Does Not Compute

“I think I love you, Master,” MD-15 confessed.

Being an android, MD-15 could only imitate the sound of being breathless. She stood in the empty hallway of Saber’s home.

He sighed. How could she have feelings? Saber rubbed the back of his lean neck and looked up into the golden eyes of the android girl who preferred to be called Sleek. She stood there at attention ready to take any order he gave. MD-15’s silvery golden hair framed her lifeless body all the way to her tiny mechanical waist which was covered by a synthetic skin. She was dressed in the factory attire given to all female android maids, a pale pink peasant dress that reached the knees. There was no doubt in Saber’s mind that he was attracted to her, she was perfectly crafted by the finest sculptors the science world could find.

But he should not have such feelings for an android. He was happily married with two daughters whom he loved dearly. So why did he feel the tingle when MD-15 brushed past him in the halls of his home, hurrying to get the daily chores done? Saber, the man who hated all technology, who longed for the days of Nature as the elders called it, had feelings for this scrap of metal?

“This can never be, MD-15. I know you think you have feelings, but–it’s just not possible!” Saber didn’t know what else to say.

He was a thirty-four-year old man. There were no surprises for him in this year of 2235. When he left his home to check the city’s water supply every morning, he walked through a chrome door, which was identical to all the chrome doors of all the chrome covered homes in his neighborhood. All he could see were what looked like giant distorted toasters.

Silvery skyscrapers were the rulers of the once blue sky. Jet airliners and automated flying cars of every metallic color imaginable from gold to copper roamed the yellowish red skies stained by human pollution. The ancients spoke once of the green grass, but Saber had never seen the lush green grass that used to cover the once magnificent earth. Nor the fair blue color people speculated about that used to swim through the sky. The only place one could find colors like that anymore was in the United Colonies of Europe.

After World War III only a few countries were left in Europe and they wished to preserve what little nature they had left after destroying most of it. Only silver, copper, chrome and gold could be seen now in America, the ever-decadent nation that seemed to squander all of Earth’s glorious gifts.

Saber shifted from one foot to the other. Pushing up the sleeves of his dull white tunic top as he rubbed his slender arms, he surveyed his android maid. She looked like she might cry, her large innocent eyes staring up at him, searching for understanding or acceptance. She must be malfunctioning.

“MD-15, what is your prime directive?” he asked.

“To obey your every order and to love you, of course.” She smiled.

Saber took a step back and stared at the android. “No, your directive, MD–15, is to- “

“I do wish you would call me Sleek.” She pushed her hair behind her tiny ear and shuffled her dainty feet fitted with brown moccasins.

His eyes widened as he dropped his arms to his side, “W-what? Your directive, MD-15, is to act as maid while taking any order I give you. I won’t call you sleek. You’re not human and you don’t need a name.”

“I will take any order you give me, Master. I would happily do anything for you.”

She choked on her reply. If her makers had graced her with tear ducts they would be overflowing by now, Saber thought. She was so life-like.

“Happily? No, I must call your manufacturer. You’re clearly malfunctioning.”

He turned to leave but Sleek grabbed his sleeve, “It is a malfunction to love?”

Saber was distracted for one moment by Sleek’s eyes. Turning to leave once again, he looked up and saw his wife, Kata, staring at him fiercely from the opposite side of the hall. She seemed like a dangerous animal to him. Her fingers looked like red steel as they gripped the corner wall and Saber swore he could hear a low guttural growl.

He ripped his arm away from Sleek’s gentle grip, “It’s a malfunction in your case. Continue with your duties then recharge your battery for the rest of the night. Never speak that way to me again.”

He hurried by his wife to get to his lab, leaving Sleek standing alone in the barren hallway.

Safe in his laboratory a few floors down, all Saber could hear were the fantastical tinkles of glass on glass, the comforting hum of the Bunsen burner and the magic of bubbling mixtures. In here he was left alone with his thoughts. Even though he didn’t want to admit it, he had feelings for the android maid. He checked the temperature of one of his experiments to get his mind off her.

He was working on a greener form of energy; one that he hoped would help bring back Nature. He longed to see the gray, majestic mountains the elders wrote about in the ancient tomes. Apparently, they rose so high they touched a baby blue sky not an orange one! Oceans of green rolling hills used to blanket the earth and there were stories of trees taller than some buildings. And stars! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see stars he thought?

