One | Tessa

As I adjust the panel back into place over her arm, I glance over my shoulder towards the doors of the laboratory. There’s nobody around…I hope.

Yet I can’t shake the feeling that someone’s watching me.

Nobody’s there, Teresa. Now get on with it.

With a hefty sigh, I allow myself to relax once more. I shouldn’t really be here, but I don’t have any other choice. It’s either this or the sack when they find out I let their state-of-the-art android walk. At least if I do this, I might just be able to pass her off as one of the IHA’s own.

Relax. You can do this.

Dragging the mouse over to the command window, I activate the stress test again. A faint glow emerges beneath her eyes; despite her artificial nature, she’s ironically the only sign of life aside from my own in this room. My eyes drift back over to the remote analytics window. CPU looks good, memory’s not too bad.

She’s stable for now.

She could pass off as the real thing. I am, however, concerned that when the voice module is switched back on, she won’t be able to.

“Hello there, my name is Lola. How may I be of assistance to you, Teresa?”

…is what she’s supposed to say. In reality, she barely manages to get out three words before the glow from her eyes fades into oblivion. She hunches over, back in her power-down mode. Another glance towards the remote analytics window suggests her components just aren’t strong enough to handle full functionality.

“Are you for real?” I mutter under my breath. “I…I’ve gone through all of my allocated parts for the year trying to fix you. Why aren’t you working, Lola?”

“Because the parts the IHA allocated to you are nearly ten years old.”

I spin on my heel to find Bilara Carta watching me, her arms crossed firmly over her chest. Her uncovered eye is trained on me. Narrowed. The other is covered, first with a crimson eyepatch and then with her fringe. My jaw drops as I sight the phone in her hand.

How did she even get in?!

“Aren’t…aren’t you part of the geology division?” I frown. “You…you’re not supposed to be in here!”

“Neither are you,” she retorts. “You’re supposed to be performing maintenance checks on all of the verified machines downstairs, not messing around with her settings!” I press my lips together and turn back towards Lola, opening up the panel on her arm again.

“I’m trying to fix her.” I pick up a screwdriver and loosen the screws holding the first CPU down. I quickly yank my hand away as my fingers graze the surface. It’s incredibly hot to the touch. They’re just not strong enough.

“I can see that,” she scoffs back. “What’d you even do to her to warrant a repair in the first place?”

“It’s not a repair, Billie, I…I’m trying to rebuild her.”

“Sounds like a repair to me.”

“No, it’s a rebuild.”

Her jaw drops.

“Wait…this isn’t Lola? Where the Hell is she then?!”

“That’s the thing, Billie. The real Lola…she started exhibiting signs of sentience and self-awareness last week. I tried telling Dr Mela, but she wouldn’t hear any of it. She…she wandered off about an hour into our shift. Right after the office closers clocked off.”

“So instead of reporting it immediately and going to find her…you’ve just let an android worth twenty million dollars walk?!”

“It’s not my fault!” I argue. “It’s one in the morning and she’s torn her tracker off, Billie! For all we know, she could be halfway to Pelagia right now!”

“Yeah,” she retorts, “no thanks to you!”

As I glance down at my watch, I realise the heart monitor is open. 146 BPM…no good.

“I’m trying to fix this,” I promise her as I return my gaze towards her. “Can you please help me?”

“Whatever. Not like I have anything better to do—”

“Thank you, I really appreciate it.”

“But you have to come clean. Regardless of whether we find her or not!”

I nod my head.

Maybe she’ll forget once we do find her.

- - -

I can barely see past the first few rows of trees and bushes. A thick blanket of deep indigo envelopes the skies, interrupted only by violent-looking clouds. The air is cold and bitter against my skin; I’d left my jacket inside the laboratory, but it’s too late to go back inside and get it. We really shouldn’t be leaving the IHA headquarters unattended, but we don’t have any choice in the matter. As tonight’s supervisor, Billie will get her share of the blame if we can’t find Lola in time. That’s not fair on her.

“You’re lucky the eighth Magna Carta’s on their final night of their term,” she decides. “Maybe if you suck up to the ninth Magna Carta, they’ll show some mercy on you when the IHA inevitably finds out about tonight.”

“C’mon,” I argue back, “I’m sure Orpheus would’ve done something.”

“Eight against one aren’t very favourable chances, Tessa. And even if they were, it’s a conflict of interest. Orpheus used to work for your dad, remember?”

“I suppose.”

Billie adjusts the intensity of her torch, pulling the switch back.

“Where does a robot even go around here?” she frowns. Sweeping the light across the car park, only her flashy new Skyview Segway and my eleven-year-old Orana Striver remain. It’s a miracle the paint isn’t peeling off mine. “Aside from HQ and the eight perimeter checkpoints, there’s nothing around for miles.”

