Chapter 6

  “Dammit.”

  “Jack? Did you need me?” Nurse Edna appeared again. It startled me when she poked her head in with her sadistic looking grin.

  “Oh, it’s you. Are you here to make fun of me again?” I asked.

  “I would never make fun of a patient,” she looked horrified, but somehow she had a mocking facial expression. She then briefly looked over her shoulder to make sure no other humans or androids caught her acting that way. She was interesting too because she looked very innocent, but wasn’t once people weren’t looking.

  She was a bit subtle though and sassy. But not cold or cruel.

  “So when do I go home? And when can I move again without screwing up my back?” I asked.

  “Well I’d give it a few more days. Right now you are pretty well off though. You appear to be healing nicely and your swelling has gone down a lot,” she noted seriously. She was still working and going around the room at the same time. She was pretty good at keeping the room clean and checking everything more than once. I did like that she was thorough and didn’t just take my temperature once, and then my blood pressure.

  It’s also funny how despite technological breakthroughs that a lot of nurses still checked blood pressure manually. Is that because it’s the culture of making someone feel treated? Your human tissue looks young for your age Jack. It pleases me that you don’t show signs of drug abuse or gang trauma, or other vices.”

  “Oh.”

  She smiled wickedly again.

  “Well I was thinking. What gives with the whole bit on some crime fund? I think the doc mentioned it,” I said.

  She paused for a sec, looking off into space after letting my arm slip down back on the bed. “I am unaware of such a thing. Please standby while I link in. Processing. Processing…yes. I was able to link in and tell what that means. There is a violent crime fund for victims that may qualify through the government. Your case appears to qualify. However your government is notorious for false promises so I’m uncertain as to how much the written text differs from the wyer mongering, and openly broken promises and long lines. And corruption. Typically minorities seem to be let down the most according to historical data, until about fifty years ago, then they seemed to be the only ones represented in some things. If they can work. Also in regards to the crime fund; it also will help cover your mortgage payment for the time period that you are in the hospital but not to exceed a month after your stay here ends and a minimum of one month, unless you qualify for special circumstances.”

  “Oh.” I yawned. I itched all over my back, but I couldn’t get to it. It was torture. And at the same time I was super sleepy. I still wasn’t able to move.

  “So how do I get that taken care of when I can’t even move?” I pleaded.

  “I would be happy to help you,” she said in monotone, but approaching me. She stopped about three feet away from me, but remained standing up facing the window. She has that Cheshire grin again.

  Is she…some kind of punk attitude… maybe made subtle?

  “Really?”

  “No, but I have to say that as a standard response. I do believe it would help my job efficiency to be able to do an online application for you. The humans in the next couple of rooms are also more degraded and less pleasing on my eye circuits than you are Jack. Does that please you to know that the other humans have more symptoms of no discipline? Would you like that Jack?” she fshed a nicer small than she usually does. She’s moved over to stand near me, after going over her other tasks and making notes in the hospital bed datapad, which contains my patient charts.

  “I’d really appreciate that,” I responded.

  “Just so you know, I have boundaries with patients that are strict. No touching my…posterior circuitry. It may trigger a self defense reaction,” she said.

  “What?”

  “We may proceed,” she said ignoring my st surprised look.

  “I wasn’t going to do anything wrong!” I defended.

  “Sure...”

  We went through the questions and were almost done with the net link form. It was fairly quick, because she can enter in the data very quickly and precisely. She only had to check the spelling of my st name, and of the street address.

  “So I see on the form and in your patient records that you are a mag auto mechanic? You also have no wife, girlfriend, or android unit at home?” she asked.

  “Eh? It asks if I have a girlfriend or android? I thought it only asked marital status?” I said, being confused.

  “We have to maintain accuracy in these things Jack,” she said finally. She had been slow to answer. It didn’t make sense to me still.

  “Yeah, but how am I supposed to do my job when I can’t even feed myself? I can’t bring in someone expensive to pay to the shop right now either,” I think I was really scared.

  “Sorry Jack. But it will get better,” she assured me.

  “Are you just saying that?” I shot back.

  She avoided the question. “I’m sorry you are having trouble Jack. Hang in there.”

  My family wouldn’t be much help either.

  Years ago my family had split up and gone different ways. Mom had died, and so had dad. The other kids were raised with trying to push each other around. I couldn’t even guess the st time I’d heard from my siblings. I think I received a donation request for my brother’s kid’s baby shower three years ago and nothing for the four years before that. They only showed up or sent something when they wanted to demand something.

  I used to send them Christmas cards years ago, sometimes with a small tip in them. But it was a waste of time because they never reciprocated. Never said things. Never anything positive.

  My sisters hadn’t talked to me in even longer, despite numerous attempts on all of them at leaving messages on their datapad phone mail systems. I ended up giving up after the first few dozen times getting no response.

  I guess not even a near death hospital visit could shake them.