His jaw twitched while he stirred a clear mixture. He rubbed his eyes, stood up straight and threw the glass pipette across the room, shattering it.

“What’s wrong with me?” he asked himself. “She’s a robot…an android. She’s so life like…she’s so…beautiful.” He sighed and gripped his hair even tighter before pulling his hands away and letting his arms rest on his knees.

He and his wife had been married for twelve years and they had two gorgeous daughters, Beltra, eleven and Cryz, eight. The first few years of their marriage were so passionate; they made love two, even three times a day. After Cryz was born Kata was hardly ever home thanks to her new career as a travel agent. The less Saber saw of her the more his interest in her waned until there was nothing desirable about her left. He was all but alone for five years while his wife enjoyed her freedom doing who knows what. While she traveled showing off exotic locales of glass encased pools, what was left of glorious oceans and seas, Saber was alone in his lab. They hired a nanny to take care of the children since both were so busy all the time. At first, he resented her for her absence, but then he fell into apathy. He started to doubt his love for her and vice versa.

“What are you doing, Saber?”

He hid his tears from his wife’s penetrating gaze as he wiped them away. Something had come over him. The thought of all the years without her sickened him and he felt disgusted by her. Why should she be in his life now if she wasn’t then when it was truly important?

“Kata, what are you doing in my lab?”

“Can’t I visit my own husband?”

He glared at her. “No.”

Kata sighed and moved her long shapely legs toward him, her toned arms languid by her side. He watched as she slowly closed the space between them. Her four-inch heels made an irritable click tap, click tap sound on the vinyl floor. The blonde of her hair was strangely dimmed in the light of the lab. Caressing his face with a soft hand she locked her sapphire eyes on his. She leaned in to kiss his trembling mouth with her red lips. He could feel her breath on his face, she smelled of ashes. He turned away. Kata froze, slid her hands to her hips and backed away.

“I can’t even give my own husband a kiss at work?!”

“You’re lucky,” Saber confessed giving her an icy stare, “You can at least find your husband where he works. I’ve no idea where my wife works.”

“I know what the droid thinks of you and I know what you feel inside for that little wretch, too. I won’t have that in my home. I won’t have a husband who lusts after a fifteen-year-old maid–“

“Android.”

“What?” Kata spat.

“MD-15 is an android and she’s not really fifteen, she just looks it. She’s a machine honey.”

“The desire is still there. It doesn’t matter if she is a machine. I can see it, the way you look at her. You’re pathetic. If you don’t get rid of her I will,” Kata warned. “I’ll take the children and you’ll never see us again.” She stalked out of the lab.

Saber let out the breath he was holding while leaning over a table. Suddenly he was afraid of losing MD-15. Kata wasn’t a woman given to empty threats, but MD-15 had

been there when Kata wasn’t. It was only natural that he developed feelings for her. All his life he’s hated technology for ruining the world. How could he now love a piece of technology that was created merely to condone laziness? The basis of his hate was now the object of his affection.

The following morning came too soon for Saber’s liking. Lying in bed he contemplated how he would tell his wife he was leaving her for an android. He clenched the limp gray silk sheets of his sleek bed and was suddenly reminded of MD-15’s silver golden hair. That ephemeral sheen of metallic colored hair framing the softest and most innocent of bodies. How he longed to touch it. Her gorgeous shining golden eyes that always looked at him with such pure love and utmost admiration, how could any man not love her?

Just then he heard a loud clang come from the kitchen. Immediately he got up, not caring to throw on a robe. His pajama bottoms loosely hanging on his hips, he made his way quickly to the kitchen.

He almost fell as he came around the corner fumbling to catch a hold on the door jamb. As soon as he saw what was in the kitchen his grip on the doorjamb tightened considerably as his eyes gleamed dangerously. All the breath in his body left shortly before he fell to his knees.

There on the glossy white floor sat MD-15, sparks flying sporadically from her head as it lolled from side to side. Kata was not so lucky. She stood leaning out of breath against the glittering copper counter with a very heavy-looking pan in her trembling hand. Her other arm hung limply by her side trickling with blood. There was a ghastly gash across her forehead that disappeared under her reddening blonde hair. It was bleeding profusely. Saber was aghast as he stood up and ran to MD-15.

“What have you done?” Saber’s hands moved skillfully and quickly as he checked every circuit, wire, nut and bolt.

