Page 8 of Garbage
Ah, dammit. He needed to get back on track. “Look, this isn’t a guy. Well, it kind of is but… Oh my God, Ben. I met an actual spark.”
“Uh, Evan. You know several sparks. You work with sparks. We have friends who are sparks.”
“No, I mean I found a spark. Like, a spark who didn’t know he was a spark.”
Ben gave a slow whistle. “Fuck. That’s crazy, man. How did it happen?”
Evan recounted the tale, with a few added invectives at the asshole Human Firsters.
“So you’re telling me he didn’t even know he was a spark?” was the first thing Ben asked.
“I swear. He was practically skipping when I explained it all to him.”
“And he’s a garbage collection bot? Like… how does he even have the hard disk space to support something like that?”
“He doesn’t. That’s the first thing. He’s missing all these memories. And when the assholes were threatening him, he just… froze or something. Memory overload. That’s why I was calling you. I need to get him an upgrade.”
“What’s his model number?”
“CNS-84-2.”
There was a pause, and then Ben whistled again. “He’s old, man. That two means he was one of the first five testers that they sent out almost thirty years ago to get the programming right. They only replaced the last of the human fleet with CNS units five years ago.”
Evan nodded, even though he hadn’t bothered with a video call. It was crazy to think that he was about the same age as Quincy, with all of his adorable naivete. “Yeah, that matches with what he said. His only friend was the old lady who drove his garbage truck. She sounded like a hoot. He hasn’t talked to another human for anything beyond getting orders since she retired.”
“Well, fortunately it looks like his ports are still compatible, er… mostly. I’ll need to look around. I can give him an upgrade that’ll be… Fuck, a hundred fifty times his current memory or something. Hell, he should have a new processor, too.”
“And that won’t hurt him? Like, I don’t want to put him in any danger.” He’d barely met the spark, but the thought had his blood running cold.
“Nah. At the worst, if he doesn’t like the new ones, we can always take them out. Oh, and his wireless connection is crap, and it looks like it’s blocked from connecting to anything but his truck and the dispatch or some shit. Gonna upgrade the fuck outta that. Tomorrow before my shift, then?”
“Thanks, man. That would be awesome. Let me know what it costs, and I’ll pay you back.” Evan had reached his car, and he swung into the seat. The audio automatically switched over to his speakers.
“Dude. I work for Orbit. We have this crap lying around. He’s too old to even use some of the newest stuff that might be worth something unless I upgrade his motherboard. I’ve got this.”
“You’re the best, Ben. I really appreciate it.”
Ben laughed. “Just let me meet your new buddy. That’s all I ask.”
“Tomorrow,” Evan agreed. There was a little part of him that already wanted to keep Quincy all to himself, but that was silly. And if anyone would understand how excited he was, it was Ben. They’d been best friends since middle school.
Evan popped in the address for the garbage truck depot, then sat back as his car maneuvered out of the parking space and down the block.
“And you have to tell me everything,” Ben pressed.
“I will! I will. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Evan asked the car’s AI for a few more details about CNS units on the trip over, but there wasn’t a ton to be found. Mostly the news was from five years ago when they’d replaced the human fleet and the Human Firsters had their usual protest. The CNSs were touted as being cleaner and more sanitary, while protecting human workers from picking up potential diseases from working with waste. The only thing he heard about their programming was that they were supposed to be polite.
His car parked just outside a large, squat building with a tall fence. Garbage trucks turned into the drive in front of him, so he was definitely in the right place. It wasn’t quite dirty, but it sure was ugly. A gray, worn-down industrial parking lot without any signs of life or a single spec of beauty.
How had Quincy lived like this?
Evan got out of his car and crossed the cracked cement to stand outside the fence. He could see inside the faded building now, and he realized it wasn’t even entirely enclosed. Half the space was behind walls, but the other half was more like an open garage with a roof. Inside, thirty or forty human-like figures, all with the same blue uniforms but different hair colors and cuts, were standing.
Absolutely still.
