Androides Vitae

Following in the footsteps of my ancestors. A frequent strange saying my human friends said. They'd once explained it to me as, “Des, the people that came before us are people we want to be like. We share blood with them.” How could something dead share the life force of blood with something living? They didn't elaborate.

My name is Androides, but the humans called me Des. It sounded 'more human', according to them. I have no memory of how I came to be here, one day I woke up and unfamiliar human faces peered at me. I knew my name, and that I needed to blend in. It would be dangerous for too many to know I was an android, built to mingle with their population. Gathering intelligence was automatic. Every little thing the soft humans did, I mimicked until I was successful in blending in most of the time.

There were times, I was not successful. Right now, I stood in the middle of the marketplace, frozen in place because my batteries were dying. I'd come alone, and had no way to let my friends know about my predicament.

“Hey, are you okay?” A soft voice asked me, a child coming to stand in front of me. It was a girl human, her hair long and curled like twisted wires. I calculated her age to be around twelve.

When I didn't answer, she smiled and reached for my hand. “My sister gets scared too, follow me.”

My low powered legs stumbled after her, movements clumsy and resembling the machine I was.

“My name is Peony, what's yours?” She asked, her face turned up to mine with openness and the innocence I'd come to expect with the youth of this race.

“Des.” My tired vocal box said, the sound mechanical instead of the smoothness of humans.

She led us to an alley, the darkness growing from the tall buildings on either side of us. The difference in our steps grew, and danger flashed on my computer database. There was no way out of this, either way my identity would be confirmed. I need to ask this young human for help.

“Peony, I am an android. I am running out of power.” I spoke, voice sounding even more like a machine.

She paused, and looked at my hand, which she'd been holding. I'd been programmed to feel warm, and soft like human flesh. Her eyes traveled up my frame, until she met my green eyes. Human emotions were easy for me to categorize, and she looked excited.

“An android?” She repeated, her voice raising at the end. “I've always wanted to meet one. You're so life-like. It's incredible.” She stepped closer, and raised her hand to my shoulders. “Mama says your kind aren't worth the scrap metal to make you. Daddy thinks you're amazing science, and wants to study your machinery.”

“I'm not dangerous, I'm different.” I reply, used to the terror of others finding out about me.

“Different is beautiful,” She whispered, tugging my hand again. “Come on, I know where I can take you. It's not far.” She turned, her purple hair flying wild behind her.Having no option but to trust this inquisitive child, I complied and moved with effort after her.

*

“Peony! It's been ages!” A rotund woman with a shock of pure white hair came out of the doorway we stood in front of, her cheeks an unhealthy red. “Give me a hug, child.” She opened her thick arms, and the child flew into them with a giggle. Peony was a happy child, it seemed. And very trusting.

The woman's eyes met mine, and narrowed at the edges. “Who's this?” She pulled Peony from her, and studied the girl, eyes taking in everything about her.

Her hair in wild curls, her simple worn clothes, and sensibly covered feet. She was like most of the people in this area, simple and poor. “This is Des. He needs your help.” Peony whispered, my bionic ears catching everything.

“What kind of help?” The woman replied, her face pinched and hands protecting the child.

Peony stepped away, found my hand and pulled me forward with an encouraging smile. “He's in need of power, Q.”

The woman raised her eyebrows and studied me. “Power?” She murmured, taking in my stance, and heaved a sigh so great, it shook her entire body. “Come on in, then. We have to make this quick.” She turned to the doorway and disappeared into the darkness within, her footsteps echoing in the small space.

“You can trust her, she's done this before.” Peony whispered, tugging me until I moved. “I'll be right with you.”

Trust was a human emotional construct, something with which I didn't feel. I'd been programmed with emotional expressions, but a machine doesn't feel. Not in the way humans do, from what I've seen. Something about this young human was intriguing, and my intel wanted to know more. So I allowed her to guide me into Q's domain, willing to imitate trust for a purple haired young girl.

My sensors told me the temperature had warmed up. Droplets of sweat covered Q’s forehead as she bent over a pot hanging on a steel pipe over a fire.

“Sit over there, gotta stir this before the bottom burns. No one likes burnt soup.” She said, gesturing to the low benches on the side of the room, half hidden by the wall.

