Hello, folks! It's been a while.
It's been a crazy almost-year since my last story post. Some big ups, some big downs. But all the while, I'm thinking of scenes and scenarios.
Here are a few short vignettes set in a rehabilitation clinic for people who have been recently roboticized. I'm just setting scenes and fleshing out ideas.
The main themes are transformation, and malfunction. I have three now, with 1 or 2 still in the works. Enjoy!
1_____
Two days after Tess had fallen asleep as a human, she was brought online as a virtualized intelligence. Confused and disoriented, she needed another four hours to organize her consciousness and remember who she was. Minutes later, she was communicating with her technicians using plain text. Her first non-garbled output message was
TESS> is this how this thing works????? Helloo?????
The following day, Tess had a face. The technicians ran tests on her, made adjustments, then ran more tests. Eye movement came quickly and naturally. Mouth movement and voice synthesis came more slowly, and she was still primarily communicating over plain text to a nearby terminal. At her request, a technician held up a mirror. Her face was exactly what she had hoped it would be.
She had picked it out herself. She was still recognizable as Tess. The soft plastic of her face retained her original skin tone, nose, cheekbones, and full lips. The triangular status light in the middle of her forehead was new, which glowed a soft green, occasionally flickering yellow. The irises of her eyes rotated as they adjusted her focus, and deep within her pupils were pinpricks of white light. She had wanted her new look to be unmistakable: I am still Tess, but now I’m a robot. Her face was mounted on a metal frame, with a variety of wires and cables extending from behind her face to various computers and monitors at the edge of her reflection.
After more testing, a robotic woman entered her field of vision. She was dressed in a well-fitted short-sleeved white physician’s coat and teal trousers. Her synthetic skin was a realistic tone, but her visible elbows and wrists were shiny and metallic, with obviously mechanical joints. “Hello, Tess. Remember me? I’m Barbara, your case worker.” Tess recalled immediately. Barbara White, a senior staff member here at the Slate Ridge clinic. She and her friends had met Barbara in the numerous consultations before beginning the virtualization and reconstruction procedure.
Tess replied over text.
TESS> Hello again Barbara. How are Tamiko and Kali?
Barbara smiled. “Your bandmates are doing well, but you have been progressing faster than them. Tess, I want you to practice using your voice more. Don’t get too reliant on plain text.” Tess replied with a grunt, followed by a strangled croak.
TESS> I don’t want to bother the technicians with my weird noises.
One of the techs waved dismissively. “We’re used to it. Keep on practicing.”
Barbara supervised some of the ongoing testing and vocal practice before excusing herself from the room. Tess was impatient to be a complete robot, but she knew, based on numerous earlier discussions, that newly roboticized people needed to get acquainted with their systems gradually, one by one. Throwing everything at them all at once was setting them up for failure, as some unfortunate early uploads had discovered.
_____
Barbara walked down the hall to the computer lab with the name “Tamiko” on the door. Entering, she saw two technicians hunched over a computer console. Behind the console, the boxy machine that currently housed Tamiko’s mind hummed.
“Any progress?”
One of the techs turned around. “A little, but it’s slow going. She keeps destabilizing. It’s been two steps forward, one step back."
“And that’s when it’s not two steps forward, three steps back,” the other technician grumbled.
Barbara’s eyebrows furrowed. Rebuilding a digitized human consciousness from the ground up was tricky on the best of days. The hard truth is, the human brain is not built like a computer. Neurons are not bytes. Memories don’t have a folder structure. It takes considerable effort on the part of technicians, helped by significant computer resources, to guide a messy clump of semi-sentient code into regaining self awareness and personal identity. In some cases, they never succeed. It was a known risk of the procedure, made clear to everyone who underwent it.
“Keep at it. This is a high profile client. We really don’t want to resort to last-ditch protocols.”
“Shouldn’t be necessary,” the tech reassured her. “She’ll make it. Just taking a while longer.”
