Broken Things by G. S. Wright Page A

knowing, and that felt unbearable.
They planned to dissect him like an alien and rip his insides out. Worse, he
had nothing to look forward too. He was pretty sure that the man was right. God
didn’t have a place for robots in Heaven.
     “God?” he prayed aloud, “If you’re there, if you can
hear me at all, please get me out of here. Send me an angel. I don’t want to
die…”
     
    15
     
    James Hamilton had spent more of his life at Kidsmith than
outside of it. He’d been with them through their rise and fall, and hoped to be
there when they once more reached prominence. He’d begun as an engineer, and
stopped his corporate climb at Engineering Manager. He’d managed to father two
children before such things became impossible. They were grown and in other
parts of the world. He hadn’t spoken to his oldest son in fifteen years.
    Many had come and gone, but James remained. He often
referred to all of the children Kidsmith had sent out the door as his own. That
would’ve made him the father of over one million boys and girls, and with the
exception of the occasional twins, no two looked alike. He’d even owned a
couple over the years. His current one was getting a bit run down. He kept
tampering with her though, and changing her personality. It drove his wife
crazy.
    These days though, it felt as though the company had become
infertile too. Children didn’t walk out these doors, at least not the new ones.
Few of the older models did either. Nowadays, he didn’t spend much time working
with the kids. He spent his days behind a desk dealing with work orders.
Sometimes it felt like a daily struggle just to stay employed. As he neared
completion of his day, Tamara Hart popped her head into his office.
    “You about out of here?” she asked.
    “He set down his pen and stretched. “Hey Tammy, I think so.
I’ve done enough damage for the day. How about you?”
    “I’m as good as gone,” Tamara said, “I had to drive into the
Boise Mountains. My whole day was shot.”
    “Well at least you got out of the office, that’s better than
my day.”
    “Yeah maybe, if I didn’t have my own stack of paperwork. Did
you see what I brought in?”
    “No. What did you get?”
    She leaned against his door frame and smiled. “It’s not a
kid. I found some type of adult android. Check it out before you leave. I had
them put it in your workshop.”
    “An adult? What was it doing in the mountains?”
    “I don’t know, but it’s in bad shape. It looks as though
it’s about thirty years old or so. Most of the living tissue is gone, but I bet
you could get it going again. Maybe it’s an old butler android.”
    James pushed his chair back and stood up. “It could be
something from the Mountain Home Air Force base. Maybe they lost one.”
    “I don’t know, I’m sure you’ll figure it out. You can tell
me in the morning.”
    “You’ve got me interested now. I think I’ll swing by there.”
    “See you tomorrow.”
    He waved as Tamara disappeared down the hall. He grabbed his
coat and kicked his door shut. He glanced at his watch. It was nearly seven in
the evening. His wife would have supper ready. He really wanted to see that
android. He made a mental note to come back and lock his office, but his mind
crumpled the note and threw it away not five steps from the door.
    The other offices were already locked for the night. It
seemed any more he was always the last one out. It didn’t bother him, this
place felt as much as home to him as his real one. Some people thought it a bit
creepy at night, but not him. He knew these halls almost intimately. There
weren’t any ghosts here, but if there were they probably knew him all too well.
    He found Tamara’s present on his workbench. It smelled
something terrible. He covered his mouth as he approached. “Well what do we
have here?”
    It took him a minute to determine that the thing’s gender
was male. Sometimes if you knew the gender it gave you a clue as to