Alice

* A short story submitted for Creative Writing 100 class last October 2014.

Country’s biggest steel distributor unveils new robot

MANILA, Philippines – Armadillo Steel, Inc. (ASI) Phl. showed to the public its new acquisition last June 15, 2015, Monday.

            “Alice [the robot] is the first prototype robot to be used in the country. It is created using cutting-edge technology from Germany, where it was first used there,” Mr. Anthony Bars, ASI’s Vice President for Research and Development, told the reporters.

            With an appearance just like humans, robots like Alice do administrative tasks in the office, ranging from mopping the floor to driving employees to their destination.

            “However, we won’t be creating more ‘Alices’ due to issues that may rise with it such as potential loss of jobs,” Mr. Bars added.

            ASI is a German multinational company and is one of the world’s largest distributors of steel. ASI Phl. started their operations on 2013 and is the biggest distributor of steel in the country ever since.

            I was lying on my bed on a Sunday night and trying to get some sleep. But it was really hard to do when all you did was to think of all the things that may happen for the next day. I was not prepared for it, I admit, but then, this is life. It is the way things should go. You spend money just so people could educate you, morph you into the standards of society, and then they will leave you out there in the real world. And I guess that was the path laid for me. There was no turning back.

            I got off from the bus the next day and it overwhelmed me a bit. Maybe I was just not accustomed to long rides or maybe because it was my first time to step in Makati. Towering buildings line every street and there was not a bit of trash littered on the streets. I had an ample time to stroll around and was awed by the ambience Ayala Triangle gave. I stood there not just for a fleeting moment and inhaled the air filtered through trees of different kinds. No sign of unnatural objects being forced upon the park and a sense of belongingness engulfed my very being.

            The clock ticked 7:30, roughly saying that I needed to go. I joined the morning rush of employees and it seemed to me that everything and everyone was being governed by a hand that tells where everyone should go and what everyone should do.

            Fifteen minutes and I arrived at my destination. It was not my first time but it still amazed me how slick the finish of the company’s receiving area was. Titanium-hard gray steel covered the walls of the receiving area which gave a cool feeling once inside, contrasted with the heat radiating from the sun outside. The floor was tiled of silver hue and reflected the logo located on the far side of the area.

            “Excuse me? Is this the R&D department?” I nervously asked the security guard.

            “Yes sir. Just turn to your right and you will see this black door. Are you an applicant sir?”
            “No, I am not. I am a new employee.”

            “Oh, I see. Please log-in first here.”

            After the necessaries, I entered the office and it was one of the biggest offices I had ever seen. There were 7 columns of standard-sized cubicles, with 6 rows per cubicle. All colors were in either black or gray. Cool air was circulating through hidden air vents.  I stood there on the front door, mesmerized by the sophistication of my new environment, when suddenly a woman approached me.

            “Good morning, Sir. How may I help you?”
            I was startled. It was the thing that I feared the most: having a conversation with one of the employees.

            “Excuse me, Sir?” She waved her hand in front of me.

“I am Eleazar Quintana. I am a new employee here,” I recited as soon as I came back on my senses.

“Oh. I haven’t thought of that. I am Shane Arcilla, Director of the Office of General Engineering.”

Ms. Shane introduced me to everyone in the office. The employees did not give much attention to me probably because of the workload they were tasked to finish. But that was not really much of a problem. I was fine not attracting too much attention to myself.

Lastly, Ms. Shane introduced me to the Vice President of our department, Mr. Anthony Bars. A tall man, with a square jaw forested with a beard was he, and he walked with such authority that being intimidated was not enough to be felt. We shook hands and as I recited for the second time my default introduction, he just nodded at me and walked away from the unnecessary conversation with new employees.

The moment I settled down on my seat, another woman approached me and took hold of my right hand, feeling something on my forefinger. I jolted at the coldness of her hands and as I turned to see whoever that person was, I discovered that it was not really a person but a robot. It was staring at me with red blinking eyes and started blurting out that I was an intruder. Ms. Shane hurriedly came to my cubicle as I was trying to get its hands off mine.

