Brobots Read online

  ‘I see.’ Yana’s mind raced a little. ‘Will you still be present?’

  ‘Yes. Michael wants me there to put my angle on things. He also said he’d fill us both in on the gaps at the same time, which kinda makes sense. So in some ways I’m as in the dark as you as to what’s going on with the units.’

  They paced slowly along quietly for a moment. Alex looked up at the gray sky. ‘Oh, but there is one development since we spoke yesterday.’

  ‘Okay?’

  ‘Yeah. I lost another unit late yesterday afternoon just before the end of the shift. So that makes four lost in about nine months.’

  ‘Not a fluke, as you say.’

  ‘Definitely not a fluke. We kept a hold of this one. The last one was put in the site trash and was already missing by morning.’

  Yana tried a poker face, simply saying, ‘Gosh!’

  ‘Yeah. Don’t think that’s a part of the story though. Probably just kids.’

  ‘Hmm. Yeah. Do you have security footage?’ (She knew Jared was smart enough to have checked for that, so took the risk in asking.)

  ‘We do. But the site’s not covered at that angle. No point to surveil your own waste.’

  ‘Guess not!’ Phew. ‘So the question you have, then, is whether this is happening just to you – and if it is then why. Even if it isn’t, why make the most advanced robots the world has ever known intentionally faulty?’

  ‘Right. And no; from what peer companies are saying, it hasn’t happened to them; at least, not as far as they’d tell us anyways. So… we are suspicious.’

  Alex opened the outbuilding door and ushered Yana inside to where Michael was waiting with a large mug of coffee, a briefcase (probably for show these days rather than anything useful), an old-fashioned “laptop” as they were once called (Yana had one too – she loved retro), and some jugs and glasses for sparkling mineral water.

  ‘Yana Daltry?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Michael Darton.’ They shook hands.

  ‘Oh! Family firm?’

  ‘No it’s a fluke. But it serves me well sometimes.’

  ‘Oh! Right! OK.’

  ‘Water? Coffee?’

  Yana was still a bit tired out from her business trip the week before so she opted for coffee. Michael sent Alex on the errand of refilling the pot from a small kitchen area off side. Alex wasn’t happy to be missing the early part of the conversation but nevertheless smiled and did his best to be the professional underling that he was in this setting. By the time he returned, the pleasantries were over and Michael was boring Yana with the tail end of his usual diatribe about the history of Dartonia.

  Getting down to business, Michael suggested Alex started first. ‘Thank you, sir. Well, you both know the main details; but I’ll recap so we’re straight. Last Monday I lost a unit to battery failure…’ Michael frowned and Alex got the hint. ‘Oh I’ve already mentioned Yana we refer to Construcsapli construction workers as units.’ Michael’s frown vanished and he gestured to continue.

  ‘That made three units lost just on projects I was overseeing in a matter of months: all of them battery failure; and all of them just a few months outside of the two year warranty we’re given by Construcsapli when we acquisition them.’

  ‘No maintenance cover?’ Yana wanted to fire questions to show she was on the ball and extremely interested in every scrap of detail.

  ‘I mean kind of. They don’t work quite that way.’ Alex rubbed his face and returned his hands to the table. ‘They’re supposed to maintain themselves. Each one comes with his own personal maintenance kit. They’re supposed to run their own diagnostics and repairs – generally outside of work hours when they’re back in their dwelling pods at night.’

  ‘They have dwelling pods?’

  Alex and Michael smiled. ‘Yeah. We call them robot ranches; sometimes “bromes” or “brome homes”. Whatever. They’re essentially standing recharge units. But they also have wash rooms, space to clean their own clothes, and Internet access.’

  ‘They don’t access the Web….sort of inside already?’

  ‘You’d think so. But no. Not the sentient models. Ethicists won out on that one. They connect with a private network for any software patches internally. But any public Internet content is accessed the same way any of us would do it. Something to do with preventing artificial intelligence from taking over somehow.’