_____
Barbara resumed her rounds. She checked on Kali next. Kali’s consciousness had stabilized and was communicating with technicians via plain text. She would be ready for her face, sight, and voice testing by tomorrow. Satisfied, Barbara returned to the lab that contained Tess. The face of the incomplete robot girl looked up at her.
“Buh. Buh.” Tess said. At the same time, she sent a plain text message to the console.
TESS> Still practicing!
“Very good!” Barbara said. Tess, it’s the end of the day. Our technicians are going home soon. It’s time for you to sleep for the night.
TESS> You mean, turn me off.
“We prefer to call it sleeping.”
TESS> I made the decision to become a robot. Robots don’t sleep, we get turned off.
“Well, if that’s what you prefer to call it, that’s your decision. Tess, I’m about to turn you off.”
TESS> Can I do it myself?
“Not for now. For safety reasons, we don’t allow new patients to do that. Turning yourself off accidentally could cause problems. Don’t worry, you’ll have full access to all of your functions before you know it.”
A warning flashed across Barbara’s consciousness. This was taking too long. Without waiting for another reply from Tess, she entered the shutdown command on the console, and her patient turned off with a click. The status indicator on Tess’s forehead went dark, as did the lights in her still-open eyes.
Satisfied, she left the lab, proffering a kindly goodbye to the technicians, who were also on their way out. They would be going home, back to families, entertainment, and lives. Barbara, on the other hand, would not. Obeying her programming, she walked down several halls, then through the door labelled Automated Systems Lounge. The “lounge” was a storage place for robots owned by Slate Ridge; robots like her. She stripped naked, dropping her uniform into a laundry hamper. Barbara walked past small floor-cleaning robots, waist-high delivery bots, and several staff members, male, female, and genderless, each one deactivated and recharging.
Reaching her designated recharging interface, Barbara plugged the power and diagnostics cables into the ports located on the back of her neck. As her systems performed a series of automated checks, she performed the same calculations she made at the end of every day. She would continue working for Slate Ridge until the value of her labor paid for the cost of her robotization. 5 years, 165 days down. At current rates: 12 years, 74 days to go.
She did not feel the sensation of being turned off. She never did.
The Rehab Clinic
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apok
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apok
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Re: The Rehab Clinic
2_____
Tess felt her systems come online.
Day after day, she had been gradually introduced to new body parts and systems, slowly gaining mastery over arms and hands, neck and torso, legs and feet. She could even wiggle her toes now. By sending commands to her own internal systems, she could pull up all sorts of information about herself. Battery levels, processor load, memory capacity, joint stress levels, error logs... she didn’t understand most of it, but it felt empowering just that she could do it. She could turn herself off too, and did so when instructed at the end of each day.
As Tess’s vision came into focus, she looked around. She was seated in a wheelchair, and dressed in a simple hospital gown. Her robotic case worker Barbara, along with a human technician she knew as David, stood nearby.
“Good morning, Tess.” Barbara said, smiling.
“Good morning!” said Tess, using her voice. She was even starting to sound like her original self, rather than a complete mess.
“We’ve been talking, and today’s the big day. The technical staff and I have agreed that you and your bandmates have made enough progress to visit each other. Are you ready?”
“More than ready!” Tess eagerly replied. David took the handles of the wheelchair, and started pushing her out the door of her lab, and down the hall, with Barbara close behind. Although Tess could move her legs and feet, the fine art of using them to walk was still very difficult, and so the wheelchair was still the best means of moving her around.
Wheeling around a corner, Tess spotted another patient in a wheelchair down the hall, sitting stationary. As she came closer, she recognized who it was.
“Kali!”
“Tess! There you are!” Kali’s voice was understandable, but badly distorted. The bassist and lead vocalist of the Blue Tigers still needed some work before she could go back to the concert scene. Kali was self-aware enough to joke about it. “Yes, I still sound like a Decepticon,” drawing a giggle from Tess.
