Millennium-Nanny

Millennium-Nanny

In the year 2040, Mattel started distributing a brand new toy for kids – the Millennium-Nanny. It was an extremely new and expensive humanoid machine that would fulfill the requirements of a real Nanny: It could cook, clean, play and speak. It even looked very much like a real human, apart from its silver exterior. It was immediately popular, and when the motherless Henry and Gretchen Parallel were given one by their father, the two adolescents were immediately intrigued.

Henry Parallel loved the robot for the fact that it waited on him hand and foot. He would sit in bliss for entire days, Millennium-Nanny bringing him anything he needed, even helping him with his homework in such a way that he would hardly have to think about anything at all. Gretchen Parallel, however, did not love the robot, instead using it to learn about its scientific properties, spending hours speaking to and studying it, trying to work out exactly how it was made. However, both of the children loved their father for purchasing the pricey gift.

Within the first week of receiving the Millennium-Nanny, the “family (as they now called it)” went out for an early morning hike in the shrinking woods nearby. They walked through the short pathways, trying to find a spot where they would not be burdened by the endless amounts of tree cutters – men who spent their lives destroying some of the only remaining resources on the earth. At least, that was when Gretchen said they did. Henry thought he knew better, telling her, “The trees will grow back.”

Gretchen responded, “Sure, in about 100 years.”

“So?”

“So it’ll be too late by then!” Of course, Millennium-Nanny broke the two up before they really had the chance to start fighting, their father delighting that he could give that responsibility to the humanoid.

Silently, the “family” made their way to a cliff their father had discovered a few days earlier. “Isn’t it a great view?” he asked the children before moving to the side for another view. Henry nodded, staring out at the tall buildings that rose into the morning sky. Gretchen could only frown, her own eyes seeing the sullen civilization that was once a stunning landscape of earth. Suddenly, as she was contemplating the destruction she saw, Gretchen slipped. Her brother – always the more athletic one – grabbed onto her instantly, but she still found herself hanging over the edge, holding onto her brother’s hand for dear life. It was then that she saw something that terrified her.

The Millennium-Nanny was standing behind her brother, leaning over the endangered children. It did not do anything. Henry could not look behind him at the machine, but Gretchen could not help but notice something extremely menacing in the face of the robot – and it wasn’t doing anything! Finally, the kids heard a voice:

“Save them!” It was their father. The Robot immediately reached out its lengthening arm to the children, pulling them up with ease. Their father ran to them. “What were you two thinking?” he asked, still flustered.

“I’m sorry, Father,” Henry answered, not meeting his eyes. “Gretchen fell, so I grabbed onto her.”

“Well, I suppose it’s good that you did, and even better that Nanny was here to save you both,” their father told them with a thankful grin. “Thanks, Nanny.”

“You are welcome,” the Millennium-Nanny answered in it’s robotic tone.

On the way home, Gretchen caught up with her brother. She held him back until the two were fairly far away from their father and their Nanny, and then began to speak to him. “Didn’t you notice anything strange about that?”

“Anything strange about what?”

“The Millennium-Nanny…Henry, it didn’t save us.”

“Yes she did.”

“No, it didn’t. I saw it. It didn’t do anything until Father told it to.”

“She had just gotten there. She couldn’t have done anything.”

“But it was there! It was right behind you.”

Henry rolled his eyes. “Well, it’s not like she did anything wrong. She can’t do anything unless she’s told to.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. Millennium-Nanny’s are robots, and are therefore made to follow Asimov’s three laws of robotics! Robots can’t allow humans to come to any harm, don’t you see?”

“But she didn’t try to hurt us!”

“Exactly! It didn’t stop us from getting hurt, either. Something is wrong with it.”

“You shouldn’t call Nanny “It”, Gretchen.” With that, Henry ran ahead to catch up with the rest of the “family”.

