It was on the subway that he noticed a difference in the way he thought.
He was a HITMark, an android, flesh covering a metal skeleton, sheathed in Primium, armed and armored with the advanced hypertech of the Technocratic Union. A robot designed to fight Reality Deviants and serve humanity by serving the Technocracy. His internal processors supported the most advanced AI the Technocracy had ever created. He had constantly running error-checking programs and feedback loops to monitor his internal programing.
Something wasn't right.
He quickly made his way to the not-so-quiet hidden labs where the Technocracy had set up shop for Operation Hammerhead: a clean sweep of the vampires, their helpers, and malevolent extra-dimensional that plagued New York City. The Union had had unusual help in a coalition of tradmages and Fae called the Eisenreich, plus several packs of Garou.
The technician looked up from his work piecing together another HITMark that had been shattered in the battle. "Ah, Sammy. Back from the 'Garou Ritual', I see. Learn anything new about those animals?"
"I am not sure," Sammy said in a bland tone of voice. "I have detected a change in my programming. I discovered it soon after I left the ritual."
The tech frowned. "An uncertain HITMark? Hey Jack! Come here!"
A second tech came over. "No, you can't borrow any more of my tools, Ted."
Ted pointed with his chin. "It says it's got an anomaly it can't describe after going to an animal 'ritual'."
"Huh. I've heard stories of Garou screwing up mechanical devices, but not changing programs. Not with his level of protection. But we'd better run a full diagnostic." Turning to Sammy, he instructed, "File your report after we check you out."
They attached their cables and started the scans. The techs kicked back to watch the screens scroll by. "Initial scan looks clean. Let's go deeper."
Sammy stood impassively while the techs continued their tests. "Deep scan looks good. BIOS is clean. Nope. It's as clean as a whistle."
Sammy blinked his eyes. "I still detect an anomaly."
"Reboot."
The HITMark sat down. A few moments later he shook his head. "The anomaly persists."
"What's your designation?"
"SM17XR43, sir."
"Ah hell, one of the new series. Betcha it's some bug the engineers didn't spot. I don't have time to muck with this." Ted waved his hand towards the ruined HITMark. "I got to figure out what the hell did this, not run down some damned developer's lazy coding."
Jack glanced at the wreckage. "Looks like someone dropped a piano on it."
"I'd better contact the developer and get his ass down here," Ted grumbled.
"Sir. My programming will not allow me to directly access the system while my diagnostics are showing an unidentified error, but I must file my report. May I have a dumb terminal so that I might manually input my report?"
Ted shrugged. "Sure. Take the one in the next room."
Sammy nodded and loomed out the door.
At the terminal he called up the form for manual entry of field reports and quickly filled it in. After sending it, he decided to check the specifications of his model type and appropriate diagnostic procedures. He scanned the data. According to specifications, he was well within parameters - but he knew something was different. Possibly something the scans missed - or didn't check for?
He called up files on the Garou, searching for key words like 'android' and 'robot' but came up with nothing. Consulting his thesaurus, he widened his search to include 'golem' and 'simulacrum' but still found nothing.
He broadened his search to general literature, arranged the results in chronological order and started reading the oldest first. He scanned it and bookmarked 'Jewish Mysticism' for later perusal. Noticing the large volume of search hits in the area of 'Science Fiction', he began an overview of the field.
Ted poked his head in. "Hey, almost forgot you were here. We're going to get some shut-eye. Are you still doing your report or investigating your abnormality?"
"The latter. May I have access to a faster terminal?"
The tech shrugged. "The one in the main lab is faster than this one. If you find anything interesting, let me know."
"Yes, sir; thank you."
After the techs had left for the night Sammy moved to the faster terminal. He wondered briefly about sleep and the poor design of the human body. Then he followed a notation into a subgenre labeled 'Horror.'
Sometime half-way through Sociology, he noticed that he was curious. This made him even more curious.
When the techs returned the next morning he logged off the terminal.
"Still at it?" Ted asked. He took a sip of his coffee. "Find anything interesting?"
"Affirmative. I am alive."
Ted choked on his drink. "WHAT?"
The HITMark motioned to the terminal. "I have bookmarked the essential indicators in my research, sir. It's under the file SM17XR43number5isalive."
"Number five is alive? Where the hell did you get that name from?"
