Chapter Text
October 31st, 2038
“Of course, Mr. Fowler, I’ll be there in like five minutes.” she paused to listen to his response, holding the phone against her ear.
“Thank you so much for letting me do this. I mean, really. I have called three different police departments and none of them wanted anything to do with my study.” she admitted, projecting as much thankfulness into her voice as she could. She finished the dregs of her lukewarm coffee, hoping to suck as much energy from the caffeine as humanly possible. She was going to need it. She shoved the solo cup into the trash bin between the seats.
“Yep, bu-bye” she finished, tapping the end call icon and taking a deep breath. The taxi was almost there, it’s eta showed that she was only three minutes from her destination.
She took a chance to make sure she looked convincible enough. Her uniform was in proper order, the blue LEDs in the grey fabric shone through, reminding her of some cool sci-fi movie she has seen before. She felt a bit jealous that it wasn’t socially acceptable for humans to wear the lights on their own clothing, that androids were the ones who got to be adorned in cool, kickass clothing. She had the chance now, but it was equally unrewarding because Cyberlife informed her that they would not be covering the cost of any replacement uniforms. Her dull blue eyes lingered in the taxi’s mirror, seeing that the cleverly designed sticker that Cyberlife gifted her glowed on her temple, the color was a serene blue. She experimented with it’s responsiveness to her emotions. She came up with a difficult math problem and watched as the blue swirled away to be replaced with gold light. Perfect. She had a sticker for every day of this month, exactly how long she would be at the police department. Her black shoulder-length hair was pulled into a high bun, the hairstyle that she would keep as it was more clinical. She had taken a while to make sure that any human imperfections, like freckles or stray hairs in her bun, was corrected.
The taxi slowed to a halt in front of the police department and she took a moment to gather herself before stepping out, putting on a neutral resting face, hoping no emotion stood out too prominently in her features. A fence protected the parking lot where all the police cars were safely nested, a group of officers stood around a vehicle and conversed lazily. A couple stood outside the doors, thanking a policeman for finding their wallet. The sky was overcast, the noon sun nowhere to be seen behind the thick clouds. It was a normal day, and the perfect day for her to start.
The automatic door whizzed open and the woman stepped inside, the coziness of the inside washed away the chill of the autumn air. The secretary was surprisingly not an android, but a middle age woman who had her glasses balanced on the end of her nose. A security guard was stationed at the door, the mechanized glass door tightly shut off to anyone without permission to enter. How was she supposed to get in? She couldn’t risk talking to the secretary and possibly blowing her cover. Fortunately for her, Mr. Fowler stepped up to the door and pushed it open, spotting her in the lobby. He motioned for her to come inside and she nodded, following him through the glass doors..
The large, bald man lead her straight to his office, thankfully no one saw her enter in. There were desks all over the room, various papers strewn across every surface, the sign of a busy workstation, however, it seemed everyone was in the breakroom or out somewhere. He waited at his office door and shut it behind her, scooting around his oak desk. An American flag hung on the wall behind him.
“Please take a seat, Miss Ripley.” he offered and she obeyed, taking a look at the desk, which was also taken over by a flurry of papers.
“Just Claire, thank you.” she replied, placing her hands on her grey skirt. The chief director looked at her for a moment before shaking his head.
“You really do look like one of those androids. It’s ridiculous.” he stated, gazing at her fake LED and placing his hands on his desk.
“It’s all thanks to Cyberlife helping me out with this. Without the uniform and this,” she pointed at the light on her temple, “It wouldn’t be very convincing.” The man nodded, his dark eyes looked down at a piece of paper.
“So you’ve done this before? I would never do anything crazy like this,” he said with a laugh, “You know you’re asking for trouble, right?” He lowered his voice, a hint of warning. She had heard it before.
“Yeah, in July I did this at a hotel for a month. I know what kind of trouble it can be. “ she stated, knowing that some sort of question to her sanity may be a part of this conversation. Once again, the man looked down at the paper, his chocolate fingers pinched the corner. She had guessed at this point it was her info.
