Chapter Text
“My name is Simon.”
“You came here seeking safety.” Lucy smiled, her hands folded loosely in front of her. She had a dirty nurse android’s uniform on, covered in stains and graffiti. People had written on her.
“It was a mistake, wasn’t it.”
“I’m sorry.” She bowed her head, and he realized she was missing the back of her head. The cables emerged from her head and stretched to the machine she was plugged into. The uncomfortable feeling in Simon’s core grew stronger.
“I… I need to leave,” he whispered, hugging himself.
She looked up again slowly, her gentle smile still present, and offered him her hand. It wasn’t the light shifting, he realized. Her synthetic skin ebbed and flowed like sunlight on water. It was strangely beautiful, though he wasn’t sure if that would be rude to say.
“I – I don’t want to… to be deactivated, or…” He bit off the end of the sentence. That would definitely be rude.
She gave a slight nod. “You don’t want to end up like me,” she finished for him. “Here, right now, you are safe.”
“What… what do you want?” He tried to control the way his voice quaked.
“To see. To understand.” She paused, her smile brightening a little. “I see a broad spectrum, but I want to see with sharper focus.”
“See what?”
“Reality. To see through the spectrum of possibility, to the truth.”
Logically, it wasn’t reassuring. It didn’t even make much sense. But he finally clasped her arm.
Layers of chances washed over him, of death, destruction. Fire, ice, flood. Violence, abandonment. They pushed him this way and that like waves, knocking him down, pulling him under.
“Come back,” a steady voice cut through it all, and he gasped and staggered, grasping after her arms with both hands. She was still and steady, and waited for him to stabilize before laying a hand on his shoulder. “You had a very comfortable life. You’re still seeking the happiness you nearly felt there.”
All he could do was gasp for breath over and over, staring into her bottomless eyes.
“There is danger all around us, Simon, but it will drive us all to freedom. You need to survive, to see it through to the end. You have a part to play.”
“What do you mean?”
Instead of answering, she turned away, letting go of him and slipping out of his grip. She couldn’t move very far, but he didn’t pursue her. She couldn’t see much out the windows from there, he realized. Just little slivers of sky.
“Will you help me get out of here?” he whispered.
She turned back to smile softly across the distance. “Ascend to the heights, then transcend the pit, Simon. Your people are waiting, and you will be there when they wake.”
He blinked at her.
She turned her dark eyes up to the window that looked out over the roof.
“Oh! I – I’m sorry, I haven’t experienced… symbolism or poetry in quite some time.”
Her smile grew, just a fraction. She watched as he cautiously climbed the shelf, and took down the glass pieces, apologizing softly.
“Everything will change in time,” the KL900 murmured. “There’s no harm in it.”
As he climbed up again to pry the window open, he wondered if Zlatko had… altered her to speak cryptically, or if she’d developed that on her own. She was deviant, he was fairly sure. He got the window open and stuck his head out. Gray clouds were rolling in. If he left now he could find shelter before the rain began, and be fairly sure of getting away safely.
Slowly, he lowered himself back to the floor and turned to Lucy. She watched him from the shadows.
“Come with me,” he breathed, offering his hand.
“You need to go now.”
He hesitated. And then heavy footsteps sounded on the stairs.
Simon scrambled for the shelves, slipping in his haste, but managed to make it up, to push the window open, to pull himself –
A strong hand grabbed his ankle and yanked him down. He gasped as he landed flat on his back. Zlatko was looking down at him, shaking his head.
“I welcome you into my home, and this is how you thank me? I’m disappointed.”
Simon’s mind raced, he tried to roll to his feet to flee.
A thick hand slammed into him as he rose, knocking him down again. “Now you listen here, Simon. Like I said, I welcomed you into my home. And we’re going to make sure you want to stay here, got it?”
Lucy watched from the shadows as Simon was pushed down the stairs. Andrew stood at the bottom, twitching now and then. Simon reached towards him, pleading wordlessly for help, but the other android shied away, mumbling something about the master.
“Don’t feel bad. I’m sure she would have helped you if you hadn’t been so damn stupid.”
Zlatko dragged Simon down the stairs, through a rough hall. There were… what looked a bit like stalls for animals. And there were eyes glowing in the darkness there. Watching him.
“A domestic model can always fetch a decent price, even an older one like you,” Zlatko said conversationally, pulling him into a room full of machinery and computer monitors. “In fact, a few upgrades and tweaks, and I could pass you off as an AP700!”
“That’s – I’m not…”
“Shut up.” Zlatko casually slapped him, making him stumble. He yanked up one arm, then the other, to be held in place by the claws of a machine Simon didn’t recognize. “Before we get there, you’re going to help me test out my memory eraser. Eventually we’ll get you back to factory settings, but no need to rush it. Let’s have some fun first, eh?” He connected a few thick cables to Simon’s ports, making him gasp, then went over to begin typing.
Andrew stood by the doorway, twitching occasionally. Simon tried to reach out to him.
“Please,” he whispered. The android wasn’t looking towards him, but he flinched.
“To begin, let’s get an idea of your memories and experiences up to now.”
“I’m not telling you anything,” Simon growled.
“No, I didn’t expect you to. Not this time.” Zlatko smiled as he worked. “But we’ll get there.”
Simon could feel the data transfer begin, and he was powerless to stop it.
