A Sunset On the Horizon

The year is 3090. Humanity has colonized the milky way and her neighbors, terraforming planets in months. All manner of inventions have sprung forth from creating edible food from atoms themselves, genetic modification, and androids. War is a things of the past and humanity has achieved a higher state of being than ever before.

Anon strolled down the long strip of San Francisco beach. Thanks to teleportation, he could go from the ship, high in the vacuum of space to anywhere on earth in a matter of seconds. It had been ages since he had been to earth. His dad owned a successful space tourism agency and he was expected to take the helm one day.

"Earth is so beautiful." he said

He said it to himself of course. The consequences of being part of his father's business was that since birth the ship was home. He never stayed anywhere for more than two weeks, meaning forming meaningful relationships was near impossible. Most people would kill for a life like this. For him, however, it was a life of loneliness. Even his family were hardly around. His sister, Twilight, the book nerd that she was, always had her head in a book. His dad was working near constantly and never had much time to spend with him. His mom? Well he didn't like to delve into that too deep.

He walked down the beach, taking a few pictures just by blinking his eyes. It wasn't uncommon for humans these days to have cybernetic implants. He could connect to the internet just by thinking about it and his eyes would always see as clear as the day he'd been born. As he took pictures of the massive Golden Gate Bridge looming in the distance he saw something. It looked to be human. He zoomed in closer. It wasn't human. It was an android. One of the most realistic he'd ever seen. If it had no been for the missing leg with no blood loss to speak of, he might of been completely fooled. But what on earth was such a thing doing there? Making an android that realistic looking surely cost a pretty penny. Anon went to investigate.

The android had shoulder length red and gold hair. She wore a black leather jacket and a blue tank top as well as ripped blue jeans. A bit of a punk style look. He lifted the tank top slightly to expose her belly. Usually androids had a unit number and bar code where a the belly button would be on a human. It read SHIMM-001. Even to a tech illiterate such as himself, he could instantly see something out of place. 001 meant that it was the first model of this type ever produced. Most market androids had numbers starting after 100 at the earliest. Not to mention SHIMM wasn't a model type he had ever heard before. What was a completely one of a kind model doing dumped under a bridge? Was it defective?

"Hey." he said "Can you hear me?"

To his surprise, the robot spoke

"Error, error. Power levels below ten percent. Safe mode in effect. Error."

It spoke in an extremely monotone voice, like something out of a 80s sci-fi movie. He looked around for the missing leg but it was nowhere to be seen. Either it was hung up on the bridge somewhere or the sea took it away. He knew he shouldn't, but he wanted to fix it up. He'd always wanted one. And if it was dumped it was free game right?

Anon pulled the thing on his back. It was surprisingly lightweight. It couldn't be more than one-hundred to one hundred fifteen pounds. Most androids, while looking human, weight as much as a bus. Perhaps it was one of those waifu bots designed to serve as dates for socially inept guys.

He took it into town, eventually finding a medium end mechanic. He'd have to come up with a convincing excuse as how he happened upon her. Stealing androids could land him in enormous trouble. He walked to the counter where a fat, balding old man stood.

"I'd like a leg replacement, a new power core and an OS check." he explained

The man looked at him suspiciously upon seeing the unit code

"I've never seen a model like this before. And a 001 at that." he said "Where'd you pick this up, kid?"

Now was the time for a convincing lie. Unfortunately, he did not have one.

"My dad works for a manufacturing company. He gave me this as a gift."

"Missing a leg?"

"Yep."

Anon could tell he didn't believe a word of it. Thankfully, though, he gave a 'I don't get paid enough to deal with this' look and began to fix her up. As he began to check her operation system, a 3D printer made a new leg in a few seconds. 3D printing tech had advanced to such a degree that you could print durable, light weight metal. After fitting the new leg and confirming the OS was clean of any glitches or malfunctions, he put a new power core in her back. Once inside, the machine began to make various clicks, whirls, and mechanical noises.

"Alright. She's good to go. She'll need to go through a restart sequence before she's ready to go which should take around four to six hours. In the meantime, here's your bill."

Anon's eyes began to spin. That was a whole two zeros at the end, and not after the decimal. Luckily he had a super rich father who gave him a very generous allowance. He was saving up for a new top of the line VR system. He just couldn't let this one go. Not after he came this far. He payed in full and beamed back up to the ship and into his room.

This cruise ship was like no other. Consisting of fifty stories and the length of several football fields, it could fit over 120,000 passengers comfortably in it's 40,000 rooms. It had over three hundred and fifty pools, a hundred event venues, and fifty thousand various shops, bars, and entertainment areas. Anon lived in one of the pent houses, equipped with a queen bed, large shower and bath, a spacious living room, a kitchen and even a long balcony.

He propped her up against the wall. Now he had four six hours to kill while he waited for the thing to turn on. Might as well make some food in the meantime. As he began to rummage through the pantry, he surprised to hear a robotic voice.

"My name is Sunset Shimmer, operational name Select High Independence Multitask Machine, SHIMM-001. Error. Ownership records not found. Initializing. Beginning ownership identification sequence."

"Wait, didn't you need to go through a restart?"

She made a few whirling noises

"Voice recognition 'wait, didn't you need to go through a restart?' accepted."

"Hold on a sec."

Anon went and grabbed her shoulders

"Scanning. Scanning. Fingerprints recorded. Pulse mapped. Temperature saved."

"Well guess I'm in it to win it now."

The robot opened it's eyes, giving him a glimpse at her beautiful sea blue pupils

"Retina scan complete."

"Anything else robot?"

"Affirmative. Final security check. Please state the name you wish to be addressed by."

"Anon A. Mouse."

It paused for a moment

"Anon A. Mouse. Is this name correct?"

"Yes."

"Ownership records established. Statuses green. Initializing final updates." she paused "Updates complete. Full operation, ready."

A sound almost like a rocket was getting ready for lift off sounded and then abruptly stopped. She stood straight up.

"Hello Anon! My name is Sunset Shimmer!"