The Eternal Glass Ceiling :: The Neo-Reconquista

Domestic Servitude

They both entered the house closing the door behind them. Tetra floated through the broken window staring at the property damage as the maintenance and domestic robots tended to it. Amaru sat in the living room interrogating Tetra with arbitrary questions to test how much data the robot had retained. Tetra answered each question correctly with acute accuracy, then spun around and replicated a 3D holographic image of Professor Kalinsky as it mocked him by pretending to be a pseudo intellectual charlatan. Amaru laughed before reaching out to feel the holographic image. To his surprise, he could feel tiny physical particles that made up the exterior of the doppelgänger. "No way! I can actually feel this hologram. It's like . . . real?" Amaru got up and went to call Stanley over to check it out but before he could return the robot reverted back to it's small Triakis tetrahedron form.

Stanley shrugged stating, "I don't doubt what you saw. It probably used nanotechnology to make the material form using iron nanoparticles, then used holography to manipulate the particles into looking more like my dad. Triakis tetrahedrons specialize in holographic duplication and sharing information. Til this day we still haven't explored all of the features that this bot or its finalized version, pro-autos possess." He stated as he strolled back into the kitchen. "Where are these pro-autos. I keep hearing about them, yet I've never seen one anywhere. Do they still exist?" Amaru asked. "Well, it's a banned military weapon. When something is legally banned from a country you tend to see less of that thing in said country, no?" Stanley exclaimed as he stood in the kitchen demanding that the service robots make him a classic club sandwich with turkey, bacon and ham, with a tropical fruit punch made from scratch, and a side of chocolate mousse cake. Then as a treat he requested rainbow fruit shish kabobs consisting of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries cantaloupes, grapes, kiwis, and pineapples. Before Stanley could utter another demand, Amaru ordered the bots not to fulfill Stan's orders realizing how spoil and lazy Stanley was acting. "You're standing there idle. Why can't you make the sandwich yourself." Amaru asked. Stanley fold his arms, pouting like a spoil child saying, "What'd you think we invented domestic robots for? They're suppose to make our lives easier by completing the tasks that we don't want to do." Amaru made his way into the kitchen. Reaching into the bread pantry cupboard he got out a loaf of bread. Then he went to the refrigerator and retrieved the other contents necessary for making a sandwich.

Tetra hovered into the cupboards up above and obtained the condiments for dressing the sandwich. "There! Now you can make your own sandwich!" Amaru said to Stanley. Then Amaru looked at the robots and demanded that they continue assisting the other robots with repairing the windows and chandeliers. Stan gawked at Amaru exclaiming, "What's the point of this?" Amaru then sat at the counter responding, "They'll clean up the mess that you made. While you make your own meal. Be responsible and carry your own weight. I don't like your snobbish behavior. Rose and I try to do everything around here ourself without putting too much pressure on the service bots."

Stan frowned, "Pressure? Okay, so you're trying to take the moral ground in a situation that requires mechanical devices to do what they were invented to do? Give me a break and quit virtue signaling over objects that don't even have emotions." Tetra then scoffed at Stan's remark saying, "Zzz . . . Excuse me. We are not your slaves!" Amaru chuckled saying, "Listen Stan. I know that they can't feel or express emotions the way we do. But I'm aware that humans are also capable of treating other humans like objects too. So if you can at least treat an inanimate object with some respect. Then you should be able to treat an actual human being with some decency. I see the people of West Terrace show more compassion for material objects than they do for the residence of zone three. It's sickening, you know." Stanley shook his head smiling at Amaru's analogy then began making the sandwich responding, "Fine! This is the most awkward social experiment I've ever witnessed . . . But, I understand your motive behind it. I've personally seen the more wealthy of Aequor Domus display a lack of empathy for the plight of the underclass that resides on the outer circle, while showing great affection towards technology and their material possessions. But I can assure you, Amaru. That is not who I am. Rose, my father and I are working to make things better within the dome and around the world. It's not easy, but it's better than nothing." Stan explained to Amaru as Amaru began to smile.