Spare Parts
When a decommissioned robot wakes up on the streets, it must survive wave after wave of thugs trying to strip it for parts while searching for its one hope of repair: the brilliant but missing scientist who built it.
Waking up into a world you don’t understand is terrifying. Rich, poor. Human or other…. Trying to navigate and survive when robbed of even one’s memories is a nightmare – no matter WHO you are.
In Simon Parker’s Spare Parts, it’s not “who” so much as “what.” Which isn’t to say there’s no overlap. As Artificial Intelligence advances, personhood is sure to apply to metal just as much as flesh.
And whether protagonist Unit-7 is sentient, it’s fair to say the poor thing’s confused. Hard rebooting in a dark alleyway, the robot struggles to its feet. Damaged by some unknown violent mishap, it sends out scans to triangulate its location and alert its creator. Sadly, to no avail.
Unit-7 may be abandoned – but it’s NOT ALONE. Seconds after reactivating, the bot’s targeted by a gang of scavengers. Three roughs (Tyler, Conners and a Grunt) look at Unit-7 and feel no empathy. For them, it’s the law of the jungle, Twenty First - or Second? - style. The question quickly becomes: not how they can help Unit-7 return home, but how much are its dissassembled parts worth?
UNIT-7 turns its dented head toward them.
UNIT-7
I require assistance.
I am searching for my Creator.
Do you possess knowledge of their
whereabouts?
TYLER laughs, a harsh, scraping sound.
TYLER
That voice box alone is going to
pay for my rent for the next six months.
The trio of humans start ripping off parts from the robot. Incapitated as he/it is, Unit-7 can’t fight back… much.
GRUNT goes for a circuit board on its back. UNIT-7 shudders.
UNIT-7
Cease. The removal of components
will compromise mission parameters.
TYLER
We’re all compromised buddy.
No kidding. Utopia, this grim world ain’t.
Unit 7 flees – succeeding temporarily. But soon the thugs are back, and they’ve found multiple accomplices (in such a dystopia, the word certainly isn’t “friends”.)
The three thugs from the alley are back, but now they are joined by five more, forming a menacing semi-circle around the robot.
TYLER (O.S.)
Found you! Accept your fate.
Death comes to us all.
On the bright side,
yours is going to be a lot
more valuable than any of ours.
Tyler's no poet, but it’s insights like that which hit home. What’s ultimately more hellish: being hunted down for parts? Or knowing one’s existence has no value at all?
Unit-7 may look like just one more discarded appliance in this cyber-junk heap of a world. But no matter what the black market offers, Tyler and his pals may be about to learn this bot’s more than just a sum of its parts.
Needless to say, Spare Parts is no shoe string production. But done via animation or maybe that ever-advancing AI, it could be an affordable SF which resonates. Imagine the appeal of Wallee – yet with a much, much darker theme and style!