As they were brought in close together, they each leaned in for a big hug. They were best friends, practically sisters, and being separated had been tough. Tess drew back to take a good look at Kali. Like Tess, she had chosen to keep a close replica of her face, with tiny white lights in her eyes. Kali’s status light was a narrow ring around her throat, like a choker. It glowed a soft green. Tess looked up at her friend’s most distinctive feature. Part of Kali’s signature look had been a cat-ear headband she wore while performing. While planning her transformation, she had opted to make the cat-ears a part of her new robotic body, and they poked up above her synthetic hair. The ears flicked left and right, tracking ambient sounds.
“You look amazing!” Tess was beaming at her friend.
“You too!”
Barbara knocked on a nearby lab door, which Tess belatedly noticed was labeled “Tamiko”. A moment later, Barbara slowly opened it. “Ladies, your last bandmate awaits.”
Tess and Kali were wheeled into the lab, which was very similar to the areas they had been rehabilitating in. They gasped. Their friend was not as far along in the rehab process as they were. Tamiko was a head, shoulders, a pair of arms and hands, and a mess of circuits and wires, mounted on a metal frame on a low workbench. She was offline, arms limp, eyes open, but dark. Her status lights, a pair of narrow wedge shapes on her cheeks, were also dark. Tamiko’s appearance gave Tess a moment’s pause. Yes, they were robots, and looked the part, but on some level Tess still felt human. Tamiko, a lifeless half-built gynoid, truly looked like a machine. It made the depth of their transformation feel so much more real.
“We wanted her to see you when she woke up.” Barbara said, tapping Tamiko’s nearby console. Tamiko’s eyes lit up, and her status lights went green, flickering yellow. Her voice synthesizer made a series of chirps and grunts, while her console indicated a plain text message.
TAMIKO> OMG you guyssss!!!!
“Hey, Tamiko!” Kali pulled herself in for a hug, which Tamiko returned clumsily. Tess went in next.
TAMIKO> The band is back together!!
Tess smiled, seeing Tamiko’s plain-text message on the console. “Yes it is.”
TAMIKO> Your both in full bodies! im jealous.
“Don’t be too jealous. We can’t walk yet.” Kali motioned to the wheelchairs she and Tess were sitting in. “You’ll catch up soon.”
TAMIKO> Do they turn you off at night too?
Kali and Tess both nodded. “Yeah, they prefer to call it ‘sleeping’.” Tess said. She glanced aside at Barbara, David, and the other technicians she didn’t know. Their presence was suddenly really awkward. “But it’s fine.” She hastily added.
“How far along is Tamiko? What’s her next upgrade?” Kali asked Barbara.
Barbara shrugged. “That’s private information…” she began. Tamiko’s console lit up.
TAMIKO> You can tell them anything. I have nothing private from them.
Barbara saw the message, and continued. “Well, her chest is ready for installation…”
“Booooobs!” Kali cheered. “Boobs! Boobs! Boobs!” Tess rolled her eyes. They had shared many dressing rooms over the years. They didn’t have a sexual relationship, but the three bandmates had become relaxed in the casual nudity department. Leave it to Kali to make it weird. Tamiko, for her part, smiled.
TAMIKO> Bring on the boobs!
And so, the technicians installed Tamiko’s chest, as well as her upper back. She was now an intact fembot from the ribcage up, still mounted to the workbench. Tamiko immodestly fondled her new breasts.
“Lookin’ good, Tamiko.” Kali said. “Did you make them bigger?”
TAMIKO> They’re the same size as before.
Kali grinned. “Liar.” Tamiko stuck out her tongue.
TAMIKO> How about you guys? What do they have you doing?
“Practicing with our legs, and our hands. Tossing and catching balls, that kind of thing,” Tess replied.
“I think we’ll be trying to walk soon,” Kali added.
TAMIKO> I’m jealous
Tess held Tamiko’s hand. “You’ll catch up in no time.”
TAMIKO> I’m jealous
Tess blinked at Tamiko’s repetition, then looked up from the text console to her friend’s face. The indicator lights on her cheeks were red, flickering yellow.
TAMIKO> æm jea£ØhYvß
The half-complete fembot’s eyes seemed to un-focus. Her arms moved jerkily, at random.
