Ava and Aphrodite: The First Human in 8000 Years (Featured)

End of Part 2: The Murderer

Days went by and Go-bot continued his quest for more data as he roamed the village.

He was still having grips to the change in cognition his mind had gone through. He was so used to being on the Serv network with all the other Block-5 robots, being ordered around and being told how and what to think. He still wasn't quite sure what Locke had done to him, really.

But he was starting to make his own decisions. He walked where he wanted to, even if he couldn't put his finger on why he wanted to walk there. He studied what he wanted to. Even if it didn't serve any obvious purpose to him. He enjoyed recreational activities with the children, even though they served no benefit except for something called: fun. An odd concept. And something he was once again trying out right now.

The children were kicking a ball to him, he was standing in front of a wall which had a box painted on it. It was called a "goal" his job, apparently, was to stop the ball from hitting the "goal".

He was very good at this game. Even though he usually blocked with his face, he found a curious sensation known as enjoyment from it. The children were laughing and having fun, and he felt like he was one of them. Didn't Locke say that he was a child too? So, these kids were like him too, yes? They wanted to learn too, maybe.

"C'mon Gogo! Throw the ball back!" said one of the boys,

Go-bot waddled to the ball, which had bounced off him and landed a few feet ahead. Even though he was short and slow, his extendable limbs made him brilliant at this game "football", although he never used his feet.

Nothing was gained from this activity, at least humans trained their muscle and fitness by doing it, but for him, nothing changed. Probably. He wasn't sure.

And yet he wanted to keep doing it. He "liked" stopping the ball, and he "liked" when the children called him "Gogo".

He liked having friends.

His afternoon was like many of his others, he gathered analogue data by scanning Aphrodite's books. He was much faster than her at reading, and hence, by the time two weeks were up, he'd already managed to read her entirely library of content. Hundreds upon hundreds of book. Sadly none of them made sense to him, or at least, not noticeably so.

Analogue data was very very different from digital data. Digital data was far more efficient, directly feeding information into the brain and installing it with complete comprehension and understanding. Mission parameters were instantly clear to Go-bot the moment they were sent to him, but now, whenever Locke asked him to do something, like go to the shops to buy food, in his head thoughts would roll around in his head. Oh, I wonder if we're cooking something nice tonight or why did he send me when he could go himself? Or Did he send me out just so he could get rid of me?

Information was questioned, it was interpreted, potentially, it could be misunderstood. Yes, he'd read a book a think he'd interpreted it perfectly, and then Aphrodite would tell him otherwise, but then Locke would turn up and tell them they were both wrong.

Analogue consumption of data was awkward, but at the same time it was so much more "enjoyable".

Why?

Zero.

For some reason the number zero, or maybe, the concept of zero, kept on popping into his head.

***

Yet another morning broke in Aphrodite's room, the dawning sun shone a familiar crack of light through the small parting of her curtains and woke her up. She sat up from her bed and felt a throbbing inside her head, a headache. She'd had this feeling before, always in the mornings, it was getting frustrating and Locke, who usually had all the answers, wasn't able to explain why she felt how she did.