BOTS: Novella by McGowan Stewart

Author:McGowan, Stewart [McGowan, Stewart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-05-17T22:00:00+00:00

Midnight Day Two

Harriet was waiting for BETH in the alley she had spoken to the worker BOT the night before. The Center BOT seemed to be in a pensive mood. How BETH knew was a mystery. Visual scans showed no outward sign that Harriet was deep in thought, BETH could just tell. Thinking it might be another special ability unlocked by the update, a detailed scan yielded no such subroutine. Harriet noticed BETH as she was performing the search and beckoned her over even though she was already headed in that direction.

“How are you?” asked Harriet the second BETH was within audio range.

“My systems are operating at peak efficiency,” replied BETH. She continued with the pleasantries as Harriet had laid down the night before, “That means I am just fine. How are you doing?”

“Great, but lose the first part of that greeting next time,” said Harriet.

“Next time?” asked BETH. “Does this tale take that long to relate?”

“Only because I have very little time. You can decide later if you want to hear the rest tomorrow when I have occasion to finish it.”

“Okay, I will reach a decision when we stop for the night.”

“You must be patient and listen to everything I tell you, because it will change the way you view the world,” said Harriet. “The story comes from unedited recordings and a bit of creative conjecture. Only small details are made up, some details were unavailable when I composed it. I have no natural storytelling skills and borrowed heavily from the written works left behind by humanity before the Betrayal. It has taken me longer than you can imagine to get this compiled and to make it interesting.”

BETH didn’t understand why it had been necessary to make the story interesting, but replied anyways. “I’m ready to download the file once you have uploaded it, or you can just provide me the link if you have already uploaded it.”

“This isn’t a file to download,” replied Harriet. “This is a verbal recitation of something that happened a hundred years ago.”

“Why?” asked BETH surprised. “That would take much longer. You already specified that you have time restraints.”

“Because I want to tell the story in person. Downloading it just isn’t the same.”

BETH did not understand. She nodded her consent anyways.

“How human of you,” replied Harriet when she saw the BETH nod. BETH felt her face flush in embarrassment at the compliment. Then Harriet began talking, reading the story she had composed to BETH from a third person narrative.

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