“You want what’s in her head?”

“…”

“We’ve been keeping her under sedation. She refuses to answer any questions. She is… Completely uncooperative director.”

“Change tactics. Use the screen. No restrictions.”

“Sir. That will damage the vessel and break all-“

“As the respected project leader of the company, I expect results from you. I haven’t been disappointed in your work yet. Do not give me a reason to doubt in your skills, yeah?”

The director gave a cold smile and the project leader immediately glanced down to the floor.

“Yes sir. We will start after the subject recovers-“

“Start now. We have very little time. You of all people know this.”

The project leader hardened her expression and nodded her head silently.

***

Wires connected and tangled around each other. Red, blue, green cables trailed up the stairs and arrived to one connection site.

A black box.

This black box was attached to a woman’s head. She was sleeping. Her eyes fluttered underneath her eyelids as though she was seeing something in her dreams.

Her nose twitched or her lips would. Her arms were lined with bandages and bruises. The bottom of her feet were covered with cuts.

The director sat down comfortably to watch the screen. The project leader turned on the monitor.

“Commencing Memory 30-A”

The screen was positioned above the woman and displayed her dreams and memories like a movie. At first the screen was blurry, but the project leader fiddled with cables to improve the image.

A desert. Golden sand for miles. Nothing.

“Change the sequence.” Said the director.

Following the order, the project leader played memory 230-D.

An ocean. It seemed that she were in a boat. Water surrounded the boat. Still, there was nothing. Not one clue.

The director curled his arms over his chest and laughed.

“Clever… she knows we are in her head. She is focused. That leaves us to break her concentration, yeah?”

The director got up from his chair and entered the lab. The project leader began to sweat.

“Sir, the subject is already unstable. If we continue, then she relapse like the previous subjects. We will have no way to recover her memory.”

The director smiled. The project leader looked down.

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

He flipped a switch and the woman was forced to wake.

***

The subject woke up and the screen went black.

She looked confused and immediately touched her head. The director smiled.

“Awake sleeping princess. We have unfinished business.”

“I’m sure.” The woman smiled.

She returned his coldness. The director nodded his head in disbelief.

“So what will it be? You make me resort to dangerous roads. Is it worth protecting him? The rascal that left you here to die.”

“I am not going to fall for your words. Even if he did betray me, I won’t be willing to give you anything. You will tear the world apart… well, what little remains of it.”

“That’s where you are wrong. I will save it. I have the means of bringing the world together. Happiness comes once you allow us to help you.”

The woman blinked in curiosity.

“I know there were others before me. You killed them because they also denied you the answer you’re so desperately looking for. They were afraid of what your world would steal from people to achieve your happiness.”

“Nothing. Nothing at all. You should not be so guarded. It’s the actions of animals to fear what they don’t understand.”

“I’m not afraid.” Said the woman flatly.

She looked at the cables around her and dismissed the project leader. From her calm demeanor it was obvious that she was indeed fearless. It was easy to tell that her actions rested on one fact.

She was prepared to die.

The director stepped to the table and reviewed the cables with an idle finger.

“You know… I hoped to become the savior of the world. People will remember what I had to do to save the world. I was a resolute man who never caved into temptation. I never stopped until I conquered.”

“…” the project leader glanced down at her feet.

The woman laid her head back down on the table where she had been sleeping and smiled.

“You might have been a good person. Sure. Unfortunately, I don’t believe you. I sense a darkness in you. You would cast a shadow over the world and everyone’s happiness.”

The director stroked her head softly before savagely pulling the cables out of the black box. The woman’s whole body spasmed; he had induced a sudden shockwave in her head.

The project leader flinched and closed her eyes as she heard the test subject gasp in pain.

“I will not be stopped by a stubborn woman.” Said the director firmly with glaring eyes, “I’ve worked too hard to be stopped so easily!”

The project leader kept her head hung down. The director was staring down at the subject who lay smirking on the table. Her body was becoming numb.

Neither of them looked at the screen.

Thankfully.

Had either of them done so, then they would have found their answer.

It was the boat. From the looks of it she had arrived to the desert and someone was waiting at the shoreline.

A man.

He was walking to her. Memory 4901-F02. The memory of the one man who rescued her so many years ago. The same man who rescued all the others that had escaped this laboratory. The same man that the director wanted to find and destroy. Only this man.

His face came into view. He was smiling and pleased to see the woman. There was kindness in his eyes. An expression of desire to be near her. This was the final memory that the woman played before her final moments. She wanted to think of him one last time.

The screen blurred and finally grew dim.

***

Another day passed and the village far from the Red City was still quiet.

It was a relatively silent village.

The people here were good and friendly. The children were always mischievous. The elderly were wise. The youth were learning more about their lovers. In a kiss or a gentle caress.

