The Watch - Part 28

I slept through the night without incident. The moment that my head hit the pillow, I was sound asleep. Knowing that I saved someone’s life felt so extraordinary. The level of satisfaction that comes from knowing that there's someone alive because of you is beyond comprehension. When I woke up, I felt so refreshed and pumped full of excitement for the day ahead I hopped out of bed, not wanting to waste a single second.

As I was getting myself dressed, and idea popped into my head. I felt as if I wanted to do some more traveling. Be it through time or to another Universe, I didn’t know, I just had an overwhelming erg to travel to some new place and explore it. I know this area like the back of my hand so to do some real exploring, I will have to go a long way away from here before I do not know where I am going. I want to go to a place where I could safely say that I was lost. Well, considering that I had travelled through time twice, I think it is time to even up the score and travel to some new Parallel Universe. I think it would be fun to go and explore some new world. I could look for the differences, explore places that aren’t here. The possibilities are endless.

But, because the possibilities are endless, I wasn’t sure what Parallel Universe to go to and I knew that it would take me a while for me to think up a destination. I could use the random button again, but a part of me wanted to actually envision a place in my head and go there. So I decided to think about it whilst having breakfast.

After I had finished my apple juice and buttered toast, I was still stuck on where to go. I wasn’t worried about being late meeting Tom because I could just return here about a couple of seconds after I left. It’s awesome knowing just how flexible everything has become lately.

‘Do you have any suggestions?’ I asked Interface. He appeared beside me.

‘There is a random button,’ he said, ‘you used it the first time you travelled.'

‘I knew you were going to say that,’ I said with my head in my hands, in deep thought, ‘but I just thought that I could think of a place to go to instead of relying on randomisation,’ I explained. ‘If that makes sense,’ I added.

Interface nodded. ‘The problem that you are suffering from is having so much choice that you do not know what to choose,’ he said.

‘That is exactly what I am suffering from,’ I said sitting up, breathing in deep to try to get my grey matter moving. ‘This watch can take me to any Parallel Universe I want, but I don’t know where to go. I could go to one, but I could also go to this one, and the other, and the other, it is rather confusing to choose,’ I explained to Interface.

I looked around the room to see if I could see any inspiration and my eyes eventually landed upon one of the DVDs I brought yesterday. Sentience is a science fiction film about someone wanting to build, and succeeding to do so, a robot that can learn the area around him, feel things and make decisions that only we can, and because of that it becomes sentient, learning just how rough and tough life really is and starts acting out, only to become the robot that takes down the government, and if the humans are unable to stop him, he would be taking over the entire world.

However, that doesn’t seem a good place to travel to. But I could go to a world where the robots are helping people, doing everyday jobs just as we do. As I thought about it some more, the idea developed and grew stronger and soon I was scrolling through the menu in the watch, finding that particular Parallel Universe.

When I found it I readied myself for another trip through the Void. Interface said that it wouldn’t affect me as much the more trips I go through it, but I’ve only ever been through it twice, so I wasn’t sure how much better this trip will be.

‘Five,’ I counted down, preparing for what was going to happen the moment my finger hits the button. ‘Four…’ Plus I wanted to make this dramatic, for some reason. ‘Three… Two… One…’ I took a deep breath and said the last number, ‘Zero…,’ I pressed the button and I was immediately transported through the void, seeing the same events that happened the first and the second time, only to come out of the other end, in the same living as my house back at home.

My body felt a lot stronger compared to the last two times. I still was a little shaky in my legs and arms, and I was out of breath for a good couple of minutes, but I managed to regain myself. I didn’t need to lie down and recuperate, I just had to sit on the sofa and gather myself.

After I was back to my normal self, I had a look around the living room and discovered that it was another exact replica of the one I was just in, and the one that I was in, in the first Parallel Universe that I travelled to. The only question that remained unanswered is who lives here. I could wait here and wait for someone to come through the door, but that could take a long time, or I could just head outside and explore the area, even though, from what I can see through the window, it pretty much looks the same. The only difference being is that there will be robots roaming about the place, which I cannot see at the moment. Either they are somewhere else entirely, or they aren’t in this world at all. Before making my decision, I checked the history on my watch and found that I had indeed travelled to the right Universe. So where were the robots?

I decided that I wasn’t going to stand around here all day and get bored, I was going to go outside and walk around the place. I took only one step when a disembodied voice boomed right across the house, making me jump out of my skin.

‘Hello, Sebastian Spencer,’ a male’s voice said, ‘and welcome to your home.’

‘My home,’ I said surprised when I had eventually recovered. I noticed that I was talking to thin air. I couldn’t find the speakers, meaning they could be hidden somewhere in the walls, or that I'm just not looking hard enough.

‘This house was designed and built specifically for you,’ he said.

‘For me?’

‘Everything in this house is for you.’

‘What do you me by ‘me’?’ I questioned. ‘Is there another version of me in this world or is this house built specifically for me?'

‘For you?’ the disembodied voice said.

‘Awesome, I guess,’ I said. What on Earth were the odds of discovering a place like this?

‘I’m glad that you like it,’ he said.

‘So, what do I call you?’

‘You can call me Cybernated Human Protection Robot,’ he said.

‘Sounds like a mouthful,’ I smiled.

‘That is what my manufacturers called me, however I can override that name with something that you wish to call me,’ he explained. He pronounced every letter and syllable in every single word without missing a beat.

I thought about what I could name a voice. It sounds weird when you call it a voice. Ever since I’ve read the books and watched the films, I’ve always thought about how cool it would be to actually have one around the house and now I actually get that chance, meaning I have to come up with a decent name.

‘How about,’ I said making sure that it is the right name before I said it out loud, ‘Biotechnical Ordinance Bot,’ I said, ‘or B.O.B for short,’ I said.

‘I can confirm that my new name is now, Biotechnical Ordinance Bot, or B.O.B for short,’ he said.

‘No, just B.O.B will do,’ I said. I didn’t want him saying all of that every time he said his name for that would get a little boring.

‘How original,’ my inner voice argued. I knew that it was the most generic name in the book, but I didn’t care. Each letter of the name means something unique to me, so in retrospect, the name is original. No, I know what you’re saying, ‘it doesn’t work like that,’ but it does now. Sort of. Let’s move on shall we.

‘Rebooting system. Name integrated. Hello, Sebastian Spencer, my name is B.O.B, how may I be of help to you.’

‘Awesome,’ I said, smiling broadly. I have never felt so much like a nerd in all my life. This is going to be so cool.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)