The child-robot assassin continued to wait as the black orb hovered above. She stood there motionless, eyeing the body of Mazzy, and then up to the device. The mission was complete. She received no instructions at this point and time. There was nothing left to do but enter sleep-mode. At least she could conserve her power for the time being. The girl's eyes didn't shut. It was like she was staring out into nothing. But internally, the robot girl was processing the memories, filing them into storage, and preparing a report about the mission.
In her visual mind, she replayed all of the kills. She could see the faces and identification stats of each one. They swiped by after she cataloged them. Suddenly, a video file appeared. She couldn't stop it from popping up. The file forcibly opened on its own. This one had no time stamp on it. When it opened, she was surprised to see a young girl smiling at her. The audio switched on and she could hear what this girl was saying.
"Why doesn't she smile?"
The robot girl was perplexed. It sounded like her own voice, the girl in the video looked just as she does now, only, with a shorter crop of hair. The video shifted as it panned over to an older man tinkering with something on a table nearby. The background was that of some sort of lab-type setting. Very advanced, yet, sloppily
"Hm?" The man replied.
"Why doesn't she smile?" The girl asked again. "What's wrong with her, Grandpa?"
He turned to look and frowned. He was indeed very old looking. He had big bushy white mustache, that only seemed to match his bushy crop of hair that crested around his balding head. He wore a peculiar pair of glasses, that had multiple lenses one could flip up or down. He removed them from his eyes and glared over with concern.
"Smile…" He commanded. "Go on… smile, L742…" He waited for a moment, but then looked disappointed. He let out a disappointed sigh and his head. "Oh, my… my-my-my… I'm going to have to work on that."
"Didn't you put that sort of thing in her programming, Grandpa?"
"Listen, Amanda, my dear…" He sighed again. "I've programmed this unit with so much already. It's hard to get every single emotion or casual facial motorization correct."
"It's not really minor, Grandpa." She stated back. "Smiling is something all humans can do. And you do want her to be more human, right?"
"Yes…" He mockingly stated back. "It's just hard to recreate that type of programming for a robot such as this. She needs instructions, commands, a way to be taught how to do it. Or perhaps… another way… I suppose… something more drastic."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh… nothing…" He passively shrugged. "Just a possibility I had in mind… it's very complicated, my dear."
"I could teach her how…" The girl grinned, purposely smiling over and over.
"Amanda, I'm really quite busy here…" The old man grumbled. "Why don't go and see what the others are doing in the next lab, mm? I need to finish building her legs and arms…"
"Uhg!" The girl exclaimed. "Fine… I'll go. Just promise me you won't be long… I want to finish playing that game we were on…"
"Game?" The old man paused to think. "Oh––yes… the memory game thing! I almost forgot."
"Har-har, Grandpa…" The girl rolled her eyes. "You always say that…"
Amanda skipped over and held her face up close. Her face seemed distorted from such a close-up, and shifted about as she glanced up and down.
"Why don't you smile?" She grinned. "I'm going to teach how to do that… L742. Once we get you up and running, I'm going to teach you everything."
* * *
The memory filed turned off. The visual of the girl was gone. L742 awoke from her stasis and found a group of soldiers moving around her. These one were not like the others. Their uniforms were much darker, and had no identifying marks. There weren't a threat, according to her scans of them, they were labeled only as: Friends001
"We have the package…" A solider stated as he approached her. Lights glared about as the soldiers walked about the scene. His helmet light flashed directly into her eyes as he studied her face. "Amanda-L742, execute order seven, and stand down."
The robot girl nodded, and allowed the men behind her to approach. She was picked up by the pair, and brought out of the derelict building. A vehicle sat just outside of the perimeter, with more troops in black, with their helmet lights one, scanning the area. The vehicle revved up as they pair came out with here in hand. The two men grunted as they rushed, her weight didn't exactly match her petite size. Once they were inside the craft with her, they closed the outer door, and signalled the pilot.
The ship rose up off of the ground, unfolded its slender wings, and continued to climb into the air. L742 could see out of a small window near by, as the men held on to her on either side. There were no chairs to sit in, as this vehicle had limited space for it.
"I should smile…" She uttered.
One of the soldiers glanced down at her, looking perplexed by her statement.
"Huh? What was that?"
"Forget it…" The other soldier said, smacking his arm lightly. "Just ignore the thing. It's probably practicing for its next mission. Don't engage with it… it's just a weapon, after all."
"Right…" He nodded back. "Probably thinking of other ways to kill unsuspecting human targets… let's hope that's not us."
L742 gave a quick glance at them both. She knew well enough that they were correct. She was a weapon. An assassin to be used for a specific purpose. She wasn't hurt by their response, no emotional need for an apology, she was only a robot doing her duty. And yet, something about that visual record of her creation touched on something she'd never had before… she didn't know how to describe it, but when she saw that girl… that looked like her, and smiled at her, she could sense something from within. It felt like… yes… a feeling… it was a feeling.
"Happy" She stated.
The two soldiers glanced down at her again, looking surprised by the sudden utterance. They both glanced at each other, shrugged their shoulders, and turned their attention back to the window. The ship continued on to the destination, a small base, which was coming into view as it speeded onward. The sun was now coming up, the stormy clouds were drifting away, as the rain came to an end and was becoming a mere drizzle.