“And all without pay…” he trailed off, not believing it. She shrugged.
“My research is well worth it. Besides, the first book I released about my studies still helps me out financially… But actually, Cyberlife is funding all of this so I’m not going unpaid.” she responded, rubbing her eye. She couldn’t afford to go unpaid in this economy and having a job was somewhat of a miracle with the rising unemployment rate. As much as she enjoyed her discoveries about androids and deviants, she would never do this for free. She had to go home with something after slaving all day. The man looked back to her, another question in his mind.
“What made you seek out a police department? Why not go to another business like a bank?” He asked, his curiosity in his eyes.
“Well...banks aren’t really stressful environments. I chose a police station because there will be a lot of tension and more intense situations for me to be exposed to. I want to record how stress changes attitudes towards androids, so I thought this was the perfect place for it. Not to mention, this department, in particular, has done the most investigation on deviants so far, so I think it will be interesting to see how I’m treated after all of the chaos.” she said, watching the director look at her with concern.
“I hadn’t considered that. If any of my guys mess with you during your experiment, you can tell me and I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.” he offered, clasping his hands together in a serious manner.
“No, please, don’t interfere. I appreciate it, but no one can know until the end of the month. It’s crucial that everyone thinks I’m an android, or else the results will be biased. That’s the whole point. The only situation that should need your help is if someone gets violent, but I’ve never had that happen. And we can’t talk like this often, it will arouse suspicion if you routinely chat with an android, you know.” she pointed out, her voice worried for a moment. She couldn’t have this one blow over because of a little mess up. This time, she’s got Cyberlife breathing down her neck for her research.
“I understand. It’ll be hard to watch, but I shouldn’t mess with your experiment,” he said, standing up, signaling that it was time to stop talking and get to work. “Here is your ID, you need to use this to get in the building and to prove that you belong here. Don’t lose it. You might want to come in an hour early to make sure that no one sees you arrive so that they think you’ve stayed the whole night. You also need to leave last too. The cameras are only checked if something drastic happens, so you’ll stay hidden there too. That’s what advice I can give you. Just do as everyone says and you’ll be fine.” He said, handing her the card, which she tucked away immediately.
“Thank you again, I’ll make sure everything goes smoothly and I won’t disrupt your office at all, so don’t worry. Don’t be afraid to order me around every now and then, it’ll be more believable.” she stated, leaving her chair.
“In that case, everyone’s desk is a mess. Straighten them up, okay? Don’t throw anything away.” he gave his first order, earning a smile. That was quick. She stopped at the door, her hand on the handle.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything.” she said, turning the knob.
“Wait, before you go, I need you to understand something.” he stopped her, and she let the door shut. She cast a glance over her shoulder, wondering why the chief’s voice had such a shadow of warning over it.
“Be careful of Connor. It’s designed to find and apprehend deviants, so anything out of the normal from an android like yourself will make it suspicious. If you mess up in front of it, it will expose you without hesitation. All it cares about is its mission.” he warned.
It… she was so sick of hearing it thrown around. Fowler hadn’t said it in any negative way, but she had heard it so often in posing as an android that the word it as a pronoun made her cringe.
So there really was a Connor model here? That’s right, she hadn’t thought about that. She’ll be discovered really quick if she isn’t absolutely perfect. Dread knotted in her stomach. She worked so hard for this opportunity and it may be flushed down the drain. Expose you without hesitation.
“I forgot about that. I heard about that on the news. Can’t you let him in on this and then make sure he doesn’t say anything?” she asked, hoping none of her panic showed in her voice. The man gave her a sympathetic look.
“It doesn’t really take orders from us, all of its objectives are given from higher up. That may change, but for now, our hands are tied. Don’t get caught, that’s all I can say. It’s not officially stationed here yet, but it may show up prematurely to look at case files. I don’t think it will show up today or tomorrow at all. Good luck, kid.” he offered and opened the door for her.
