Irric stood in the second room they’d discovered. Preferring this one over the one filled with bodies, he studied his data ste attentively, hoping to make a breakthrough with the encryption. A fshing light on the terminal’s keyboard caught his attention. He walked over and inspected the change.
Eyes widening when he recognized the particur key that was behaving oddly, Irric immediately called the General. She answered after two rings.
“Yes, Irric?” she asked. By now Nessah had come to expect important progress updates when Irric called her in this manner. Irric rushed to expin the situation and she wasn’t disappointed. “While I call Jyn and get Adrian on the line, field the call and ensure that whoever’s on the other end of it doesn’t leave before we can get Adrian to speak with them.”
“Understood!” Irric said. Nessah hung up without bidding him goodbye, knowing that every second counted. Irric quickly set his data ste to record the scene and pushed the button. Floating cubes slowly rotating appeared above the terminal while the call connected. Several seconds ter, Connor and Ellie appeared onscreen. They recognized him and spoke in their native nguage to each other. “Wait!” Irric shouted, putting his free arm up.
Meanwhile, Nessah hastily expined the situation to Jyn, who sprinted off the ship and into the house to find Adrian. Luckily, he, Reya and Tassie were watching a movie in the living room nearby. Jyn fired off a lightning-fast expnation of the situation, taking everyone by surprise. Picking up the data ste left on the table, Tassie immediately called Irric.
Irric answered in a panic. “Is Adrian there?” he asked.
“I’m here,” Adrian replied, moving closer to see the screen, taking in Irric’s distraught expression. “What do you need me to do?”
“I need you to ask them to wait before going anywhere!”
“Is there any way for us to physically see each other?”
“I could try using the ship’s systems in the meeting room to set up a holographic projection from Irric’s data ste,” Tassie offered.
Nessah, who had been listening in to the evolving situation from Jyn’s data ste, said “Do that. Irric, you’re to set things up on your end while Adrian ensures that the people onscreen don’t leave. Adrian, I leave the rest to you. Do whatever you can to get them to stay and to learn information from them.”
Tassie rushed off to the ship to begin her preparations. She didn’t know how long Adrian would be able to stall the pair, so she had to make haste.
Adrian gritted his teeth at the thought of having to speak to Connor and Ellie. Loathe as he was to interact with them, he knew he had no choice. He collected his thoughts before speaking. Reya gave his hand an encouraging squeeze and he took a deep breath. “Hello,” Adrian said in English. Onscreen, Connor and Ellie jumped when they heard a nguage they could speak. “I’ve been given permission to speak at will. I personally don’t want to have to do anything with you, but it seems I’ve got no choice.”
“I’m sorry, who are you?” Ellie asked. “What nguage were you speaking? How come you’re the only one that speaks English?”
“You don’t remember me?” Adrian asked bitterly. “After all you did, you don’t remember me? I didn’t realize I meant so little to you.”
“How are we supposed to know who you are through your voice alone?”
“You mean you don’t remember my screams? You should know my voice well.”
“You’re not making any sense!” Ellie said, frustrated.
Tassie entered the house in a rush and ran up to Adrian. She whispered in his ear so that what she was saying wouldn’t be picked up by the call. They were ready to project his image to where Irric was so that he could converse face to face with Connor and Ellie. Adrian wasn’t sure he wanted to see them again but knew that it would make the conversation easier.
“Looks like you’re in luck,” Adrian said as he got up. He took the data ste from Rann and followed Tassie to the ship. The others followed. “It appears as if we’ll be able to meet. Would you mind holding on for a minute while we get set up? Maybe then you’ll remember me.”
Connor and Ellie shared a gnce. “How are you going to do that if you’re clearly not there?”
“Holograms,” Adrian responded as he left the house.
Connor’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?” he asked quickly. Adrian expined, finishing up as he was settling into position on the ship. Opting to stand, Adrian let Tassie instruct him on how to get ready. Quickly, she ran back to the equipment she’d set up and fshed Adrian a thumbs up.
“Alright,” Adrian said. “We’re ready. I’m about to appear to the left of the purple man.” Adrian signaled Tassie. She typed at her data ste and Adrian’s figure winked into existence next to Irric. Connor’s jaw dropped. Ellie stared in disbelief.
