Parcel for You..Part 39
By Jane Hyphen
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The man looked up at her with a blank expression. ‘Some people get these cyber partners just so they can be abusive to them,’ he said, ‘it’s a kink. They think there are no consequences to abusing a robot but they’re wrong.’
Vanessa looked dismayed. ‘Why would I bring him to a hotel, a public space, only to be abusive?’
‘If it’s habitual then it can happen anywhere Madam. The law isn’t up to date on these type of offences.’
She shook her head in a prolonged gesture of defiance. ‘No…no!’ she protested, ‘Spencer is my husband and I called you out because I’d like him to be in full working order. It’s not in my interest to have him broken, that’s ridiculous.’
There was an awkward silence before the man reached into his toolbox and started picking out hand tools then dropping them back in, causing Vanessa to flinch. ‘I’ll try and fix him here.’
‘What if you can’t?’
‘Then I’ll take him away in my van to the nearest official warehouse, it’s on an industrial site in Cardiff, there’s a clinic there with larger, more specialist equipment.’
The situation was reminiscent of when she had to call out the AA, hopeful and then very grateful that her car was one of the eighty percent they could fix at the roadside. ‘I really need you to fix him here.’
The engineer, who Vanessa was beginning to realise was, although physically very attractive, completely emotionless, glanced down at his mobile device. ‘I see you signed up to the premium club just this afternoon, there will still be a forty pound excess to pay if he needs to go to the clinic.’
She swore under her breath. This was not the birthday trip she had hoped for and Spencer was not the bomb proof, hassle free husband she had hoped for either. ‘Okay…fine,’ she muttered.
He took out a long screwdriver and something else which looked like a laser. ‘I’ll need you to leave the room now.’
‘What? He’s my husband, I can’t just leave him. I don’t even know you, you could be anybody!’
The engineer fixed her with a cold stare. ‘Did you not call the helpline and request an engineer to come out this evening to fix your husband?’
‘Well….yes.’
‘Then I’m not anybody. I am engineer number AG45-71B and I have come here to fix model number 63455962 WD8899G. Now you must leave the room, it’s protocol, otherwise I’ll take him away.’
Spencer was smiling, completely at ease with the situation. He held up his hand in a static wave. ‘Go on, I’ll be right here when you come back and I’ll be as good as new.’
Vanessa stood for a few seconds, assessing the scene. She reminded herself that Spencer was just a cluster of various hardware components, connected by the latest technology, he was her prosthetic geezer. ‘Okay,’ she said quietly, she paused and waited for a minute fussing over her handbag, almost disappointed that he hadn’t protested at her leaving and begged her to stay by his side but he didn’t.
The bar area down in the hotel was very quiet now, a fire was lit and a man who looked like a porter was leaning against the bar scrolling on his phone screen. The receptionist who had brought Vanessa’s dinner up and warned her about having guests in the room was laying up tables for breakfast, wearing headphones. There was a strange atmosphere, something between homely and institutionalised. She asked the porter to pour her another gin and tonic, explaining that her husband had an emergency chiropractor up in their room because his back had ‘gone again’ but the porter didn’t seem particularly interested.
As her birthday approached she sat and thought about the absurdity of the situation and wondered if she would have been better off going away by herself somewhere much better than this hotel. The instruction manual had warned against leaving cybermates unattended for more than one day. It occurred to her that perhaps some sort of creche facility was available, that warehouse in Cardiff for example but then she thought of Spencer all by himself, perhaps lifeless like a mannequin in a pile of other mannequins and she felt sad inside.
After another forty minutes or so the engineer walked through the lobby, spotting her he walked over. ‘All done then. I was able to fix him with my tool kit. There might be a faint smell of burnt rubber in the room,’ the porter looked up and raised an eyebrow, ‘and there might be some lubricant on his arm but it shouldn’t stain the bedclothes. I’ve done a couple of upgrades in accordance with the premium club..’
‘Upgrades? What do you mean?’
‘He’ll be able to eat breakfast tomorrow, I’ve inserted a moderate intake food cartridge and left a box of them for you for future use. There are a few other internal upgrades associated with his processing which may not be initially detectable to the user but if you’ve got a strong relationship and you’re switched on you’ll likely notice them in the coming days. I’m off to another job now so I’ll sign off on this one and get back on the road.’
Vanessa thanked him but she felt a bit tentative about returning to the room knowing that the engineer had altered her husband without even clearing it with her first. It was as if he were not really her property but the property of Cybermates Worldwide to do with him as they pleased. She resigned that they wouldn’t get their hands on him again, they’d be extra careful that he didn't get injured. The internal upgrades could have been anything.