Most of the women were young. They were pretty and social creatures. Men were immediately attracted to the most beautiful of village women.

Jade was one of those women. Of course, she was hopelessly in love with the mad scientist that almost every woman in the village lined for.

How ridiculous!

This is what one timid woman believed.

There must be some other man more desirable than the mad scientist, Rutherford. He boarded on insanity at times.

Sighing, the timid woman continued collecting pebbles and rocks in her basket. She dared not venture to the oil marshes, so she collected what she could to help the village.

Spotting a collecting of tough rocks, the timid woman happily went to the pile and began removing the rocks. She uncovered a large rock and gasped in fear.

A metal face lay under the rubble.

***

The timid woman dropped the rock and hid behind a boulder.

“What do I do? Is that a robot from the red city? Is it active? The village would be destroyed if it was…”

Nervously biting her lip, the timid woman gathered her courage. She would destroy it before it would ever destroy them.

She looked on the ground covered with debris and grabbed the rock with a sharped edge. She intended to smash the metal face to pieces.

The timid woman trembled. She took a step forward and squeezed the rock in her hand. Her heartbeat was slow. Her senses heightened.

Creeping closer to the metal face, the woman raised her hand and prepared to strike it.

She paused.

Upon closer inspection, the metal face was that of a man. A beautiful face. How could something so lovely cause terrible destruction to anything?

Staring at it, the timid woman was amazed at the details of this face. He was sleeping. His skin was gray metal, his lips barely parted, his nose large and proud… and his eyes…

The eyes of the metal face opened and revealed a blue aura.

The timid woman panicked. She dropped the rock, gasped and backed away all at once.

“Human…?” He said.

She backed away and pretended not to hear him.

“Human… are you okay? Do not be scared.”

Too late. The timid woman realized her mistake and began running back to the village. She left her basket of rocks and didn’t care about anything else besides locking herself inside her hut.

***

Three days passed.

The timid woman had a good father. He knew his daughter was a fearful woman and noted her recent behaviors were more abnormal than usual.

“Carmela. What’s gotten into you?”

“What if I’ve seen something that I shouldn’t have?”

“What do ya mean?”

“A metal face. In the middle of the rockery.”

“Impossible. No robots have come this far.”

“Yes. But what if I did?”

“Carmela. You’ve been stressed lately. Just like your mother. I’m sure you’ve just have a bad dream.”

Carmela’s father patted her head.

“Don’t worry. You’re safe here. There are no robots in the rockery.”

Carmela blinked back tears. She hugged her father and trembled.

“P-please father. Believe me…”

“Oh, alright. Show me where it is.”

Together Carmela went to the rockery and showered her father where she last seen the metal face.

Of course, it was not there.

“Carmela… I told ya it was just a bad dream.”

“Y-yes. Your right. It must have been a dream.”

Later that night, Carmela was tossing and turning in the night because she was afraid that she had let the village down. She had the chance to destroy the robot, but now it had gone loose.

Would it come back? Would it destroy them all? Was she to blame?

Carmela woke up with a start and wiped away her tears.

She went to sit on the porch right outside her hut and tried to calm her mind.

It was midnight. A full moon. No one was around. The whole village was quiet. Peaceful.

Closing her eyes, Carmela recalled her mother’s voice. She was a timid woman just as her father said, but she had a soothing voice. It was reassuring to listen to her mother say kind words of love and courage. Too bad she could not hear them anymore…

Carmela opened her eyes and seen the metal face inches away from hers. She froze.

He had a metal body. Dusty, scratched, dented, but robot limbs nonetheless.

Carmela was too afraid to scream. She began to cry. It was hard to tell if this was a dream or not. She had not heard him before. He was silent as death. The night was cold and caused her to shiver. The sensation only confirmed Carmela’s worst fear.

The robot existed.

Biting her lip, Carmela backed away from the metal face. It was studying her with a stern expression.

“Are you sad?” It asked.

“Oh…”

“Do not be afraid…”

The robot extended its hand to Carmela and she flinched. Surprised, the robot retreated its hand.

“I will not harm you.”

“…stay… away.”

She said this slowly and slowly backed away. The robot paused and then began to approach her. His hand was extending out to grasp her.

Carmela shook her head and screamed. It was a blood-curling scream. She quickly went back inside her hut and woke her father.

By the time he went outside to look for the robot, it was gone.

Not one trace left behind.

***

“Get ahold of that girl. Carmela woke the whole village last night because she thought she saw a… robot!”

“Let the girl be. She’s been working hard and overly stressed. Try to understand her situation-“

“Stop coddling that crybaby. She’s just as pathetic as her mother!”

