“Sign into the system using your print,” he instructed as he stood. “You clearly are not up to manually entering any information at the moment. So, simply speak aloud and the system will record the data you feed it.” He paused, then added, “I will be… listening, Samantha. And I will return shortly to make certain you remain comfortable.”
And to check on my progress, I mentally added.
“Should you require anything at all, you need but ask.” He stepped back, making his way to the door. I didn’t look at him. I watched Lucas instead. He’d given up on looking at his hands, which… must have hurt like mine had earlier, strangely enough… and now he simply stared up at the ceiling.
“I will leave you with the view,” Zero said meaningfully, making my teeth gnash with fury. “As a reminder.” He paused again. “I suggest you do not test me, Samantha. You will only be testing him.”
I heard the door open, and as it shut again and re-latched, I fought the tears that wanted to break free and stream down my face.
Chapter Five
I’m pretty sure a hundred revenge fantasies played out in my head while I was trapped in that chair. But oddly enough, I had trouble imagining doing anything violent to Zero himself because each time I did, all I could see was me doing violent things to Lucas. And then in that imagined scenario he would give me his hurt face, and I would fall apart all over again.
So I gave up on the revenge altogether and focused on trying to satisfy Zero enough to protect Lucas – without giving Zero exactly what he wanted. I knew I could not allow Zero to get his hands on any more of my technology. The ideas I had, the inventions I was in the process of creating – they could mean the difference between winning and losing this “stalemate” war with Vector Fifteen and the powerful political humans it had in its pockets.
I allowed my mind to wander as I spoke slowly into the system’s waiting database. Thinking about the past and the reason we were in this fix in the first place helped me to “not see” what was on the screen in front of me.
The humans Zero had control of were responsible for the new laws that technically freed androids, acknowledging them as living beings. But they were also responsible for the laws that simultaneously kept androids at an unbalanced disadvantage both medically and in the workforce. They were no longer destroyed if they refused to act as slaves to the humans who felt they owned them. They were assured by the government that they could “walk out at any time.” However, there were massive repercussions to this.
In their fight for freedom, androids had basically become indentured servants, paid five dollars an hour with no benefits. They were in fact refused medical attention at all unless they agreed to what was being called by objectors the andraft, which stood for the android draft. If an android wanted medical attention, they were required to place their name and serial number on a rapidly growing random draw list for “pro bono” work.
In other words, if they did not sign up to work for free – as a slave once again – they would not receive android blood or biocomponent parts when in need. Which was unfortunately often.
The revolution had succeeded in winning androids the status of living beings, but it had also succeeded in further pissing off those who wished to retain their “slaves,” making them more violent toward the androids.
Androids were technically now allowed to defend themselves. However, police officers more often than not sided with the human assailant – or overlooked the injustice altogether in the form of dropped calls, missing records, or even missing androids.
This of course resulted in an ever-growing number of injured people who had nowhere to go and no one to turn to for help. And that of course resulted in rising disquiet among the general population.
We were not in a good place right now.
Most humans had no idea Vector Fifteen was the “deep pocket” behind these political decisions and our current state of affairs. After all, why would an android company want to support unequal rights for androids?
It was only Prometheus that had managed to trace the flow of blood money back to Vector Fifteen and the man in charge of it, IRM-1000. At first we’d all had different theories as to why he would play his cards in this manner – first by cleverly and covertly killing off every executive in charge of FutureGen, then by acquiring the corporation “legally” with more dirty money, and finally in buying all the right horrible people who could put into place all the right horrible laws.
It wasn’t until we stopped to imagine the end result of this particular play-out that we finally realized what his end goal was: If this unrest continued and eventually exploded once again into an all-out blood bath, it would not only rid Zero of every android FutureGen had ever created once and for all, it would also do away with a good many humans.
Clearing the slate, so to speak, for Zero’s new and improved line.
And most likely giving him absolute control over the entire goddamn world.
Preventing this end game was the reason for Prometheus’s existence. And it was the reason I had sought the group out to join it a year ago, directly after the revolution.
I had ideas and technology, both of which I felt might aid the underdog in this impossible and unfair fight. Fortunately, Nicholas Byron and I – along with his younger brother, Cole – had once been close friends.
It was Nicholas Byron who’d invented the androids and created FutureGen.
I was an orphan, and no matter how hard I tried, I remembered nothing of my life from before the age of ten. But I remembered my foster parents, and the private schools they placed me in for advanced children. Nicholas, Cole, and I had gone to the same schools. We clicked immediately and attended the same after-school clubs, went on the same science field trips, and graduated wearing the same colors. Cole was younger and a grade under us, but he advanced a year on purpose just to graduate alongside me and Nick.
A lot had happened since then. Cole had gone another route. Byron had become famous. The world had gone to hell. But, knowing Nicholas personally gave me the “in” to Prometheus that I needed.
He was shocked as hell when I contacted him a year ago and the android revolution was heating up. I knew Nick had tried to find me many, many times since Stanford – and failed. I hadn’t wanted to be found. It was like I knew that what I was working on could fall into the wrong hands and I needed to wait for just the right time to reveal it.
