The Makers

"Well... I dunno. As for me, the difference is not very big. Or rather, it's too great. Do you know what they like? "

"Who are they?" Benji didn't understand.

"Women, who else? They love emotions. They can't live without emotions."

"mi ba'e ji'a nelci loi za'u se cinmo*," Benji leaned over to the very face of the sergeant, winked at him and, screwing up his eyes, sensuously recited:

"Your evening's crumpled; it is here a third;

your heart is rushing in your chest like bird.

I'm here, I'm behind this foolish wall,

and I can't sleep without you at all."

"Eh..." the sergeant sighed and pressed "on" on the screen of the smartphone. "Well, do what you wish, guy..."

"It's Limerick, sergeant," the smartphone responded. "They found the downed aircraft. Two hours ago the Besancon cops towed it to the parking lot. The cabin is clean: no hair, no blood, so the PCR test for now is off."

"And how are you now? How's our Smith-O'Brien Avenue?"

"It's a funny place, sergeant. The concrete box, crammed with wires and equipment. Sure, there are no more people, but we pretty much rummaged around and did come up with some stuff."

"Well then, what are you waiting for?" the sergeant nodded and disconnected.

"Uh... eh..." Benji hesitated. "So what about me?"

"What about you?" the sergeant shrugged. "You have no money, you have no metric data, no genetic profile, like any normal person has. Your French will arrive for you. And when they'll arrive, they'll decide what to do with you.

The French had arrived in the morning, with some tricky electronic device and identification codes of the DII family. Benji - in good spirits and tightly charged - dutifully held out his hands and waited patiently until people make sure that he is he. Then there was a French consulate in Dublin, an interview with local television and the doing of a new chip.

And later in the evening the android was left on his own.

The first thing he did was to call Aia:

"di'ai calom to'o la dublin doi nixli*"

"Damn you, Benji," the black screen answered in Aia's voice. "You scared me so much."

"Sorry." Benji tapped the settings buttons, but the screen remained black. "What's the deal with your image?"

"Everything is fine with the image, worse with the face," there was a sigh on the other side, and the tear-stained girl's face appeared on the screen.

"You've been crying," Benji said. "Because of me. I hurt you, don't I?"

"Now everything is fine."

"I never meant to hurt you. Sorry."

"What are you talking about, Benji," Aia said gently, and her look melted slightly. "Why don't you take responsibility for the Gobi Desert - there is too dry there. Or for Antarctica - there is there too cold."

"Well, if you think it's really necessary..." Benji smiled. "I just want to note that in this situation, I'll immediately go into the category of irresponsible."

"It's possible," Aia nodded. "But don't worry: I can comfort you with the fact that in natural conditions in the wild nature responsibility doesn't grow at all."

"Yes, in natural conditions in the wild nature in this niche lives completely different ugliness," the android agreed and paused, softly looking at Aia's green eyes.

He was looking and thinking he could no longer honestly to say to himself that he didn't care.

And then Aia had tears in her eyes again and she turned off.

"I love you," Benji declared and smiled foolishly at the empty screen, knowing that Aia still hears him, because she needs neither any optics, nor the closed electrical circuits, nor the radio channels to hear.

He stood for a while, looking at his reflection in the black rectangle of the screen, and then, still foolishly smiling, turned and walked towards the terminal in order to rent another car: it was necessary to unblock bank codes and return home, to Orly.

This time everything worked out: the bank, who had learned about what was happening, met him with the new package of codes and new caproplast surrogate, and the road was so light that when Benji came back home, he couldn't restrain himself and while landing in Orly boyishly fulfilled a delightfully perfect arc.

An emergency call awaited him in the dispatch room.

_________________________

mi ba'e ji'a nelci loi za'u se cinmo* - I like emotions too. (Lojban)

di'ai calom to'o la Dublin doi nixli po'e mi* - Hello from Dublin, my girl. (Lojban)

23. 2330th year. Alpha.

For the first time in the last couple of hundred years, Alpha has been experiencing such a troubled period: the Earth (for some of the inhabitants of Alpha it was almost forgotten, and for others - completely alien) by the decision of the General Assembly and by the recommendation of the UN Security Council, waited for representatives of the community of Makers. And the Makers long accustomed to not look at anyone and not depend on anyone, suddenly got unexpected complications - money.

Accepted on the Earth payment systems didn't work in Alpha. Any. Just because no one needed them.

Food, clothing, housing - all this was for everyone as natural as breathing or a heartbeating: nobody cared about the financial and economic system of the Earth. If anything could be considered the "cash flow" on Alpha, then only a flow of mutual sensitivity, caring and interest.

The Earth could not offer anything like that.

However, the challenge was not only this. The challenge was also that it was impossible to offer such a thing to the Earth: unlike the Makers, each of which was an integral self-sufficient being, the earthlings represented a single incredibly complex composite entity, in which the main regulatory environment was money.

***

Lukasz Lansky who was the first of the first turned to be the first secretary of the Alpha diplomatic mission on Earth, as well as the senior adviser, diplomat and the head of the Makers's embassy. It happened after a brief discussion, followed by snort of derision and great laughter. As an attach'e, and also as a conditional sign, meaning that Alpha has a human features too, Aia's parents and her brother were sent to Earth with Lukasz..

The agr'ement was requested and duly received.