The Stories of Ibis by Hiroshi Yamamoto

Author:Hiroshi Yamamoto
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: FIC028000
Publisher: Haikasoru/VIZ Media
Published: 2011-07-05T21:00:00+00:00

Five fifteen PM. At last the day’s work was done. Evening care was handled by those on the late and night shifts.

Shion had been given a seat of her own in the corner of the nurses’ station, next to the methanol tank. She would wait there until morning.

Her uniform had been custom made so it could be opened on the left side. She opened it herself and pulled the compress off her side, exposing the connector underneath. Then she extended a tube from the tank, connected it to the socket on the end of the connector, and refilled her fuel tank.

When her tank was full, she closed her uniform up again and sat down on the chair.

“Am I finished for the day?”

I hesitated but saw Takami nodding. “Yes,” I said.

“Shutting down,” she said. For a few seconds she stared into space, but then her eyes slowly closed, and she stopped moving. It looked like she had fallen asleep.

“That’s basically how she’ll end every day,” Takami said. “There’s an activation switch on the back of her neck, but don’t touch that except when you turn her on. Much like a computer, if you don’t shut her down properly, it could cause problems. And if you need to perform an emergency shutdown—”

“Klaatu?”

“Yes. And if people start getting creeped out by her at night, cover her with a cloth like this.” Takami calmly draped a white sheet over Shion’s head. Now she looked like a ghost. Even creepier.

“I think I’ll let the night shift staff decide.”

“Were there any other problems?” Takami asked, clearly expecting there not to be any. But I was not that nice. Nothing mattered to me except the safety and comfort of our residents. He was getting my honest opinion.

“When you practiced changing diapers, did you use real poop?”

Takami’s smile froze. We’d drawn the curtains while changing diapers, and he hadn’t seen her at work.

“Um… no, no, I think we used miso.”

“I thought so. The way she wiped the senior’s bottoms was a little unusual.”

“Uh… well, I’m sure she’ll get used to that soon enough, right?”

“But the biggest problem is definitely going to be communication.” This had been bothering me all day. “I honestly didn’t think this was going to be that hard a job,” I said. And not just because I was worn out. “I just thought I’d have to tell the robot what to do. Nobody said anything about teaching it how to have a heart.”

“I do apologize. We should have said,” Takami said, bowing his head. “But… humans are the same, aren’t they? We all learn to communicate by being with other humans. Shion’s just left the lab, so how is she supposed to know any of this stuff? I promise you, she has the capacity to learn it.”

“Then why didn’t you teach it at the lab?”

“Um, well…” he stammered. “I’m not…”

“Not what?”

“I’m not that good at talking to people myself. I didn’t… know what to teach her.”

I gaped at him.

“And not just me. All the lab’s staff are total engineering nerds.

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