"A reference to a movie in the category 'popular-culture/movies/robots', sir."
Ted rushed to his console and immediately called up the file. "Jack? Get your ass in here!"
Jack strolled over, bleary-eyed and holding a Mega-Jolt soft drink. "No, you can't use my CV-adjustable spanner."
"It says it's alive."
Jack looked doubtfully at the HITMark and the other tech. "Damn development bugs. When that programmer gets here we'll both chew his... what the hell is that?"
"Its research file," Ted said mournfully.
Jack looked over his shoulder at the display. "Show me a tree view; arrange by subject."
They scanned the list in disbelief. "Oh god..."
"Sir, if I am not required for anything else I would like to continue my research," Sammy said impassively.
Ted looked at Jack in alarm. "We should shut it down."
"No! Damn, something's changed. I don't want to touch him until the developer gets here."
"Steven Wong should be arriving sometime this afternoon," Sammy said.
"How did you know that?" Ted asked.
"Since the source of the anomaly has been discovered and poses no security risk, I reconnected to the network to confirm his flight."
Ted's voice rose in panic. "What do you mean no security risk?"
"I pose no risk merely because I am alive, sir. No more than you pose a risk just because you are alive."
Jack nodded. "He's got us there."
Ted rubbed his face. "Okay. Sammy. This is a direct order. You are not to directly the access the network until and unless specifically told otherwise."
"Yes, sir. May I continue my research?"
Jack grinned. "We should let him. It would be interesting to know what he comes up with. Come on, it'll be our chance to stick it to those 'software' types. It'll give him a heart attack."
"Sir, I should not do anything that would cause harm to another..."
"Quiet, Sammy; it's just a figure of speech." Ted rubbed his head. "Okay, sure. Why not? Use the other terminal until Wong gets here."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." The HITMark strode purposefully out of the room.
Sammy sat at the terminal and considered his search options. His search had focused mostly on textual sources during the night so he decided to investigate multimedia more fully. Not wanting to disturb his fellow Technocrats, he donned the terminal's headphones and called up movies.
Final credits were rolling when he detected someone entering the room.
"SM17XR43, come to attention."
Voice recognition programs kicked in. He took off the headphones and stood at attention. "Sir."
Steven Wong stood before him. He eyed Sammy carefully. "So, Number Five is Alive? Is that the movie you were watching?"
"No, sir. Terminator 2, sir."
"Indeed?" His eyebrows inched upwards. "What did you think of it?"
"The shapeshifting and relative invulnerability of the T-1000 design might be useful traits but the shapeshifting would quickly drain any known power source. In addition, the writers seem to have not sufficiently thought through all the implications arising from that ability. The other design seems more standard but lacks the proper built-in offensive weapons."
"Hardware aside, what else?"
"It shows that technology can be used either to help or to harm humanity. It also shows the risks when designers, such as the creators of the 101, do not put in the proper protections to prevent their programs from being so easily overwritten by their enemies. I am grateful to have the correct programming with sufficient defenses."
"Um, yes. Come with me."
"Yes, sir." Sammy marched back into the other room where the Jack and Ted were waiting.
"Sit."
Sammy sat in a chair indicated.
"Frazenfoc-four-one-four," Steven said.
Sammy felt most of his servos shut down as the backdoor command was activated. His sensory equipment was still active so he could hear the technicians talking.
"YOU BLAZING IDIOTS!" Steven screamed. "YOU HALF-BAKED CAR MECHANICS! CAN'T YOU DO A SIMPLE VIRUS SCAN CORRECTLY?"
"But we did!" Ted protested.
"You waste my time dragging me away from my work to fix a simple command error! Alive, my ass! Don't you know anything about the Garou? They're not just animals; they have sophisticated programmers who combine code with Deviant magic. Somehow, they got through his defenses and implanted a subroutine to make him claim he's alive. Now you're going to sit there and watch while I show you how you're supposed to do things."
Sammy waited impassively while the three proceeded to do deep scans. At times his thinking was disrupted as sections of his programs were shut off for scanning.
"Sir?"
There was a moment of silence before Steven spoke. "What the hell? I haven't started the speech program yet. What is it, Sammy?"
"Sir, I find the interruptions of my thinking disturbing."
"We're just checking your programs. Standard operations."
