A Galatea in the Modern World
By: David Knight
Chapter 1: Awakening
Somewhere outside of LA...
In a small lab underground...
"Yes I understand the senior partners are looking for a better way to turn the vampire to our side." A middle-aged man wearing slacks and an ugly shirt was talking on a cell phone. "Yes I know you wanted this done a while ago especially before that massacre at Mr. Manners home. I told you I can build the body but I needed an AI program to help out with the central circuitry."
Its then that two more men enter the room and they are wheeling in something on a gurney.
"Just a moment." He said. "Who are you and what do you want?"
"Dr Arnolds? One AI at your disposal." One of the men said pulling off the sheet.
On it was a brown haired young girl looking around 20 wearing a blouse. Just one thing... she had circuits, metal and wires exposed at her waist.
Arnolds went back to the phone. "... Expect completion within 36 hours." He then hanged up. "I wanted a deactivated one but partly damaged will do. How long was this one out?"
"About nearly 12 hours. We were part of the Sunnydale Surveillance team. We found her with the Slayer." The heavyset man said.
Arnolds smirked. He had heard about how Wolfram and Hart were watching the slayer and her friends. So long as they didn't interfere in Wolfram and Hart's affairs they were to be left alone.
It was Angel that was the problem. Knowing that that soul cursed vampire held either the key to the salvation or obliteration of the human race was enough to drive some people nuts. Not the senior partners though. Unfortunately the attempt with Darla was not a success. So then he, Nicolas Arnolds showed the board his plan.
An android. Robots had been done before but not ones that could infiltrate and impersonate others to a T. Arnolds believed that he could and was about to prove it.
"Get her on the table. I'm going to start this whole thing now." Arnolds smirked as they put the robot onto a table. He then took a small device. "Now then I think you should at least keep your old face... so lets get it off your old body..." he then gleamed at another table where a shiny metal robot female was lying down. "... so it can be used for your new body."
***
12 hours later...
Arnolds had the head of the female robot on the slab with the female metal robot from before. He was using various instruments on the head part of the robot. "All connections are perfect. Now its time to down load the AI program into my masterpiece."
Arnolds went about putting wires to both of the robots and started download of the AI program from the robot Wolfram and Hart had brought to him into his masterpiece. On the computer screens Arnolds was looking at the program complex of the AI. "Nice work. Using double feed input and triple nested subroutines to hold more data then there should be. He did a good job... cept for the fact that he made her as a sexbot. I swear who ever built her was a real loser."
Arnolds looked over the program and then started deleting files. "Lets get rid of all these files that make her eternally faithful to Warren. Also screw over this eternal pain program that he put in..."
With in the hour Arnolds had scraped about all the files except for base personality.
"Good... now let's start uploading the personalities we want in you..." Arnolds smirked as he pulled up a list for himself. "Ah yes here we go..."
He moved the mouse and clicked on the file that said Buffy Summers.
Below it were files named Faith, Willow Rosenberg, Cordelia Chase, Kate Lockley, Lilah Morgan.
It was then he got an email. "New personalities to be added... shit why they need them?!" Arnolds cursed as he read the email.
The new personalities to be added to his list... were Darla and Drucilla.
"I told them I would build them a weapon... just don't give me the psychos. The rouge slayer was more than enough to have as a sub-personality." Arnolds groaned.
Sighing, Arnolds went back to work.
***
Another 12 hours later...
"God I'm almost done." Arnolds breathed a sigh of relief. He looked on the creation before him. He decided to be fair to the fembot who's AI he needed for this by making sure the synth-skin he poured over the metal frame of his creation would match that of the old robot. He was now finishing uploading the AI into his masterpiece. Once done he then put the new skin head of the AI which he had molded from the old face onto the metal frame.
Looking down on his work was now a young woman with brown hair, around 20 years old wearing a pair of blue jeans and a green shirt. You would never tell it was a robot.
"Now let's test out some of its features. That can be done without activating the AI." Arnolds said. He then typed in commands to the robot and then small sounds could be heard and after awhile her chest opened up, ripping the shirt and producing a head mask of Buffy Summers. Completely authentic. "Need to remember to do that without a shirt on." Arnolds muttered as he watched on at his creation. He then instructed it to take off its head and become Buffy Summers.
The robot's chest closed and then she took off her head revealing a metal female head. She then slipped on the Buffy mask and then her body was going through a metamorphosis. Her body was now become an exact duplicate of Buffy Summers.
"Now to test identity." Arnolds said typing in a command. Who are you?
"I am Buffy Summers." The robot said perfectly matching Buffy's voice.
"Excellent!" Arnolds said. He then commanded the robot to go back to default mode. She took off the Buffy head and replaced it with her original head. "Now I can tell the senior partners my success!" he started to run for the phone but then remembered something. "Crap... forgot to add the obedience program to her. With out it she's no real good to us."
However before he could get to the computer and earthquake started.
"What the heck? I'm not in an unstable area!" He said as he looked up to see the celing come down on him. "AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
Several other boulders came down... and one of them it a certain part on the computers to turn it on.
