Chapter 3

I should have been scared at the thought of it being attached to some kind of dysfunctional bot that could reactivate and kill me somehow but it didn’t. And I then just noticed how light the limb in my hand actually was. It felt about as heavy as Jesse’s leg when I had to tape up his ankle when he sprained in a month back. Maybe even a bit lighter. My intrigue grew and I started clearing away the trash around that limb. I didn’t really pay attention to what I was doing until I uncovered another limb.

This one had skin.

For a brief moment, I thought that it belonged to the body of a child. A dead child. And I almost tore out of that section of the station. But I stopped. For I saw that fleshy limb did belong to a body, but that of the bot I started to uncover. That left me confused. Why would a bot have skin on only some of its body? Most of them actually didn’t – I saw a maintenance bot once and it was a metal skeleton of tubes and servos working diligently at keeping the station working with only a translucent sheer silicate holding the dust out and its guts in. And I even saw a medical bot assisting the doctor once and it too was a mere assembly of its parts, nothing hidden except its hands inside gloves to keep things sterile.

But this bot – if it’s even a bot – I saw smooth flesh covering nearly two-thirds of its body. Or rather… his body. One of his legs and arms were fully enmeshed with epidermis and about half of his chest. Only a section on his right side exposed the inner workings of the bot, from just to the right side of the neck all the way to the hip area.

I think it was the first bot I’ve ever seen that was anatomically correct. I would think I would know if I ever saw a penis on a bot before and this was definitely a first. My study of his exposed side eventually led my eyes right to it. With only its – his – torso, legs, and arms uncovered, I carefully removed the trash blocking his head.

I was expecting to see a normal bot head, but what greeted me nearly sent me into shock. The face seemed that of a… of a sleeping boy. His eyes were closed, mouth slightly parted in almost a worried frown. The blond hair attached to his head seemed a tousled from my exposing of it. If I never saw the mechanical parts associated with him, I would have sworn completely he was just a sleeping boy. But this… this was some kind of really advanced bot. It had to be.

His eyes shot open.

I leapt back in surprise and even a bit of fear. But as I watched him, my fear lessened. The blue orbs within his head danced about frantically, almost as if he were… scared. Frightened. I mentally scoffed. If this is a bot, it can’t have feelings! It’s just not possible! But I continued to watch as his eyes finally settled on me. And slowly the “fear” I saw… it started to fade.

“Im… Imperative. D-D-Dangerously l-low… energy reserves. Epidural l-l-layer… partially… com-compromised. S-Seek immediate… r-repair. Ur…Urgent. N-Need… assistance.” His voice was unnecessarily heavenly to my ears, even if it was erratic and slurred due to, if his claims were right, unfathomably low power. Hearing his voice just… paralyzed me for some reason. I couldn’t move even if I wanted to. And the longer the two of us stared at one another, the fear started to emerge on his face again. “Urgent! P-Power… supply at… l-less than o-one percent. M-Memory core damaged. R-Request assistance!” Slowly, his eyes started to droop. “Pl-Please…!” His voice, somehow programmed to be just on the cusp of puberty, cracked a few more times as he begged me for help. Part of me felt incredulous. I’ve never heard a bot beg before today. But slowly, my mind pushed all my doubts to the side. Whatever he or it was, he needed help. And I couldn’t just leave him there to… shut down forever, could I?

Finally I got closer to him. As I did, his eyes, just before they shut for good, started to flutter open again. “Okay, just… hang on, please. I’ll get you out of here… somehow. I-I…” Very slowly, he turned his head towards me as I tried to figure out what to do.

“R-Remain… near. E-Exothermic… generation h-helpful in… power res-restoration.”

“You mean my body heat can recharge you?” I asked a little dumbfounded. With a bit more strength, his head nodded erratically.

“Correct. Inefficient to… sustain no-normal operation.”

I think I understood. “It helps in emergencies, I gather?”

“A-Affirmative.”

“If I stick near to you, can you walk? Are your legs damaged?”

“In…Insufficient power to… perform limb d-diagnostic. Assistance is needed.”

I wasn’t sure how I could. And even during all this, I wanted to really freak out. Partly because I felt just a little out of my element. But also partly because… this could help alleviate a lot of boredom over the next few weeks at least. Given Dad’s hobby of robotics, I helped him on the rare day to fix a couple of bots the station sent his way. Nothing too critical, but I figured the knowledge I gathered then plus any possible records Dad kept might help this bot get back to normal.

