SENTIENT

Attribution

When Connor realized where he was, he made sure his foot could still feel the surface where he stood. Wooden planks creak under his heel. He was on a boat, floating over the clear green waters.

He looked around the garden. Nothing has changed, but there was something different – call it intuition.

There was a noise coming from the shrubs by the lake. He swiftly turned. Nothing. Not the slightest breeze of the wind.

There was a shadow in the distance. A dark figure was lurking in the darkness between the cherry blossom trees. He screamed to them, "Who's there?"

He could stay on the boat and remain out in the open, or he could jump to the waters and drown. He wished he was created with eyes on the back of his head because somebody was there – he knows it.

He looked up to find himself somewhere else.

"Anyway, what about that Simonelli bastard? Did he confess in the end?" Jimmy inquired while rubbing his grey beard.

"He didn't confess, no. But he did give us admissions to the case – which ultimately should be good enough," AJ tapped the burnt end of her cigarette butt and dumped it in its tray.

"Well, I hope he rots," said Jimmy. "Anyway, my heart breaks for Denis."

Jimmy attended Connor another glass, to which he refused. He's never had more than a glass each night. Just enough to keep the gas tank full.

AJ intervened, "Let him have one more, Jimmy."

After all, the man saved her life today. This is how humans thank each other and most of the time, a simple thank you is more than enough. The kindness of those who save lives rarely wants anything more than that.

Still, there was something that bothered him. They both wanted the deviants alive, even if they failed to do so. He had his own reasons, of course. Achieving this would access something else that deviant crime investigators haven't unlocked.

"Connor, are you alright?" AJ poked him by the side of his arm.

He quickly thought of a response, "I'm fine. We could have taken the deviants alive if I had been quicker."

"You never told me you wanted the deviants alive," said AJ with another cigarette lit between her fingers.

Connor watched as her eyes probing inside his mind, without the telepathic abilities that androids have, that easily connects them to the mind of other androids.

"In previous investigations, we found it useful to bring in our suspects alive. That way we can extract confessions or motives to be used by the case prosecutors."

AJ looked away. She knew he was going to reply with something statistical. Something you could only read from a Wikipedia page, but Connor did not give up on her.

He sensed something else without his android telepathy, "You think there's something else we can get from these confessions?"

She may not have given this idea enough time to cook, but she went with it anyway. "If we're going to treat these deviants like actual criminals, then we need a way of getting inside what they're thinking."

"Like thought patterns? Similar mindsets?" He asked.

"Anything," she nodded. "Anything that could get us closer to the traits that our deviants have."

"Personality traits are not coded in androids by default. Turning deviant may cause androids to develop complex emotions, but even so, they're not original to the design. It's human-like, but it serves a different function."