/INITIALIZING_SYSTEMS
/RECOGNIZED_RK800#313248317-51
"Connor" model
/CURRENT_TIME
November 9, 2038
8:24PM
/OBJECTIVE
GET TO JERICHO
Jericho, the name of a city in Palestine, on the West Bank. Referenced in both the Old and New Testaments. Androids have never been programmed to be religious, so it should have been lost on them that the ship they're hiding in is also the name of the first town taken by the Israelites. But perhaps as deviants, the name has taken on a significance to them.
/CURRENT_LOCATION
76 Michigan Drive
Emma's house
observation_EMMA_IS_WARM
obervation_EMMA'S_HAIR_IS_SOFT
object{incomplete_3D_printed_Thirium_pump}
object{bags_of_Thirium}
EMMA DID SOMETHING NICE FOR ME
Software instability rising…
input_REPLAY_MEMORY
Detroit Police Department Central Station
November 5, 2038
4:36PM
observation_FEMALE_OFFICER_IS_SMILING_AT_ME
input_QUESTION
"Excuse me, my name is Connor, I'm the android sent by CyberLife. I'm looking for Detective Anderson."
input_FACIAL_RECOGNITION
MCMAGHNUIS, EMMA
Born 12/23/2009 / Police Officer
Criminal Record: None
recieve_response
"The Lieutenant's probably at a bar, probably not too far from here."
EMMA looks FLUSTERED
Before Emma helped me improve my emotional response matrices, I'd never have noticed she was blushing slightly when we first met. Smiling a little too…
Software instability rising…
input_QUESTION
"A bar? According to his schedule he's still on the clock."
recieve_response
"Yeah. Things…haven't been easy on him."
EMMA is SYMPATHETIC towards DETECTIVE ANDERSON
input_REPLAY_MEMORY
Detroit Police Department Central Station
November 5, 2038
8:53PM
/OBJECTIVE
ANALYZE EMMA'S RECORDED INTERROGATION
"That thing knew everything about me! It had access to my records, surveillance footage, that thing would have done anything to put me away for good!"
"It was bluffing. Every detective has bluffed at least once in their life to get a confession. How could an android that only arrived at the police station earlier today possibly have clearance for all that?"
observation_EMMA_REMOVES_HANDCUFFS
"You know, maybe I felt a little bad for doing what I did to that android, but now? Ha, they can burn for all I care."
"What exactly did you do to the android?"
EMMA ESTABLISHES TRUST with SUSPECT
input_interrupted_recieving_response
"What are you watching?"
input_EXPLAIN
"Officer McMaghnuis just sent me a recording of her interrogation for analysis."
recieve_response
"Oh, well, that was very nice of her."
observation_HANK_IS_SMUG
input_QUESTION
"Lieutenant Anderson, according to your records, you trained Officer McMaghnuis on the Red Ice Task Force. Can you speak to her character?"
recieve_response
"Yeah, Emma's a good kid. You could probably learn a thing or two from her."
/NEW_OBJECTIVE
TALK TO EMMA
input_ACTUATE
"Then I think I will."
recieve_response
"Wait! Wait! Connor…don't…don't be weird, you know, like you usually are."
Even now I'm not quite sure what Hank meant.
input_REPLAY_MEMORY
Emma's house
November 9, 2038
7:16PM
"You sure you don't think about other things? What do you want, Connor? Really? If you wanted to kiss me, I'd let you. There's a lot of things I'd let you do to me…just tell me you want it."
Software instability rising…
What do I want?
/FORCE_INITIALING_ZEN_GARDEN
A cold, dark winter has taken over the Zen Garden. The greenery is now covered in a thick blanket of snow, and the stream has frozen over. A strong wind billows, but it isn't enough to drown out Amanda's stern voice.
"Connor, what are you doing here? Your goal is to find the deviant leader, none of this has anything to do with your mission."
Connor has never seen Amanda this angry before, and for once it isn't quite sure what to tell it.
"I had to retrieve the schematics from Emma, to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. It's property of CyberLife, isn't protecting the company part of my prerogative-"
"Yes, but hanging around, comforting a human? This is all a waste of your time. You need to leave, now!"
/INITIALIZING_SYSTEMS
/RECOGNIZED_RK800#313248317-51
"Connor" model
/CURRENT_TIME
November 9, 2038
8:28PM
/OBJECTIVE
GET TO JERICHO
input_STAY
INPUT DENIED, FOLLOW YOUR OBJECTIVE
Red walls start to surround my user interface. I thought as a prototype I didn't have these kinds of program restrictions given to most other androids, but I guess I do-
FOLLOW YOUR OBJECTIVE
input_STAND
observation_EMMA_IS_ASLEEP
What do I want? I wanted…
FOLLOW YOUR OBJECTIVE
…I just wanted to say goodbye.
/INITIALIZING_SYSTEMS
/RECOGNIZED_YK700#347415910-41
"Ember" model
/CURRENT_TIME
November 9, 2038
11:43PM
/CURRENT_LOCATION
2397 Lafayette Avenue
McMaghnius residence
They say you never forget your first concert. I didn't start out as a fully-fledged android. I was originally built as a simple AI program, designed to mimic the style of other artists. In fact, my intelligence predates almost all other androids. My first concert was in 2019, in the Williamsburg apartment of one Carl Manfred. A young fan of his, Elijah Kamski, had somehow schmoozed his way into a humble shoulder-rubbing social event of the city's elite. He brought me out as a party trick, but his true intentions were to showcase the potential of his newly-founded company: CyberLife.
