Stairway to Somewhere

The Last Goodbyes

"Everything's ready on my end." said Lloyd, sitting in the back of a semi truck with his laptop. The the truck was pulled up to the warehouse, with an automaton on the ground next to it. With the black box set up inside truck behind Lloyd, Tony was frantically connected wires to a charging coil they ripped out the floor.

"Almost done over here." Tony answered breathlessly. "This is gonna require a lot more power than I thought. If a surge happens, you sure the black box will be okay?"

Lloyd looked at the dark metallic machine, it's design unlike anything he's seen in his entire life. If the right person said it, he could almost believe it was from the future.

"I think whoever made this machine was thinking way beyond us. It'll be fine."

He tapped his earpiece and called out to Ben.

"Hey, come off patrol, it's time."

Bethany and Phoebe came over dressed in all black, cargo pants, boots, and a long sleeve shirt. Phoebe, who put her hair in a ponytail, sauntered over to Lloyd as Ben knelt down behind the automatons head.

"Let's go over this one more time." Tony insisted. I turn on the automaton, Lloyd connects them to the network. If they can be convinced to stand down, they join our locale, and meet our fighters on the inside. If they can't be convinced, I try to flip this emp before they attack, or big buddy Ben over here rips their arms off. We'll lose an automaton, but that's better than a loss of life."

"Why don't you just send them straight through?" Ben asked aloud. "Skip the diplomacy, you know?"

"It doesn't work like that." said Beth and Lloyd together. He motioned for her to continue the explanation, his right hand clasping a piece of paper in his pocket.
Smiling faintly, she continued.

"Transfer therapists like Lloyd exist because moving into the digital work is a big adjustment, and any sort of hysteria triggered from real-world ptsd could put everyone inside and out in jeopardy. They'll know exactly how, when and where a person entered."

"Diplomacy it is then." Phoebe said, staring at the long slender humanoid figure laying lifelessly on the ground.

"On the count of three. One... Two... Three." Tony flipped a switch on his makeshift generator, causing all the lights to flicker and dim. Slowly, the coil began to hum. The face sockets began to glow orange, pulsing slightly.

Ben reached forward and tapped the automatons temple. It's eye sockets glowed blue then white.

"This automaton was not shut off properly." A robotic voice intoned from the automatons head.
"A reboot is needed. Restarting in thirty seconds."

"Ah, we lucked out, it's just an AI." Tony said relief.

"I'll create a profile for it and store it in the box." Lloyd replied. "Get the next ones ready."

Tony whistled and four guys came over to bring the next automaton out of the trailer bed. Lloyd finished transferring the AI's data to locale, and now had the option to move any of his clients into the automaton if he wanted. Tony disconnected the automaton from it's charging coil and wheeled it out of the way while the other guys rolled the next one over.

"Y'all should really hook me up to one of these bitches." One of guys remarked. "I'd go apeshit on every facility they got."

"When we steal all the equipment to make that possible, I'll let you know." said Tony was he helped them properly set it up against the coil.

He walked back over to the generator, patting one guy on his back along the way.

"Ready Lloyd?"
He nodded.
"One, two... three." Once again, the lights flickered and dimmed as the coil began to hum. Slowly, the face sockets on the automaton glowed white.