I went and lowered myself, more sensors going off at the dangerous level of power.

“Where are you from?” Peony asked, sitting next to me, eyes never stopping as she studied me.

“From?”

“Who made you?”

“I have no memory of that.” I said, a pop from the fireplace jerked my attention away.

Q was watching us, and a minute stretched into two. She nodded, and swept over to a cabinet I hadn’t noticed. She tugged some drawers free, and muttered to herself. “No memory, seems a shame to me. How are they supposed to blend in, without such a thing as that? Everyone comes from somewhere.”

She turned with a long cord in her hand, and thumped over to us. “Your power port is at your side, correct?”

“It is.” I moved and lifted the shirt that covered my body. I had the same skin like substance all over, but a thin line marked where my port was located. I pressed on it, and when it opened, Peony gasped.

“Can I see?” She whispered in what I registered as awe.

I didn’t move, I couldn’t. I would have shifted to make it easier, but my systems were shutting down one by one.

“Peony sweetling, Des needs power. You ask him when he’s charged.” Q chastised the child, and shoved the plug home.

An instant buzz of power ran through my systems. Something was different with Q’s power source, I’d never felt such strength so quickly. “Your power.” I muttered.

Q stiffened, and looked at me with eyes wide and lips pressed in a thin line. “I’ve had luck with my power source lately.” It was all she said.

If I had alarm bells, they’d be going off. A human sentiment that I understood well. I was almost at full charge, when it had been taking all day. It had been mere minutes. I needed to get out of here, without alarming either of them.

“I’m almost full.” I said, shifting my face into a benign smile that assured everyone who saw it.

Peony grinned, “Yay, I knew Q could fix you up.”

Q shifted and looked down at the port. “It’s nothing a little power couldn’t help.”

I pulled the plug free, and handed it to her. “I thank you all the same. I’d be in a predicament without your generosity.”

She moved back to the cabinet, putting the cord away without a word. Little Peony was standing and staring at me curiously. She leaned forward, her face level with mine as she pressed a finger gently to my lips.

“They're so soft.” She spoke so quietly, I knew I wasn’t meant to hear it.

Bionic hearing had its benefits.

“Whoever made you was a master.” She declared, and stood straight. “Come on, I’ll help you get home.”

I stared at her outstretched hand and allowed my emotional database filter through everything that had happened. I would dissect it later. For now, getting out of Q’s place was priority.

“Thank you again,” I held my hand out to shake her hand, and she gripped it with care. “I don't break.”

“You lose power.” She said, color covering her face like waves of light.

I bowed slightly, and turned to go.

Purple hair shown in the dim light of the alley, Peony faced away from the entrance. I moved gingerly toward her, she smiled over her shoulder. “Where too, Des?” She asked.

She had helped me, seemed to be most innocent of the humans I’d come across, and something about her kindness surprised me. Humans around here weren’t the nicest. Peony’s mention of her family, and Q’s behavior cemented that information deep within my database. Zeroing in on the child's face, I knew she’d helped enough.

“This is where we part ways, little Peony.” I stated, knowing it would sound gentle.

Her face fell, and she stared at the ground. “I don’t want to leave you, yet.” She rubbed her cheek, before looking at me again. “There’s so much I want to know, I haven’t had a chance to talk to you.”

I leaned down, pressing my hand to her cheek, sensors alerting me to moisture. “Little human, thank you for your help. I cannot put you in more danger than you’ve already been in.”

“Des, I’m safe with you.” She urged, voice shaking. She was gulping rapidly, something my friends did when upset.

I pressed harder to her face, watching her eyes widen. “I cannot protect you. I’m not a protection android. Go home.”

Turning from the purple hair little human with a kindness I’d never forget, I walked out of the alley way, aimed for home. I ignored her calling my name, until her voice faded behind me.

I felt a jolt in my chest cavity, and press a hand over it, shock making my steps falter. Pausing on the side of the street, I ran a quick data check. The information coming back to me was something I’d never expected. Something that was impossible for androids.

In the location of a human's heart, my machinery rocked and twisted, sending urgent messages to all areas. The human emotion of pain and panic filled every sensor like a warning beacon.

Raising my eyes to the buildings and people moving about me, I didn’t know how to process this information. How could an android feel emotion, when it was impossible? How had a human child make an android live?