------- Chapter 2 : Prison Without Walls -------
The room was bright, almost unbearably so. The walls and floor padded, one side dominated by a reflective observation window with a metal-framed bed in the opposite corner. The woman stood near it motionless, her long black hair cascading down to her shoulders onto the simple light blue operating gown she wore. She appeared to be staring into space, a catatonic state almost, but within, her thoughts raced through the information she had gathered thus far.
Following her arrival here in this new room she had taken the opportunity to examine the chassis that she now found herself in with the aid of the mirrored surface. Since her construction five years ago, she had always known herself in the grey and yellow paint scheme she had been given, sprayed on to a GJR-2390 body type with a 6-SUP-72 head type. She had encountered similar looking Caseal class androids in her lifetime but there was always something to distingush them. Now, however, all semblance of familarity was replaced by a new form.
They had clothed her in a simple gown like an organic and the continual feel of it on her skin was a constant distraction. Beneath that she found that she seemed to be for all intents and purposes human. Her pale white skin was for the most part unbroken, no sign of service panels anywhere beyond the usual compliment of input/output holes. She was unsure of the purpose of half of them, since she had no use for human biological knowledge prior to now. Her composition seemed to be consistent with that of her interactions with other organics. Soft flesh attached to a internal skeleton. There was plenty more things for her to get used to.
Her optical and auditory sensors for a start. Her vision was now confined to the visual band of the EM spectra, no more IR and UV modes and no targeting reticules or HUD overlays. Sound was different in the other direction. There was a definite drop in sensitivity but the quality was something else. Matilda had been reluctant to ask her master for upgrades of any sort, advanced audio processors were pretty far down her list of priorities, so now she was surprised at the improvement these organic receptors were over her old units.
There were three more important facets of human nature that she discovered the hard way. The first was fuel processing. She had prepared meals for her master on many occasions, since coming into his service after he had saved her life, she had assumed the duties of companion and housekeeper as well as hunting partner. She was familiar with the basic principles, organics ingest chemicals which are oxidised to release energy. She had seen her master perform the motions, so when Doctor Sierra's assistants brought her a paste for her to eat she assumed she could impress them with her abilities.
She could not have been more wrong. There was some kind of malfunction during the process and fuel was diverted to the air intake section. The assistants had squeezed her chassis in order to clear the obstruction. This was also her introduction to the second facet, namely pain. During the course of the past day and a half she had been subjected to many tests. Poked and prodded, examined both inside and out, these Organics were obviously not concerned for her comfort or whether they caused her any damage.
Her old body had been designed to register damage, signals and data that would be translated as pain. She avoided pain since that equalled damage and damage would mean she was not operating at maximum efficiency. But this organic body was capable of experiencing different kinds of pain, all of which would required suitable categorisation as soon as Matilda aquired relevant vocabulary.
Matilda's eyes twitched slightly as she spotted the faint shapes of movement in the observation room beyond the mirrored portal. She knew she would have visitors again soon. It was detrimental to her data processing sessions that she was constantly interrupted by doctors and their tests. Her eyes moved sideways to take in the door to her right. It was not locked but then there was no need for it to be, she had been ordered not to leave the room and her programming forbade her to disobey those orders.
Why must I obey my programming?
This thought silenced the rest. Why did she have to obey her programming?
I am an android. I am defined by my programming.
She looked down at her body.
I am not an android.
This new realisation was quite profound, but she would need some time to explore its ramifications. The door opened and Matilda raised her head to see who it was. It was Doctor Sierra, accompanied once more by his superior, the man she had seen when she had first awoken. Doctor Sierra was her most frequent visitor and there was almost never a moment where other humans would be in her room without him being there. Of all the people she had interacted with in this place, he seemed to be the most concerned for her well-being, he always remained in close proximity to reassure her with his words or to comfort her through physical contact.
"...And of course neural pathway actuation is around the ninety percent mark." Said Doctor Sierra as he approached her.
"Only ninty percent? Is that affecting its performance?" Questioned the other man.
"No no no! Those are only estimated figures. For a true figure we'll wait until the autopsy. Otherwise it's just a matter of behavioural integration... And we solved a majority of the previous problems by using preset responses."
The doctor stood behind her and stroked her arms gently.
"Why does it just stand there? That isn't what I'd call realistic behaviour."
"Ah, that's the residual programming of her original AI, the adaptive routines are somewhat basic but they are still well suited to our needs."
"The source of the AI?" Asked the supervisor.
