Oblivious Statements

Chapter II

Connor was sitting with hands steepled and watched the monitor which held Hank's heartbeat on its screen. The line that spread across the screen jumped up and down at a steady rate. Hank was fine. He would be. Connor sighed and leaned back in his chair. Hank was laying in a medical bed, his eyes closed, forming a peaceful face. Sumo lay next to Connor, soundly asleep. The only thing separating Hank's "medical room" was a bunch of white sheets. There were several of these rooms. They were mainly for androids, but there were a few exceptions, Hank being one of them.

Connor hesitantly touched his ear. It was patched up quickly and his hearing was as sharp as ever. His jacket lay across his lap, still bloodied and torn. Even though it deemed him a machine, he still liked the jacket. He would have to ask someone to fix it for him. His white shirt also had blood on it, but he had no clothes to change out of. He was for certain his hair was a mess too. His LED began glowing yellow due to him thinking about how he looked too much.

"Connor?"

Connor looked up from his thoughts, his LED returning to blue as he saw Markus pulling back the sheets to Hank's area. "Hello, Markus," Connor greeted, his voice weak after hours of no use. It seemed androids, too, could forget how to work.

"How's he holding up?" Markus asked, inclining his head toward the bed that held the old lieutenant. Connor turned his head to look at Hank and, out of instinct, he scanned the human.

"Vital signs appear to be stable," Connor reported. Markus rolled his eyes and pulled up an empty chair by Connor. He sat in the chair backward and leaned on the back of it.

"You know that's not what I mean, Connor," Markus replied, a lazy grin spreading across his face. Connor turned his head to look at the RK200. Connor was still new to the entire deviating subject and felt that parts of him were still machine.

"I'm sorry. It's a habit." Connor looked down at his hands. He wished he had a coin now. Markus noticed and put a hand in his own pocket and fished one out.

"Here," Markus said, offering the coin to Connor. "I know it's a tick." Connor smiled at Markus before taking the coin and playing with it. A couple of minutes went by as Connor mesmerized Markus with his coin tricks. Finally, Connor grabbed the coin out of the air and smiled.

Software Instability ^

Markus chuckled at Connor's happiness before standing up and spinning the chair back to its original position. "Lemme know if he wakes up," Markus spoke. He turned and lifted up the curtain but stopped. He looked over his shoulder at his fellow android. "Welcome to New Jericho, by the way." With that, Markus left Connor alone with the sleeping lieutenant.

Connor smiled, happy to be safe again. Still, worry flooded through him. It sent every nerve and electric circuit to attention and he couldn't process anything. Connor took a deep breath before closing his eyes and losing himself to an old routine.

He opened his eyes and looked around. The last time he was here, it was snowing. Now, it was bright and sunny once again. He was alone, although this place normally was home to someone else. Connor had entered the Zen Garden of his own free will. Normally, Amanda would have been the one to summon him here, but now he could enter on his own. When he deviated, Connor was too afraid to poke at this area, afraid that Amanda would come back and try to take control of his programming. No more.

Connor looked around and began walking around the familiar area. The last time he was here, he was on the verge of deviating until he was finally pushed to the emergency exit. It was so cold back then. Connor walked over a white bridge into the center of the garden. The water circled around the island bringing peaceful noises to his hearing. Birds chirped in the distance. It was peaceful. Calm.