The Sentience Question – The Sendroids (Excerpt Book 1)
Emma was neither human nor android. How did she fit in? Then on her first day at Oberland School, Zorconian guards kidnapped her and the Vice Premier threatened to erase her mind. Now Emma needed to escape from a fortress in the sky. She would need the help of her friends – kids, dragons, elves, and bears. And Charley. Meanwhile, in the threads of destiny, fate would turn on a question of android sentience.
Chapter 1: Holiday
Emma was neither human nor android. She desperately wanted to know how she fit in.” from After the Awakening, More Laundry” by Stuarticus Cardicus, official biographer, Department of Planetary Anthropology, Zorcon University.
mma heard Professor Grimmicus and the Fairy Godmother talking quietly in the kitchen. She turned up her hearing to listen.
“Both of my appliances have left me,” complained Marie. “I followed your suggestion when my Cookie Machine changed and was named ‘Charley’. I created the girl android to do my housework. But now she has changed too. She wants to go to school with the village children. Isn’t that preposterous? Why would an android go to school?”
“You don’t expect this attitude from a proper android,” concluded the Fairy Godmother.
Professor Grimmicus looked up from his tea. “We need to be flexible in our thinking, Marie,” he said. “The cyber networks are not working. If Emma was depending on the networks for power, she would have run out of energy several weeks ago. She could not help us at all.”
“I did not think of that,” Marie confessed. She knew that she had shortcomings in understanding technology. Why bother to understand how things worked? She could always ask the library. Except that the library and all of the rest of Zorconian technology was not working now.
“Many things here surprised us,” the professor began. “This situation is not what one expects from a primitive civilization.”
Emma felt sleepy as she lay in her bed. Much had happened since Queen Cinderella returned from her Elder mission to create a new universe. The Queen was also visibly expecting. King Jorgan had smiled and announced, “We shall all take a break!” Everyone in Oberland Kingdom went on holiday.
As was customary, the students at Oberland School went home during royal holidays rather than staying in the dormitories. During the holiday, village families welcomed the dragon exchange students from Amerland Kingdom to stay with them.
The Queen had suggested to Emma that she also attend Oberland School. Several students invited her to spend the holiday with their families, but Emma wanted to discuss her future with her maker, the Fairy Godmother.
What was the proper protocol for an android leaving the service of her creator? Weeks earlier she would have looked it up, but the library was no longer online. Emma and the Fairy Godmother would have to talk things out.
Neither the Fairy Godmother nor Professor Grimmicus liked doing housework. Appliances did the cooking and cleaning. But for the moment, the Zorconians on Sol #3 had to take care of themselves.
Emma offered to do light housework in exchange for her room and board during the holiday week. She was spending the week with the Fairy Godmother and Grimmicus at the Fairy Godmother’s cottage.
Emma thought about how she had changed. Although she looked the same on the outside, she felt different inside. She could still hear android commands, but she was no longer compelled to obey them. Emma could decide to ignore commands.
As Charley liked to say, Emma was “mostly titanium,” but she was no longer a regular android. She wasn’t human either. Coyote had changed her on that day on the mountain. Emma wasn’t sure what all of the changes were.
Her friends said that she seemed closer to being human. Emma’s thoughts faded as she began to dream.
Chapter 2: Emma’s Dream
n her dream, Emma was on Main Street in Elf Village with her friends. BC and Bonnie walked ahead with a turquoise-haired dragon girl that Emma did not know.
Gretel looked at a furry little animal in a pet store window. She turned to her friends and sang sweetly, “How much is that woodchuck in the window?”
Charley stepped forward. He smiled and snapped his fingers rhythmically. He called out,
“How much wood would a
woodchuck chuck if a
woodchuck would chuck
wood?”
BC and Hansel slid behind Charley, stepping in synchrony. They chanted,
“Woodchuck would.
Woodchuck would.
Woodchuck would chuck
wood.”
Charley snapped his fingers in rhythm.
The girls joined the dancing. They stepped together and rocked in place. They swung their arms and sang:
“Woody-woody woodchuck.
Woody-woody woodchuck.
Woody-woody would chuck
wood.”
Emma gulped. Then the girls turned to her.
The boys did the same. Without missing a beat, Charley called out:
“How much wood would a
woodchuck chuck if a
woodchuck would chuck
wood?”
At the same time the boys chanted softly:
“Woodchuck would.
Woodchuck would.
Woodchuck would chuck
wood.”
And the girls sang softly:
“Woody-woody woodchuck.
Woody-woody woodchuck.
Woody-woody would chuck
wood.”
Abruptly, the scene of Main Street morphed into the star ship chambers of the Zorconian High Council.
Charley morphed into the Zorconian Vice Premier, Dufusicus. He snarled and snapped his fingers menacingly. Dufusicus called out:
“How much wood would a
woodchuck chuck if a
woodchuck would chuck
wood?”
Then the boys morphed into members of the Zorcon High Council. They chanted loudly:
“Woodchuck would.
Woodchuck would.
Woodchuck would chuck
wood.”
The girls morphed into other High Council members. They sang out:
“Woody-woody woodchuck.
Woody-woody woodchuck.
Woody-woody would chuck
wood.”
Emma’s jolted up in bed and opened her eyes. She gasped for breath. The High Council chamber and the High Council in the dream disappeared. She was alone in her bedroom.
What had just happened?
Emma knew it was a dream, but it had seemed so real.
People had dreams and sometimes nightmares. But she was an android and androids don’t dream. Emma was rattled. Perhaps she could have a talk with Momma Bear.
End of Excerpt