"Andy the Android"

Panic quickly set in, but against an unknown assailant, she knew better than to start thrashing about. Though her demeanor was calm, her heart was racing.

As his hand slid away from her mouth, she licked her lips, peering through the darkness of her room. Her eyes adjusting to the light, she was able to pick out the highlights across his form, standing over her.

“Who?” was all she could manage, fumbling through the inky darkness for her jeans. There wasn’t much of a change in tone from him, so going on her ears alone, there wasn’t a real need for urgency. Based on her gut, however, and the fact that he was very much something that…shouldn’t be, she moved with a swiftness that surprised her sleep-slow fingers. “Are they dangerous?”

The question had barely left her lips before she was looking for her side-arm. Though she was as familiar with it as an extension of her body, it still made her nervous, the ugly responsibility of life and death. Where could they go? If these people were dangerous (and better to err on the side of caution), she couldn’t run the risk of exposing her family or her friends to whoever these people might be. And it wasn’t like she had the money to indefinitely skip the city, let alone the state or even the country. And if they had the resources to build something like Andy, well, then, the likelihood of her actually finding a place to stay hidden would be slim to none as it were.

But what if…

They were just recovering lost property? Like how someone would look for a lost pet? And what if Andy was potentially dangerous? Like, if something had gone wrong with his wiring, and that’s how he wandered out?

Well, safe, but cautious.

“Okay,” she said, after too much silence. “Okay.” Wiggling her jeans up her hips, she took a look at her phone. A little after 5 in the morning. Unnaturally early for someone to be calling, but it could be justified – she was a cop, she kept odd hours. Fair.

“Andy…do you know who these people are?” Back to the quiet, calm voice.

"I do not know who these people are," Andy answered simply. He spoke without the emotion evident in Layla's own voice and body movements. Andy had hoped not to panic his hostess, but it was evident that he'd failed. As he watched her dress, though, he realized that it was human nature to feel and act as Layla was now. He had, after all, awoken her in the dark with a hand over her mouth and told her that strangers were coming. As she continued to dress, Andy looked for and found the coat Layla had been wearing the last time they'd been outside as he continued, "More importantly, they do not know who you are."

Andy turned to Layla and offered out the coat. He explained, "My diagnostic revealed that a person who remains unknown to me had deleted a significant number of connections to files still held within my memory vault, making them inaccessible to me at this time. I attempted to reestablish some of these connections..."

He babbled on for a moment about the details, then thought he saw in Layla's reaction to said rambling that this wasn't what she was interested in hearing. He moved on, "I wanted to know more about myself, so I connected to the internet to search all available databases. That was an error on my part. Almost instantaneously with my beginning the search, a search for my physical location was also begun. I do not know who these persons are, Lala, but the methods they were using were of both corporate and government origin."

Andy cocked his head a bit, his eyes filling with a bit of a far off thinking-to-himself expression that was more human-like than normal for the android. He mused, "Interesting. I did not see it before. Although these corporate and government services were working together to locate me, I also understand now that they were working separately at the same time."

He looked back into Layla's eyes and smiled a bit, as if he knew something others would rather he hadn't concluded. "These corporate and government services are working cooperatively to relocate me. However, I also believe that they are working separately. They are secretly racing to find me on their own, for their own reasons and ends."

Something in the deep, dark inaccessible recesses of his memory vault caused Andy to hold his hands out before him, fingers splayed as he turned them palms up, then palms down, examining them. He had no idea why he did this. But something told Andy that he'd done something with these hands that interested those searching for him. The question floating about in the accessible portion of his brain was as to whether this unknown thing had been for good ... or for bad.

"I feared that my connection to the internet could be traced," Andy went on, remembering that he'd told Layla that her identity was unknown. He set his hands down again, then looked to her. "I established a wireless connection to the little travel office across the street from your home. It was closed at the time, of course. The owners have nothing to fear from those chasing us. Nor do you. Which brings me to a question I would like to ask of you, Lala. Will you aid me in discovering who I am and why I am out here in the world?"

She’d started putting on her coat as he held it out to her on autopilot. It was only when one arm was through that she stopped herself. “Wait, Andy – if we don’t know who these people are, we can’t automatically assume that they’re dangerous.” Her voice was steadier than she felt. “And if they know who you are, wouldn’t they be able to better answer your questions than I can? I didn’t even think that androids were physically possible until you just showed up.”

Gently, she tugged her coat from him. Might as well finish putting it on. “If it’s a corporation and the government after you, they’re going to have the money and resources to find us no matter where we go.” She chewed her lower lip thoughtfully. “And I could get into a lot of trouble, being a police officer, by not responding to a government inquiry. Look, why don’t we see what they want? I don’t…I don’t know how to even begin to answer who you are. I can’t even do that for myself.”

I don’t know how to even begin to answer who you are. I can’t even do that for myself.

Andy found Layla's comment a bit confusing. How could she not know who she was? She was a police officer. That was who she was. A person's who was only the what that they did. Or, so Andy believed. Sure, there were definitely some holes in his memories and knowledge at the moment, holes he hoped to fill. But it was his belief -- for right or wrong -- that what a person did as a career or vocation was who they were.

He found himself looking at his hands again, thinking What did I do with these? Although he couldn't recall what actions his hands had taken prior to opening that bag of cheese puffs, Andy was pretty sure that he'd done something important with them. He was also beginning to feel as though what he'd done with them was morally questionable.

Morally questionable...? What exactly did that mean? He searched his memory vaults for definitions of the phrase, but the list of actions that could be considered morally questionable was almost infinite, depending upon who was doing the asking and the context in which they had done what ever it was they'd done.

"I am afraid."

Andy looked up from his hands to Layla, repeating the three words again. He lowered his hands to his sides and explained, "I do not know who is looking for me, Lala. But I fear that they wish to do me harm. I do not know how I came to be here. To be in your city. To have been found by you in that store. To have no memory of my past. But I believe that the unknown person who brought me here did so to protect me from other unknown persons. Please, Lala. Help me."

There was a touch of discernable desperation in his tone, similar in quality and quantity to the joy he'd displayed to Layla that first night as he scarfed down cheese puffs. And yet the amount of observable desperation was fractional compared to the actual desperation welling inside him. Andy was truly scared of what might happen to him should the unknown persons seeking him discover his whereabouts.

And yet ... he had absolutely no idea why!