Chapter 7: A Way Back Home

“Just wondering,” Celia asks as she looks back at him, “Where were you headed anyway before I stopped you?”

Alto pauses to think for a while.

“I don’t actually know,” he finally replied, “there was a home point set inside my system, and I was just simply following it. I have a few images of the location flashing in my mind, and an odd sense of knowing exactly how to get there, as if I had gone there so many times that the exact way was programmed into my system. Because my memory drives are corrupted, I was hoping that returning back to the home point would help me recover them.”

“Hmm…” Celia mumbles.

A home point set in his system? Around this area? she wondered, I guess it wouldn't be too weird since he was found in the landfills of this city, but still, I’m a little curious…

“How about this,” she finally decided, “I can take you back to my place and help you repair your memory drives. I’m a general robotics engineer so even if your memory drive models are a bit outdated, I can still help with repairing them. In exchange, I want you to take me to your home point since I’m a bit curious about it, and afterwards we can go some help to find my way home”

He tilts his head, staring at her with his big, beady, expressionless eyes.

“That’s it?” he asks, “just because you’re curious you’ll help me?”

Celia nodded.

“That, and because you did help me get out of the landfills safely. I suppose I do owe you for that as well,” she says, “is it really so weird?”

Alto shakes his head and thinks for a while.

“No, it’s just that you kind of remind me of someone,” he says, “someone from my memory drives… Even though it’s a bit blurry, I can recall someone who acted just like you.”

“Really?” she asked, wondering who they might’ve been, “do you remember who they were?”

Alto shook his head again.

“No,” he replied, “it seems my memory drives are too corrupted for me to remember their name… but anyway… I don’t think my built-in clock is accurate anymore, but based on the sky, it seems like it’s getting pretty late. My home point doesn’t seem to be too far away from here, so let’s quickly get there so we can head to your house.”

Celia nodded and the two of them began to head up the grassy hill and back towards the streets of the city. Fortunately for her, the temperature of the air hadn't dropped back to its regular winter temperatures yet after the scheduled rain, and the still warm air made walking in her wet clothes much more bearable.

As they continue walking along the sidewalks, Celia absorbs in the beautiful scenery of the city suburbs at night. All around them, tall apartment buildings ranging anywhere between 10-30 stories tall loom over them. Their designs were about a century older, but still had modern improvements built upon them such as neon lights along the borders, solar panels atop of their roofs, and dedicated spaces for various trees and plants to sprout out from the sides of the building.

She often didn’t get the chance to explore the city at night like this, usually spending her days holed away at home studying for a test or working on some engineering project she procrastinated on. The only times she got to see the night lights were when she did her routine landfill runs from time to time, just like right now.

Despite being entranced by the colorful lights of the city, she eventually gets bored due to the lack of conversation. She never realized how boring it was without having Tabby around, even if he was a bit bluntly annoying at times.

“By the way Alto,” she asked, trying to start a conversation, “where did you get your name from anyway?”

He gave her a strange look.

“Isn’t it obvious?” he said as they continued walking, “my name is an acronym that stands for Autonomous Lunar Terrain Observer. My humans specifically created the name ‘ALTO’ so that it was easy to remember.”

“Oh,” she said, not realizing his name was actually an acronym and not just some name given to him, “I guess that makes sense…”

Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks.

“Wait…!” she exclaimed, “did you say ‘lunar terrain observer’? As in like, you’re made to explore the moon?”

Alto tilts his head, wondering why she was surprised by this fact.

“Is that not what I introduced myself as when we first met?” he asked in a confused tone, “unless my short term memory drives are also mistaking me, I specifically remember introducing myself as ‘My name is Alto, and my mission is to land on the moon’. In fact, that greeting was specifically programmed into me by my creators, so unless that’s corrupted too, I’m pretty sure I introduced this to you already.”

Celia’s face was dumbfounded by her ignorance.

Did he really? she wondered, I must’ve been so shocked by his sudden appearance from the pile of trash that I didn’t completely hear what he said. But nevermind that! A lunar terrain observer? Maybe he’s been to the moon before? Wait, no! He specifically said his mission was to land on the moon which means he hasn’t yet? Maybe the two of us could work together to get him to the moon! It would be a win-win situation for the both of us; I get to build and launch a rocket, and he gets to accomplish his mission and explore the moon! Maybe we could — ! Maybe we could… we could.. wait… What am I even talking about? Building a rocket? I don’t even know the basics of the math and physics it takes to build one, much less have the funding to get the materials to create one or launch it off the ground for that matter… Plus it’s illegal… there’s no way I could accomplish that without getting caught…

Her expression went from dumbstruck with a hint of excitement to sad and gloomy within a span of seconds, and Alto took notice of it.