The next week they had planned to go hiking again, only their father was unable to join them this time. “Just go with Nanny,” he told them. Henry was excited. Gretchen was terrified. When they had made it into the woods, Gretchen noticed that they were using a new route, and that with every step they were finding fewer and fewer tree cutters. “Perhaps we should stay closer to home,” she suggested, but the Millennium-Nanny told her not to worry, saying, “I know the way home.”

Within the next hour they were lost.

The Nanny told the children, “I will return in an hour. I am going to find a tree cutter. Wait here.”

An hour passed and the children were still alone.

“Oh, no!” Henry cried. “She’s lost us! Nanny’s lost us!” Only Gretchen did not think they had been lost. She knew they had been left alone.

“Don’t worry,” she told her brother. “Let’s just look for the tree cutters. There’s always some around.” They walked through the forest, attempting to retrace their steps, but they couldn’t seem to find any other humans around them.

“We should have just stayed where Nanny left us. She’s probably looking for us right now,” Henry complained.

“It’s probably at home with father, saying we ran away, actually,” Gretchen retorted, rolling her eyes.

“This is all your fault for not trusting Nanny! She’ll be so worried-”

“Henry! Stop calling it that. Stop acting like it cares about us! It’s only a robot, it’s not Mother!” Henry stopped fighting and hung his head. Gretchen sighed. “Look, if anybody is worried about us it’s Father. But if he can’t find us, we’ll have to find our way out some other way. Let’s just look for the tree cutters.”

The siblings continued walking for the entire night, but did not succeed in finding their way home, or even hearing the sounds of tree cutters. It was nearly morning when Henry heard a noise that sounded like drilling. He and Gretchen followed the sound they thought was tree cutters to a large building.

“It’s a factory!” Gretchen whispered in surprise.

“Well then, let’s go in-”

“No! Don’t be silly…what if it’s not tree cutters? What if it’s something different?”

“Then I guess we’ll have to find out.”

“Henry, don’t be silly!”

“Let’s just get a bit closer, okay?”

Gretchen reluctantly followed her brother closer to the factory. Upon getting close enough to peer into a window, Henry did so, and an excited look dawned upon his face. “Gretch- it’s a Millennium-Nanny factory!” Gretchen looked at him in disbelief. “Here, check for yourself.” She did so. She saw dozens of tables filled with parts to make the Nannies with, along with huge walls lined with the machines. “Let’s go in!” her brother told her, and before she could tell him not to, he was already knocking at the nearby door. It opened.

One of the Nannies was at the door, and as soon as it saw the children, it grabbed them with its long arms. It carried the two under its arms, and while Gretchen screamed for help, all she could see was the look of shock on her brother’s face. She had known! She had known how dangerous the machines were, and how they weren’t to be trusted, but he didn’t believe her. The robot carrying them finally dropped them in a small, empty room.

“Wait here,” it instructed, and Gretchen did not have the nerve to fight back. In fact, she had almost expected her brother to complain, or try to do something brave, but he looked far too afraid to do either. After waiting for only a few minutes in complete silence, a new Millennium-Nanny entered the room. Only this Nanny was different. Instead of being the usual silver colour, it was a shining gold.

"Who are you?" it asked. Gretchen was taken aback by how human its voice was. She answered.

"I'm Gretchen and this is Henry-my brother."

"Why are you here?"

"We got lost. Please, you have to take us home!" Henry begged. Suddenly, the new Millennium-Nanny laughed.

"We have never had children here. You will not leave. You will work." Before Gretchen could ask what the machine meant, more of the silver ones entered the room and stole her brother away from her. He was carried out the door.

"What are you doing to him?" She cried.

"What do you think? He will work for us. As will you." The machine laughed, making Gretchen shudder.

"What is this place?"

"This is the Millennium-Nanny factory, as I am sure you've already figured out. I am the leader here."

"You can't be. The head of Mattel should be in charge-"

"He was. We fixed that." Gretchen's eyes widened with fear.