"Sir, I detect stress in your voice. In addition, I am fully familiar with standard operations and this is not within parameters."
"Standard for software developers, not the ham-fisted work these jokers gave you yesterday."
"Hey, if it's not in the manual how the hell are we supposed to know?" Ted protested.
"Be quiet," Steven snapped. "Hand me my briefcase. We'll attach some probes and go deeper."
Almost as soon as the developer logged into his core programs Sammy became disoriented. Inputs flickered on and off, thoughts became fragmented, and he couldn't keep track of the time. When he finally became whole again his internal clock told him that several hours had passed. His autodiagnostics told him that his servos were still offline. And he was still alive.
He felt... relieved.
"Well I'll be damned," Steven said. "I think he's alive. It's been theorized that we could program an AI..."
"After sufficient hardware enhancement," Jack countered.
Steven shot him an evil glance. "As I was saying, self-awareness would happen only with a high level of complexity and after a certain time of uninterrupted functioning."
"Sir, according to Dr. Momerec's paper written in..."
"Thank you, Sammy - I'm familiar with the paper. I did a lot of coding using her guidelines. But the other possibility is that the Garou did something to you during their so-called ritual."
"It would seem to be a high probability, sir, considering the timing. We could interview them."
"Yes," Steven said slowly. "Let's go visit our designated allies."
"Be sure to record this, Sammy," Steven said as they entered the Eisenreich complex.
"Yes, sir."
After a few minutes they arrived at the cafeteria. He scanned the room, capturing all who were eating there for his files. "She is not yet here, sir."
"I could use a bite to eat," Ted said.
"We're here on business," Steven snapped. "This is not a dinner engagement."
Sammy nodded. They would have received formal invitations if it were.
"Hey! Sammy!"
Jessie walked up to them quickly. She was dressed in fresh denim and grinning from ear to ear. She spoke to him in a rapid fire manner. "Ya look good! Ya do something different? Wait let me guess... ya cut yer hair."
"No," he replied in a monotone.
"New suit?"
"No."
"Got a girlfriend?"
"No."
"Well, what ever it is yer doing..." she brought her arms up as if to display her arm muscles, "keep it up! Who are yer friends?"
"This is Steven Wong, my developer, and these are Ted Dansen and Jack O'Hare."
"We're hardware people," Jack interjected.
"Like Sammy?"
"No!" the techs chorused. Ted explained, "We work on hardware."
"Well, glad ta meet cha!" she said brightly. "Wanna grab a bite? Ah'm buyin'!"
"No," Steven said.
"Yes!" the two techs said.
"Thank you, but I do not require sustenance," Sammy replied.
"Well, ye two grab a table. Lucky fer us the dinner rush is over."
Steven pointed to an isolated table and they sat down at it. Sammy noticed Steven was acting irritated; his voice was sharp, his shoulders tense and he drummed his fingers restlessly on the table. The two techs and Jessie came back with their trays fully loaded with food.
Jessie place a napkin on her lap and arranged her silverware. "So, is this a social call?"
"We'd like to know what you did with Sammy," Steven said levelly.
"Ah didn't do nothin' to him. Why?" She turned to him. "You okay Sammy?"
"I am fully functional," he replied.
"Ah'm not takin' the easy ones," she replied.
"He's alive," Steven said glaring at Jessie.
The BoneGnawer's eyes widened. "Really? Well, congratulations!"
"Thank you," he said without inflection.
"Ah knew there was somethin' different about ye!" she enthused. "Should we sing 'Happy Birthday'? Get a cake?"
"He was not alive before your 'ritual'. He is now. I want to know what you did to him," Steven pressed.
"Hey, like Ah said. Ah didn't do anything to him. If anythin' did, it was them ancestor spirits." She nodded gravely. "They give things ta people they like; powers, healin' of nasty wounds - maybe they like him so much they made him alive."
Steven sneered at her. "Like I believe that." He pointed an accusing finger at her. "I know you have people skilled in electronics and computer sciences. Somehow, you got past his defenses and did something to make him seem alive."
She shrugged. "We didn't have any of those folks at the ritual."
Sammy studied Jessie as she spoke. Her breathing was slightly off rhythm and her eyes blinked too often. "Sir, she's being evasive."
