Chapter 15

Andena woke up with a start because someone was banging on her door. It was Joshua who shouted, “Wake up! You need to be ready in fifteen minutes.”

Her head was pounding because of the loud noise and the direct command she had received from Joshua. She sat up in her bed and to her surprise she noticed that the text was still there in front of her eye. She recalled what had happened the previous night and decided to continue to flip through the text as fast as she could give the command. She wanted to get to the end as soon as possible. After she had given the command ‘more’ for several times, she reached the end of the program’s lengthy information. With growing interest she read, “To uninstall type: suppressor uninstall. Warning: all stored settings will be deleted when an uninstall has been executed. Re-installing will take as long as the initial install. Press enter to close this text.”

Andena was reading the text again wondering what she should do. It was simple enough to uninstall the program and in the short description, it said it was suppressing parts of the brain. The warning was clear; quickly undoing an uninstall was not an option. She wanted to have a clearer mind to be able to think faster. She made up her mind, and she decided to uninstall the program. She lay down on her bed again and gave the command to close the text.

Not knowing what would happen she took a deep breath and commanded, “Suppressor uninstall.”

A new text appeared, “Uninstalling the program will discard all saved parameters. Are you sure? (Y/N).”

She knew there was no return if she continued and hesitated for a moment but then she heard footsteps reverberating in the hall. To her dismay, she recognised the typical clicking sound of the heels which were definitely Miss Danette’s. She knew it was too late to complete the uninstall because she didn’t want to take the risk. Who knew what would happen if she gave the command. She sighed accepting the fact that she was probably going to have to wait until tonight.

At that moment, she heard Danette trying to open the door but it stayed shut, and she heard her murmuring, “What the fuck is this? Why is this still not organised?”

She heard Miss Danette stomping away angrily and realised she had gotten some extra time. Knowing it was now or much later she knew it was the right moment to go ahead, and she gave the command, “Yes.”

She pinched her eyes closed and was startled when her display showed, “Closing down the arrays...”

She waited for a few moments, but nothing else happened. She decided to get up from her bed to get ready and dressed. She quickly got into the bathroom, and as she looked at herself in the mirror, she got the fright of her life. With trembling hands she touched her hair and came to the conclusion it looked like it hadn’t been washed for weeks! She stepped into the shower and saw to her disbelief there was no soap and no shampoo! But then she realised she hadn’t time for that anyway and looked feverishly around for a solution. Her eyes fell on a grubby hair brush which was lying on the sink, and she was relieved to find some hair elastics at the base of the brush. It took a full five minutes to get her hair into a decent enough plait, and she was quite upset by how much hair there was gathered in the brush. Andena was not at all happy at how she had been treated for the last few days. It suddenly sank in: the suppressor program had stopped working, and she was back to normal!

Although she still felt really strange.

She studied herself in the mirror and saw the numbers embroidered on her suit. She recalled that Miss Danette had called her ‘Double Zero’ instead of her name. She gasped when she remembered that she didn’t know her name, and she started to wonder what had happened to her. The last thing she could remember before she woke up with this horrible tube in her throat, was being attacked by those vines. How she had ended up here was a total mystery, but she was convinced that something wasn’t right. The fact that she was locked in this room was one of the things Andena was worrying about and where was she?

She heard Miss Danette’s heels approaching her door again and within a few seconds, after the door had slid open, they stared at each other for a long moment. Andena was shocked by Miss Danette’s dishevelled state and exclaimed, “Oh my, you look horrible!”

Miss Danette closed the door, and the expression on her face as she looked at Andena was one of bewilderment. Andena realised that she had made a stupid mistake by commenting. She needed to be careful to behave in such a way that it wasn’t obvious that she had disabled the suppressor. Miss Danette’s voice was shaky and raw which made the little hairs on Andena’s neck stand upright. She spoke softly, “Double Zero, I don’t want to hear any personal remarks from you anymore, do you understand?”

It was then she felt the scary and strange urge to obey, and she knew that Miss Danette still had considerable control over her. She whispered meekly, “Yes Miss.”

