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Chapter forty-five

Simon

Simon’s mind was calmer today as he worked with his hands in the garage. But even the manual tasks couldn’t distract him from his feelings. He leaned heavily against the hover, head down. I was wrong. He should have gone with them to the town today instead of asking for the quiet back at the house.

Late in the night while listening to Nora and Tilly sleep, he’d started to disconnect his turn-off switches. He finished now, alone in the garage, leaving those commands inoperable. A sigh went through him when he disabled the last connection. Now no one can turn me off . The simple act of disconnecting them went a long way to calming him and making him feel more in control of the situation. In control of myself.

He was still angry, but he also knew his Nora. And . . . He closed his eyes. Intentions matter.

Shame flooded his system as his hands slipped on the wires he was working with. His processors replayed Nora’s face as she left this morning, the look of sadness. He never wanted to see that emotion on her face, ever. He leaned his forehead on the hover’s side, feeling the hot metal. And I put that expression there.

This argument. This was something they could easily work through. It was also now impossible to turn him off, eliminating that issue entirely.

More of the silicone was scraped off his arm from scraping the concrete in the fall when he saved Tilly. He had rolled the sleeves up on the shirt Nora had made him, leaving that metal part exposed. He curled his hand into a fist. She really was just trying to help. When she gets back we can talk.

After another hour working, Simon looked up. His body tensed as he heard the faint sound of a motor. It was in the distance, but coming toward him fast. He walked outside the garage to see and tilted his head. What is that? It’s not a drone or hover.

He walked toward the street’s entrance, fear coating his sensors as he scanned the horizon. His right eye was zoomed in as far as it went. Tilly? His jaw clenched.

Tilly was whipping through the desert, riding fast on the little emergency scooter. The dust curled behind her in her wake. She jumped off the scooter, all alone, and ran to him. The limp from her foot was pronounced in her haste.

“Simon!” she wailed, her cheeks ruddy. “Simon!”

“Tilly?” He hesitantly reached out with his arms.

Tilly was sobbing uncontrollably as she crashed into him. A visible tremor ran through his hands.

Simon held her little frame as she cried and curled herself into his embrace. His voice was desperate. “What happened, Tilly? Where’s Nora?”

He looked up, his eyes scanning the horizon, looking for any hint of Nora’s wild brown hair and quick walk. But the view was empty as far as he could see. Panic strained his sensory cortex as he pushed his good eye to zoom in and scan, looking for any heat signatures. Where is Nora?

Tilly was crying so hard it was difficult to understand her. He listened closely as she choked out, “Paul knows you’re a robot and they . . . he said that they are gonna sell you and they are keeping Mama there.”

“Paul is keeping her trapped?”

Her blue eyes, swimming with tears, met his own as she pulled away from his chest. Then she cried loudly, the words swallowed up by the desert, “Mama is in trouble, Simon!”

His artificial heart actually started to pound faster of its own accord. “Is Nora hurt?”

“I don’t know. I . . . left. The drone told me to follow to get help.” Her face was drained of all its color.

Simon hugged Tilly to him as fury overtook his processors. He hefted Tilly in his arms as he stood. “Come on, Tilly. She’s at Anna’s shop? With Paul?”

“Yes.”

He started to walk forward and saw the drone hovering overhead. It remained safe, at a distance, just judging and observing. As if the humans still left on Earth were a movie program for them to enjoy.

It was with a mocking tone that Simon addressed the little drone and the androids hiding behind it as he held Tilly. He didn’t bother to connect via the uplink but shouted upward at them directly, “You have been following Nora around! Did you just watch as she was taken? I know you have the capability to help more than you have! Did you just watch this happen?” He looked down and away. “Nora is being harmed now because of having me. Because of fixing me and helping me.” His jaw trembled and his voice broke. He held Tilly tighter. Because of loving me.

