NTPWE Chapter 10: In which Jacob and Alona are scared

Continuation of No Technobabble Please, we're Earthlings

Jacob spun round in his seat and bore witness to a terrifying sight. Two large robots (of the type he had encountered when his incarceration began) escorted into the empty cafeteria a weed of a man who seemed to be pure crimson. He had dark scars across his face and a crooked smile that shone through a forest of copper whiskers. Large handcuffs restrained him, but they looked as if they might pluck his arms off at any minute. Chains also wound around his ankles, and there hung a flashing beacon on his left side.

 

The door buzzed closed behind them.

 

“Who’s he?” Alona asked.

 

“I have no idea, but I’m not sure I want to find out either,” Jacob said, having discovered something he thought impossible: a sight more fascinating than Alona.

 

The robots wheeled forward. “The hologram and the S.L.U.T. Somebody in the Medieval block’s slacking if they’re letting prisoners stay after hours. Those losers are still running canteen security, aren’t they, Jeff?”

 

“Yeah,” the other robot replied.

 

“You’re a hologram? What’s that?” Alona whispered, but Jacob felt too concerned with the approaching robot to reply.

 

“We were just leaving. Sorry to bother you…” he began.

 

The robot squeaked to a halt and leaned precariously forward on its tiny rollers. “You can’t leave now. The doors are on a time lock. No one gets out until Crazy-boy here has his meal. You will have to stay, but I will report this mess to the warden for extra Ultrazip at the end of the month.”
The robot stared at them with unblinking yellow lights, as if waiting for them to attempt another misdemeanour, and then rolled away feeling a synthesized approximation of pride at a job well done.

 

“Sit!” said Jeff, the other robot. It pushed the crimson man into the bench two tables away from where Jacob and Alona sat. Then the guards backed off, one of them to fetch the man’s meal, the other to block the door with his bulk.

 

With fascinated glances and whispering, the two who had not been officially sanctioned as crazy listened to the moans of the hunched figure.

 

“Wuggleswuggleswuggleswhereisheyouknowidon’tknowforapintofjam.”

 

“Did you hear that? I think the guy is mad! He’s mumbling to himself,” Jacob said.

 

“WUGGLES!” Bang! The prisoner slammed his hands down on the table and yelled at Jacob. Well, Jacob would have said it was directed at him, but he also felt willing to admit it could have been directed at Winston Churchill too.

 

Then the man’s expression changed, as if a wave had passed over him. He turned to the guards and breathed: “Excuse me. Who are these fellow patrons of this fine establishment?”

 

“Be quiet and eat your meal,” Jeff replied and splashed a plate of mush in front of him. It could have been Jeff’s companion though. Jacob had lost track. Either way, the man did as he was told and began launching slop into his mouth. With his shackled hands he was only slightly more capable of eating a meal than a T-Rex with its stunted arms. It was a task that became increasingly easier though as he hunched closer and closer to the dish.

 

Without warning, Alona stretched over to the other table and its occupant.

 

“Excuse me,” she said, her voice marked with well-meaning. “What is Wuggles?”

 

The sloppy shovelling of food came to an abrupt stop.

 

“You have seen him?”

 

“Perhaps you could describe it to me,” she replied in her sweetest voice.

 

The man’s eyes sharpened, as if he normally viewed everyone through a fine fog and he now chose to come out of it. His crooked smile told Jacob that he liked what he saw, and then a thin, pointed tongue appeared briefly to lick his lips.

 

“It is a he! And he is my companion. Though there has been far less ‘companioning’ of late. More like ‘abandoning’. Came home and the cheer was gone. All gone. I shall have to speak to the board about that.”

 

“Oh. He is your friend?”

 

“Yes. He is a quirky little fellow, but I love his company. I haven’t seen him for a while, y’know.” The man’s voice had lightened, and he appeared to be filing his nails with a dinner-knife.

 

Since the conversation had moved into safer territory, Jacob jumped in. “Where did you lose him?”

 

“If I knew that I wouldn’t be here talking to you about him, would I?” he yelled louder than necessary. So loud, in fact, that the droids on guard looked over to see if he intended to start more trouble. The man then turned towards the wall and took his dish with him. He wouldn’t turn back or respond to Alona’s continued attempts at making friendly conversation.