No more comment came from her as he shut the door behind her, leaving her to look at the skewed office. She took a deep breath and got on straightening all of the papers into a neat stack, hoping to play her part as a cleaning android well. She made her way to each desk, noticing that there was one desk that didn’t have anything on it. No name tag, no papers. She shrugged it off and continued, also being mindful to throw away empty bottles of water in the trash bins along with food wrappers and soda cans.
It was fairly monotonous work, but it sure beats scrubbing toilets. Some things would pique her interest from desk to desk, different officer’s family portraits, wives, pets. Newspaper articles that bragged on the officer would be displayed proudly among other photos or letters used as memorabilia. Claire tried not to be too distracted, but she would be a liar if she said she didn't read a few paragraphs of some of the articles. The office was stunningly quiet, she assumed everyone was either busy on a case or had been dispatched for some emergency.
Which was why she nearly dropped some papers when a loud yell erupted into the room from the entrance.
“I’m telling you, I didn’t see anything! I don’t know why it was in my garage, I swear!” A voice bellowed, two officers marched in a man who was visibly disheveled, in his mid-twenties by the look of him. He wasn’t struggling any more than just insisting that he didn’t see anything over and over. The noise must have been heard through the walls because Mr. Fowler stuck his head out of his office door.
“You have known Mrs. Cornwal for three years since you became her neighbor, right? Eyewitnesses said that-” one of the men prodded on before Captain Fowler interrupted his speech.
“Take him to the interrogation room. He’s making too much noise out here!” he demanded, gesturing with his arm. The two men lead the suspect halfway to the interrogation room before noticing the new addition hovering over a desk. She noticed one man looked to be about thirty and was the man closest to her, having dusty brown hair and a five o'clock shadow. He looked dreadfully tired. The other man had light eyes and for the most part had kept quiet, more concerned with making sure that the suspect didn’t pull any clever shenanigans. He had a more square face and dark hair, looking to be in his forties. The man with the five o clock shadow noticed her and gave her a look of disgust. Classic.
“Why is that here? We don’t need any more bolt brains around here, Jeff!” the man stated, pointing at her, casting a questioning glare at the director. Bolt brain? That’s not even clever! She stayed still, afraid to say or do anything to worsen the situation. “We can do investigations ourselves!” he said, his voice raised.
“Calm down, Reed, it’s only a service android. I bought it to clean and run errands.” The captain spoke up, the three men looked at him, the suspect momentarily content with not being shoved into a room to be questioned. The man who had spoken up, Reed apparently, was quiet for a moment before huffing to himself.
“In that case, I need a coffee. Go get it.” he barked, and continued on, earning a flurry of forgotten protest from the suspect as he shoved him along. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before uttering anything.
“Yes, right away.” she responded, her words were ignored and she left the last unstraightened desk for later. Fowler gave her a sympathetic look before pointing to where the break room would be. She nodded and with haste hurried over to the room. The breakroom had what any other good breakroom would have, a sink, coffee machine, vending machine, mini fridge, a cabinet full of kitchenware, and a small lunch table complete with a television in the corner.
She patiently waited for the coffee to brew and decided to listen to the news in her wait.
“...and we’ve received news that Cyberlife will be stationing it’s new RK800 investigation android in Detroit Central Police Department on the fifth of November to help with the deviant outbreak case. We here at the Local Broadcasting Network have one question. Will androids take even the most prestigious jobs and can we trust them with our own private security? Next in, tensions between America and Russia….” she listened in, but the moment that she zoned in and realized that the coffee pot was full, she let her attention drift back to making the cup of coffee.