“Are you alright?” he asked, “it seems I may have offended you by indirectly insulting your listening comprehension. Please understand I meant no harm in what I said, and I apologize for any offense caused by my words.”

Celia looked up at him, and almost broke into a goofy smile by his sudden, strange manner of talking as she let out a small titter. 

“Don’t worry about it,” she reassured him, “let’s just continue walking, I have classes tomorrow, and I need to get Tabby repaired as soon as possible so I don’t have to rent a temporary support drone for too long..”

She shuddered at the thought of having to use a temporary support drone. For an engineering student, it was basically a death sentence, since it didn’t come with any of the specified attachments she wanted, meaning that working on a project, especially on a time crunch would be hell. In addition to this, they lacked the personality and sense of bond that she had developed with Tabby, and it was instead replaced by a generic customer service-like attitude that was so sweet and respectful it made her sick just listening to it talk.

Maybe I can walk around with Alto instead, she wondered, it wouldn’t be too weird to walk around with an older robot, and even if he doesn’t have the specific engineering capabilities, his lifting capabilities are still useful. Plus, I wouldn’t have to listen to the annoying customer service voice…

The two of them continue walking through the city, avoiding the occasional lone hoverboarder that zoomed by and gave Alto weird glances. Over time however, Celia began to notice they were beginning to take more and more shortcuts through buildings and alleyways. The sector she lived in levelled in a weird way; some parts of the city were lower than the others and vice versa, with stairs and ramps going in both directions to make up the difference. Some areas that were too steep weren’t meant to be climbed over and were fenced off because they didn’t have stairs or ramps due to the weird angle they would have to be built in.

Thus, when she saw Alto beginning to jump down from or climb on top of fences, she started to become skeptical of whether or not she should still follow him, but her curiosity always got the better of her. Eventually, however, after Alto helps Celia over a chain fence and down into an alleyway, they make a left turn, expecting to see a path, but were instead met with a tall wall.

“Hmm…” Alto murmured, looking up towards the top, “that wall wasn’t there in my memory drives.” 

Celia gently closes her eyes and she presses her palm against her forehead.

Right. Of course the streets changed over the course of a century. I should’ve suspected that this might happen when we started going into closed off areas instead of following roads and stairways. There was probably a road built here back during Alto’s time, but it got replaced during the development of this sector.

“Well,” he said, “we’re pretty close to where my home point is. My senses are telling me that it should be around here somewhere. We just need to find a way around this dead end, and we should be there in no time.”

They walked back to the way they came in, and saw that the wall was at too high of an elevation to climb out of, and there was nothing nearby to use as a leverage, meaning that they had to find another way. The two of them then turned back and looked down the alleyway on the right and noticed that there was another strange turn to the left at the end. Deciding that it was the only way out, they took their chances and began walking towards it.

After rounding the corner, they see a tall HVAC unit placed next to a wall that stretched to about the same elevation as the one they used to enter the alleyway, except with a wooden fence at the top.

Celia looks over at the HVAC unit to the top of the fence, and realizes she wasn’t tall enough to get out. Even if she managed to climb onto the unit somehow, she wasn’t tall enough to reach over the top of the fence. Theoretically, she could grab onto the horizontal bars of the fence and use them as leverage, but like many other people, she didn’t have the upper body strength to lift herself up, and doing so blistered her hands.

She looks over to Alto who stared back at her and nodded his head as if he had the same idea. If Alto could lift 20,000 kg of weight, he should be more than capable of lifting her out, and then pulling himself up afterwards.

The two of them walk over to the HVAC unit and Alto helps her up, using his hands as footholds as he lifts her to the top. Once she makes it, Alto begins to climb up as well, and Celia begins to feel bad for making him carry her so many times.

“Sorry for making you carry me again,” she apologized.

“Don’t worry about it,” he reassures her after making it up, “I’m the one who led us to this alleyway anyway. Besides, you’ve been a wonderful companion on this short journey we’ve had together.”

Suddenly, he pauses, as if recalling something.

You’ve been a wonderful companion on this short journey we’ve had together, a different voice from somewhere inside his memory drives repeats. He was unable to pinpoint who it was, but he was sure it was the same person that Celia reminded him of.

“What is it?” she asked, confused why Alto was staring at her strangely.

“It’s nothing,” he finally says after moments of silence, “let’s get you out of here shall we?”

Celia nodded and Alto lifts her on his shoulders, letting her use it as a foothold to climb over the fence, however, as her face peered over the top, her eyes widened as she looked upon the street.

Wait a minute… I know this street! This is… she realizes. 

“This is where I live…” she murmurs.