Ani-droids by Rick Griffin

Author:Rick Griffin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: scifi, adventure, mystery, robot, computers, mouse, furry, otter, female lead, anthro

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“Should be good,” Million said, crossing over the middle seat and passing by me. “I hacked the car to render it entirely deaf to anything we say in here, so we can speak freely now.”

So, now able to speak freely, and still slumped in the rear passenger seat, I asked Lily: “ . . . Why didn’t you tell me?”

We’d been driving for a good ten minutes, having left Bobby on the lawn to . . . rust, or something. I didn’t know what to think anymore. Of course it made sense that my closest human friend was actually a robot. I was apparently just like that.

Lily nervously drove. Her ears had flattened, ashamed. I was so angry, but not for the reasons I ought to have been. I felt betrayed.

And Lily didn’t answer me. She didn’t have a good answer, I was certain.

Million entered the trunk with Dimes—with one of the back seats lowered, the trunk was accessible from the rear seat—and busied herself with whatever she was doing to the rabbit. Eo sat in the front passenger seat, quietly twiddling her fingers. Clearly, nobody wanted to talk about Bobby.

“Million,” Eo asked, “are you doing okay?”

Million’s ears twitched weakly, and she blinked, her slitted pupils refocusing separately from each other. “No. I’m at five percent battery, still fixing damage to my CPU, and I’m trying to disable Dimes’s nervous system so she doesn’t kill us all when she wakes up, while hacking into the traffic database. Oh, and I’m talking to you now, too.”

Lily pointed. “There are charging cables inside the glove box,” she said. “We can hook her up to the car’s battery to give her a little extra juice. I don’t want Million shutting down on us.”

“Mira,” Eo said, turning around in her seat and holding the cable out to me. “Can you give this to Million so she can plug herself in?”

I didn’t. I stared at Eo.

Eo’s ears wilted. “Mira . . . ”

“I want a goddamn answer,” I said. “I thought for a little while that you three were free to speak your minds, but now you’re acting like the Behavior Code rules you all over again. Is this even a Behavior Code thing? That we’re not supposed to learn that we were robots all along? Is that why you keep knocking us out to administer first aid?”

“Well, in part . . . ” Lily started.

“So you’re part of this conspiracy anyway!” My voice was getting pitchy and erratic. “And you didn’t even bother to tell me. Is this why hospitals have always creeped me out—because they’re actually human factories, or something? I hurt my hands in the car wreck—if I dug any deeper, would I have seen circuits just underneath?”

“You’re not a human-like, Mira,” Lily insisted.

“Why are you even calling them that!” I snapped. “And how can I even trust you if you’ve been lying to me all this time?”

“Because Jack isn’t a human-like, either!” Million shouted at me through the car speakers. “And, my god, I wish he were!”

I had to freeze at that, and I looked at her through the gap in the back seat.

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