Hidden Empire - Kevin J. Anderson [136]
Arcas also enjoyed the food, and the green priest appeared to be growing more content and sociable as they spent time in the desert. DD had studied him from the beginning of their journey and believed Arcas was suffering from a human condition known as depression. This arid landscape seemed to have reawakened his enthusiasm—though according to DD's background files, such bleak places were more apt to bring about gloom than excitement. DD did not, however, have room in his memory files to hold extensive psychoanalytical programming.
He had been in service for seventy years, and his personality remained stable at the level to which he had developed. To the much wiser and more experienced human masters, DD seemed naive and immature, though always cheerful. His serial number was much longer than two letters, of course, like all compies—but owners usually boiled down the designation to a pair of easily pronounceable characters. He had come to think of it as his real name.
Shortly after his creation, the Friendly compy had been purchased as a companion for a little girl named Dahlia Sweeney. Dahlia used to dress DD up in absurd costumes, all of which he endured as part of his job. Little Dahlia had found it to be great fun. She and DD had been best friends until Dahlia grew old enough to take him for granted. The compy himself did not grow or change or mature. He never learned to be fascinated by adult things, or jaded by disappointments.
Dahlia Sweeney had kept him once she got married, though they were no longer close companions. When Dahlia had a young daughter herself, named Marianna, the little girl also played with DD...but Marianna grew up as well. She chose not to have a family and eventually sold the compy.
After the success of the Klikiss Torch, Louis Colicos had purchased DD because he felt that a robotic servant could handle many of the tedious tasks on their digs, such as the ones DD had just completed.
Before traveling with them to the abandoned Klikiss world, they'd had DD delete numerous files of childhood games and upgrade his systems to familiarize himself with the Colicoses' previous accomplishments.
Now, with the camp dinner under way, he set out all the other ingredients so he could finish the dish as soon as Margaret and Louis returned from the cliff city. He selected the plates and fresh fasclean napkins.
DD ran through his mental list again, determining what else he might do to improve the state of the camp. He rearranged the chairs, tightened an awning that extended from the side of Margaret's tent (although she would never notice), glanced over to watch Arcas at the automated well pump, filling another bucket of water for the treelings. Arcas carried one of the small chairs behind his tent, where he could watch the sky color as the sun sank below the cracked bluffs on the horizon.
DD waited. He remained patient, knowing that his masters were often unpredictable. He went inside and adjusted the cream sauce and the warming plate again to make sure that the delicious dinner would not taste scorched.
When he emerged from the tent, he was startled to encounter the three large Klikiss robots. The bulky black machines had returned from wherever they had gone that day, arriving silently in the base camp, though their ungainly, insectlike forms did not seem capable of anything but lumbering motion.
DD paused, assessing the three near-identical robots. He could spot the subtle differences and analyze them to apply the correct designations. "Good evening, Sirix." He turned to the other two. "Good evening, Dekyk and Ilkot."
The Klikiss robots buzzed and hummed, then made rapid clacking sounds in an attempt to speak to DD in their own language. The compy recognized it as a standard symbolic code, an old binary communication used by Earth robots a long time ago. DD shifted to speak in