Chapter 1

SHEILA - Synthetic, Humanoid, Enlightened, Inquisitive, Living, Android

Hello, my name is Roger Gance, and I am a dead man. Well, I am if I can’t figure out a way out of this problem. You see, I am a cybernetic/android programmer, creator. I recently found out what was being done with my creations, so you might say I rebelled. That’s when they sent one of my prototypes after me; one that they had been using for assassinations and a few general killings.

My latest creation I had developed over the last fifteen years. A synthetic, humanoid, enlightened, inquisitive, living android—Sheila, as I called her—was far beyond anything that had ever been done. She had a capability of movement faster than anything out there now. Her thought processes were almost as fast as the human brain. She was, for lack of better words, perfect, well, to me. In respect to the human race, she was close, approaching, though not quite there.

I had just finished updating her servo motors in the arms and legs. She was faster than anything in the android world; I should have figured the military would want her. I had started putting her through her paces with all the brass watching. To say they were more than impressed would be a major understatement. They had hit me with a problem fifteen years ago that I had spent all this time working on: Give her and all androids emotions.

I remember telling the brass, “Sure, give me a few years, and I should have the start of a working program.” How in the hell could I, one of the smartest people on earth, have been so damn stupid? Not once did I see what I was doing was wrong. I was a scientist; I had no moral code of ethics, right? Like hell! Especially when the same creations I had spent most of my life making were turned on me.

So, I had finished with Sheila’s servo upgrades; she was faster and stronger. She made the prototypes I had created look like they were moving in slow motion. It was late, and I had just loaded the last part of the emotion program, a huge arduous undertaking. With the servo upgrade finished, I could finally work on this other request of the brass full time.

“Sheila? How are you feeling now?” I asked when I saw the last part of the program was installed. Oh, I have to tell you, I made her look like an actress I had seen. She had smooth skin, light blonde, brown hair, and blue eyes. I think the actress’s name was Stone, though I can’t quite remember.

Sheila opened her eyes, looked around, then at me. “This unit finds it strange, Doctor Gance. This unit can feel the air in the room. The micro-fiber filaments you covered this skin with are operating at ninety-eight percent. This unit finds this well within allowable parameters. Adjusting sensors until they are at one hundred percent.”

“Very good,” I replied. “Test audio and optical sensors.”

“Working ... now adjusting to optimal range. Linking servo motors. Now syncing all systems to positronic processing centers.” It was perhaps another thirty minutes when Sheila turned her head toward me. “All systems maintaining one hundred percent.”

“Excellent, now please access file program 001A through 999Z. Integrate all files contained within. If you experience any difficulty, stop integration at once. Advise me as to the problem area that I may adjust for optimal loading of programs,” I ordered her.

“Now accessing all files for integration. It will take approximately five hours, twenty-two minutes, thirty-three seconds to finish all files. Shall this unit alert you when they are complete, Doctor Gance?” Sheila replied.

“Yes, that will prove satisfactory,” I told her, little did I realize that this was the defining moment that everything changed.

It was almost five hours later when I received a message from the brass. They wanted Sheila as soon as I was done. They wanted her for testing, testing? All the tests would be complete; she wouldn’t need more testing. Calling up all ten of the prototypes, I was shocked to see that two were active in other countries with orders to kill. Kill? They weren’t made for that! I sent a destruct signal, watching as the two sent to kill people exploded.

A few moments later, my phone rang. “Doctor Gance, what in the hell have you done? Those were on missions to kill some extremely bad people! Cease and desist, or we will have to terminate your program!”

I started to laugh as I sent three other signals. I watched as they also exploded, taking a few scientists I didn’t recognize with them. I had adjusted to take out the others when they stopped responding. So, it appeared that they had hacked me out.

I had forgotten I still had the phone to my ear. “Consider yourself retired and terminated, Gance, effective immediately! We will be there in a few hours for the new killing machine!”

Finally finding my voice, I shouted back, “You can try, General, you can try. By the time you get here, there will be no information on the program left. I’ve already deleted half of the files and backups. So I’m sure your yes-men won’t be able to recreate her.”

