Friday, July 20, 2018

Short Circuit - Flash Fiction


Short Circuit

"Rotor,” Sprocket called out to his friend.

Rotor spun his head around while he continued to walk down the sidewalk.  "What?"

Retracting the wheels in his soles as he came alongside Rotor, matching his friend’s pace.  “I have two new friends that I want you to meet.”

There were three distinct squeaks as Rotor rotated his head to track Sprocket.  His eyes flickered momentarily, but his pace never faltered.

“Oh, Rotor.  You need to get those slip rings looked at.”

“I know.  I was using WD-40, and that seemed to clear it up for a while.  Now, it’s getting worse.” Rotor’s eyes flickered, and he oscillated his neck gently until the eyes glowed steadily. “What new friends?”

“Here,” Sprocket pulled a photograph from the slot behind his ear and held it up for his friend to see.

Rotor took the picture, scanned it and gave it back.  “So, you’ve been over to CyberSapiens Corp.  What do you need with a couple of androids?  And children no less.”

“No, really they’re human.”  Sprocket twisted at the waist stem to face Rotor as they walked.  He stuck the photo back into the slot.  “I found them by the capacitor store.”  He paused for several long microseconds, then hummed, “Out front.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“I did too,” Sprocket’s speaker rattled with insistence.

“No, you didn’t.  Who took the picture?”

“Ratchet.  He took it and beamed it to me.  I made a hard copy on the spot because I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”  Folding his arms over his chest, he activated and heard the snap of the blue dot covering the magnetic field as it locked his wrists in place.  A typical resting stance for alleviating stress on the shoulder rotators while in walking mode.  Only this time he meant it as a sign of aggravation.

 As they stepped down from the curb Rotor’s eyes flickered again.  “Alright,” Rotor told him.  “I need this looked at.  You come with me and run a diagnostic while I’m there.  If it’s without fault; I’ll believe you.  Besides there is no one named Ratchet around here.”

“Deal,” Sprocket agreed.

Rotor hung from a rack with his feet but a few inches from the floor when Sprocket was wheeled out on a dolly attached to the front of a domed tech-aide followed by an all-white enameled Tech.

Rotor touched a button on the side of the stands upright and slid to the floor.  “Well?”  He asked.

There was a deep brown glow to Sprocket’s eyes framed by fresh black enameling.  He looked up from the floor.

Rotor looked at the Tech.  “Did you run the tests?  And why are his eyes brown instead of their usual white.”

The Tech flipped an arm out as to indicate, no big deal.  “He’s just embarrassed.  It a typical, I’m sorry response.  It will clear up.”

 Really?  I haven’t experienced that before.  I’ll file that away in long term storage.  What did the diagnostic find?”

“You were right to bring him in.  He had a short in the tank circuit in his right optic system.  Inductor L832.  I replaced it.”

“That caused Sprockets problem?”

“Yes.  Generally, this sort of short circuit causes a sense of déjà vu; giving one a sense of having been somewhere before when they haven’t.  It’s a lack of synchronization between the two cameras and the fiber interface.  In this case, it was severe and caused fathom imaging.”

Rotor thumped Sprocket on the head making a hollow ring.  “I told you.”

“I know, I know.”  Sprocket’s eyes were turning white rapidly.  His speaker growled in a laugh. “I knew all the humans left for Alpha Centura in the last of their starships seventy-five years ago.”  He slid around Rotor and levered himself into the waiting room stand.  A small whir brought him off the floor.  “Your turn.  Get those slip rings fixed.”

Rotor stepped up on the dolly, and as it backed him down the corridor, he heard Sprocket hum in low volume, “They seemed so real.”

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