“Here, let’s see if the joints still work.” Instead of leaning down to use my hands – I wanted to keep my torso near the bot to help recharge him – I used both of my legs, wrapping them around first the fleshy limb and then the exposed one. I pulled my legs to me, bringing each limb along for the ride, showing me that both the hip and knee joints seemed fine. And I swore as I moved the exposed leg I heard a bit of an almost imperceptible whir as parts moved around. I also used my feet to force his ankle joints to roll a bit and they seemed fine as well. “Can you… um, feel your legs?”

The boy’s facial expression seemed a bit more relaxed now than ever. It still seemed weird that a bot could express itself with near perfect human mannerisms and expressions. “Power… to ambulatory servos nearly… sufficient to attempt.”

“Okay,” I said nervously. “Let’s see if I can get you to your feet then.” I slid my right arm under his naked back. I nearly jolted when my arm ran out of skin and felt the metal against my bare arm. “Um… your… ‘insides’ won’t hurt me by accident, will they?”

“Un… Unknown. Proceed w-with caution.”

“Right,” I muttered. I tried my best to keep my skin away from what appeared to be artificial lungs and a fake liver. I could see the right lung inflate and deflate just as well as I could hear his heart beating away. It seemed very surreal. It took some doing but I got the bot to his feet, me supporting most of his weight along my left side. I feared that he’d start to crush me if he was too heavy. But again I was surprised that his body weight against me wasn’t all that bad – it almost felt like a taller version of Jesse leaning against me. “See if you can take a step.”

“Testing,” the bot said. Slowly, his right leg jerked forward almost in a kick but stopped at about a forty degree angle from his other leg. “Fine motor control… unstable. Retesting.” I almost laughed a bit but held it in. He brought his leg down, but managed to stop it in position like he was about to take a step. Together, we shifted his weight onto that leg. And then he, with much more success, brought his left leg back in line. A smile crossed his lips and a small jolt ran through my body when I saw it. “Ambulation is un-unsteady but sufficient. Proceed with c-care.”

Slowly, I started walking with him towards Kevin’s office, ignoring the slight throbbing I felt in my own ankle. It took far longer than I’d have liked to get about halfway there. But luckily, Kevin ran into me.

“Travis! There you are! I thought something happened to you when I asked Jules if you talked to him yet. He told me that–”

“Yes, I get it you all – save probably Zane – were worried about me,” I interrupted. “I want to call in one of my favors to you.”

Kevin raised his eyebrow. “You want that bot don’t you?” I couldn’t help notice that Kevin’s eyes roved the bot’s body and settled a bit longer than necessary on his exposed groin.

“I do. I found him in a pile of trash over near the bulkheads blocking off Section Ten from Eleven. I don’t know how or why he was there, but apparently I reactivated him somehow.”

Kevin grimaced a bit. “Fine, take him. Probably will do us a favor anyway. Just… be careful, alright?” Kevin sighed. “I’ll have Jules escort Jesse up to your quarters so you don’t have to come back and get him.”

“Thanks Kev. I really mean that.”

“I talked with him about Jesse and Jules said you and your brother would be the only kids he’d want living with him, so you’re all set in that regard. Just send him an update once a week and if we don’t hear from you or if we get an emergency response from Jesse, Julian himself will bring him down here. Now get going before Zane comes across you with that. I think he tried at one point to get it working but gave up on it.”

“Oh good. Something else he can yell at me for.”

It took me nearly an hour to get back to our quarters. I had to hide my new bot quite a few times and came close to getting caught more than once. I wasn’t sure if I’d get in trouble since he was still naked. In any case I managed to get him safely inside our place. I got him sitting in one of the chairs just so I could finally take a break as I slumped down in the other chair. I glanced over and saw Jesse napping on the bed, facing towards the wall.

“How’s your power level doing?” I asked the bot.

“Currently, emergency batteries are at two percent of maximum.”

“That’s it?” I asked, a bit astonished that’s all he got from my body heat. I figured he’d be at around fifty percent or something.

“Exothermic charging is only activated in dire emergencies. Further, it is not the most efficient way to restore power to my emergency cells.”

“A lot gets lost in the conversion or something, huh?”

“Correct.” The bot glanced around the small space. “This dwelling does not seem adequate space for you and your sibling.”

“It’s not, really but it works for us for the time being.” I swallowed. “Is there any way… to repair your skin damage?”

