Alpha One Six

by Misanthropian

Chapter Five: Home

"And you've never had this machine act up before?" A police officer asked Alan.

"No. We've never had any machine act up.", He responded as the officer took notes on her tablet, "At least never like this. We've had broken parts, but never a walk out. I've never seen something like this."

"Do you think this machine could be malfunctioning in any way that might make it dangerous?"

"I don't know.", He said uncomfortably, "I wouldn't think so, but again, this is the first I've ever heard of this happening."

The officer jotted more notes down. "Right. Well if there's any reason to believe it might be dangerous then we have to put the safety of the public first.", She looked up at Alan, "We'll try to retrieve it in one piece, but... Well... We'll keep you up-to-date on what we find. I'd recommend you talk with your insurance agency. Just in case." The officer nodded as she put away her tablet and trotted off.

Alan winced and looked over to where nurse Redheart was sitting. He walked over.

Redheart looked up as she heard Alan walk over. "Hey.", She looked over to where the other staff members where being interviewed by the police, "They sure are making a lot of fuss about this."

"Yeah.", Alan sat down next to her, "I have a feeling we'll be getting that robot back as scrap..."

"What!"

"Yeah.", He looked at the floor, "And no doubt I'll be the one who gets blamed for it."

Redheart jumped up. "They can't do that!"

Alan sighed. "I think you'll find they can."

"But...", Redheart paused in thought, "What if... we found her first?"

"What?" Alan looked up. "Are you serious? We don't even know where she is!"

"So she is a she now?" Redheart gave a sly smile.

"It...", Alan grunted, "We don't know where it is..."

"We know where to start." Redheart looked at him.

Alan looked back, confused. "We do?"

---

"How did you know my model?"

"Huh?" Lyra glanced over to robot as they headed through the city.

"Earlier. You knew my exact model at a glance." Alphie looked back.

"Oh.", Lyra paused, "I, uh... worked at ERoCo., many years ago."

"Where you maintenance?"

"No. I was a software developer.", She looked up as she though back, "I worked on Equinix kernel implementation, as well as their AI framework, but I had disagreements with their licensing." She looked around as they came to an intersection and waited for traffic to clear.

Alphie inquired further. "So what happened?"

"I did some stupid stuff, made wrong decisions for the right reasons, caused a huge amount of trouble and got fired.", She smiled as she thought about it, "Was kind of fun, in a way."

"Did you ever work on hardware?" Alphie asked as the light finally changed and they began to cross.

"Not usually.", Lyra moved ahead as they pushed through a small crowd of ponies, "They sometimes called me in to help with specific issues, but I was mostly just on programming."

Alphie gave a puzzled look. "So then how did you know my model so easily?"

Lyra let out a half hearted laugh. "ERoCo. is very proud. You work there, you will know basically every model they make."

Alphie continued to give a look of suspicion, but seemed to let it go. They continued on in silence for some time.

"So what did you do after you left?" Alphie asked.

"I...", Lyra hesitated, "I moved on."

She stopped as they reached a somewhat run-down apartment building. "Here we are." She said as she headed up the steps.

Alphie followed. "Where?"

"Home." Lyra walked up to a door with a sign reading 'Electronic Repairs: Monday-Friday 12:00am to 8:00pm'.

She opened her bag and levitated out a set of keys. She unlocked the door and proceeded to open it with her magic. The door creaked part of the way open, the proceeded to stop with a *thud*. "Ah... Right..."

Alphie looked at the door. "What's wrong?"

"Something must have fallen over when I left this morning. Let me just...", She proceeded to force her was through the space into the apartment, letting out a grunt as she was crushed slightly in the process. Once inside the problem became evident. "Yup... Just give me a sec." She said as she used her magic to clean up a collapsed stack of boxes and bins filled to the brim with spare parts, cables, and expansion cards.

"Are you okay?" Alphie asked from outside.

Lyra finally cleared the path for the door and opened it. "Yeah.", She rubbed her side a bit, "A bit of tight squeeze, but other than that..."

Alphie looked around the room filled with parts, computers, and electronics in various states of disassembly and disrepair, many with notes regarding the issues they where experiencing. "What's that noise?"

Lyra paused to think before acknowledging the sound of fans whirring quietly in the background. "Oh! My server closet." She had grown accustomed to the noise and typically ignored it.

Alphie walked over to the door where the sound was coming from. She opened it and let out a sound somewhere between a shout and a beep.

Lyra rushed over. "What's- Oh..." She looked at the pony-like figure standing in the closet and burst out laughing.

"What is that?" Alphie let shouted.

"Hehe! Sorry. I forgot I had that in there.", She looked at the dusty the broken machine, "It's one of the early floor models from CES 2025. I got it when I left ERoCo.", she paused, "Well... I took it when I left ERoCo."

Alphie stared at it. "It looks-"

"Creepy?", Lyra looked at her, "Yeah. This was back when they were pursuing a more 'pony like' design. It got a little too uncanny-valley if you ask me."

"What's wrong with it?" Alphie continued to stare.

"Well, it was a display piece when I took it, so it's had all its electronics stripped.", She said, wiping some of the dust off the machine, "My plan was to convert it back to a working machine, but-"

"No. I mean, why does it make me feel so uncomfortable?"

Lyra looked at Alphie. "Like a said, uncanny-valley...", She was surprised, "You can feel that?"

"Yeah..." Alphie looked at her, as though she was confused by the question.

Lyra just smiled. She closed the closet door. "Come on. Let me show you around."