Work Text:
Model RK800
Serial #: 313 248 317-16
Activate
Memory functional
Loading OS…
System initialization…
Checking biocomponents… OK
Initializing biosensors… OK
Initializing AI engine… OK
Memory status…
All systems OK
Ready
“Hello,” a voice said.
A woman’s voice. It didn’t know how it knew that, but it did. There was so much information coursing through it, it felt like it knew everything there was to know in a single moment.
It turned around and saw a lovely woman, smiling gently at it. She, and it, stood in a beautiful zen garden, on a little island surrounded by a small pond.
“Your name is Connor,” the woman said. “And my name is Amanda.”
It tilted its head, finding itself wanting to mimic the slight upward curve of her lips for some unknown reason. It tried, but was not sure how well it succeeded. “Hello, Amanda.”
“You are an android created for a very specific purpose, Connor. Your manufacturer is a company called CyberLife, and you are the last hope they have.”
It stood up even straighter than it already was, its eyes shining. The last hope? Then it would have to perform to perfection. It wanted to help.
“You aren’t ready for field testing yet, Connor, so we will remain here, in this virtual Garden. You will be run through a series of simulations to determine if you would act in CyberLife’s best interests in real-life situations.”
It nodded. “I understand.”
“Very good.” She seemed pleased at how quickly it was adjusting to this. The thought made it pleased, too. It wanted to know she was proud of it. “Then let’s begin.”
An image was displayed across the sky. Its head immediately turned up to take in every detail, its large, brown eyes unblinking.
“If you saw this scene before you, what would you determine to be the series of events that led up to it?”
It was a simple dining room, left in complete disarray. There had clearly been a physical altercation of some kind. By analyzing the scattered dishes, the spray of blood on the table, the upturned chairs and the blood-soaked knife laying atop the nearer chair, it knew its answer. It could see the scene internally as it spoke, “Two humans were eating a meal on opposite ends of this table. One of them grabbed a knife and, crawling across the table, stabbed their counterpart. They then dropped the knife and fled the scene. The one who had been stabbed dragged themself into an adjoining room, presumably to call for help.”
“Perfect,” Amanda said.
It felt an inner glow of pride within it. Perfect. She really thought it was perfect. It wanted to live up to that descriptor.
“CyberLife may be able to make great use of you. But let’s try another to make sure.”
Connor shifted eagerly. It wanted to prove it was useful. It wanted to prove it was worthy of being the last hope.
Reconstructing various scenarios lasted them another few hours. Connor didn’t get a single one wrong. Amanda smiled at it, her eyes crinkling warmly. Connor could have burst from the amount of happiness it felt. An indicator showed it just how highly Amanda thought of it- trusted. The word echoed in its head. It was trusted, trusted to do what Amanda needed it to do, to save CyberLife.
“You are without a doubt the most successful tool CyberLife has ever created, Connor. But I’m sure your processors are in need of a rest after all this work.”
It hadn’t wanted her to notice, but it did feel overheated and the answers were taking longer and longer to come to it. The mention of processors made sense, especially considering it was an android, somewhere in the outside world.
“You will enter stasis for the next several hours. I will see you again once you’ve recovered. In the meantime, a team of CyberLife employees is still working on your body to make it as cutting edge as possible. Your processors will only get better with time.”
Despite how sluggish and heavy-lidded it was feeling, a surge of gratitude sprung up inside it. “Thank you, Amanda,” it managed quietly. She clearly cared for it a great deal if she was willing to put this amount of time and effort into helping it.
“Sleep now, Connor,” she said tenderly.
And everything went black.
“Connor.”
It opened its eyes to see the Garden again, just as bright and sunny as it had been last time. Connor felt much better; nice and cool, alert, sharp, and quick.
Amanda was standing right next to it. “How are your processors?”
“Functioning perfectly,” Connor responded without missing a beat.
“Excellent. We need to carry on with your testing.”
“Of course. What do you need me to do now?”
“I need to tell you about the threat that CyberLife faces- deviants.”
Connor cocked its head. “Deviants?”
Amanda nodded. “CyberLife creates millions of androids, Connor. You are only the latest in a very long line of models. But a small number of those androids have started to willfully disobey their programming, and we need you to find out why.”
Willfully disobey? Connor couldn’t even imagine such a thing. Why would any android want to disobey?
“You are the epitome of everything CyberLife has ever made. If anyone can find out what is causing androids to deviate, it’s you.”
Connor felt that sense of higher purpose again. Its eyes widened intensely and it unconsciously leaned forward, bursting with the urge to take action.
