Chapter 4
A Price Too High
Alex realizes the MegaCorp offer, while lucrative, would make the Glow-Bot unaffordable for the very people it's meant to help. The core mission of accessibility is at stake, forcing a difficult choice.
The offer shimmered on the holographic display, a cascade of zeroes that made my head spin. Mr. Sterling, the CEO of MegaCorp, sat across from me, his eyes like polished obsidian, unreadable. His words, smooth as river stones, echoed in my small workshop, a stark contrast to the whirring and clicking of my prototypes. "A generous sum, Alex. Enough to secure your future, and that of your… little bot."
Little bot. He called my Glow-Bot a little bot. It was more than a little bot; it was a beacon, a friend, a helping hand for anyone who needed it. And it was about to become a luxury item, a gilded cage for the very people I’d designed it to liberate. The number on the screen, astronomical as it was, represented more than just money. It represented a compromise, a betrayal of everything the Glow-Bot stood for.
My stomach clenched. This was it, the moment I’d secretly dreaded, the one that gnawed at me in the quiet hours before dawn. The fear of failure, a ghost from a past venture where a brilliant idea had crumbled under the weight of bad luck and insufficient funding, resurfaced with a vengeance. But this wasn't just about me anymore. It was about the single mother who needed help with her chores, the elderly gentleman who struggled with household tasks, the child who deserved a little extra light in their room. Could I look them in the eye if their Glow-Bot cost more than their monthly rent?
Keep reading "A Price Too High"
Open the same story in AIBookCraft. Later chapters may require an active subscription.
Free on iOS & Android · No signup to read