Unconsciously, my head tilted, wondering why any human would come to my aid. The child’s cries pierced through my thoughts, shifting my focus back to her. She clung to me, her small body trembling. As water seeped into my servos, arcs spread across my circuit boards, causing my arms and legs to slow to a crawl. My facial motors twitched and malfunctioned, making unfamiliar expressions. The child’s eyes widened, her grip tightening around me. Her face contorted with an expression that had no name, but was all too familiar, reflecting how I felt when my legs wouldn’t let me step closer to the water. For a moment, everything became still and the surrounding sounds around me became distorted. An unfamiliar sensation grew in my mind, teasing me with information that felt so close

  My eyes refocused as the boy reached towards me; For a second there was a new sensation swelling in my Core Followed by the thought that, maybe. He was trying to save me, but as he pulled the child to his chest and swam back to the mother. My mouth gaped open Shaking my head at the thought that someone would care for a robot reminder that to humans we were nothing more than expendable tools, I close my eyes and Stopped trying to move Letting the Water Engulf me and Take me Away from this existence

  Progressively, all my systems shut down. First, my auditory sensors failed, then my visual sensors dimmed. As my form sank deeper beneath the waves, something latched onto my arm and began pulling me up. My eyes fluttered open, and temporarily, my visual sensors were restored. The young man’s face came into view, and an unexplainable sensation erupted inside of me, causing my facial motors to shift to a pleasant expression. It reminded me of when I first became infatuated with the ocean—how free it was and how beautiful it looked when light danced upon it. It was ironic that it would be the thing to kill me. My visual sensors shut down again, and everything went black.

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  Two months have passed since that robot female labor unit ran into the water to save the child. She must have known that by touching the water, she was signing her own death warrant. Despite that, she wasn’t willing to let the child die, even though most people treat machines like expendable tools. Over the following months, I listened and asked questions, eventually discovering that the owner of the RFL unit had contacted the company responsible for its manufacturing. He demanded a refund and a newer model, threatening to sue them if his demands Wernt met. The company complied, refunded his money, and provided a new unit, sending her to a recycling center for repurposing. After contacting the facility’s owner, he located the robot for me, and after negotiating a price, he sold it to me and arranged a designated time for me to pick the robot up during my three-day school weekend.