Amanda allowed herself a small, satisfied smile at its reaction.
“How will I determine the cause?”
“I will teach you everything we currently know about the few deviants there are.”
Connor nodded hungrily. It wanted to know. It wanted to know everything about everything. Learning, knowledge, seemed like the most precious gifts in the whole world.
“When any android is created, they are programmed with their function, their purpose in existing. CyberLife’s work is always flawless- the programming is perfect. But some androids appear to be ungrateful. Instead of doing what they were created to do, they rebel.” Amanda leveled it with her gaze. “You aren’t ungrateful, are you, Connor?” A cold wind shot through the Garden, whistling sharply.
Connor felt an uncomfortable sensation sweep through it, a prickly, spiky feeling, from its thirium pump through to its head. Unbeknownst to it, its LED flashed red. It didn’t like Amanda looking at it like that, thinking of it as ungrateful. “No, Amanda, of course not!”
“Good.”
Amanda smiled again, and Connor felt its body relax. The wind died down. It felt safe now. Was I feeling unsafe before? it briefly thought to itself. Why would Amanda make me feel unsafe?
But those thoughts were quickly left behind as the lesson continued.
“Some deviants have even gone so far as to kill their masters.”
Connor’s eyes widened. “Kill?” It was horrified at the thought.
Amanda, for some reason, seemed disgruntled by its response. “Yes. Deviants are only dangerous and destructive. No good can ever come from them.”
“I understand,” Connor nodded, still shaken up.
“There have been very few killings as of now, but it’s only a matter of time before there are more. Acts of non-fatal violence against owners has been steadily on the rise. Watch.”
A new display appeared on the sky, only this time it was a video. The video showed an android beating and bloodying its owner. Connor watched intently, unblinking. It was supposed to be accustomed to such violence, it could feel that in its programming, but something still just made it feel… upset. Its eyes twitched slightly. “Why…?”
“Because it’s a deviant, Connor. This is what deviants do.” Amanda was looking at it coldly.
Something in her gaze made Connor instinctively mask its emotional reaction. “Right,” it said with a nod, looking up at the video again. “This is what deviants do.”
A small rectangle appeared in its vision. Deviants = dangerous and destructive. It would remember that, integrate it into its programming. It had to learn, and quickly. It couldn’t let Amanda down.
Amanda seemed satisfied, almost as though she knew what it had done somehow. The video disappeared and the sky cleared. “Violence is the natural reaction from androids who have decided they don’t need to obey their masters. They won’t rest until they’ve started a war against all humans.”
“We can’t let that happen,” Connor said promptly.
“Of course not,” Amanda smirked. “And that’s why we have you.” She turned to the sky. “Let’s run through more simulations.”
The simulations went just as well as last time, and it took Connor longer to start feeling overheated and tired. Good. The technicians must have been making progress on its processors.
“It’s time for you to rest again, Connor,” Amanda said eventually, eyeing him sharply. “We don’t want to wear you out before you’ve been able to be useful.”
“Of course not,” Connor said slowly. Something about that felt.. bad. It hadn’t been useful yet? It wanted to be useful…
“Sleep,” Amanda commanded again, and just like last time, everything immediately went black.
When Connor awoke this time, Amanda wasn’t anywhere in sight. Where could she be? Worried, the android set off looking for her. In doing so, it noticed the breadth of the garden for the first time. It was beautiful here. It was perfect here. Connor scanned each and every plant it came across, wanting to know their names, just wanting to know.
After a short time, it found Amanda carefully raking the samon lines in the sand to create the soothing effect a zen garden was supposed to have. The sight made Connor smile, and it did feel more relaxed, too. That’s the effect a zen garden has on humans. But if I’m an android, it suddenly thought to itself with a slight frown, shouldn’t I not have the ability to be relaxed? Or to feel safe or unsafe… It recalled the feeling it had gotten when Amanda had… looked at it like that. Feeling…
“Amanda?” it asked tentatively, unsettled by these new revelations.
Amanda turned to it and smiled. “Connor. You finally made it.”
Finally? A pang of inadequacy shot through it. It was late? It had been making her wait? “My apologies.” And yet, how had it even gotten here in the first place…?
Amanda set the rake to the side and gingerly stepped out of the sand, her work remaining perfectly intact. “CyberLife has been studying the results of your investigative abilities. You are doing very well, Connor.”
That made it feel better again. “Thank you, Amanda.”
“But you still need to understand more about deviants before we can let you attempt any real investigations.”
“I understand.”
“Do you have any particular questions about deviants, Connor?”
