Chapter 30

30

KASEY STARED AT THE BOT,and the bot stared back at Kasey as best it could without real eyes. Outwardly, it was even more clumsily designed than a cleaningbot, but its core system was kilometers above.

It had a goal.

It could develop a plan for attaining that goal.

And in time, it’d have the memories to color the goal as congruent with its self-concept. That self-concept was key. The bot would see itself as a protector. Above its survival, it would value a person, someone they would try to locate, the moment Earth became re-habitable, because the thought of life without this individual would be unbearable.

Unlike Kasey, the bot would be the perfectly calibrated human. She’d make sure of it.

“This command,” she repeated as the bot rolled toward her, “is ‘Find me.’”