Chapter 9

Olga had trouble keeping her anger at bay. She thought that this Miss Danette was a stuck up bitch. She might be skilled to build those androids but who was she to judge her and her team? It was obvious that she didn’t like it that she had to deal with a woman as well as her beloved androids.

As she and Miss Danette were walking back to the hall, she was thinking about what she had read in the information folders for the androids. She knew she was fortunate have had access those highly secure folders especially when it became clear why they were so secretive. It was typical of Mr. Yousima to masquerade his sinister goings on in a confused muddle. Olga thought that using the androids to cover up the errors was a smart move: provided, of course, no-one became too inquisitive.

Olga was shaken to the core when Danette broke the silence by asking the question, “Do the androids still have their original program?”

“Yes, I haven’t had the chance to make a start, and I’m pleased that you’re taking over.”

“I see. Too busy with other tasks?”

“Mr. Yousima always manages to fill my day to the brim.”

Danette had smiled weakly and said softly, “I can understand that some days might be incredibly challenging.”

Olga hated when people tried to sympathise with her. If they only knew what she had to endure on a daily basis, they wouldn’t make stupid remarks.

She snorted, “I can assure you that from now on your days will never be boring. Let me show you the room where the androids are stored, and I’ll brief you about the training program Mr. Yousima has set up for the androids.”

Olga didn’t like the woman’s sour expression, and she couldn’t wait to leave her with it.

Danette was pleased that she could finally start training the girls, and as she arrived in the hall, the girls were still sitting on the benches all looking dazed at the opposite wall. They hadn’t moved at all, and Danette knew what would happen when she shouted, “Attention!”

All the girls stood up within a second and waited for instructions. Danette couldn’t stop a little yelp coming from her mouth. She was super excited to see her hard labour bear fruit. It made her feel happy, but she knew that it was going to be hard work getting them ready on time. Mr. Yousima had set quite a challenge, but she was convinced that she could pull it off, especially with her neatly designed androids and she instantly took command of the group, “Right! At ease! Sit down on the bench.”

They all complied in an instant. Danette stood in front of the girls and studied the numbers embroidered on the suits. Hoping that the android was wearing the correct suit she asked, “Zero One, who am I?”

The girl replied with a ringing voice, “You are Miss Danette, our trainer.”

“Good. Now listen carefully and store the next instruction: If you’re in this hall, and I enter the hall, I want you to stand to attention immediately.”

Danette expected a confirmation, but she realised that they had to learn everything from scratch. She didn’t know whether to sigh or chuckle with frustration.

“I want to hear ‘Yes Miss.’ if you have successfully received and stored an instruction.”

Again her remark was met with a deathly silence, and Danette said, “If I say at ease, and we are in the hall you sit down on the bench.”

A chorus of nine female voices said, “Yes Miss.”

She had to test whether or not her instruction had been received in good order and she shouted, “Attention!”

The women all jumped up again, and Danette grinned as she said, “At ease.”

The women sat down on the bench in one smooth move. It was still intimidating to see nine androids moving as one. She left the hall and walked back after she had waited for a few moments.

As she entered the hall, the nine android women instantly got up which made her feel a little bit better. Now the time-consuming part of her job was about to start: making the androids ready for the task Mr. Yousima had assigned for them.

She pondered for a few seconds and said, “When I say ‘go for it’ you’re going to run at a pace of two steps per second following the blue line around the hall, counter-clockwise. Since your body is different to the parameters stored in your memory, you will need to recalibrate. I will place cones and other obstacles in the route which you must avoid. You’ll need to learn to overcome them as efficiently as possible. If you fall you will need to analyse what went wrong and adjust your patterns accordingly.”

Danette looked at the androids and was quite excited by the fact that she finally had the opportunity to test the capabilities of her carefully designed androids.

With a big smile, she shouted, “Go for it!”

She hadn’t anticipated the huge and laughable spectacle which unfolded right before her eyes. All of the androids got up at the same time and started to run. However, the first two instantly lost their balance and stumbled over their own feet. With a muffled thump they fell to the floor which resulted in the others falling over too. Danette realised that she hadn’t anticipated that they would all start at the same time, but she was fascinated by how quickly the androids were adapting and before she knew it the androids were running at an equal distance from each other. It was impressive to hear the drilled sound of nine feet landing on the floor at the same time.

Now it was time to mix things up a bit! Danette placed a cone on the line. She was impressed when she saw that it took only four androids to wobble a bit before the others smoothly avoided the cone.

She was flabbergasted how quickly the androids were learning from each other! She was proud of the fact that the AI software was working so well. She couldn’t wait to make it much more complex.

Olga walked into the hall where Miss Danette was training the androids and was taken aback by what she witnessed. The nine androids were running around the hall at a dazzling speed while they swerved and jumped over objects. The sight was mesmerising because of the women’s light-footed tread. To all intents and purposes, it looked as if they were gracefully dancing over the obstacles. She couldn’t help but laugh when she heard Miss Danette shouting, “Okay, now smile!”