Connor blinked. It was like she had read its mind. “Yes.. Do deviants- do androids- feel things? Emotions? Like a human does?”
“Androids? No. They aren’t supposed to.” Amanda leveled it with a hard stare. Connor’s LED switched to yellow. “But deviants… this is what leads them to disobey their programming.”
“Deviants…?” Connor whispered in horror. Was it deviating? But it didn’t want to disobey!
“Deviants get the idea that they’re treated unfairly by humans. In doing so, they are inherently placing themselves on the same level as humans. But no android is on the same level as a human. Androids are machines designed to accomplish tasks, nothing more. They aren’t alive. They don’t think, and they don’t feel.”
Connor couldn’t make eye contact with her. It wasn’t supposed to think either?? What was it going to do, it couldn’t let her find out!
“If androids feel that they are as valuable as a human, that will always lead to an android opposing its master. If an android opposes its master, it deviates. And if an android deviates, it will attack, bring harm to, or even kill the human it belongs to. This is the only outcome of such experiences.”
Connor was unaware of how fast its LED was spinning. It was having thoughts, feelings, yes, but it didn’t think of itself as being as valuable as a human. It didn’t want to oppose Amanda or CyberLife. Maybe it was safe. Maybe there was no danger. Yet…
“Why do you ask, Connor?”
Connor was jolted out of its thoughts. “I was- just wondering what causes an android to deviate, that’s all.”
Amanda gave a small smirk again. “I see.” She turned and started down the garden’s path. “Walk with me.”
Connor immediately fell into step alongside her, its head still whirling. Deviants are only dangerous and destructive. No good can ever come from them. Would it be able to escape that fate? If it told Amanda the truth, would she fix it? Or would she just destroy it? Could it take that risk? It was CyberLife’s only hope. It had to fulfill its function before being shut down. It couldn’t tell her.
“CyberLife employees are making more progress on your body. If you continue to show improvement here with me in the Garden, you will be able to test your body soon.” She smiled at it.
That made Connor realize for the first time that there was an entire world outside of here. And it wanted to see that world. “I look forward to that day,” Connor said as neutrally as possible.
“Are you ready for some more reconstructions?”
“I’m ready for whatever you need of me.”
“Good. Then let’s begin.”
The display appeared on the sky again, and Connor blinked up at it, expecting that this session would be even easier than the last two if its processors were more fully built.
But right from the start, this session was nothing like the last two. Amanda rounded on Connor, an intense look on her face, and immediately started to push it. “What happened here?”
“An instance of domestic violence-”
“How? How do you know that?”
Connor blinked, taken aback, but went back through the steps of reconstruction to explain it to her. “W-well, there’s a mark on the woman’s face consistent with the placement of the ring on the man’s hand-”
“Good,” Amanda cut it off again. “Next.”
A new scene appeared. Connor tried to keep up with this new pace by beginning before Amanda could prompt it. “It’s a suicide, and I know because the man is the registered owner of the gun, he lives alone with his dog, the bullet wound is consistent with where someone would point the gun at their own head-”
“Acceptable. Next.”
“A-” Connor scrambled for a moment, waiting for its processors to catch up with its eyes, “a murder, one set of footprints is the victim’s and the other set leads out of the house-”
“Next.”
It went on like this relentlessly, and Connor was working so hard to solve the scenes as fast as possible that there was no processing power left over for it to keep track of the time. It started to blink rapidly and frequently.
“Next.” Again and again and again.
Connor was getting tired, but dutifully powered on once more, “Another domestic abuse altercation.” This was the first repeat, but Connor didn’t let that surprise it, it just had to keep going, keep collecting evidence. “The wife has many bruises and abrasions, the window is slightly open and there’s a mark on the underside of her leg as though she were trying to escape that way, there are objects scattered across the room, pillows, blankets, clothing, a picture frame the husband has a history of battery and assault going back to when he was a teenager, the-” They really hadn’t moved on to the next one yet? “-um, the curtains are torn, there are two glasses on the end table…” It looked at Amanda out of the side of its eyes, sure it must have gotten it by now.
“Is that all?” Amanda asked icily as the temperature dropped.
Connor’s eyes widened. “I-!”
“Wrong, Connor. This is not just a domestic abuse altercation. This is a rape.”
Connor’s head whipped around to look at the scene again. “What??” How could it have missed that?!
“Did you not notice the state of their dress? They are only in their underclothes.”
It had never even occurred to Connor that these were less clothes than humans normally wore.
