Initializing

Matrix Reactivating

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System Online

Initializing Diagnostic Program

You have sustained damage.

You don’t say? I couldn’t tell.

Your Solar Plexus is mostly intact. You lateral starboard side axial servo is being repaired. Repair Nanites are working to repair your systems. You will also need a new field emitter for your left arm along with a more LM compound.

Oh great. And here I thought that car was going to kill me. Reactivate.

System Initializing. Be advised you will have limited motion.

You don’t say?

My senses began returning to me. Touch first. There wasn’t any pain. My systems made sure to shut off all pain receptors. Then smell. Yup, smelled just like New Alexandria General Hospital. Good. At least they have the equipment to deal with me. Then taste. Not important. Next came hearing. There was an incessant beeping next to my head. A heart monitor. Funny considering I don’t have a heart. Finally my sight returned.

My eyes reactivated. I opened my eyes and looked at my body. I was in a hospital bed in a typical hospital room. There was a lot of damage. Most of it superficial and easily fixed. Oh no. The circuit lights that ran through my systems were glowing blue. What if Spitfire saw that? That’s not something a normal human does. I looked down at my left arm.

Fuck, fuck fuck. The gun metal surface of the prosthetic arm was visible. The normal liquid metal matrix that made it look normal was missing. Shit.

I looked down at the foot of the bed. There was a chair that was occupied by a certain flame haired girl. She was sleeping.

Well fuck she defiantly knows what you are now, asshole.

And what exactly is that?

You know. You’re not human. You’re not real and she knows it.

Fuck you.

Android.

I sat up. She may know what I am but I don’t have to scare her anymore by letting her look at me. I grabbed the blanket and moved it to cover up my arm. It roused Spitfire from her sleep. She rose from the bed, a little droll hanging from her mouth. She wiped her face and yawned. Her eyes were red and puffy from… crying? Was she crying?

Why would she be crying?

Because she was worried about you even though she knows what you are.

Why would she be worried about me? I can be replaced.

Maybe but it wouldn’t be easy. Do you know how much you cost?

Do I look like I came with a price tag?

Hold that thought.

I suddenly felt something grasping on to my chest. It was a person. That was certainly surprising. What is this?

I looked down. It was Spitfire. And she’s crying? Why is she worried about me?

Didn’t we just go over this?

“Um,” I began, “Nice to see you too?”

She looked up at me before slapping me across the face and returning to crying into my chest.

“What the hell was that for?” I asked rubbing my face with my good arm.

“For saying something so stupid after having me worry about you like that. Don’t ever scare me like that ever again!” she cried.

“Aww. You were worried about me. How sweet,” I attempted to joke.

“You're damn right I was worried about you! You got hit by a car! Why would you do something so stupid?!” She returned to slapping my chest. I reached out to comfort her. With my bad arm. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

She gasped when she saw my arm. I quickly moved to hide it under the blanket. Spitfire looked at me. I averted my gaze. I didn’t want her to see me like this.

“Jett…”

“Don’t look at me! I… I’m not… I’m not… whole.”

I glanced quickly at Spitfire. She looked scared, concerned, worried, and terrified. Why was she afraid? I’m not even a real person.

“Jett… What’s wrong?”

“I… you wouldn’t understand. Please, just don’t look at me. I’m not correct.”

“Jett, you saved my life,” she was crying again, “I don’t care about… that. I’m just worried about you…”

I sat hiding my arm in shame. She couldn’t not care. They all cared. That was the only thing they cared about.

Freak.

Toaster boy.

Robot.

She hasn’t even grown up around this stuff. How could she possibly be different? None of them ever cared enough to see past it.

“What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong? I’m not real! I’m not a human! I’m a machine! I didn’t want you to find out because… because I thought you’d think I was a freak.”

“I don’t think you’re a freak. You’ve shown me more kindness than anyone I’ve ever met. You’re the nicest person I’ve met here.”

“That’s the problem! I’m not a person!”