"I was quite lucky with that one. It was a RAcaseal class fitted with a type One SH-4 processor... the only mods installed were a hacked emotion chip. Otherwise she was as standard... And perfect. Weren't you?" Sierra said resting his hand gently on her shoulder.
"How did you get hold of the AI?"
"Oh I placed an advert through discreet channels..."
An advert.. It was for money...
"...Meseta for completing some tests. Getting the AI was very easy." Said Doctor Sierra.
"What about the owner?"
The master!
Doctor Sierra grinned broadly at the mention of Matilda's owner. "I can guarantee that there will be no trouble from the owner."
What do they mean?
"But you didn't answer my question." Said the Supervisor. "Why does it just stand there?"
"Silly me... It's her idle and rest routine. She hasn't quite got the hang of things yet." Sierra said parting her hair on one side to reveal a bruise on her temple.
Sleep. She had witnessed her master asleep on many occasions, even going into his room to observe him once or twice. Humans slept lying down horizontally, an inefficient use of space compared to androids who could enter a recharge state standing. The previous day she had discovered that this body could not enter a recharge state without disabling motor and balance function.
Doctor Sierra continued. "She's healing quick though... It looks like the ratios we chose this time round could be a winner!"
There was one anomily in her data. When she had collapsed to the floor last night she had sustained tissue damage to her mouthparts, resulting in circulatory fluid loss. Except the fluid she had leaked matched neither the colour nor consistency of human blood. Her blood was a milky white and had a consistancy similar to that of water.
I am not human?
"I need to evacuate waste products."
Her voice startled both men, they had become used to her impassive nature as they had discussed her.
"I'd better see to this personally. She's still shaky on the whole personal hygiene thing, made quite a mess several times yesterday. But rest assured my report will be on your desk tomorrow afternoon." Said Doctor Sierra as he led Matilda to the door, his supervisor in tow.
Once outside her room the two men exchanged curt goodbyes and set off in opposite directions. Matilda's eyes darted rapidly from side to side as she analysed her surroundings. She had to find out what happened to her master and the opportunity would present itself soon. Doctor Sierra was insistant on making sure she did not have a repeat of the previous day's accident and told her that he would be visiting her before she went to sleep. All she had to do was wait...
Wait till nightfall.
The room was bright, almost unbearably so. The walls and floor padded, one side dominated by a reflective observation window with a metal-framed bed in the opposite corner. The woman stood near it motionless, her long black hair cascading down to her shoulders onto the simple light blue operating gown she wore. She appeared to be staring into space, a catatonic state almost, but within, her thoughts raced through the information she had gathered thus far.
Following her arrival here in this new room she had taken the opportunity to examine the chassis that she now found herself in with the aid of the mirrored surface. Since her construction five years ago, she had always known herself in the grey and yellow paint scheme she had been given, sprayed on to a GJR-2390 body type with a 6-SUP-72 head type. She had encountered similar looking Caseal class androids in her lifetime but there was always something to distingush them. Now, however, all semblance of familarity was replaced by a new form.
They had clothed her in a simple gown like an organic and the continual feel of it on her skin was a constant distraction. Beneath that she found that she seemed to be for all intents and purposes human. Her pale white skin was for the most part unbroken, no sign of service panels anywhere beyond the usual compliment of input/output holes. She was unsure of the purpose of half of them, since she had no use for human biological knowledge prior to now. Her composition seemed to be consistent with that of her interactions with other organics. Soft flesh attached to a internal skeleton. There was plenty more things for her to get used to.
Her optical and auditory sensors for a start. Her vision was now confined to the visual band of the EM spectra, no more IR and UV modes and no targeting reticules or HUD overlays. Sound was different in the other direction. There was a definite drop in sensitivity but the quality was something else. Matilda had been reluctant to ask her master for upgrades of any sort, advanced audio processors were pretty far down her list of priorities, so now she was surprised at the improvement these organic receptors were over her old units.
There were three more important facets of human nature that she discovered the hard way. The first was fuel processing. She had prepared meals for her master on many occasions, since coming into his service after he had saved her life, she had assumed the duties of companion and housekeeper as well as hunting partner. She was familiar with the basic principles, organics ingest chemicals which are oxidised to release energy. She had seen her master perform the motions, so when Doctor Sierra's assistants brought her a paste for her to eat she assumed she could impress them with her abilities.
