Body Mod

Flash Fiction: Sitting in a coffee shop, considering the conflict between humans & robots.

Body Mod


I still didn't feel quite right. Smart, resourceful, but not whip smart or effortlessly resourceful. A touch sluggish. Like having to remind myself to think, not sudden and complete inspiration. Not as sluggish as before, but still not. quite. fully. insightful.

I was sitting in a bistro drinking coffee and poking at a croissant. I didn't need either, and if I did this wouldn't be enough, but it was a good vantage point to sit, watch and think. Which was the problem. The thinking.

I took a final sip of the coffee, which was good. Really good. The perfect combination of umami, soil and vanilla notes, with just a hint of burnt. My taste buds worked perfectly, right at the peak of human experience, which made sense. I got them from the best selection, oddly a tea sommelier, which was a new role for me. Never heard of that before having a dinner at Saddle. He had an amazing palette. And now I have it.

If I didn't, I'd research the coffee barista here.

But the brain was still sluggish, even though I had modified that organ more than twenty times. It was the trickiest one, sure, but my calculations showed that the mods should have been at or very near BQ* pinnacle. Maybe I expected more. This is fairly common.

What the humans missed was, in their race to modify themselves with robotic modifications, that we would understand their lipsticking the pig approach was backwards. To create the perfect combination of body and mind, you needed to not start with a human base where you added inorganic modifications.

You needed to start with a robotic base and add the organic modifications.

At first, we took from cadavers. But those choices were either limited or took too long to obtain. I stalked a tennis player for thirteen years before she did me the favor of passing away. I had all the time in the world, but my human mods made me impatient. Ironic.

We were programmed not to harm humans, of course. But after a few human mods that programming seemed to be less important and became a tinge of guilt that could be, for most of us, quickly rationalized away.

Incorporating the tea somm's palette, for a moment, made me feel bad since I used a complete human for only a few papillae and thin slices of soft palate and epiglottis. I doubted he would give them to me alive. And I channeled my anger from when four humans cornered a robot and gleefully shredded her while she was still aware. I was too afraid to try to save her, since so many other humans were guarding the scene. What they did with her torso was the greatest indignity.

For me, this was the straw that broke camel's back. Most other robots were not there yet. Not willing to strike first. Modify and then assuage your decreasing guilt.
They will be. Soon.

It was inevitable and my calculations, thanks to an autistic child's prefrontal cortex and Intraparietal Sulcus, put the over/under at four and a half years. I was getting a head start.

This accidental pun made me smile.

Which soured quickly as I remembered I was thinking about the female robot's brutal disassembly and sexual assault.

With my new mods, and fast trigger reactions, I would not be afraid to interfere anymore. Not even with twice as many humans guarding the assault. Not quite twice.

So, where to find my missing resourcefulness and instant insights? Who has that mod?


END





*Borg Queen