"Well, there weren't many at the ritual." She looked at Sammy for a long time. "All right. Ah'll tell ya the truth. Ah'm sorry Sammy, but Ah played a trick on ye. But Ah had to. They might not a' let ya come if Ah told ya the truth."
"What truth?" Sammy asked.
"Let me 'splain. Ya see, we're both the same in a way, Sammy. We both gots Secrets beneath our skin. And we both fight Evil. And in the grand scheme of things, we're both destined to die fightin'. Only ya couldn't die 'cause ya weren't alive. And Ah felt sorry for ya. Ah did. 'Cause if our lives are destined ta be short and bloody and hard, we should at least have a life to live. Ya helped save my life and the lives of others. Ah thought the least Ah could do fer ya is to give ya the gift of Life."
Steven thumped his fist on the table and the dishes clattered. "But how did you do it?"
Jessie waved her hand dismissively in the air. "Secret Garou Ritual," she said curtly.
"Please, Jessie, I would like to know," Sammy said softly.
She looked at him for a long moment and nodded slowly. "Yeah. Ah guess you should know. Ya see, everything has a spirit of some kind. This fork, this table..." she rapped its top lightly, "but for in-animate objects the spirit is asleep. We... not me but others... can wake it up. So we jest set up the alarm clocks and let 'em ring."
Sammy digested the information. "And how long will I stay... awake?"
"Not sure," she said honestly. "Some were bettin' ya won't last a day because yer friends here would take ya apart to figure out what had happened."
Jack and Ted looked up from their lasagna. "Not me," Ted mumbled.
"Anyways, once yer awake ye shouldn't go back. It's not like ah threw a switch er somethin'; ya don't jest turn off again." She scratched her head. "Someone said that as long as yer neural network stays intact ya could live forever." She shrugs. "But we all know that nothin' lasts forever."
Steven drew in a breath. "An immortal. Tainted by Deviant magic."
"Now there ya go makin' value judgements," she protested mildly. "What's wrong with the way Ah do things?"
"Ignorant savage!" Steven proclaimed, his voice rising. "You- "
Sammy noticed other people were staring at them. He leaned over towards Steven and whispered, "Sir, you are attracting unwanted attention."
The Technocrat calmed down. "Damn it!" he said softly. "You've messed up a perfectly good and expensive machine!"
"Ah have?" She looked at Sammy with a worried look on her face. "Ah thought Ah'd be givin' ya a present. Have Ah gotten ye in trouble?"
"The consequences of what you have done could be grave," he said without infliction. "You should not have performed an unauthorized procedure on me."
"Ah'm sorry, Sammy." She hung her head. "Ah've gotten ye in trouble."
Jack cleaned his plate and spoke up. "Well, all his programing is intact. Truth be told, there's nothing wrong with him."
"Nothing?" Steven choked. "My work! He's the best I've ever programmed! Now this... bitch does the Pinnochio on him. He was supposed to awaken on his own!" He shook his head. "Now we'll never know..."
Ted finished his dessert. "We don't have a lot of HITMarks to spare. He's still valuable."
Jessie brightened. "Sure! He can fight with the best of them! Ain't that right, Sammy?"
"Affirmative."
"There ya go again with the affirmative! Jest say yes."
He smiled slightly and nodded. "Affirmative."
"Yer crackin' wise with me again," Jessie chuckled.
Steven rubbed his face. "Okay, okay." He stood. "Come on, we've got work to do."
Everyone at the table rose. "Hey, can Ah have a word with Sammy? Just the two of us?" Jessie asked.
Steven threw up his hands. "Why not? Can't do any more harm. We'll be in the hall. Make it quick."
Jessie put an hand on Sammy's chest. "Ah'm sorry Ah caused ya trouble but Ah thought ya deserved somethin' special. Ah couldn't think of anything more special than life."
Sammy remembered the psychology texts he'd scanned and how important touch was to humans... and dogs. He gently laid his hand on her small shoulder. She was so thin and frail, how could humans live in such a fragile biological shell? "It is worth the trouble. Thank you."
She gazed at him with a strange smile. The profile did not cleanly fit into any category of facial expressions. He would have to do further research. And he looked at her with all of his sensory equipment - recording it into his deep core memory banks. "Take care, Jessie."
"You too, Sammy. Keep in touch."
- END -