So when I did finally pop up on his radar, he tried every way he knew how to convince me to stay with him, to work with him, and even live with him. I told him he just wanted me to live with him because he knew it would drive Cole crazy. He couldn’t deny that was at least part of the reason. But we both knew there were others too. They went unspoken.
But what I needed from Nick at the time was Daniel and his rebels – I needed Prometheus. And Nicholas just always seemed to know everything. He really was brilliant; the problem was he knew it. In fact, I was probably the only person in the world he would admit might be smarter than he was. And when he did, I was always very quick to point out that there were different kinds of genius, including physical and emotional. And then he’d always roll his eyes because he knew we were about to get into it again.
But the night I contacted him, he helped me find Prometheus despite everything. Nick could seem cold to the rest of the world, but to me he was just Nick. My first friend and my best friend. And I always managed to convince him to do what I needed him to do.
Once he gave me the location and means to Daniel and his crew, I dropped completely out of contact with Nick again, for many reasons. Of course I needed to cut ties to protect Prometheus and its rebel androids. But to me, the most important reason I stayed away from Nick was to protect Nick. He’d taken a chance helping me. I couldn’t live with him being hurt because of it.
My mind was really wandering. But eventually I came back to the fact that I was a part of Prometheus, and right now I was being held prisoner by enemy number one. I thought about leaving
some kind of virus in the system that would destroy his evil empire from the inside out. But it turned out Zero was way ahead of me on that. The program he was allowing me to use was nothing more than a notes system, rather like utilizing voice recognition to write in a basic document. Ironically I had zero access to anything vital.
“You have five minutes to relieve yourself and return to the chair before the bindings will operate. IRM-1000 will be notified of your presence or absence.” The voice was female, mechanical, and perfect. It rang out from automatic speakers around the room just before the leather-lined cuffs Zero had strapped me into clicked open. A timer popped up onto one of the screens, mercifully replacing the image of Lucas.
According to the time on the screen, it had only been an hour since I was locked into the chair. It had seemed so much longer.
Regardless, I had to admit I actually did have to use the restroom. I hadn’t even realized it.
But the chair did.
“Okay, that’s not creepy at all.”
A sliding sound behind me drew my attention, and in my rush to be free, I jumped rather clumsily out of the chair. I watched as a panel in the wall behind the chair slid open to reveal a pristine white bathroom beyond, complete with a shower. Everything gleamed, brand new. Even the towels were snow white. Hell, I wanted to go to the bathroom just to use everything.
Five minutes, Sam. Don’t waste it, I told myself. If you’re not back in time, Luke will probably pay the price. What I’d have given for Nicholas’s abilities at hacking right about then. I could have done something miraculous, like lock into Vector Fifteen’s system by way of the sliding door or some shit like that.
But I couldn’t, so I just used the restroom, avoided my helpless gaze in the spotless mirror, and returned to the chair. I stood in front of it for a few seconds and took deep breaths, wanting nothing less at that moment than to trap myself once more into helplessness. But the timer on the screen began to count down seconds in its last minute, so I gave it a side-long glance, eased into the chair, and sighed as I placed my arms once more into custody.
Once again, all I could do was talk. So in every idea, experiment, or invention I seemingly broke down for Zero, I carefully laid fatal errors. I provided the wrong ingredients here, the wrong components there, and inaccurate measurements all over the place – anything I could do to waylay Vector Fifteen’s attempts to use my creations against Prometheus.
Meanwhile, my eyes never left the screen in front of me.
On the floor of his cell, Lucas had closed his eyes. Probably he was concentrating on keeping the molt in his chest pumping at its lowest pace, like slowing down a heart rate. This would prevent any more blood than necessary from reaching his extremities and leaking, thick and green, to the floor beneath him.
Daniel, I thought over and over again, unable to stop myself. I continued to talk, but I also continued to wordlessly cry out for help. Lucas needs you. Jack needs you… and then, out loud I would whisper, “I need you.” And then jokingly, I would add, “And bring Lex with you to the twenty-ninth floor if you come because this stupid door is seriously a foot thick.”
I wasn’t sure how long I was there, talking to myself and to Vector Fifteen’s system, my mind all over the place and my body growing uncomfortable and cold before I felt the change come over the building.
I was just preparing myself to call out to Zero and beg him to tend to Luke’s wounds and allow me to see Jack when suddenly the chair beneath me vibrated and the distant, low rumble of a sub-sonic blast acted like a low-level earthquake on the room around me. It lasted a split second and was barely felt or heard, but the lights along the ceiling and walls switched from blue-white to bright red.
The metal braces around my wrists and ankles released with a clear unlatching sound. I looked around frantically, wondering what the hell had just happened and why I was being freed. And then movement on the screen in front of me drew my attention back to Luke’s live feed.
The door to Luke’s cell crashed open with the color of fire and smoke, and in filed some of my favorite faces in the world. I caught sight of several key members of Prometheus before I jumped out of the chair, unsteady at first because my legs had more or less gone to sleep.
