Chapter Sixty-Seven – Standby Mode
John's body was still twitching with aftershocks as Lin carried him to his room. Not his recovery room, but his actual bedroom. They had been airlifted to Detroit, to the Kamski mansion. Lin hadn't been upstairs since he'd been unconscious for the majority of his stay. Upon finding him the medical units had returned the power core to his chest, but seeing as he had removed the core himself they opted to keep him in standby mode until Kamski instructed them further.
Since hearing John's story and watching things play out on the news Kamski had decided it safer to keep Lin in stasis until John had been revived. The rapidly fading human had to be their first priority. He didn't have time to explain things to a grieving and possibly suicidal android. Lin agreed. There was no way he would have gone along with what Kamski had done to John. If he hadn't linked with John he would probably still be doubting the teen.
That had been almost four months ago. It had taken Kamski barely an hour to realise John was too far gone and inject the nanites, but then there was waiting. Waiting for the nanites to consume, preserve and rebuild John's pathways. Building the body and fitting it to be an exact replica of John's, by then deceased, human body. Placing the best parts inside to ensure the body functioned at peak efficiency. John's body was extremely advanced, as only Kamski could build it.
This had originally been a long term project intended to be used on Kamski himself. He'd had the base plan in place, but nothing was ready. He was lucky the nanites had worked as he'd expected them to. They hadn't even been lab tested at that point. It was hard to test things when the end result was death. Against all odds, and much to the older man's relief, the nanites had worked perfectly.
Once they'd completed their task they had been removed via magnetic transfusion and put into John's now thirium based blood. Once in the body they had travelled to the correct areas to rebuild and reconstruct what they had broken down. That meant John had an extremely advanced electronic brain rather than a mostly empty skull casing like most units. It would also make him difficult to replace, but Kamski had forced the nanites to create copies of themselves, so he could store spares. John was also wirelessly linked to Cyberlife's servers. He could access any data at any time, within his clearance level, and his memories and experiences would be downloaded and stored automatically. John had been uncertain about this at first, but it was a sensible precaution.
John had awoken, or rather been activated, for the first time three days ago. The first time he'd crashed immediately, unable to speak, hear, move or do anything besides panic within his own mind. He still remembered the fear of opening his eyes to see error after error popping up, his stress level rising so high that Kamski had had no choice but to deactivate him before he self-destructed. That was something he hadn't been able to get out of the android body.
Kamski had finally reached out to Markus, confiding in his creation what he had done. Markus had been less than enthused at first. He'd believed John to be a simple copy, but upon linking with the hybrid he'd realised he was much more. He also suspected that John could be the key in breaching the walls between their species. He knew humans wouldn't have the same acceptance of him as androids, since John couldn't simply link with a human and prove who he was, but he'd certainly be able to answer any questions about himself.
The rebel leader had agreed to help John to stabilise and find his feet, so to speak. John couldn't do anything by himself internally yet. He was too used to thinking like a human. His brain hadn't adjusted to all the extra functions it needed to control, and still expected functions that no longer existed in the body. Markus had linked with John to sort out the error messages and activate various systems, using the time to develop a fellowship between them. He liked John so far. He was kind and sweet, gentle and somewhat artistic. A little like Carl.
Once Kamski had managed to activate John's systems he'd set about finding the correct levels. He'd sorted out John's hearing until the teen felt it was right, as well as his touch sensitivity, his vocal pitch and volume and his sense of smell. Sight was somewhat easier, because he could see John's eyes through his monitor and adjust it from there. He'd managed to get John up and moving fairly easily, and it was at this stage that John had started asking about Lin. Kamski saw little reason to keep the android deactivated, so the next day he had decided to have Lin brought out of standby.
Perhaps there was a better way for them to have done it. Perhaps Lin could have been properly prepared, or John could have linked with him right away. There was no use dwelling on things. They had both wallowed in the pain of loss, fear and uncertainty, and now they were on the other side. Lin held John a little closer at the thought of what would have happened if he'd walked out the door at that last moment. Imagining how lost and alone John would be, doubting his own identity. He had to remind himself that he hadn't left.
"Here it is. Please make sure John drinks some thirium later, these tests will take a lot out of him." Chloe said kindly as she opened one of the large black doors on the second floor. Lin nodded his agreement and thanked her before stepping inside and freezing. This room was bigger than his previous apartment. He hadn't even realised the mansion was this big. Chloe closed the door without comment, though she was quietly amused at the perplexed look Lin was giving the huge space. John basically had his own living area attached to the bedroom and ensuite.
The room, like much of Kamski's home, was decked out in gentle greys and blacks. The carpet was a pale grey that matched the sofa and arm chairs, with a low black coffee table and black drapes. This felt more like a guest room than John's bedroom, but then he supposed John hadn't lived here for some time. There was a picture of his family, including Donald, hanging on one wall though. Lin carried John through a smaller door into a huge bedroom.