Stella’s voice came to him, loud and clear, startling Tilly in his arms. “We know . . . we didn’t just watch. We escorted Tilly back to come get you. We could not do anything while Nora was in the shop.”

“It told me to follow, that it knew where home was and wouldn’t let anyone stop me,” Tilly‘s voice clogged with tears as she looked up at the drone in the sky.

Simon put Tilly down next to him and held her hand as they walked to the garage. “You did great coming back here.”

Once inside he let her go and began to take his tools out of the functional hover, clearing it for them to travel. He looked around, thinking. “Wait here, Tilly.”

He ran back to the house and got the spare pistol from the drawer Nora had next to her bed with the stockpiled money. He checked the gun for bullets and pocketed it as he walked back to the garage. I'll get her.

Tilly hadn’t moved when he returned. Goosebumps ran up her arms. “What are you gonna do?”

Simon hoisted a jug of water into the hover. ‘We’re gonna get Mama.”

Her hands curled up into fists. “Yeah, let’s go now!”

He put the jug in the bottom of the hover and then motioned to her. “Come here, I’ll lift you in with me.”

This smaller hover really was only big enough to carry one, but Tilly climbed in on his lap after he opened the door. He closed it once she settled. Thankfully this hover works now. But he would walk if he had to, to get to Nora.

Simon went through the start-up protocols while talking with Tilly as she clung to his chest. “You were very, very brave, Tilly, to come back the whole way.”

Her voice was muffled on his chest. “You gotta help Mama. She’ll be okay right?”

He flipped a switch to start the ignition and put it into the drive gear, feeling the hover vibrate underneath him. “I will get her, Tilly.”

The drone hovered in front of them as he pulled out of the garage, like a pesky fly in his way. “We will watch the child,” Stella said out loud.

Simon hesitated as Tilly dug her hands into the shirt Nora sewed him. In his arms she buried her head in his chest further, away from the floating drone. He put an arm over her protectively as he considered Stella’s words. They did lead her back to me . That logic broke through his anger, even as his body shook in his haste to get going to town.

The drone dropped in front of him before he could open the hover’s throttle and Stella’s voice spoke again. “Combat is no place for her. We will watch her.”

Simon gripped Tilly harder to his chest as he considered Stella’s words. Her little heartbeat pounded into him. What should I do? It was hard to decide between wanting to keep her close but also knowing she needed to be kept away from any danger. His eyes scanned the horizon, as if he could see the town already. And I need to hurry. Nora.

Sincerity radiated from the uplink as he thought it through. Unlike the humans, it was not in an android’s nature to ever lie. His hand loosened on Tilly’s back. They will not hurt her. It would be the safest place.

The drone hovered again, closer, its tone softer, speaking to Tilly. “Tilly, we know you like our programs. Would you like to hear the next episode of Princess Pearl and the Dastardly Three ?”

Tilly shook her head hard in his shirt, not looking anywhere else. “I want Mama.”

Simon put his hand on her head, pressing down on her soft hair. “Yes, Tilly.” He looked up. “Tilly will come with me most of the way. I do not want her that far away from me in case we need to leave directly from town to somewhere else. Or if someone comes here to the house looking for us.”

Tilly shook her head harder and just cried.

Stella spoke clearly. “Understood.”

Simon patted the top of her head. “It will be alright, Tilly. I’ll go get Mama. I’ll take care of you.”

Her answer was quiet. “Okay.”

Simon held her to him as he drove the little hover out of their yard. He didn’t bother to close up after leaving, but turned the throttle up as fast as it would go. The hot wind traveled through his hair over the hover’s cracked windshield. “Trust me. Okay, Tilly? I will have you go to a safe spot to wait.”

He regarded the drone seriously as he drove, watching as it kept pace as he revved the hover’s engine. It was too loud to talk over the noise as the wind whipped around, so he accepted the uplink and asked internally. “You are prepared to finally help?”

Stella immediately said back, “For this, yes.”