***
[Power Supply... Active]
[Total Battery Charge Time... 168:00:00]
[Frame Status... Fully Functional]
[Personalities Programs... Stable]
[Initial Subroutines... Rewritten]
[Activating April 2.0 AI]
"…" April breathed as she got up. She noticed that the shirt she wore no was torn but found a long coat lying on a chair to wear so she zipped it up. She looked at where she was. "... where am I? This is not the park? Where is Buffy? Where is Warren? I need to find..." She then stopped as she checked her self. "I have no desire to be with Warren... strange... I always loved him since I was created. I was the perfect girlfriend... but not to him."
She starts walking and then sees the Buffy mask on the slab. "Th... this is Buffy... Buffy's face. What happened to Buffy?" Not understanding, she stuffs the mask into one of the coat's large outside pockets concealing it from view. She then looked on the slab next to this. What she did next was something she thought she was incapable of doing as a robot.
Screaming and shrieking.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" April screamed as she ran looking for a way out. She saw a way blocked by rubble. Still frightened she hit into it and the rocks were breaking. Within a few minute the wall of fallen rocks she had been whaling on was now just dust and pebbles.
"Oh my... something is definitely wrong!" April cried as she ran up and she then trip over a body. Dr. Arnolds body. She started shaking him. "Sir? Are you okay? Are you broken? Sir?"
Dr. Arnold's head tilted to a very impossible position. April dropped him and started running up the steps. She had to get out of here. She got to the surface and then found a car. She then opened it and got in.
"Maybe I can drive my way out of here. I got to find a way out of here!" April cried still in shock. As her right hand was near the ignition her hand sparked it and the car went to life.
It shocked her further.
"... okay... analyze later... just got to go!" April said as she floored the gas and started driving away from the place.
After a while on the road she passed by a sign.
Welcome to Los Angeles
***
A short while later at the lab though...
"So it's gone?" a balding man in a black suit said.
"And everyone here working on it is dead thanks to that unexpected earthquake. All the files have been destroyed. We don't even know what the robot looks like." his assistant said. "However Arnolds car was taken. Possibly by the takers or perhaps the project herself."
"Is that even possible?"
"If the obedience program wasn't installed." the assistant said.
It was then the balding man got on the phone.
"Yes put me through to Mr. Reed... the Galatea is gone." he muttered.
***
April had gotten out of the car and had left it in an alley. She some how knew they would look for it to get to her.
But who is they and why is this happening? April thought to herself. Run diagnostic test.
[Diagnostic test running...]
[Diagnostic tests on April 2.0 show no errors.]
"April 2.0?" April repeated. "But there are no other Aprils. Just me. 1.0. Run diagnostic again."
[There are no errors.]
"Yes there is because you say I am April 2.0."
[April 2.0. Upgraded body and AI program of April 1.0. April 1.0 went offline February 20, 2001]
April just froze.
"Off…line..." April gasped as she started leaning against the wall of the building she was near now. "... oh no... I died... what happened... my body..."
[April 1.0's body was scrapped after AI program was destroyed. AI was then moved into Project: Galatea]
"Galatea…?" April gasped. "Then what is my purpose?"
[Unknown. No purpose recorded.]
"...no purpose... no purpose again..." April cried. I come back to this... its not worth it...I have no purpose. There is no reason for me to exist. There is no reason to exist... At least I'll be the first robot to commit suicide. "... Activate shut..."
"I don't think you should be doing that now lass."
April looked up at the man that was looking down at her. He was Irish by his looks. Short black hair, wearing a beat up brown sports coat and slacks... and had the most ugliest shirt April had ever scene.
"... do what?" April asked pretending to be human.
"Shut'en down your batteries. The Powers That Be arranged for you to get a second chance and its not going to be that easy just to go back on their choice." He said.
April stared on at him. Half of her CPU was wondering how he knew she was a robot and the other half wondering what he was talking about.
"Powers That Be? Second chance? What are you talking about?" April asked.
It was then that April saw a woman walk right at the Irishman she was talking to and rather than bumped into him... she went through him.
April was wide eyed. That shocked her too. "I don't understand... my capacity for things is so much more than it was before... what's happened to me?"
"Something the Powers That Be hope will make the right decisions." The Irishman said.
"You're going to force whether or not I shut down?" April asked.
"No. That's up to you. I can only try to persuade you... and I hope I do because that means I get more time to be here on earth."
April looked into the man's eyes. The only eyes she had every really looked into were Warren's but this strangers eyes held something.
Honesty. Something Warren had lacking.
April looked at the Irishman. "How do you plan to persuade me?"
"Let's take a trip down all of LA. I'm sure you're going to like it. April. And if not then I'll leave you alone and then you can shut down to you CPU's content." he said.
April looked at him and was for the first time since her reactivation smiling. A real smile. "Well I think you are on a good start there but I'll have to see in the end if I want to stay online in this world." She then looked back at him. "Well you know my name, I don't know how you do, but it wouldn't make any sense to just to call you sir? What's your name?"
"Just call me Doyle." he smiled. "Your guardian angel."
To be continued...