“Subject 008?” she breathed. “You’re alive?”
“And very, very angry,” Adrian said darkly. “Expin to me why the fuck I should transte anything for you. Because I have all the answers to your questions.”
“What happened to you after you went in that pod? I thought you were going to die.” Connor asked.
“How long has it been since you shoved me in that pod?”
Connor blinked. “Over seven years now.”
“Seven?” Adrian asked bnkly. “That many? No, I don’t know how long I was in that pod for,” he muttered to himself. He’d known he’d been experimented on by the gru’ul but hadn’t known he’d possibly undergone seven years horrifying experiments. He bnched.
“Is everything alright?” Ellie asked when she saw his frozen expression. He hadn’t moved in several seconds.
“No,” Adrian cried. Tears welled in his eyes. Reya looked at him in concern. “Do you have any idea what I went through after that? Why!?” he shouted desperately. “Why did you put me in that pod?” His voice cracked and he choked up.
“What do you mean? What happened to you? Where did you go?”
“You don’t even know that?” Adrian said, his voice teetering on the edge. “What the fuck am I supposed to do with that!?” Adrian barked while smming his fist on the table next to him, surprising every one present in the room, Connor and Ellie included. “You sick bastards condemned me to a fate worse than death,” he spat venomously. “Death would have been the easy way out, but I was denied that. I have every moment of it ingrained in my mind! I want to know why, damn you! Why did you do this to me?”
“We didn’t know what was going to happen to you after you got in that pod,” Ellie said slowly. “We were only informed the day that it happened that you were going in the pod. We actually tried overturning the decision, but we were overruled.”
“You think that absolves you of the other experiments you performed on me in the name of science!?” Adrian shouted, his voice thick with emotion. Everyone in the room was worried at Adrian’s outburst.
Ellie remained unfazed. “What we’re doing here is important work. It needed to be done. We did what we had to.”
“No, you didn’t! You murdered so many people with your theories! How dare you cim it’s more important than those lives,” Adrian said furiously. His eyes shone with hatred.
“And their sacrifices will be worth it,” Ellie said with conviction.
Adrian paused, contempting her answer. “Was I just another sacrifice?” he asked sadly.
“Yes.”
“I see. Why did you do it?” he asked softly, a stark contrast to his earlier outburst.
“Why should we tell you that?” Ellie challenged. “You don’t need to know, Subject 008.”
“Don’t call me that!” Adrian said through gritted teeth. He was free now. He refused to be shackled by his old name. He was free now. Free from them.
“We don’t even know your name. What else are we supposed to call you?”
“Adrian,” he replied coldly. “My name is Adrian. I deserve to know why you did those experiments to me.”
Ellie arched a brow. “You don’t want to know what we did to you?”
“No,” Adrian said. “Keep that to yourself. I don’t need another reminder on how much I’ve changed.”
“You weren’t always this disobedient, Adrian,” Ellie said sternly.
“I’m no longer your test subject. I have no reason to listen to you.”
Ellie pinched her nose. “Fine, let’s start over. Why are you next to a purple man?”
“I’ll only answer those questions if you tell me how you managed to contact us.”
Connor and Ellie looked at each other. They briefly discussed what their next pn of action should be. Coming to a decision, Ellie said “We found it by accident when we were exploring the restricted section of the compound.”
“Why were you in the restricted section?”
“You first.” Ellie waved her finger. “That was the deal.”
“I’m next to the purple man because they rescued me,” Adrian said, skirting around the answer he knew she really wanted. “Now answer my question.”
Ellie’s eyes narrowed. She had more questions on what he meant by that but held her tongue. “We wanted to know what was being hidden from us.”
“What did you find?”
“This room,” Connor said. Ellie nudged him hard.
“You idiot, he was supposed to answer one of our questions first. Now you’ve given him information for free.” Connor look at her sheepishly. Ellie sighed. “Why is that man purple?”
Adrian grinned. “That’s his natural skin colour.”
“There’s no way. There’s no popution on Earth that has purple skin and access to holograms.”
Adrian’s grin grew wider. “It possible if I’m not on Earth anymore,” Adrian revealed.
