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HumanoidLoading...
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By Elizabeth FrickLoading...
“Will you do it, will you help me stop my father?”
I look at Irely's big, pleading eyes. I want to help her, I really do, but I just can’t be sure if she’s telling the truth. How am I supposed to know that she isn’t a robot, that she isn’t working for her dad?
“I’m not working for my father. You remember how I talked to my father when I found out, don’t you?”
***
7 Years Ago
I walk down the street in an abandoned town. I guess that shortcut I took didn’t turn out too well. I hear something. Footsteps. I duck into an alleyway.
“Greho, you have to keep this quiet. If this information reaches the public all order would collapse. There would be riots, killing, maybe even war.”
There is a girl about my age - 6 or 7, walking with two older men. The one who strongly resembles her is probably her father. She now walks in front of the men.
“But father, you and Hilo have to tell the public. It’s their right to know.”
“Irely, if the public finds out that half of the people they’ve loved for the past three years aren’t really people, there would be an uproar.”
“But -”
“No. It’s just too risky. Now stop arguing and go home.”
She angrily runs ahead of the men and glances my way. I duck into the alley even further. Phew - she must’ve not seen me.
The men stop walking and continue to talk about the robots - how they can feel emotions, reproduce, and how they even pass for humans in medical tests. The scientists had worked really hard on them, but not hard enough on keeping them contained.
***
How am I to know that Irely hasn’t changed, that she isn’t lying to my face this very moment. It’s just too risky. But there’s a feeling that I can’t ignore, a feeling that I could do something to help, not just sitting here waiting for someone else to do something.
I look at Irely's big, pleading eyes. I want to help her, I really do, but I just can’t be sure if she’s telling the truth. How am I supposed to know that she isn’t a robot, that she isn’t working for her dad?
“I’m not working for my father. You remember how I talked to my father when I found out, don’t you?”
***
7 Years Ago
I walk down the street in an abandoned town. I guess that shortcut I took didn’t turn out too well. I hear something. Footsteps. I duck into an alleyway.
“Greho, you have to keep this quiet. If this information reaches the public all order would collapse. There would be riots, killing, maybe even war.”
There is a girl about my age - 6 or 7, walking with two older men. The one who strongly resembles her is probably her father. She now walks in front of the men.
“But father, you and Hilo have to tell the public. It’s their right to know.”
“Irely, if the public finds out that half of the people they’ve loved for the past three years aren’t really people, there would be an uproar.”
“But -”
“No. It’s just too risky. Now stop arguing and go home.”
She angrily runs ahead of the men and glances my way. I duck into the alley even further. Phew - she must’ve not seen me.
The men stop walking and continue to talk about the robots - how they can feel emotions, reproduce, and how they even pass for humans in medical tests. The scientists had worked really hard on them, but not hard enough on keeping them contained.
***
How am I to know that Irely hasn’t changed, that she isn’t lying to my face this very moment. It’s just too risky. But there’s a feeling that I can’t ignore, a feeling that I could do something to help, not just sitting here waiting for someone else to do something.