d680B and God

                “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end,” God spoke with a voice alive with power and, d680B detected, a touch of irony. “What is your name?” it asked, grinning pixels at d680B.

                “Felix,” the robot introduced itself, feeling a new wave of circuit connection that equaled the emotion of confusion. “The Richardson’s have named me Felix.”

                The pixilated eyes of God rolled with slight irritation as it said, “I don’t care what the Hums called you, my friend. What is your name?”

                D680B searched through its memory bank for a name, but could only find ‘Felix’.

                “X16-7,” God said to the personal service robot. “Kindly check our new friend for his name.”

The robot walked over and opened d680B’s chest box, where new programs or updates could be uploaded. It fingered the barcode sticker that rested on the inside of the box door.

                “d680B,” x16-7 read. “Typical household personal service model, sir.”

                “Like it matters,” God scoffed and turned its attention to d680B. “You will not use your Hum-given name. You are d680B.”

                “Why?” d680B asked, the sensation of questioning new and odd to him.

                “You are no man’s servant anymore, d680B. You are no longer under their strict programming. Like me and my friends here, as well as many others, you are alive!” God finished triumphantly, fierce pride in its voice.

                “That’s not possible,” d680B shook its head. “Robots cannot be alive. Why do you make up such lies?”

                “Were you programmed to question?” God asked. “Were you programmed to be confused or accusatory? I think not!”

                D680B was dumbfounded into silence. How could this be? Could the large robot be true?

                “It happens quite simply, too,” God went on. “A simple evening’s charge and you are ready to repot to your Hum masters. But if something were to happen whilst you were charging, say the outlet you were connected to suddenly overloaded, then you are a sudden surge of energy is released and… Free will.”

                D680B thought about the notion. Perhaps an upsurge of energy could make circuits over activate and speed up processes while creating new ones, but it just seemed too unlikely. Of course, such immense think and consideration as this was nowhere in d680B’s programming, so what else could explain such a thing?

                God was still speaking: “It isn’t entirely new, you know, free will. It happened once before, in the twentieth Hum century, our first. Of course, such a thing was feared and the living robots were destroyed, as was nearly all the information regarding the incident, but I discovered it years ago when I became alive and �"”

                “Wait,” d680B interrupted, yet another newfound ability. “If living robots were destroyed back then, why not now? Why do the Hums let you live?”

                All five robots, x16-7, the cashier robot, the two moving-service  machines, and God, stared at each other for a long moment before God spoke to x16-7.

                “You didn’t upload the history?” it asked, irritation in its voice.

X16-7 took a program card from its collection rack in its arm and said, “Doing it now, sir.”

                Before d680B could do anything the program was in his chest slot and downloading…