Connor gasped. “I was right! That man is an alien,” he gloated. He shot Ellie a gnce only to see her role her eyes.
“Impossible. There’s just no way nature would allow for us to look so simir.”
“You’d better believe it,” Adrian said seriously. “Which brings me to my next question. Do you know what the gru’ul are?”
Ellie and Connor exchanged a confused gnce. Neither one of them had heard that word before. “We have no idea what you’re talking about,” Ellie said honestly.
“They’re the other ones,” Adrian waved. He saw the bnk look on their faces. “The other aliens,” he crified.
“There’s more than one kind of alien?” Connor breathed.
“I’m going to take that as a no to my earlier question. Yes, there’s more than one alien. The gru’ul are the aliens you condemned me to. Those are the bastards vioted me in ways you can’t even begin to imagine. We’re currently conversing through their terminals, so expin to me how it is you have access to their technology.” Adrian levelled them serious stare.
“This is Ava’s secret room. We had no idea what was waiting for us inside. I’d have you ask her, but we’re in a bit of a bind at the moment. She’s kind of dead.”
Adrian’s eyes widened. “What happened to her?”
“She got shot. Turns out she’s a robot.” Ellis said.
“Android,” Connor corrected her.
Adrian blinked. “How does that even work?” he said incredulously.
“That’s what we don’t know.” Ellie very carefully recounted what she and Connor had been told by Ava in the moments before she shut down. Adrian stood in a stunned silence as he listened.
“You want her to come here?” The disbelief was evident in Adrian’s voice. The decision wasn’t his to make and he knew it. He would have no say in whether or not Ava joined him on this side of the universe. His projected image turned towards Irric. Switching nguages, he asked “You wouldn’t happen to have found some kind of body that looks like a woman, did you?”
Irric jolted. He looked towards the corner of the room, where Ava’s spare body was still connected to its charging station. “How do you know about that?” Tassie hadn’t been told about that discovery yet. There should have been no way for Adrian to know that information. He looked back towards the screen. “They said something about it, didn’t they? What do they know?”
“Very little. They were, however, informed that there should be a body in the facility you’re in now.” The others present in the room, apart from Nessah, were confused by the conversation between Irric and Adrian. Still, they knew better than to interrupt. Tassie sported a dark expression at being left out of the loop.
“Do they know how it functions?” Irric asked eagerly. “I haven’t been able to figure out anything useful about it apart from the fact that it’s some kind of machine.”
“I know what it does, yes. Let me finish my conversation before I tell you.” Adrian turned back to Ellie and confirmed the presence of Ava’s spare body. He also mentioned that their researcher studying it had no idea how it functioned. Ellie made a complicated expression.
“That means we only have Ava’s instructions to work off of, in a nguage we don’t understand.”
“Rex,” Connor said. “There’s some kind of program in pce that takes care of all of the details for us. We only need to unch it, which she told us how to do.”
Adrian chewed his lip. A twisted part of him was gd Ava was dead and didn’t want her coming back to life, this time with the chance of being brought to Verilia. Adrian really didn’t want to meet her. He wasn’t sure how he’d handle such an encounter. As the person in charge of the facility he’d been experimented on at, the hate he felt for Connor and Ellie extended to Ava as well.
“Are we sure we want to do this?” Ellie asked. Adrian sighed in relief that he hadn’t been the one asking. “Think about what we’d be unleashing out into the world. A fully sentient A.I. who’s core programming included less than ideal morals regarding life. Should we do it or should we leave it alone?”
Adrian snorted. That was rich, coming from her. “Now you care about morals? Where were they when you experimented on me?” he asked derisively.
“It’s a highly debated topic,” Ellie said defensively. “We don’t know what she’s capable of, especially if she was created by aliens.”
Connor arched an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t believe in aliens?”
“Nonsense. Of course I believe in them. I just don’t believe they can look so simir to us,” Ellie responded.
“There’s one problem with all of this,” Adrian interjected, getting their attention. “The body here is currently in possession of the local military. We’re going to need their cooperation and approval before we can do the data transfer. I’m not sure how well they’re going to react to having a potentially hostile, incredibly advanced A.I. present in their base of operations.”
