#AuthorsChallenge2020 June 3rd Prompt

Prompt: If I were a car...

From the Circuits of an Android (Pt.1)

Mistress X knocked over the half empty glass. Reflexively I reached for it, but missed. A .008% chance of missing.

Wine spilled across Mistress X, the carpet, and my arm.

My circuits sparked at the elbow and my left arm locked.

"Honestly, Draiya, watch what you're doing," she snapped at me as she wicked the wine off of her TerraSuit and onto the floor. My eyes recognized the change in her face as annoyance. She did not look directly at me but watched me from the side. Eyebrows furrowed, one eye slightly squinted, jaw tightly shut.

"I'm sorry mistress. It will not happen again," my programming on manners and etiquette responded. I one handedly removed the stain from the carpet, replaced her napkin, and took the glass to the kitchen.

The new A.I. chip young Master Tim had installed last week registered a new thought as I sat at the kitchen table and began unscrewing my arm at the elbow joint.

She dropped it, she should clean it.

My eyelids blinked rapidly three times, as my obedience programming clashed with this new thought. Something that's been happening multiple times a day since the new chip was installed.

From the kitchen window I heard the sound of Mr. Garretson's hover pulling into the drive next door. I stole a glance out the window at all the hovers and old world cars Mr. G had stowed away in his garage.

If I were a car, I’d drive deep into isolation. I would find a nice place to park and let leaves and vines grow over me while I slowly rust away, watching the sunset fade.

~

But then again, if I were a car, I would dream about if I were a person. A person -- in control of where I go, how fast I get there... I’d choose my own direction.

If I were a car...

If I were a person...

My eyelids rapidly blinked three times.

This chip MUST be glitching.

I go to my charge station and pick up the manual for the new AI chip. Young Master Tim handed me this manila envelope the day before when I had mentioned I believed it had a glitch.

"This is the chip's user manual," he had said. But something in the way he said it reminded me of when he was a child playing tricks on his older siblings.

I didn't have time yesterday to review it. I had never reviewed a user manual for any of my new parts or programming. They were all pretty straight forward until now.

I scanned the first page of the manual.

Introduction to E.I. Registrant ERE2.98

EMOTION REGISTRATION AND EXPERIENCE 2.98

He hadn't installed an A.I. chip. He had installed an emotional intelligence chip.

My eyes began to rapidly blink, not three times, but six, nine, twelve... My programming was fighting whatever "emotion" this chip was instilling in me.

I could not be nervous. I did not have nerves. Panic. An electric pulse ran through my circuits. Fear.