She saw Danette pinching the bridge of her nose before she said, “I don’t know why your parameters are diverting from the others, but I hope it’s just a glitch.”

Andena looked at Miss Danette whose face was now marred by a troubled expression, as she looked discreetly upwards. She wondered whether Miss Danette was trying to tell her something. On a hunch, Andena decided to look up slowly towards the ceiling of her room and saw to her dismay a camera which was mounted in the corner of the room. She knew she had to keep her facial expression as neutral as possible and thought long and hard about the most appropriate way in which to respond to Miss Danette’s remark. In the end, there was nothing that she could say, except an apologetic, “Yes Miss.”

Miss Danette squinted for a moment and turned around abruptly without saying a word. As she walked out the door, she commanded with a gruff sounding voice, “Follow me.”

Andena understood that something major was at stake, and she didn’t dare to screw it up. It made her feel uneasy that Miss Danette’s direct order compelled her to follow her.

It undermined her free will, but she felt that she still was in control. She knew that a response was required, and so said, “Yes Miss.”

He felt a leg slowly rubbing against his body, and an arm was resting in the nape of his neck. There was something soft but firm keeping the side of his body warm, but all these pleasant experiences were nearly overwhelmed by a horrendous headache. Lunn had to take a deep breath to fight off the urge to vomit, and he moaned softly. A warm body climbed further on his chest and hugged him tightly. It took him a few long moments to figure out to whom this wonderful feeling body belonged: Lily!

He was in no state to respond to her. The only thing he could do was move his arms on her back, and try to relax a bit longer. He had no energy to do anything else anyway, and he shut his eyes hoping he could fall asleep in spite of his throbbing headache.

Danette was shocked when she saw how much Andena had changed since the day before. It was as if Andena was suddenly much more aware of the world around her. The fact that Andena had combed her hair and had braided it into a neat plait made Danette wonder what was going on. It made her feel even guiltier that Andena was stuck on the program, together with the other androids. Danette started to wonder whether Bionex had altered the settings on Andena’s AI program or whether her personality which was meant to be suppressed, had somehow managed to overrule the core.

As she was walking behind Andena, she couldn’t help but notice the pungent sweaty smell coming from her, and she realised that Andena had no means of washing herself. It was clear that Bionex had never hosted a human.

Andena remembered that they had walked along this corridor before but now she was able to see everything in far greater detail, and she did her best to process this additional information. She was amazed by how immaculate and pristine everything looked. It was as if everything was brand new. She recognised the hall where she had been in before, and she wasn’t surprised at all when Miss Danette ordered, “Sit down on the bench and wait for my return.”

Andena responded in an instant placidly, “Yes Miss.”

Miss Danette growled, “And no stupid tricks, this time, do you understand?”

Andena looked up to Miss Danette as she remembered she nearly had crushed her when she had tried to jump across the hall and said with an apologetic voice, “Yes Miss.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds longer before Miss Danette turned away in a huff.

Andena mulled over what Miss Danette had said, but she still was keen to find out what had changed in her body. It suddenly dawned on her that if she concentrated on a certain move or action, she could summon a little dial. She was also a lot stronger, and that intrigued her even more. It was something she definitely had to try out! She placed her hand firmly on the edge of the bench about a foot away from her. Slowly she increased the strength of her pull until she heard little cracking noises. She hadn’t realised that there was a dial in front of her eye until it started to blink in red. It was clear that she had reached the maximum extent of her capabilities. As she glanced sideways, she was taken aback by how much she was bending the bench. Andena heard noises outside the hall and let the bench drop down again. The bench snapped back with a loud bang, and Andena felt the whole surface shudder for a moment.

The nine androids marched into the hall, and she had to move towards the end of the bench. Watching the androids all sit down in unison was an impressive sight and the bench not only shuddered from the sudden increase in weight but it also made a loud creaking noise. She looked at Miss Danette, who pretended that nothing had happened. She smiled and suddenly her voice reverberated loudly around the hall, “Right! Today we are going to do something completely different. We are going to practice leapfrog.”