  “It will take some time for them to process this online form. Also its good that you applied earlier on your own before the hospital billing had the chance to do it for you, teehee,” she sounded sort of evil in a way. Sometimes if I joke about hospital billing I can make the patients need more bdder maintenance from fear. Even today people remembered the nightmares of like over fifty years ago when medical billing almost brought the country to its knees. Things were better since then, but it was still taking some time to get back to helping people accept that hospitals weren’t supposed to be a get rich quick scheme.

  “Your programmer must have had a very colorful personality,” I noted.

  “Oh you really think so? I don’t get comments like that often. I’ll pretend it’s a compliment instead of …not one,” she said with another slight nod.

  “Are all androids good looking like you?” I wondered. She had nice curves and didn’t look over twenty. She was really, really good looking. The others were too. I wonder how that worked.

  “Well perhaps if you buy one you will find out for yourself,” she said and left the room. She sort of winked at me when leaving but it was subtle but sadistic mockery, and prankster written all over, and therefore not to be trusted. She was clearly messing with me.

  “Jeez, we weren’t done talking,” I sighed. I guess I can’t take all her time. Since the hospital gave her chores to do and a quota she may have a lot of pressure for things to do.

  …

  She came back the next day. Or so I thought.

  “Hello sir, how are you doing? I’m Nurse Emma,” she said. She looked just like nurse Edna. Like an identical twin. But I had heard normally domestic androids are all customized appearances…

  She fshed a bright smile.

  Wow the difference was staggering. Her personality was completely different, though her base model was the same before customization. Even more so, her posture was more positive and less dark. She stood straight up, with her legs straight while Nurse Edna would sort of mope around and not look at you directly, or acting like she would sneak up on you. Or just subtle like messing with you.

  The way Emma acted seemed more straight ced, even though her face and body were the same it was almost like she was saluting in a way with taught muscles.

  “Fine. And you?” I responded normally.

  “Uh, wow, usually people don’t carry a conversation with us long. Didn’t think you’d answer me. They want something and give us orders and then it’s on to the next room,” she said brightly.

  Her mini-skirt uniform was very nice looking. Maybe a bit shorter than the other nurses. She approached the bed. “What can I do for you?”

  “Uh, Nurse Edna said she’d put in an application for relief funds for violent crime victims for me? Can you help me with that? Please,” I hesitated a bit.

  “Oh, let me check. Processing…processing…Please wait. Standby. Net interface loading. Identify confirmed. Standby.”

  It took her a full two minutes while she didn’t move though I could see her eyes going left to right as if she was reading something and blinking normally like a human. “It appears your application hasn’t been processed by the government yet. I’ll check back tomorrow OK?” she said to me while patting my arm, acting like a normal human again. Wow, were all of them this nice? Comparing her and the other one was like bck and white even though they had the same face and body.

  I confess I had a hard time not staring at the short mini-skirt look the android nurses had. It was very pleasing to see.

  “So what happened to Edna? Isn’t she here?” I asked.

  “Well would you like to speak with her? I can inquire as to here present position on the net link if you like?” she smiled happily.

  “Uh no, that’s OK. I get it. Actually its fine talking to you. I just wondered why it suddenly changed I guess. But you haven’t done anything wrong. You seem nice too,” I said.

  “Just a reminder that hospital staff aren’t permitted to have retions with patients,” she fshed her smile at me again.

  “I didn’t mean it like that,” I said. But she was the one that touched me. Why did she say that?

  “Oh I’m sorry. My mistake, please forgive me. Some of the older male patients can be a bit aggressive. It’s became part of my greetings and disclosures to avoid being manhandled. I dislike maintenance down time and its put on my record. If I have too much maintenance then the higher ups may have a higher probability of having me scrapped. I apologize if I’ve caused you any personal stress,” she said sincerely.

  “How is it that you look so …human? It’s almost impossible to tell you from a normal person. I mean other than no humans are that good looking. But your skin looks real. Almost too perfect,” I asked. It would have impossible to tell that she was an android if I hadn’t see all the clones of nurse Edna and how Edna had measured my temperature with her finger and no other device. But there were things that did show up once I’d noticed those things. Like she had a tendency to walk with such a straight posture that was almost too perfect, and her chest was sort of puffed up in her posture as she walked that for a normal person would be like they had their muscles tightened all the time.

  “Well a lot of us can blend in with society now. If you didn’t know I was an android already this conversation would be completely different. You might see me in a grocery store and not even be able to tell I was me. Of course it’s hard that …certain models all look the same if the owner doesn’t pay for customization and that can hurt blending in when people figure that out,” she answered.

  “Do you go to the grocery store too?” I thought androids didn’t eat.

  “I do errands sometimes to help out the other hospital staff. My programming encompasses a wide variety of applications that are possible for me to do. I can help with lifting, do complex things like math and calcutor work, solve logic and reasoning, help the doctors with diagnosis even though they would never admit it, and run household errands outside the home.”

