Android!AU
When James woke, he wasn't in his bed. Hell, he wasn't in his flat. He was on a table, except it wasn't quite a table — it was more of a glass coffin than anything. And a pretty girl with red hair and stunning green eyes was standing over him, staring curiously.
James screamed.
The glass parted with a hiss and James scrambled out of the coffin, backing away, and his arse bumped into something else. Another coffin, with another body — no, fuck, it was Sirius, fast asleep.
"It's okay," said the girl, walking around his opened coffin and approached him. "I'm not going to hurt you."
James couldn't retreat any further, so he was rooted to the spot as the girl stopped a meter away. "Who — who are you?"
"Android 0596," she said. "But you can call me Lily. Welcome to the Galactica."
"So basically what you're saying is, I was kidnapped by a bunch of robots and put into a coffin so that I could be experimented upon?"
"Androids," Lily corrected, "and those aren't coffins. Those are hibernation pods designed to keep your vitals operating but to keep you asleep until we are ready to awaken you."
"And why did you awaken me?"
"Because we're performing a series of tests for a new serum that we're developing," Lily said in one breath. James marveled at how human her voice sounded — if they had been on Earth, he would have flirted with her. She didn't look like an android, but every so often her eyes would flash bright green or her head would rotate all the way around to look at him.
When it happened for the sixth time, James asked, "Can you stop doing that? It's not normal."
"It's normal for me, human," she said sharply. Then she sighed. "But I suppose I'll comply."
"Thanks."
They walked past a group of chattering young boys — except they weren't human boys because their eyes were glowing. James's mind was whirling as he processed everything Lily was telling him.
"So what is this serum?"
"Can't tell you," she said without looking at him.
"What the hell?" James felt a surge of anger. "If you're going to be testing this serum on me, shouldn't I know what's being used on me? What if something happens, like I grow another arm or start puking up blue snails or —"
"Information is on a need-to-know basis," Lily said, but James caught the beginnings of a smile on her face. "Trust me, it's not anything too horrible. Androids and humans both are being tested."
"Oh." If the androids were testing it on themselves, then surely they wouldn't be injecting anything bad, right?
"Have you been tested?" he asked.
"Yes." Lily didn't elaborate. "We're almost there. The man who runs the lab is a very respected android, and he's very snappy, so you'd be wise to show him respect. Don't ask him the same questions you asked me."
She pressed her thumb into a scanner and the doors hissed open into a long hallway with glass walls. Laboratories were on each side, where more humans were lined up waiting for tests. Lily opened the doors on the left with her thumbprint and strode in. James followed.
"Stand here." She pushed him onto the last podium and stood in front of him, just as the doors at the end of the room burst open and a man in a black lab coat walked in, a scowl etched on his face. He was carrying a tray of syringes.
Unfortunately for James, he recognized the man. "Snape?"
The man halted in front of him and his lip curled up into a sneer. "Well, well, if it isn't the famous James Potter."
"What are you doing here? I thought you were human."
"Of course I am, you halfwit," Snape snapped. "I've been working here for years. I'm the one making the serum and look at my luck, I get to administer it on you."
"Don't be so harsh, Severus," Lily said, an edge in her voice. "He just woke up here. I don't recall you behaving so intelligently when I woke you up."
James's head swung to Lily. "You woke him up?"
"Are we going to be standing around all day?" Snape stepped forward and stuck a needle into his neck.
"Severus!" Lily admonished, but the man shook his head and she quieted.
"I've got a special serum for you, Potter," Snape whispered, his breath hot against James's ear. "It'll knock you out cold for the next six hours, make your vitals weak. Consider this payback for the last time we met. I haven't forgotten, you know."
James suddenly felt woozy and he swayed on the spot. "Sn — ape…"
"Humans don't learn from their mistakes, they repeat them until they can't anymore." Snape stepped back, a satisfied smirk on his face. "This is for all the years you tormented me, Potter."
"What are you doing?!" Through his blurred vision, he saw Lily lunge for him, but it was too late — James was aware of his head hitting the floor.
And then blackness washed over him like a blanket.
864 words
Sci-Fi September Day 5 - "Humans don't learn from their mistakes, they repeat them until they can't anymore."
