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The room is
long and narrow like a wine cellar of some kind. Ahead of Dexter the android
walks to a single monitor, set on a table. A chair, like the ones found
in offices, is pulled forward slightly as the robot motions for her to sit.
She recognizes the ancient make of laptop computer.
"Do you wish to use the keyboard facility?" No. 27 asks the
reporter as she sits down. The android presses one of only two buttons
on the rim of monitor- a conventional key pad slots out.
"No that'll be fine thank you," Dexter kicks the computer into
life by placing her hand on the screen.
The silver coloured figure presses the button once more. The keys slide
back.
"What exactly am I able to get here?" She asks No. 27 who stands
(as though to attention) beside her.
"Any personal information you may desire concerning A. Walker."
"To what extent does that data go?"
"Recorded data or personal entries from the years of 4071 AD to
the present day."
"I see," her heart misses a beat, this is possibly even better
than talking to the man himself, "so if I request something here.."
"Correct," No. 27 confirms as Mary points to the screen.
"Request information date on the year 4271, month April, day...what
date is it today?"
"The twenty-first Earth calendar."
"Alright. The twenty-first."
The date flashes in the right hand corner and a large letter type face
flashes: REST DAY- REST DAY- REST DAY…
"Umm..not much there, how about a stab in the dark? Request information..the
year.....4083," she remembers the figures well, her mind sharpened
to an edge of blistering accuracy, "month...better try it until we
get the right ones I suppose..January 1st."
"Are you after any specific information Ms. Dexter?"
"When he returned to Earth," she turns to the robot, she recalls
Walker mentioning very briefly in between takes of changing recorder disk.
"Allow me. Request information date on the year 4083 AD, month:
February 7th."
The small computer wipes the information off and replaces it with a diary
entry from that period of the soldier's life. Dexter reads the words,
amazed that the emotionless man could enter anything at all. It springs
to her mind, as she is reading, why he wishes to record his personal history.
The page scrolls before her and an insight big hits her that Walker is
recording here his loss of humanness.
to it |
