(Photo by Brigitte Tohm)

The Robotics Control Center was not a very large part of the Thesis administration. For the most part their duties were limited to repairing, replacing, and updating the few hundred robots aboard the colony ship. Most of the robots were like CaSS and MaCS, cleaning and maintaining the ship itself. The rest were divided more or less evenly between service robots, like STEV and BaBS-Y, and assistance robots like NaNA (Nurturing and Nursing Assistant) and CaRA (Care and Rehabilitation Assistant).

Matiew sat in his office, running quickly through the reports and requests, knowing he needed to check in on the robots in sector 12 and really not wanting to do that. He had, of course, made sure there wasn’t anything obviously amiss with them the moment he’d gotten to work. There was also a small team monitoring the camera feeds from the MaCS just in case BaBS-Y approached the salon. His main job was to coordinate between those who used and interacted with robots and the departments that handled the needed repairs and complaints. In times past he had kept a small display on his desk that he used to show the most recent, quirky incident of robots acting in unexpected ways. Currently, that display was shut off and stashed away in a closet. No one was finding unexpected robot antics humorous now.

One hour passed. Two hours. Matiew was well on his way through his third hour of work before he had to give sector 12 more than a cursory glance. The reason was the message Data Transfer had just sent to both him and Min.

“Please let it be nothing,” he muttered to himself before opening the message and reading.

We put a flag on BaBS-Y, it read, so anytime it sends or requests data we get notified.

“Good. Fine,” Matiew said to himself, hoping the people down in Data Transfer were just making sure he and Min knew they were doing what they’d been told to do, and not to let them know that BaBS-Y was already doing something of note.

BaBS-Y didn’t send any requests, but when today’s work orders were sent out, the maintenance orders for sectors 12-15 were sent to it in addition to the maintenance teams. We haven’t figured out why the robot wants those, or why they were sent to it in the first place. We’re checking the logs to see how BaBS-Y inserted itself into the mailing-list.

We’ll let you know as soon as we figure this out. Feel free to reach out to us if you’d like us to sever the robot’s connection.

Work orders? It wanted the work orders?

“You read what Data Transfer just sent us?” Min’s voice startled Matiew out of his own thoughts.

“Hm?” he looked up to find Min standing in the doorway of his office, brows furrowed and arms crossed. “Oh, yeah. I did.”

“Want to discuss it over lunch?” Min was clearly trying, and failing, not to sound too anxious or pushy.

Normally, the whole office would go on lunch together but with how unpopular they all had suddenly found themselves with the rest of the populace, more of them had been electing to eat in their offices.

“I actually forgot my lunch today,” Matiew said as he realized how much his steak and shrimp had distracted him.

“I was thinking of hitting a new sandwich shop down on twenty, anyway,” Min shrugged. “Run by people. No robots.”

“You trust them not to spit in your food?”

“They make the sandwiches right in front of you.”

“Yeah,” Matiew nodded. “It’s a bit early, but if we go now we could beat the usual lunch crowds.”

He spoke casually but Min gave him an understanding look. No one in the Robotics Control Center was as easily recognizable as Matiew and so he had been the one to face the main brunt of people’s outrage.

“It’s a working lunch,” Min said while Matiew transitioned from his office chair and into his wheelchair, “so I’ll make sure to add the time to your time off. I think we’ll all need a bit of a vacation once this BaBS-Y issue is resolved.”

Together, they made their way over to the elevators. There were relatively few people out of their residences or offices, like Matiew had surmised, and managed to make it all the way to the sandwich shop on sector 20 without anyone shouting at them. There were a few stares and angry looks, but that was it.

Nadia and Sascha was a relatively small restaurant and was empty save for the couple who stood behind the glass display counter. Their uniforms bore their names, marking them as the eponymous Nadia and Sascha. Both were on the taller side of things, with Nadia being a couple inches shorter than Sascha. Nadia had her hair tied back while Sascha had his hair cropped short.

“Welcome,” Sascha smiled as Min entered, only a hint of an accent to his voice.

His expression shifted slightly, however, when Matiew came into his view. The change wasn’t an unpleasant one, though. If anything, his smile widened.

“You’re from robotics?” he asked.

“Yes,” Min replied carefully. “We stagger our lunch breaks to make sure we can keep working on the situation in sector twelve.”

Both Nadia and Sascha nodded solemnly.

“It’s been a hard time for a lot of us,” Nadia said.

“And not everyone handles hard times very well,” Sascha added.

The conversation petered out, giving Min and Matiew time to look over the menu. The sandwich makers gave them space, keeping themselves busy by cleaning utensils, preparing condiments and fillings, or simply talking to each other in politely quiet tones, mostly telling jokes to one another.