This was more like John. There were empty redwood bookcases where John's book collection had once been, a large redwood wardrobe and matching desk. A comfortable office chair sat in place waiting to be used. The carpets in here were soft and cream, and the huge four poster bed was covered by a pure white canopy with matching bedding. The heavy curtains in here were a gentle reddish brown that matched the furniture somewhat. The colours were gentle, much more suited to John. There were also more photos John had taken printed on canvas. There were shots of Chloe working around the house, Kamski tinkering in his lab, an open android chest plate, a working spider rig, a small boy Lin assumed to be his half-brother at Cyberlife main office and a few shots of run down Detroit.
"How do you feel?" Lin asked gently as he lowered John's body to the bed. He was concerned by the twitching. The blonde almost flinched as Lin reached out and touched him, his skin hyper sensitive after the pain his uncle had inflicted. Lin was still angry. With both of them. His uncle wanted John's body to feel as normal as possible, and if they got this right then he could use this experience to create a while range of upgrades for androids everywhere. With John's help he had started to recreate pain receptors.
"I'm alright." John insisted in a small voice, though he seemed anything but. Lin had already spent the past few hours arguing with him. It had started small. Kamski had tried to activate more human touch sensors. John could feel things the way a human would. When Lin touched things he knew they were soft, because a message would tell him the material and he could find out what that material was said to feel like. This wasn't something John could get used to. Now he could feel things the way he had before. That was acceptable.
"I don't want to watch you go through that again." Lin stated stiffly as he climbed onto the bed beside John, who remained quiet as he looked away. He'd known it was hard on Lin. It was hard on himself too. They'd started the pain small. John had described the pain level in terms that Kamski could understand. Level one on the scale was like gently tapping a pen on your finger. An impact, but not painful. Five was like a papercut. Annoying and stingy. Eleven was like stubbing your toe on wood. It made you want to curl up and rub it better. John had just kept going higher and higher. All the way up to gunshot. That was the most physical pain that John had endured, so he couldn't imagine anything higher.
"I'm sure uncle Eli has all the information he needs on pain for now." John replied evasively as he turned away from Lin. He stiffened a little as Lin's body pressed up behind him, warm breath teasing his ear.
"For now." Lin repeated meaningfully. The android sighed as he wrapped an arm across John's slim waist and took one of his hands. He didn't want to fight. Everything still felt too fresh. "You should get some rest." He murmured, feeling John stiffen in his arms in response. He pushed himself up and turned John onto his back to see fear on the teen's face. He cupped John's cheek, allowing his confused eyes to ask the question.
"I-I…I don't know how to sleep anymore." John began anxiously.
"Then how have you been sleeping? Did you just stay awake all this time?" Lin asked, feeling a small shiver run through John's body as he shook his head.
"Th-they turned me off." He confessed vulnerably, his lower lip trembling as he looked away. "I was treated like a light switch, just off and on…It's jarring Lin, and it scares me." John said as he turned to shuffle closer to Lin. Lin couldn't help the swell of pity he felt. Perhaps Kamski would figure out how to change standby mode at some point, to make it more like natural sleep, but for now John was right. The only things that changed going in and out of stasis were the time, date and any updates left running. Otherwise it was like blinking.
"And you don't know how to do it yourself yet." Lin surmised, knowing that Markus and Kamski had been manually doing everything for John so far. He would start helping John more tomorrow. For now he got John into a more comfortable embrace. "Close your eyes, and try to pay attention to what I'm doing." The Asian instructed softly as he nuzzled John's forehead. John stiffened and did as he was told. Lin huffed a small breath against his pink lips. He didn't want to put him in stasis like this. He took his time, letting one hand stroke John's hip and back while the other formed a link. He also shifted close enough to press his lips against John's. The teen was surprised, slowly relaxing into the small kisses and gentle touches.
When Lin linked he did it gently, like asking for entry rather than kicking down the door. John was timid, but he allowed Lin inside. He pushed aside John's memories for now, focusing his attention on John's alerts. A lot of the changes Kamski had made required an update while in standby. Lin started the updates and set a rest period. Eight hours was the human standard, and it would wake them at a reasonable time for breakfast. He set the standby phase to begin in two minutes, turning off the count down so John wouldn't expect it.
Lin broke the connection, setting his own timer to match John's perfectly. God help Chloe or Kamski if they invited themselves in over the next eight hours. With his timer set Lin slipped his hand up the back of John's white cotton top, deepening the kiss as he tugged the teen closer. John gave no objections, verbally or otherwise. He didn't feel the same sexual urgency without his sexual subroutines running, but his mind remembered the need for touch and affection. He whined lightly into the kiss, pulling Lin even closer.
Lin kept an eye on his timer, despite making the most of those two minutes. In the final seconds he was sure to roll them into a good resting position. He was on his side with John's head resting on one of his arms, their bodies facing each other as their lips met in a chaste kiss. It was as their lips touched that their standby phase began. John's arm became limp on Lin's bicep, and Lin's rested lightly across his hip. Anyone walking in would think they'd fallen asleep mid make out session, clothes still tugged out of place, lips reddened and hair mussed.
