stellinas

''This is going to be my greatest work yet!'' Samuel's eyes gleamed as he fitted the tiny, silver component into V's mechanism.

V, aka Venus 1 was Samuel's latest and most sophisticated automaton, as close to human as possible. He had programmed her so meticulously, she would be the most refined of all androids. No one had ever been able to create a robot like V before, she was more than a mere programmed servant; V could feel actual emotions , sadness, happiness, anger, virtually any emotion was possible, even humour. Yet, naturally, Samuel could not replicate true feelings of love-he knew this was impossible, he was a mere man, he could not become God. Still, he strove more each day to make V as perfect as possible, spending every waking moment with her, much to his fiancee, Devon's chagrin, when he broke dinner date after dinner date with her. There was always an excuse of course;

''V's sensors and transducers needed tweaking''

''V's optical sensors needed realignment''

''V's robot controllers malfunctioned''

Devon paid the bill for her pathetic green salad and sole glass of white wine at the restaurant for the umpteenth time. As she was rising to leave, Samuel rushed into the smart downtown eatery, hair in disarray, looking dishevelled and unshaven.

''Ok ,don't tell me, V was lonely, she wanted a bedtime story. How long is this going to go on Sam ? I am pretty sick of eating alone and then of you collapsing on my couch, burnt out, then gone at the crack of dawn, back to that....that mechanical mistress! A real mistress would be easier to fight! No! Go home!'' she yelled as Samuel started to reach for her, ''I am too mad to look at you right now!''

With that, Devon slammed her car door and screeched out of the carpark, leaving Samuel standing forlornly, playing with his car keys.

Samuel went back to the lab, switching on the lights, he saw V sitting, smiling as he had left her. He knew sleep would evade him, he really did love Devon, he just wished she could understand how important V was in his life, she was the culmination of years of work. Sighing, he decided he may as well try and work, V's traducers were still giving him a headache, they gave her many of the same basic human senses, sight, hearing, touch, and so on.
The difficulty was teaching the robot how to understand and make sense of that data, however, those had not been the issue, it was the other traducers dealing with emotions that were the fly in the ointment, so to speak.

Exhausted, Samuel eventually went home at 2.30 a.m and threw himself onto the couch, falling into a coma until 10 o' clock.

After a much needed shower and some coffee and toast, he decided he had better call Devon. After a few rings, a man answered. Feeling slightly weird about this turn of events, he finally asked for Devon.

''Who's calling please? '' asked the disembodied voice at the other end of the line....

''Samuel Kendricks, Dr. Samuel Kendricks, Devon's fiance.''

''You had better get over here sir'' said the faceless voice as he heard the receiver click and the dialling tone buzz in his ear.


When he arrived at Devon's apartment, he found police crawling everywhere, cordoning ,yellow tape around the door.

''What the....! confused, Samuel pushed past the uniforms guarding the door, only to be seized and pulled back by someone much stronger than himself.

''NO!'' You don't want to go in there sir, really, Joe get him some water...'' Joe ,a rookie , disappeared and reappeared a few moments later with a glass of water and ice..

The detective sitting in front of him was a big man of about 50 ish with sandy hair and deep set eyes which were troubled at this moment.

''When did you last see your fiancee, Dr Kendricks?''

''Last night, I missed our dinner date and then we argued, she drove off at about 10 p.m. I went to the lab to do some work , I'm a robotics engineer, and then at 2.30 a.m I went home and crashed. You can check with the security system at the lab'', he handed the detective a card which read, Dr. Samuel Kendricks , chief robotics engineer, Reynold's Robotics.


At that moment two ashen faced police officers came out of the bedroom,

''Never seen anything like that in all my years on the force''. The other just stared dumbstruck into thin air.

The detective gave them a glare they recognised and they hurried outside. Samuel, finally finding his voice asked,

''What happened in there detective, I need to know ? ''

''No sir, it's better this way, she wouldn't want you to see her like that, go home, you can't help her now '',

Samuel went to the only place he could, the lab, he couldn't believe that Devon was gone, he just felt numb, it hadn't hit him yet ,he knew that.


As he entered the lab, he sensed something was different. V! Where was she! So, now he knew that whoever had murdered Devon had been after V. He put his head in his hands and sobbed, poor Devon!


Suddenly, he felt hands stroking his hair, '' Samuel, Samuel'' said a voice softly, ''it's ok I am here''

He looked up and in horror, he saw V standing before him, a fresh, dripping, pumping heart in her chest cavity.

''Finally, I am complete, without a heart, I was only half existing, but now............now I am whole and I love you Samuel!''

Samuel heard a scream from far away which he eventually realised was his own.