TAMIKO> ÈÈÈÈÈÈÈààààààà
A technician moved in quickly to Tamiko’s console. With a few deft keystrokes, he shut her down. Tamiko stopped moving, and her lights went dark, her eyes staring sightlessly ahead.
“What the hell was that?!” asked Kali, alarmed.
Barbara cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. Your friend had a software crash. She’s still adjusting. For now, I think she needs more time and privacy. She’s still getting better every day.”
Tess and Kali had little to say, still processing the unsettling scene. After brief goodbyes, they were each wheeled back to their respective recovery rooms. The image of Tamiko’s lifeless, frozen face stuck with Tess. Her friend had looked like a broken doll. A thing, not a person. It was a strange combination of creepy and exhilarating knowing she was fundamentally the same.
Tess felt her systems come online.
Day after day, she had been gradually introduced to new body parts and systems, slowly gaining mastery over arms and hands, neck and torso, legs and feet. She could even wiggle her toes now. By sending commands to her own internal systems, she could pull up all sorts of information about herself. Battery levels, processor load, memory capacity, joint stress levels, error logs... she didn’t understand most of it, but it felt empowering just that she could do it. She could turn herself off too, and did so when instructed at the end of each day.
As Tess’s vision came into focus, she looked around. She was seated in a wheelchair, and dressed in a simple hospital gown. Her robotic case worker Barbara, along with a human technician she knew as David, stood nearby.
“Good morning, Tess.” Barbara said, smiling.
“Good morning!” said Tess, using her voice. She was even starting to sound like her original self, rather than a complete mess.
“We’ve been talking, and today’s the big day. The technical staff and I have agreed that you and your bandmates have made enough progress to visit each other. Are you ready?”
“More than ready!” Tess eagerly replied. David took the handles of the wheelchair, and started pushing her out the door of her lab, and down the hall, with Barbara close behind. Although Tess could move her legs and feet, the fine art of using them to walk was still very difficult, and so the wheelchair was still the best means of moving her around.
Wheeling around a corner, Tess spotted another patient in a wheelchair down the hall, sitting stationary. As she came closer, she recognized who it was.
“Kali!”
“Tess! There you are!” Kali’s voice was understandable, but badly distorted. The bassist and lead vocalist of the Blue Tigers still needed some work before she could go back to the concert scene. Kali was self-aware enough to joke about it. “Yes, I still sound like a Decepticon,” drawing a giggle from Tess.
As they were brought in close together, they each leaned in for a big hug. They were best friends, practically sisters, and being separated had been tough. Tess drew back to take a good look at Kali. Like Tess, she had chosen to keep a close replica of her face, with tiny white lights in her eyes. Kali’s status light was a narrow ring around her throat, like a choker. It glowed a soft green. Tess looked up at her friend’s most distinctive feature. Part of Kali’s signature look had been a cat-ear headband she wore while performing. While planning her transformation, she had opted to make the cat-ears a part of her new robotic body, and they poked up above her synthetic hair. The ears flicked left and right, tracking ambient sounds.
“You look amazing!” Tess was beaming at her friend.
“You too!”
Barbara knocked on a nearby lab door, which Tess belatedly noticed was labeled “Tamiko”. A moment later, Barbara slowly opened it. “Ladies, your last bandmate awaits.”
Tess and Kali were wheeled into the lab, which was very similar to the areas they had been rehabilitating in. They gasped. Their friend was not as far along in the rehab process as they were. Tamiko was a head, shoulders, a pair of arms and hands, and a mess of circuits and wires, mounted on a metal frame on a low workbench. She was offline, arms limp, eyes open, but dark. Her status lights, a pair of narrow wedge shapes on her cheeks, were also dark. Tamiko’s appearance gave Tess a moment’s pause. Yes, they were robots, and looked the part, but on some level Tess still felt human. Tamiko, a lifeless half-built gynoid, truly looked like a machine. It made the depth of their transformation feel so much more real.
