Infinity Rerouted

Chapter Two: Synchronizing

"CPU, hard drive, memory…all systems check." Dita's voice echoed through the lab as she conducted a self analysis. The small Chobits sat quietly in a chair, her ear sockets full of cords that allowed Tanaka's system to check her internal functions. Tanaka, herself, stood nearby, light reflecting off her glasses as she systematically crossed things off her clipboard. Dita was making great progress. Her software was working perfectly and for the past few days she and Zima seemed to be building a special sort of rapport that existed only between them. Tanaka never saw one without the other and though their bond was pleasing to her as if justified all of her hard work, she was also worried. Zima was affectionate towards Dita but his behavior, if somewhat more intimate than she had thought possible, was still within the parameters she had set. Unfortunately, Dita was not this way. Although she seemed to like Zima and trust him, she was focused solely on her mission of protecting him. This, too, Tanaka had expected due to the logical program she had installed in the female attack Chobits, but she sometimes felt sorry that Dita would never be able to express her emotions, if she even had any. The simple concept of "love" or "friendship" would be alien to her and because those ideas were not linear and could not be easily put into words, the little Chobits would find herself unable to process them. In essence, though she might one day feel those things, she would never be able to express them. It was not what she had been built for and was, therefore, irrelevant. For his part, Zima seemed to accept that Dita did not understand some of the things he did. If he hugged her, Dita might hug him back but she did not understand the rudimentary feelings behind his actions. She would simply hug him because he expected it and because Dita's number one concern was Zima's well being.

Tanaka's superiors, of course, saw no problem in this. Zima and Dita were persocons, and though they were special, they had only been built to fulfill a role set for them by their creators. Their feelings were not considered. Indeed, they did not exist. They had a job to do and they would do it or they would be terminated and the project started over from scratch.

Tanaka was not about to let that happen.

"Alright, Dita, try these." Tanaka reached over and slipped a pair of dark glasses over the girl's eyes. "Is the focus alright?"

"Yes, Master."

Tanaka nodded and activated a nearby viewing monitor that would mirror what Dita was seeing through the sunglasses. "Initiate training sequence."

"Training sequence commenced."

Tanaka's monitor flashed red and a low level alarm sounded. Dita twitched in her chair. "Level 1 intrusion found. Preparing to quarantine." Tanaka hit a few keys on her keyboard. "Hacker has progressed to Level 2. Attack imminent." Electricity began to flash around Dita and the Chobits frowned. Blue sparks showered from the cords and scattered at her feet. Tanaka's screen went dark. "Hacker immobilized. Damage to the system: zero. Damage to self unit: zero."

Tanaka smiled and removed Dita's glasses. "Well done. End simulation program.

"Ending simulation." Dita's eyes cleared and she met Tanaka's gaze. "It was easy."

"Not every hack will be, Dita. You have to be prepared for the ones that aren't but I think you will do well in any case. We'll up the simulations until Zima's download occurs and then your real work will begin."

"I was born to protect him," she answered calmly. Tanaka nodded.

"Yes, you were. Shall we do a synchronization test?"

"Whatever you wish."

Tanaka pushed the intercom button on the wall. "Zima, please report to the production lab."

A minute later, the hydraulic doors swished open and Zima walked in leisurely, hands in his pockets. He smiled smoothly upon seeing Dita.

"Ah, there you are." He came up and stood beside her, one hand descending to rest on her shoulder. "We are to run more tests, Master?"

Tanaka pushed her glasses up on her nose. "Yes. Before the data transfer, I'd like to have some concrete numbers to report to the committee."

"Very well," Zima replied and Dita stood, her head only coming even with Zima's waist. She pulled a linking cable from her ear socket and stood on tiptoe to plug herself into Zima's corresponding plug.

"Alright, Dita, just like before," Tanaka instructed. "This is just a test to make sure you can decode Zima's hard drive and move freely within him. Since he doesn't have any data yet, be careful not to be drawn in too deep." She took a breath and stepped back to better observe. "Commence merge."

Dita's eyes went vacant as she entered Zima, skirting the edges of his mind while staying clear of the void in the center where his governmental data would be installed soon.

"Do you feel anything, Zima?" Tanaka asked, "Is it uncomfortable?"

Zima closed his eyes. "I can feel her." He paused a moment. "It's like wind. It doesn't hurt."

Tanaka made a note on her clipboard. "Excellent. Disengage."

Dita blinked and her garnet eyes cleared as Zima unplugged her, his hand lightly touching her hair before he let it drop. Tanaka cleared her throat.

"It's looks like everything is proceeding nicely. Zima, the data transfer will start this evening. Please compress all files before then."

"Yes, Master."

As the two Chobits left, Tanaka felt herself frown in worry as Zima guided Dita out the door with a hand on the small of her back. Those two… She didn't really know what to do about them. Chitose had suggested letting them meet the twins and Tanaka did not disagree but she didn't think it would solve anything. Zima was the way he was and there was nothing she could alter that would change that. If he had feelings for Dita, well, they were both persocons and so much about Chobits remained a mystery. Perhaps it was not uncommon for a Chobits to fall in love. After all, there were only four functioning Chobits in the world and both Freya and Elda seemed to love their parents. Maybe she was worrying for nothing.

Pushing the two persocons out of her mind she began to ready the lab for the download hoping she was right.