Min and Matiew placed their sandwich orders and the couple behind the counter swiftly assembled the sandwiches with surprising precision.

“How long have you two been running this place?” Matiew asked.

It didn’t take long for everyone on a colony ship to become familiar with the various shops and restaurants that were available, so anything new was generally talked about quite eagerly and quickly. The fact that Matiew hadn’t heard about this place yet meant it couldn’t be more than a few weeks since it had opened.

“This is only our first week,” Sascha said. “We’ve been on the wait list ever since we left Earth.”

Matiew could have probably guessed what had made the previous occupants vacate this spot. There were plenty of people who had recently decided that working near the damaged sectors wasn’t where they wanted to be, or who had been doing some shopping a few sectors lower down. Whatever the reason, Matiew wasn’t going to ask for any specifics.

“This is really good,” Matiew said after trying a bite of his sandwich.

“Mmm, yeah,” Min agreed.

Nadia and Sascha bowed their heads slightly.

“It’s funny,” Nadia said, “but we both love making sandwiches. Waiting ten years, we thought it would never happen.”

“What were you doing before?” Min asked.

“We worked in the sector thirty-nine kitchens,” Sascha answered. “Not our dream but not a bad spot. Good people there.”

Matiew knew he and Min ought to be discussing the situation in sector 12 but how long had it been since he’d been able to sit and chat to someone outside of the RCC without getting yelled at? Min seemed to be of the same opinion. Besides, it might not be the best idea to discuss the rogue robot gaining access to work order reports in front of the two sandwich makers. They were friendly, but that didn’t mean they should be trusted not to discuss anything they might overhear with their neighbors. That was how the first pieces of information about BaBS-Y had been found out. Up until then only the RCC and other higher up administrators knew about what was happening in the Frank Nelis Salon.

“Hey, we’ll leave you two alone so you can enjoy your lunch,” Sascha said after chatting a few minutes more with them. “Anyone else from robotics want to come here for lunch or anything, let them know we’ll treat them nice.”

Nadia nodded. “Some people just need someone to blame, but we know it’s not your fault what’s been happening.”

The two of them retreated back behind the counter just as the regular lunch crowd began to come in.

“I guess this wasn’t my best idea for a working lunch,” Min apologized.

“No regrets on my end,” Matiew stated, taking another bite of his sandwich.

“Yeah, but we do still need to, uh, discuss things.”

She was speaking more quietly as the tables and chairs around them began filling up. So far, no one had seemed to recognize Min or Matiew, but all the same they didn’t want their conversation to be overheard.

Choosing his words carefully, Matiew gave Min his initial thoughts on the situation.

“I think it’s reconnaissance,” he said. “It doesn’t know enough about what we’re doing so it’s trying to find ways to watch us like we are watching it.”

“I think there’s more to it,” Min shook her head. “It didn’t need the work orders to know that repairs were going on.”

“True,” Matiew agreed, “but what all goes into those work orders?”

“Everything,” Min said, “from the names of the workers and their shifts right down to the number of nuts and bolts they use.”

“How does that help it?” Matiew wondered out loud and then added after a while, “I still think it’s info gathering. It doesn’t know what else to do and so it’s trying to get as much information as it can.”

“Or it’s figuring out how long it has before we can reach it ourselves.”

Matiew nodded. That could also explain the robot’s motivation, although what the robot would do with that information.

“You think it knows what’ll happen once we do reach it?” Min asked.

“I honestly don’t know,” he admitted, “but I think we’d be idiots not to at least consider that as an option. I mean, if it’s willing to attack and dismantle robots, what do you think it’ll do when confronted by people?”

“I’ve been thinking the same thing. Basic behavioral settings should have kept it from attacking those robots.”

“And that’s the same programming that’s supposed to keep it from attacking people, too.”

Min nodded and then cast a wary glance around them, prompting Matiew to do the same. The restaurant was filling up now, but it still didn’t look like anyone had heard what they’d been saying. Matiew knew they’d said too much already and didn’t want to risk anything further.

“We should get back,” he said even though they still had time left for their lunch break.

“Agreed,” Min said and wrapped up the rest of her sandwich to finish later.

They waved to Nadia and Sascha on their way out and the sandwich makers waved in return.

“Always welcome,” Sascha called out to them.

“And any time you’re hungry,” Nadia added.

Together, Matiew and Min slipped out and made their way back over to the elevators, once more in the relatively empty, and therefore quiet, walkways. They didn’t say anything to each other, just enjoying the peaceful moment together. Matiew suspected there would be at least one new fire to put out once he got back to his office but with luck that fire wouldn’t have anything to do with a certain hair styling robot.

As was becoming a pattern for Matiew, he was not lucky in regards to the proverbial fire he and Min walked into the moment they got back to the Robotics Control Center.