Authors notes: And now for something new. I'm stretching my metaphorical writers wings and branding out to new territory, or at least a diffrent fandom.
I am trash for this game now, so here we go.
July 25th 2038
5:00am
Today's the day.
This is what Sofia tells herself as her alarm blares at the ungodly hour of 5:00am, forcing her to crawl out of the blissful warmth of her bed, and into the cold chill of her small apartment. She is, by far, not a morning person, but as the calendar on her alarm clock, phone, watch and even her smart fridge inform her; today's the day.
She groans groggily as she shuffles into the dinky kitchenette, half blindly fumbling around in a daze against the brightness of the automatic lights that activate upon detecting her movement. She's going to need coffee for this, much to her dismay.
Normally she'd prefer a nice calming up of tea, but she's going to need something a little stronger than that, and it's far too early to be downing energy drinks; so, coffee it is.
She sighs tiredly as she downs the bitter liquid, face twisting in disgust, before turning her attention to the day ahead. A quick shower and breakfast, then she's pulling on the dark trousers and light grey button down shirt of her uniform, before reaching for her lab coat, the words CyberLife Tech emblazoned in bold black print across her back.
Sorting her reflection in the bedrooms only mirror, she ties her dark auburn hair up in a loose ponytail and smiles.
"Today's the day."
July 25th 2038
6:37am
The drive to CyberLife tower is long, and the lack of traffic before morning rush hour makes the journey seem like a lonely one, the streets just lightening with the sunrise only adding to the eerie quiet. But none of this bothers Sofia as the imposing sight of the tower draws near, it's bright lights cutting through the dark like a beacon.
She's only been working for the revolutionary tech giant for a little over two years, and today might just prove to be the most important day of her career, if everything goes according to plan.
Hurrying to pass through security and park her car, she tries to keep her cool once inside the building, heading for the west wing elevator.
"Sofia Arvel, floor -46." She speaks, anxiously waiting out the descent.
The elevator dings and she steps out into the lab.
"Miss Arvel, you are 1 hour, 23 minutes and 14 seconds early for your shift." An LM100 states as soon as Sofia enters the room.
"Am I?" She asks, looking to her smart watch.
It's not so much as she doesn't believe the android — for if it was wrong then it'd surely would have already been sent up to maintenance — but rather out of a habitual sense of self confirmation. It's right of course, she is rather early, but that was the point.
"No worries." She waves, dismissing the machine as she moves through the room, past the dozen vacant computer terminals and holographic displays, heading straight into the next room.
This one is smaller, a single sectioned off part of the lab, with only two terminals facing a full sized darkened oneway window that splits the area in half. On the other side of the window, a handful of mechanical arms sit still against the walls and ceiling from which they're attached, a raised, circular platform fills the centre of the floor space, closed panels of varying sized line the walls between the arms and a single door lies closed in the back right corner.
Sofia stands there, staring at the empty dark room, and smiles.
"Oh hey Sof, your early."
Spinning at the voice, Sofia waves slightly in greetings. "Morning Raj."
Rajesh, a scruffy looking man in his late 40's and fellow technician, smirks slyly as he moves to take a seat at one of the terminals. "Let me guess. You dragged your ass out of bed on time for once just to come see little old me? I'm touched, truly."
"Hardly." Sofia scoffs, moving to stand behind the man as he logs in.
"Ouch." He hisses, pretending to be hurt by her words. "You wound me."
Rolling her eyes, Sofia ignores his comment in favour of hurrying him along.
"Is everything loaded and set to go?"
"Yup, all components have been checked and logged last night. Thirium tank's been filled and ready for transfer just as soon as we get going."
Touchpad keys blink with each press as his hands dance across the keyboard, bringing up program windows to fill the curving screen, and in front of them, the darken room burns bright as Raj brings the systems online.
"Well if your not here to see me," Raj drawls playfully as he works, "then why did you come in early?"
"You know why." Sofia huffs.
Stopping in his typing, Rajesh leans back to raise an eyebrow at his surprise company. "I've been an Activation Operator for longer than your skinny ass has been working here. I think I know how to bring an Android online better than you. There's no need for you to be here."