  ‘Hmm. So this is not soft assault then?’

  Alex and Michael exchanged a glance. ‘No. We already ruled that out. Nobody can hack these types.’ He added, ‘the soft part anyway. The hardware? Different matter.’ The penny started to drop for Yana as to why Michael had flown all this way to take part in the interview.

  Alex continued. ‘So that’s when I decided to file a complaint formally with Construcsapli – about which it’s protocol to inform Michael. I gave the firm a week to respond with an offer of recompense. Even one replacement unit would have been enough to appease matters. But that came to nothing so then I went ahead and briefed Michael before taking any further action in calling you. This wasn’t about routine repairs. Construcsapli should help under contract.’

  Michael shifted in his seat and gestured to take control. ‘And I’m glad he did call you. I got two other project managers who’ve had similar losses. So in the last nine months we’ve actually lost six units; all to the same problem. And Alex is right. We pay for them gradually. The warranty may be out, but there are still contractual obligations.’

  Alex looked from Michael to Yana and with a “can-you-believe” smile added, ‘We’re wondering whether all the Type D’s are the same.’

  ‘Shit’ said Yana.

  Michael continued, ‘What Alex doesn’t know is that there’s a lot of history here.’ Alex and Yana both sat up in their seat. Michael paused for a bit of effect perhaps, or to assemble his words.

  ‘You both remember the last time Dartonia and Construcsapli were in the papers together.’

  ‘Who doesn’t!’ Yana nodded.

  ‘We weren’t too bothered about that at the time. We were the first firm in the US to employ or purchase robots to work a construction site. So what. Innovation. Forward-thinking.’ That’s not the angle Yana remembered from the old coverage, but no matter. ‘Construcsapli were the ones to get hit with the full force of negativity from the American public on that one.’ That part Yana could agree with wholeheartedly. ‘Loss of jobs. The fear of robots. The uncanny valley. Conservatives and religious nuts having a field day making protests after the story broke. Incompetence; lack of testing. Clever move on Brobotics’ part to create a subsidiary company before launching the human type sentient models, wouldn’t you say? Created a bit of distance. Separate offices in separate cities hundreds of miles apart. Separate brands. Separate staff. Shit goes down with the experiment and they can just shut it all off - continue relatively unscathed in existing markets. We had our own way of fending off any negative PR of course…’

  Yana thought back. She’d re-read the old news coverage during the taxi trip to the site this morning. Well, scanned it. She wanted to push, but not too hard. ‘If I remember Mr Darton…’

  ‘Michael, please.’

  ‘…If I remember correctly Michael, you went to the papers with a follow-up story about what it had been like to be a customer of Construcsapli; and in that story you weren’t too... well, you could have been more kind.’

  ‘We thought it was a wise move at the time. We were upset. We were very happy to be the first customers for these new Sentient units. We understood the reasoning on Brobotics’ side: using a relatively safe cordoned-off work sector as a test case. We actually expected it to be done discreetly. No press release at all. Of course, once it did go public we were hoping for positive cover. When it wasn’t positive, our managers at the time (before I moved here) decided to create some distance. The shit couldn’t stick to us - we were just a customer; hence the further story; public noise of complaint. I mean, who screws up their
own marketing launch, right? Doesn’t make sense.’

  ‘Business is business, so you hit back.’

  ‘Quite. But it was a short-term kind of approach. We may have been the first customer of the units, and we may have been upset. But since then we’ve also been one of the last customers too; and that’s hurt us. That was their bad for ruining their own launch; our bad for adding to the damage. Our pain now.’

  Yana raised her eyebrows. Interesting. Real interesting.

  Alex spoke up, ‘But they can’t punish us now for that! That’s petty. Also criminal!’

  ‘We didn’t think they did blame us for their own marketing mistakes. It was all years ago. I need to know how solid they are moving forward for budgetary reasons. If the subsidiary’s about to go down and units are failing left right and center, then our workforce is not as strong as it seems. I can’t just dial them up and say “how close are you to failing?” On top of that I’m suspicious. No other company appears to be having trouble with Type D’s. Not yet anyway.’

