Rescuing Rei

Chapter One: System Startup

_COMMAND> system startup_
_UNIT J3ND41-SL-12. CIVILIAN DEFENSE PROTOCOL DROID. MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT. SECTOR 12.
_INITIATE WAKEUP SEQUENCE?
yes_
_AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED. PLEASE ENTER PERSONAL ACCESS CODE> ******
_ACCESS GRANTED
[INITIATING WAKEUP SEQUENCE]

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Ones and zeroes flew across my vision as I slowly woke up. The numbers faded into nothing eventually, leaving me blinking and looking around in confusion. Where...where was I?

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came forth. I tried in vain to make a sound, but I remained silent. I set my jaw and perked up to the slow approach of footsteps. I looked down at myself, but saw nothing. It was pitch dark wherever I was. I tried to move, but I realized that I couldn't feel my body. I was completely numb from the neck down. Horrified, I tried to scream, but to no avail.

"Unit J3ND41-SL-12?" a man's voice called, echoing around the room.

For some reason, I recognized that odd combination of numbers and letters and strained to see who had uttered them. I wanted to scream, shout, say something. But all I could do was wait, terrified.

The footsteps moved into the room. I heard a switch being flipped. A light switch? If that was it, why was it still nothing but black?

"It's been a while, huh?" There. The voice again, much closer though. The footsteps kept moving closer. "You had quite a run, indeed."

Was he talking to me? I couldn't tell if there was anyone else in the room. Suddenly, the footsteps stopped as a new voice came from the direction of the entrance. This voice was female.

"You shouldn't be here," the female voice said, "There's nothing here that would be of any interest to anyone, least of all yourself."

"Ah, Dr. Wood. How do you do?"

Dr. Wood's footsteps clicked against the floor as she entered the room. "Well. Thank you." The click-clack of her heels on the floor stopped mere feet from me.

'Help me!' I wanted to say. 'Why can't I see? Why can't I move?'

"Ah, a synthoandroidic stasis pod. The droid inside— an old Civilian Defense Protocol droid— is one of the first droids designed to blend in with the human race. Of course, being an android, it could never truly blend in for one simple reason: its artificial intelligence did not have the capacity to feel. Without emotions, it was just another robot, walking and talking like a human being." There was an unceremonious pause as her long-winded micro-lesson came to an end.

"Why must you always act so uptight?" the male voice deadpanned. "I assure you, I know very well what this pod is— and I am perfectly aware of what it contains."

I heard a gasp from Dr. Wood. "Wait. It's... On? James, what are you doing? You can't power it on!"

"I can and will do so, Nightingale." The male voice — James, as it were — was measured and firm, such a sharp contrast to its previous cautiousness.

"That's Dr. Wood to you," came the equally stony reply. "You need to shut this droid down and stop meddling in affairs that don't concern you!"

Footsteps retreated from me, across the room. The sound of buttons being pressed came shortly after. "I'm going to open its pod," James said flatly. "And you're not going to stop me."

"You're crazy, do you know that? The droid is dangerous, James-"

"Do not call me James," James said, voice deadly calm.

Nightingale sighed. "Dr. Jensen, please. It's dangerous."

"How? How is a broken droid dangerous to me?" James— no, Dr. Jensen asked.