to chase away the monsters

Chapter 4

 "How do I get him back?"

She smelled burning plastic and dried blood even thought there was none in her apartment. No, she shook her head. Mentally she was in Sevastopol again, ready to fight some more. Maybe it was time.

Time to go back and fight, not just for survival but for her friend. She never had such luxury back then. Ricardo, Taylor, Verlaine... They tried to help her and in the process got hurt, got murdered.

"That might be harder than I first imagined" Wright stated, braiding her hair.

Amanda noticed how the android almost always had to do something with her hands. It was a small oddity that first made her see Wright as a human employee. She only realized her mistake one night when she stayed up late and at the office met with the blonde. She naively asked why isn't she at home, sleeping to which Wright stopped and after a few second she simply answered "I don't sleep".

"Are you anxious, Ripley?"

Pacing up and down, Amanda glared at her.

"What makes you think that?" She was barefoot, her hair now let down to try and relax at least some muscles, while she walked around, thinking. She was holding Samuels. The... drive, that contained his core system and memories. Silvery coin.

Wright lazily rolled her eyes. "The model I got for Samuels... It's the same series but a newer model. They are made to be hyper realistic to blend in society better."

"And how the hell did you manage that?" Amanda put her arms on her hip. She couldn't even get a spare ion cutter to work from home without needing to talk to god knows how many managers and officers of safety as well as fill out a mountain of paperwork AND undergo a psychological evaluation to prove she is not planning to cut a hole in an oxygen pipe. "And why? Why not just get a Samuels of the same version?"

"Because they are no longer manufactured and stored empty. And believe me Ripley, I'm not going to kill a brother in order to save another. Besides, requesting a more realistic model fits my story. I told them it must be able to fulfill whatever social need you might have."

Amanda sat down and stared at the other woman. It didn't even crossed her mind that getting an other Samuels and loading Chris on that model would count as murder. As a sacrifice. Something she was ready to make without thinking, without skipping a beat. It scared her, how much more humanity Wright had. It was something to be gained of course but also something Amanda lost greatly as the cost of survival.

"So what is the hard part? Are there any compatibility problems?" Not that it matters, she thought. Samuels went to the greatest length to help her and now she was ready to return the gesture. No mater how much she has to hack and wack, she would get there.

"I deleted anything unnecessary to be able to store him. I did salvage some from the archives but they were mostly memories. He has to download a lot of new divers for this body" Wright halted. "I never saw any AI put itself back together."

Wright's voice was stoic as ever. Matter of fact. She didn't really care about the outcome but she was curious. Whatever would happen, she would like to witness it. Either resurrection, or fatal decay awaited him. She also knew it was fine by Samuels. He made it very clear when they first met, all he cares about is Amanda's safety. So Wright imagines it would suck for him to die but he would probably okay with it, that weird brother.

"How long until we know?" Amanda bit her nails, a bad habit she didn't remember picking up but did it anyway. Still, Wright enjoyed the determination crawling back into the engineer.

That's the spirit Samuels was talking about. The never giving up, just moving forward attitude. God knows Ripley needed that, now more than ever. She had to get her act together in order to stand whatever Wright was about to tell her. But maybe it wasn't time for that. Yet.