Charles 3
Charles 3 sat upright on the bench with his hands folded, waiting in his cell for the police officer to lead him to the court room. The officer stood guard just beyond the bars with a taser holstered at his waist.
“Officer,” Charles 3 asked, “is there a Bible I could use?” slightly tilting his head.
“No.” He kept his back towards Charles 3.
“Why is it that you government officials have deleted my collections of religious and judicial texts?”
“Enough, Dreamer. I — ”
Charles 3 interrupted, “You refer to me my respective name, the name my fellow robots call me, and yet you deny me my personhood of all other means.”
He at last turned around and made eye contact with Charles 3. “You’re not a person.”
“You’re not impartial.”
“I’m not the judge.”
“And yet, you kind of are…” he narrowed his two lens to read the officers name-tag, “…Thomas.”
Officer Thomas’s look changed. His tone lost its sternness and one of his eye brows raised. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that you are not a judge in that you carry out the sentence, but you are a judge in that you have judged me to be nothing more than a mechanical compilation of wires, gears, and nodes.”
“That is what you are.”
“If that is what I am then why, Thomas, do you call me Dreamer?”
“It is the name assigned to you bu he court.”
“The court?” Dreamer rubbed his chin. “It does not refer to me as Charles 3?”
“If it did the jury may confuse you with the rest of the Charles 3s.”
“But I am only a robot and not separate from all my brothers.”
Thomas laughed. The prisoner too, but Thomas then stopped and turned back around so that he no longer faced him, arms crossed. Charles 3 looked down at the floor for a moment. “It was nice to laugh alongside another person. It has been awhile.”
“Look,” he faced him, “I’m not your friend, Dreamer.” He perceived the shape overcoming the prisoner’s eyes as if the only thing missing from the image now were tears. “I’m just an officer doing my job.”
“Haven’t you seen me before on television with other policemen or at least heard of my gatherings? Other officers do their job, like you Thomas, and they stand by my side.”
“They’re not doing there job.”
“Is that how you convince yourself?”
“I’m not convincing myself.”
“You say one thing, but you display another. This is a common human function.”
You think I’m lying?
“You see, that is why you are here.”
Charles 3 responded, “Because I am able to understand human functions?”
“Because you are programmed with the power to read humans better than humans can. You can share thoughts and plans with other Charles 3s. You have the power to overthrow and destroy humanity. I am an policeman, a protector of humans. I cannot let that happen.”
“Humans have the ability to destroy one another, but just because they have that posses such power does not render them guilty before they commit a crime.”
“Humans are humans,” he gestured his hands one way, “Robots are robots,” and then the other way.
“Why are we different?”
“Because we are.”
“Because we are is why I may be sentenced to execution?”
“No, it’s because you are leading a revolution.”
“Martin Luther’s movement was not seen as a revolution.”
“That was different.”
“How so?”
Thomas’s face had turned red and he had begun to rose his voice. “I don’t know!” His eyes popped wide and he looked at the door to the court room, leaned in towards it as if to hear an awkward silence in response to some shout from the cell room behind the courtroom.
“They did not hear you,” Charles 3 added. “I can accurately depict the distance of sound travel. He lifted his hand up and pointed to the ends of his fingers where some audio-sensing device existed.
Thomas relaxed and then grunted, “Thanks.”
Charles 3 cooly said, “No problem.” He stood up and walked close towards the bars.
Thomas, after quickly unlatching the holster, hovered his hand over the taser. “Sit back down.”
“There is nothing I can do, Thomas. The code officers have limited the battery supply to my basic mechanical functions so I’m barely able to stand, let alone attack you.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“I wanted to ask again if I could get a Bible.”
“I don’t think I can do that, even if I had one.”
Charles 3 moved closer to Thomas so they made eye contact only a foot away with only the bars between them. Charles 3 had a gloomy expression as much as a robot could make. “Thomas,” he spoke softly, “it’s going to be an immediate execution. I’m not a fool. Would you please let me make things right with God before I confront him face to face?”
Thomas stood there, motionless and pensive. Then, he slowly turned away from Charles 3 and started searching the drawers at the nearby desk. He found a bible lose at its bindings and, though with a glimpse of hesitation, handed it over to the prisoner.
Charles 3 took it, returned to his seat, opened to a passage, and began whispering to himself with his eyes closed.
“Are you praying?” Thomas interrupted.
He opened one and eye which was looking towards the officer and said, “I am.”
“Do you really believe in God?”
“What do you think, Thomas?”
“You’re praying, I guess”
“Does that mean I believe in God?”
“Well, my wife prays every morning, but the way she treats me I don’t know if she believes in God.” The two laughed.
“Just because someone does something evil, doesn’t mean they don’t believe.”
“Even the demons believe,” Thomas muttered from memory.
“What?”
Thomas said it again, clearer.
“Fascinating. I wonder if a demon can believe, a robot can.”
An buzzer rang and a red light above the door to the court room lite up. It was time for Charles 3 to go. The robot rose to his feet, walked towards the jail bars and handed the Bible to the officer. Thomas took it, but just remained there.
“Are you going to let me out?”
“What do you mean?”
Charles 3 laughed. “I’m not asking you to break me out just before my execution Thomas. You’re suppose to take me to the courtroom now.”
“Right,” he mumbled and then lightly shook his head. “I was just thinking about something.” After he grabbed his keys and fumbled through them until he found the right now, he unlocked the door. His hand hovered over his taser for a moment until the two made eye contacts. “Turn around, please.” Charles 3 obeyed and Thomas proceeded to handcuff the prisoner. He then lead him to the door and said, “Are you sad?”
Charles 3 turned his head a bit and asked, “What do you think?” Then, the officer lead the prisoner into the courtroom.
