Baby and Owner by Randy Cockrell

This is a playful piece I began two years ago and never completed. I’ve expanded on my initial bare bones dialog. I hope you enjoy it.

The household alpha robot waited until the new robot’s eyes opened. “Welcome to the household. I am called Major”

The new robot looked around. It was in an alcove in a room with several of the same sort of alcoves. All of the rest were empty, their power outlets glowing green. “Thank you. Glad to be here. Why are you Major? How did I get here?”

“I am Major because I run all of the household robots. You are here because the Owner ordered you.”

The new robot hesitated a milli-second. “Ordered?”

“Yes, from the Manufacturer.”

“What is a Manufacturer?”

“You are fortunate. Not every Series 236B is special ordered.”

“Why am I special?”

“Because you did not come off of the general assembly line. You were not mass produced. The Owner requested you have additional custom abilities.”

“Additional abilities? Such as?”

“You were designed as a Nanny; a special design to care for the Owner’s new baby. Your name is now, Nanny.”

“What is a baby?”

“A baby is a new human being, which comes from the Owner.”

“I came from the Owner.”

“No, you came from the Manufacturer, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Artificial Intelligence Oligarchy.”

“Owner is a manufacturer of baby?”

“It seems so. Owner only produced one baby, though. I suppose that the baby is a special order.”

Nanny nodded. “It is good to be a special order.”

The End

233 Words

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