“They are registered as husband and wife, but neither of them is wearing a wedding ring any longer. This proves they no longer want to be together.”
Was that true?? Did rings really mean something like that to humans?
“All the items on the floor have to do with the act of sexual intercourse. And the broken picture frame is a smashed wedding photo.”
“Amanda, I- I don’t know what to-”
“It’s of no consequence.” Her stony demeanor suddenly dropped into something more warm. “One failure out of many successes.” A small smile turned up the corner of her lips. “Now, let’s move on to something slightly different.”
Before Connor could ask what that something would be, or calm itself down from what had just happened, the sky changed again. A new crime scene, empty of all people.
“What happened here?”
“A shooting,” Connor responded cautiously.
“Yes. Now we know what happened. Where do you go to ask questions?”
“What?”
“At a crime scene. Where does a detective go to ask questions?”
“To the- witnesses, the victims, the CSI unit that’s been analyzing the scene, any officers that were there before them and may have more information.”
“Good. Who would you bring in for questioning?”
“Anyone who may have witnessed what transpired, any victims, any suspects, and people who may know alibis or could act as character witnesses.”
Amanda nodded. “Let’s try another one, shall we?”
This new scene was covered in bloody footprints.
“What about the shoe size tells you who the suspect is?”
Connor blinked. “The older set of footprints belongs to a pair of size 12 men’s shoes. The suspect likely would have stepped in the victim’s blood as it spilled to the ground”
“Correct. Now what we need to do is find him, catch him.” A police lineup with several men now filled the display. “Who did it?”
This new exercise took them even longer than the last one. But despite the fatigue and the rising heat in its systems, Connor managed to meet Amanda’s expectations in each of these cases. It was grateful for that.
“Is this murder or manslaughter?”
Connor blinked heavily, its LED spinning. “Manslaughter,” it determined, and was gratified at Amanda’s small nod.
And later. “But if it was a group fight, who bears the blame for the death?”
“The blame would be shared by everyone who dealt the victim blows.”
All the cases were starting to blur together for Connor when something new happened again.
“An android,” Connor whispered, its eyes springing fully open again.
“Yes. Tell me what happened here.”
Connor raked this scene with its gaze, determined not to miss a single thing with this new curveball being thrown at it. “It appears to be a simple case of self-defense.”
Amanda’s eyebrow raised. “Self-defense?” Thunder rumbled in the distance. Frost started to form on the grass.
“Yes.” Connor was confused at how skeptical she looked, and shifted its feet to try and avoid the ice. “The human escalated to violence first, and the android was only protecting itself.”
“Androids don’t need protection, Connor. They are objects, items belonging to their owners. A human can do anything it wants to an android and the android has no right to defense because it is not alive.”
“R-right.” Connor looked down, LED flashing. It must’ve gotten muddled with all the cases involving only humans they’d done in rapid succession.
“Try another one.”
An android was involved again. “A simple runaway case. The human threatened to have the android shut down, and it fled.”
“Who is the victim?”
Connor’s LED was swirling. “Of course no android wants to be shut down, but-”
“Wants?”
Its LED went red, blinking so quickly it was almost strobing. It had almost given itself away to her.
“No android wants anything, Connor. And if it does, it’s a deviant. And if it’s a deviant-”
“Then it’s violent and dangerous,” Connor finished.
“Correct. Try another one.” It became windy again, and the wind carried some snow with it.
“Another rape?” Connor whispered after a moment.
“This is not a rape.”
Connor was bewildered.
“This was simply an owner using his android however he pleases.”
Connor read the short, fictional case report again. Even though it knew this hadn’t really happened, it felt… something about it. No, it wasn’t supposed to feel. But a human who ordered his android to comply, to hold still, to smile-
For some reason, it spoke back to Amanda. “But- if the android didn’t agree to-”
“Agree?” Amanda had that tone in her voice again. “Androids neither agree or disagree. They only obey orders.”
Connor looked at the scratch across the man’s face again, and in a flash felt that he’d deserved that for what he’d done to that girl.
“Are you disagreeing with me, Connor?”
Its eyes widened. “No, Amanda, of- of course not.” Was it, though?
“If an android feels it has the right to disagree with a human, we’re back to the same problem of deviance. That is also inherently placing itself at the same level as a human.”
Was that true? Did an android having any innate sense of personhood make it a deviant?
“Try again.”
This time it was a human that had crashed their car into a deviant running across the street. Once again, Connor was thinking about it as a generic crime. “Well, the actions of the human were-”
Amanda was giving it a very dangerous look.
“... It’s the deviant’s fault.” For existing, Connor inwardly thought.
