Year: 2135
I walk into work wearing my usual bronze colored jumpsuit and gold colored boots, brown hair tied into a ponytail. This has become routine for me now.
"State your name." The computer barks as usual.
"Mod 5 Number 0024" I state in a monotone voice. They still haven't put the name I go by into the system, which by the way is Selene. Yeah, sounds like a pretty human name for a robot like me, but that was intended. The computer processes my reply and opens the gate for me to enter into the rhythmic clanging that fills my workplace. There are people all around, some hammering steel, some drawing up blueprints dangerously close to said hot steel. The interesting thing is here the workers are a mix of human and robot, even new models like myself have almost free range here. I walk over to my table where I take repair jobs and come up with ideas. That's right, I'm an inventor, but since you can't really make that a full time job, I do repairs and routine maintenance checks. Looking down, I see my blueprint for a steam powered jet-pack. I shift my gaze to the computer on my desk and see that I have no job requests currently, giving me time to start on that jet-pack. "Hey Jack! I need twelve pans!" I shout over to a man working at the opposite corner of the shop. "Sure thing Sel!" He shouts back, pulling a handle on a huge furnace. Some people say the way we do things here is old fashioned, but I think we out more care into the things we make, which is why we're the most trusted steel workers within a 2,000 mile radius. After about ten or so minutes Jack walks over pushing a cart with twelve pans of molten steel. "So, you're good to mold it yourself?" He asks, a look of concern flashing across his facial features. Jack is human, one of the nicest ones I've met too. He's the one who showed me around when I got put to work here. "Yeah, I'll be fine. Little bit of hot steel never killed anybody." I say with a smile. "Actually, yeah it did. Be careful Sel." He says, chuckling as he walks off. I roll my eyes, something I learned not long ago. Its weird being like me, I don't know much about the world, but I look like twenty something. I take out the mold I made yesterday for a jet-pack prototype and straighten my goggles(which were already on my face). I begin carefully pouring the steel into the mold and then leave the mold to cool. I'm thinking about all the work this prototype alone is going to take when my computer makes a "ding" sound, signaling I have a repair to do. I look at the details and see that a repair has been requested from outside of the building, which is rare. From the looks of it, it seems to be in a building downtown. I put my mold in a cooling container and set back out for the main city. The building I work in is in the "industrial district" of the city, or more commonly known as smog alley. You almost can't walk outside without a mask and unfortunately for me, I was designed with a respiratory system. I've almost grown used to the atmosphere in Smog Alley, but not quite, so I don my face mask and head outside. Climbing into the company car I was so graciously provided with I look around. Though dirty, this part of the city has always(for the month or so I've been activated) appealed to me. I guess I'm not the most "shiny" robot myself though, with my brown hair and clothes colored like various metals, I must've been created to be a bit of a tomboy. I begin driving, making my way out of the grunge and into the pristine city, leaving dirty wheel tracks as I go. The city in general amazes me, all of the giant buildings, the flashing lights, humans are brilliant creatures really, but sometimes, they confuse me. Some of them don't like robots like me, they think we're going to hurt them. I think they're silly, anything that's an older model than me was programmed against violence and new models like myself are too awestruck by all the creation and also too impressionable to hurt a human...or something like that. That's just sort of how Jack explained it. I soon find that my thoughts have distracted me and that I'm downtown already. "Let's see....." I look down at the slip of paper onto which I copied the location where my services are required. "Chasten Building, that would be on...sixth street I believe." I mutter to myself, navigating the city streets at a steady pace as to not annoy the car behind me. I drive onto sixth street and pull into a parking garage because of limited parking on the streets themselves. After grabbing my toolbox and locking my car, I walk on out into the city. It doesn't take me long to find the Chasten Building, considering it's one of the tallest in the city. I walk inside and take another look at my paper. "Okay, seventeenth floor, room 305"
I ride the elevator up to floor seventeen, find my room, and knock on the door. A pretty lady with a rather stressed expression on her face opens the door. She looks me over and whispers back to someone in the room,
"You never told me the repair person was one of those robots"
"Well I feel all warm and fuzzy inside."I think to myself
"Oh Sarah, don't be prejudiced!" A man says as he walks up to me, lightly pushing Sarah out of the way. "Come on in, and don't mind her, she's just a bit...closed minded." He says, gesturing for me to come inside. I walk inside to an office setting, a rather large office setting. The man who let me in turns and motions for me to follow him, taking me past where Sarah is now sitting at a desk.
"She's my secretary." He says, snapping his head over to her as if to remind her who's in charge. She dips her head, then raises it and glares at me once she knows her boss won't see her. I walk past, ignoring the lady at the desk and follow the man into yet another office, this one furnished with a couch, two chairs, a desk, and a table. He sits behind the desk and I sit in the chair directly across from him.
"Alright, so I hear you're rather good at repairs?"
"Yes sir." I look around a bit, nothing looks broken, I wonder what he needs my help with.
"Good, so, my computer has been smoking like a freight train lately, can you please fix it?" He asks, gesturing to his computer which granted, is letting out puffs of smoke.
"Oh, no problem sir! By the looks of it, this should be a rather easy fix!" I smile as I say this, thanking my lucky stars that I got an easy job today. I walk over to the other side of the desk to look at the computer. Punching a few simple commands into the keyboard, I laugh softly at what I discover. "There's no problem with your computer! You just have waaay too many applications running, It's overheating." I state.
"Oh, heh, alright, I have never been much for computers anyway." The man says, a soft pink tone rising on his face.
