Good Service

By Terry Faust

A robot is torn between providing his owner family with good service and saving himself from destruction for the murder of their child...a murder he did not commit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Terry Faust
• Release date: Feb 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311954152

Terry Faust

Terry Faust’s BiographyTerry Faust is a Twin Cities writer/photographer. He is currently finishing the third novella in a YA urban fantasy series about a small group of kids who call themselves the River Rangers. The stories in order are: Far From the Eye, The Left-Handed Hummingbird, and Swan Song. Recent published work includes the short stories: “Immaculate Extraterrestrials” and "Guess Who is Coming to Gotterdammerrung" which were published in Tales of the Unanticipated #29 and #30. “Guess Who is Coming to Gotterdammerung” also appears in Northern Lights, an anthology of the Minnesota Speculative Fiction Writers group. With Roy C. Booth’s collaboration it has been turned into a one-act play. I’m also working of the sequel to Z is for Xenophobe, Y is for Wiseguy.Past awards and grants include:Lunch with Stacie – a screenplay that received a Minnesota State Arts Board GrantTo Build a Blackbird ˆ(originally Elysium Flyer) – novel received Loft Prize for YA fictionThree Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf - play produced by Childs Play Theater (currently Stages)One Windy Day – 16mm film which received first place in the Moore on Monday Film FestivalDirt in Duplicate – radio play aired on KFAISpontaneous Dance – 16mm film chosen to air on MNTVTerry also teaches photography at IFP, photographed and produced a series of coffee shop calendars from 1993 to 1998, and has a very understanding wife, Kathy, and two great kids, Max and Spencer.

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Terry Faust

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Good Service

6,750 Words

by Terry Faust

Howard, what’s the problem? asked Everett Hawkins, Senior Engineer and Team Leader on the Dingbang robot project. File your report. He’d raised his voice a notch, shifting from mere frustration to full annoyance. It killed the kid, end of story!

They walked side by side from the parking lot toward the gleaming doors of the massive Hǎo fú wù Robotics building. The summer sun shone on the luxurious grounds flanking the entrance and the men strolled past fantastic evergreens sculpted in the shape of spheres and cubes.

I’ll file it when I’ve done my interview, Everet. Dr. Howard Claget understood Everet Hawkin’s annoyance. The day before they’d witnessed the arrival of the infamous Dingbang Mark II robot from New Georgia. It had loomed over them on the loading dock. Two armed security techs had kept a close watch on the robot as Hawkins took it to his engineering shop.

Claget and Hawkins were coworkers and friends. Claget was dumpy with brown crew-cut hair, a round amiable face, and sparkly blue eyes. His tweed sport coat, khaki pants, and running shoes added to his disheveled, good-natured appearance. In contrast, Everett Hawkins was thin as a memory card and just as angular. He wore a regulation yellow Hǎo fú wù lab coat.

Claget adopted a softer tone and said, I know there’s pressure, Everett, but I have to follow procedure, Claget’s brief look at the Mark II hadn’t shown anything to distinguish it from the thousands of other Dingbang robots Hǎo fú wù manufactured and sold. Its scored and tarnished gray exterior testified to years of rough service on the distant planet New Georgia. It was humanoid, but had a flat, featureless face. What was left of its red trim and company logo had been scratched and nicked, but its eyes still shone with the characteristic Mark II purple iridescence. Being director of robotic personality development, Claget had implemented the feature, not only to indicate the DB was on, but also to give it character—make it more human. Customers had welcomed the soft glowing eyes.