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05/29/09(Fri)07:19 No.21677194Synopsis
In
2046, an inmate sentenced to solitary confinement on the desert planet
Ceres-XIV is visited by a spacecraft that regularly brings him supplies
and news from the Earth. Captain Allenby has been trying to make
Corry's stay humanely tolerable by bringing him things to take his mind
off the loneliness. On this trip, however, Allenby tells Corry not to
open a certain crate that has just been delivered until after the
transport crew leaves. Upon opening the special container, Corry
discovers that Allenby has left him with a feminine robot, named
Alicia, to keep him company. At first, Corry detests it, rejecting
Alicia as a mere machine; synthetic skin and wires inside. However,
when Corry sees that Alicia is in fact capable of crying, he begins to
fall in love with it.
When the ship returns, Captain Allenby
brings news that Corry has been pardoned after a review of past murder
cases. Corry, it seems, can return home to Earth immediately. Corry is
delighted, until he learns that there is only room for 15 pounds of
luggage, far too little for his robot companion. He frantically tries
to find some way to take Alicia with him, arguing that it is not a
robot, but a woman, and insisting that Allenby simply does not know it
as he does. At that point, just as the rest of the transport crew is
surprised at the sight of Alicia, Allenby suddenly draws his gun and
shoots the robot in the face. The robot breaks down, malfunctioning,
its face a mass of wire and broken circuitry, and Corry's illusion is
presumably broken. He then takes Corry back to the ship, assuring him
he will only be leaving behind loneliness. |
