Weekend Special Short Tales California 2.2 Chapter 8

 

8.

Esmeralda kicked at the steel door that had her only exit from the small chamber she was locked in. It was not a tortured chamber but a roomful of rags and buckets. She had scrummage the lots and found nothing useful to use as a breakout tool but the rags was plentiful to rest her weary legs. She rubbed the sore point at the toes where she had hurt herself kicking the door.

Then the door opened.

It was the nefarious Captain. She knew him from the uniform and reputation.

“Gypsy, you are a trouble maker.” Captain Phoebus confronted the girl. “I am in mind to punish you as a lesson for your kind.”

“Gypsy are not a kind. We are a Community that learned to live together and not be separated by the walls and fences. We do not have neighbors but families in one huge Community.”

“Don’t justify your kind of existence to mine. I am the Community here. We lived in harmony.” Captain Phoebus hit back.

“A Community that held a forest wall from the others. You have isolated yourself here, even from your own kind. Does the City intimidate you with the towers and huge structures that rivaled your Dome?”

“The City is not the Dome and neither will the Dome be with the City. We are the Dome and we survive here for generations.”

“You are a relic like the items you hold in those shelves.” Esmeralda said. “You took what is not yours to keep here. You defile their existence with …. Imprisonment on the freedom.”

“Freedom? Well, you won’t be seeing that. I had enough of you and will see that you hang for your ….freedom.” Captain Phoebus glared at the girl. “Savor your last moments of freedom.”

“She will be freed.” It was the Archdeacon who had intervened. “She is not to be punished.”

“My Reverend Sir, she created the rioting there. She instigated the breaking of the Dome’s property.” The Captain looked to the Archdeacon. “You can’t …”

“Release her now. I am still your Archdeacon.” The command was given, and Esmeralda escorted out. It was then I saw her. She looked at me and then smiled.

It was a smile as registered by my program. I would have smiled but I am a droid. I can’t smile. She walked past me escorted by the two enforcers. I wanted to reach out with my upper limbs.

I wanted to hold her.

I wanted… but I could not. There were conflicts of logic in the program. I turned and returned to my charging spot to run the diagnostics. I had the routines checked and the program checked for any intrusion or fixes to be repaired. It was not of my doing but main programs of mien prompted it. I knew it was a waste of resources for the hidden programs will still be there. While the server was doing the above, I had the recent date purged. It was part of the hidden programs to camouflage its existence.

Whatever was happening, I felt an unusual surge in my frame as if I was undergoing a re-boot in the core programs. I felt elated as what an organic being may experience. It was a strange movement to my frame for it was not in the main program.

Or maybe I am alive like an organic being.

‘Error 404. Routine cannot be purged.’

I terminated that data log.

“I be darned that you are hibernating here while I was cleaning the debris. Did you shut off your communication set?” I heard the Caretaker. I checked my communication set and it was still turned on. I may had ignored the communication link.

“Follow me, Quasimodo, We got work to do.” I complied with the request after I disengaged from the charging port.

What was not disengaging was the Captain who confronted the Archdeacon at the balcony. The latter was watching the revelers leave after the festival was cut short of its events. The Captain had called for them to leave then.

“I am not your servitude aide to be commanded when it…” The Captain was cut off by the Archdeacon.

“You will serve me as dictated by the Service Rules of the Dome. I am the Archdeacon and you will comply.” The Archdeacon snapped out.

“I … I won’t comply, Frollo.” The Captain hit back and used the name of the Archdeacon to mock him. “I helped you to your rank and if it was not….”

“If it was not you, there would have been others, Phoebus. I am indebted to you but as long as I am the Archdeacon, you will desist to argue with me on my commands.” The Archdeacon had then removed his mask to pull in a deep breath.

“I liked the air. It’s fresh.” The air in the Dome is recycled through the filters.

“Breathe in, Marcus Luiz. Your secret is still safe with me.” Captain Phoebus then turned to leave the balcony.