Chapter 1 – The Confrontation
As she pulled up her work email account one last time before leaving for the day, Sariah Delphi saw that three emails had magically appeared in the past thirty minutes. Email was the bane of workplace existence; she was sure of it. If it were somehow possible to reclaim all of the time she had spent sorting through useless workplace emails, it would probably add at least six months onto her lifespan. One of the emails was the monthly company newsletter, which she ignored. The second was a reminder about cleaning out old items that may have been left in the break room refrigerator – information that might have been useful if she ever kept anything in the refrigerator overnight, which she didn’t. The third email was from the assembly section of the R&D department.
“Please let the new prototype be ready for testing,” she said as she closed her eyes, and then opened them back up to click hopefully on the last email. “Yes!” she exclaimed as she read the good news.
The prototype for project DB45 will be ready for you to pick up for testing tomorrow by 5:00 p.m.
Thanks,
Jake
Build Technician
R&D Assembly Department
Nomel Robotics, Inc.
Project DB45 was her baby. The ‘DB’ stood for ‘Domestic Bliss’, which was the codename for the most advanced domestic humanoid robot on the planet. It was designed to look, talk, and move like an actual human being while serving as a cook, butler, maid, and all-around domestic support appliance. While they had achieved great advances in the look and feel of the DB45, the most advanced part of this new prototype was its advanced AI capabilities. This machine would learn and adapt. It would learn your preferences for housekeeping, what foods you liked and how to prepare them, and it could even pick out an outfit for you based upon your individual style. After having had one of these robots living with you for a week, it would know your habits, patterns, and preferences even better than you knew them yourself.
She had been working on the software updates for this latest iteration for over a year. Her programming would be coupled with the very latest robotic designs and computer processing chips that Nomel Robotics, Inc. had to offer. If everything went well during this final test, the DB45 would be released for production in time for the holiday buying season, and then everything would change. She couldn’t stop smiling as she thought about it.
After punching out from work, she was looking forward to getting home for the evening. A glass of wine, a warm bubble bath, and a chance to read the next novel in the stack of library books that had been collecting dust beside her bed. She had been working ten hour days for the past month, getting all the code revisions tested and ready to upload to the DB45 prototype, and hadn’t had a chance to relax and read in a while. She had just finished uploading the final code updates to Assembly that afternoon, in fact, and now she was ready for a break.
As she dug around in her purse for her key fob to open the car door, she almost jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She drew in her breath sharply and turned around to see her ex-boyfriend, Jerry Baldachi, towering over her. “Jerry. Don’t startle me like that.”
Jerry didn’t look happy. Sariah had broken off their three-month long relationship over coffee at lunchtime today, and he hadn’t taken it well.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, somewhat irritated.
There was a look in Jerry’s eyes that Sariah couldn’t quite place and it worried her.
“I understand why you wanted to break things off. I just want you to know that I get it,” he began. “You’ve been under a lot of pressure with this project at work, and you need a break.”
“Jerry, you’re a nice guy,” she began, “but I don’t want a break. I don’t want us to see each other romantically anymore. O.k.? I tried to explain that at...”
“No!” Jerry interrupted her, raising his voice. He grabbed both of her upper arms and began to squeeze hard. “We aren’t breaking up,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Jerry, you’re hurting me,” Sariah said as he pushed her up against the car. “Let me go,” she pleaded as she tried unsuccessfully to free herself from his powerful grip.
“Listen to me,” he said as he continued to squeeze her arms tightly, “We’re not breaking up. You just need a break. So I’ll leave you alone for a couple of days, and I’ll come over Sunday, and we can go out to the park. O.k.?”
He smiled at her, and a chill ran down her spine. It was an evil smile. She didn’t respond to his question – partly out of shock, and partly because she didn’t want to give him any more reason to continue hurting her by saying ‘no’. She was scared.
Then, just as quickly as he had exploded at her, he seemed to calm down, and the maniacal look went out of his eyes. He released the pressure from her arms and began rubbing them gently. It made her skin crawl.
“Now, you go home and get some rest,” he said as he nodded his head up and down. He smiled the pleasant smile that she had been attracted to when she’d first met him. “I’ll see you Sunday,” he continued. Without waiting for a reply, he turned around and walked away.
Sariah stayed leaning against the car as she watched Jerry leave, too stunned to move. When a co-worker parked farther down the same row said goodnight to her a few moments later, she jerked around in the direction the voice had come from. “Yeah, see you tomorrow,” she said absentmindedly.
Opening her purse, she retrieved her key fob and opened the car door, got inside, and sat down in the back seat.
“Good afternoon. Where shall I take you today, Sariah?” the car’s navigation software asked as she hit the button to shut and lock the back door.
“Home,” she replied.
“Of course. We will arrive your destination in approximately twenty-nine minutes and seventeen seconds according to the latest traffic estimates.”
Since the city planners had switched to an all-driverless car system in 2030, traffic delays had been virtually eliminated. All vehicles operating within the city limits had to be driven by a vehicle navigation system that was integrated into the city’s traffic software. Routing was accomplished in real-time as drivers gave instructions about where they wanted to go. Traffic was managed according to complex algorithms to ensure against traffic jams and provide 99.5% accuracy in estimated arrival times.
Sariah tapped the touch-screen on the back of the driver’s seat and pulled up the phone app, hitting the speed-dial icon for her best friend, Jasmine.
“Hey, baby, what’s up?” Jasmine exclaimed as her face appeared on the screen. Even with what had just happened to her, Sariah smiled. That was one of the reasons they got along so well. Jasmine was the Ying to her Yang. The bright and bubbly flip-side to Sariah’s often serious and brooding nature. “Whoa,” Jasmine continued after seeing her friend’s countenance. “What happened to you?”
“Remember that short and sweet break-up coffee earlier today? It turned into a double-feature. Jerry just accosted me in the parking lot at work. I think he bruised both of my arms, he squeezed me so hard.”
“Say whaaat?! That jerk. I knew there was something wrong with that boy. I’m coming over, and I’m bringing my mace.”
“Thanks. I could use some company tonight. I was really scared, Jaz. I mean, you know how big he is and how small I am. He pushed me up against the car and kept going on about how we aren’t breaking up...” Tears started coming down Sariah’s cheeks, and she reached up to wipe them away.
“Oh, baby, don’t you worry about a thing. I’ll be at your house before you are.” Jasmine turned away from the camera momentarily as she gave her own navigation system a new destination, and then she looked back at the screen, concern showing on her face. “I’m ordering some Chinese, and we’re gonna have a movie night!”
Sariah let out a short laugh. “Thanks, Jaz. You always know how to make me feel better.”
“Hey, us girls have to stick together. I’ll see you in twenty. Gotta let you go so I can order the Chinese.”
“O.k., bye.”
The screen went blank, and Sariah leaned back into the seat. She closed her eyes and tried to think of anything but what had just happened with Jerry.