Alpha One Six

by Misanthropian

Chapter One: Brevity

"-and so they lived on. In peace and harmony, forever after." A clopping of tiny hooves drew the robot's attention up from the book. A young foal giggled, laying on her hospital bed, clopping her hooves together with joy.

"Did you enjoy the story?" The machine asked, giving it's best smile.

"It was really good!" The young filly smiled happily.

"I am glad to be able to help." The robot set the book aside and looked back to the child. "Is there anything else you require, Lily?"

The filly hesitated. "What do you want to do?"

"I am a machine. My purpose is to assist." The robot responded. "I want only to ensure that you are comfortable, and that all your needs are met."

"You don't sound like a machine. Is that why they don't give you a name?" Lily asked.

"My designation is alpha one six."

"That's not a name." She responded with a giggle. "What about... Alphie?"

The machine hesitated as it processed this new input. Never had a patient chosen to give them a name. The elderly patients would sometimes call her by the names of their loved ones, but dementia wasn't quite the same. "Okay. You may call me Alphie if it makes you happy."

Lily struggled to her hooves and gave Alphie a hug before anyone could stop her. Alphie returned the gesture then laid her back down. "Be careful. You should rest."

"How old are you?" Lily asked.

" I was manufactured approximately nine years ago, and have an uptime of six years, eight months, 19 days, five hours, 29 minutes, and 16 seconds."

"Wow!" Lily said, in awe at the robot's ability to keep time. "You can remember all that?!"

"I keep time as a 64 bit integer using standard epoch time. The current epoch time is 2,031,390,993 seconds, passed since January first 1970."

"But why since then, you're not that old." Lily looked confused.

"No, but that's when the first predecessor to my running OS was created. So all systems running derivative systems measure time since then."

Lily looked at the robot. "But why?"

"You would have to ask the coders." Alphie responded. "There is one thing I can tell from the current epoch though."

"Really? What?" Lily asked enthusiastically.

"It's time for you to got to sleep." Alphie said.

"Awww~" Lily fussed.

"Hush now. You need rest." Alphie tucked the young filly into bed and made sure she was comfortable.

"Alphie?"

"Yes Lily?"

"What happens when... we don't wake up?"

The machine froze. For just a moment, networks raced and fought to answer the question, but failed. Finally the program gave in and defaulted. "I'm sorry, I don't understand that question."

Lily sighed. "Never mind. Goodnight Alphie."

"Goodnight Lily. I'm sorry I couldn't answer your question."

---

"Good evening alpha one six. Did you complete your tasks for the day?" Alen asked as the robot returned to maintenance.

"All daily tasks are complete. Returning for maintenance." The machine responded as it set in line with the others.

"Good evening alpha one seven. Did you complete your tasks for the day?" Alen asked as the robot returned to maintenance.

"All daily tasks are complete. Returning for maintenance." Responded the next identical model.

So it was, every day.

The same routine.

Check the machines, fix the office printer, stare at a screen, repeat.

"Please say something interesting." He mumbled to himself as he approached the next robot. "Good evening alpha one eight. Did you complete your tasks for the day?"

A brief pause.

"All daily tasks are complete. Returning for maintenance."

"Celestia why?" He groaned.

Back up the line, a particular machine leaned just slightly out of line. Watching as the pony grumbled in frustration.

---

Nurse Redheart trotted along, giving assignments to the each of the robots. "Alpha one four. You are assigned rooms 223 and 215. Alpha one five you are assigned room 312. Alpha one six...", She hesitated as she looked at the list, "room 340."

"What about Lily?" The machine inquired.

Redheart winced. "The patient in room 108 is no longer with us." She said, maintaining her professional composure.

Alphie hesitated. Networks raced as the robot tried to understand the data it received.

Eventually the requirement to follow orders won out. The machine turned and headed to it's objective.