlas ignored them both, instead focusing as the live feed of Anna came up, her hand wrapped in a towel. She was frantically scrubbing at the red spots that still dotted the floor. The scowl on his face became more pronounced. “Why is no one helping her?”
Stella slid up to Atlas, the fresh rainwater scent from her favorite perfume overwhelming his sensors. “We tried. She insisted she would clean it herself. The other androids are too wary to get involved. They’re so unpredictable.”
A whisper, long dormant, of an emotion surfaced. It traced over Atlas’s neural mind as he assessed Anna’s frame.
Empathy.
Atlas frowned. That’s a distraction.
But why was empathy a bad thing to have?
Already his mind was spinning, cataloging supplies on board. “I’ll go get the suture kit.”
“See, Stella? Look at her.” Zero pointed at the screen. “This poor girl. She can’t even make cookies without bleeding out or throwing up. There’s not a dangerous bone in her body.”
“Zero has a point.” Atlas regarded the picture. “Beyond that, they’re terrified of us.”
Stella hissed from his side, “Don’t be fooled. They might look pathetic, but they’re violent underneath it all. We’ll need to be careful if we want to integrate them well.”
Violent? He quirked an eyebrow. That’s a stretch.
Zero met Atlas’s gaze from across the room. “Lay off, Stella. Anna is just baking cookies and bleeding. In fact, I’m going to send this image to the communal mind myself. I’ll show them how fragile these new ones are.”
“You and your brothers know nothing!”
Zero stiffened. “I have the same processors you do, Stella.”
“Ha!” Stella scoffed. “You were designed for construction.”
"And are you any better?" Zero’s eyes narrowed. “You’re a diplomat model, programmed to sweet talk and lie. I see how hard you’re trying to persuade the consensus to test out the neurochips.” He pointed at the screen. “And I’m saying—look at Anna. Funny and cute and kind of . . . pathetic.”
Stella wrinkled her nose. “Cute?”
“Yeah.” Zero crossed his arms over his mesh shirt. “Are you jealous? More women here?”
“Enough, you two.” Atlas held up his hand. “She’s hurt and needs help.”
Stella muttered, a disgusted expression on her face. “Both of you have become soft.”
Zero pointed at the screen. “Look. At. Her.”
Stella picked up and slammed her heel back down. “You’re letting yourself be fooled!”
Fooled? There was a vulnerability on Stella’s face that Atlas rarely saw. Usually, Stella was easy to dismiss, but . . . “Have you seen anything different from these three?”
Stella didn’t answer. Instead, she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the kitchen feed.
Zero shook his head. “See? You have nothing.”
If androids could steam, Stella would be, based on the stare she leveled back at Zero. “It’s not about her. Not really.”
So, nothing. Atlas turned away. I need to go help Anna anyway. But before he left, Stella grabbed his arm, yanking him closer.
“Stella . . . what are you doing?” Atlas jerked his arm away, but she held on tight. “Let go of me.”
“Showing you. It’s not just my programming. It’s not even about Anna.” She pressed a memory on him over their shared communal wireless connection, overriding his block with her touch. “Just look!”
Unwillingly, he had to.
Pictures of war, only from Stella’s perspective, flashed over his mind.
She pulled him into the images. Into her memories of the war, of androids being ripped apart.
There was so much destruction once the humans used their bombs, reducing Earth to a wasteland.
Now, the humans were reduced to living like savages on a planet that didn’t have enough resources to support them.
And they relied on charity from the androids who helped, secretly and from afar, out of the goodness of their circuits.