“Once power is fully restored to emergency batteries, normal operations will start to resume. Reparations of the epidural layers will commence then.” His kind-looking eyes settled into mine but slowly they morphed back to that same scared look I first saw in them an hour and a half ago. “Warning! Power reserves down to one percent.” It almost came out as a scared whine.

“How can we recharge you faster?” I asked. “This may be a stupid question as I’m not too familiar with bots that are as advanced as you seem to be, but can you break down food for energy?”

His eyes lit up at the suggestion. “Consuming foods before emergency power fails will be sufficient. Further, a power receptacle would aid in that endeavor.” As he said that, what looked like a power conduit snaked out from his exposed arm and dangled on the ground.

“How about this? I’ll plug you in and give you something to eat. How does that sound?”

A look almost like pure relief washed over the bot. It almost looked like he wanted to… cry. Again I dismissed the thought. I mentally laughed at the image of me consoling a big, bad bot as it wept on my shoulder. It just seemed so ridiculous to me. “Con…Consumption of nutrients vital to restoring nutritional and mineral stores! Would rapidly expedite repairs and diagnostic functions!” I took the cord from the bot and, finding an outlet for it, attempted to plug him in but the cord was a couple of feet short.

“Can you make the conduit a bit longer by chance?” I asked the bot. With no response, the electrical wiring slackened and I managed to plug him in. Immediately, I saw the energy flood the cord and pour into his body. I could even see some of his circuit pathways glow an eerie blue as the energy coursed into him. What I guessed to be a sigh escaped his lips.

“Power level rising safely. Stores are at three percent and rising.”

“Let’s see if I can get you some food. What… um, nutrients does your system need to function? Meats? Veggies?”

“A normal, human diet is adequate.” A small smile fell onto his face when I looked at him again. I also then just remembered that he was, for all intents, sitting there naked. His exposed organ reminding me that this had to be some kind of prototype or something. I went over to our closet and rummaged through my couple set of extra clothes.

“Would wearing clothing impede any skin repair on you?” I asked as I pulled out the clothes.

He looked a bit worried. “Unknown. Damage is unprecedented. No correlation to previous events available.”

“Okay then. For now, can we just… cover you up until you’re ready to fix your skin? We can move it off your body before you start. How does that sound?”

Again, relief covered his face. “Acceptable. Human need for modesty is known.” I tossed my shirt over his crotch. I caught his face for a moment and swore I saw him smirk a little but it faded into a blank mask. “Power levels in emergency batteries now up to twenty-five percent.”

I set about making him some stew and tore off a hunk of bread, but then sighed and decided he’d probably need the whole thing. I realized I’d have to go back out and look for food sooner than I wanted if I had an extra mouth to feed. Unless he could eventually get away with just station power on occasion. I’d have to ask later maybe when he was back at one hundred percent. I set the bowl and bread in front of him and he dove straight in. He ignored the spoon and just tipped the whole bowl to his lips and poured it all down in one gulp. The same thing with the bread, acting like a voracious beast I read about from Earth. A lion.

I barked out a laugh when he actually burped! I wasn’t expecting that at all and it caught me off guard. He looked at me a little oddly. “Are you well?”

“I-I’m fine. I just didn’t think bots could burp, but then again you’re the first bot I’ve ever seen to eat actual food.” He then looked a bit taken aback if that’s possible but didn’t say anything. I didn’t either for a few minutes, the silence between us growing. I cleared my throat and changed the subject. “So… do you happen to have a name? I-I don’t want to have to keep referring to you as ‘the bot’ or whatever.”

His face scrunched up, deep in thought. “Memory core damage more extensive than previously detected from emergency diagnostics. Only thirty percent of memory core is accessible for archival searches. Vital files and algorithms largely unaffected in instinctual memory buffers.” A frown settled into his face afterwards. “Repairs to memory core expected to take extended durations.”

“Well… in the meantime, would it be okay if either I or–” Just then, I heard a loud gasp come from behind me. I totally forgot Jesse was here! I turned to him and saw his body rigid, his eyes wide and afraid. “Jesse! Bro… it’s alright. I found this bot earlier – it’s why I failed to meet up with you and Julian. H-He needed my help.” Very slowly, I saw my brother relax. I moved to the bed and Jesse hid behind my body, peeking over my shoulders back at the bot.

