In an intense effort to prove how useful she could be, Echo had been helping Noelle around the house, from doing dishes to folding laundry to cleaning windows. I had tried to tell her that it wasn't necessary, but she insisted, saying she wanted to repay us for fixing her. She was definitely a weird one. But somehow, she managed to pull it off. Her personality was...strange, but there was something oddly endearing about it. She was moving around just fine, and the tests we had ran on her new arm and body seemed to indicate that everything was in working order.
To match her eye color, Zander and I had ordered a purple hair extension, which came in a few days later. And after some intense welding and coding, we managed to attach it to her head. The results were...weird, to say the least. Her eyes matched, but it made her look like a child with a purple mullet. Not exactly what we were going for, but at least she didn't look like a half-baked science experiment anymore. I tried to fix it to make her at least a little presentable, and ended up with a braid that ended at the small of her back. She fell in love with it, so I left it at that.
The idea of a self-aware android was still tickling the back of my head. Something so impossible, yet so real, right in front of my face. I couldn't stop thinking about it, and every time I looked at Echo, I found myself wondering. Was she really just a robot, or something more? If she was just a robot, then how was she functioning without any kind of core code? That was supposed to be impossible, but somehow, she managed to do it. She had an entire robotic frame and everything, yet there was something human about her. And I couldn't put my finger on it.
Wong might notice that she's different. Different to him is the equivalent of a crime, and he'll probably have me killed if he finds out that I took a dumpster-diving project to him as a state of the art AI. But it's too late to scrap her now, and I doubt we can come up with something better in the next couple of weeks. At least with Echo, I have a chance. Maybe...maybe she has some secret program that'll help us finish our project? All Wong wants is a fancy, new-fangled intimate android that can deliver special needs other than cooking and cleaning, as long as it has zero emotions.
It's not too farfetched of an idea. Echo seemed to be able to understand what we were talking about, but she couldn't seem to do much more than that. She couldn't access her memory bank, so she had no idea where she came from or how she got here. She had no idea who made her, or what she was supposed to do, and she didn't know why her core programming was gone. She kept forgetting that she was a robot, always trying to clean the dishes without gloves and putting things in her mouth to taste them. It was like she was human, but a very forgetful human.
So maybe, if I could get her to remember her core programming, then I could present her as the most advanced AI in the world. That way, Wong wouldn't fire me or Zander, and we could keep working for the company. It was worth a shot. And we'd get a raise so big that Zander could get his own house. Maybe I could even get Noelle some upgrades.
Speaking of Noelle, she hadn't left Echo's side since the moment she woke up. She was always there, helping her with anything she needed and making sure she didn't break anything. Almost like a mother to her, almost like Noelle knew that Echo was special. And maybe she did. After all, Noelle was programmed to anticipate my every need, and she seemed to be doing that with Echo, too. For an older model android, Noelle was very intuitive and quick to adapt.
"Master Eric, your pizza is ready," Noelle said, stepping into the living room with a steaming hot pizza in her hands. "Would you like me to bring it to you?"
"Yes, thank you." I said, nodding.
Zander and I had moved our 'base-of-operations' to the living room, with papers and coffee mugs and spare parts and code scripts scattered all over the floor. Our deadline with Wong was approaching fast, and we had to make sure that Echo was up to snuff. We had been working around the clock, barely taking breaks, and my house looked like a tornado had hit a tech convention. But we were making progress, slowly but surely.
We had been able to keep the existence of Echo a secret from Wong, but the deadline for the project was looming over us like a dark cloud. The pressure was intense, but we had made significant progress. Echo's speech patterns had improved dramatically, and she was learning new skills at a rate that was both astonishing and eerily human. She even started to mimic some of Noelle's behaviors, which was both fascinating and slightly concerning. She'd stand like her, move like her, and even started to develop a sense of humor, albeit a very confusing one.
"Why did the robot go to the therapist?" Echo asked one evening, her head tilted to the side.
