Available at Chippewa Publishing
Rem by Amanda Steiger
When Sophie finds a broken, abandoned android in the city dump and takes him home to repair him, she is amazed at how life-like, how human he seems. His name is Rem. His programming is the most sophisticated she has ever encountered.
Why, Sophie wonders, would anyone abandon such a remarkable android?
Hungry for answers, she probes deeper into Rem's past and unearths a sordid history of abuse, betrayal and unlikely love. Against her better judgment, Sophie finds herself falling in love with Rem. When his old owner appears and tries to reclaim him, she is unwilling to give him up.
Unique among androids, Rem has the power to choose…and soon, he will have to make the most painful and difficult choice he has ever faced.
-- EXCERPT --
In her basement workshop, she laid the android on a padded table. She adjusted the bright overhead lamps and examined his damaged right eye. A spider-web of fine cracks covered the entire surface. It would need replacing. No problem, she had plenty of spares. Carefully, she cut the eye out of the socket and slid a new one into place, inserting the optic wire into the small hole in back. The color wasn't an exact match, but it was close enough that no one would be able to tell from a distance.
She wondered how he'd gotten so badly damaged. Could be that he'd just gotten old and worn out, his owners had thrown him away, then some punks had found him and trashed him for the fun of it. "Sick bastards," she muttered. Lightly, she touched the android's cheek. Though cool, it was as smooth and yielding as real skin. "Never mind. Pretty soon, you'll be as good as new."
It took a while to clean the gunk out of the deep gash in his stomach. She scraped away the worst of it with a chisel and wiped the exposed cables with a damp cloth, careful not to further damage the frayed and severed wires. That done, she took her toolkit from underneath the table, opened it, and got out a set of magnifying goggles, which she strapped onto her face and switched to the times-100 setting. She picked up a slender, pen-sized fuser and went to work.
When she finally took off the goggles and glanced at the old, battered digital clock on her wall, she was not really surprised to see that four hours had passed. Time always slipped by when she was working. She took a few minutes to get some instant soup from the kitchen before returning to her workshop, sliding the goggles back into place.
Another four hours later, she leaned back, wiped the sweat from her brow, and studied her handiwork. Not bad. All the superficial damage had been repaired. Now, all that remained was to see how much data had been left intact in his CPU. Unless his previous owner had flushed his brain before throwing him out, he might still have his old memories. A little chill of excitement ran up her spine.
© Amanda SteigerRights Reserved
Cover art by: Stella Price
Edited by: Jana J. Hanson
Proofed by: Marge Conrad
Genre: Sci-Fi
Rating: General
Word count: 6,600 words
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