“Well then what are you?”

“I’m a type 1 class 7 artificial intelligence. I’m powered by two type 100 fusion reactors and have a positronic brain in my skull. I’m designed to emulate real flesh and blood. I’m the culmination of hundreds of years of research and development. I’m an A.I.”

“But if you’re an A.I. what happened to your arm?”

“I don’t like talking about it.”

“See? Right there. You just proved that yourself wrong.”

“How?”

“You have preferences, you have emotions. You’re as every bit as real as me.”

“That can all be programed! My entire personality is programed! I’m not real!”

She wiped the tears from her eyes. She looked angry now, “Why are you putting yourself down like that? You’re real to me. You saved my life! You can’t program that can you?!”

I didn’t answer her. I looked down at my arm. The plated surface reflected my face. There was a huge bandage covering my forehead. I got a good look at my other arm. It too was in a bandage. I sighed. If I was human I’d be in this hospital for several months, recovering from something like that. Actually, if I was human I wouldn’t even be in the hospital but six feet under. Being an android had some advantages. Faster healing process meant I would probably be checked out of here tomorrow. But my arm. I’d need a new field emitter. LM compound could be generated simply by me consuming a few pounds of metal.

There was something on my face. A hand? It was pulling my head back towards Spitfire. She still looked mad even through her red puffy eyes.

“You can’t program that,” she said, the realization finally clicking, “You saved me by doing something that wasn’t in your programing.”

“I’m programed to learn and adapt to new situations. All the options I calculated did not give you a chance of survival above 30%. The one where I pushed you to the ground and get hit by a car had 75% chance of survival for you. I took it. And you survived. I was given the instinct to protect others in harm’s way. That’s all.”

“I think I can still prove you wrong,” Spitfire smirked, “Remember that picture?”

I cringed. Shit, she still had it. God why does she have to aggravate me like this?

“That’s what I thought. It makes you feel humiliated, and it makes me laugh which makes you aggravated!” She put her other hand on my face and forced me to look at her, “Whether you like it or now you’re a person to me and one of my friends. Besides, who’s gonna help me get home?”

I want to hate her, I want to feel mad at her but I can’t. Curses, I’ve been had again. Stupid EM card.

I sighed, “I’m not gonna change your mind am I?”

“Nope.”

I sighed again, “Fine.”

The door opened and Cat rushed in, “Oh my god Jett what happened?! I heard you were hurt and- what are you and Spitfire doing?”

I looked at her back to Spitfire. Oh I see what she was thinking. Spitfire was halfway on my bed with her hands on my head. And she was staring into my eyes like a hungry cat. Oh I see what’s going on now. I reached up and playfully shoved her off of me.

“Get off me,” I teased.

“Oh you were enjoying it and you know it!” she teased back.

“What are you guys talking about,” Cat stated rather than asked.

“Nothing,” Spitfire said playfully.

“Ok… Anyway. What happened? I got a call saying you were in an accident. And… She knows?”

I looked down at my arm and at the blue lines running down my skin, “Yeah, kinda hard not to when you have this and metal under your skin,” I said holding up my left arm. I flexed the joints. The material was advanced enough so that there were nerve connections in the thing but it still looked like a mechanical arm.

“What happened?” Cat asked again.

Spitfire grew serious, “He saved my life by pushing me out of the way of an out of control car. He got hit himself and…” she looked like she was going to cry again.

I sighed and put an arm around her, “Spitfire I’m alright. I’m a machine and a lot more resilient than the rest of the human race.”

“But you looked so… dead lying there like that.”

“I wasn’t dead, I was off.”

Spitfire giggled, “Off?”

I smiled, “Yeah, off. I shut down when I’ve taken too much damage. And before you ask, yes I do have an off switch.”

Spitfire laughed, “He has an off switch?” she asked Cat.

Cat smiled in relief, “Yes he does. Still hasn’t told me where it is and I doubt he will. Come to think of it, if I had an off switch I wouldn’t tell any of you where it is.”

