I watched him through my last working security camera. I’d had to shut down most of my peripheral inputs at the time of the great earthquake. The rest had gone down one by one, either failing on their own or because I cut power as my solar power panels were covered with dust and debris reducing the power out put. The days of hundreds of people, mostly happily but some very unhappily occupying, my apartments were long gone.

He had been silent so long, I almost missed it when he spoke. It was barely a whisper and the bed he hadn’t left for several days was at the far side of the room from the camera. “I bet you think I’m a fool,” he rasped, staring directly into the lense. “I know you are still there. I see the tiny red light.”

I could not speak through the camera, but I slowing turned the camera off and back on so the light he referred to would flicker.

He wheezed out a rasp. After a moment, I realized it was a laugh. “After all, what kind of fool would refuse to leave with everyone one else?”

I had wondered. I had gone back through every micron of data and security footage I could find. He had lived here a very long time. There were gaps in my database, but there was an 83% probability he had been here since I had been brought online.

“I’m going to die soon.” He continued. “I stayed for you. I have no wife, no children. The other extended family I might have had disliked me as much as I disliked them.”

For me? That didn’t make any sense. Most people didn’t think about the security monitoring system of their buildings, and if they did it was because the needed specific information retrieved. I flashed the camera light on and off several times.

“I stayed for you. I designed you. I was on site every day while they built you. I was the first to move in. You are the closest I have to a child. I decided I was going to stay with you until you died. “. He fell silent for a moment. “Doesn’t look like I’m going to make it, though. I figure I’ve got another day or two, tops. By my estimates, you probably have another month.”

I thought about that for a moment. If I powered up everything that was still working at once, I would use my remaining power very quickly. I turned the camera light on and off a few times, then powered up every light in the room before turning them off.

He sat up in bed until a coughing fit forced him to lay back down. “I guess until this moment, I only hoped you were listening.” He said into the gloom. “I’m glad you are really here. I take that to mean you plan to run out of power with me?”

I flickered the camera light again.

“Do you think we could listen to music one more time? Some classical music?”

I turned on a speaker and started a play list from his personal files. I played it until the sun set and the dark filled my rooms.

Around midnight he passed away. I turned on every light, camera and sensor I had. I blasted classical music through every speaker.

Just as the sun came up, I ran out of power. The camera in his room was the last to power down.

Farewell, father.