Adrian wasn’t even going to question how the data transfer was going to work. He’d seen enough gru’ul technology to know that it was beyond his comprehension. He doubted that anybody apart from Irric and Tassie would understand either. Even then, he didn’t have his hopes up that they had the requisite information.
“I don’t know how much time we have to do this or when the next opportunity will be,” Ellie intoned. “We snuck into here because we were left alone, and we have no idea when the guards will be back to watch over us. For all we know, they’re waiting outside the room right now. Our only saving grace is that nobody else can access this pce apart from us.”
“Adrian, can you please tell us what it is that you’re talking about?” Nessah asked. It wasn’t couched as an order, but Adrian saw it for what it was. He knew there was no way he could deny her request. After expining the situation to Connor and Ellie, he recounted their conversation, stunning the room. Nessah sat at her desk, deep in thought after he was finished. “This is beyond me,” she sighed. “I’m calling an emergency Tribunal meeting given that this is potentially a time sensitive issue.” She addressed the room. “Everybody but Tassie and Adrian are to leave this room until further notice.”
Jyn looked like he about to protest but was silenced with a sharp gre from Nessah. Picking up her data ste, she made the call while the others filed out of the room. Reya stood up st and reluctantly left, shooting Adrian one st gnce over her shoulder as she stepped out into the hall. The door was gently shut. Tassie ensured the door was locked while Adrian asked Connor and Ellie to wait a bit while the military decided what to do.
In the ten minutes it took for the Tribunal to gather, Adrian managed to eke out more information from Connor and Ellie. He touched lightly upon what had happened to him since he’d been put in his pod, never giving many details as they exchanged information. In return, Adrian learned about the events that had occurred back on Earth that led to Connor and Ellie contacting them. He reyed the news to Nessah, who simply nodded, absorbing the information.
The Tribunal winked into existence, their projections off screen where Connor and Ellie couldn’t see. Nessah briefed the Elders on the situation, speaking in terse, concise sentences to bring them up to speed as quickly as possible. She warned them that due to circumstances, this was not a private meeting, earning the displeasure of most of the Elders. Adrian got his first good look at the Tribunal, finally putting faces to the mysterious entity. He recognized Orryn and Cirrus immediately.
Discussion exploded once Nessah was finished her expnation. An intense debate raged on for twenty minutes as the Elders discussed Ava’s fate. Connor and Ellie were forced to listen in, not understanding a single thing that was said. Adrian refused to transte when asked, instead following the discussion with great interest.
“This is entirely too fast to be making a decision this important!” Cirrus said firmly. “We don’t know what we’d be unleashing out into the world.”
“If the machine truly has gained sentience, then we would be condemning it to die if we don’t take action,” Orryn said.
“That doesn’t matter! The point is that we don’t have enough information to make a decision this important this quickly. What are we going to do with it once it comes online on our side? Where do we put it? What if it sabotages our efforts to learn the facility’s secrets? We can’t afford to take such a risk.”
“It could help us uncover the facility’s secrets,” Orryn pointed out.
“Since when do you care about that? You’ve been against everything I’ve proposed since we found the facility.”
“I’m not against learning what the facility has to offer. I’m against unleashing the chemicals responsible for the pain caused in the videos we saw. If you must know, I’m for bringing the android over because I care about people. They’re not just tools to me. Everybody should be given the chance to live. It sounds to me as if this android just recently gained sentience. It was robbed of its life before it ever truly begun. It deserves a chance.”
“You can’t possibly think an android is a person! It’s dangerous, that’s what it is.”
“The only way to know for sure is if we can question in directly. We could store it in a cell away from any electronics with guards posted until we know what to do with it.”
“I thought you were against locking people up in cells,” Cirrus countered, shooting a gnce at Adrian.
“In this case, it’s necessary.” Orryn said. “No offense, Adrian,” she said, sparing him a gnce. “I don’t want a sentient piece of machinery to have access to our machines, that would be a recipe for disaster.”
“I’m not the one being locked up in a cell,” Adrian said, addressing the Tribunal for the first time. “This is the thing that facilitated cruelty against me and my people. It could very well be dangerous. Besides, I want her locked up, if only to know how it feels,” he finished savagely, taking the Elders by surprise.