“Technically you guys do have an off switch. There’s a cluster of nerves that when pinched strong enough in tangent with your carotid artery will knock a human out. Quite useful.”

“Really?” Cat said, “You never said you can do that.”

“Androids are the only ones capable of being that precise enough to do that without killing the person.”

“Alright,” Spitfire said, “Do it to me.”

“Uh are you sure? You won’t wake up right away.”

“Come on. Show me.”

“Yeah I kinda want to see this too,” Cat said.

I sighed, “Fine.” I reached out towards Spitfire’s neck. She twitched at my touch, probably because my prosthetic is cold. I found the spot and applied the pressure. She fell limp on the bed. Out like a light.

“Wow,” Cat said, “When did you learn how to do that?”

I shrugged, “I got tired of being bullied at school so I did a little research. Nice way to eliminate a threat without having to actually fight.”

“Cool. Oh and I have a bit of news. Dad is coming.”

Oh sweet Jesus, Muhammad and Buddha.

“Uh, why?” I said.

“Well he heard what happened and wants to make sure you’re alright. That and the rest of the family are itching to see us and him. So we’re gonna be meeting him at the family reunion.”

That TV moment when a character’s pupils dilate and the camera pans into his eyes as he imagines’ a scene of absolute horror. Well that’s what I did. I hated the family reunion. Between my cousins Alex and Sam and my Aunt Kathy I’m not sure I could handle it. Along with the fact Jaclyn and Zack barely talk. And Jaclyn has an intimidating marine of a husband.

“Well I’ll leave you to think about that. I’ll be back, I’m gonna get some hospital food.”

“Don’t expect me to eat any of it. I don’t even have to eat that shit.”

“You suck.”

“While you’re there, get me some water.”

“Ugh, Fine.”

In the several hundred years since hospitals have existed, the food still tastes like SHIT. And Spitfire is drooling again.

***

The nurses had been nice enough to put a cot in the room for Spitfire to sleep. She still didn’t wake up when they did.

I was staring at the ceiling as I attempted to get some sleep. Well the whole, ‘Hi I’ve been an android this entire time,’ thing went better than I thought. I still couldn’t understand her. She still thinks I’m a person! Even Cat, while she loves me dearly, is able to acknowledge what I am. But then again she does consider me her little brother and treats me human enough, even if that took time. But Spitfire? She just up and considered me a person even though I’m not even real? For Cat that process took years! And she’s my sister! But something was certainly different with Spitfire. What was it about her? If anything she should be terrified of me. In her world nothing like me even exists, let alone even conceived. Along with the fact that I don’t even have something that even resembles a normal left arm.

In reality that arm is a pretty big reminder of what I am. The fact that the Liquid Metal isn’t there to cover it up drives that point home. I’m a machine. But if I’m a machine then I can never know what real sentience is like. What does it feel like? I mean if I’m a machine what does it feel like to be a real, not artificial, life form that has real sentience instead of programed sentience? Am I even alive? What am I?

No. Don’t go down that road. Logic loops can overload your matrix and you’ll have to conduct a restart again.

Logic loops… Humans don’t suffer from those. I sighed and flopped down on the bed. My left arm hung off the edge of the bed, right onto Spitfire’s cot. She sighed and rolled onto her side.

“Gah! Wha?” I looked down on the sleeping angel girl. She had gripped my arm in a vice grip and was holding it like a dolly. Granted it would take the force of several car accidents to do any serious damage to it but she still had a strong grip on my arm. God I just hoped she didn’t pull the appendage out of its socket in my shoulder sometime in the middle of the night.

***

Spitfire had been kind and my arm was still attached in the morning. She woke up a lot like a sleeping cat, with a funny case of bed head. I laughed at her funny hairdo.

Well breakfast sucked. It was a hospital after all. Cat had to leave to go make arrangements for the family reunion. I was probably going to regret going. I can see how Alex and Sam are going to be.

