Livewire

Livewire

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It took Cadfael years to admit it, but Elektra was not his magnum opus. She had been, at one point, and continued to be an absolute marvel of technology. But as the years went by, and Cadfael improved on his craft, he began to notice more and more flaws in Elektra’s design — actions her body could physically not carry out, situations she was not programmed to handle, the frequency of times she needed to be oiled or recalibrated, the creaking of her robotic joints. Cadfael had improved too much since he made Elektra, and while she was still a close confidant and fantastic assistant, she was not the perfect robot he wanted to make. These were not things a minor software update could fix; he would need to begin anew. And he couldn’t dream of scrapping Elektra, for she had grown into too close of a companion over the years.

And so began Project Livewire, an attempt to create a new robot using the skills Cadfael had improved upon in the years since building Elektra. A new robot; an improved robot. Something new; something better.

But in the years since creating Elektra, Cadfael’s genius was not the only thing that multiplied exponentially. His hubris had also multiplied. He grew prideful, and he grew careless.

Livewire was exactly the kind of robot Cadfael had imagined, and she matched his blueprints perfectly. Her movements were smooth and fluid, her CPU was capable of calculating and preparing for situations which Cadfael could never have expected, her design was futuristic and sleek, and she was everything Cadfael could ever have wanted and more.

Except for one thing.

Cadfael gave her too much free will.

On her own, Livewire developed…quite freely. More free than Cadfael could ever have imagined. More than Cadfael ever would have wanted. Livewire became fun-loving and sassy and wild. Livewire’s hobbies developed past Cadfael’s desires for her. Cadfael wanted another lab assistant, someone smart and cool and calculating to help him out in the workshop. Instead, he got a techno nightcore DJ. Instead, he got a gamer. Livewire dislikes being confined to hand Cadfael tools and cross wires, and usually sneaks out to host raves, attend parties, spin disks, make sick remixes, and play games.

Cadfael was humiliated. What flaw in his programming released Livewire from the confines of his side? What could he have done to prevent her from turning into such a huge mistake, so far from his original dreams for a new robot? So, he did the only thing he could do: He committed an act of mercy, and he let her go.

Livewire still sees Cadfael as a sort of father-slash-creator figure, and she still returns to his lab after long nights of partying to recharge. But that’s about the extent of their relationship: the brief moments exchanged between them as Cadfael tends to his inventions and Livewire tends to the necessities of her functioning. There is little contact left between them.

But to everyone else in the clan, everyone besides Cadfael, Livewire is the life of the party. What Cadfael sees as a mistake, everyone else sees as a fun, musically-inclined, hilarious gamer girl who just happens to be made of something different from the rest of them.