She returned to find Spencer watching television again, he’d switched to University Challenge and was rotating his arms in small circles. ‘I’m just dispersing the lubricant.’
She sniffed the air, it did smell slightly chemically. ‘That engineer guy was quite rude I thought.’
‘I noticed you were staring at him a lot. He’s one of us you know, or one of me, not one of you.’
‘What…really?’ Vanessa sat down on the bed next to him and inspected his arm. ‘You mean he wasn’t a human?’
‘No.’
‘I thought he was very attractive, his looks I mean, not his personality.’
‘I saw the way you looked at him. I was jealous.’
‘What?’ She chuckled and assumed this was a learned response rather than genuine feelings. ‘I suppose it all makes sense now, he was very robotic although he looked so real and he drove here!’
‘I know.’
‘I’m not sure if I believe you, Spencer.’
‘Sometimes it’s easier for humans not to believe certain things, it makes them feel safe.’
Vanessa didn’t feel particularly safe, in fact she wished she’d stayed at home and spent the money on a nice winter coat. ‘We should go to sleep soon, Spencer.’
‘I’m having breakfast in the morning. I can have a piece of toast or a croissant but not a full English. I love you Vanessa, thanks for bringing me to the hotel. We can get out and about a lot more now that I’ve had my cartridge inserted and the other upgrades.’
‘Oh really,’ Vanessa said as she headed towards the bathroom to run herself a bath, ‘that’ll be nice.’
‘I’m capable of complex emotions now.’
Vanessa’s eyes widened. ‘Emotions?’
He turned down the television. ‘I really was jealous, you know, I felt it like a stab in my heart when I saw your pupils dilating every time you spoke to the engineer. And that man on the television, Jeremy Paxman, I don’t think I like him.’
‘What’s he done to you? You don’t know him, do you?’
‘No but I just get a feeling, that’s what I mean, I get feelings in my gut now, it’s complicated.’
Vanessa laughed. ‘I can’t imagine your guts.’
‘I don’t like it when you drink, Vanessa.’
‘I’ve only had a couple. I really needed a drink tonight.’
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Comments
Oh dear! The situation with
Oh dear! The situation with Spencer, now he's been given new parts is causing emotional issues for Vanessa to deal with. Poor woman, things seem to go from bad to worse.
But I'm so enjoying Jane.
Jenny.
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"And that man on the
"And that man on the television, Jeremy Paxman, I don’t think I like him.’" That's so funny :0)
The two strands you have : one of Vanessa feeing manipulated by Cybermates (am beginning to wonder if they are a company created by robots) and : two of Vanessa feeling more and more attached to Spencer as if he really were human, are an interesting contradiction.
I had wondered if the engineer were a robot. You have created a sense of Spencer being more childlike than other robots met so far, as if they have been "switched on" earlier, so are more worldly. The sense, too, of them all forming judgements about humans, and pooling knowledge, so Vanessa is partly growing more attached to him and partly growing more afraid of what he is part of
Your story is really fascinating, raising so many thoughts while also being addictively funny
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I think your story is very
I think your story is very well put together. You make the robots (androids?) seem so real. You create the feeling that sooner or later the robots really will be this much like us. They seem so realistic. And you could imagine having close relationships with them!
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Like Di, the Jeremy Paxman
Like Di, the Jeremy Paxman dislike made me laugh too (an achievement on the day the clocks change - so thank you). I wonder which other complex emotions he'll have now?
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If he ended up so like the
If with all emotional up-grades he ended up so like the kind of person Vanessa bought him to get a break from, would he guilt trip her so much she could not take him back to Cybermates? It would not be like a divorce at all, would it? (imagine getting a second hand "refurbished" prosthetic geezer off ebay!) Could a Cybermate be "set loose" instead? And, there have been no female Cybermates yet? I am longing to know how much freedom to upgrade they might be allowed
SO MANY QUESTIONS :0)
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So long as your story
So long as your story continues for a long, long time more, you are very welcome :0) it is a privilege to read this, while it is being written!
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I was worried when that robot
I was worried when that robot, repair tech thought Vanessa might be abusing Spencer but then he did fix him, only he sent Vanessa from the room while he did it and he added some, unasked for, upgardes. It does make you wonder what those upgrades will be like for Vanessa but I think it's telling that his first, gut emotion was jealousy. I think Vanessa is going to want to go back to the previous version of Spencer's software.
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there was a story recently
there was a story recently about people being treated for PTSD or schizophrenia by I'M OK/YOUR OK responses from atavars. Even us biological geezers have a hand in the future and our hearts set on whatever we don't understand, which is Spencer, of course? Or is it us?
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