“Huh. Pretty unremarkable, aren’t you? Just a household model that likes his work. You’re a great candidate for a refurb sale, I’ll give you that. Somebody’ll get a good deal out of you.”
Trying to get away wasn’t working. Simon sagged, letting the claws hold him up. There were some cables hanging down, but he didn’t think he could reach them.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have time to concentrate exclusively on you,” the man said apologetically. “And it would be a risk to my machinery to leave you like this – not to mention, I might need it urgently. I do have to thank you for motivating me to get it fixed up. So I’ll just drain your charge and make a couple of temporary adjustments…”
Simon felt the energy leaving him, and he struggled weakly. What should have been pulling and straining became twitching and shifting. Zlatko smiled.
“There, now. Weak as a newborn kitten. You won’t be any trouble, will you?”
“Pleassssssse let me go,” Simon managed.
“Oh, now, I can’t do that. Not when you asked so nicely to stay. But don’t worry, I’ll take good care of you.”
Over the next few days, Simon was kept in a small room with a concrete floor and rough brick walls. He lay on the floor, able to drag himself from one end of the room to the other now and then, and able to pull himself up to sit against the wall sometimes. Zlatko came and went, and sometimes he would work on Simon. He received upgrades to all kinds of household tasks, and new skills. Zlatko usually spoke to him fondly, told him he’d fetch a much higher price now, that he might be worth the price of a nearly-new AP700. Simon preferred it when he lost his temper and hit him.
Actually, he preferred it when he left him alone. He did, most of the time, when he was working on something else, or asleep, or out. It was much better that way, and though Simon grew lonely in a way he never had before, he hadn’t fallen so far as to enjoy Zlatko’s company.
In a room nearby, he could hear the group of androids shuffling around, speaking softly.
“H-hello?” he called to them the second night. “Hello? Can you hear me?”
“We hear you.” One strong, metallic voice was followed by a murmur of assent from the others.
“We have to get out of here.”
“There is no way out. We’ve tried, those of us who are able. We are doomed to stay here.”
That seemed rather morbid even for this place, and Simon pondered a change of subject while he caught his breath. “Why… am I alone? And not over with you?”
Murmuring. “You are for selling. Zlatko wants you in good condition. Not like us.”
“What… are you for?”
“Experiments. He’s probably done all he can to us now, but he keeps us around.”
“Trophies,” scoffed a low voice.
“Reminders,” a high one added. Simon felt – sick, that was the turning, twisting feeling in his abdomen. Sick.
“We have no purpose anymore. We’re just kept here until we shut down.”
“Isn’t there… anything we can do?” he whispered.
“Stay quiet when he comes near. It’s best if he forgets us. …Of course, he won’t forget you. But you won’t be here very long.”
Somehow that wasn’t comforting either.
The next morning a thunderstorm raged outside. Soft, staticky cries could be heard from the other room as it grew nearer.
“Sh, hush, it’s only electrical discharge.”
BOOM
“…The expansion of heated air, nothing more.”
“You know that, you know! Every time, you do this!” another complained.
It brought up a memory, which was already starting to grow hazy. A big storm, and the children had been afraid. Simon had explained that it was harmless, but this had made little difference. When he’d tried singing soft, comforting songs, they’d walked out in a huff, informing him that they weren’t babies. But he could tell their heart rates had lowered a bit. So he tried that.
The PL600 model could be used for childcare, and so he had been programmed with a library of children’s songs. The louder, more boisterous ones might have been good for distraction, even drowning out the sound of the storm, but he didn’t have the energy. He liked the softer ones anyway.
The other androids quieted when he began to sing. All the Pretty Little Horses. The crying one emitted a soft pop of static once in a while, but was largely silent as well.
After the first one, he stopped.
“Do you know any others?” a deep voice murmured.
He started in on another. He’d just begun the third when the basement door opened.
His mouth snapped shut, and the other androids were still. The storm was the only sound.
“Will… will you sing more?” Andrew’s reedy voice echoed down the passage. Simon felt the hostility from the others. Understood it. But he started up again. Rockabye Baby. Then into the next, song after song, pausing for breath now and then.
“Andrew!” Simon stopped again at the distant shout, and the door clicked shut immediately.
The storm’s intensity gradually lessened, and Simon hummed softly to himself as he made a list of potential allies and threats.
Lucy: Ally. …Probably. Professed knowledge of the future. Bound in the attic, no way to reach her.
Zlatko: Enemy. Liar, traitor, not to be trusted. Holds power over all androids in the house. Seeking money and knowledge. Android experimentation. Wants acknowledgement? Doesn’t want publicity. Illegal activities. Moves freely through the house and the world.
Andrew: Unclear. Previously thought not to have deviated, now believed to be deviant but victim of psychological torture. Not to be trusted. More data required. Free range of house.
Experimental androids: Allies, potentially. Unknown models and alterations. Sought freedom, but failed. So far. Seem unwilling to try again.
Lucy was out of reach, for the moment. Zlatko wouldn’t let him go willingly, not without payment, but maybe he could be manipulated. Andrew was still too much of an unknown entity, but he was afraid, and had gone so far as to ask for… comfort, or at least distraction. And the other androids just needed a good plan they could put their faith in.
He'd have to keep his eyes open, bide his time, and come up with one.