Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING
ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more
speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective
eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..."
Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then
a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture,
fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I
only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them.
SF Trope: Android
and Detective
Aiden Rakotomolala
and Gargaaro Sukarno stared at the cow-shaped robot. Aiden said, "This is
what they gave us?"
Gargaaro -- she
preferred Ro to her whole name -- said, "That's what they said.
"A robot
cow?"
The robot said,
"I am not a cow, but a mule. And I am an artificial intelligence. I prefer
to be called Ferocious Veldt Roarer. You can call me Ferocious."
Aiden burst out
laughing, "How about I call you Cow Roarer?"
"That would
not..." the robot began.
Ro laughed as
well, "I know my name's funny, but yours? We can call you Cower for
short!"
Cower would have
scowled if she'd had a face. Or skin. Or a head. As it was, she said, "I'm
not programmed to have feelings or a sense of humor, so I'll call you Rack and
Gargoyle."
Aiden exclaimed,
"Hey! That's not funny!"
Ro scowled,
"At least yours doesn't comment on your looks."
"True, but it
does make a comment on his intelligence -- roughly that of a cue ball in a game
of billiards."
Aiden opened his
mouth to protest as the door to garage opened from the police station side. The
pair of officers who strode in were imposing and grim. The male, short, dark,
and scowling, whose uniform seemed barely able to control the musculature beneath;
the female, tall, lithe, whose own musculature owed more to the maraging steel
cable than muscle and whose face gave away absolutely nothing. She was the one
who said, "What a wonder. A billion dollars in training and manufacture,
and all these three can do is act like middle school children."
The male shook his
head, "It would be better if the two of us just went and did what we do
best."
"What? Kill
people?"
The male grinned
-- and the two humans and even the robot took a step back.
The woman said,
"I'd love to let the three of you bond and get to know each other, but
there are two hundred school girls who have been taken hostage in southern
Brazil by JHB."
"Who?"
Rack, Gargoyle, and Cower said in unison.
The woman looked
at the man, who grinned. "See. I said they would."
Again, RGC spoke
as one when they said, "That we would what?" Aiden and Ro looked at
each other. Ferocious abruptly sprouted spines along its back that quivered.
"Synchronize,"
said the female. "We're sending you to southern Brazil to infiltrate and
possibly extricate these girls. We suspect they're all dead."
"What?"
Rack, Gargoyle, and Cower exclaimed again.
The male shrugged
powerful shoulders and said, "Most likely there's nothing for you to do
except learn to work together. On the off chance you might actually be able to
do something, you've got your orders." He glanced at his female companion
and the two snapped off a salute, turned and left the three alone.
Cower said,
"Great. Now I'm stuck with two teenage meat bags." It made an
amazingly realistic sigh, and plopped down on one of its backsides.
Names: ♀ Somalia, Indonesia; ♂ Australia, Madagascar
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