Reliance

I needed to see Father Lexington today. It felt like I was walking on something slippery while I hurried with Bolts down this corridor covered in pink carpet. I had the pocketknife stuck in my coat pocket, but I tried to ignore it.

"Just make it quick but get all the details right," Bolts told me.

"Why do I have to go first?" I whispered.

"You did it!” Bolts’s voice echoed over the cement walls. I hoped no one was around to hear us.

When we got into the sanctuary, the stone floor was all damp and chilly for it being wintertime. Blocks of warm, golden light took turns beating my face. When the organ started blasting like a freight train going by, I jumped and tripped into Bolts. "Hurry up!" he hissed, urging me on.

We tiptoed along the back of the church, passed the rows of magenta pews, and came to the confessional booth. "You sure you don’t want to go first?" I asked.

Bolts shook his head. "The police might already be on us. Just make it quick, OK?"

I sighed, trying not to let my fear get the better of me. I pulled the curtain back and crawled into the darkness. My stomach was all in knots when I tugged it back. It was a snug booth, and my knees knocked against the wall where the little window for the priest was.

My mind buzzed while I waited. Everything I wanted to say bubbled up in my throat and burned like the fire in a stove. What time was it, anyway? I tell you; I was on high alert. I tapped my foot, but then I felt the knife casing bounce against my leg, so I stopped.

A car honked outside. I thought my heart was going to leap like a frog out of my mouth and flop on the floor. Then I heard him.

Good afternoon.

I turned and looked into Father Lexington’s eyes. I didn’t have very many friends, except if you count Bolts and Jetter and the one older boy everybody calls Pops, maybe. But besides them Father Lexington was always nice to me. He had this glitch in his word repository that made his s’s sound like z’s, and he always took extra care to listen to you, like he was real and not just an android. I tell you; he has the kindest glow circuits in his eyes.

People didn’t really like him at first, thinking that robots shouldn’t be in churches and things like that. But once people figured out everyone’s confessions were stuck in a data bank and safe, they started coming to him for everything. I guess people were worried that an android couldn’t be trusted.

Welcome to confession. I am a Class C model, AOA. Designation: religion. Subclass: priesthood.

"Hi, Father Lexington. It’s me again--Jonesy. I mean Martin Jones." I always reminded him of my name just in case he didn’t remember. He needed it for his data processing anyway. I wasn’t really supposed to say hi, so I quickly made the sign of the cross and added. "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been, uh, two weeks since my last confession, and these are my sins."

I took a real good look at him. There were tangles of red and blue circuits all snug along his cheekbones. Plastic skin lay stretched over its mouth and forehead, and bars of orange light gleamed out of his glass pupils.

I thought that maybe he remembered me, almost like we were friends. I could trust him with anything. Not that I went to confession a lot. It was mostly Bolts who did that. He did all the heavy lifting out of all of us Comps.

I felt the sweat build up in my palms. Now it was time to say what I had to say, but the words caught in my throat, and I couldn’t bust them out. Boy. When Pops found out, I was going to get it.

"I did something terrible. But I didn’t mean to. I want to confess, ‘cos it’s important."

Suddenly I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to tell him or not. I only came for small stuff, unlike Bolts. I just wanted someone to talk to, really.

"Uh, Father." I had to ask. "This’ll be safe, won’t it? No one will be able to hear it, right?"

I started to shake. I hadn’t thought about it before now. If the police ever found out--

No. I am bound by the laws of the confessional, as well as the laws of my programming. I have been programmed to protect the congregation.

"Oh, OK."

I thought hard. I guess I could live with that. Father Lexington wouldn’t hurt me anyway. I screwed myself up to have the courage to tell him.

"I accidentally hurt someone today," I whispered in a hoarse voice. "I didn’t mean to."

Father Lexington’s head clicked to the side.

"Well--" This was the part I dreaded the most. But going into detail was important if you wanted every part of your confession to be clearly installed in an android’s memory bank, so I heard.

