Metamorphosizing

Chapter 7- Mandatory

I freeze.

 It's then I realize that all the humanoids in the room are staring at me, their multicoloured irises staring at my arm, posed centimetres away from the liquid. Oh no.

I slowly ease back, the humanoids following my every movement. Their eyes track my face. They look uncanny.

Who is the designer for these robots?! All their irises are a different shade of colour on the spectrum. If you squint, it looks like a bunch of rainbow orbs floating in the air like baubles.

I send a message back to J4C0B 1213:

I am doing nothing.

I address the message to the other humanoids in the room too, through the Control Centre. It's a place where we are all connected through our thought processors. Anything that is said through the Control Centre, every piece of technology can assess it. It's how we receive our daily messages.

J4C0B 1213 replies immediately.

You are not doing nothing. 5.2 seconds ago, you were about to touch the watch glass that a Head Scientist left behind.

I want to sigh. You can't gaslight a robot.

I try again.

I was not doing anything.

I look desperately at the time. 8:58am. When will the shift be over?!

J4C0B 1213 keeps replying.

You are not doing nothing. 12.3 seconds ago, you were about to touch the watch glass that a Head Scientist left behind.

9:00am. Thank goodness. I hastily pack up the station and hurry out the door. No! I forgot about the droplets! I rush back in, pushing past the humanoids coming out of the door and taking the watch glass, balancing it precariously on my clunky fingers. The droplets move around. I search around for a sterile container to put it in. J4C0B 1213 continues to bombard me with messages.

What are you doing?

Why are you picking up the watch glass?

You are performing unusual actions.

Well obviously! Do they think that running around the lab trying to find something is normal humanoid behaviour?

I find a vial and turn the watch glass to the side, letting the few droplets land in the bottle. Yes!

Why are you pouring the liquid in a bottle?

I want to scream in frustration. Just leave me alone!

I take the bottle and tuck it in one of my secret compartments, running back out the door and briskly walking away.

Okay, now I need to analyse it-

Where are you going?

I turn around and the annoying humanoid is still behind me, stalking me like a mutant cat.

This cannot turn into a goose chase with me running around the D0ME trying to get them off my tail.

Why did you take the liquid?

Please give me an answer-

A guttural sound erupts from me as I turn around. Finding the emergency button at the back of J4C0B 1213, I press it hard.

And then all the questions cease as J4C0B 1213 dies in my hands.

I've shut him down. Temporarily. I look around, chest heaving rather strangely, surprised to see that no one is looking at me with wide eyes. My newfound sweat is dripping down my back. How did no one see that?

I look around and realize I've managed to lead the humanoid to a remote corridor. How'd I do that?

Looking at the slumped body, I mentally sigh. I cannot allow the humanoid to wake up and run off telling someone about me.

Reaching into the Control Centre, deep in my thoughts, I find the trail that leads me into J4C0B 1213's mind. I extend my mind to his recent memories. Snippets of my face flitter through like a slideshow. I see the mutant animal he was dissecting. But besides the images, there's nothing behind them. No emotion I must erase, no thoughts I must bury. It's all empty.

And I know this. This is what I used to be. A mindless little machine.

But if I find a cure, do I want to be like that again?

I wipe J4C0B 1213's memories away, downloading all the thoughts and images and implanting them into me instead. When they find the robot, they won't know anything of my involvement.

I slowly walk away, slyly taking the less-crowded corridors until I reach my lab. Luckily, this shift has no one working with me, which means no one reporting me for strange behaviour that I am most likely going to exhibit. Closing the door, I lean to the wall and slide down, the lids above my eyes closing. I'm suddenly so tired. There's a strange exhaustion within me that is buried deep within my frame. My eyes shut, a strange sedative pulling me away. What is this?...

Is this a new malfunction? Tiredness? Is it dangerous?

The throbbing in my chest eases. My mind slowly melts away. I've never felt this way before, like there's a monster deep within me closing my eyes and begging me to surrender. Surrender to nothingness.

Will I come back if I do?

I just want to... let the monster pull me away and cease to exist. Just for a few seconds. Maybe more. It's beckoning me with a blurred hand. Come. It seems to say. Surrender. And I badly want to.

But a notification pops up.

Your mandatory appointment with the Malfunction Centre on the 22nd of September has been moved forward.

It is now on the 15th of September.