Taking the cup of black coffee, no sugar or cream or any other accessories added due to the vagueness of the request, Claire carefully carried the hot cup to the man, hoping that his look of disgust was only triggered by his stressful situation, but part of her knew her hope was misplaced. The large letters over the doorway that read Interrogation Room made it obvious where to go. She passed a few holding cells and tried to ignore the one man standing in the middle of his hold. Once she came to the door at the end of a hallway that had one-way glass, she paused and knocked. She watched through the window as the person who had ordered the cup called out to another person in the room. The wooden door opened and she peered in, the man who had opened the door had been sitting and listening from the other end of the glass, his blue eyes glanced boredly down at the mug in her hands. The setup reminded her of a recording studio, two microphones sat in the middle of the interrogation room, the harsh fluorescent light shown flatly on the two seated behind the glass.
“Just leave it, we’ll get it to him in a moment.” The blue-eyed man stated, a twinge of annoyance hinted at in his voice. She obeyed and set it on the desk, casting another glance through the glass at the interrogation. It was just like in the movies. Her interest flare up, now wondering what case they were currently working on. She had always been a huge fan of Sherlock, having read the books and too many adaptations. She always loved murder mysteries and she herself, if she could brag, had watched a lot of episodes of Scooby Doo. She had no real right to be interested in this sort of casework or understand how the system worked, but maybe after a month here, she could better judge the authenticity of murder mysteries.
She kept her eyes trained on the men behind the glass, losing sight as she shut the door behind her. Welp, back to organizing desks it was. When she turned to start down the hall, a shadow stopped her in midstep, so close she almost stepped right into the figure. Whoever had come up behind her had been quiet and quick. It took her a moment to realize what she was looking at exactly, but her brain finally remembered that she could read.
There, right at eye level was a serial code and ID number on a uniform. She didn’t lift her head to meet the person’s gaze until the ID had registered in her brain, or rather, that she realized it wasn’t an ID but a model number.
RK800
Fuck
Fuck
It took everything she had not to cuss out loud or jump away. As best she could, she deadpanned, held her breath, and tried to appear as robotic and unaffected as possible. Slowly she lifted her head to get a good look at the android in front of her, hoping that nothing about her behavior struck the machine as odd.
The face of this android held a simple and natural appearance, the realism of the features was surprising. He had dark hair and thick, curved eyebrows. Dark brown eyes gazed down at her and she noticed a tendril of hair that curled out of place onto his forehead. His eyes looked kind and sincere, oddly matched with his stern, determined expression. He had a square face and narrow nose, his complexion was pale. He even had a hint of a freckle or small beauty mark on his cheek. No doubt that he was designed to look normal and striking like this, not too over the top like a model, but appealing enough to make him favorable. He looked her age, but she knew he was only released two months ago, from what she had read on the internet. He was, in every way, perfect and designed for the accuracy that was needed.
And this meant she was most likely royally screwed if she wanted to stay undercover.
The android gave her a strange look, his eyes focused on her...ear? No, her LED. She noticed out of the corner of her eye, in the reflection of the two-way mirror, her LED was shining bright red. Her heart dropped and she tried to calm herself, hoping it turned blue as quickly as if had turned red, but the blaring light remained. Stupid, cleverly designed sticker! This was her giveaway. Damn, she had tried. She’ll have to find somewhere else to conduct this experiment.
“I need to get by, please excuse me.” He spoke, his gentle voice spooking her. Wasn’t he going to point out her LED? No question? Did he even suspect anything? Her LED spun back around as a comforting blue, her prayers being answered.
“Yes, right away. I’m sorry for being a disturbance.” she said in the flattest tone she could and stepped out of the way, closing her eyes and swallowing as he stepped around her and into the interrogation room. The second the door clicked shut, she exhaled and placed her hand over her heart that was beating out of her chest. She was so lucky he hadn’t said anything, hadn’t suspected, or if he had suspected, not enough to bring it up. It was suspicious enough for her LED to turn red at seeing him, showing that she was in danger when there was no reason she, as an android, should feel that way by the appearance or another android.
She took a moment to breathe and reluctantly went back to her work, somehow hoping that she would make it for the rest of the day. The Connor had caught her off guard so hard that the rest of the day felt like impending doom.