Life as an object

Chapter one

"Android AL-1419 and AL-1520 are destroyed. Hank I need the next ones!" he screamed. Hank came into the hall and said calmly: "I'm sorry they were the last ones of this line boss. We have to program a new one." His boss, a scientist named Paul Winston, ran back and forth and grumbled quietly to himself: "Then hurry up, we need to be fast."

After a few hours of work in silence, Winston and his assistant Hank Shephard finished the body of their new android. Hank broke the silence with the words: "Why should the android be perfect? I mean nobody is perfect." "Because my great-grandfather invented the androids so that they are able to serve us. But his creation is only good for making coffee! I need a smart robot in shape of a human to achieve my goals. The android has to be able to use technology and to defend itself. That must be possible in the year 2238 after all!" answered his boss annoyedly. Hank nodded only, started the machines and connected them with the build of the android so that Winston could program the software for it. The scientist started to type a lot of codes into the computer, after a few minutes the first drops of sweat ran down his head. Only his breath and the sound of the keyboard disturbed the hours of silence.

"It's done. We can test it!" he whispered out of breath and wiped the sweat out of his face. Hank stood up, went to the android and turned it on. "Hello, I'm android AL-1621. Who are you?" said the android almost like a human. Winston and Hank looked at each other, smiled and shouted out of sheer joy. "He is the first one who is able to talk and..." "He? I am female!" said AL-1621 and came a step closer to the two men. Winston turned around, his jaw dropped and he raised his eyebrows in a surprised way: "How is this possible? You are only a thing without human brain and feelings." Hank stood also surprised next to him: "This could be the biggest invention of all time! We need to teach her everything!" Winston signaled him to be quiet and put one hand on the shoulder of AL-1621: "Come with me, I show you your room!" He and the android walked out of the hall and followed a corridor until they stopped at a metal door. The scientist opened the door. AL-1621 followed him into the room which looks like a small interrogation room and saw into the mirror which hung on the wall: "I look almost like you guys, only my eyes are bigger and I don't have any hair." Then she sat down on a metal chair: "Why are we here and what's your name? Where are we? Why am I here?" Winston stood in the door and looked into her eyes: "In time, you will understand everything!" He locked the door and ran back to Hank. "Shephard! AL-1621 is safe but it has many questions. We start tomorrow with teaching and checking it. Hurry up and go to bed, we get up early!" Winston said in passing.

The next morning started uncomfortable for Hank. He was woken up by an alarm clock at 4am. After he made coffee for Winston and himself, he followed the corridor and stopped at the metal door. Hank unlocked the door and went into the room: "Good Morning AL-1621. How are you? Can you understand me?" The android answered without hesitation: "Good morning, I'm fine. And yes I can understand everything." Hank spent the next hours to explaining to her what she is and why she was built. Sometimes he had to answer difficult questions or explain facts in detail. At 11am Winston came into the room and signaled AL-1621 to go with him. They followed the dark corridor in the other direction and went to another big hall with artificial turf as soil. The scientist stopped in front of a weapon stand and inspected his created work: "Today we start with your training. It's going to be hard, but you're going to need it!" The android nodded and looked interested at the weapons next to Winston. "Here, I show you how it works." said Winston and gave a gun to his android.

The next months were full of training, every day, every second. AL-1621 hadn't time to relax. When the android wasn't involved in combat training, she had to learn how it all worked with Hank. Winston adapted an armor for her and programmed new abilities. Everything ran perfectly until the scientist made a mistake with a programming code...