  ‘This is potentially a massive problem for you, then. Bottom line stuff.’

  ‘Quite.’

  Yana took a moment to write some notes on her tablet. Looking up she said, ‘So what does your gut tell you?’

  ‘Types A through C are all still working fine. But those were original purchases. If they were going to sting us at all, it would be with these new models; just released two years ago; the type D’s. And the best way to do it would be to create a problem to run straight after the warranty period; which is now. It would be enough for them to wriggle free of any maintenance obligations in court. Weasel words. They could probably just claim wear and tear. Yeah, I don’t know. It might be a final desperate act on their part. But…It’s time to dish some dirt.

  ‘There’s another firm in Italy. They’ve launched sentient construction workers too; and it looks to me like a military contract has gone to them. Construcsapli’s market prospects have more than halved overnight. Share value has plummeted. Brobotics has pretty much given up on Sentients if you read between the lines; which means any new sentient models in the US now are more likely to come from overseas. Shocking, really. I don’t know what to think.’

  ‘So what do you want from me?’

  ‘What we’d like,’ said Michael to Yana pouring her a welcome refresh, ‘as I said, is some dirt. We don’t want to hurt an already-teetering existing supplier. We could possibly switch supplier soon, but… we don’t have the readies for that, and alternatives aren't quite online as yet; so we need repairs and replacements. They haven’t listened. If it’s just… hardware irregularity we want them to sit up and take notice. Give us our dues. I sure as hell still need to know what’s going on with them because I have a big business to run and a big ship to steer. On my side, the truth needs to come out either way.

  ‘I suggest we run a fresh story – unrelated to any previous ones; something to make them listen. Preferably give us a few improved Type D’s free of charge and moreover fix any units that fail us in future.’

  Yana bit her tablet pencil. Was now the time to take the plunge? She’d hardly had time to do thorough background research, but she did sense something odd. She held back a moment. Something else might surface, and the meeting didn’t look like it was going to be over just yet.

  ‘I guess one problem I’m having, Michael, is that technology companies switch their own suppliers all the time. When we buy a super-high tech product we’re not just buying one product; we’re buying several all packaged together. Perhaps they just saved some costs on battery supplier? If they did, it’s a fluke and not much of a story.’

  ‘I mean, you’re right; on one level,’ Michael conceded. ‘But you don’t just “save some costs” on a core component like that when you’re supplying an industry like construction; it’d be a false economy. People would drop your products like they’re hot potatoes; and the industry is pretty tight on things like that. We talk to each other; share best practice. I can guarantee you half the industry takes our lead. But if that is what they’ve done it’s still huge. It could mean all the type D’s are faulty. But as I say, even if they’re not at fault I still need compensation.’

  ‘…And that’s your story there, of course. Nobody publishes anything unless it’s of popular interest. I mean, to be frank with you, nobody will care if Dartonia currently has some faulty machinery – whatever that machinery is. But they do care if something sounds like a health risk or has an air of controversy to it. Construction workers clunking out mid-task doesn’t sound savory to anyone’s ears. Then with a potential new military contract angle added, this could be of national interest.’

  ‘We could go to other news outlets of course. But you’re local to this project, and this site is the one where we’ve had the most problems so far.’

  Yana leant back in her chair, discarding her peripheral devices on the conference table. ‘Digging with Construcsapli and Brobotics is big. I want something in return.’

  Michael looked at Alex, blinked, and then looked back to Yana. ‘Go on?’

  ‘I hear Brobotics batteries… when they work… are some of the best money can buy. True lion tech and hard to beat. I’m sure you’ve heard of “brobbing”? The trend where you rob out a Brobotic battery from an old unit and hack it so you can use it as a way to hook up to your solar panels and go off grid?’

