“What, um, what’s your name?” A-Ka asked.
“Name.” The man furrowed his eyebrows slightly, as if he was thinking hard.
A-Ka was about to stand up when the man moved again, startling A-Ka into backing away. He harbored many and varied suspicions toward this man, and he had a lot of questions, too. Where had he come from? Why was the sleeping chamber that had held him built that way? Had he really slept at the bottom of the ocean for three thousand years?
A-Ka knew that if the sleeping cycle lasted for more than a month, a person’s memories would slowly become sealed away due to the shutdown of the brain, so he was not surprised that this man showed signs of amnesia.
“How did you save me?” the man asked, his voice still cold.
“Well, you just woke up after being pulled out of the ocean…”
A-Ka described what had happened, but the man watched A-Ka with doubt in his eyes as he listened to his explanations. As A-Ka spoke, he thought to himself, This person has indeed lost his memories.
“Three thousand years,” the man finally said.
“Yes,” A-Ka answered, while at the same time realizing a terrible issue. If he really had slept for that long, based on what A-Ka knew, his memories might never return to him.
The man was deep in thought as he racked his brain, trying to recall anything.
A little gleefully, A-Ka said, “But the technology of the sleeping chamber you were in is pretty good, because when you woke up, you still had the ability to speak and think!”
The man didn’t say anything.
“What are you called? At least think of a name.” When the man didn’t reply, A-Ka continued, “How about I temporarily give you a name? The chamber you were in had ‘Heishi’ written on it. You’re probably called Heishi, right?”
“Heishi…” the man mumbled. He didn’t reject it, and his silence suggested that he had accepted this name.
A-Ka covered K with the oilcloth again before producing a piece of fabric, indicating that Heishi should put it on. Some pins turned it into a simple, full-body robe. As Heishi quietly sat on a rock, that one-piece sackcloth robe made him look like he was a statue.
Having taken care of Heishi for the time being, A-Ka opened K’s navigation system, once again listening to that string of words. Undoubtedly, the revolutionary broadcast of the clones was much more important than Heishi at this moment, though he almost didn’t dare consider what would happen if the words were true.
Would there be a riot? A-Ka could imagine it in his head: The clones rushing toward the Central District, taking over the City of Steel, and blowing up the energy storage. As soon as war broke out, he would easily be able to pick up a power source, escape to the bay, install it in K, and leave this place behind.
A-Ka was both overjoyed and nervous; thinking about the message sent adrenaline rushing through him. He decided to return home and see what would happen, but his mind was still filled with the imagery of robots malfunctioning.
“I’m leaving,” A-Ka said as he passed in front of Heishi.
Heishi looked up, confused. In his eyes was a mixture of alarm and a little bit of helplessness. A-Ka’s head once again began to hurt. What was he supposed to do with this amnesiac whom he had picked up like a piece of scrap? Take him along? He seemed to have some strength, and he could be useful, but he definitely couldn’t be brought back to the living area. The consequences of being discovered by the robotic guards were unthinkable.
“Where are you going?” Heishi asked.
“It has nothing to do with you, stranger,” A-Ka replied, disgruntled. “I saved your life, and you didn’t even spare me a word of thanks.”
Heishi didn’t answer. Instead, he asked, “Do you have food?”
A-Ka was ready to explode from rage. “Don’t you know how to find some yourself? It’s not like I owe you anything!”
Heishi rose to his feet, and A-Ka immediately backed away. He pulled out an electronic wrench and brandished it at him. “Don’t come at me, otherwise I’ll fry you into ash!”
Frowning, Heishi looked around at his surroundings.
I’ve had it, A-Ka thought. Saving this person has brought me nothing but trouble.
He backed out of the cave. Still, for reasons he didn’t understand, worry nagged at him, so he soon turned around and went back in. “Food and drinkable water are here.” A-Ka opened the foodstuffs storage that he had squirreled away in the corner and pointed it out to Heishi.
Heishi reached a hand out and grabbed a water bottle, taking a gulp before tilting his head back and chugging down the whole contents of the large bottle. It was only then that A-Ka realized he was very thirsty.
“Hungry?” A-Ka asked as he opened a can and handed it over. Heishi hesitated for a moment before digging out a chunk of chicken meat with his fingers and pushing it into his mouth to chew.
“Okay, I’m really going. You take care of yourself, all right? Find somewhere to go.”
The watch on his wrist began to beep, and A-Ka knew that he could drag it out no longer. He had already been gone for too long today. Running out of the cave, he returned via the path he’d taken to get here.
Worries weighed heavily on A-Ka’s heart, and he kept thinking of the announcement in the navigation system. What if this was all only a joke? Could it be a joke?
The trip back took a whole half hour, and when A-Ka arrived at the waste container, he happened to turn his head and instantly went bug-eyed.
Heishi had followed him the whole way, zigzagging across the crude-oil-covered beach.
“Don’t come over here!” A-Ka shouted anxiously.
Heishi stood still, and A-Ka took a few running steps toward him. “Don’t go looking for trouble!”
The expression on Heishi’s face remained cold and calm, and A-Ka’s watch once again beeped in warning. There was no more time.
“Leave this place! Go anywhere else! Don’t follow me!” A-Ka said.
With that, A-Ka scrambled headfirst into the garbage chute, and with his hands and legs moving in tandem, he started to climb up.