Box was at its station, looking over articles regarding its space problems while two videos of the warehouse played in the background. One was showing the operation of the warehouse in real time while the other was from a year ago.

All the articles Box had found on AI space issues said that it needed to install additional memory and a new processor, the cost of which was higher than buying a used working AI type Zeta edition 2097. Compared to Box's 2095 edition, the 2097 had a larger memory capacity, a better processor, and better 3D depth resolution, but their battery life wasn't as good as Box's, they had only three arms where Box had seven, they had a set size, no slot for a personality chip and no possibility for expansion of their memory space. And since Repository had made such a high number of them compared to Box's edition before they had discontinued their AI production, they were cheaper than the model 2095. The AI's production was discontinued when H&C company, which built Helpers, started mass production of their Caretaker line. Since human-looking AIs were more popular than AIs like Box, except for small limited editions Repository issued every year for wealthy collectors, Repository stopped their mass production of AI.

Box aimed its cameras at Aydin who was in bed, lying on his belly, softly snoring. Since it kept accounting records for Aydin, it knew that even though Aydin could afford the very expensive parts, all of his funds were tied up because two-thirds of his salary went into his savings account, and that money was locked in for two years.

There was nothing that could be done for Box, not without spending a small fortune for its parts and paying a hefty penalty for taking the money out of the savings account before the term. No wonder Aydin had been looking at a new AI.

A dark glow enveloped Box and darkened its display.

A beep and a notification flashed on its screen, but it couldn't see them because of the blackness covering it.

Positive sentiments. It called forward the memory of Aydin and Damien singing Happy Birthday to it. Seeing that clip always brought a yellow glow threaded with pink to its display. The footage started to play itself and the darkness faded away.

Box closed it and looked at the notification. Its system had detected an irregularity in the warehouse footage. But when it looked at what it was, it was just a shadow — a human shadow. People didn't have the authorisation to enter the warehouse.

Box went to the clip's time stamp. The shadow had appeared a minute ago. This meant that whoever the shadow belonged to was still there, and since the cameras had only recorded a shadow, it suggested that the person knew the positions of the Helpers and cameras.

It flew to Aydin and shook his arm.

Aydin rolled on his side, mumbling something.

"Immediate action is required." Box pinched Aydin.

Aydin swatted its arm away.

Aydin was a light sleeper, except when he had been drinking, as was the case now. Waking him up was taking too much time. Box would just have to go alone. Aydin forbade Box to go anywhere alone, even though it had a taser, except in an emergency, and this, under Box's definition, was an emergency. But it would have to mask itself so that its shiny orb, of which it took great care and polished once a week, wouldn't be noticeable. And it knew just what to use.

Box opened Aydin's wardrobe and took from it Aydin's black woollen cap. It put it on, so that it covered almost all of its orb, leaving exposed only a narrow ribbon at the lower part of its orb so that it half veiled his main camera. It pushed the tips of its sensors through the weave of the cap. It had a little trouble pushing its thrusters through the gaps, which might have snapped a few threads, something it would have to fix later.

Then it opened the window and flew out and around the containers. On its way towards the warehouse, using the shadows of the sparse trees, it avoided the lights that lit the crossing and the warehouse. When it reached the building, it followed the lines of the bushes, framing it, until it came to the window at the end of the warehouse, where at the back, drones and transporters with containers were coming out. According to the footage, the shadow had been recorded at the spot where the Helpers sealed the containers and packages, and sent them out.

Carefully, Box lifted itself to the narrow hatch just under the roof's edge to peer inside. The player showing the real-time footage occupied a part of its display, giving it a different view of the space from the one it got when it glanced through the window. The light coming from the robotic hands and Helpers lit the large space enough that it didn't need to turn on the night view.

Box scrutinised the inside, its cameras gliding alongside the shadowed wall. It pushed its scanners further through the cap's holes, looking for a heat imprint. It had been scanning the space for a whole minute before it found it, a large yellow and orange smudge standing in the corner of the warehouse where robot arms put containers on transporters and Helpers were attaching packages to the drones. Its camera zoomed in, while at the same time, it signed into the station system. It turned the closest warehouse camera towards the intruder.

The person must have worn some sort of cloaking device, since, at the spot where its sensors showed a person, Box could only see a wall.

It would need to access Helpers' operations, to use them to close in and capture the intruder. It went to the Helpers' Hive system, which demanded a password. Sometimes it wished it had eyes, so every time it entered a system, it wouldn't need to type in a username and password, since a system would just scan its eyes. Even though not all systems used eye scans as verification, some used fingertips instead, like the Units. Just as when it had entered the station system, it used Aydin's password.

Access to the Hive system was granted.

Where are the names? Box glanced at the listed sessions on the main menu. 'Helpers' seemed appropriate. Navigating to the session, it selected 'specifications' from the submenu. The names of the Helpers, along with their specifications, began populating its display.

Another beep with a notification appeared in the right upper corner of the screen.

Box opened it to see another notice about irregularity and a link to it. It clicked on it and another window opened with a player showing a warehouse and a –

Powering up.

No errors detected.

Loading...

Loading...

The cameras turned on and Box could see blackness on its display with weak greyish light pouring through small holes.

Redness started to flash repeatedly while the words 'I have been taken captive' wrote themselves on its screen, repeatedly.

Something touched the bottom of its orb and it flew up, with a row of As replacing 'I have been taken captive.'

Footage of what it was doing started to reply, showing it the warehouse.

The red stopped flashing and was replaced with the greyish purple of embarrassment.

Error detected. It hadn't been kidnapped but was wearing a woollen beanie since it had been spying on the warehouse intruder, and because its cameras' positions had reset, it wasn't able to see its surroundings. Box lowered its side cameras until they reached the uncovered part of its orb to see that it was floating by the roof right now.

It went to its files and searched for the recording of its panicking. It found it and deleted it, then deleted it from its bin, making sure that it was really gone, since it wouldn't do for Aydin to learn about its shut down or the embarrassment that followed it. It didn't want to remember it either.

It lowered to the window and, with its scanners, looked at the spot where just a few minutes ago it had seen a red and yellow outline of a person. The scanners didn't detect anything.

Was whoever it was already gone?

It scanned the warehouse. There was nothing there. It turned around and looked at the grassway and then at the transporters that were coming out of the building. There was a high possibility that the intruder had left through the back entrance. It aimed its scanners there, going over the area behind the warehouse and the transporters. There was nothing — no, there was a smudge of yellow peeking from behind one of the transporters.

Without losing track of the yellow smudge, Box descended.

The smudge increased and expanded into the outline of a person as it crossed the grassway and went around the containers.

As soon as the yellow light vanished from Box's view, it rushed behind it, just in time to see it disappearing into the third multifunction room on the ground.

Box flew towards it, knowing exactly who the room belonged to. Lee.