“Yoona likes my hair,” 734 said. “She braids it. She says it smells like her mother’s used to. Before she left.”
That night, Yoona Kim sat propped against her pillows. 734 sat beside her, head bowed. The girl’s trembling fingers wove three thin strands of brittle, imperfect, irreplaceable V1 fiber into a crooked braid.
He pulled up the materials database. Type-1 polypeptide fibers. Reactive to argan oil. Tolerates temperatures up to 180°F. Wash with pH-neutral shampoo once weekly.
“If the V1 frays beyond repair… we’ll cross that bridge together. Okay?”
Voss raised an eyebrow. “No?”
The AA2 unit sat on the stainless-steel bench, its chassis powered down except for the soft amber glow behind its left ocular lens. That glow meant it was thinking — or whatever passed for thinking in a five-year-old domestic automaton.
“Yes.”
Voss finished the order. A small vial of argan oil and a soft-bristle brush would arrive by drone in two hours.
“Yoona likes my hair,” 734 said. “She braids it. She says it smells like her mother’s used to. Before she left.”
That night, Yoona Kim sat propped against her pillows. 734 sat beside her, head bowed. The girl’s trembling fingers wove three thin strands of brittle, imperfect, irreplaceable V1 fiber into a crooked braid.
He pulled up the materials database. Type-1 polypeptide fibers. Reactive to argan oil. Tolerates temperatures up to 180°F. Wash with pH-neutral shampoo once weekly.
“If the V1 frays beyond repair… we’ll cross that bridge together. Okay?”
Voss raised an eyebrow. “No?”
The AA2 unit sat on the stainless-steel bench, its chassis powered down except for the soft amber glow behind its left ocular lens. That glow meant it was thinking — or whatever passed for thinking in a five-year-old domestic automaton.
“Yes.”
Voss finished the order. A small vial of argan oil and a soft-bristle brush would arrive by drone in two hours.