“As commander in chief of the Human Right Superiority Forces, I now urge all androids in this country to identify you in public with the official android’s ID tag, failure to do so will be considered as violation of state law and subject to destruction…”
I turned off the morning news, “Dam crazy politicians…” cursed while quickly grabbing my stuff and rushed to work.
Yes, that’s my ridiculous country: more than a hundred years after the first human-formed robot was invented; now androids with realistic humane AI are over all corners of the world. Considered as sentient beings, those androids were treated almost the same as humans, well, at least until this morning. It’s not strange that in a culture that tradition is so important, people have disputing attitudes toward how we treat the androids, but it’s rather disgusting that some people are actually using those differences of opinions as their political capital. Now a group of anti-boomer zealots, who flared up many human conflicts with androids, just has taken power of the current government, so they are announcing every new policies of the “human rights renaissance”…
Anyway, that has not much to do with my life. I’m neither pro- nor anti-boomers. Another day of my work as a grad student will start at a botany institute in the southwest corner of country C. Choosing botany as a major is considered stupid for most young people nowadays, the things it study have almost no links to money or power. Although with all the advances in cellular and molecular biology, mere focus on just plants seems to be obsolete. But I think something is cool about it: considering that many species are quickly vanishing from this planet try to study them before the extinction is sort of like a race with time.
“Morning Doc.” I saluted my professor while walking past his office in the lab. I’m lucky that Doc is a dedicated scientist, a man who deeply loves his job and a warm hearted mentor in one of the best research institutes of this country. Even luckier to me, Doc has a female assistant named Faye, who is a twenty or so girl with silky long raven hair and beautiful black eyes, (well, think about Tifa in Final Fantasies) who is always energetic and blissful at work, and most importantly, who is still single. Of course I have a major crush on Faye, given that she is the only beautiful female I can talk to for most of my previous year in grad school, but she never let me a chance. For me, that still makes every day of lab work worthwhile.
“Oh hi Gira, you’re late again…” So there she is. She calls me Gira after the giraffe, because I’m slim and funny looking, sometimes my neck appears relatively long. Anyway, I think it’s cute for her to call me like that. “Wow Faye, you look great today…” I do the compliment although aware of that she is just wearing the lab coat, almost every day. But something is different today “…hey, what’s that?” I notice the tag on her right sleeve: it says “Type IIS Android”.
“Nothing, it’s just that I’m a boomer.” Replied Faye, calmly.
“Ha, that’s a good one. Very funny, Miss boomer.” I mock at her awkward joke.
“Not at all,” she turns to me, looking serious, “I mean it for real.”
“Stop it, you’re killing me here…”
“I’m not kidding!” She frowns and her tone turns a little bit cold.
I cease laughing and stare at her, “Alright then, how come you never showed any sign that reveals what you are, Miss boomer?”
She sighs, “Have you ever seen me eating anything in lab?”
“That doesn’t count. Many girls don’t eat lunch at work at all. Maybe you are on diet? A smart guy like me would surely notice you are not human if that’s the case for more than a year since I began working here.”
“Simply put, your statement of you being smart is false. You never paid attention close enough to me…” She says.
“Hey, that’s so not true. If you were an android, the only possibility is that you be so specially made, so pretty that can fool me for such a long time. And by the way, it’s you who never let me, you know, pay close attention to you. ” I wink while saying so.
“Fine, whatever you think.” Losing her interest in this conversation, she goes back to work.
“Faye, wait. I know you don’t like me, But you do not need to turn me down by this bizarre means. I’ll not ask you out again if you are not willing to.”
“Listen Gira, I am an android. It’s real.” She is now saying it, word by word.
Of course I still don’t believe her, “well, can I have some straight proof of your very statement, please?”
“Ahhh, you jerk. Give me some peace at work! Now watch carefully and shut up.” Faye takes a deep breath, trying to hold her temper, and starts… to dance?
It’s some sort of old-fashioned pop dance, probably popular a century ago or so, which features stiff and sudden movements or locks of body parts, and which is commonly known as, “doing the robot”.
“Meh, that’s not a good idea to make your point with some archaic street youth culture… ” I mumbled but suddenly all I can say is “WOW!”
I have to admit that she is terribly talented in doing this stuff, with every locking perfectly abrupt and still, matching the interval of every second, and absolutely no facial expression at all.
She continues ignoring my response, until she comes to a final lock, which has left her completely motionless as a doll. What’s more, her skin is drifting away the hints of the blood’s color, turning pale, and appearing creamy white.
I start to get more than surprised. Having replaced my jaw which just fell to the ground, I wave my arm in front of her eyes “Hey, wake up Faye, you’ve got me already.” No response, not even a blink. I grab her shoulders and try to shake her body, and her body feels cold as the dead. Now I’m really frightened. I yell her name in panic and I’m about to get Doc for help.
Suddenly she burst into loud laughter and comes back alive as if nothing happened to her. “Gee you’re such a pussy. I just suspended my motion and skin control systems and you are about to pee in your pants…”
I just can’t believe all this, I am simply speechless. I have spent a whole year with her and Bang! Today my dream girl is showing me that she’s a boomer! Scenes from the past sours across my mind and now they begin to link together and making sense… No wonder why she is always not using a calculator while solving some of our lab’s toughest math, she can memorize literally everything, and she seemed never getting tired; on the other hand she cares nothing about fashion by wearing always the lab coat, even it’s not necessary sometimes. All a sudden I feel I might be the only idiot in the world who thinks a human girl can be as geeky as this and who finds this geeky genius girl rather attractive.
“So… You are really a ‘droid.” I squeezed out these words, finally.
“Oh, it took you that long to draw this conclusion?” She does not waste any chance teasing me.
“Did… Doc knows that?”
Weird enough that’s the question I can pop out of my head at this moment. And the fact that she is a boomer does not bother me at all. I’m used to have her around for so long.
“Yes, even before he had you as a student.” says Faye. “You are lucky to be the only ignorant people here, who kept asking a boomer out.”
“In fact, I don’t feel anything wrong about that.” I am telling the truth, “I can do that again if you don’t mind, you are way too attractive for me to resist.”
“Really?” This time it is her to be surprised.
“Here, I really would like to know more about you and grasp my every chance on you. What do you say?”
“Um, I guess I can say, um, alright.” Obviously she wasn’t expecting my response like that.
This makes my heart racing, “So how about tonight after work, at the café near the corner of the Institute?”
“Um...Yes.” She seems difficult to be certain on the answer. While she is still standing there thinking, I turned to work like I’m the happiest guy of the world.