“Alice, stop it,” Ms. Shane commanded.

The robot instantly dropped my hand and its eyes turned from red to blue, probably signaling that everything was now under control.

“Eleazar, this is Alice, the robot of the company. Surely you must know about her, don’t you?” Her eyes inquiringly bore into mine and before I could apologize for not having enough research about the company, Ms. Shane told to it, “Alice, please help Eleazar get his identification.”

I gingerly followed Alice back to the front door and that was when I got the chance to what ‘Alice’ really was. Actually, she didn’t look like a robot at all. She had this olive-painted steel skin that matched a human complexion. She wore the same dress other women also wear, except that hers was made of silk. Busy in my observation, I bumped into her but she grabbed my hand just in time and stuffed it inside a box-like device attached to the wall, and it scanned my fingertips. A prickling sensation began to race through my system and I realized that a scar was now on my forefinger.

“That would be your identification in the company. They just got a small amount of blood from you,” Alice told me and then it sped off to Mr. Bars’ office, to do some errands probably.

Weeks had passed and I found myself unsurprised by Alice’s presence in the office and it started when I asked Alice to come with me to our stock room because I need some spare metal parts for a test I was conducting on the different kinds of steel. Alice had the keys to the stock room. So one day, we ventured to one of the neglected rooms in the company’s premises. Alice was very useful to me. Her eyes served as my flashlight and most of the time helped me on searching for the right piece that I need. She also ran errands for me as well, like printing articles about recent innovations in the engineering field that greatly helped me on my work. Alice stayed with me whenever I would work overtime and sometimes she would make coffee for me.

One Friday night when I was having my nth instance of working overtime, I initiated a conversation with Alice. I was trying to juice out from her something about the company, how it originated, how she came to be (if ever she knew something about it) but she just continued pouring hot water on my coffee and all I got was silence. Suddenly, she told me, “Be careful. You are being watched.” Those words from her gave me chills and I immediately dropped the conversation.

It seemed silly to say but Alice and I had become a pair in the office. The fact that she was a robot made it even sillier. Mr. Bars noticed this unusual partnership and jokingly said that I looked like a robot to him already. I just shrugged off this statement and continued my research on the use of water on precision-cutting of metals.

ASI to use robots in the succeeding years

MUNICH, Germany – One of the world’s largest distributors of steel looks forward to continuing operations with the use of human machines.

            Armadillo Steel Inc. announced last Friday, January 4, 2012, that they will be using three robots in their operations, a first in the world. Mr. Van Wzick, CEO of ASI, said that it was because of the recent changes in technologies happening since the turn of the millennium. He also added that this would help the company in terms of efficiency as human errors are minimized.

            Because of this great step, ASI is applauded by the international community for the development and innovation of this new technology.

            Our relationship steadied and I could easily tell that Alice slowly eased herself in my presence. I never thought that robots could smile gracefully just like humans do. I never thought that robots could brighten your day in spite of the boring and calculated scheme of things happening in the office. Lastly, I never thought that of all creatures in the world, I would get attached to a non-human one. The gap between us two had been filled mainly because of those moments we walked to the stock room together, or maybe because of the rides we had whenever I and my team conducted a quality check with our partner companies on materials being used for our company’s research. Alice didn’t seem to look like a robot to me afterwards. She became a friend whom I could easily confide my problems on dealing with other people. This might be better, I thought, to have a robot friend like her. It was easier that way for me.

            Alice didn’t seem to be bothered with this arrangement. I would always found her doing her administrative duties and still continued to be of greater help to me. But then, there was something in her eyes that told me that I have to know something. Those flickers of the eye would be present for a brief moment every time she looked at me and be gone suddenly once she blinked.

Katherine Gloria, still missing

MAKATI, Philippines – Officials said last Monday, August 12, 2013, that they saw no trace of Gloria’s body during the course of their one-week search for the woman.