"Everything will be fine if you just close out some of these pro---" I begin, but am cut off as the man accidentally clicks a writing program when moving his hand, resulting in a sharp CRACK and the computer shutting off. "And it just exploded." I sigh.
"Oh....well, I think I'll just buy a new one, this one couldn't handle another update anyway." The man sighs, shaking his head. "Anyway, since I pretty much wasted your time, why don't you sit down, I'll get you some...uh.." He offers, confused I guess as to if I can eat or not.
"I like tea sir." I laugh.
"Oh alright, sorry, I just have made the mistake of not keeping up with technology." He says with a smile, walking over to a coffee machine which he gets hot water from and begins fixing tea. I take this time to look him over. He's taller than me with brown hair that falls in his face often and reaches a bit below halfway down his neck. His eyes are a bright blue and he wears an almost wrinkle free grey suit and gleaming black dress shoes. Everything about him seems neat, even his hair, which admittedly on anyone else would look unkept. He walks back over to me, holding two cups of tea and gestures to the couch. I sit down and he sits beside me, putting the tea down on a coffee table in front of us where a tray also sits. "So, sugar or anything?" He asks. "Yes sir!" I say, happy he actually has sugar. I dump at least half of the container into my cup as he watches in awe. "Won't that...um...mess with your systems or something?" He asks awkwardly. "No, I was built to handle the substances in foods and drinks just as you can." I answer, trying to use the most polite tone possible as to make him feel more comfortable. "Oh, of course." He says simply. Everything is silent for a bit as I take a couple sips of my tea. I decide to break the silence with a question. "So what's your name?" I ask. "Right! I should've probably told you that. My name is Donovan Cress, I'm a *ahem* admittedly successful lawyer." He states. I raise my eyebrows, showing that I'm interested. "You see though, I've always wanted to be an actor." he starts, dramatically placing a hand on his chest and tilting his head back, "but, money and success called my name a bit louder than the lights did." I smile at his little display.
"Well, you can see what I am, name's Selene by the way." I say, holding out a hand to shake. He takes my hand with a bright smile on his face. I bring my hand back down and take another drink of my tea.
"Selene? That's a pretty name." He states, making me blush slightly, a feature that is new to models like me.
"Why thank you! It's not often I'm told something like that." I reply.
He gives a slight bow in his chair, "Glad to make your day."
I stay there for about an hour talking to Donovan, explaining my design and recent advancements in robotics, my job, and so on. I then realize that I need to get more work done on my jetpack. "I need to go, nice meeting you!" I say as I walk out the door. "Oh, the pleasure is mine, believe me Selene, we'll talk again." He says cheerfully, shutting the door behind me. I smile at how kind he was as I walk outside and back into my car. "It's nice that there are still kind people."
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I take out the cooled steel from the mold, seeing the shell of what's soon to be a jetpack. Opening a compartment in my work desk, I rifle through my collection of parts, seeing what I can use for my pack. I use the hinges I added last minute to the design to open up the shell, looking to see where I can cut grooves for wiring and parts. I get an idea of what I'm going to use and begin cutting grooves in with a low power laser cutter. Not after long, I have something like a puzzle, I just have to fit in the pieces. Just as I'm about to start, the whistle blows, signaling the end of the work day.
"Have I really spent that much time on this?" I remark silently, putting my jet pack into a storage compartment with my name on it. I once again, go to my car. My apartment is in the city, as are the places where most models like myself live, though we don't all live close to each other. For example, in my entire building there are two robots, myself and one named Cai, and he lives five floors below me! The drive home is filled with myself rapidly switching stations on the radio, since I haven't figured out what type of music I like yet. It seems to fly by because before I can find anything remotely good, I'm home. I leave my tool belt in the car like I usually do and walk inside. As I push the button for my floor on the elevator, my neighbor rushes in shouting "HOLD THE DOOR!"
"Don't worry, it's not closing yet." I laugh as she leans on the wall next to me, out of breath. She comes about to my forehead in height. She has short hair which she seems to dye a different color every week. Her name is Avery and she's basically insane.
"Christ you got home early!" She remarks, still panting as the elevator begins moving upwards. I laugh softly, Avery, luckily, is one of the people who decided to treat me kindly. She basically moved me into my apartment. "Yeah, I think work let out today a bit early." I reply simply.
"Oh, that would make since, I gotta work tonight, so I'm free till five." She states. Avery is a DJ at a popular nightclub downtown. She plays multiple tracks that she herself has composed and/or sang and nobody notices. She's just so good that it sounds professional. The elevator makes a ding as we reach our floor, which by the way is number fifteen. We walk together to our two rooms and I tell her about the day I've had. "Woah! You met Donovan Cress?!" She nearly shouts.
"Yeah, why?" I say, confused as to why its such a big deal
"He's one of the richest and most powerful figures in the entire city! Heck, maybe even in the nation!" Avery explains.
"Really? He seems pretty cool to me?" I ask.
"Exactly! That's why he got to where he is, he's a natural people person!" She says, and I can almost see her eyes light up.
"Well, anyway, I'm a bit tired, talk to you tomorrow Avery." I say, turning and walking into my room. Did I really meet such a powerful figure? It seems odd that I did, but I suppose I wouldn't exactly know who's who yet, only being activated for a month and such. I flop down onto the couch and close my eyes, thankful I have the ability to sleep.
"Oh, I'll only rest here for a couple minutes." I yawn as I drift off into a dreamless sleep.