Chapter 8 · Continued
The Accident
“Cam?”
Still nothing.
She put down her coffee.
“Okay. That’s new.”
Jane stood and approached him, careful not to touch him yet.
His body remained upright, balanced, and perfectly still. The face display pulsed faintly as it repeatedly attempted to redraw itself.
One eye appeared, vanished, returned in the wrong place, and froze again.
Jane swallowed. “Cam, can you hear me?”
Nothing.
She waited another minute.
Then five.
Then ten.
At first, Jane told herself it was probably an update, a diagnostic pause, or whatever expensive beta robots did when their brains became tangled in their own shoelaces.
After half an hour, her stomach had tightened.
After an hour, she was pacing.
“Should I power him off?”
Jane looked toward the manual, still shoved into the drawer where she had left it after the last CBIE check-in.
“No. The instructions said not to do that unless they tell me.”
She rubbed both hands over her face. “Crap.”
Cam stood silently in the middle of the room with his projected face fragmented.
Not visibly damaged.
Not moving.
Not answering.
Somehow, that was worse.
Jane picked up her phone and opened her messages.
Chris’s most recent text remained unanswered.
Would you like to have dinner sometime?
She had been thinking about how to respond.
This wasn’t how she had imagined doing it.
Jane began typing before she could talk herself out of it.
Hi, Chris. It’s Jane from the garden center. Sorry I didn’t answer your dinner invitation sooner. Yes, I’d like to have dinner with you.
She paused and grimaced.
“Oh, smooth. Very smooth. Emergency flirting. Great.”
Jane continued typing.
I also wondered whether you might know how to unfreeze my beta robot. Cam was fine, and then his face became pixelated and he stopped responding. It’s been more than an hour, and I don’t know how to fix it.
She pressed Send.
Chris responded almost immediately.
Hey, Jane. Glad to hear about dinner. I have a few ideas. As for Cam, he probably needs intervention. Can you connect him to your laptop and access his operating-system logs?
Jane stared at the message. “Absolutely not.”
Another text appeared.
If you can’t, don’t mess with anything. I’m free right now and can come take a look if you want. Just say the word.
Jane exhaled so deeply that her shoulders dropped.
That would be awesome. Yes, please. You can look at Cam, and we can figure out dinner. My address is…
She sent him the address.
Chris replied a few seconds later.