I, Willhelm

This time Alice didn’t wake up with a sense of dread. As usual, she was woken up by the baby, but this time she went down stairs and immediately walked up to the robot.

“Morning?”

The robot’s eyes flickered from a flat line to two round circles. “Can I help you?”

Alice smiled at the question. She liked the way the robot asked the question, there was no tone of dread to it. Just a genuine desire to be helpful, kind even. She hadn’t heard that tone in such a long time.

“Could you make me a tea, please?”

“Of course.”

Alice sat in the armchair and watched as the robot made the tea and brought it over. As soon as the warm cup touched her hand Alice felt a lump clog her throat “Thank you, robot.” She croaked.

The baby cooed in her arms as she drank the tea, rocking back and forth gently. The atmosphere was calmer than usual. Sensing it, the baby lay comfortably and, for the first time in a long time, it lay there without the need for feeding. The robot sat down beside her and rocked gently, mimicking her.

Mimicry had been one of the first things Aphelion Robotics had learned in the early days. Just standing still next to people made them feel nervous. But matching them, sitting down at the same height, leaning towards them, mimicking gentle motions was soothing.

Alice closed her eyes, leaned back, and suddenly realised that she felt calm. It was strange. Alien even. She looked down at her baby and for the first time she noticed how beautiful he looked, his little nose arched like a human Gelfling.

“Hello?” Alice smile and leaned down to rub her nose against the baby. The baby cooed and made several twitchy smiles in it’s drowsy state.

There was a loud knock at the door.

Alice jumped, and stood up, startling the baby who started to cry. She shuffled to the door, opened it and saw the same two people who had brought the robot a few days ago.

“Hello, Alice Wilson?”

“Yes?”

“We’re from Aphelion Robotics, we needed to talk to you about a fault with your robot?”

“What do you mean a fault?” Alice asked, defensive.

“Can we come in for a moment?”

“Alice? Who is it?” Alice’s husband leaned over the bannister to try and see.

“They’re from Aphelion.” Alice called up the stairs.

“What do they want?”

“I don’t know” Alice turned back to look at them and noticed that they were both carrying a case, the same kind of case they had brought the original robot in.

“Why have you got another robot?”

“Can we come in?” Alice looked up the stairs, her husband pulling on his dressing gown, and stepped back to let them in. They walked into the kitchen, one of them obviously watching the robot, and pulled out thick stack of papers like the ones they had signed when first applying for the trial.

“It’s come to our attention that there are some faults in robot 47”-

“What?! No there isn’t!” Alice spluttered. “He’s been great!”

“We’re glad to hear that you’re satisfied with robot 47, but for legal reasons we need to replace him.”

“Why?!”

“Alice?” He husband looked at her, shocked to her her almost shouting.

“No! It’s not ok! I like this robot. He’s been helpful.”

“You’ll find this new one just as useful.” One of the reps said with a fake grin. The other began to open the case and take out the new robot.

“Is the other one dangerous?” Alice’s husband asked, seeing how upset Alice was.

“Oh no.” The first rep replied quickly. “We just noticed that it didn’t seem to be processing updates well and that could affect the quality of service. It’s the policy of aphelion robotics to replace any faulty machinery. Just inca-.”

The other rep coughed and spoke loudly over them; “Just for quality control.”

“And this robot will be able to help Alice just as much as the other one?” Alice’s husband asked.

“Oh yes.”

“I don’t want another robot, I like this one.” Alice protested.

The first rep stood and and pressed a button on their phone. Robot 47 straightened up from it’s slouched stance, walked over to them and then knelt into a folded ball next to the box.

“Oh you’ll find this one identical in ever way, except for the upgrade”.

Alice watched as they packed away the old robot in the box and unfolded the new one. The both looked identical, same shade of chrome, same black rubber hands, feet and head, but this observation did not stop the sense of dread building in her chest.