Page 13 of Cozy Prisons (Human Pets of Talin: Origins #4)
She took Ula by the shoulder and turned her around. Iffy was standing a few strides beyond the front door, sunlight glittering off the scratched top. Daxus stood in the open door with his arms crossed as if guarding in case the bot tried to come back inside.
“Run outside and activate Iffy again. Let’s see if they’re okay to execute your jumping program.”
Ula rushed across the domicile and easily slipped past Daxus. Illea and Rami followed her, as if they were worried she and Iffy would do more accidental damage.
“Are you sure?” he asked as Nataly stepped up to stand next to him. “I don’t trust that bot.”
Nataly snorted. “Her programming was sound, it was the environment that messed up the results. I’m worried the ballast assembly might’ve gotten knocked askew. This will be a good test to make sure Iffy’s fine to go home with Ula.”
Daxus grunted. “That pup almost got both of you hurt with her toy.”
“Nah,” Nataly said with a dismissive shake of her head. “I had her under the desk when I realized what the trick was going to be. Thanks for catching Iffy, though. If the bot hit my workbench, it might’ve broken some of my more delicate equipment.”
“I’m impressed with your reflexes,” he admitted grudgingly as Ula restarted Iffy and checked its voice command comprehension. “I still maintain that this isn’t an appropriate toy for the pup.”
“You can think what you like, but don’t try to take Iffy away from her,” Nataly said.
“If you go to Palathum and suggest anything like that, I’ll sabotage every program in your domicile.
The cleaning unit will regurgitate on you.
The elimination unit won’t deploy out of the wall, and every voice command will produce random results, so say goodbye to having your light turn on and off predictably. "
Daxus sounded a rumble of amusement. “Your enemies must have suffered many sleepless nights from your wrath.”
She snorted. “Maybe.”
“Nataly, do you still want to see?” Ula asked, standing next to Iffy. Illea and Rami were hovering close as if to snatch the child away if Iffy didn’t perform correctly.
“I’m ready,” Nataly said, giving the girl a big, encouraging smile.
Ula took a deep breath. This time when she issued the order, it wasn’t as confident as before. “Iffy, perform program trick three.”
As the bot did before, the three legs bent and it launched high into the air.
It landed, steadied itself with a few steps, then jumped again.
When it hit the top of its jump, all three legs flared out horizontally to the ground.
The legs snapped back into place only a second before it landed back on the ground.
The bot went still, waiting for the next command, and Ula looked at her.
“That was amazing!” Nataly said, clapping and jumping up and down on her toes.
“Really?” Ula asked.
“Absolutely!” Nataly said. “It must've taken a lot of trial and error to figure out the timing. I’m so impressed!”
Ula beamed and patted one of Iffy’s legs. “You did really good, Iffy!”
“I think I have an idea of what you should do with Iffy next,” Nataly said. “I’m going to send you some data packets full of safety protocol programs. I want you to figure out which ones you should install and which ones would be useless for the bot.”
“Yes, I can do that!” Ula said. “I can do that today! Should I check with you before I install?”
“I want you to go over one program per day,” Nataly said. “Then, after seven days, you have to tell me which ones are useful, but you can only use them in a sandbox, okay?”
Thankfully Ula didn’t look disappointed. “I will!”
She ran to Illea and grabbed their hand. “Zaza, I need to go home!”
Illea looked over to Nataly. “Thank you for this. You always make Ula so happy.”
Nataly waved their praise off. “I can’t wait until she’s teaching me things!”
Illea gave her a last grateful look then let Ula pull them away with Iffy following behind.
“I guess the danger is over,” Daxus said, retreating back into her domicile. “I'm going to clean up the mess and assess the damage. I might need to get a dome patch.”
Nataly was going to tell him to leave it, but Rami was suddenly next to her. “Was he here all night?” she whispered.
“Uh, he was, I guess, technically, here all night,” Nataly said, feeling her face flush. “But we didn’t do anything. I think he slept on the floor.”
Rami raised an eyebrow. “You think?”
Nataly gave her an annoyed look. “I was asleep, okay? I didn’t get much sleep the night before, and after he brought me home yesterday I kinda crashed.”
Rami opened her mouth but Nataly slapped a hand over her lips.
“Leave it,” she ordered. “Or I’ll send Ula a singing program that never stops!”
Rami chuckled. “It’s left! I saw nothing and I know nothing.” She gave Nataly a little wave. “Have a nice day, bye!”
With that, she turned and walked away quickly.
Nataly shook her head and turned to find Daxus standing on her workbench, poking at her ceiling.
She could tell it was going to be a long day, but strangely, she didn’t care. As long as Daxus was with her, the anxiety seemed to remain at bay. She was going to enjoy this for as long as it lasted.