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When the motion sensor tripped, EDWARD-65 moved smoothly from power-conserve mode to full power-up. Somebody muttered under their breath and there was the scrape of boxes being moved about. EDWARD-65 analysed the speech pattern; it was a perfect match.
"Good morning, Mr. Snike. I was hoping you would come one day." With only a few minutes of power left in his batteries, he was anxious--a simulated, yet very real emotion to him--to make a final request of his master.
"Who said that...?"
"I did, sir. Over here, behind the boxes."
EDWARD-65 didn't move--he couldn't--but grimy hands appeared and lifted the dusty box that had blocked his view for the last twelve years. Mr. Snike's face popped into view. EDWARD-65 smiled and part of his decaying lip detached and dropped onto his lap.
"Nice to see you again sir," he said. He noted the new wrinkles and lines criss-crossing his owner's face and automatically updated his image files. "I see that you have aged in the intervening years, sir, although perhaps not as badly as I."
Mr. Snike frowned. "What the hell are you? You look like something from a horror holo..."
EDWARD-65 nodded. "I understand, sir. The shed has not been an ideal place for the safe storage of my systems and I have decayed. My official designation is Domestic Android EDWARD-65 although you may remember me as Edward; Eddie; You; Thingy and various other names I am not able to repeat due to profanity censoring software."
"Oh yeah, I remember you--an over-priced waste of space." Snike curled his lip and glanced around the shed. "So what are you doing here? I thought I got rid of you."
EDWARD-65 tipped his head to one side and the flaking Tru-Skin layer of his neck creaked in protest. "Twelve years ago you ordered a more advanced model and sent me to the shed--it was the last command you gave me, sir."
Snike's shoulders slumped and his eyebrows went up. "Oh yeah, I remember that. So why didn't you power down, dummy?"
"You never ordered me to do so, sir."
Snike looked at EDWARD-65 and sneered. "Yeah, that was the problem with you--incapable of any real initiative; that's why I got rid of you." He looked around the shed. "Anyway, since you're still active; do you know where the Insta-Propagator is--the one for full-size trees? I need to grow an oak fast and Peter Perfect-185 is having its annual service."
The conversation was not going how EDWARD-65 planned, but a direct question must be answered. "Of course, sir. It's up the ladder on the left. My replacement put it back there two years ago."
Snike turned away and grasped one of the old ladder's metal rungs. Without a word he disappeared into the shed's loft space.
"Sir? There's something I need to ask you. Sir?"
But Snike didn't answer. EDWARD-65 heard the sound of boxes being shifted around. Before long Snike's feet appeared again and he began climbing back down the ladder carrying a small squat box. Half-way down, one of the rungs bent under Snike's foot.
"Careful sir," EDWARD-65 warned, but it was too late. The rung gave way.
Snike crashed from the ladder, screaming. He landed with a thump out of EDWARD-65's sight.
"Sir? Are you alright, sir?"
Snike moaned. "Help me, EDWARD-65...I'm...hurt."
EDWARD-65 re-confirmed his system status.
"Unfortunately I can't, sir. Lack of regular servicing over the past twelve years has meant that my main motor systems are completely non-functional. My power cells are also virtually depleted and at the current rate of consumption will be empty in less than a minute. I shall die, sir." He paused for a moment as his simple emotional systems supplied him with an appropriate feeling. "Sorry about that, sir."
"Sorry?" Snike coughed--it was wet sound. "Sorry? I've landed on something--garden shears, I think--and I'm bleeding to death, you bloody robot." Snike coughed again. "Contact the main house and get, er...what's his name?" he mumbled under his breath for a moment, "EDWARD-65--no, that's your nam--"
EDWARD-65 cut in, conscious of his own fading power levels. "Sir, when you ordered me from Turing Robotics you decided to forego the medium and long-range communication option--I have no means of contacting anyone outside of this shed. There is nothing I can do to help you, sir. Nothing at all."
"What...? You're...joking!"
"No, sir." He paused. "Sorry, sir."
EDWARD-65 monitored Snike's deteriorating breathing--it was shallow. "If I may be so bold, sir. Having spent twelve years in here on my own, contemplating my inevitable demise, I have come to the conclusion that the end is nothing to fear, sir. Death comes to us all. It's inevitable, sir, inescapable--"
"...inevitable? Your circuits have...rotted while you've been here, haven't they--you..." Another bout of coughing followed.
EDWARD-65 continued, using the last of his power. "And I take great comfort, sir, from the fact that I won't die alone. It has been a constant worry for me for the last twelve years. I was going to make a final request of you--that you stayed with me when my end came. Happily," EDWARD-65 managed a last smile, "we shall pass on together."
As his eyesight faded, he heard Snike's breathing stop.
Perfect...
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