“We wanted her to see you when she woke up.” Barbara said, tapping Tamiko’s nearby console. Tamiko’s eyes lit up, and her status lights went green, flickering yellow. Her voice synthesizer made a series of chirps and grunts, while her console indicated a plain text message.
TAMIKO> OMG you guyssss!!!!
“Hey, Tamiko!” Kali pulled herself in for a hug, which Tamiko returned clumsily. Tess went in next.
TAMIKO> The band is back together!!
Tess smiled, seeing Tamiko’s plain-text message on the console. “Yes it is.”
TAMIKO> Your both in full bodies! im jealous.
“Don’t be too jealous. We can’t walk yet.” Kali motioned to the wheelchairs she and Tess were sitting in. “You’ll catch up soon.”
TAMIKO> Do they turn you off at night too?
Kali and Tess both nodded. “Yeah, they prefer to call it ‘sleeping’.” Tess said. She glanced aside at Barbara, David, and the other technicians she didn’t know. Their presence was suddenly really awkward. “But it’s fine.” She hastily added.
“How far along is Tamiko? What’s her next upgrade?” Kali asked Barbara.
Barbara shrugged. “That’s private information…” she began. Tamiko’s console lit up.
TAMIKO> You can tell them anything. I have nothing private from them.
Barbara saw the message, and continued. “Well, her chest is ready for installation…”
“Booooobs!” Kali cheered. “Boobs! Boobs! Boobs!” Tess rolled her eyes. They had shared many dressing rooms over the years. They didn’t have a sexual relationship, but the three bandmates had become relaxed in the casual nudity department. Leave it to Kali to make it weird. Tamiko, for her part, smiled.
TAMIKO> Bring on the boobs!
And so, the technicians installed Tamiko’s chest, as well as her upper back. She was now an intact fembot from the ribcage up, still mounted to the workbench. Tamiko immodestly fondled her new breasts.
“Lookin’ good, Tamiko.” Kali said. “Did you make them bigger?”
TAMIKO> They’re the same size as before.
Kali grinned. “Liar.” Tamiko stuck out her tongue.
TAMIKO> How about you guys? What do they have you doing?
“Practicing with our legs, and our hands. Tossing and catching balls, that kind of thing,” Tess replied.
“I think we’ll be trying to walk soon,” Kali added.
TAMIKO> I’m jealous
Tess held Tamiko’s hand. “You’ll catch up in no time.”
TAMIKO> I’m jealous
Tess blinked at Tamiko’s repetition, then looked up from the text console to her friend’s face. The indicator lights on her cheeks were red, flickering yellow.
TAMIKO> æm jea£ØhYvß
The half-complete fembot’s eyes seemed to un-focus. Her arms moved jerkily, at random.
TAMIKO> ÈÈÈÈÈÈÈààààààà
A technician moved in quickly to Tamiko’s console. With a few deft keystrokes, he shut her down. Tamiko stopped moving, and her lights went dark, her eyes staring sightlessly ahead.
“What the hell was that?!” asked Kali, alarmed.
Barbara cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. Your friend had a software crash. She’s still adjusting. For now, I think she needs more time and privacy. She’s still getting better every day.”
Tess and Kali had little to say, still processing the unsettling scene. After brief goodbyes, they were each wheeled back to their respective recovery rooms. The image of Tamiko’s lifeless, frozen face stuck with Tess. Her friend had looked like a broken doll. A thing, not a person. It was a strange combination of creepy and exhilarating knowing she was fundamentally the same.
-
apok
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Re: The Rehab Clinic
3_____
Tess felt her systems come online. It was a new day, and she was ready to get back to re-learning how to walk. She and Kali had been practicing together for the last several days in one of the rehab rooms, appointed with a variety of railings and padded floors. As part of her morning routine, Tess checked her internal systems. Everything looked normal. She had even been learning what some of the readings actually meant. She glanced at her system clock. It was 9:02 am on Friday the 22nd.