"It was this morning, on 68^th Street. You know, by the electric charging ports for the city vehicles. Two of the Clunkers--that was just what we call them; I don’t know their real names--jumped me while I was out with Bolts. One of them cornered me, you see, and the other pulled a knife on me. He started it, just so you know."

I felt the cool steel of the knife burning. There was this heat all over my body, starting at my head. But the priest’s calming face tilted toward me, the joints in its neck buzzing. Father Lexington blinked his candied eyes at me. I decided that it was best to keep going.

"Bolts started to fight them off, and I wanted to run. To get help. But the one with the knife came after me. I guessed maybe he thought I would be an easier target. Then Bolts laid out a punch." I swallowed.

"The knife dropped out of the Clunker’s hand when he fell. I picked it up. I was afraid, and I didn’t want Bolts to get hurt. He’s always getting into scrapes. So I just held it out. I wasn’t going to do anything, you know. But one of the others came at me, pushed me against the wall. Next thing I know--"

I stopped. The priest waited, and he had such kind eyes I blurted out, "I got him with the knife. On accident. I hurt him, but I didn’t want to do it. I just want to confess so that everything will be OK. That’s all, Father."

The priest paused. He must have been processing. I fought the burning in my throat. What would Pops say if he ever found out I cried in front of an android? "Offing a Clunker isn’t the worst thing you could’ve done to them," he would say. "Do what you want then sneak off the confession again like the rest of us."

I see through my programming that you are penitent. I assign you to acts of intense prayer and acts of service.

Father Lexington’s old, wired hand appeared in the window. His fingers whirred around to form the sign of the cross.

I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the--the--the--

The flame behind his glass eyes twitched, sputtered, then went away like a candle going out. A spark exploded from inside Father Lexington’s chest. He flopped against the window. I jerked away out of instinct, knocking my head, just as he lights clicked out.

Outside, I thought I heard Bolts shouting for me. In the little window, I could see Father Lexington across from me, all limp like he was dead.

"What’s happening?" I called. "Father!"

The lights suddenly sprang back. I blinked away at the brightness. Father Lexington jolted, hummed out a low note, then smoothly pulled himself upright. The eyes were still dark.

"Father?"

Father Lexington’s eyes glowed orange, and his head jolted back.

"Father," I whispered. "What happened? Are you all right?"

A crackling voice that was not the voice of Father Lexington made me jump. Data assessment: critical. Reuploading data information. Powering on. Then a bit later: Scan complete. Full power activated.

A small buzz shook through Father Lexington’s neck. I waited, unsure what to do.

--absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

He perked his hand back up and finished the sign of the cross. That nervous heat passed over my head again.

"Father, what was that?" Outside the confessional, a few people hollered at each other.

Updating recordings. . .

"Father, are you OK?"

Status: restored.

I shook my head. All kinds of thoughts whirled around my mind until everything was jumbled up and I couldn’t make sense of anything. I didn’t even think about whether Father Lexington was all right or not anymore. I finally got one clear thought across, and I had to ask it. "What about my confession? Is it safe?"

Father Lexington stared at me for a long moment. My hands shook. Was he thinking? Did he have it?

What if it had gotten into the knowledge pool? The idea sent this lightness through my whole body. The data could be anywhere, and anyone could find it.

"Is my confession safe?"

The priest shivered. His eyes felt cold and distant now with the way they stared at nothing.

Data assessment complete. Confession logged. God has freed you from your sins. Go in peace.

I sighed, relief washing through me. Though I had to admit, there was a nagging that sat snug in the back of my brain. I had to trust Father Lexington anyway.

"Thank you, Father. Oh, uh, thanks be to God."

I slipped out of the confessional. Thankfully, the lights had come on again. I stuffed my hands in my pockets, then yanked them out when I felt the knife again.

Bolts leaned away from the walls and casually walked up to me. "Did you feel that outage?"

"Yeah, I felt it. Father Lexington had a glitch."

Bolts gave me a funny look. I hadn’t ever seen him look that way before.