MD-15’s arm moved up to her head and she began tinkering inside her own skull and all around it. That was when Saber noticed one of her fingers had the synthetic skin missing and the bare metal showed. It wasn’t a metallic color, it was red. She must have used her hand as a shield when Kata hit her, and then retaliated by slashing her finger across Kata’s forehead. MD-15 hastily repaired all the loose wires that were jutting out past her golden mane and shoved them back into her metal skull. She shook her head once and stood up’ straightening out her disheveled light pink peasant dress.

“Master, your wife’s arm is broken. Would you like me to fix it?” MD-15 asked genuinely.

Saber stared at his wife for a long time before he spoke, “No, I’ll do it myself.”

Saber walked over to his wife slowly and her grip on the pan tightened. In one swift movement, he grabbed the arm that held the pan; with his other he grabbed her broken arm by the elbow and twisted. Kata screamed in agony and dropped the pan. The moment she dropped the pan, Saber caught it and smashed it against her head. With one hit she was on the floor, a pool of rich vermillion began surrounding her head.

Saber wondered how it was so easy for him to kill his wife.

He didn’t love her.

Over the years he had come to despise her. She was never there for the children or him. She never told them that she loved them or said anything positive about all the work he had done or the work that MD-15 did. He didn’t even know her anymore; he felt nothing for her now as he looked down at Kata’s lifeless azure eyes.

He felt a tug on his pants and turned sharply to find his daughter Cryz, tears streaming down her innocent face. His older daughter Beltra stood with her back against the wall glaring at him with glistening eyes.

“Is mummy gone to heaven daddy?” Cryz asked him through choking sobs.

Saber swallowed hard; hopefully they hadn’t seen what he’d done. “Yes. Mommy had an accident. Come on, let’s go honey.” Saber picked up his eight-year-old daughter, grabbed Beltra’s hand and led them all out of the kitchen.

The rack that held all the pans and metal skillets above the island in the kitchen hadn’t been very sturdy, at least that’s what Saber told the police. They bought it and left. After a convincing heartfelt explanation of their mother’s death to his daughters and a quick drive to Pensacola to drop them off with a relative, MD-15 and he were on their way to Europe.

They settled in a lazy town just outside what was left of Dublin. Most European countries weren’t as advanced as America or Japan technologically so it was the perfect place to go to if you wanted to see what was left of the green. Saber bought a quaint little cottage just big enough for the two of them that stood on what remained of a once vast field of green. Every day they went outside and stood in it, barefoot. Saber loved the tickle of the forest green that crept up between his toes. MD-15 pretended she felt it and smiled.

“See that cloud MD-15? It looks kind of like a bunny doesn’t it-ooh they’re starting to get darker.”

MD-15 leaned over and whispered into Saber’s ear before kissing it, “I love you.”

Saber grabbed her by the face and kissed her passionately. It was easy to forget that she was an android when kissing her felt so normal. “I love you, MD-15.”

MD-15 winced but then smiled wide as she got up. She stared down at him while she held his hand gently. Looking up into those bright eyes made him content. He let go of her hand to push himself up off the springy grass.

An extremely vivid flash of light, a deafening clap of thunder and MD-15 lit up like the sun. Saber was thrown a few yards by the force of it, landing hard on the unforgiving ground. When he came to, he saw MD-15 through blurry eyes lying on the ground motionless and slightly sparking. He crawled over to her in a panic amid dissipating smoke and rain that seemed to come down harder than he had ever felt.

“Sleek? Sleek!” Saber yelled. Rain cascaded down his forehead mingling with his tears as he hugged her. He cradled such a tiny fragile head in his arms as he wiped the soaked hair out of her large eyes which were staring straight up into nothing.

“Sleek, are you ok? Oh, please be ok….” He rocked back and forth with her, his eyes shut in a silent prayer.

“Of course, Master, but who is Sleek?”

Sabers eyes lurched down, “You are.”

“Negative. My title is MD-15, Maid Android 1.5. I am the most efficient household helper, surpassing Android .1.”

Saber choked trying to catch his breath.

“Master is choking. Would you like assistance? I am fully trained in the Heimlich maneuver and other resuscitation abilities.”

Saber screamed up to the lonely sky filled with dark gray clouds. It was dark now with the impending storm. He looked back to Sleek.

Saber kissed her and confessed once more, “I love you.”

MD-15 looked straight ahead, “I’m sorry, Master, but your command does not compute.”