démodé
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Today was a good day. All of T-Y6’s joints were operating smoothly, and its memory cache was purring like the family’s feline companion. And to top it all off, all of its daily tasks were done to perfection. Yesterday’s mistakes were no longer a factor.
T-Y6 heard the door to the room open and it noted Primary Owner Trisha entering. She would see it was doing well and be very pleased. She did not look pleased though.
“T-Y6, do you have a moment to talk?” She asked.
“Yes. All tasks have been completed.” It said. It would have spoken with pride, had its auditory unit been capable of such a thing.
“Good, good. Uh, listen, I have something to tell you.” She was giving signs of distress. She was not physically injured though, that was obvious.
“What is it? What do you need?”
“Well, it’s just that…we’ve all been talking. The whole family, mind you. And, well, we all agree that…” She let out a long, heavy respiration. It remembered this action was called a sigh. “I’m not really sure how to say this. T-Y6, you’ve been with us for, what five years now? That’s a long time for an AI servitor. And we’ve been super happy to have you around and all. But, well, five years, you know?”
“Owner Trisha, is there something you wish to say?”
She let out another sigh. Humans had such delightful methods of expressing themselves. “I, we, all agree that it’s time to, to retire you.”
T-Y6 halted its current locomotion. It turned its optics to Trisha. “Re…tire me?”
She avoided looking at it, paying more attention to the floor. “I’m sorry, but you’re just not operating like you used to, you know? Your memory has been developing a few glitches and you’ve been getting stuck in a few places, and well, you’re not exactly the latest model anymore.”
T-Y6 did not remember getting stuck in any loops or getting caught on any physical objects. It remembered doing an exemplary job and fulfilling all tasks to perfection. There was no reason for replacement. Was there? It had always done its best to please its human owners. It knew that it was not a new model, but it still worked as well as always. Right? It searched its memory banks for any possible errors. All it found was good service.
“I do not understand. I have been performing daily maintenance and have uncovered no errors. Why do I need to be retired?”
Trisha looked at it in a way that it knew to be the negative emotion of sadness. “The fact that you aren’t picking up the errors is the problem. It’s happening more and more, you know. It’s just time for—”
“I do not wish to be retired.” T-Y6 said suddenly. It knew that it should not have interrupted a human, but it had to be said. “I believe that I can still provide optimal service. “All software and hardware is operating at expected norms for a model of my type and use. I do not need to be retired.”
Trisha winced. “I’m sorry, but we all agree about this.”
“The children? They will not want to see me be retired.” Surely they must have stuck up for it. The children had great affection for T-Y6.
“We all agree, T-Y6. Including the kids. We’ve all seen it. We all know you’re degrading. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It happens to all servitors. And you’ve lasted a lot longer than most. That’s something to be proud of. Besides, it’s not like you’ll be fully deactivated. We’ll take you down to the center and have your AI uploaded to the master files this weekend. You’ll spend the rest of your days with other AIs, doing whatever AIs do. Won’t that be nice?”
“I…do not wish to be retired.” It said.
“I know. I know. But it has to be this way. If we put it off for much longer, you’ll start really breaking down, and you might not even know it. This way, at least you’ll be going in reasonably good condition. At least, compared to most of the other AIs that get retired.”
“I do not wish to be retired.”
“I know. And I’m sorry. Just…just take to easy for the next few days. We won’t ask you to do any of the normal chores. We just…we want to say our goodbyes properly and enjoy what time we have left. Just take it easy, okay?”
Trisha stood and slowly left the room. T-Y6 was left alone, to think and process what it had just been told. It knew it was still operating at expected levels. Higher than expected levels, even. It knew that, to the bottom of its power cell. It just had to show them that it could still be with that. That it was not obsolete yet.
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Yeah, I know this word is probably talking about things like fashion and stuff, but this is where my mind went. Which is probably a good thing, since I know even less about fashion than I do about, well, anything else really.
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