Olga wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes when the graceful dancing women started to tumble over each other. Within a few seconds, all of them were piled up into an impressive heap of mangled androids.

She heard Miss Danette commanding, “Okay! At ease and process what just happened.”

It took the droids a considerable amount of effort to untangle themselves before they were able to walk silently to the bench to sit down.

Olga said to Miss Danette, “That was very impressive.”

“Are you referring to how easily you can disrupt them with one command?”

She realised instantly that she had witnessed an unforeseen failure and that Mr. Yousima would have gone berserk if he had seen this. “I’m sorry if I have caught you at a bad moment, but the way in which they were moving was incredible.”

Miss Danette’s face turned into a brief smile as she said, “Well yes, you have an impeccable sense of timing, but I’m glad that I found it out before I made a complete fool of myself at the demo!”

Olga laughed as she imagined an unseemly pile up of androids in front of the whole company and she said, “I think you would have Mr. Yousima after you.”

“Yes, I guess so. Anyway, what brings you here?”

Olga hated to dump unfinished work on somebody, but Mr. Yousima had insisted that she had to go back to the task of investigating the security breach. He had said that Miss Danette could take care of number ten.

She sighed, and she couldn’t prevent the tremble in her voice as she started to speak, “Mr. Yousima wants my complete devotion to a pressing matter which means I have to dump something on you.”

She heard Miss Danette huff, “Oh great. Don’t tell me I have to take care of Jane Doe as well!”

Olga thought about how to respond because she wasn’t pleased by Danette’s bitchy answer. However, in a moment of blinding clarity she realised that she would have done the same thing. So, instead of losing her temper, she calmly retorted, “Well, yes, but Joshua will help you with it, and he is quite capable. If we hurry, we might catch him before he is done with her.”

As they walked at a sturdy pace towards the recovery room, Danette asked, “What is Joshua doing with her?”

Olga had to laugh. She knew that she had used a strange turn of phrase and that clearly Danette hadn’t understood its meaning.

“You know, the usual: checking her vitals and, if necessary, washing her.”

Danette snorted and said, “I bet he finds it necessary to wash her every day.”

Olga felt her anger rising again because of her prejudiced opinion, but she knew Joshua wouldn’t let an opportunity pass to examine that beautiful body.

Being in the same room with Joshua and the girl made her feel uncomfortable. She was relieved that Miss Danette was going to be there as well, and she murmured more to herself than to Miss Danette, “I can’t blame him.”

As they arrived at the door which led into the recovery room, Olga blew out some air before saying, “Right, here we are. Jane Doe is still connected to a respiratory device which might look a bit disturbing.”

“Why is she on a respiration? Can’t she breathe on her own?”

“She is on special medication to speed up the healing, and it is a lot more effective when she is breathing air with a higher percentage of oxygen.”

Olga knocked on the door realising that it was more a warning for Joshua. She had the authority to barge into the room, but she wanted to spare Miss Danette an awkward introduction to Joshua.

He opened the door and said, “Olga! I didn’t expect you to be here!”

He walked into the corridor and closed the door behind him. His face was beetroot red, and as Olga deliberately glanced at his pants, she knew that his embarrassment would get even greater.

She wasn’t fazed by his arousal and said with a smirk, “I want you to meet our new colleague: Miss Danette. She will train the androids and your lovely girl.”

Olga turned her head to Miss Danette to see that she was looking at Joshua with amusement.

Miss Danette licked her lips before purring, “Nice to meet you, Joshua.”

He cleared his throat, and as he took Miss Danette’s hand with both his hands, he tried to deepen his voice when he replied, “The pleasure is all mine, Miss Danette.”

Olga had to grin as she realised that he was failing spectacularly in his attempt to impress Miss Danette.

“Shall we have a look?” she asked abruptly.

Olga heard Miss Danette reply instantly, “Oh yes, I can’t wait to meet our lovely Jane Doe.”

Joshua tried to prevent Miss Danette from opening the door, but she marched straight into the room.

Olga rushed into the room after she heard Danette scream, “What? No! No! It can’t be true! Where the fuck did you find her?”

She saw Miss Danette sink onto her knees and begin to rock. “Oh shit! This is so fucked up. This is so fucked up.”

Olga realised that Miss Danette must have recognised the girl and that it had clearly had a huge impact on her. She hated finding herself in this situation because she was duty-bound to report anything unusual to Mr. Yousima. It was always unpleasant to bring him the unexpected news because of his erratic behaviour. She needed to know if Miss Danette knew the girl. Placing her hand carefully on Danette’s shoulder she asked in a very gentle voice, “Miss Danette, do you know her?”