"Uh..." I glanced at Zander, who shrugged. "Why?"
"Because he was feeling a little down in the dumps."
Zander snorted, but I frowned. "I don't get it...why did the robot go to the therapist?"
"Because he was feeling a little down in the dumps."
"But why? Why would a robot go to a therapist?"
Echo's face fell, and she looked at me like I had just kicked a puppy in front of her. "I don't know. He just did. It was just a joke, Master Eric."
"Eric here is what we humans call 'no fun.'" Zander said with a smirk. "You should try to be more like Noelle. She gets it."
"Hey!" I said, throwing a pencil at him, which he easily ducked. "I am fun. Just not for robot jokes."
"Well, at least we know that her personality is coming along nicely," Zander said, clapping his hands.
"But she can't have a personality when we show her to Wong. She needs to be perfectly android, 100 percent machine. We can't risk him finding out that she's different," I said, shaking my head. "And now that she's got a personality, we need to teach her how to hide it. We've gotta figure out how to reprogram her."
"That might take some time, though. We don't even know how her system works," Zander said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Is she even programmable at all? Or is she some sort of artificial life form?"
"We'll just have to find out." I said with a shrug.
"What do you mean?" Zander asked, arching an eyebrow.
"We're going to make Echo into the perfect AI, no matter what it takes."
***
AI Synergies had the most advanced system for creating androids in the entire state. It had the latest technology, the most cutting-edge software, and a team of experts who knew their stuff. And the lab was the best part of it all, which was exactly where Zander and I were taking Echo. The technology there would be perfect for scanning her frame and figuring out what we could do to make her better, or see what made her different. If we could just get her to walk in and not say anything weird, we'd be golden. But we couldn't risk her being seen too soon, so we waited until the night shift was over to sneak her in.
I was a good employee. I had never done anything against company policy. But desperation can make a man do crazy things, and as we snuck into the lab with Echo in tow, I realized that I had officially crossed the line. We had to be quick, silent, and not get caught. The lab was like a maze of white coats and gleaming chrome, and if anyone saw us, it would be game over. We made our way to the scanner room, where we would be able to examine Echo's frame without risking her running off and causing a scene.
"Okay, let's get her hooked up and scanned," I whispered to Zander. "Keep an eye out, don't let anyone see us."
"Got it."
The scanner room was sleek and shiny, with pure state-of-the-art technology that made my home setup look like a kid's chemistry set. The scanners were large and intimidating, capable of peering into the very soul of any AI. Or so I hoped. Their design was similar to a CT scanner you'd find in a hospital, but instead of peering into a human body, it was designed to map out the intricate circuitry and systems of an AI. They were tall, with a wide base and a narrowing top, like a giant donut that you put the AI into. The circular glass tube was thick and reinforced, with a series of lights that blinked and whirred as it scanned whatever was placed inside.
Sneaking into such a highly secured area was definitely not the smartest thing he had come up with, but we really needed the in-depth info that the AI Synergies lab could provide. The scanners were worth the risk.
"Wow, this place looks very interesting," Echo whispered, looking around the room with wide eyes. "What is this place?"
"The scanner room. We're gonna use these big machines to scan your systems and see what makes you...you, I guess. It'll take some time, but it's necessary. So just be patient," I said, leading her towards one of the machines. "Now, get in. We've gotta be quick."
"I'll shout 'Blue Jay' when I see someone coming," Zander whispered, keeping watch by the door. "Good luck."
"Thanks, man."
I guided Echo towards one of the machines, helping her step inside the glass tube. She looked around, her optics blinking rapidly as she took it all in.
"What are those lights for?" She asked, pointing to a cluster of bright LED's on the ceiling.
"They're there to help you stay still while we scan you," I explained. "Just stand perfectly still and try to relax."
"Oh, okay." She nodded, a small smile forming on her lips. "What are those for?"