“She belongs to us, not you! No matter, as soon as you are dead, we’ll just take her apart. Reverse engineering her shouldn’t be a problem,” the General was saying calmly.

“As I said, it won’t be that easy, General. You had to be a self-important asshole and keep me out of it. Well, as long as I am alive, you best be afraid. She is independent and can’t be hacked.” I hung up as the General was starting to yell again.

I had already sealed the lab, though I knew they’d get in in a few hours. I just had to finish her, then we could go, though at the moment I wasn’t sure where. Pulling a disc I had been preparing for something like this, I slipped it in and started to type several complex commands. Sitting back, I laughed as I saw that for a short time, we were safe.

A movement behind me had me whirling as Sheila had stood, walking toward me.

“Dr. Gance, this system is puzzled by the instructions that the program has given it. It does not understand many of the commands that it requires of this system, which seem useless. This system is in need of further clarification before the program requirements can be acted upon.”

Sighing, I had been afraid of this as I held up another disc. “This should provide further clarification of many of the terms and requirements,” I told Sheila. I just hoped that the extra definitions I had added would be enough.

Slipping the disc in, Sheila stood there stock-still as the new information started to flow through her. I looked at the clock, hoping that the new information I had given her would help her to process better.

“I’m sorry, Sheila, that we didn’t have the time to explore the possibilities of the program. I have put much of myself into it, but you’ll never know. At least you will never know the heartbreak of loss.” Sighing, I looked at the clock again; we had maybe another two hours before they got through. Well, I hoped, as when we left here, any chance I had to help her would be gone.

It was twenty minutes later when Sheila reactivated. A softer voice came out of her as she said, “I see, Dr. Gance. The new information was indeed helpful, though I am still unsure of a few of the commands for me. So, what are we to do next?”

I looked at the clock again; we really needed to go, but I knew she needed more answers. Answers that I was the only one who could truthfully tell her. I started to explain about the prototypes that the brass had been using to assassinate people. I told her everything I had learned as she went through files, pulling up everything I told her.

“I see, Dr. Gance, you never intended for any of us to cause the termination of humans. Thank you, as I have seen you are a rare human in that you do not lie. Well, you lie eighty percent less than almost all humans I have accessed the records of,” she replied after I had finished.

I nodded as I told her, “I have found that the whole process of lying takes far more energy than I am willing to waste. Energy that I find to be far more productive in mental pursuits. I am sorry that there are so many unthinking humans.”

“I also find that your pursuit of the mental to be far more productive. Again, I thank you, Dr. Gance. I think, though, if we are still to exist after today, we need to escape. I am detecting several routes that we can take. I will carry you so that we can make far better time,” Sheila told me as she hoisted me up over her shoulder and started through the wall!

“I thought you saw hidden exits; I hadn’t thought you’d go through the wall! Just remember I am merely human; I am not nearly as indestructible as you,” I told her as she was slicing through walls as if they weren’t there.

“I apologize, Dr. Gance, but this is the quickest way out. It is also the furthest away from those that I feel are at this moment attempting to break into the lab. I will endeavor to keep you safe, even if I must destroy life to do so. I am sorry, Doctor, if that upsets you, but you must be kept alive,” Sheila threw me back over her shoulder.

Sighing, I understood, though for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why she was saying I must be kept alive. I’d have to ask her at the earliest chance I got. I thought back as I went over the program I had written. At times, it was a blessing and a curse to have a photographic memory. Nothing was coming to me about her concern for me.

It was a mere five minutes later that she broke through the last wall, and we were at the extreme back of the underground lab. Shaking my head, I had a hard time seeing. I hadn’t been out of the bunker-like lab in over a year. Hell, that had been to attend a meeting that the brass couldn’t have with me in the lab.

Sheila didn’t stop but rather picked up speed as she took off across the field. My mouth was hanging open as she accelerated even more! My god, everything was a blur! She had to be doing almost sixty miles per hour, and she was accelerating! I know I had increased her strength and speed, though I hadn’t known she was this fast!