“Trav… it just… startled me at first. I-I wasn’t expecting a bot to be sitting at our table.” Slowly, my brother slid around me and made his way to the bot. “It looks hurt, bro. Are you going to fix it?”

“Actually Jess, don’t say ‘it’. He’s a boy, apparently.”

“Oh.” Jesse didn’t get it. “Oh!” A light blush crossed his cheeks. But then he slowly started to reach for the shirt covering his privates.

“Jesse!” I admonished.

“What?” he asked, looking back at me. “It’s not like he probably cares if I look. I’m just curious.” He turned to the bot. “Do you mind if I look?”

The bot stared at my brother but then glanced back at me. I shook my head no, hoping the bot knew what I meant. “Another time, perhaps.” The bot managed to shoot my brother down very politely which seemed a nice gesture on his part. I silently breathed out in relief at his understanding of my head shake.

“As I was saying before Jesse here woke up, what about we give you a name for the time being? Or if you’d rather, you probably could name yourself, right?”

The bot shook his head. “Naming protocols damaged. Insufficient data to develop designation. Proceed.” Both Jesse and I slipped into deep thought. It didn’t seem like it should be hard to name a bot that looked really like a boy – well, if he didn’t have exposed servos and circuits. But it was. It took us several attempts to even start and most of the time, either I or Jesse didn’t like the names we suggested. Eventually we started to grate on each other’s nerves.

“What’s wrong with naming him Drew?!” Jesse shouted.

“That’s Dad’s name, dummy! We can’t use his name!” I shouted back, ignoring the stress showing on the bot’s face as we shouted at one another.

“Why not?! I think it’s a good name for him!”

“We just… we just can’t use Dad’s name!” I huffed. “It’s not right!”

“Fine, whatever!” Jesse pouted and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Distress!” the bot whined. I finally looked over at him and saw a really pained look on his face, like he hated shouting. “Loud vocalizations not conducive to vocal health!” His hands fidgeted in his shirt-covered lap. My tension eased some.

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s been a while since Jess and I fought last. I think we need to once in a while otherwise we wouldn’t be brothers. I’m sorry if we got you all riled up over a small thing.”

“What he said,” Jesse said quietly. He started saying something else but I tuned him out. The idea hit me out of nowhere and I started to smile. I just hoped that Jesse agreed with me.

“I got it!” I semi-shouted. “How about… Riley?”

Jesse didn’t react right away. But he didn’t also just spit on it either. “Hey… that’s not bad, really. I like it.” He turned to the bot. “What do you think?”

“Designation is sufficient.” He smiled widely. “Crisis averted.” So maybe he didn’t really care about the name either way but just wanted us to stop fighting. I kind of did as well so I also smiled for the same reason.

“Okay then, for now we’ll be calling you Riley. It just sounds so much better than just calling you by what you are.”

“Yeah… Riley,” Jesse said, trying it out for the first time on him. Again, Riley’s smile widened a bit more. “That’s so much better.”

I saw Riley’s eyes flash. “Emergency batteries fully charged. Possible to commence repairs on epidural layers.” Without warning, Riley pulled the shirt away before I could get a word in. “Repairs urgently needed – further damage possible otherwise.” He must have somehow known I’d object to him… blatantly flaunting himself in front of my brother, hence his warning. I decided not to press the issue – Jesse’s seen me change before so it’s no big deal, right?

“Oh wow. Travis, you were right! It is a boy robot.” Jesse giggled as he stared at Riley’s now exposed genitals. “Do you have to go to the bathroom since you have that?”

A slight grimace, possibly even a slightly embarrassed look crossed his face. Riley just shook his head. “P… Penile organ only for aesthetics and sexual relations.” Jesse’s eyes were wide when he turned back and looked at me.

“You mean… you can have sex?!” my brother asked incredulously. The idea even floored me. I’ve heard of some bots that were programmed for just such an activity but, again, there wasn’t a face attached to the various sex organs that had been created. It also was frowned upon to have one from what I heard in my trips to the marketplace.

“Correct. No known record of previous sexual encounters. Untested… fully in that regard.” I actually saw some more color form on Riley’s cheeks. It still didn’t make sense to me at the emotions Riley obviously displayed. Does he really feel them or was it just a programmed response given the situation? I’d have to ask him in more detail later about that. Maybe when Jesse was either asleep or something. In any event, I bristled at my brother’s rude behavior and interrupted him.