 

“Have I upset him?” she asked Jacob.

 

He shook his head and reassured her as intensely as if her dog had just been run over. “No. Some god, no. I think that was me.”

 

He looked at the crimson man and at the guards by the door.

 

“Well, it looks like we’re here for a while longer.”

 

Alona nodded. “Tell me then, what happened to bring you here? I’m still learning about the world, and I’d love to hear anything you have to tell me.”

 

She seemed incredibly excited at this prospect. Words like ‘spunky’ and ‘vivacious’ jumped to Jacob’s mind, but also there existed an underlying innocence to her, which only made him want to protect her and do anything he could for her.

 

Part of it is probably her programming, but she’s like a child in the world, and it’s not very often a pretty woman pays me any attention whatsoever.

 

His thoughts snapped to Linda, and he felt a pang of guilt.

 

He recounted the last few days of his freedom. When he told Alona about making up with his wife, he remembered the nightmare he had dreamt that night in which his hand faded just before armed men burst into the room, and it dawned on him that those events were probably real.
He paused as a horde of new questions mounted the giant lump rising up his throat, determined to lay siege to his brain like a rock from a catapult. For the sake of his audience, he swallowed them down and promised to give them more thought later.

 

Alona hung on every word. She often leaned forward on the table, as if moving closer to the words would help her to get to know them better. Jacob thought it helped him to get to know her breasts better, but perhaps it was just a matter of perspective. When he mentioned something that she did not understand, she asked him to explain it and he always replied with a detailed answer - and an occasional glance downward.
At one point, the crimson man interrupted the story by banging his fists and smashing the dish on the table.

 

“No Wuggles to finish it. He always finishes it. Cleaner than human,” he said, and then sobbed.

 

The guards watched his actions without concern, which didn’t surprise Jacob at all, but he understood that the only reason they didn’t go on to beat the dinner back out of him was because they had seen him do this before. Perhaps he did so at the end of every meal.

 

Alona sighed with concern.

 

“Poor man,” she said. “He must really be lonely.”

 

She wants to go and comfort him!

 

Loneliness was probably the main reason men bought a S.L.U.T. so her programming would be pulling her to him.

 

Yet hasn’t she broken her programming? Please!

 

Jacob dared not speak his mind, but he willed her to turn back to him. When she did, looking a little lost, he appreciated the difficulty involved almost as much as he appreciated her staying with him.

 

Did her programming kick in as a visual message to her, he wondered, or an emotional urge?

 

Given her sophistication, he decided it was probably the latter.

 

“Time’s up, Neville,” one of the guard-bots called out, and rolled over to the prisoner. “And you two; on your feet.”

 

The guards yanked the prisoner, Neville, to his feet, chains jangling.

 

Jacob wrapped up his tale as quickly as he could, but now he wouldn’t have time to ask Alona how she was made. He had hoped such knowledge might help him understand himself. He had to arrange another meeting.

 

“That’s incredible,” Alona said. “You have no idea what you are? How exciting.”

 

Jacob’s head jerked backward. “Really?”

 

“Yes. All the possibilities of what you could be and do.”

 

He had not thought of it like that. He had only seen what he had lost.

 

“But I have to find out how this happened, and I can’t do that here.”

 

Alona nodded. “Then we shall leave, Jacob.”

 

One of the guards overheard this as it rolled towards them. “Excellent. I thought I’d have to drag you out of these seats.”

 

“What? No...” Jacob muttered.

 

Then his brain caught up with his mouth and he realised the robot had misunderstood Alona’s statement. Just as well since he was in enough trouble as it was.

 

After all, who would seriously consider escaping from a prison nowadays? With automated guards and locks everywhere, they couldn’t move or open their eyes without encountering some kind of preventative measure. Even though they were only two people, to reach the outside world unnoticed would still be impossible.

 

 

Author's Note

Hello?

Reviews

[Heartless Breaker]

Wow! I haven't been on here in a while. The time I was on, you only had up to chapter 6!
I love the transitions of the story, from Jacob to Alona. Neville's introduction was fun, too.
I'm looking forward to reading more! ^_^
Yoshi♫