"What are you going to do to my brother and I?"

"You will work. Work is all children are good for."

"Children are good for many things!"

"Children are useless."

"Children grow into adults," Gretchen responded, folding her arms.

"Yes. That is the second problem." Gretchen eyed the machine curiously. "Children will not grow up. Children will be destroyed by us. There will be no adults."

"There will be no humans!"

"You finally understand." Moments after the conversation, Gretchen was chained to the machine, and was forced to do all the jobs it didn't want to. She was the one cleaning all the parts of the Millennium-Nannies she finally understood. They were not made to help humans, they were made to destroy them - not only a few, but the entire human race. It would only be a few years before every household owned a Nanny, and when that happened, everything would be over. She could only wonder what was going to happen to Henry, but she knew it wouldn't be good. It was her and not him, after all, that the head Nanny had chosen for themselves. By that night, Gretchen was not only fearful, but she realized that after an entire day of walking and working she was extremely thirsty. Her thirst gave her an idea.

"Excuse me?" she asked the robot she was chained to. "I know you don't want to hear this, but since I am still a human, I do need some water."

"The only water is at the pond."

"May I go?" The Nanny considered the question.

"Only if I go with you." The Nanny led Gretchen to a shockingly close pond.

"I will need a cup to drink from." The Nanny quickly handed her a cup that seemed to appear magically from its arm. "Thank you." But Gretchen did not drink. Instead, she dipped the cup into the small bit of water and tossed it back up into the air, hitting the golden Millennium-Nanny square in the face. It was then that the machine did something Gretchen had expected - it set itself on fire. Luckily, the connection between the two was only a rope, and the fire quickly burned it, setting Gretchen free. She immediately left the machine to burn and ran back to the factory. The other Nannies were still working, completely unaware that their master had been destroyed. Gretchen saw her brother. The only way to save him would be to dump water over all of the robots, but there would not be time. She looked down at the cup remaining in her hand. There were a few drops of water still in it. She then looked to the right and saw a switch with only two words: On and Off. She took the remaining water and splattered it on the switch, setting it on fire. Immediately, every Nanny in the room short circuited and stopped moving.

"Henry!" She cried, and her brother ran to join her. The two ran from the building at a lightning pace.

"What do we do now?" he asked when they had slowed down.

"Let's just look for the tree cutters," she told him. The walked for another hour and did not find any tree cutters, but stopping by a river for some water, they did find something very different.

"Who's there?" a man with long hair asked them. Neither spoke to him. Gretchen could not help feeling proud of her brother for learning not to trust strangers. Of course, he had had many opportunities to learn this in the past little while. Finally, Gretchen answered:

"You tell us first."

"I am George Archet." A lamp went off in Gretchen's head.

"You're the head of Mattel!"

"I was, once. It was taken over, and now I am finished, living alone in a forest. So close to civilization, so far from home."

"It's alright. We just saved the factory. Well, we destroyed it, but we destroyed the robots too, so it's okay," Gretchen told him, getting closer. He eyed her in disbelief, but her nodding made him trust her.

"Truly?"

"Yes!" He grinned.

"Well, I suppose that's alright, then."

"Can you take us to tree cutters?" Henry finally asked him.

"I can take you straight home, if you wish," George offered, and the kids decided to take this offer-just the once. Before the night had ended the kids were home, and after knocking upon their door, their father-not their Nanny-was the one who answered in tears. He immediately pulled them into a tight hug.

"Henry, Gretchen, I worried so much about you!" Gretchen answered by breaking the hug quickly.

"Father, we need to get rid of it!"

"Yes, we need to get rid of Nanny!" Henry agreed. Their father chuckled.

"Actually, it's the funniest thing. A few hours ago, Nanny just stopped working. I turned on the television and it turns out that all of the Nannies stopped working at the same time. Strange, isn't it?" Gretchen grinned brightly at her brother.

"Oh yes. It's all very strange."