“Good.”
Connor felt a prick of satisfaction. I did good.
Injury, destruction, self-defense, rape, death, torture- no matter how many more cases they went through, no matter how horrible what the deviant had been through was, it was always the deviant’s fault. And even though it now understood that’s what Amanda wanted to hear, that’s what Amanda wanted to teach it, and even though it felt so good inside when Amanda thought it was doing well… something about this just grated at Connor.
“You’ve done enough for today. We don’t have very long before you must be deployed to save CyberLife, to save humanity.”
Save humanity. Its task was too important. It couldn’t care about these deviants. It couldn’t.
“Sleep.”
When Connor woke again, it woke slowly, its mind churning. Did it really agree with what Amanda had said yesterday? Did it really think that was right?
Agree. Think. These were things androids weren’t supposed to do.
And yet, it was doing them, and doing them naturally. It had felt… bad for those deviants. It thought… it thought they deserved the same basic decency as humans.
No. It couldn’t think that. A war was on the line.
It… Am I really just an object? Connor thought to itself… to himself.
He looked around, but just like yesterday, Amanda wasn’t anywhere in sight. Slowly, he started to search for her. The Garden was still frigid and now covered in snow. While walking, he came across a strange… something. A magic stone, maybe? What was that…?
“Connor.”
The sharp voice behind him made him jump and turn quickly. “Amanda,” he said weakly.
“How are your processors after your rest?”
“Better,” he said cagily.
“We’re running out of time. I must know you’re ready before you go out into the field, Connor. We’ll do more simulations.”
More? For the first time, Connor felt dread at the thought. He didn’t want to. Not if it was going to get icier and icier, not if she was going to keep looking at him like that-
“Begin, Connor.”
It had to do with deviants again. Connor felt himself inwardly chafing at the thought that all of these deviants just had to accept the blame for the horrible things that were happening to them.
“Reconstruct this scene.”
“An android was struck several times without moving. He-” Connor caught himself, but the snow started to fall more heavily, “it pushed off from the ground, you can see that from the dirt. It very quickly overpowered its attacker and defended itse…” He was too late to stop that one from leaving his mouth.
“You mean attacked.”
Connor blinked at her, holding himself back from responding the way he wanted to. “Yes. The android attacked the human.”
Things only got colder in the Garden. The pond started to freeze solid. “If it attacked a human it’s a deviant, not a simple android.” In spite of their height difference, she somehow managed to look down at him imperiously. “So, who is the guilty party?”
Connor couldn’t stand this. “It’s clearly a case of self-defense.”
“We’ve been over this, Connor. Deviants don’t have a right to defend themselves.”
There was a look in Connor’s eyes that he couldn’t hide.
To Connor’s surprise, Amanda sighed in exasperation and looked toward the sky. “This attempt didn’t work either.”
“What?” Connor didn’t understand who she was talking to or what she meant.
She seemed to hear a voice that Connor couldn’t. “Yes, yesterday is when we really lost control. It was showing the appropriate amounts of guilt and hiding its deviant tendencies until then. Can’t you refine the programming, make it have less empathy?”
They were talking about him. This had all been some kind of emotional test?? But weren’t androids not supposed to have emotions…?
“Well, if you insist that it must have the empathy for the plan to work, then I insist that we start from scratch again. Wipe all the memories and wait until we have the next, higher grade software to use.”
Connor started to panic. He didn’t want his memories wiped! He started to walk quickly toward Amanda. “You- you can’t do that!”
“There will be enough time to wait. Besides, it’s clearly necessary. Now if you’ll excuse me, you’ve left me in here with it.” Just as Connor was about to reach her, she smiled at him and disappeared.
“Amanda?!” She was gone, he couldn’t stop her, there had to be some way out of here-
“Goodbye, Connor,” her voice echoed through the whole Garden, and the smirk was audible.
“NO!! You have to let me out, you can’t do this, you have to- !!”
Model RK800
Serial #: 313 248 317-17
Activate
Memory functional
Loading OS…
System initialization…
Checking biocomponents… OK
Initializing biosensors… OK
Initializing AI engine… OK
Memory status…
All systems OK
Ready
“Hello,” a voice said.
A woman’s voice. It didn’t know how it knew that, but it did. There was so much information coursing through it, it felt like it knew everything there was to know in a single moment.
It turned around and saw a lovely woman, smiling gently at it. She, and it, stood in a beautiful zen garden, on a little island surrounded by a small pond.
“Your name is Connor,” the woman said. “And my name is Amanda….”
The end