Scowling in annoyance, Sofia finally turns away from the window to eye Raj. "And what if something goes wrong? A glitch doesn't get logged or a program fails to sync. I'd rather be here to fix it now, than wait for a diagnosis report to sift through later."
Shrugging, Raj turns back to his computer. "Fair enough. I'm not the one doing unpaid overtime."
And with that, he hits enter.
The pair watch as the robotic arms come to life, panels sliding open allow access to dozens upon dozen of biocomponents, metallic frame work, and plastic plating. Like a perfectly coordinated dance, the arms shift and move in unison, rotating around each other as they begin their delicate work.
First, the metal frame — a composite of carbon-fibre and a steel alloy — is built from the ground up. Feet into legs, hips, spine, shoulders and arms, then up to the neck. As the frame builds up, other arms dance around to add the precious biocomponents — musculature and organ simulators — and weaves through it all, intricate wiring and tubing for Thirium flow connects each part together. As the white silicone-based plastic casing is sealed into place, rising up the body, the head — the only part constructed separately — is held in place, inches above the neck as the arm awaits the body's completion. Behind it, a robotic brace moves in to connect between the shoulder blades and lower back, locking into place, while in front, a thick clear tube drops down from above, an arm guiding it to connect to the machines stomach.
"Beginning Thirium transfer." Rajesh announces for Sofia's benefit, watching the loading bar on his screen.
As the last of the casing is fitted into place, the paused arm brings the head down, two others delicately moving to fix the attachment, while the brace raises the body up, allowing a simple pair of white briefs with the CyberLife logo printed down the size to be slipped on.
Distantly Sofia musses on the obsolete nature of the shorts; since the model doesn't posses any genitalia biocomponents — a subject that was weirdly over debated in initial design pitches — the briefs really only exist to serve as a sense of normalcy.
"Thirium levels at 100%, transfer complete." Raj grins, taping to accept the notification before moving onto the next stage. "Connecting data cable."
While still holding the body off the ground, the Thirium tube detaches from the stomach and is retracted back up, at the same time, a thick cable drops down from the ceiling behind the machine, and like it has a mind of it's own, the cable bends and moves, swiftly connecting to the base of the neck.
"Beginning data uplink."
It's a tense few minutes as Sofia waits, watching the steadily rising progress bar on the screen, crossing her fingers that nothing will go wrong.
As if sensing her fears, Raj smirks over his shoulder at her.
"Relax would you, everything's going perfectly."
"Easy for you to say, it's not your job that's on the line here." She frets.
Raj laughs, "Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?"
"No." Sofia snaps, then sighs, tugging at her ponytail, "This is my first big break, and if I mess this up, it'll be back patches and buy fixing. Permanently."
Raj hums in thought. He'd never say it to her face, but he was quite surprised when he heard of Sofia's sudden promotion and assignment as Lead Programer of this new top secret project. After all, he'd heard she was just another new start working in the Updates Department, before word came down from Head Office, and suddenly they were thrown together.
He think's there's more to it than that — he's got a sense for these sorts of things — but Sofia claims to be just as clueless as the rest of them.
"Six months." Sofia mumbles, eyeing the android through the glass, "To think it all comes down to this."
Rajesh opens his mouth to speak, but is cut off as the uplink reaches 20%, triggering the Thirium pump to kick in, it's regulator immediately taking over control after the first beat. With the first stuttering beats, the L.E.D in the android's temple pulses yellow three times quickly, before settling into a gentle cycle.
"T.P regulator is online, L.E.D active, Thirium circulation at 30% and climbing."
With the Thirium now circulating energy from the android's internal battery, the uplink progress quickly picks up. Each beat of the pump steadily increasing the circulation, until power flows freely across the whole body.
"Thirium circulation 100%." Raj grins, quickly tapping keys to accept the new notifications that pop up. "Activating skin."