  Michael nodded. He was aware. Who wasn’t? He didn’t take Yana for a fruit-tea drinking professional hippie type, but in reality it wasn’t that big of an ask. In fact, he reflected, what she was actually saying was “I can run the story that’ll get you your compensation because if you don’t, I don’t get the nice little perk of energy security for my home”.

  ‘Done. Anything else?’

  Surprised that this had turned out to be the easy part, another set of thoughts had the freedom to surface; ones she’d barely given space to think consciously about during her too-short preparation time for the meeting.

  Essentially it was about furthering her career and the caliber of her employer; making the most of any story. She rubbed a thumbnail and index finger together; considered for a moment that what she was about to say conflicted with helping out her dear friend Jared. How much did she care about his latest boy toy obsession? She knew the answer was “a lot”; not because of what it was, but because of whom Jared is.

  ‘I want full access to all correspondence records between yourselves and the other two companies. I’ll also need a few weeks to run background checks and prepare a polished article. You won’t see it before it goes out; this isn’t advertising for your firm. You come out good, you come out good. You don’t, you don’t.’

  Michael gritted his teeth. Shit. ‘Done. But that story turns out to be negative against us any way? You won’t get your battery, and your influence in this town can go down as well as up.’

  You don’t get to be a CEO by being nice. Or is he just bad? Men.

  Yana got up to leave the room. Alex had the job of escorting her back to the site entrance. Pity. He wanted to ask Michael why the tough line. Probably no point digging there, he surmised. What are you still not telling me, Michael?

  Jared and Yana

  It was Tuesday night the following week. Yana had arrived at Jared’s house armed rather unprofessionally with print outs of all the correspondence paperwork the construction firm had handed over to her as quickly as they could. She’d been working super hard (whilst waiting for that to arrive) seeing what she could find out on the Construcsapli/Brobotics side. What she’d found there she also had with her; but she’d need much more and it was going to prove harder to obtain. She needed coffee. She also needed Jared to do some of the lifting.

  ‘Welcome to your home from home!’ Jared kissed Yana on both cheeks while Art ran circles round her feet and occasionally pawed the papers in her arm wanting cuddles. Stepping into the entrance hall Yana decided to make this as fun as possible.

  ‘So…I’ve got all night but we have lots
to do sweetie. Don’t think I’m doing all the work. You’re setting up a workstation right here as my deputy for the next few weeks. That’s unpaid. So your first job as my slave is to get me coffee and your second job is to introduce me to Byron. After that we can get down to business.’

  Jared, so relieved he’d re-clothed Byron with his washed work outfit took Yana upstairs, coffee in hand, to the guest room where Byron was laid out with care on the spare double bed.

  ‘Oh my gosh! He looks like he’s sleeping!’ Yana brushed past Jared to take a closer look. There was some tenderness in her that Jared respected then. She put her hand on Byron’s brow as if he were suffering from some kind of illness. Turning back to Jared she just said, ‘the amount of artistry that’s gone into their construction is amazing isn’t it? Like, I mean really? You can’t tell these types aren’t human. Even when they’re …sleeping.’

  ‘Can you see why I couldn’t just leave him there in the trash?’

  ‘I sure can, Jared. He’s a work of art.’

  Turning back again to Jared she quickly added: ‘You know he won’t be gay, right?’

  Jared laughed. ‘OK. I had thought about it. Of course you’re right. I doubt these …machines even have an orientation or any sexual interests. But they’re sentient for goodness sake. I mean like properly. They have dreams. Personalities. They’re unpredictable. They’re bright and dumb. Sharp and slow. You can’t just dispose of that kind of thing like it’s a commodity. It’s not right. Do I hope he likes me? Yes. Do I hope I can make a friend? Yes. Do I hope he really likes me? I really don’t know. We haven’t met. I just know that I want to help.’

  ‘That’s so like you.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Helping.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Oh. You’ll figure it out some day.’ Yana walked past him into the hall, waiting at the top of the stairs. Jared joined her and on their descent Jared knew he could raise a giggle by admitting, quietly, ‘I have had kinky thoughts though.’