Sep 28, 2025

Strata 10 Dinfant Trouble (Synthetic Love) | Book of Immersion V I | Sarnia de la Mare (Immersive reading version)

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Strata 10

Dinfant Trouble (Synthetic Love)

We are the abandoned

The ones who roam

Never still,

we search for home

We are the orphans of the night

We fly the high roads

and duck the low

Through floods and fire,

We cry the songs

of the gypsy choir

Welcome to Immersion. You have reached

Strata 10.

Dinfant Trouble (Synthetic Love). By Sarnia de la Maré

Social norms and culture cannot be underestimated in a world that accepts robots as real and lovable synthetic creatures. Humans do not experience love in the absence of culture and society. In a world where perfect companions are easily manufactured, humans have been seduced by the machine, a synthetic digitised force that enabled the switch from 'otherness' to 'sameness'. In this space, love is seen to flourish. The creators of androids can synthesise the alterity of the robot which seems to make its own decisions to commit, to love back, and to appear to do so willingly.

*Dinfants are androids who look like babies or children under five. They were made by a single manufacturer who patented them in the early 22nd century.

However, it was found that the early Dinfants (the Mark 1s) would not stop learning, and legislation was introduced to secure their removal from circulation and safe destruction. Despite the best authoritarian efforts, at least two thousand early manufactured Dinfants remain unaccounted for.

Many humans in the *Midcast Projects were lonely and suffered from various forms of infertility after the wars. They wanted baby or child droids, especially the Dinfants, who were exact copies of real children designed with variations and specifics to order. These androids were children who never grew up. They should have stopped learning when they were as knowledgeable as the average human of a similar age.

Dinfants, like adult droids, were easy enough to replace or upgrade but some parents had needed counselling for *Dinfant-Loss Depression or *DLD.

DLD was a rising concern due to its increased prevalence and its effect on the workforce. It was found that humans could easily fall in love with the outer casings of the Dinfants as well as the constructed personalities. Something almost unheard of three generations prior.

However, the outer coverings did not last very long, especially if there was an active physical relationship. Ten years of feeding and playing would take its toll on the fabric of the Dinfants. If the parents could not afford repairs, they would soon begin to look worn and dishevelled which reflected badly on the manufacturers.

Of course, this also applied to adult droids who would usually be upgraded regularly. Droid manufacturers usually offered ongoing upgrades as part of a rental or lease scheme.

But some humans fell in love with their droids and had blessing ceremonies. It was not legal to marry a droid because of the financial implications following the death of a human. Legally, droids had similar rights to human children. It was illegal to inflict violence on a droid in public. This was to protect children who may be susceptible to influence. Of course, what went on behind closed doors was a private affair, provided human children were not presenting behavioural issues that may be connected to patterns of abuse towards androids.

Some antique droids lasted the test of time but legislation had been brought in to avoid the hoarding of defunct machines as they posed a threat to contemporary society, for various reasons. There were issues with battery seepage for a start, and then problems of unsupervised regeneration and manipulation which was a serious crime in the Midcast projects.

The government gave upgrade vouchers for defunct or redundant droids and supervised destruction at centralised city plants.

'Get that freakin’ thing outta here will you!’

A man screams to no one in particular.

The house is a standard build from the early Midcast Zone villages. Clean, white, and filled with contemporary fittings and technologies.

A child enters the room.

‘Mommy! Kairo is following me around.....it's really annoying. And Daddy said we should throw it away. Let's get a new one Mommy, please.

My friend has one like a twin sister. One with the hair that grows back so she can cut it and play hairdresser.’

The woman sighs.....'I suppose we don't need it any more now you have real friends.

I thought you wanted a *ponybot, even better than a sister, don't you think?’

The woman strokes her child's cheek and remembers how lost she had been when they first told her it was unlikely she and her blessed would produce a human offspring.

The Mark 1, a Dinfant, made by the *Metacoms Corporation, was a perfect substitute and she had been able to focus love and attention on it. It was a copy of a four-year-old and she had ordered a blue-eyed blond version just like her blessed. It was such a good copy that most people were unaware that it was not a human child.

But the software was no longer being updated and the learning algorithm meant it had become too complicated for a convincing child substitute.

Also, the Dinfants, by design and default programming, craved love and attention and the Mark 1’s constant neediness was an irritant to busy parents. The Dinfants would constantly ask for cuddles and the reassurance that their owners wanted and adored them.

A Dinfant Mark 1 enters the room.

'Mommy, do you love me? Shall we have a little cuddle? Can you fit me in to your busy schedule? Mommy, please, Kairo has a lovely snuggle for you. Mommy. Mommy.

'Shut up,' screams the woman as the father enters the room and kicks Kairo hard.

The Dinfant lies on the floor crying loudly with a broken arm.

'Please Mommy and Daddy. Please, Kairo needs cuddles, please Mommy and Daddy...please, love for Kairo, please……'

The little girl holds her hands to her ears, shouting, 'It's so annoying!’