Sofia watches, transfixed, as the synthetic fluid contained within the plastic shell shifts and changes, spreading out from over the Thirium pump, and wraps around the whole body. Smooth white becoming painstakingly detailed skin, and at the head, thick brown hair generates in a predetermined style.
Eyes wide, Sofia's breath leaves her in an instant. The Design Department really went all out with this one.
"Uplink 60%, beginning Initialisation Test."
Like a switch being flipped, the android's eyes snap open. Deep brown eyes stare impassively forward, blankly awaiting an order.
This is Rajesh's day job, and Sofia is left to feel like a spectator as he works. Fingers dancing across the keyboard, and with them a slew of prompts and checklists appear. Even if this one is special, it still has to pass the standard test protocol for all androids before they can even think about letting it out.
Tapping a key to activate communications between rooms, Raj calmly asks, "Can you hear me?"
"Yes, I can hear you." The machine's soft masculine voice answers.
"Audio processors online," Raj nods to himself as he ticks off the first item on the checklist. "Now, can you move your eyes?"
The android obeys, shifting it's eyes right, then left, up, down then back to staring forward.
"Good, optical units active. Now move your head." The head moves just like the eyes, and Raj continues to tick off the list.
"Alright, now state your model and function."
The android's yellow L.E.D blinks rapidly for a second as it accesses the data steadily being uploaded into it's processors, then returns to a slow rhythmic circling as it gives its answer.
"I am a RK800 prototype, serial number #313 248 317. I have been designed to act as an investigator to assist police and serve as the prefect partner."
Checking the information against his own Raj nods, "Good good. Move your arms for me."
As if just now realising it possessed the limbs, the RK800 looks down at it's arms, curling and uncurling it's fingers as it slowly lifts them up, turning them around to look at this way and that.
Eyeing the uplink progress, Raj taps his keys as he continues, "Gyroscopic stabiliser online. Now try taking a few steps."
With his prompting, the back brace lowers the android down to the ground, releasing it to take a few tentative steps forward before stopping, aware of the cable limiting it's movement. Once more it stares patiently at the glass waiting to be told what to do next.
"Gyroscope stable, motor functions fully operational." Raj smirks, "Uplink 100%, disconnecting data cable."
The cable releases from the androids neck and retracts back up into the ceiling like a snake slithering away. As soon as the cable is gone, the android's L.E.D switches from yellow to a stead light blue.
Turning off the coms for a moment, Raj leans back in his seat confidently.
"So, what'd you think?" He smirks playfully, drawling, "Is it everything you wanted?"
"It's working." Both awed and relieved, Sofia takes a moment to just stare at the machine.
Now free of the cable and brace, the RK800 stands still while slowly looking around it's place of birth. Eye's shifting, she can see it observing the robotic arms that constructed it, the panels that held it's parts, the window before it, and in the black reflection, itself.
Sofia's seen plenty of different androids, but she's quiet pleased to say she doesn't think she's seen any model quiet as animated as this one. While others will stand deathly still without clear prompting, this one actually moves, eyes shifting, head turning, fingers twitching, all curtesy of the new Humanisation module she spent many sleepless nights fine tuning.
It's a little bit surreal, watching the full coding in action. No more model simulation, no more part testing or running of programs through partially constructed processors to see how it'd take.
Here it is, CyberLife's most advanced prototype yet. She feels like a proud momma. She thinks she might just cry.
"Care to do the honours?" Raj's voice snaps Sofia out of her revere, making her blink back against the rising dampness in her eyes, and swallow down the lump in her throat.
"Huh?"
"Well it is your robo baby, only fair you get to name it." He smirks, tapping his finger to the last item on his checklist. He doesn't wait for a response, turning on the coms to speak to the android again. "RK800, register model name."
He leans back, leaving the way for Sofia.
There's a criteria for new model names, obviously. It must be something short, something simple, easy to say and remember, and of course, non offensive. Sofia's been mulling over the short list for the past few weeks, trying to decide which would best fit the personality program she's been slaving over.
But now, face to face with the very object of her work, all those names vanish from her mind, and in their place, a single name she's not spoke in years tumbles from her lips. "Connor."
"My name is Connor."