2645

PROLOGUE

When he emerged from the assembly line, the Quality Controllers observed that he looked around him with a quizzical eye.  This was extremely unusual for the Robot 2645 and they marked his specifications accordingly.   

However as a young 2645, he showed outstanding skill at problem solving and was called upon regularly when still only classed as Infantbot to troubleshoot logistics on the moon rail network which was currently under construction.

*****
 
But then he had graduated from RobotuniCo (Robot University Co-operative) with a degree in JAE (Just About Everything).  He had aimed for the Masters in EWK (Everything Worth Knowing) but that had only been attained by the select few – and they had in turn become ES (Elite Selectors), a band of important Robots who made the decisions and directed the course of RobotBeing.  He knew that this was the highest form of robot life and he was disappointed with himself for not passing the exams.    He realised he had made a mistake by looking around him when he arrived years ago from the factory and making eye contact with the ES people.  He knew he should have kept staring ahead like all his fellow tin people, but he just couldn’t resist.   He just couldn’t resist.
 
He was put to work and performed well.    He was able to see solutions to problems – both mechanical and mathematical – almost immediately and this was also marked on his specification by the ES.    Sometimes he didn’t agree with the major decisions made by the ES, but he felt unable to express the reasons why, even to himself.     Often he had this feeling that things were not the way they should be.   But who was he to question the ES – after all they had passed those very difficult exams.  

(Strangely and at  some level, he knew that your role in life should not be dictated by ‘exams’.   There had to be a better way of assessing an individual’s worth and where their talents lay).
 
On his many trips to the moon, he could only stare at the inky blackness with those stars twinkling (and sometimes they shot across the sky in front of him).  It affected him greatly but he just couldn’t understand why.  Stars everywhere just twinkling with beauty but not performing any useful action or function.    He wondered where this huge universe had commenced.    But he knew if he asked the ES this question, that he would be in trouble.   As, questioning origins and futures was strictly forbidden.  

EPILOGUE
 
Sometimes at group drilling sessions, he led off on the wrong foot just to be different.    The sound of crashing tin brought him once again to the attention of the ES.    He didn’t realise that he was being closely monitored by the ES as he had shown himself to be somewhat non-compliant.   One of the ES had taken it upon himself to look into his background.  After many hours of investigation, it was discovered that during the assembly and construction of his shell (term used in botspeak for body) and LOB (Logic Only Brain), that one of the IHB (Inferior Human Beings) had let a drop of their sweat escape the NPU (Non Porous Uniform) used in robot construction by the workers.   This drop had survived the rigorous testing and quality control of the ES and had permeated every channel, brainwave, reflex, pulse/impulse of his being and had unleashed a range of emotions, feelings, intuitions in him which were alien to RP (Robot Perfection).   He was flawed because he was prone to looking at himself, at others, at the world around him feeling happy/sad and all those attendant sensations - none of which would allow complete productivity and action.

He was court marshaled  and sentenced to termination by discard into space.       He was allowed one wish.     'My wish is that the image of the star is emblazoned on my front shell, he said'.   After much negotiation, he was allowed his wish.    And the image of the star was burnt into his shell.   

On the day of his termination, he was floated out into space.     A dark, lonely, infinite space like nothing he had ever experienced.   

And just as he felt himself disintegrate, just as the power left him, just as the lifeforce faded, the whole sky lit up with the most beautiful stars.

Green ones, red ones, silver ones ... they all came to twinkle for him.    To light up the sky for him and show him that he was not alone.   Everything is connected, they quietly whispered.   Nothing is disconnected unless you wish it to be.    We twinkle because that is what we do.  That is our function.  And from somewhere down deep inside him, he smiled.   The grille which was his mouth-area stretched and his jaw loosened.  He smiled.   The robot smiled.



_________


Clearly this is one of my stories.     I love science fiction and when I tidy this up, it will also be entered into a short story competition.  The last time I won a prize at these competitions, I was 16.  Despite submitting regularly, I have yet to  win another prize.      By the way, the stars are a small selection of my huge twinkly jewellery collection.