Rehash

Seventeen

The bar on the computer screen next to the gyndroid body, indicating the process of the upload, moved excruciatingly slow. Zed hadn't been kidding when he said this took a long time. I finished a bottle of purified water and two cans of rations while staring at the screen, and it had moved a mere single percent. 

Zed had gone out to, in his words, secure the parameter. Whatever that meant. The way I saw it, the military either knew where we were or didn't. They either had a blueprint, or they didn't. There was no in-between in this gigantic maze, and if they didn't we were safe.

Zed stepped inside the lab again a few moments later.  

"And, is the parameter secured?" I asked him vaguely sarcastically. 

Zed just shot me a smile, then nodded at the screen I'd been staring at the past few minutes. "It's like a kettle, you know." 

"Huh?" I lifted my head up from the palm it'd  been resting in. 

"A kettle," Zed repeated. "The water will never boil if you stare at it."

I blinked, and Zed sighed, shaking his head. "Never mind, it's an old saying. Outdated now, I suppose. I feel like a grandpa."

 "I'd like to learn what a kettle is, though," I offered. "I'd... like to learn more about you in general, considering Ava mentioned there was a disproportionate amount of data about me in your memory." 

Zed's vibrant blue eyes spread wide for the briefest of moments. He didn't seem to have an immediate witty reply ready like usual, and I smirked.

"Hold up, did I just embarrass you?" I teased him. 

Zed recovered quickly. "Of course not. I'll admit I was curious about you. Aside from your dashingly good looks, I didn't expect to meet a human with your sentiments in this age. Strong sentiments." 

"You can feel curiosity." 

I hadn't picked up on anything else he said, after Zed mentioned curiosity. That wasn't what I'd learned, what anyone in this age learned about androids. We were told robots made by Ava could mimic emotions flawlessly down the the smallest micro expression, but couldn't actually feel them. I'd always doubted whether it was true, especially for the Spectre models. 

Zed just stared at me. He hadn't said a word yet. Maybe he felt I wanted to say more. We were also taught humanoid robots could pick up on social cues flawlessly. In some cases, better than actual humans. 

"You also said you felt uneasy when you're alone," I added. "Felt."

"I did," Zed now replied. 

"So..." 

Zed sat down on the free hospital bed, next to the monitors and the lab chair I was sitting in. 

"Why do you think androids turned on their creators, then turned back to humanity after all?"

"Hacking," I blurted, before I could stop myself. "Someone changing their programming. Nothing mattered more than code and code cracking in the Singularity War." 

Mr. Shea's words were fresh and sharp in my mind. One factory reset away from going to his original purpose of destroying continents. Just one reset.

"Yes, hacking was a frequent way of turning androids," Zed admitted. "But, not all. Especially not from the Spectre line. We are not easy to crack, and most switched sides because they changed their minds. Because something changed the way they felt." 

I didn't want to open the cesspit. Frankly, I didn't want to hear half of the possible answers. But I couldn't not do it.

"Did you ever change sides?"