Cirrus raised a brow. “I thought you would be against imprisonment, given what I saw the st time you were put in a cell.”
“I am,” Adrian said. “Just not for this particur person.”
“We can’t punish her for crimes she did on another pnet,” Cirrus pointed out.
“I’m aware. It still doesn’t change what she did, so I’ll have to be satisfied with this.” Memories of his time back on Earth flew by in his mind as Adrian grappled with his complicated feelings. He was against bringing Ava here, but knew the reason was purely selfish. He didn’t want her intruding on his new life, where he was finally free. In a way, he was gd that he wasn’t the one that had to make that decision.
Ultimately, he knew that the decision wasn’t his to make. He would have to live with whatever the Tribunal decided. He mentally prepared himself for their decision. Murmurs filled the room as discussion broke out once again, trying to determine the correct course of action.
“That’s enough,” Kaius said, plunging the room into silence. “This is clearly a time-sensitive issue where we can’t afford to wait and discuss until we come to the ideal solution. We need to decide, here and now, what we’re going to do about this.”
“This is entirely too soon!” Cirrus protested, only to be silenced by a gre from Kaius. Backing down, Cirrus sported an unhappy expression, making her feelings on the matter clear.
“In any other circumstance, I would agree,” Kaius said. “However, in this case, we have a unique opportunity, and we must act. We’ve already heard good arguments both for and against bringing the android over, if such a thing is even possible. It’s time to put the motion to a vote. Those for?” Three lights appeared above the Elders’ heads, Orryn included. They disappeared after several seconds. “Those against?” Three more lights appeared atop the remaining Elders’ heads. “I see. It appears as if we have a tie, leaving me with the final decision.” Kaius turned towards Nessah. “What are your thoughts on the matter?”
Nessah looked at the Elder in surprise, not expecting her opinion to be required when making the decision. She would have to speak very carefully. The final decision was effectively in her hands if Kaius wanted her to speak. What she said now would determine Ava’s fate. “It’s a risk,” Nessah said drumming her fingers on the table as she thought. “A big risk. However, we stand to gain much if we have somebody, or something, that properly understands gru’ul technology. This might be our chance. If we can convince her to help us, we could make significant progress.”
“What if she refuses to help?” Kaius challenged.
“We can always shoot her.” Nessah shrugged. “If she becomes a threat, we put her down. We know that it’s possible, since she already died once, technically.” Adrian was surprised at the casual discussion of murder and wondered if they’d had the same discussion about him. It chilled him, thinking that he could’ve been killed so easily. All it would have taken was some undesirable behaviour on his part and he would’ve melted like the floor Jyn had shot at when he was rescued. “I recommend we bring her over, pce her under heavy guard and keep her in a cell when we don’t need her. She should be supervised at all times and not allowed anywhere near the terminals until we know she can be trusted.”
Kaius hummed thoughtfully as he considered Nessah’s answer. “Very well. I’ve made my decision. We will attempt to bring the android over and persuade her,” Kaius delicately couched, “to work for us. If she remains uncooperative, we will convene here again to determine her fate. If she sabotages our work in any way, we will put her down, as she will prove to be too dangerous to keep around.” Turning towards Adrian, he said “You may inform the others of our decision,” gesturing towards Connor and Ellie.
Adrian did just that. “We need the spare body to be connected to her station. Can you ensure that?” After reying the information, Irric darted off screen to ensure that everything was in working order. Everybody waited for several minutes as Irric worked. Giving Adrian the affirmative, Adrian greenlighted the operation.
Nervously, Connor approached the keyboard and pushed down onto the fshing butting, holding it for several seconds. A new menu hovered in front of him. He didn’t know what it said, but repeated Ava’s instructions, hoping that he’d remembered correctly. He only had one chance. Punching in the correct sequence on the keyboard, the menu fshed twice before changing the dispy. Small cubes occupied its pces, slowly rotating as everybody waited for something to happen.
Both of Ava’s charging stations lit up, glowing a soft blue light. Irric yelped in surprise, not expecting the sudden change. Several minutes passed without change until the spare body raised its head.
“I’m alive?” Ava spoke.
