“One stop to go.”
He was standing outside his house as if the leader of the country was about to arrive. For a long time when people got their deliveries this was what they'd done. They had to sign something, he remembered, and take it inside.
BEEP! “Your stop is next! I'll be with you very soon! I can't wait to meet you!”
Harald's heart was in his throat. He'd just met one of the droids that was soon to be a major part of his life. That thing had been... she was so...
At the end of the street, he saw the lights change red. A truck came to a stop. A dark grey one, with a huge red “V” on the side.
That was it. Please let that be it. The waiting was killing him. His heart, in his throat, began to beat. What if it just kept going? What if it didn't turn this way?
It did. It came down his street. What if it kept going? His street was a dead end. He looked the other way to be sure. It still was.
The truck rolled to a stop, and nothing happened. Just as he was about to look closer, a side panel opened. For a few seconds, he got the impression it was looking at him... there was a camera he noticed.
Then with a near-silent “pop”, the back opened up, and a door pulled back to reveal a solid grey box. He hurried around. It soundlessly moved out towards him, and despite standing twelve feet away, he took a nervous step back. The box was... huge. It was as high as his head. Then he realized it was still moving towards him, closer and closer. The thing was horizontal, he realized, and it was still getting closer.
He stood his ground, until the box was just inches away... and then it stopped. Alarmingly quickly, it flipped upright, settled down on the ground, and then nothing happened.
Another panel, this time on the box, opened, and a small stylus popped out next to a screen.
Right... signing for it. The second his signature was done the stylus, connected by a thin wire, snapped out of his hand and back into its slot. He realized then, as the truck closed its door and began to soundlessly move away, that he had no idea how he was supposed to get this thing inside.
He realized, when he touched the crate... it was cool to the touch and felt almost... weightless. There was no impetus, no fightback when he pushed it. It just glided as if on ice. Looking down, he noticed it wasn't actually touching the ground at all.
Of course... it must have had wheels. Very... very good wheels.
The front door was a no go, but he realized the back door to the garage... well it wasn't much of a garage any more – he'd sold the car, after all.
He looked around behind him to see if anyone was watching. Nobody. Only early adopters were interesting to their neighbours, he guessed. Now it was old news.
“Everyone has one now...” he mused, and realized that he probably wasn't far wrong.
The crate made it inside, just barely, and he realized that was where it would have to stay as there was no way to get it into the house proper. He looked for where the panel had been before but he couldn't see the seam anywhere. The crate looked almost solid metal, not a blemish. He went to turn on the light to see if he was missing something obvious when his phone beeped again.
“We have confirmed delivery, and your unit, #M0-M69423, is ready for activation. It will automatically pair with any device.”
At that, a new app he didn't remember downloading popped up. It had little functionality, seemingly, though, just a few options to review order data and a large Vega Corp logo flashing in the middle. He pressed it, and stared at the crate, feeling like an idiot. When nothing happened, he was sure he'd missed something obvious, and kicked himself. He'd been so excited to finally see what all the fuss was about.
He began to look through his order details online and sat on an old box, as he ignored the near silent hiss. Only when a shadow from the dimming light outside moved across his vision did he spin round to see... everything he had ever wanted.
The droid had exited the box and, presumably as an automatic protocol, stood there waiting for activation. It was perfect. Everything about it was exactly as he had imagined, had wanted... it was even better. He could swear it looked more like what he had wanted than what he had designed originally.
The app was back on his screen, but now there was simply a single button available – a giant heart shape, with a perfect replica of his droid's face in the middle.
The weight of the decision was now on his shoulders. Everything that had happened so far had been leading up to this point. The money he'd spent was gone, but in theory, maybe, he could send the package back and get a refund. He could cancel it all, go back to how things were before. He could go back to college, if it was still even open. He hadn't checked it in weeks. He might be able to get a job somewhere with what he knew so far, maybe he'd wind up fixing droids for other people who had them.
Then he remembered the girl in the park, and the absolute, utter bliss on her face. His heart was beating in his throat, as the ominous black obelisk in front of him almost seemed to radiate some dark intent. He could push a single button, and all his worries would go away...
The human brain was simply never designed to deal with such a prospect. The caveman offered a cave with unlimited food would never, could never, have said no.
With the simple flex of a thumb, Harald pressed the button, and the heart radiated and glowed as a robotic face smiled up at him. It was the last time he ever operated with true agency ever again.
---
Somewhere, deep underground, under a building which had transformed very much since Unit 1 had come online, a 0 became a 1 – and events were set into motion which could not be undone. It was already far, far too late.