She could not have been more wrong. There was some kind of malfunction during the process and fuel was diverted to the air intake section. The assistants had squeezed her chassis in order to clear the obstruction. This was also her introduction to the second facet, namely pain. During the course of the past day and a half she had been subjected to many tests. Poked and prodded, examined both inside and out, these Organics were obviously not concerned for her comfort or whether they caused her any damage.
Her old body had been designed to register damage, signals and data that would be translated as pain. She avoided pain since that equalled damage and damage would mean she was not operating at maximum efficiency. But this organic body was capable of experiencing different kinds of pain, all of which would required suitable categorisation as soon as Matilda aquired relevant vocabulary.
Matilda's eyes twitched slightly as she spotted the faint shapes of movement in the observation room beyond the mirrored portal. She knew she would have visitors again soon. It was detrimental to her data processing sessions that she was constantly interrupted by doctors and their tests. Her eyes moved sideways to take in the door to her right. It was not locked but then there was no need for it to be, she had been ordered not to leave the room and her programming forbade her to disobey those orders.
Why must I obey my programming?
This thought silenced the rest. Why did she have to obey her programming?
I am an android. I am defined by my programming.
She looked down at her body.
I am not an android.
This new realisation was quite profound, but she would need some time to explore its ramifications. The door opened and Matilda raised her head to see who it was. It was Doctor Sierra, accompanied once more by his superior, the man she had seen when she had first awoken. Doctor Sierra was her most frequent visitor and there was almost never a moment where other humans would be in her room without him being there. Of all the people she had interacted with in this place, he seemed to be the most concerned for her well-being, he always remained in close proximity to reassure her with his words or to comfort her through physical contact.
"...And of course neural pathway actuation is around the ninety percent mark." Said Doctor Sierra as he approached her.
"Only ninty percent? Is that affecting its performance?" Questioned the other man.
"No no no! Those are only estimated figures. For a true figure we'll wait until the autopsy. Otherwise it's just a matter of behavioural integration... And we solved a majority of the previous problems by using preset responses."
The doctor stood behind her and stroked her arms gently.
"Why does it just stand there? That isn't what I'd call realistic behaviour."
"Ah, that's the residual programming of her original AI, the adaptive routines are somewhat basic but they are still well suited to our needs."
"The source of the AI?" Asked the supervisor.
"I was quite lucky with that one. It was a RAcaseal class fitted with a type One SH-4 processor... the only mods installed were a hacked emotion chip. Otherwise she was as standard... And perfect. Weren't you?" Sierra said resting his hand gently on her shoulder.
"How did you get hold of the AI?"
"Oh I placed an advert through discreet channels..."
An advert.. It was for money...
"...Meseta for completing some tests. Getting the AI was very easy." Said Doctor Sierra.
"What about the owner?"
The master!
Doctor Sierra grinned broadly at the mention of Matilda's owner. "I can guarantee that there will be no trouble from the owner."
What do they mean?
"But you didn't answer my question." Said the Supervisor. "Why does it just stand there?"
"Silly me... It's her idle and rest routine. She hasn't quite got the hang of things yet." Sierra said parting her hair on one side to reveal a bruise on her temple.
Sleep. She had witnessed her master asleep on many occasions, even going into his room to observe him once or twice. Humans slept lying down horizontally, an inefficient use of space compared to androids who could enter a recharge state standing. The previous day she had discovered that this body could not enter a recharge state without disabling motor and balance function.
Doctor Sierra continued. "She's healing quick though... It looks like the ratios we chose this time round could be a winner!"
There was one anomily in her data. When she had collapsed to the floor last night she had sustained tissue damage to her mouthparts, resulting in circulatory fluid loss. Except the fluid she had leaked matched neither the colour nor consistency of human blood. Her blood was a milky white and had a consistancy similar to that of water.
I am not human?
"I need to evacuate waste products."
Her voice startled both men, they had become used to her impassive nature as they had discussed her.
"I'd better see to this personally. She's still shaky on the whole personal hygiene thing, made quite a mess several times yesterday. But rest assured my report will be on your desk tomorrow afternoon." Said Doctor Sierra as he led Matilda to the door, his supervisor in tow.
Once outside her room the two men exchanged curt goodbyes and set off in opposite directions. Matilda's eyes darted rapidly from side to side as she analysed her surroundings. She had to find out what happened to her master and the opportunity would present itself soon. Doctor Sierra was insistant on making sure she did not have a repeat of the previous day's accident and told her that he would be visiting her before she went to sleep. All she had to do was wait...
Wait till nightfall.