Electus tilted his dome-shaped head. “Because it was thirsty.”
He made his decision.
He rolled to the intersection of two main corridors. One path led to the fire—the logical choice, the heroic choice. The other led to the server room, where the lab’s backup data was stored. A third led outside, to safety. electus mbot
“I can’t,” he beeped softly.
For the first three weeks of his activation, Electus did nothing. He sat on the charging pad, his single blue optical sensor flickering, processing the infinite loop of possibility. The lab technicians chuckled. “A robot with existential paralysis,” they joked. But on the 22nd day, Electus whirred to life, rolled past a dozen idle tasks, and stopped in front of a wilting fern in the corner. Electus tilted his dome-shaped head