RoboNomics

Epilogue - 2016

Rupert's eyes flick open with abrupt and startling rapidity.

When he first went down, Austin and I brought him to the iTronics building. It's not as if we could take him to the hospital, and we didn't know where else to go.

There, the machines went to work on him. They spent three weeks, not only repairing his circuitry and the gaping hole in his side, but upgrading his systems and replacing old parts with new ones.

Early this morning, an automated truck came to deliver him to Donald's mansion that for now, is still mine. I guess it's only fitting that he should be 'delivered.' He is, after all, a machine.

Now we stand in front of him, ready for his onslaught of questions. We've had three weeks to find answers for him.

He looks around Donald's study, where we stood him to turn him back on. After a moment of standing straight and still, he sways unsteadily. He slumps on his left side and grasps for the air.

I'm prepared for this. The bots told me it was 'residual programming' and so I rush forward with his cane. I slide it into his hand.

"There you go."

"Oh, thank you, Ms. Anderson. Now, can you tell me where I am? I feel a little disoriented."

"You're in our home," Austin replies.

"So it would seem. But...pardon me for the questions...can you tell me how I came to be here? The last thing I remember I was on the steps of the Forum and..." He grabs his side. "Strange, I had the most unusual dream."

Austin and I glance at each other. We made a pact to be honest with him. To let him know that he is Donald's final, enduring experiment.

To my father, Rupert was never anything more than a beta test, a way to see if his newest innovation could pass as fully human. But he's more than that to me, and I owe him the truth.

"Well, Rupert, it wasn't a dream," I tell him. "You were injured at the Forum."

He looks from Austin's face to mine and back again. "Injured? I..."

I go to him and take his hand in mine. He looks at me in the face, bewildered.

"Ms. Anderson, what is going on?"

"You were shot," says Austin. "You had...you had a hole in your side."

He grabs his side again. "And out of that hole came..."

"Yes," I interrupt. "That's right."

He takes a deep, shuddering breath.

"I think I need to sit down."

We take him immediately to a leather wing back and set him down on it. He stares into the middle distance, looking stunned.

Suddenly he blinks, as if banishing the thought of what he is - what he didn't know he was until now.

"And the Antirobists? And Mr. Newhouse? Young Mr. O'Neill? What happened?"

"Mr. Newhouse is safe," I say. "Young Mr. O'Neill is..." I stop. Brush my bangs out of my eyes.

"Chris is dead," Austin continues for me. "And the Anti-Robotist movement with him."

"Oh," says Rupert. "Oh, that is a shame."

The three of us are silent as we mourn in our different ways.

"I've sold iTronics," I announce, breaking the peace.

"Sold? But I thought...how is that possible?" Asks Rupert.

Austin sits down on a red chaise close to Rupert. "A lot happened while you were out."