Wait, no. That can’t be right. Yesterday was Wednesday the 20th, wasn’t it? Her eyes came online to see her usual technician, David, as well as Barbara, her fembot case worker.
“Good morning, Tess.” Barbara said, cheerfully.
“Good morning. um… My internal clock says it’s Friday. Is that right?”
David glanced at Barbara. Barbara nodded to Tess. “Yes, it’s Friday morning.”
“Was I turned off all day yesterday? I remember Wednesday. Walking practice with Kali, hand exercises… but not yesterday.”
“Well,” Barbara knelt next to Tess’s bed. “You had a major software malfunction yesterday. So, we had to restore you from your nightly backup.” Barbara smiled brightly. “Now you’re as good as new!”
“A backup?”
“Yes, we back you up every night. I believe we discussed this in the consultations we had before you went through the procedure.”
They had discussed it, but Tess was now wrapping her head around this concept in a fresh new context. “So I’m… a copy?”
“You’re the one and only Tess.” Barbara said, still smiling. “It’s one of the benefits of a digitized existence. No matter what happens, you can be restored. At most, you just lose a day. Not so bad, don’t you agree?”
Tess had to agree. Not only was it painless, she didn’t even feel a sense of lost time. As far as she was concerned, she was turned off Wednesday night, and was turned the following day… except it wasn’t the following day.
___
Soon, Tess was in the walking rehab room with Kali. “Oh yeah, you glitched out real bad.” Kali told her, practicing walking while clutching firmly onto a railing. “Remember the video you shared of that robot chick going spastic in the dog park? You looked like that.”
Tess winced. That wasn’t a flattering look. “Open panels and everything?”
“Oh yeah. Circuits and wires.”
Tess buried her face in her hands. So embarrassing.
“At least there wasn’t smoke,” Kali said placatingly. It didn’t help. “So you say they restored you from a backup? What was that like?”
Tess relayed the experience, or rather, non-experience of it. “Cool.” Kali said.
“Kinda weird, if you ask me,” Tess opined.
“You were basically resurrected, and didn’t feel a thing. That’s pretty cool.” Kali said, reaching the end of her railing, then turning around and starting back. “How about you, Barbara? Ever been restored from a backup before?”
“Several times.” The robotic case worker had been sitting in a chair nearby, supervising Kali and Tess’s rehab. “It will happen less frequently as your personality matrix, your code, gets more accustomed to its new state of existence. Hardware glitches will also decrease, with time. Your custom bodies are all practically prototypes. We’re still working out the kinks. That’s an important aspect of the rehab process. Better to malfunction here, in a private and controlled setting, than in public.”
“Speaking of malfunctioning, I’m getting warnings about CPU temperature?” Kali spoke up. The choker-like indicator light around her throat glowed yellow.
“Sit in that chair there,” said Barbara, pointing. “I’ll send for a technician.”
As Kali sat, Barbara gave no outward sign of how she contacted a technician. No doubt some form of networked communication from her computerized brain. A minute later, a technician entered the room. The woman tapped a few times on a tablet. Kali suddenly sat up straight in her chair. Her face went blank, completely expressionless. Her status light, a worrying yellow just moments before, now glowed a soft blue.
“Take off your shirt, Kali,” the technician said. Kali wordlessly obeyed, not showing even a hint of modesty as she now sat topless, still expressionless. As the tech opened the service panels on Kali’s back, Barbara spoke up, answering Tess’s unasked question.
“It’s called passive mode. It’s useful for troubleshooting purposes. Kali can still see and hear us, and she’s quite comfortable. She’s just not in the driver’s seat, so to speak.” Tess looked on. The technician gave simple commands to Kali, telling her to make simple movements. The technician watched her tablet while Kali wordlessly obeyed. An obedient automaton, like an old fashioned maid droid. Tess would need to ask Kali what it felt like, later.
Tess felt her systems come online. It was a new day, and she was ready to get back to re-learning how to walk. She and Kali had been practicing together for the last several days in one of the rehab rooms, appointed with a variety of railings and padded floors. As part of her morning routine, Tess checked her internal systems. Everything looked normal. She had even been learning what some of the readings actually meant. She glanced at her system clock. It was 9:02 am on Friday the 22nd.
