EXTINCTION WARRIOR

Chapter 5

Tuttuk is the name Dad gave the android. It means caribou. When he got it, he said it would be essential, even critical to help save endangereds. That it had all the skills and expertise of a veterinarian from the best school. That it would help us survive too, like the caribou have for indigenous people living in the arctic over ten thousand years.

"What do you feel like?" Aana asks.

I can only think of one thing. "Calling Woka." I whine softly.

"Aaii," Aana says, "yes...of course." She shoos me away from the table with both hands. "Go!"

Before I get up, I check my miniQ. It's eight o'clock. Woka lives less than two hundred miles away across the Strait, but on the other side of the International Date line. For that ridiculous reason he's twenty one hours ahead. I do a quick calculation...it's five o'clock tomorrow afternoon for him. By now he should be finished his after school chore – reviewing drone footage of his family's caribou herd.

***

I'm petting Mig in my lap, at my desk in my bedroom. From the waist up,Woka fills the lightscreen on the wall.

"Why not activate droid?" He asks, as he untangles a mass of wires that hang from the neck and head of an old XH-1 on the table in his room.

"I don't know...," I sigh, "I'm not sure I want to deal with a droid right now."

"He is newest, right?"

I nod. "XH-7."

Woka stops, and looks straight at me. "The most revolutionary humanoid ever. Its brain is quantum computer with holographic memory that stores one hundred million terabytes of data." His eyes are practically falling out of his head. "Plus XH-7 memory bank has biochips filled with human DNA! It performs seven quadrillion operations per second. With computational block chain processing, it possesses synthetic consciousness." He exclaims,touching his head and heart.

Woka knows everything about all the XH models. He loves androids and gynoids, and wants to have his own droid servant one day. He's going to call it Spartacus.

I feel sad. Empty. Numb. "Yea, okay. He's got synthetic consciousness." I reply with no enthusiasm.

Woka goes on, like he's trying to impress me.

"TheXH-7 possesses the most advanced affective computing.Emotionally, the most responsive droid ever. They are enhanced with the ability to recognize and express all seven universal human emotions." He counts them on his fingers. "Anger, contempt,disgust, enjoyment, fear, sadness and surprise. And, the droid can combine them, like real humans to express a mix of emotions. Like fear and disgust, anger and contempt, or surprise and enjoyment. Basically, every feeling combination of human experience!"

"I get it. XH-7's are incredible." I sigh.

Mig jumps off my lap and onto the bed.

"Sorry,but you don't..." Woka says annoyed, "what I am trying to tell you... I want to be there with you. You are my best, best friend. But I cannot. It's impossible," he pauses, and looks down at the droid on the table, "But your droid can, and he...what is name again?"

"Tuttuk...I'll call him Tuk."

"So Tuk, he can be your friend too. He can be there...with you." He says, pointing at me. "Plus, maybe he can help...da?" He nods.

I nod, a half-hearted nod. "Da, maybe." I reply unconvinced.

His mother yells  from the other room. "Woka!"