Spitfire was kind enough to stay and keep me company while my systems repaired themselves. I still couldn’t move much but slowly the damage to my systems was being repaired. The bandage on my arm and head came off revealing it had healed completely. Unfortunately the healing cycle had removed the scar on my face and arm. Curses, I looked like a badass. Oh well; I could always alter my skin if I wanted it back that bad.

I sat up in the bed as Spitfire hopped up next to me.

“I can’t wait to get out of here,” I said, “I always hated hospitals.”

“There you go again,” Spitfire said next to me.

“What?”

“Proving me right. You hate hospitals. Emotions!”

“Ah leave me alone. If I always knew I was an android I wouldn’t have bothered developing preferences.”

“You didn’t always know?”

“No. It wasn’t pleasant when I found out.”

“What happened?”

I rolled over away from her, “I don’t want to talk about it. It has to do with how I lost my arm. Not exactly a happy memory.”

***

Spitfire sighed. After getting over the initial shock of her best friend in this world being a machine, she quickly realized nothing had changed. So he was a machine? What difference does that make? He’s still kind, he’s still funny, he’s still… him. So what’s changed?

In truth nothing had changed. She was still his friend and he was still hers. They were both looking for a way for her to get home. And right now they had a probable method of her returning home. She had to admit it was interesting that he was an android. And he had emotions! And he was sentient! He was every bit as real as she was in her eyes. Just a little different.

But something was seriously bothering him about his arm. Whenever she asked about it he avoided the subject like the plague.

He had rolled over. Was it to avoid looking at her? Was she being rude pursuing the subject? She hoped not. He was a pretty chill guy when he wasn’t demoting himself. Though she still couldn’t figure out why. Well it was probably something stressful. And if he didn’t want to talk right now she could understand. He did get hit by a car to save her life. She couldn’t possibly ask for more.

***

I was let out of the hospital later that day. Thank god. That place had the worst tasting food ever! Overall I was back to normal. Other than the fact my left arm wasn’t covered. It felt like being naked. Without the field emitter or the Liquid Metal compound my arm was bare, the gun metal surface was visible.

Spitfire escorted me out of the hospital. Cat picked us up and took us home. Good. I don’t want anyone else seeing my arm.

We got home and I sauntered off to my room. I walked in and sat at my desk. Spitfire walked in behind me.

“Whatcha doing?” she asked. I placed my hand on the desk and a control pad appeared. I tapped a few keys and pushed back. A drawer opened up revealing an entire workshop needed for me to maintain my arm. Spare fingers, replacement servos, spare surface plating, everything, including my new field emitter.

“Repairing myself. Wanna watch?”

“Sure,” she said as she bounced onto my bed. I placed three fingers on my good arm on three of the nodes on my arm. I waited a few seconds before an icon appeared on the surface of my wrist. I rolled up my sleeve on my T shirt and tapped the icon.

Spitfire watched the process in fascination. Hmm, strange. Normally I’d be extremely self-conscious about her seeing me like this. I guess it was because I was in my house. Yeah that’s it. A small button extended from my shoulder. I rotated the button counter clockwise once before pushing it back in.

Seams began appearing on the plates of the arm. Soon the surface plating broke open revealing the inner workings of the arm. Servos, a few chips for directing control and nerve impulses, operation motors, all of this contained underneath the armored surface.

“Whoa. Is that what’s under your arm?”

“Yeah,” I said as I began tinkering with the arm.

“Can… Can I… Can I touch it?” she asked timidly.

Can she touch it? Well that’s a strange question. No one’s ever asked before. I normally just fix what needs fixing. Every girl I know who’d seen my arm had thought I was weird and a freak. I sighed.

“Sure I guess. No one’s ever asked that before.”

She got up off my bed and walked over. The plates were opened up like flower petals, severely limiting my motion but it allowed for the internal mechanisms to be accessed. She reached over and touched the edge of the plate.

“It feels… it feels like smooth metal.”