“I don’t know,” I admit. “Hey, do you think Country Chicken’s hiring? Regardless of whether or not we find her, I’m cooked.”

“I’ll put in a good word for you,” she scoffs back. “You’re supposed to be smart, where is she?”

The wind whistles through the trees, drowning the bitter silence with a gentle ambience. It’s 1:10 AM, and we’re leaving the HQ to find some stupid robot who can apparently think for herself, all because I didn’t keep the door locked. I’m so fired, there’s no way I’ve got a job after tonight. It’s been one fuck-up after another. Freak-outs, panic attacks, snapping back at people…

“This isn’t like you at all, Tessa. You’re usually so happy and friendly!”

Am I?

“You need to keep it to yourself. It’s incredibly unprofessional, you know. What if one of the higher-ups sees…or God forbid the Magna Carta?”

I’d kill to be able to keep my emotions in check. I hate not having any sort of control just as much as everyone else. God knows how many times I’ve tried to tell them…

“You good, Tess?”

“I’m just fine, Billie.”

“Sure.”

I’m not fine, but she doesn’t need to know that. As much as the IHA pushes all their corporate buzzwords of inclusion and belonging and empathy around in the public eye, I feel that they’re anything but. I don’t know how many times I’ve been written up. How many times I’ve tried to explain I’m not cut out for their expectations, how many times they just don’t listen to me. It’s like I’ve got this voice but nobody can hear it. Maybe when we find her…if we find her…I can just go home and curl up in my bed and be myself again. Because that’s the only place I’m allowed to be myself. A miserable, hollow shell of the woman others seem to think I am—

A rustle in the bushes in front of us cuts my train of thought to a halt.

“You heard that too, yeah?” Billie asks as she trains her torch towards the shrubs.

“Yeah,” I answer. The two of us remain quiet, only the wind breaking the deafening silence. The rustling…it was too sudden to be the wind. Something’s there.

“Hello?” Billie calls out. “Is anyone out there?”

“Or anything,” I correct her.

“Ugh,” she mutters. “Let me handle this.”

Taking a step towards the sprawling conglomerate of leaves and branches, Billie tightens her right hand around the torch. With her free hand, she reaches out for the top of the shrub and parts it away to peer underneath.

With wide eyes, she drops the torch.

“Tessa…” she murmurs. “She’s…she’s ruined…”

My heart sinks at the very thought. I already know what I’ll be looking at, a mangled collection of dints and scratches that was once the IHA’s pride and joy, their gift to the ninth Magna Carta.

But I go to look anyway.

“Maybe…maybe we can salvage something,” I assure Billie. I’m lying through my teeth, of course. The real Lola is missing an arm…and about half of her exoskeleton, for that matter. The underlying hardware is wrecked. Wires torn. Armatures fried. Frames contorted.

Twenty million dollars worth of time, energy and resources…gone in one night.

“We can’t even salvage our jobs, Teresa,” Billie finally decides. “C’mon, we’d better take her inside.”

A flash of white emerges behind the cracked lenses of Lola’s eyes.

“Hang on…” I assure her. “We might be okay yet.” Ignoring Billie’s obvious eye roll, I crouch down in front of Lola. “Can you hear us?”

“Affirmative.”

Her voice is instant, just as I’d expect.

“Oh, thank God…” I sigh, placing a hand on my heart. “Lola, can you conduct a functional analysis of your systems and tell me what needs fixing?”

“My inner components are functional. It is my body that remains dysfunctional.”

“We can help,” Billie promises her. “Look, I’ll go and grab a cart, and we’ll take you back to the lab. We’ve got a spare body for you. You’ll be as good as new.”

“You…think so?” I ask. “But…but transferring her components could be risky, especially if we don’t get it done in time.”

“You want your job or not?” she retorts.

I nod my head.

“It’s 1:15 AM now…we’ve got about four hours and forty-five minutes until the morning shift starts.” Billie pockets her torch. “I’ll go grab a cart, you stay here with Lola, okay?” I nod my head, watching as she heads off back towards the sliding doors.

“Lola,” I begin. “We’re going to take you inside, okay? We can fix this. We’ll fix you.”

“Affirmative.”

But as I sit here with her in the dark, it makes me wonder why she left the lab in the first place. Why would she leave when it’s not even in her programming to do so?

It’s like she’s got a mind of her own.

But Dr Mela doesn’t seem convinced. Not one bit.

Lola V9.0 is the IHA's pride and joy; she's everything they've aspired towards for the fifty years they've been operational. I helped design her current build during my provisional phase at the IHA back in 2021. She's to be presented to the ninth Magna Carta during their inauguration ceremony later this year.