            Chief Inspector Mario Atanacio of the Makati City Police Department said that the search and rescue operations for Katherine Gloria seemed to be a failure.

            “We are employing more manpower and help from NBI in solving this case, as well as extending the scope of our operations into Pasig and Alabang area.”

            Katherine Gloria was one of the highest ranking employee of Armadillo Steel Inc. (ASI) Phl. and was last seen on August 2, Friday, together with colleagues in a conference held in Makati. Gloria’s relatives insisted that ASI is involved in the said disappearance, saying that a week before the incident happened, Katherine told her brother that she had a row with their Vice President, Mr. Anthony Bars.

            Meanwhile, Atty. Isaac Smith, Director for Legal Affairs of the company, denied the allegations of Gloria’s relatives towards the company, adding that “as a multinational company, we have the utmost care extended to our employees.”

            Gloria’s relatives have yet to comment on this statement from Atty. Smith.

            Lately, I noticed that Mr. Bars always called Alice to his side, making her do more tasks that seemed to be way above the robot’s capacity to work. He would ask Alice to move his table to the other side of the room and I would automatically extend my hand to help her but Mr. Bars would snap at me and said, “This is not your job. Go and mind your own.” I tried catching a glimpse of Alice but she never looked back. There was something about her that changed. It seemed that she was pushed to the limits by Mr. Bars but what she could do? She was just a robot programmed to do what everyone tells her to do.

            Alice did not come with me to the stock room anymore. The keys were given to one of my colleagues and it became a problem for me because I have to wait for him to finish whatever he was doing. Annoyed on how things have changed, I resorted to sorting the files under my desk. Reports from previous researches and conferences were stuffed inside a dusty organizer. I was halfway through when I saw news articles about ASI. The first article was printed in Germany that said something about the use of robots in their operations. Second was the same but situated here in the Philippines. It was about Alice, I realized. I found myself smiling at the photograph of her during her first public appearance. But that smile was wiped out from my face when I saw the last news article in the series. A photograph of a woman named Katherine Gloria was printed on its now yellowish pages. The article bothered me when I read about what it said. But I was more bothered by the undeniable resemblance of the woman to Alice.

            The next day, after all employees have gone home, I looked for Alice to ask her about the article but I couldn’t find her. I tried searching the stock room, hoping that she was just playing games with me. I mustered all my courage to enter the cold, pitch-black room. Realizing I was looking in the wrong place, I groped my way out of the dark, into the blaring lights of the hallway that leaded me to our department’s office. It was deserted, as to be expected on a Friday night. But an eerie light was noticeably coming out from somewhere.  I followed the source of light and I found myself face-to-face with the door of Mr. Bars’ office.

            “You did not listen to your friend, Eleazar,” Mr. Bars told me, as if he was already expecting me in his office. “Come, have a seat.”

            Lots of metal scraps were scattered on the floor, unrecognizable pieces that you could not tell what thing it was before. I walked my way to the room and noticed two strange metal circles on Mr. Bars’ table. I slowed my pace and my fear was confirmed as I was inches away from it. Two familiar eyes staring back at me, somehow telling me that I had to know something. But it was too late. Until I felt a cold thing hit my head. And then pitch-black.

ASI Phl unveils second robot

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s biggest steel distributor presented to the public the newest model of robots.

            The most recent humanoid, named ‘Z’, was the second in the line of robots created by Armadillo Steel Inc. (ASI) Phl.

            “This new prototype of robot is improved with a better operating system and is perfectly rational when it comes to thinking. It doesn’t talk that much but it is now programmed to work faster and better,” Mr. Anthony Bars, current CEO of ASI Phl., told the press on Monday, June 12, 2017.

            He also added that the public could expect more robots to be made for the next 5 years, especially when the effect of the ASEAN Economic Integration poses a good environment in the propagation of research and development that could further enhanced the quality of these robots.

            The first robot in the country was ‘Alice’ but was pulled out from its operation on 2016 due to operating system problems.