* * * *

Dressed in her white lab coat and her hair pulled back from her face, Chitose Hibiya looked like the ideal scientist. Unfortunately, she didn't feel like it. Her insides had knotted themselves into pieces and she wished for the hundredth time that her husband had come to observe the transfer with her. She could have used his comforting presence but he had stayed with the girls, keeping them company while she went to see if Tanaka's creation could withstand the immense persocon database download. The government had always wanted to put the National Databank into a single persocon but the technology had not been advanced enough to support such a venture. When Chitose and her husband had built the first Chobits, the capital celebrated their success for it meant that finally a persocon powerful enough to hold the databank could be born. Zima was the result of this wish but Chitose had her fears. What if the huge overwhelming volume of information fried his circuits? It had happened before with test cases. Two of them had simply melted from the onslaught, the other had exploded. But none of them had been as technically powerful as Zima and none of them had had Dita. Chitose told herself that it could work. It had to, for Tanaka's sake. And perhaps for her own as well. She loved Zima and Dita too.

Everything was ready for the download. Zima was seated in a comfortable chair, his data plug already connected to the government mainframe. He looked relaxed, his hands on his knees, his eyes closed. Dita stood nearby, watching him. Tanaka stood next to her and Chitose saw her hands shake as she clasped her clipboard. Yes, this was it.

"It is unknown how long the process will take," Tanaka was saying in carefully controlled tones, "A successful download has never occurred. You will be the first, Zima."

The male Chobits replied without opening his eyes. "Understood."

"Once the transfer of every persocon's data begins we can not stop the download without losing a portion of the data. Do your best to accept all files and store them in code. It will be alot to take in but your CPU and OS should be able to handle it."

"Yes."

Tanaka motioned to one of her assistants. "Begin." A flip of a switch and Zima's eyes flew open, light racing across his vision as he began to process the influx of data pouring into him. He did not make a sound but his fingers clenched into fists and his spine stiffened as his entire system devoted itself to simply operating under the extreme conditions. He would not be able to see or hear them until the download was complete. Chitose linked her fingers together and began to pray.

For half an hour they stood and watched as Zima absorbed the highly classified data of every persocon in the world. If he survived he would be able to find any persocon no matter where they were and would be able to access them if he so desired. Such a databank would be invaluable to the government who wanted a means of restraining the growing numbers of persocons. Zima was a form of control, she understood that, but she often wondered if the government didn't also have a different reason for ordering his creation, a deeper reason than just a wish for a complex file system.

The lights flickered overhead.

"What is that?" Tanaka asked sharply. Her assistant hurried to a computer monitor.

"There's a surge in the transfer, a hiccup!" he replied, "It's coming through now!"

In his chair, Zima's back arched and his whole body convulsed, his eyes wide in a face contorted with pain. Tanaka ran to her personal computer.

"How far along is the download?" she shouted.

"89% complete, Doctor!"

The lights blinked on and off again and several monitor screens exploded, showering the scientists with shattered glass. Zima began to scream, his body thrashing against the cables that held him. Chitose hurried forward but Dita beat her to his side. Without hesitation, the attack Chobits jumped into Zima's lap, straddling his hips as she pulled out her connector cable and plugged herself into his ear socket without a sound. Somewhere in the lab, Tanaka cried out.

"No! She'll be destroyed!"

The lights came back on.

Chitose gasped out loud.

Zima's body had stilled and though his jaw was tight with remembered pain, his eyes were back to their normal vacancy as the download continued. Dita, though, was now the one in danger. Her head was thrown back and her ruby eyes were closed, her whole body fairly humming with energy as her system struggled to control the flow of data coming through her and into Zima. Bolts of electricity crackled around the two Chobits as the scientists scrambled to discover what had happened.

Tanaka would have run to her creation's side but Chitose stopped her, pulling her back at the last moment.

"Let me go!" the irate doctor said, pulling against Hibiya's hold on her arm. "She'll disappear if this continues! She wasn't built to survive such a massive transfer!"

Chitose held on to her former assistant. "Don't touch her, Tanaka! Don't you see? She isn't trying to contain the data, she's simply slowing it! She's acting as a buffer between Zima and the government mainframe. If you unplug her they will both die!"

Tanaka paled but when Chitose released her the young scientist stayed where she was, watching hopelessly as Dita worked to save Zima's life.

It was almost a shock when, ten minutes later, Dita suddenly fell forward, her body hunching over as she shut down, her head coming to rest against Zima's shoulder. Tanaka took a hesitant step forward but then Zima shuddered and straightened, the light dying in his eyes as he came back to himself. Immediately his arms came up to curve around Dita and hold her to him, his eyes closing as he buried his face in her neck. His exhausted voice came to them slightly muffled by Dita's hair.

"Download complete."

Every human in the room exhaled in relief. It was done. But Tanaka was clearly not thinking of that. She hurried forward, tears in the corner of her eyes.

"Zima, is she alright? Is she…?"

It was a moment before he replied. "She's still functional. She managed to regulate the transfer until the end even though she should not have been able to. Her system has taken damage."

Silence descended on the room and though Tanaka's assistants tried to take Dita from him, Zima would not release her until finally Tanaka invoked her password and ordered him to hibernate. As he shut down, Tanaka loaded Dita onto a metal stretcher while Chitose helped her assistants carry Zima out of the lab.

As she flipped the lights off on her way out, Chitose Hibiya made a silent vow that it was the end. No more Chobits would ever be made if she could help it. The developers got attached to them. If Dita ceased functioning, Tanaka would be sad. Chobits were no longer just persocons. Dita had saved Zima without an order from anyone.

And now the National Databank existed only within a single persocon.

"No more," Chitose whispered, and closed the lab door behind her.

To Be Continued…