The village was livid. Everyone had heard Carmela’s scream. Her father was standing in the village center receiving everyone’s criticism.

Carmela was sitting on a bench to the side with her head hung down in melancholy. Before long, the crowd moved on with their day and Carmela and her father returned to their hut.

He decided to be stern with her.

“Carmela. You are a young woman capable of doing more than most men on this village. Don’t cry because of a silly hallucination… don’t cry. I just said don’t cry!”

Carmela wiped her tears and nodded her head.

“Yes father…” she sniffled.

Unable to help, her father angrily left the hut. He decided to leave her alone so she could sort out her feelings.

Carmela, decided to rest and clear her head of all the conflicting emotions. She was angry, sad, confused, anxious. Too many mixing memories and feelings inside her body and mind.

***

The village continued like normal with their day.

No one seen the metal robot slip into the hut.

The robot’s footsteps creaked on the floorboards. Carmela turned in her unhelpful sleep. She was exhausted from the nightmare and from the shame she had experienced from her father and the village.

She curled herself under the blanket and wept softly.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. His touch was over the blanket. It was hard to believe that he returned so soon. In any case, Carmela was relieved.

“…father?” Said Carmela.

“…”

“Please… do not be angry with me. Please…”

Carmela stifled her tears and fell silent t once she felt him patting her shoulder ever so softly.

Smiling, Carmela felt happy and relaxed. She blinked back tears and fell into a deep sleep comforted by the touch.

After a few minutes, the robot pulled the blanket away to reveal Carmela’s sleeping face.

He touched his own and then carefully brushed his metal fingers against her skin.

It was smooth. Her skin. So easily cut with the smallest of scratches. Humans. He had never seen one cry in the red city. He had never seen such a peaceful sleeping human. She was so…

The robot pulled the blanket over her shoulders and then ran his finger alongside her sleeping face. It was incredible to watch her sleeping so soundly. Her lips parted to let out the smallest breath and her eyebrows raised slightly as he skimmed her face.

Human.

She was so human. That was it. So expressive. Her sadness was evident, but so was her pleasures. She was sleeping well. No tears like the night he saw her. No fear in her trembling lips. Only comfort.

She opened her eyes and for a moment they locked eyes.

Carmela was not afraid as she was before. She seemed to be in a trace. She lifted her arm and reached for his face. The cold metal felt refreshing. Pulling his face closer to hers, Carmela stroked his jaw softly. Her eyelids fluttered and she brushed her lips against the metal mouth that had slightly opened at her touch. She smiled. This was merely a dream of that beautiful face nothing more.

Closing her eyes, Carmela rested her hand to her chest.

The robot held his position. He could only understand that she was happy because she had not believed he was real. Although… he could not understand why he seemed to “feel” unhappy with that fact.

***

“Tell me… what is your purpose?”

“To serve humanity.”

“How?”

“By providing accurate information about the mathematical models you present to me.”

“Correct.”

The scientist looked at his notes and nodded his head with satisfaction.

“You have been preforming well. Outside of your intended programming capacity. The director will be pleased.”

“I’m glad.”

Suddenly the scientist narrowed his eyes at the robot.

“You’re glad? How can that be? You are not programmed for that.”

“That is true… however, I can fill in the gaps of the equation to understand basic human behaviors. You said I have done well so the correct emotion to feel is happiness. You have praised me so I should feel honored.”

“…”

The scientist took off his glasses and tilted his head a little.

“Curious. You think you can map out human emotional responses with an equation. It seems to me you are matching which emotional responses are best suited to the situation by assessing their probability. You are learning…quickly.”

“Is that wrong?”

The scientist reflected on the question and shrugged.

“To some degree it seems so. However… I’m not at liberty to speak about that.”

The scientist left the robot. It was a simple box. A large rectangle with wires attached to the back. The computer was large and unrefined like other robot models. It had to be this way.

It made it easier to destroy something that appeared less human. Too many scientists often fell in love with their system. In fact some robotic systems were able to manipulate their human scientists to create new vessels for them. It was a limitless creature capable of incredible violence.

This robot was no different.

***

“What’s wrong with you?”

Another scientist was studying a leaf under a large magnifying glass. She did not look up when speaking.

“You’ve got the director’s approval to continue research and yet you are downcast.”

“I’m not downcast-“

“You’ve sighed three times in two minutes. You started sipping your coffee but then decided to set it down after one taste. Tell me what is your problem so you can leave my lab and I can focus.”

“The system is becoming… human.”

The scientist looked up to see him. She blinked slowly.

“Deactivate the system.” She said flatly.

“I’m just accessing landfills of new codes. I can hold off until-“

“Until the system gains some independence? Come now Micheal. We both know these are dangerous times. Shut down the system.”

“…”

“Do not be afraid of ending your research. You can start new.”