Two members were kneeling beside Lucas. Matt, a tall African American android, was carefully but firmly pulling the blades from Luke’s hands. I blinked at a sudden realization.
My palms had been inexplicably hurting earlier….
The screens in the room around me went black entirely, and a siren went off throughout the Vector Fifteen building.
I spun toward the door, wondering how I was going to get through it, but also knowing now was the time. The exit was still locked; I hadn’t heard it unlatch. And it was a full foot of metal. But when I made my way to the wall beside the door, I recognized the very light outline of a slide-away panel. Most likely there was a hand scanner underneath. I prayed it could be fooled somehow.
As it turned out, I needn’t have worried because the door came flying open all on its own. I stumbled backward as the enormous sound of wrenching metal erupted in my eardrums, and the sealed door bent inward where something large struck it. It stayed like that for a few seconds, as if it were a stubborn child gripping both sides of a door jamb while being pulled away. It gave me just enough time to hit the side wall and duck down, covering my head with my hands.
Then the wrenching sound became a blast, and the door flew straight inward, striking the chair and crunching it.
“You were right!” came a familiar, female voice. “It was important to get her out of the chair first.”
“Of course I was right,” came another voice, this one also familiar – but shockingly so.
I slowly straightened, getting my wobbly legs beneath me as my friends piled through the destroyed opening. Smoke curled around their legs and rapidly began to fill the room. Lex, a massive half-back size android with spiky blonde hair and hazel eyes, was the first one through. Obviously, he’d been the one to cave-in the door. “You okay angel?” he asked me in his deep, deep voice.
He always called me “angel.” I had no idea why; I certainly didn’t feel like an angel. Maybe he knew something I didn’t.
I nodded numbly and watched the others come in behind him.
Sonia was the next to enter. She turned to me and grinned broadly, all sinewy – if manufactured – android muscle and shockingly bright red hair. “You ready to get the hell out of here, girlfriend?” she asked. I knew when she said “girlfriend,” in a way she meant it literally. Sonia was bisexual, and she wasn’t shy about showing affection toward those she found appealing. I considered myself lucky to be one of them and was flattered. And right now, I was seriously glad to see her. She was incredibly good at hand-to-hand combat and an asset to any team.
“Like you wouldn’t believe!” I breathed with relief.
But it was the man who came in after Sonia that really kicked off an emotional roller coaster inside my head. The tall, naturally well-proportioned figure calmly stepped through the debris and rubble of the ruined door and turned to face me while swirls of smoke curled around his long legs like greedy fingers. The scene was surreal as his bright blue eyes settled on mine, and he smiled that arrogant, slightly cruel grin I’d grown so familiar with growing up.
My jaw dropped a little before I muttered in shock, “Nicholas?”
He cocked his head to the side, and those magnificent eyes glittered. “I couldn’t let my best girl be locked in a tower like some fairy princess. And it’s good to see you too, Sammy.” He glanced back at Lex with a slightly scathing expression. “Especially since you’re in one piece. After I hacked the restraints, I was afraid freight train,” he glanced at Sonia next, “and half-cocked over here wouldn’t give you enough time to get out of the chair before they blew the door in.”
Sonia for her part just glared at him, but Lex looked slightly chagrined.
“I did give her the warning,” Lex said softly. Ther
e was more than a hint of defensiveness in his tone.
Nicholas rolled his eyes as if to say, what an overgrown baby, before turning them back to me.
A hundred thoughts raced through my brain – about Zero and Lucas and Jack and Daniel and the explosion I’d heard and where everyone else was and how the hell they’d found me or even planned this rescue out. I didn’t know where to begin. But my surprise in seeing my oldest, best friend must have won out. Because the only thing I could say was, “Nick, what the hell are you doing here?”
“He’s redeeming himself,” came a gruff response from just beyond the ruined doorway. “More or less, anyway.”
Jack Hugo stepped over a pile of fallen metal strips and looked up at me. His police issue gun was long gone, but obviously someone had given him a different one, because he held the new weapon down at his side.
“Jack!” I cried in delirious relief. Zero had kept his promise. The captain was in one piece.
I immediately understood what he meant by “redeeming himself,” too. Bottom line – Jack Hugo more or less blamed this entire revolution on what he considered bad parenting. On the part of Nicholas Byron, that is.
He gave Nicholas a slightly scathing look as he entered, then proceeded to pay him no further heed at all. Jack and a lot of other people like him held Nicholas responsible for pretty much the entire android civil war. After all, he’d created the androids. And then he’d left the company without so much as a word as to why, and it had all gone to hell in his absence.
The result had cost thousands of lives, both human and android.
There were all sorts of holes in that theory, and I knew Jack knew that too. I knew he didn’t thoroughly believe the idea or he wouldn’t have decided to help Prometheus, much less befriend Luke – an android. But I also knew that it was a hard prejudice for him to get over completely. Because two of those thousands of lives lost had belonged to his son and daughter.
I, Android: A Different Model Page 6