House bots

DW01 Beyond The Frontiers/03, 10

Gadgets Nickie bought to keep the Skaine ship clean. Purchased on Minerva Trading outpost. Different colors. In front of her sat four little house bots. Fully assembled but not yet activated, each was a different metallic color. They were neatly bullet-shaped, with several little arms recessed within their plating and an array of circular sensors around their tops and bottoms that looked like eyes. They were almost absurdly adorable, which made perfect sense for commercial bots designed for household use. They didn’t come any higher than Nickie’s knees in their powered-off state, and already she couldn’t help but think they looked like they were napping.

With a slow sigh, Nickie patted one of them on its rounded top. What do you think, Meredith? Could we link them with your systems? It would be helpful to give them the schematics to the ship, Meredith acknowledged. Otherwise, you would have to hunt down the blueprints and upload them manually. Plus then you’ll have your own army of tiny robots, Nickie replied, grinning. You could sic them on anyone who tried to board the ship without permission.

I’m not sure what a quartet of cleaner bots could do against an invading force, but I suppose you’re not wrong, Meredith acknowledged dryly. Nickie scoffed. You just need to have a sense of imagination about it, is all, she assured the EI, sitting back and leaning her weight on her hands. Let’s get these little guys started up. It’s a mess in here, so this should be as good a trial run for them as anything.

You certainly didn’t make any efforts to be neat about unboxing them, Meredith remarked, but she did as she was requested regardless. She dug through the ship’s storage banks until she found the ship’s blueprints. Once one of them is properly set up it should communicate with the others, but for me to set it up you will need to turn one of them on, Meredith pointed out. I can’t use the wireless network if it’s inactive. Nickie flashed a thumbs-up to thin air and picked up the bot she had most recently assembled, still sitting in a clear space of the floor between her knees. She turned it this way and that, flipping it upside down and peering at it from every angle as she looked for an On switch.

I can do it,” she snapped aloud before Meredith even had a chance to offer any advice. She set it back down on the floor, squinted at it, and took note of how its rounded head was slightly raised above the rest of it. She curled one hand over the top of it and pressed down. The head lowered a few millimeters before popping back to its usual spot. It hummed quietly and played a merry little jingle as its sensors lit up, then rose a few centimeters off its base and spun in a cheery circle. It turned until the screen on its front was facing Nickie. Hello! Thank you for waking me up! Please select a network!

Nickie tugged it closer and tapped the buttons on the screen until it connected to the ship’s primary wireless network. All yours, Nickie announced, leaning back on her hands again. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the progress of Meredith’s work scroll past, until the little bot dinged like a caffeinated microwave when the upload of the blueprint finished. Immediately, the bot’s various arms popped out of their casings as it started picking up the scattered pieces of trash. It trundled off in the direction of the nearest trash chute once its arms were full, and Nickie turned her attention to the other three bots. One by one she activated them and connected them to the network, but she left it up to the first bot to fill them in on what they were supposed to be doing. Soon enough, the three newly-activated bots were laden with trash and on their way to the chute, following the first one.

Grim loved them. Beeping and buzzing, the four new house bots bumbled into the kitchen behind her. He simply plopped on the floor and started cooing over the nearest one. “I’ll call you Brandy,” he informed the copper-colored one and laughed in delight when it continued loading the carts for him. The silver one, the gold one, and the red one (summarily dubbed Lefty, Lucky, and Bradley respectively) trundled in its wake to help.