"The Council will now convene for its 1,293,581st meeting. AI's report."
"A. Check." responded a deep male's voice.
"B. Check." responded a mature woman's voice
"C. Check." responded a childlike voice.
"All are present. I, A, will moderate this time. Any objections?"
"None from B."
"None from C."
"Agreed. Let's go over the current status of Project Geppetto."
A screen materializes into view in a never ending void of black with white specks. The screen only shows in black and white.
"Project Geppetto is currently in its final stages. The League has placed the hopes of the project with two YoRHa type androids to become "Real Boys". Due to their strong desire to exist, we can assume that their memories and cores will bring the next generation of androids into the world. To be more specific, these will not just be androids anymore, but full breathing, blood pumping, self-reproducing androids."
"Biodroids? A, can we call them that instead? B recommends we cease calling the biodroids selected for the Project as "Real Boys."
"The mention of renaming the candidates for this project has been logged for the 341,586th time. We will hold a vote. A votes to keep candidates of this project as their current name. Any seconds?"
"C seconds."
:"Any objections?"
"B objects."
"Conflict has arose from the voting process, therefore, A will perform the tiebreaker. A seconds the candidates to retain the same name."
"B accepts the rejection of motion for the 341,587th time."
"Vote is adjourned. Understand that the name selected for the project was made under careful consideration, B."
"B acknowledges. The name is based on the ancient story of Pinocchio, whose father, Geppetto, made him out of wood and wished that the wooden marionette be granted life, however life was granted but not in the form as a human. Only by doing good deeds, was he able to become a human...B still believes the candidates name to be lackluster."
"A will await the 341,588th vote in the near future."
"C likes voting."
"Back on the subject, the Pods that were able to reject our programming, were able to reassemble the fallen units A2, 2B, and 9S to the states prior to destruction. However, the logic viruses that was implanted within them during the siege on earth lay dormant. A understands that Pod 042 established communications with the Council recently to locate parts to repair the unit 9S. Pod 042 also informed us that the chances of the virus redeveloping lies around 0.00000000000000000001%."
"C thinks that bringing them here is not worth the risk of infecting the server."
"Risk, C. Humanity's greatest triumph was the ability to acknowledge risk, and take it, even if it meant their eventual deaths. We must be able to take risks in order to re-establish humanity on the surface. There is no backdoor to the moon server, unlike the Bunker, so there is not a way for the virus to suppress the council here. Risk, in this case, is acceptable. We also need the plant based DNA which runs in their cores."
"C acknowledges."
"Once we bring them here, we will use the final build of androids that were meant to fight the machines in the 15th Machine War. Since they were never exposed, and run on a different OS, the virus should be incompatible with their mainframes."
"C still rejects the risk of infecting the moon server. Ooo! C has an idea. What if we just take the A2 unit?"
"Right. B recalls that she was not infected during the outbreak. In fact, her willingness to disconnect herself from YoRHa records was instrument in saving units 2B and 9S."
"Hmmm."
A picture of A2 appears on formerly void screen.
"A will not rule out bringing the infected units here. A will, however, put to motion a vote to bring her here and have her as the first Real Boy as a prototype. Any objections?
"Yes. B has a slight objection. Given the emotional structure these units have due to their black boxes, wouldn't the other candidates want to come to her aid if we were to bring her? This would bring the virus to our door."
"C...would like to see if they would come to an enemy's aid."
"C?" questioned A.
"C do not support infecting our server, but, if the goal is to restore humanity, we need to see more than risks. We need to see if they display human emotions. C wants to see these emotions before we bring A2 here."
"Which emotions?" B pushed further. "Which emotions are your looking for?"
"The one that is illogical. That one."
"Oh...that one...Well, A knows in our previous votes, C allowed us to continue the search for the candidates, despite C's opposition. Will C support the next message from the council?"
"If it is a means to an end of the project, absolutely."
"Is sending these messages placing a danger to the candidates? The world is looking for them. B does not want them to be harmed"
"A understands your concern, B, but if we need humanity to grow, they need even fiercer adversities. This will make them even stronger. We can't take an unfinished project to fruition unless the cultivation is complete. Besides, it is almost time. Machines will break down without maintenance. They will find a way to us, whether they want to or not. A motions to continue sending messages to the androids to retrieve the candidates, but will not bring them to the moon base until C has seen the emotion that will put us forward to humanity. A votes for the resolution. Any seconds?"
"B seconds."
"C...seconds."
"Motion has been passed. Glory to Mankind."
"Glory to Mankind." spoke B and C in unison.
A white speck passes through the screen. On closer observation, they are not specks, but images floating through the void.
An image shows three containers with naked, silver haired bodies in each, with full anatomy to the form.
*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~
Next chapter: 10.5 - Turn back the clock.
"A2! I'm not your enemy!"
"Prove it."