"It what?"

"Well, when the lights went out, he sort of went all funny. He rebooted after the lights came back on."

"And you just left it?" Bolts grabbed my arm. "Your confession could have gone up into the public system!"

I shook my head. "I thought about it, but Father Lexington said it was fine. They’re confidential! All the data was restored and everything. Father Lexington--"

"It’s an android, Jonesy! You never know what can happen to them. Go check."

"What do you mean check?" I asked.

"Check its memory bank!" Bolts shoved me. "I’ll cover for you. No one’s around now anyway."

"I can’t do that!"

"Fine, I’ll do it. Give me the knife."

I wondered if I was missing something, if everything really was alright. This was Father Lexington, after all. I could trust him.

"Well--"

He was an android, not a real person, I remembered. Nothing was supposed to go wrong when you told one of them your secrets. My mind kept working, though I didn’t want it to. What if android priests had their minds tapped? Maybe it could happen. I had never thought about it before.

My problem was that I kept thinking and thinking about it until that heat passed over my head again.

Bolts dove into my pocket. He whisked out the knife even though I tried to push him away. "Cover me," he muttered.

"Have you ever--"

"I do this kind of thing all the time, don’t worry."

"But Bolts--"

I watched as Bolts hurried back to the confessional. I didn’t think it was right to do it at all, but then again, that nagging just wouldn’t go away. If someone had the information, that meant it was out there in the knowledge pool systems, the public ones that put all the information into the feedlinks and neurotransporters. Information was pretty easy to steal like that.

I clambered after Bolts into the confessional. "We can’t bust into an android. I’m sure nothing happened. I bet it’s fine!" I pleaded.

"Look, you might think these things are perfect, but some of us are better than that. Don’t act like you don’t want to know for sure, anyway."

There was just enough room for Bolts to put the knife through the slats and reach the bank. He tucked his fingers through one of the spaces, his fingers brushing against the cool metal of the android’s chin.

I watched as Bolts tilted the head to the side. He gripped the stem of the knife and pushed it through, sticking it against the first screw. A sick feeling squeezed at my insides. I couldn’t let him hurt Father Lexington.

"Bolts, leave him alone!" I leaped up and grabbed his wrist.

The knife slipped, falling into the booth with a thump.

External threat detected.

"Wait, Father!"

Security protocol--security--data assessment--

The android started shuddering back and forth. An alarm blared overhead, turning the room red like blood. I flinched as a spark leaped out at me, getting close to my head. In seconds there was another spark, a bit of smoke under my nose, then hot white-orange light.

"Father, it’s me!" I cried. "Martin Jones!"

"Get out, Jonesy!" Bolts screamed. "Go!"

Bless you, my son--equal in the eyes of God--initiating security protocol--

Fire burned down the machine’s scalp. I had a chance to see Father Lexington’s eyes turn into white bulbs before they exploded. Bolts shoved me out of the confessional and landed on top of me, then crawled over me to get his feet out of the curtains. My teeth jangled around in my mouth when my head hit the floor.

Shouts echoed around me. I felt someone grab my arms and pull me away. "You OK, kid?" an older man asked. A square gold badge on his chest gleamed down at me, and I guessed he must have been the mechanics attendant coming to check on the priest.

"What is it?" someone called.

"There’s been a fire!" the one who had grabbed me answered. "The android! You all right?"

I stared at the growing fire. Bolts sat next to me, shooting me a glare. "Look what you did," his voice was low.

I looked. More and more sparks kept fizzing inside, and smoke spewed out of the confessional. I flinched as the fire alarm went off.

"Yeah," the man sighed. "I always knew those models were no good. Not long-lasting. I had been checking the reserves. It looks like the power outage leaked the data before the fire anyway."

THE END

Bio: E. S. Foster is a speculative writer and freelance editor, with recent publications in MetaStellar, Sci-fi Shorts, and Alien Dimensions. You can find her services at fosteryourwriting.com...

Website: E. S. Foster's Website

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