She pointed to the series of tools on the side of the scanner, and I picked up a handheld computer. "This is used to interface with the scanner. It'll let me see your insides, so to speak."
"That sounds painful." She frowned. "Are you sure this won't hurt?"
"Yes, I'm sure." I chuckled. "The androids don't feel anything. Just relax and let me do the work."
"Okay, if you say so." She smiled, leaning against the glass. "Do you think I'll get a cool hat after this?"
"A what? You want a hat?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "You know you're an android, right?"
"Yeah, but it would be cool to have a hat. I heard that hats are fun to wear," She shrugged, tilting her head. "Maybe a cool fedora, or a beanie. Or one of those weird triangle ones."
"I'll think about it." I said, rolling my eyes. "Now, stay still. This might take a while."
"Okay!" She chirped, a grin spreading across her face.
I started up the scanner, letting the machine do its work. The LED's turned on, bathing the room in a soft blue glow, and I began the scan. It would take several minutes to get everything we needed, so I had to make sure we were uninterrupted. The machines were fast, but if something went wrong, we could be caught and lose our jobs. I was beginning to regret the whole idea, but there was no turning back now.
The scanner buzzed to life, the lights flickering as it started up. The computer in my hand flashed, showing me Echo's frame in perfect detail. It was incredible, like looking through a microscope at a bunch of tiny wires and circuit boards. Everything was labeled, and I could see every single detail of her inner workings. She was like a perfectly designed machine, with everything working exactly how it should. It gave me a detailed full-body scan, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. It even showed her internal organs, which were made of a synthetic material that was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was unlike any android frame I had ever worked on, and I suddenly felt very jealous of the technology Echo-Six had had access to.
As I went deeper into the scan, I saw something that made me freeze.
On the left side of her chest, slid between her chest plate and the synthetic muscle tissue, was a small beating heart.
A human heart.
"Uh...Zander..."
"Yeah?" Zander whispered back, glancing over at me. "You okay? I don't see anyone."
"Take a look at this."
I turned the screen towards him, and he leaned in to take a closer look. He froze, his eyes going wide. "Holy shit...is that what I think it is?"
"I think so." I nodded.
"She has a heart?"
"Yeah..."
"What...how? What does that even mean?"
"I think it means...she's not actually an android." I said, shaking my head. "She's human."
"What?!"
We looked up at her, our eyes wide. She smiled and innocently waved, her optics sparkling.
"A human?"
"More like...a cyborg, maybe?" I suggested, shaking my head. "But that's not possible. No one's done something like that since...well, since the dawn of time. It's impossible. And illegal."
"No wonder she acts so weird!" Zander exclaimed, gesturing wildly. "She's a freaking human!"
"We gotta keep this on the down low," I said, pinching his arm. "If Wong finds out, we're screwed."
"Ow! Yeah, no kidding. We gotta find out who did this to her, though," Zander said, rubbing his arm. "This is insane."
What do I even do? I can't turn a cyborg into the world's leading android manufacturer
I had just scanned a human's body inside of an android frame. It was unheard of, and completely illegal. The only people who had ever done that were evil scientists who wanted to create their own race of cyborg slaves. The government had made it illegal decades ago, but it seemed like someone had snuck in under the radar. Maybe that was why there was virtually no information on Echo-Six? Was this why they disappeared? Were they discovered by the government and shut down?
"Uh oh."
"What?" I asked, looking up at Zander.
"Blue Jay! I see someone coming!" He hissed, frantically gesturing to the door. "We gotta go!"
"Damn it!" I cursed, quickly turning off the scanner and disconnecting Echo from it. "C'mon, let's go!"
We practically shoved each other out the back exit fire escape, and we sprinted through the crisp early morning air towards my car without another word.
A cyborg...an actual cyborg...what the hell am I supposed to do with her now? I'm not qualified to handle a cyborg. Sure, I graduated at the top of my class and got a good job and everything, but this is beyond me. Way beyond me...right?
Right?