Weekend Special Short Tales California 2.2 Chapter 10

 

10.

I cleaned the debris and the shards of glass at the yard with the garbage bag attached to my frame. The other units were inside the Dome. I knew I was punished for leaving my post earlier but as a droid, I should not have those emotions.

Well, I did. And it was happening more often when I see her.

I approached the platform which was partially damaged in the riot. It was not the works of the gathered but more of the enforcers. They took their frustration on the left behinds or indulged themselves to the food. I was never hungry although I needed recharging of the power cells.

Then I saw the doll.

It was a dancing girl.

The doll was sewn by hand. It had on the colorful dress.

And dark hair.

It was actually fiber materials that resembled the woven strings but the shade was night dark.

I moved my sensors to detect any close proximity of the others. There were none. I reached out with one upper limb. I had contact with the doll. I knew it was inorganic material and should not feel any contact to its surface but I was …. Curious.

Curiosity kills the cat. My program reached out to me with the archive line. It was a program line to avoid the unneeded.

‘Ignore the command’. I overrode the command.

I did not sense any others which were near me picking up my reading. I did a fast retrieval and then into the bag before I moved on.

I felt the exhilaration.

Unusual command lines but it was nice.

‘Unaccepted command lines.’

Unknown to myself, I was watched.

Captain Phoebus adjusted the zoom on the vid and saw the item picked up by the droid. He was ever curious as to the action of the droid. He called to his aide.

“Bring me up the Maintenance file on E-05.”

The file was being uploaded to the Captain. At the same time, the Caretaker had the alert sent to him on his personal organizer unit..

“File command Quasimodo open.” The Caretaker read the line and then punch in the command.

“Purge the backups. Password Quasimodo.” The main server got the command and deleted the relevant files.

“Captain, the files are sent to you.” Captain Phoebus heard the aide and moved to retrieve the file. He saw the folder there and the sub-files header inside but there was no data inside.

“Why is the file empty of content? Get me the back up.” The Captain called out. The aide typed in the command lines. A series of alerts in the consoles started flashing.

“Captain, we are under attack. It’s an infection that deleting the files.” The aide called out. “I am running the shutdown process.”

The Captain saw the aides there trying to salvage the files in the server. He then called for the Caretaker.

“I don’t know anything at all about what you are saying. I don’t have any knowledge of the server.” The Caretaker had denied any involvement in the server crash. “I am a caretaker here.”

“Hush your claims, Caretaker. I have your file on papers at my chamber. I know of your previous endeavors, Jehan du Moulin was your name . Your stay here is with the protection of your brother Claude Frollo. I know of your past, and I won’t hesitate to …” The Captain saw the other had brush him off casually.

“Captain Phoebus, we all have secrets. Just like the Dome has its own. Don’t use my past to intimidate me. As for your present, I have nothing to do with it. Why would I crash the server here? The Dome has been my home for some years. My past hidden here, and my present is easy on me.”

“Caretaker”, The Captain was hesitant not to call the name but refer to the known designation. “I was doing a routine check on the staff, and your droid.”

“E-05? A harmless metallic box and you want to check its files. Are you loony or have you no others to look at? E-05 is a droid. It will not…”

“It picked up a doll and then stored it.” The Captain cut in.

“It should as that is garbage. There is no other interpretation. You are … Should I say overly concerned?” The Caretaker then excused himself leaving the Captain fuming with rage.

“Find me the Archdeacon.” The Captain roared out.

“Captain, the Archdeacon is not in the Dome.” The Captain was annoyed. He knew where the Archdeacon had gone to.

“Captain, we have the Chief of the Enforcers, City side calling on you. He sounded urgent.”