Wait, no. That can’t be right. Yesterday was Wednesday the 20th, wasn’t it? Her eyes came online to see her usual technician, David, as well as Barbara, her fembot case worker.
“Good morning, Tess.” Barbara said, cheerfully.
“Good morning. um… My internal clock says it’s Friday. Is that right?”
David glanced at Barbara. Barbara nodded to Tess. “Yes, it’s Friday morning.”
“Was I turned off all day yesterday? I remember Wednesday. Walking practice with Kali, hand exercises… but not yesterday.”
“Well,” Barbara knelt next to Tess’s bed. “You had a major software malfunction yesterday. So, we had to restore you from your nightly backup.” Barbara smiled brightly. “Now you’re as good as new!”
“A backup?”
“Yes, we back you up every night. I believe we discussed this in the consultations we had before you went through the procedure.”
They had discussed it, but Tess was now wrapping her head around this concept in a fresh new context. “So I’m… a copy?”
“You’re the one and only Tess.” Barbara said, still smiling. “It’s one of the benefits of a digitized existence. No matter what happens, you can be restored. At most, you just lose a day. Not so bad, don’t you agree?”
Tess had to agree. Not only was it painless, she didn’t even feel a sense of lost time. As far as she was concerned, she was turned off Wednesday night, and was turned the following day… except it wasn’t the following day.
___
Soon, Tess was in the walking rehab room with Kali. “Oh yeah, you glitched out real bad.” Kali told her, practicing walking while clutching firmly onto a railing. “Remember the video you shared of that robot chick going spastic in the dog park? You looked like that.”
Tess winced. That wasn’t a flattering look. “Open panels and everything?”
“Oh yeah. Circuits and wires.”
Tess buried her face in her hands. So embarrassing.
“At least there wasn’t smoke,” Kali said placatingly. It didn’t help. “So you say they restored you from a backup? What was that like?”
Tess relayed the experience, or rather, non-experience of it. “Cool.” Kali said.
“Kinda weird, if you ask me,” Tess opined.
“You were basically resurrected, and didn’t feel a thing. That’s pretty cool.” Kali said, reaching the end of her railing, then turning around and starting back. “How about you, Barbara? Ever been restored from a backup before?”
“Several times.” The robotic case worker had been sitting in a chair nearby, supervising Kali and Tess’s rehab. “It will happen less frequently as your personality matrix, your code, gets more accustomed to its new state of existence. Hardware glitches will also decrease, with time. Your custom bodies are all practically prototypes. We’re still working out the kinks. That’s an important aspect of the rehab process. Better to malfunction here, in a private and controlled setting, than in public.”
“Speaking of malfunctioning, I’m getting warnings about CPU temperature?” Kali spoke up. The choker-like indicator light around her throat glowed yellow.
“Sit in that chair there,” said Barbara, pointing. “I’ll send for a technician.”
As Kali sat, Barbara gave no outward sign of how she contacted a technician. No doubt some form of networked communication from her computerized brain. A minute later, a technician entered the room. The woman tapped a few times on a tablet. Kali suddenly sat up straight in her chair. Her face went blank, completely expressionless. Her status light, a worrying yellow just moments before, now glowed a soft blue.
“Take off your shirt, Kali,” the technician said. Kali wordlessly obeyed, not showing even a hint of modesty as she now sat topless, still expressionless. As the tech opened the service panels on Kali’s back, Barbara spoke up, answering Tess’s unasked question.
“It’s called passive mode. It’s useful for troubleshooting purposes. Kali can still see and hear us, and she’s quite comfortable. She’s just not in the driver’s seat, so to speak.” Tess looked on. The technician gave simple commands to Kali, telling her to make simple movements. The technician watched her tablet while Kali wordlessly obeyed. An obedient automaton, like an old fashioned maid droid. Tess would need to ask Kali what it felt like, later.
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