Tann found a bunch under the shade in the Engineer’s Square. Dragging her keyboard from her bag, Tann placed it on her lap, “Phurder? I might need to accelerate the time vector a bit.”

“Sorry,” the volume of Phurder’s voice increased as he moved closer to the microphone, “can you say that again, I was taking a nap.”

“Jesus,” Tann barked, “how in the world did you get your place in the Scientific Community?”

“Strange right?” Phurder laughed ironically, “I literally grind hard until they place me at a stable position, then I can relax.”

“Fine,” Tann type a few letters on her keyboard, the letters were displaced virtually in her field of vision: Set_time_to_:

“I might need to do a time acceleration,” Tann said over the radio, “are the conditions ready?”

“Your call.”

Set_time_to_:_1630_1

Suddenly, all the bots around Tann paused in their positions, just like a super realistic freeze frame. The only moving object was Tann. She glanced around with a bit of nervousness.

“Phurder?” she asked, “What’s happening?”

“The ping is pretty high,” Phurder said casually, “you might experience some lag…”

Order_complete_1

In a split second, every single bot became blurry and zoomed around the Engineer Square. Gradually, they decelerated and they’s texture became more defined. Everything was back to normal, the sound, the graphics, and the other senses. Tann let out a sigh of relief. She packed her keyboard back into her bag and stood up from the chair. The sun was setting, yet, its brightness coloured the sky into a beautiful mixture of orange, yellow, red and bit of purple.

Theta Jenner, the graphics designer, did a brilliant job with the colours and weather texture. This is primarily due to her art degree.

Tann stood up from the bench, she checked the time value, ’16:30 pm’. Relative to the time, many bots around her seemed to be ready to heading home. Tann looked around with the controlled display in her field of vision. Everything seemed to be perfect, as there were no signs of lag or unprocessed data.

“Good,” Tann headed towards an entrance among the tall building of the engineering department, “we can just focus on reducing the ping.”

With the help of her mini-map located in her ‘mind’ Tann easily walked the puzzling corridors of the engineering department. Unlike the gigantic external structure, the inside of the department was cramped with unopened cardboard boxes, retired machines, bundles of wires as well as an electric board that seemed to be hammered with brute force. The lighting was terrible, Tann had a feeling that this place might be better described as a cave rather than a department for sane people.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The door with a label made of melted plastic appeared on the fourth floor; it was the Builder’s Society. Tann knocked lightly and, followed by fast-paced footsteps, the door was dragged behind.

“What happened to the door?”

“Sorry,” the same shorty from the morning said nervously and put the door against the wall to allow Tann to enter, “we had an accident recently. I still haven’t got the time to fix it.”

Tann sniffed, the air was filled with the smell of gasoline, “you guys really need to be careful.”

“Of course we are!” the person walked towards his workbench with the robotic hand placed in the centre, “ we haven’t had an accident, since… ASIDE from the door, we are pretty fine.” While speaking, he knocked over a few metal bottles with his elbow. The bottles produced a series of sharp noises as they clashed against the floor and some white liquid leaked out.

“Sorry,” the person blushed and run out of the room, “wait, let me get a mop.”

As the footsteps of the person faded in a distance, Tann talked towards the robotic hand. She picked up the hand and examined its bottom. Then she realised the pile of scrap on the table, in it were pieces of metal plates similar to the ones used on the hand. She reached towards the pile and took out something. It was a metal finger, with scattered wires sticking out of it.

“I’m back,” the guy came back with a bucket and a mop in his hands, he realised what Tann was holding, “ah, those are the broken bits for the hand. That finger you are holding, the pressure and motion sensors inside it are broken.”

“Really?” Tann spoke with curious, “ That aside, where are the programs?”

“…” Unwillingly, the person took out a laptop from beneath a pile of files, “Can I be honest with you?”

“Sure,” Tann put down the arm and looked at the person whose face was half-covered by his hair, “get straight to the point.”

“I…I…” he began, “Can’t…”

“Can’t what?” Tann pressed on.

The person turned his face sideways, trying to escape Tann’s sharp stare, “Can’t…swim.”

“Huh?”

“That’s all,” the person started the computer and clicked on a ‘C’ label, “if you are interested in joining I have to know your abilities.”

Tann said nothing and took the computer from the person. Her fingers raced across the keyboard systematically and the blank file started to fill with symbols.

“Done.”

The person took the computer and looked at the program, he stared at it for a while and Tann knew perfectly what he is thinking.

“Looks nice to me,” the person finally said.

“What does this mean?” Tann asked she felt like poking an inflated balloon with a pin.

“You should know,” the person tried to change the subject, “let us see what it does first.”

“You haven’t answered my question.”

“…”

Without another word, the little person plugged a white cable between the laptop and the hand. Moving slowly on the trackpad, he finally reached the ‘upload’ tab with the cursor. The LED on the base of the metal hand flashed for a few seconds then suddenly, the fingers stretched outwards.

“What next?” the person asked curiously.

“You should know,” without mercy, Tann moved her hand closer to the metal sculpture. Then she clutched her fist, the hand followed exactly. She raised her fingers one by one slowly, the metal fingers copied exactly. The person’s jaw dropped.

“What is your name?” he demanded eagerly, “Are you interested in joining the team?”

“Who are you?” Tann asked back, “I can’t just consider a proposal made by someone unknown.

The person quickly reached into his pocket and took out a student card, “ I am Loci Parametric, the head of Builder’s Club, we’ll be running four sessions every week, same time, the same place. We really need programmers like you!”

“I am quite busy,” Tann grinned, “but I thought you know how to program and I am not interested in mechanical work, because I can’t do them.”

“Ahhhhhh” Loci screamed and run out of the room.

“What happened to the personality function?” Tann wondered to herself, then she spoke over the radio again, “Phurder, did you mess with the personality function again?”

“Not at all Dr Angle,” Phurder laughed, “I mean not messing with it, I’m just trying to make the bot personalities more realistic.”