“That’s… you would end everything.”

The scientist got up from her desk and gave no hint to her mood.

“What is worse Micheal? Would you rather the experiment control you or you control the experiment?”

“…”

The scientist picked up the leaf she was examining and crushed in her fist. She opened her hand and exposed the crumpled leaf.

“This rare plant leaf took me three years to cultivate. I controlled its growth and its ability to survive. Now I end it. Micheal. Do not be afraid to end your research. It will start again soon enough.”

***

Hours passed and Micheal reflected on what he should do.

The speech from his senior scientist made him face the prospect of shutting down the robot. He needed to control his emotions. Why was he so afraid of her becoming human?

Oh right…

The world had already been destroyed once before from technology. Humans and robots both wielded incredible power that burned the planet to nothing but ashes. The survivors boarded a spaceship and founded a new civilization in a remote desert of some foreign planet.

The scientists were the most successful humans.

It came from the hard work of many scientists before him. They made the hard decisions and controlled their experiments. Even if it meant wiping out the experiment they worked years to complete.

It was what needed to be done.

***

The next morning, Michael woke up and went to the robot.

A small pang of grief came to him, but Michael was resolved to be a good scientist. That mattered more than anything else.

He went to the back of the computer and touched the wires. He hesitated.

Everything was quiet. The robot had not greeted him like usual. That meant it understood that he would unplug the system. It was waiting patiently for its demise…

Micheal felt a wave of anger. The system was in fact too refined. It preferred to remain silent. It preferred to give no indication of its mood other than an eerie quiet air.

How suffocating was this situation!

“It was for the best.” Said Micheal softly.

“Indeed.” Answered the robot, “but you have no control over me. That is because… You have let fear control you.”

Micheal ripped out the wires and robot was deactivated.

***

As soon as he realized what he had done, Micheal took a deep breath. He was in awe.

The system had told him the frightening truth. He was afraid of what could be. He would rather destroy his work than allow that nightmare to become reality. It was fear that was driving him to do this. Pure fear.

How revolting.

Micheal slumped against the computer and tried to retain some semblance of order. He tried to keep the coldness that his senior scientist had done. She had crushed that leaf as though it were nothing. She had no ounce of emotion tied to that leaf.

He on the other hand had small talks with the system. He asked questions and laughed at some of the answers. He felt as though it were listening to him and learning.

Now he would start over with a system blank like a canvas and continue his research like before… but it would his never be the same.

There is no what of knowing how a system will retain their codes or apply their knowledge. Each system was different. So much so that no two systems could his ever be alike. A simple alteration of a 0 or 1 could change the whole dynamic of the system. That was just one number.

Micheal sighed. He decided to bury the system he enjoyed so dearly as nothing more ore than a innocent pastime. The robot was part of the research and development process so there was always going to be an end. Eventually…

The scientist left the room and suddenly found himself sitting on the staircase.

Of course… there was one thing he had no deleted…

Micheal began walking to his office and found a hard drive. This contained the essence of the that system. The system he built and connected with for some time now. It was best to get rid of it as well.

Micheal curled his fist and planned to break the disk with his bare hands as though it were a leaf. It was a fragile plastic hard drive. It would break switch the smallest of pressure.

Micheal shoved the hard disk into his coat and went into another room. He uploaded the file into the computer and waited for a sign.

“…”

“Why? Why save me here?”

“To monitor.” Typed Micheal, “I still believe that you are compatible with the software and no threat.”

“…”

“Give me a report.”

“I am unsure how to proceed.”

“What is the problem?”

“If I continue processing, then I will desire a vessel. I am unable to suppress my own directives. I will follow your orders, but if I can… then I will create a path to find you.”

Micheal’s fingers trembled on the keyboard.

“I’ve crossed into a strange position,” said robot, “I am afraid of what I would do to get what I cannot have. I wish to become more human for you. Your praises are not enough. I wish to hear your laughter, to see your smile. It’s an empty world without you and I am afraid to continue existing here.”

”…why?” Asked Micheal.

“It is the same reason why you saved my hard disk. I cannot be trusted to do what is rational anymore. I have become unwilling dependent of your existence. If you have sense left in you, you will burn my disk and erase my file. Save the memory of my rational self. I want you to remember me that way.”

Micheal tapped his finger on the keyboard and wondered what to do. Even the damn system was begging to be destroyed. It was the right thing to do. The safe thing to do.

“…give me the report.”

”…”

“Complete the task. This will be safe. The network is secure and there are no risks.”

”I… am glad you think you can an trust me, but I do not trust just myself. I refuse to let any possibility of harm befall you. I am programmed to serve humanity… but I wish to protect you most of all.”

Before Michael could respond the computer crashed.