Dyllys

Although Dyllys often found herself sleeping, it wasn’t a required function of her body, not unless she was low on power, but that was an occasional thing. She only required recharging every month, even less if she was on a planet being bathed by sunlight. She stored solar energy with pleasure. So instead of sleeping, she watched Parris sleep, trying to remember what it felt like to dream. All she had were her memories, and as much as she recalled those as dreams, they weren’t the random images that came from a human mind, the creative voice of the subconscious. If she missed anything about being human, now that she could feel again, it was dreams. Faran always loved listening to her dreams. He relished every word she said when she told him what story her mind had weaved while she was sleeping. She remembered that he used to say her mind held as many stories as the stars did and that with an imagination such as hers she didn’t need to explore, she could do that from her bed just by closing her eyes.

“But my stories aren’t real, Faran, they are just a device my mind uses to keep itself from going crazy from boredom. I like your stories much more, because you actually experienced them. I want to experience them too,” Sabine said.

“But I learn just as much from your stories as you do from mine,” Faran retorted.

“How is that even possible?”

“Have you ever thought that maybe your dreams are not your own thoughts, but that when you sleep you are slipping from our galaxy and into another, and while you sleep another person on the other side of the universe is sleeping as well, and somewhere on that altered plane of consciousness you are actually listening to their story and they are listening to yours? Maybe your dreams are the dreams of others, stories that need to be shared,” Faran was staring out at the stars as he talked.

“If that’s the case, than why aren’t all people's dreams as far away as mine?”

“Because, not everyone can tell a story like you can, Sabine. I think stories find the people that can tell them best. I think you have to be open to them.”

Sabine laughed, “If that’s the case, Faran, then they should have found you.”

Faran rolled over and onto Sabine, staring down at her from above, pinning her arms beneath his hands, “Maybe they have, in a different way than they found you. Here in this galaxy you are the storyteller and I am the story.” He kissed her then and she laughed.

* * * *

“Are you sleeping, Esper?” Dyllys asked.

“I do not currently require that function,” Esper replied.

“I want to talk, if you don’t mind.”

“I am open to that.”

“What was Parris talking about when he said that there was a flaw in the androids that Davenport Electronics produces? Do you know?”

“Parris has shared everything with me, from the moment he created me, so yes, I know,” Esper paused for a moment. Dyllys decided she was trying to figure out where to start. “Parris didn’t mention it, and I don’t know why, possibly he was too fatigued, but Davenport Electronics’ android program is built off of Emanuel Salazar’s stolen research. The problem was they didn’t get all of the research because Salazar made sure that all his notes were not together. They built the androids from the base structure that Salazar had outlined, but they weren’t able to reach the level of sophistication that Salazar reached with you. No one at Davenport Electronics has ever come close to understanding androids like Salazar, until Parris.”

“So you don’t carry the flaw?”

“No.”

“What was the flaw?” Dyllys asked once again.

“The flaw was that Emanuel made the nanomachines with you in mind. They didn’t combine properly with other tissue. Parris realized that he had to restructure the nanomachines so that they would combine with the DNA of its host instead of just adding onto it.”

Dyllys froze at her words. This was what Parris had been trying to tell her before. Dyllys was wrong, the AS series androids weren’t different from her at all, they were exactly the same. Was this the truth that Parris had learned that made him want to leave? Dyllys wasn’t entirely convinced of that, for Parris would have known how the androids were constructed to have worked there and to have constructed Esper. What exactly was it that had made him turn against his father and brother?

“They use humans to make the androids? All of them?” Dyllys asked although she was scared of the answer.

“Cloned tissue, grown to the desired specifications.”

That small bit of information relieved Dyllys’s mind; she couldn’t stand the thought of that many people suffering her same fate.

“Do they experience life before they become an android?”

“Only momentarily, not long enough to form conscious thought. Our only life is as what you see.”

“So how did Parris discover this flaw to being with?”

“He noticed that instead of augmenting the DNA strand in all places, different portions of different DNA were actually consumed by the nanomachines. He isolated all those pieces and made me from it. All those pieces of DNA he took must have been the pieces from all the hosts that most resembled you. In essence, that may be why you and I resemble each other.”

It was true: Dyllys had seen the resemblance between them the moment she had seen Esper, but it was subtle. Their DNA was only similar, not the same, almost as if Esper was her child. If everything Esper said was true, it would make sense why Parris wanted Dyllys to feel again. He wanted Dyllys to share that gift with Esper. If all the androids were like her then maybe she could help them all. She didn’t know if it would work when the other androids had no human memories to work from. She could try, but with all her efforts it was likely not to work. Faran had used her existing humanity to awaken her, how could she awaken humanity when there had been no experience to begin with. She was back to the same problem she had when she thought they were nothing like her at all, but now there was a seed of hope.

“Did Parris ever try to erase the master program from the other androids before he left, like he did with you?”

“He did. Parris doesn’t like to bring it up. When his father realized what he had done, whole batches of androids were destroyed. It is why Faran hasn’t done it on a mass scale, even though it would have destroyed the control base of the Ordalis.”

“I guess that’s where I come in then,” Dyllys said, “I can infect the computers, erase all the data, and with Parris gone they will have nothing. Then if he erases the master program their product will be useless to them.”

“Yes, all I need to do is uplink with the other AS-24 androids and the master program will be gone forever.”

“This is a good plan.”

“Parris has never had a bad one,” Esper said with the utmost confidence and, if Dyllys could dare to say, admiration.