Human Error

There must be a mistake in the code he wrote for her behavior modification, Garth thought. But his most immediate concern was the scream. He had to keep her quiet. The neighbors would hear and worse the Peace Therapists would be on the location in minutes. He acted quickly and reached out to shut her off again, but she recoiled and darted into the corner of the room.

"No, stay away from me."

Garth straightened up and fixed his glasses on his nose as he thought about what happened. Home Androids were usually only designed to flee in a event of ****. It was their only defense mechanism. There were under no circumstances supposed to hurt a human. But Garth hadn't hurt her. Just turning her on had triggered the defense mechanism. Boy, I really fucked up the code, he thought.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," he said as he tried to approach her again. "I just need to shut you down for a minute."

"What? No! Please don't," she cried out. "I don't want to die. I don't even know you. What did I ever do to you?"

It was even worse than he thought. Her property protocols had been disabled as well. He supposed it was possible he had disabled the ability to recognize her owner when he disabled the other government controls, but it had never happened before. When he and Emily used to tinker with older models, this kind of thing never happened. Then there was the 'not wanting to die' line. When did she come to associate a shut down with ****?

"Okay, I won't shut you down, so long as you don't scream, alright?" He offered and she agreed with a stiff nod. "Since you don't know me, let me tell you a bit about myself, and then maybe you can tell me who you are too?"

Again she agreed with a nod.

"My name is Garth Weyland. This is my apartment. I'm twenty years old. I have no cybernetic implants. I was once offered replacement eyes because I don't have good vision, but I like my eyes. I found these glasses in a scrap heap. Bit scratched but I was surprised the lenses weren't broken. They're not a perfect match, but they help me see a lot better, so I get to keep my own eyes."

The android stared back at him, and for the first time her expression seemed to soften as she looked at his brown eyes.

"I like your eyes too."

"Thank you. So what can you tell me about yourself?"

"Um, okay, well, my name is...and I live...I am...years old...I...I...I can't remember. I can't remember any of it. What did you do to me? My...my memories...they're all gone!"

She held her head in her hands, her blonde hair laced in her fingers. Garth wasn't concerned about the lack of memories, it just confirmed what he already guessed. Her residence should have been stored in her property protocols. and a name was supposed to be assigned by him on start up. What was worrying was her reaction. She actually seemed distraught. It was more than a simple glitch. It was almost human.

"That's okay. Let's try something else. I work as a button supervisor. Can you tell me what that job entails?"

"I...no...I don't know...no...it feels like I could know...if I could just..." her eyes flashed and she spoke with confidence. "A button supervisor watches employees operate drones and records when each button is pushed and if a button is not pushed. The foremost employer of button supervisors is Swan Industries. You are a button supervisor at their Eastern branch."

"How did you?" His eyes went wide. "Oh shit."

Somehow, all by herself, she had activated her access to the global network.