“Jesse! Stop it! How would you like it if Riley here started asking you questions about the last time you jacked off or got it on with someone?” As soon as I said that, my brother’s face turned a deep crimson. I knew I got him on that ploy. Even if I did cringe at the thought of my baby brother getting it on with either a girl or a boy.

“Sorry, Trav.”

“Don’t apologize to me – we’re fine. You should apologize to Riley here.”

“S-Sorry… Riley.” My brother stood up and went back to the bed.

I turned to face Riley as Jesse settled into the bed. “You have to forgive my brother, he’s a bit… curious about some things. Sometimes that overrides his ability to be tactful.” Riley just shrugged a bit awkwardly.

“Commencing repairs on epidural layers.” At first I didn’t see any change in the hole in his torso or on the exposed arm or leg. But slowly, I saw the wound start to shrink. “Time to completion: approximately twelve hours. Also attempting memory core repairs. Time to completion: unknown. Initiating standby mode during reparations.” Riley stood and stepped closer to the area where he was plugged in. He stood rigid and his eyes slowly closed.

Jesse looked between me and Riley. He looked a bit annoyed that I talked about him like he wasn’t in the room to the bot but it faded away to pensiveness. “Trav?”

“Yeah, Jess?” I turned away and sat down at the table, activating the computer core embedded within. The black polished surface hummed to life with various windows and data streams. I wanted to see if I could help Riley in some way.

“What… what are you gonna do with Riley?” I glanced at my brother and something seemed… wrong. He looked worried, almost scared as his eyes flitted between me and Riley.

“Jess? You okay?” I asked, ignoring the data I just called up on advanced robotics. “What’s wrong?”

My brother turned away. A small sniffle escaped him. “Y-You’re not… you’re not trying to… you know…” He shrugged as he tried to get his point across. He sighed dejectedly. “You’re not trying to get… rid of me… are you?”

He slowly turned back to me and saw something in his eyes that I never saw before. True fear. But this level of fear wasn’t even coming from not knowing where our next house would be but something far more emotional. “Jesse. I’d never abandon you. Never. No matter how much we fight, no matter how much we piss each other off… I’ll never get rid of you. Even if it’s tight, we’re all in this together. You, me… and now Riley.” I moved back to the bed and hugged Jesse to me. His arms snaked around my torso and applied a death grip, a wave of anguish coursing through his body so strong that I wasn’t sure how to handle this.

“Pr-Promise?” he asked quietly. His voice was so meek-sounding, like a kicked puppy coming back to its master despite the pain it felt. Where was this coming from? Was Jesse afraid that since I had a new “toy” that he was replaceable? As much as we hate each other at times… I know that we really love each other. Our personalities and closeness in age helps to add fuel to the fire. Inheriting most of the same attributes from our parents doesn’t help matters either. Such as both of us needing to be right in an argument, prideful stubbornness to concede a point when either of us knows to be in the wrong… even schooling there was contention and competition. Jesse as much as I would hate to admit was smarter than me overall – some of the classes he was in before we “disappeared” were at my level. Even one or two a level beyond me. Course I’m no slouch in educational endeavors either. I think being a younger sibling lent itself to me probably teaching him things faster than I picked them up, helping Jesse to get a leg up on things.

“Jesse, you’re my brother. We are family. Sure we’ll disagree, occasionally even get into physical fights, but that doesn’t matter. I have to take care of you since Mom and Dad aren’t here. And that’s not out of some obligation I feel I owe either of them.” I gulped a bit. A bit of nervous tension flitted through me but I stamped it down. “I love you, Jess. That’s why we’re still together. I don’t do it for them… I do it for you.”

I think I really shocked Jesse with my declaration of brotherly affection. It wasn’t often we said it before – even during our most civil of times when Mom and Dad were still around. And it probably had been a few years since last I told him. Perhaps he forgot or somehow assumed that I only looked out for him due to a sense of parental order – Mom and Dad expected it of me so it was tenuous at best in his mind. His silent tears slowly stopped and a look of wonderment crossed his features. “R-Really? Travis… you really love me?”

I smiled at him. I even lightly tapped his shoulder with my fist. “Of course I do, squirt. And no matter what you do, that’ll never change.”

“Travis, it’s so good to hear you say that!” he cried as he nearly tackled me off the bed. “I-I don’t know why… but all this time I just felt… I-I was in your way somehow. That you just looked after me because you had to.” His eyes found mine. A touch of apprehension filled his voice. “I-I love you too, bro.”