  “Wow. That’s amazing.”

  “Anything a human can do. I can do better,” she said. Was that pride I was seeing in her gait? It was sort of a showing off kind of gait. Her personality seemed to like it when others admired her body?

  “Well…just don’t let me die like this and I’ll agree with whatever you want. I don’t want to be homeless or end up in a ditch if I can’t get home by myself either,” I rasped. Come to think of it, a huge bst of fatigue was hitting me really hard right now. I was probably going to go to sleep soon.

  “Here let me help you eat that jello,” she stated carefully with a very caring smile and tender expression. Wow. An expression like that was probably worth every penny to whoever bought her. It was this look on her face that had no doubt made the ‘sold’ stamp on her contract. Very carefully she picked up a small food tray and then began spoon feeding me jello. Her touch was light and warm, sometimes brushing up on my chin. Was it some type of comfort psychology programming? It would make sense for her designers to study human behavior and more especially nurturing behavior and skills.

  And it appeared to be working.

  “There you go. You can do it,” she said happily.

  I didn’t say much back. It had my concentration. It’s also very nice to be spoon fed your food, even if it is an android. A very nice looking, beautiful android in a short nurse uniform skirt is very hot. When she had brushed up against me, her skin didn’t feel pstic. It was like the real thing? And it was warm, and this wasn’t even a new model.

  Her hair was amazing too.

  When I was a kid people made fun of androids for being bulky and looking like something from a robot wars cartoon, but this wasn’t even close to that.

  “Well some models aren’t able to blend in as well as others. I’m part of the Meliferra series,” she stated.

  “What’s that mean?” I asked.

  She helped me with one more bite from the jello spoon, while she expined carefully, “Meliferra as you know is one of the android manufacturers. Some would say, the best manufacturer out there for artificial people. It’s partly a py on words because both Meliferra and Mitsubishi start with M and have several sylbles. And as many people know Mitsubishi Heavy Android Industries has led the industry in android technology for some time. And some think Melliferra came from Mitsubishi. If that’s even true...”

  “I’d heard that. So Meliferra is the Japanese android company, but who makes the American models?” I asked.

  She appeared to consider her words carefully. “As you know about fifty years ago the American government experienced a shakedown and near social colpse when their politicians universally were bought or bribed by many corporations to move all of their jobs overseas. The basic scheme was after they got out of office they would receive their ‘rewards’ then in the form of big payouts and a whole lot of different shell corporations feeing secret funds too. I’m surprised people didn’t try to catch it sooner but they waited too long. I bring this up so you understand it’s not my personal views but something that is very sad. America cks the infrastructure necessary to manufacture androids. You being a mechanic know that many of the cars aren’t actually made here and you almost lost that too. Or did really but then got some of it back. Thus all androids are imported from Germany, Russia, or Japan.” She said the st part apologetically.

  “Oh. I thought there was one small company for awhile?” I said.

  “Well, there was a corporation named TShell, after its innovative skeletal cage and skull design for androids to promote durability. Named after the Tucker who created an American gas powered automobile about a hundred years ago but that went bankrupt due to the same forces that sold America’s industries overseas. Sorry,” she added.

  Unlike the other android this one had a genuine look of ‘worry emution’ on her face. She seemed attentive too, standing close to me, and wanting to help instead of being compelled to help.

  “My dad used to tell me about the riots of those days when I was a kid,” I said.

  “Well at any rate, to answer your question, Meliferra has several series. You can check their site for more details. I can also send you the link,” she chirped brightly.

  “What are you trying to sell me something?” I asked suspiciously.

  She looked a bit surprised, “oh no, absolutely not. I would never do that. But androids are artificial people and not just robots. We are programmed to serve humans and help them. We are also programmed to be aware of other androids needs and help propagate our own species. I can’t help but notice it will take a long time for you to recover from your injury and this is a situation where androids might help and be needed?” she shrugged as if in question.

  “But it’s your decision Jack. Tell me what you’d like to do.”

  But she had said, propagate their own species? Weird? I’d never heard a robot talk like that before. Needless to say, it was…a bit disturbing in some ways. She shouldn’t be able to think her own kind as a species should she?

  I was worried about how I’d run my shop. I couldn’t just bring in anyone. And they’d for sure try to shake me down for money when it was a low budget shop.

  And that meant… I was worried about groceries.

  “I’m tired. I need to sleep,” I said.

  I felt very stressed out. So tired. If I slept a bit more, then I could think clearly.

  It was like how deep would this whole go? She was very subtle but the hint was there. She was suggesting I use an android as if I needed a walking chair, or paralysis robot caging around my legs. There was a guy way back about ten years ago who was hit by a car that used to jog a lot all over town. They’d put him in like a sort of exoskeleton robotic leg carapace over fitting system that would move his body for him from the waist down and hold him in from a special back cage support.

  I didn’t want to do that. People made fun of that guy constantly. And then ter some gang ran over him a bunch of times for ughs.