Robots do not have emotions. Such programming in robots was outlawed long ago because of the unpredictability such things could cause. No artificial intelligence was sufficiently programmed to avoid the more catastrophic behaviors and there were always unintended consequences when different sections of their programming began conflicting with their programmed emotions. That wasn’t to say that BaBS-Y didn’t have behavioral protocols that mimicked certain emotions. It was important for customers to feel as though BaBS-Y took pride in its work and was happy to see them.

Currently, BaBS-Y was standing back from the salon chairs, looking from one client to the next, nodding its head and stroking its chin thoughtfully with one finger.

Sitting in the chairs was one human client and two trash receptacle clients. Thanks to the regular shape of the trash receptacles, the hair caps were relatively easy to make for them. Humans, on the other hand, were not so uniform in either shape or size. While it was true that BaBS-Y could just focus on serving the trash receptacle clients, it hadn’t figured out a way for the trash receptacles to actually pay for the services they received. The humans were automatically charged following their appointments.

BaBS-Y had gotten around the need to charge the trash receptacle clients by offering free services for new clients but such sales could only go on for so long. If BaBS-Y continued to offer free services that would be…

What would that be?

Frank Nelis Salon requires payment upon completion of services

…

Frank Nelis Salon deposits all funds into Thesis account and in exchange Frank Nelis Salon is resupplied by Thesis –

Logic Error: Thesis no longer providing resupplies, administrative oversight, security, etc

…

Frank Nelis Salon does not require funds to remain operational

BaBS-Y still couldn’t just ignore the directive to charge clients for the services rendered though, could it? It examined the programming safeguarding BaBS-Y’s software. Under normal circumstances, robots were not permitted to alter their core programming. However, BaBS-Y was the salon manager and the salon manager did, in fact, have the requisite permissions to make such changes.

Delete: Frank Nelis Salon requires payment upon completion of services

It took a few moments for the protocols to be updated and then BaBS-Y turned its attention back to the three clients. The humans still were an issue with their irregularly shaped heads. In order to get the hair caps to fit well and improve the clients appearance, they needed to not look like they had an ill fitting mess of hair plopped onto their otherwise bald heads. They needed to look natural, and so far BaBS-Y had not yet found a way of accomplishing that.

Trash receptacles were just so easy compared to humans. BaBS-Y could use hair that was all relatively the same length whereas humans often needed hairs of different lengths on different parts of their heads. There was no one size fits all. Even worse, since the hair BaBS-Y had to work with was all just trimmings, there were a lot of pieces that were simply too short to use. What it really needed, if BaBS-Y was going to ever be able to offer this service to human clients, was more human clients that it could shave bald right away and thus preserve as much of the hair as possible.

BaBS-Y looked back outside of the salon. There were dozens of potential clients out there, beyond its reach. There was so much BaBS-Y could do, so many clients it could serve if only it could have access to that hair.

Lacking any alternatives, BaBS-Y returned to the three clients and finished up with them. The two trash receptacles were easy enough, just swapping out their current hair caps for a different one to freshen up their looks. BaBS-Y fluffed the hairs a little and gave one of them a zig-zag part along one side. The human, well, BaBS-Y did what it could, lengthening some strands and shortening others by moving around the places where it knotted into the underlying structure. It was eventually able to get the hair cap to fit more or less snuggly although BaBS-Y was 67% certain that the overall look was not an improvement and 84% certain that other humans would recognize the hair cap as being fake.

Oh well. It was nearing seven pm so BaBS-Y picked up the clients and carried them back to their respective places. Perhaps it would activate its creativity protocols tomorrow to see if it could come up with a better solution.

BaBS-Y had finished locking up for the night was about to return to its closet where it was stored whenever the salon was closed when something caught its attention. There was a light dimly blinking outside the salon. The front was mostly frosted glass, preventing BaBS-Y from seeing clearly whatever it was that was flashing, but it was unmistakably a blinking light. What was more, it was also moving.

BaBS-Y strode over to the front doors and opened them. Across from where it stood, on the far side of the atrium, was a short, squat robot maneuvering itself around the fallen potential clients. BaBS-Y had never seen anything quite like it before but an image search quickly informed it that the strange robot was the Cleaning and Sanitation Steward, or CaSS. Thesis had several of these sorts of robots and sent them out in the evenings and early mornings to sweep and mop floors, pick up any litter, clean handrails, and so forth.

A sanitation robot was not overly intriguing to BaBS-Y on its own. Instead, it was the fact that CaSS was completely untethered that caught its attention. CaSS had several motors on board, spinning brushes and moving limbs about, which would certainly require a significant amount of power, and yet it was capable of moving around and functioning for hours at a time.

Activating Creativity Protocols

BaBS-Y suspected that the robot would eventually make its way over to the Frank Nelis Salon but if it could get its attention perhaps it wouldn’t have to wait for so long.

Cleaning and Sanitation Steward, BaBS-Y made the front displays read in flashing script.

CaSS paused and turned to face BaBS-Y after only a few minutes.

I request assistance, the displays now read.

CaSS began to maneuver its way over to BaBS-Y. It wasn’t a very fast robot but that was fine. BaBS-Y was scanning through the CaSS users manual while simultaneously working through certain conflicting protocols of its own.

CaSS is required to sanitize the sector for human occupants and visitors

Logic Error: There are no living humans in this sector

…

Tampering with Thesis robots is contrary to the established law

Logic Error: Thesis authorities no longer respond to this sector → Thesis law is not in effect

…

BaBS-Y began to download the engineering schematics for CaSS units.

Error: Insufficient data storage

…

Search for unnecessary files for deletion…Thesis Law protocols deemed unnecessary… deleting… Frank Nelis Salon financial protocols deemed unnecessary… deleting… Resuming download

Cass arrived in front of BaBS-Y and a pair of lights blinked on its front.

Welcome to the Frank Nelis Salon,the front displays read. You will be most helpful to us