Chapter 10 · Continued
Back to the Factory
Chris turned the laptop so she could see the latest images in the cache.
Metal support brackets. Internal wiring. The inside wall of Chester’s chassis. One blurry frame appeared to show a tiny spinning cooling fan.
Jane burst out laughing. “Oh my God. Chester has been documenting his own intestines.”
“MOO MART VALUES INTERNAL QUALITY ASSURANCE,” Chester announced.
Chris pointed at the screen. “Buddy, your camera has been staring at your rib cage for hours.”
Cam observed the damaged mount. “The stabilization assembly failed during impact.”
“Yep.” Chris carefully repositioned it. “And that may have accidentally prevented a much larger problem.”
Jane looked toward Cam. “See? Chester protected you.”
The little yellow bot beeped.
“MOO MART PROTECTS VALUED CUSTOMERS.”
Chris snorted. “I’m beginning to think this thing believes everything is customer service.”
“I wonder how he does that,” Jane said, watching Chester’s status light blink.
“It’s mostly programmed trigger recognition,” Chris explained as he secured the camera mount. “He identifies certain words and conversational patterns, then selects a vaguely appropriate Moo Mart response.”
Jane smiled. “So he’s basically a talking advertisement.”
“Pretty much.”
As if on cue, Chester chirped proudly.
“MOO MART VALUES CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT.”
Chris pointed at the bot without looking away from the laptop. “See?”
“That’s both impressive and incredibly annoying.”
“Welcome to commercial AI.”
Chris recalibrated the camera to compensate for the cracked lens, then worked through the damaged navigation files. After several minutes, he leaned back.
“I think I’ve recovered enough of his homing software to function again.”
Jane sat forward. “You fixed it?”
“Mostly.”
He turned the laptop toward her, showing a reconstructed local map.
“The route data was corrupted during the crash, but the core return routines are intact. Chester appears to operate within roughly a three-mile autonomous radius of Moo Mart.”
Jane looked toward the battered little bot. “So if we get him close enough…”
“He should be able to find his own way home.”
Chester beeped proudly.
“MOO MART GUARANTEES FAST RETURN SERVICE.”
Chris smirked. “That one was actually relevant.”
Cam studied the map. “The reconstructed route appears stable.”
“Stable enough for a yogurt robot,” Chris agreed.
Jane looked between them. “So we’re seriously going to sneak a runaway dairy bot back into civilization tonight.”
Chris closed the laptop. “I’m trying very hard not to think about that sentence.”
“I know where there’s an abandoned restaurant a few miles from Moo Mart,” Jane said. “It’s Saturday night. Nobody should be on that back road.”
Chris nodded. “I’ll drive out and drop him there.”