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Not only was I missing Will more than I thought possible, but William, his robot lookalike was nothing like Will in personality.
“William,” I said, “can you help me prepare dinner and a movie? It’s Mom’s birthday, and I always celebrate the day with dinner and a movie.”
“Okay,” William said. “What would you like for dinner?”
“How about ramen?” I asked. It was an easy meal to prepare and didn’t require as many ingredients to make so I was being conservative in how much food resources I would be using.
William went down a list of choices. “Ramen Soru, Ramen and Tofu, Ramen and Eggs...”
“Ramen and Tofu and Eggs,” I said.
“Good choice,” Williams said cheerfully. “How about to drink?”
“Tea,” I said.
“Green tea, black tea, Oolong tea...” William asked.
“Oolong tea,” I said, thinking about the tea with high antioxidants and will help build immunity.
“Since we’re heading to Old Earth,” I said to William, “I need to build up my immune system for it. I’ve read that Old Earth is filled with so much bacteria and pollutants that everyone had to wear masks. Not only that, but people had to keep getting shots and vaccinations to fight against diseases all the time.”
“Would you like an immunity shot?” William asked.
I raised my eyebrows. “Immunity shot?” I asked. “When did we get that and how?”
William said, “Will developed it. Will is a scientist, you know. A brilliant one.”
“He is, is he?” I joked.
William didn’t seem to get the joke and went on with his praises of Will. Will programmed William well. Having William around to help me while Will slept also helped him remind me of Will’s presence while he was sleeping.
William said, “Yes, Will is a brilliant scientist. He put me together out of the old robot pieces on this ship that were scattered all over.”
“Scattered?” I asked. “There were robots onboard?”
“Yes,” William said. “But we were in boxes. Not tested for consumers.”
“Like Mary,” I said, thinking about the robot Mom had customized for me, who was a prototype of the next generation of consumer robots, but was too dangerous for consumer use because the robot themselves could be used as weapons or can use weapons.
“I do not know a Mary,” William said.
“She was my sister,” I said. “Um, my robot sister. I met her when I was only 13 years old, when my mother left me to go searching for food. When my mother didn’t return, Mary was there. She was programmed by my mother to break out of her box to come to me in case my mother did not return from her trip. Mary was a Next Generation robot prototype.” She was not meant for consumer use, but for the military. “Are you?” I asked.
William nodded. “Yes.” He looked confused then, frowning as he looked down. “But how did Mary get out? I do not understand. How did she survived being destroyed?”
Now I was the one who was confused. “Why did anyone want to destroy robots on the Red Genesis?”
William’s eyes froze as though he was recalling a memory. “Someone wanted us destroyed. They wanted all robots to be eliminated.”
“I know. I know. But why?” I asked William again.
William said, “There were shadowy creatures onboard the Red Genesis.”
“Monsters?” I asked.
“I do not know what they were called exactly,” William said, “but they made the humans scream before the humans expired.”
“Died,” I said, feeling glum.
“The creatures would appear but the humans would fight them back. There were constant fighting on the ship.”
“What happened on this ship?” I asked.
William’s eyes began moving, opening wider and wider as though he was terrified. “The beings...Monsters as you called them, were destroyed by the Commander and the Chief Engineer.”
I exclaimed, “Thomas? And Jana?”
“Yes, Commander Thomas and Chief Engineer Jana,” William said. “They worked together to fight the Monsters, but it wasn’t enough.”
I shook my head. “Why? Why wasn’t it enough? Wouldn’t destroying them mean the Monsters are gone?”
William looked at me with a haunted gaze. “No, not enough. The Monsters would appeared to be gone, but they were only in hiding, silently waiting until the right opportunity to strike.” William looked like he could scream, but something came over him, short-circuiting him until he stopped functioning.
I walked over to open his panel located on his chest. Nothing seemed wrong with his circuits. “It’s as though his body shut down before he could act. Self-censorship,” I said to myself.
I looked over his circuitry and memory chip. He was the same prototype as Mary, which meant he could fight like Mary. He was meant for the military like her, too. But where I had engaged Mary throughout the years in all of my social activities like a real human to the point she had started to develop feelings and emotions like humans, it was almost impossible for William to have any emotions at all.
“Why did you shut yourself down just now?” I asked him.
He did not respond.
“How were you able to feel anything? Especially fear?” I asked, realizing that William was experiencing a bit of fear as he recalled what happened on Red Genesis.
Still nothing.
I worked on him for an hour before my stomach began growling. I had forgotten to eat dinner. I had forgotten to celebrate my mother’s birthday. I got up and set aside William to go fix my own bowl of ramen and tea. Then I carried my bowl and tea with me to mother’s old room where I had found her recording.
I sat down in front of her dresser, ready to eat my ramen when I said, “Mom, wherever you are, I will find you. I’m coming to see you, Mom.” I raised my cup of tea and said, “Happy Birthday, Mom! Sin Che Kwai Ler!”
Whooshed. The panel on the wall in front of me dropped down, making me jump back.
I looked inside to see what was inside and found a small book, covered in feminine floral gold.
I opened the cover and was hit by a wave of emotions.
This beautiful gold book was my mother’s personal journal. As I quickly thumbed through it, I also realized it was a log.
“I have to find out what happened on the Red Genesis before going back to Old Earth,” I said out loud. “Why were the robots deliberately destroyed, except Mary, and what did William mean about the Monsters never ever capable of being destroyed. Can they be destroyed? If not, how can we fight them?” I looked down at Mom’s journal and wondered if the answer was somewhere in the journal. And Mom had planted the Journal in here so I could find out why. She wanted me to read her journal. She wanted to learn about her story here on the Red Genesis. I opened the journal and began reading as I ate my ramen and sipped my tea, forgoing the movie until later.