Fishing Break

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Fishing Break
The Autoserv’s joints clicked a little as it made the trek down from the hospital resort. A walk that would typically take the average human around thirty minutes had cost the robotic servant a little over an hour. In between two unassuming rocks sat a forested glade, rich with vegetation, and an unassuming pond fed by a trickling waterfall, running with a whimsical suggestion down the stacked rocks of the glade’s walls.
The robotic servant paused before the water, leaning down to place a briefcase by the water’s edge. It popped the hatches, fished out two lengths of wood, and screwed them together. Next, a length of nylon rope was looped through metal rings, connecting back to a reel. 
A hook went on one end, along with a small piece of bait procured from the resort’s kitchens. Once the fishing rod was assembled, the robotic servant drew its arm back, then threw it forward with all the strength its inefficient joints could muster.
The bobble and the hook splashed onto the surface of the otherwise-pristine sapphire waters, and remained there while the rippling waters around it settled.
If Samuel had the processes to do so, he would have mimicked a sigh. Alas, he was somewhat limited by the Autoserv’s own pathways, and the strength of his connection to it. Seeing as he was still in the hospital resort, he was eating up a lot of the resort’s communications bandwidth just to indulge in his little hobby.
The AI did, however, allow himself to simulate some choice emotions while ‘standing’ at the waterside. Chief among them was the soothing sensation of contentment. Watching the static feed of the lure bob and dance atop the water, and the noise-filled, tinny sound of the waterfall.
It was a poor simulacrum of what a human would experience, were he in the same situation, but it was enough for Samuel to appreciate it. He would put in another memo about upgrading the Autoserv’s functionality sometime in the next cycle.
Something about the act of fishing was cathartic. Or, perhaps it was merely the novelty of Samuel being the one to experience it as close to firsthand as he could possibly get. Most AI would find the extended silence and idleness maddening, as seconds stretched into minutes.
Samuel, however, enjoyed the silence. He was capable of micromanaging an entire hillside hospital, catering to the wealthy and powerful, each of them with private rooms attuned to their own unique biosignatures.
But here, and now, none of that mattered. It didn’t even matter if he caught anything, as he had no use for fish, they would go right back in the pond. The act itself was more than enough, and a few minutes was more than enough for Samuel to enjoy it, before he would be forced to return the Autoserv back to the resort.
With his processes focusing on one drone in the middle of nowhere, some measure of peace filled his core, and the lure continued to bob along the water, guided by nothing more than itself.
Category:The Weekly
Category:SilverLastname
Category:Short stories