“I’m so bored …”
10H yawned as she moved a chess piece. After her morning rounds, there was nothing to do until lunchtime. And after she ate lunch, there was nothing to do until dinner. 10H’s day was mostly free time.
“Recommendation: Cover your mouth when you yawn.”
“What? Who cares.”
“Objection: No. That’s bad manners.”
Pod 006 was being nettlesome. Other Pods were more perfunctory and talked less. Just like how 10H was the only android assigned here, Pod 006, the annoying and chatty Pod, was the only pod that was assigned here.
Usually Pods were manufactured in sets of three, but Pod 006 was a special model and a few hundred were manufactured. That’s just how many of them were needed to take care of this facility.
Only one of them at a time orbited 10H. But since all the Pods looked identical, 10H wasn’t sure if the Pod next to her now was the same Pod that had stayed with her yesterday.
Either way, since 006 only had one consciousness, it didn’t make a difference. There were a few hundred units, but only one 006. That was hard for 10H to comprehend.
“Hey. Wait. Let me redo that!”
She had been carried away by her thinking, and failed to notice that she could’ve taken a piece.
“Objection: That’s the third time. I told you I wouldn’t let you after the last one.”
“Only this time! It’s only the third time today!”
“Objection: You said the same thing yesterday. How many times did I let you do that?”
“Uh … ten times?”
“Negative: Thirteen times. Don’t act like you didn’t know.”
The number was too small to feign forgetfulness. Information of this scale would be preserved unless it was intentionally purged. This was the case for both 10H and 006.
“But my AI isn’t specific to chess. A small correction shouldn’t hurt …”
“Objection: No!”
Small sparks crackled from the end of Pod’s arm.
“Okay, okay! No need for violence!”
“Roger: As long as you understand.”
Pod used the now-sparkless arm to move the knight. 10H suppressed a smile with all her might.
“It’s my turn, right?”
“Affirmative: Go ahead.”
“This bishop is mine!”
“Suggestion: Wait! Let me redo that!”
“Nope!”
Just like 10H, 006 didn’t have a chess-specific AI. Pods weren’t made to think deeply to begin with, since it wasn’t required for their mission tasks.
Even though they had good memory, what happened when an android and a Pod, who lacked chess-specific operations, played a game against each other? It became a silly matter of trying to distract their opponent with irrelevant talk, to lure them into making a mistake.
“I feel like at this point we’re playing a different game.”
10H pointed to the board with a chess piece. The bottom of the chess pieces used the same magnetic material that her shoe sole was made of, so a simple nudge wouldn’t move the piece. The idea of having a metal board and magnetic pieces probably came from humans, so they could play in moving vehicles. Just like the coffee and toast, this facility was filled with references to human civilization.
“What’s the point of two AIs playing a game they aren’t specialized in?”
“Hypothesis: Because we’re bored?”
“Well, that’s true, but do we have to play a meaningless game to kill time?”
“Answer: An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”
“What?”
“Answer: When you’re bored you will occupy your mind with evil thoughts. That’s why killing time is crucial. It’s a proverb from ancient human texts.”
10H was very skeptical that a human proverb would apply to her, but she didn’t have any reason to deny killing time.
“Then, let’s continue.”
“Agreement: Then …”
“It’s my turn!”
10H quickly moved her piece. Of course, she kept the bishop. A tiny spark flashed momentarily on the tip of Pod’s arm. Perhaps it wanted to simulate clicking a tongue.
“But why are we so bored?”
“Answer: Being bored is a sign of peace. It’s not a bad thing, is it?”
“I guess. That means the Machines haven’t found out about this place.”
If they were ambushed 10,000 feet underwater, it would be over. There was nowhere to run.
“Just in case, they should have assigned a Type B. No, since it’ll probably be a defensive battle maybe a Type D?”
While this facility only stored backup data, it was important data nonetheless. Defending this was a tall order for a Type H.
“Negative: A Type B and Type D wouldn’t be able to perform maintenance and repairs.”
“Then maybe a Type S?”
“Negative: A Type S is easily bored. She wouldn’t be able to deal with all the free time.”
“Ah. I kind of understand now.”
When it was needed, she would repair the Pods, and she never complained about the free time. In that respect, a Type H was most compatible with the role.
“But can you fight, Pod? I can’t fight at all, you know?”
“Answer: I have a considerable amount of weaponry installed. I just don’t use it regularly.”
“I see. Then we’re pretty safe.”
There were hundreds of Pods, so they could just fight for her.
“Uhmm. Next is …”
She tried to move her rook, but it slipped from her fingers. The rook fell onto a pawn, and rolled onto the floor. She tried to pick it up, but couldn’t.
“Hmm … my fingers aren’t working very well.”
They had been like this all morning. At first glance it was just a scratch, but perhaps there was deeper damage somewhere.
“I’m going to go repair myself.”
“Objection: There are no spare digits in inventory. You’ll have to wait until the next shipment.”
“That’s not for a while, right?”
She had helped with reshipment just yesterday after all. She didn’t expect to injure herself while helping.
“I guess it can’t be helped. I’ll try recalibrating my program.”
If she adjusted her grip strength and range of motion, she could probably at least reduce the amount of times she dropped things.
“I’ve had enough of chess today.”
Leaving Pod to clean up the chessboard, 10H returned to her room.
✦ ✦ ✦
She dove into her own circuits, and inspected the program that controlled her fingers. She checked the defective areas and assigned the nerve-propagating algorithm to perform the calibration. It’s been a while since I’ve done Type H work, she thought.
“I hope this’ll do until the next shipment.”
By recalibrating her fingers to keep ahold of chess pieces, her other functions would suffer.
For example, the strength she used to crush something between her fingers, and movements similar to that, would be compromised. If she wanted to crush a bug on a window, she would end up blasting a hole through the glass, and she would certainly destroy any touch panel or board she touched. The keyboard was in danger as well.
But she only needed to stay away from a touch panel until the next shipment, which wasn’t too much of an inconvenience. She rarely used touch panels in the first place, and when she had to she could just make Pod do it. Fortunately, the facility had no machinery with keyboards, and had no bugs. In other words, this would hardly be a problem.
“Well, I’m bored anyway.”
It was good that a slight defect wouldn’t put her life in danger.
“Okay! Guess I’ll finish. Hm?”
A strange thing in a strange place. Just like humans, androids didn’t use their brains to their fullest extent at all times. There was always a part that was rarely used. It was necessary for emergencies, and it acted as a buffer in times of stress.
There was some odd encoded data in this usually empty part of her brain.
“What? Who did this?”
It would have taken a Type S or a Type H to do this. But 10H was the only android in the facility. Of course Pods were capable of doing this too, but they would have surely left a trace. Reading and writing onto a blank part of an android brain involved a difficult set of procedures. There was security in place so that only the individual could access it.
“I did this myself, right?”
She didn’t remember at all. Had she used an operation that erased her memory after the task? And if so, why?
“Hmmm. Am I so bored that I actually forgot?”
She decided to decode the data. It was an encoding algorithm that needed the processing power of a Type S so she thought it would be particularly troublesome, but she ended up needing only two minutes to decode it.
“Ah. Yeah this was definitely me.”
Knowing her own personality, she knew she wouldn’t normally use such a difficult encoding. She was correct. The encoding algorithm wasn’t simple, but seemed haphazard and almost rushed.
“But why?”
She wasn’t sure. The encoded data contained coordinate data of the facility. And it pointed toward an area that was usually restricted.
“I don’t understand …”
Turning her head to the side, 10H headed toward the location to which the coordinate data referred.