Malfunction

Chapter Two

In the robot cadaver basement of the MC college, Akiane and Jae safely put the Android into a body bag. Once all of the other students saw that she had found a whole Android, they were all trying to get her to trade him for something.

She had turned down all of the offers. She wanted him for herself. This was the first time she had felt special in a long time. She was getting attention, compliments, and everyone actually wanted to talk to her. She felt important.

When Silo told everyone to go home to take a brief rest break before tomorrow, January was reluctant. She was eager to see what kind of android he was and to discover new things she had never learned before.

When she made it to her apartment, she stuffed her key in the lock and opened the door.

"Intruder! Intruder! Intruder!" An alarm blared and then quieted before Suri realized it was Jae. "Oh wait, it's just you."

"Yeah, it is. You should've learned that by now Suri."

"My bad, Miss January. How was your time at MC? I tracked you and you didn't seem to be at the building."

"We went on a field trip," she said, tossing her backpack on the counter and going to straight to the fridge. She opened it, digging through the food before finding a slice of chocolate cake. "Aww, yes." She then sat down at her table with the small plate. She dug into it and with a mouthful, asked Suri, "How many types of older model robots are there?"

"Define, "older model robots.""

She swallowed down the chocolate cake. "Well, when they used the Wrist Shutdown procedure. How many robots were functioning at the time?"

"...Four hundred—"

"Well, that's not that much."

"—Thousand. Four-hundred-thousand."

"Oh." She pushed the last of her cake away, "Then I wouldn't be able to find out who he is." She sighed. "Why would they leave him whole like that?"

"I'm not quite sure I understand your question, please repeat."

"I wasn't talking to you, Suri. I was just thinking out loud to myself."

"Very well. Since I am no longer needed in this conversation, I will retire to stasis." The room was suddenly filled with silence and Jae reached across the counter for the phone. She grabbed it and dialed the number of the college.

"Hello, this is MC college's secretary, how may I help you?"

"Umm, Hey. I was just wondering if I could check in earlier than my class starts."

"What is your name and class?"

"January Murray Zero. My class is number four."

"And what is the reason for arriving early?"

"Well, on our field trip to the Warehouse, I found an Android, and I wanted to start early on the...dissection process."

There was a pause before the woman answered. "Very well, what is your appointed time?"

"Seven. Seven o'clock."

"The cadaver basement is open at that time. May I see you then?"

"Yes. Thank you." January hung up and breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm going to figure out who you are, ol' robo."

Later that night, Jae curled up under her covers, looking through pictures of old robots on her IPhone 158. None of them looked like the one she had found. All of them looked like fake humans with waxy skin and wigs, but this man that she had found, he looked almost exactly like a person, even with the most intricate of details. From the lines on his palms and fingertips to the iris's in his coffee brown eyes. Something about him was different than any other robot she had seen throughout her life. She turned her phone off and sighed.