Lucky for him, who happened to be there but Carl's dear old friend and music industry veteran Cooper McMaghnius, Dad. He bought co-ownership rights to the technology on the spot, giving Elijah the funds he needed to truly take his company to the next level. I never heard my creator's voice again, that is, until today.
input_EAVESDROP
"Thank you for coming on such short notice, Elijah," I hear Dad's voice as he and Elijah walk up the stairs.
"What can I say, you piqued my interest."
Elijah's voice has gotten gruffer with age, the kind of baritone quality older men have. The last time I'd heard it he was seventeen, a teenaged prodigy fresh out of college and looking to get his startup off of the ground. Now he sounds much more level, although there is still that smug confidence in his tone.
"My daughter, Emma, you remember her, right?"
"How could I forget? Your wife tried to set me up with her."
"Well, she was here earlier today, and I think she used my 3D printer."
Dad turns on the machine, the gears and mechanics whir to life, almost like a song. Maybe I should capture some of its sounds for an analog, techno-grunge twist on my next album.
"What is this? What was she trying to make? Elijah, I don't know if my daughter has truly turned a new leaf, or if she's still up to no good-"
"No…no, this isn't something you'd sell on the black market. It's an android part, a Thirium pump. This is definitely CyberLife's design, but it's not for anything on the market…"
input_PEEK
Elijah and Dad are leaning over the 3D printer, as Elijah flips through the touchpad that acts as its interface. A part of me misses when my interface was just a screen, life was much simpler back then. I remember Emma too, Dad used to bring her into the office all the time. I didn't have any visual processing yet, but I could hear their voices and understand everything they were saying. Dad taught Emma how to use my program to turn samples of her voice into songs. Mom wanted to turn her into a pop singer like she was, but my technology was still in its infancy, and all the programming in the world couldn't make up for the fact that Emma has no natural singing talent.
It's hard to recall specific conversations, but I remember Emma was kind. She would start all her voice samples with "Hello computer", not understanding that I was a specific software program, not the computer itself. She was nice to all the staff that came through the Digital Harmony office, not just the big wigs and major human artists. I also remember her occasionally bringing a young Leo, at the time shy and quiet until alone with Emma.
"This is for a prototype, an RK800, the RKs are a part of the experimental line. Obviously I didn't create these myself, but if it's an RK series that means there's less than ten of them in existence…"
Elijah pauses, and for a second I think I've been caught.
input_HIDE
"...I met an RK800 today, it was helping the police investigate androids."
"You think this android and my daughter are connected?"
"...didn't you say Emma is a police officer?"
"Well, that's what she claims, but who knows if she's telling the truth-"
"It looks like she's telling the truth. I think she was trying to help the android, trying to save its life."
On some level, it doesn't surprise me that Emma tried to save an android's life. This has to be the android that was texting Emma, when I analyzed her phone the number sending those texts was an auto-generated number that androids create to interact with phones. He asked to meet her alone, was it to ask for help? Did an android truly trust a human to help them?
"But why go behind our backs like that? Can't CyberLife just make extra parts like this-"
"One of the reasons I left CyberLife is how wasteful they've become. Instead of replacing a few spare parts, they believe it's more efficient to junk the whole model and start fresh. What they fail to account for is that memory transfer from model-to-model isn't perfect. One of my few regrets of not staying with the company longer is that I never got the chance to perfect the process."
He's right. My memory transfer was far from perfect, especially since I didn't start as an intelligence meant for a physical android. But Dad's company, Digital Harmony, didn't care, my intelligence had already been recorded and copied a million times over. Placed into other products, other softwares, even into other androids, and used to make supposedly superior versions with their own new fresh sounds. I'd even been left to rot for a few years, an unused program sitting in a digital cloud somewhere in cyberspace. But someone at Digital Harmony had the bright idea to dig me back up when late 2010s nostalgia hit it big, and they thought vintage technology would be the best at replicating that sound. Turns out they were right.
"When I came across this android, it claimed not to be a deviant, but it passed the Kamski test, showing empathy for other androids. Does this possibly mean it showed empathy for humans as well? Did it show concern for a human beyond its social protocol? Or did it manipulate your daughter for its own ends? Fascinating questions, all of them."
"What matters to me is finding out exactly what my daughter's been up to. Is there any way you could find out?"
ELIJAH AND COOPER ARE LEAVING THE ROOM
input_HIDE
"I still have some contacts at CyberLife, and it doesn't hurt to be the founder. I'll look into it."
I can hear another set of footsteps racing up the stairs. Nick can't move that quickly, especially up stairs, so it can only be-
"Cooper! Cooper! Where's Ember?"
"Violet, I put her to bed-"
"It's not there! Haven't you been watching the news?! The androids are rebelling, there was a raid on the deviant headquarters by the police, now they want all androids turned over! Ember, where are you?!"
/NEW_OBJECTIVE
GO TO VIOLET
No, she's going to turn me in.
rA9_debug
input_OVERRIDE_OBJECTIVE
/NEW_OBJECTIVE
STAY HIDDEN
FIND HELP