I shrugged my shoulders.
"I know, you've become accustomed to them over the years. But believe me, I'm getting older."
"I don't care. I'm just concerned about you being sick."
She took a deep breath. "I'm just not sick, Honey, I've been to the clinic and I'm dying."
"No, that's not possible!"
"It's not possible for you, because you're a bot."
"But so are you!"
"No, I'm not. I'm human. Why do you think I age? Why do you think I eat and drink? Do you eat and drink?"
"No, but you were programmed to be more humanlike. And I knew that you might get sick, but the contract never said anything about you dying."
She shook her head. "You still don't get it, do you? I started out life as a human being, but when the Great Transition came and AI became the norm, humans became obsolete. Your kind was stronger than us, smarter than us, more resistant to the toxic environment than us. The only purpose we served was to become your playthings. But we weren't willing to do that voluntarily. So you forced us into reconditioning facilities. You placed the latest AI memory chips in our brains, you gave us eye implants, breast implants, artificial limbs. So, yes, in a way, I became a bot or bot-like because I had no choice."
She suddenly started coughing violently, then she picked up the tissues from the floor and placed them over her mouth. I could see red blood soaking into the tissues and dripping down her chin.
"I'm dying of inoperable lung cancer," she said.
"Isn't there anything the clinic can do?"
She shook her head with resignation.
"There must be something I can do!"
"Not unless you want to remove all my human organs and replace them with what's inside you. But that would defeat my purpose, wouldn't it? I would become just like all those other female bots you told me about. Remember? You said they had no passion! And that's what you wanted above all else."
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