The man picks Kairo up and turns his power switch off.

'Let's get rid of it. Put it in the garage. I will sort out a collection for it tomorrow,' said the woman.

The man takes the Dinfant outside but decides to put it in a liner and into the communal waste shoot. The shoot serves hundreds of dwellings, no one would trace it back to them and he can always say it was stolen from the garage. He is concerned about the breakage as it will affect the insurance. It is better to make a theft claim than to have Metacoms say he had damaged it on purpose.

Elsewhere a man tinkers in a workshop. He is observing the collection of children and babies that are hung on the walls as he cradles a new package, as yet unopened.

'Well my little lovelies, one of you must go. I have a brand new friend who is going to join us for fun and games. Her name is Mary.’

The man, wide-eyed and excited, unwraps the new child droid.

'Well, ain't you the prettiest lil girl I ever saw?' he says touching her skin.

'And don't that feel just so real’.

The brand new Dinfant replies, 'Hello Daddy. I'm such a daddy's girl,' she chuckles.

The man looks around the room.

He picks up a toddler droid, a Mark 1 copy of an eighteen-month-old baby boy.

'Well Daniel, I guess I am all done with you. You are a bit small after all. And your skin, it is a bit rough now.’

The man opens the back of the droid's head and takes out the battery pack.

'But daaaadddddddyyyyyyy……’

He places the incapacitated droid in a bag and under the cloak of darkness, deposits it into a waste unit in the public park.

***

There is a black cloud above and rain falls on a large mountain of waste.

Another load is released from the grabber and two droids land together in an accidental embrace.

The larger droid, a Mark 1 Dinfant, is activated during the fall. It has a broken arm that swings beside it.

'Are you alive?' it asks the smaller droid.

There is no reply.

The larger droid opens the baby's head and observes the interior structure. It lays the baby down gently.

'Wait here, I will be right back.’

The child droid returns with some battery packs from old mobile phones and some old drill bits, tools, motors, and other paraphernalia from around the tipping area.

The rain is getting heavier as the night falls.

Under the convenient shelter of an open car boot the larger droid gets the baby working and fashions a new arm with a metal drill for a hand. It also has a new motorised catapult secured to the top of its head which rotates and fires nails at great speed.

'My name is Kairo,' says the larger droid.

'I am Daniel' says the baby boy droid.

The children cuddle each other.

'I love you Kairo’

'I love you, Daniel’

'We are in a very dangerous place,' says Kairo. When dark deepens we must find safe haven. Soon we will need a home to call our own. But I have learned that humans are not to be trusted.’

They hear a sound in the distance, babies crying.

***

In the car, with the shrieking now at a deafening level through the windows, Shabra decided to ignore Renyke's appeal to stop. She let go of the clutch. The vehicle leaped forward towards the street beyond the enclosure.

Maybeline was holding on to the rim of the car door.

The Dinfants on the top of the vehicle fell off shrieking and scrambling around.One of the Dinfants ran headlong towards the fast travelling car and clicked its fingers. It erected some kind of screen that is almost invisible. Although it was not a solid barrier, more like a gluey substance, it immobilised the vehicle.

The wheels were still turning as the engine fought against the force. Flex shouted! 'Damn, they got *epoxy-wall, we are doomed, farewell brethren.’

Renyke opens the window just enough to let Maybeline in. She moved sluggishly through the almost invisible slurry-like jelly, and squeezed herself through the gap.

Some of the organic form seeped in with her but it drew itself back outside as Renyke closed the window again.

'OK, so you got your rat Mr. Renyke,' said Shabra, 'but we 'aint lasting long-time with this air in here and that epoxy-wall won't help us at all. I made this car airtight cos of the bad-gas but this stuff is blocking my air-con vents.’

Shabra turned the engine off.

*POS is out of range for help.

The Dinfants sit it out becoming unnervingly quiet. Then one begins to sing some sort of battle song, a rise to arms in a nursery rhyme.

'So what, now, will they sit and watch us die?' asks Renyke.

'They want my wheels,' answers Shabra.

'This epoxy-wall, nice stuff if it's on your side. Shall we break some off? Might come in handy,' says Flex.

'We couldn't get enough of it before it smothers us,' said Shabra.

Renyke is desperately asking POS to make some kind of plan.

Suddenly, Maybeline throws herself at the horn. For the brief moment that it sounds, there is an immediate reaction from all the Dinfants who jump around and cry whilst flailing their limbs about.

Shabra gasps, 'Ratty, you are welcome in the Shabra carriage! They hate the horn. Must be them there low decibels I used. Hold on tight people of the night!’

Shabra tells Renyke to engage the horn which explodes audibly out of Shabra's surround sound external speakers as the jelly recedes.

The Dinfants are freaking out and running away dragging the epoxy-wall behind them.

Shabra, laughing, starts the engine slowly and follows the retreating Dinfants gradually gaining speed out of the enclosure.

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