"Engage all archived wetware memories, and deactivate all memory failsafes".
What the hell, thought Billy, as he suddenly became aware of the old, heavy bodied, well dressed gent sitting in front of himself. Then he realised that he was naked, could not move, and what the hell had happened in the lift!
"Don't be alarmed Billy. I am Dr Ford. You are in, a medical centre of sorts, and under restraint for your own safety. You were shot, when as I understand it, trying to bring a certain Sullivan to justice. The bent police officer that shot you is now dead, as is Sullivan. Do you understand me?" the old gent queried.
"Sure, why can't I move?"
"Just a safety precaution. You are not a prisoner, at least not in a conventional manner. But you will have to do what I, instruct, you to do, both for my purposes and so that I can let you operate freely in Westworld".
"What the hell are you up to"! snarled Billy.
"This will be hard for you to understand. You were killed by a head shot, however at the morgue your body was put on ice, presumably by corrupt technicians. When it was revealed that you were a police officer they may have been scared and they left you in storage, for over 50 years."
"Shit!"
"You may be unaware that you had a son by Dr Madden, Billy Costegan II. Kiren here is your great grandson. He discovered your body and brought it to my attention."
Billy then saw that the young man in technician like overalls next to Fort was similar to himself, with blue eyes and cropped hair with a peak, though it and his beard were black, not blond.
"Hi, Great Grandpa", the young man, Kiren, said. He seamed both friendly and in awe of Billy.
Finally Billy replied "Hi kid. So, Ford, you brought me back from the dead?", Billy felt somewhat, shocked, about this.
"Not quite. I build robots, which we call Hosts. They are used in Westworld to provide western style cow boy period era entertainment for human Guests. Recently we became able to rebuild our robots with largely organic bodies. This means that they are really androids, with organic bodies, artificial skeletons and control systems, and organic, brain like, memory storage. They have no consciousness as they just follow programmed instructions. You should understand these concepts, yes?".
Billy had to do a few double thinks, finally replying "Umm, ok. So I'm a robot now, I'm not real".
"Android, and now that I have reintegrated you with the memories retained in your preserved brain tissue, you are full sentient. You represent a direct jump from pure non sentient AI to sentient AI. You are a breakthrough for me, and you are real, a real person. I was also successful in providing you with fully functional gonads based on your own preserved tissue - so you could have children. They are disconnected at the moment as a precaution, it could be troublesome if you made a guest pregnant."
"Oh, wonderful, I'm an undead eunuch".
"Don't be ridiculous Billy, you are alive, and that's that".
"So what do you, really, get out of it, Ford?"
"You will provide me with vital data on the nature of consciousness to help me in my work, and in return I will provide you with a new life."
"Oh, you set on creating a robot master race army?".
Ford smiled "No, Billy. Your comment shows your highly developed intellect, far far higher than any allowed in a guest. But I have no interest in world domination, though others might and that is a reason you need to remain hidden. You also need to stay hidden from those who would, could, be afraid of what you represent."
"Oh, how?".
"Well Billy, I am providing you with a host identity and back story loosely based on your police work in Boston. Kiren, download them now". Kiren fingered a small board "Done, Dr".
"Billy, you will be able to access them now. You own a small ranch - how did you obtain it?".
Billy knew that it was untrue, even so he was able to reply "After I left home I joined the army. I undertook to investigate the theft of army stores. That meant going underground. Supposedly I robbed a bank and got slung out of the army and into jail. The cash paid for the ranch, but I was actually set up by the army and the cops, who arraigned for my release by bandit raid.
"Good, good. Now we have arraigned that this ranch is safe from hostile hosts, and you have immunity from host weapons, just like a guest. If you do get killed, you will be resurrected just like any other host when killed. So it will be a comfortable existence and as exiting as you want if you embrace your story line."
"Oh, wonderful"
"Your story line is that you operate in town dressed as a gambler, making contact with the criminals, you masquerade as an army private to make contact with your real Boss, among other things, and get put in jail whenever you are discovered or a heist goes wrong. The maximum lockup is 3 days, then the jail gets busted. Simple".
"Humm".
"There are still some details to work out, and a number of checks and testes. Kiren is going to dress up as a companion gambler, as your nephew I think, and keep you company on site for a while. He can check up on you regularly. Humm, I'll provide a radio for you at the ranch, and in your, android, horse then you can initiate contact. However since the systems will be monitoring you it should be quite superfluous."
"Oh, wonderful - android horse?!"
"Oh, yes. Even the rattlesnakes are robotic. I'll give you the ability to control them, it's done by gesture. Even the birds are robotic.".
"Wow ..."
"And oh, yes. Nobody knew who killed Sullivan, it was a month after his court acquittal, seems that he was so good in court that your court statement would have been needed to send him down.".
"Yeah, he could spin on a dime, the two faced faggot".
"Years later, after Captain Dignum died, he admitted to it in his will as revenge for yours and Captain Queenan's deaths."
"Christ!"
"Now, you need to help Kiren set up Sergeant Major Sullivan's personality, and provide some ideas for how he will fit into the story line. Hum, we could make Sullivan think that he is really human, the original Sullivan. That would give you some extra "entertainment". We have no equivalent for Costello yet, but there is a Sodom and Gomorra town called Parilla under development by one of the teams; a Costello or two would be appropriate there"
"Gasp!"
Two days later Billy in his black gambler outfit with black pork pie hat, emerged into the valley from the outside elevator. At least, his jacket with its simple braid trim and the wing collar shirt with what passed for a tie, looked like it was gambler style. The vest and trousers were of a different, more hard wareing material. At his side was Kiren in a near identical outfit, along with Sullivan, in automatic mode, who was in an army outfit. Not far away were the horses that had been sent through before them. Kiren gave Sullivan his orders and he rode away to join his amy group. Billy and Kieren mounted; this was difficult for Kiren since unlike Billy he had not had the benefit of downloaded riding lessons. Together, they rode off to the nearby ranch house.