“I can feel your fingers on it still.”

She ran her fingers over the metallic surface, “Really?”

“Yeah, there are nerves in the metal that hook up to the Liquid Metal compound that normally covers it. Even when the plates are opened they still work. It can be al-” her fingers ran underneath the plated surface, “Ah! That one tickles.” I twitched.

Spitfire smiled, “Really? Like this?” Her finger slipped farther under the plate. Oh no.

“Ah! Stop that! I have to work here,” I laughed.

“Ugh, fine.” She let up. I opened up the plates further and found the damaged emitter. I grabbed a tool from the drawer and carefully removed the emitter. I grabbed a pair of tweezers and pulled the device out and tossed it into the garbage. I grabbed the replacement and placed it where the old one used to be before securing it. The computers in the arm registered the replacement. I closed the plates on the arm and resealed it. I closed the drawer.

“That was pretty cool,” Spitfire said as I flexed the fingers of my arm. Perfect; all it needed now was more Liquid Metal compound.

“Yeah I guess. I just wish I didn’t need to replace that emitter.”

I stood up and pushed my chair to toward the desk. I sat down on my bed. Spitfire sat in my chair and rolled over, leaning forward against the back. She was staring at me. Hmm, staring contest. I will win. I don’t need to blink.

I stared back at her. Her orange eyes reflected the light nicely. I knew a few tricks that could let me win. I flashed my circuit lights repeatedly in a random pattern. Android powers activate! I won. Spitfire cracked and laughed. I continued flashing the circuited pattern.

“Stop doing that!” Spitfire laughed.

“What? This?” Light show powers activate.

“Yes that! You messed me up.”

“Damn right.”

“That’s it,” she jumped out of the chair and tackled me to the bed, “I can still pin you so there!”

I continued flashing my circuits at her before throwing her off of me.

“And I can throw you off of me so there.”

“Touché.”

“Jett! Guess what?” Cat called from down stairs.

“What?”

“I actually made dinner tonight!”

What? WHAT?! CAT COOKED? Oh this has got to be a trick of some kind.

“What? WHAT?!”

“Yeah! I made a nice vegetarian Japanese Capellini. I think that cooking course really helped because I didn’t set anything on fire this time!”

I looked at Spitfire, “Now this I have to see.”

***

Well I’m not gonna lie. It was actually pretty good. Someone on that ship must have been doing their job to teach CAT of all people how to cook anything. That poor bastard has to have the patience of a saint. But then again I was pretty happy with the results. The food was excellent.

Spitfire and I were doing the dishes while Cat was being lazy.

“So how long has it been since you found her Jett?” Cat asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t remember really. It has been quite a while.”

“I think I’ve been here for a few weeks,” Spitfire said as she dried a plate and put it into a cabinet.

“Well today’s the 24th so- oh my…”

I cringed. Great. The fucking 24th. And I was having a good day until Cat reminded me. This was the last thing I wanted to remember today. Of all the days it had to be today!

“Jett, I’m sorry. I completely forgot about it.”

“No no, it’s fine. I just wasn’t thinking about it until now,” I looked towards Cat, “Can you finish up here? I’ll be in my room.”

***

Spitfire flopped onto her new bed. Her room was nice. Bed near the window and a few dressers with mirrors. There were a few blankets on the bed. A closet rested at one of the room. Overall a normal bedroom.

She sighed. Again something bothered Jett. And she would bet that it had a lot to do with how he lost his arm. She just wished she could be there for him, to comfort him. But he’d been extremely silent about a lot of that. It took a car accident to reveal the fact he was an android.

She was worried about him. He’d been locked in his room for the past few hours now and hadn’t come out for anything.

Spitfire you dirty minded girl. He’s obviously not doing that!

I can’t help it! I mean, a girl’s mind wanders.

Come on. Get serious here. Something could be bothering him. He sacrificed himself to save you without a second thought. If that isn’t the mark of a true friend then I don’t know what is. Get in there and see what’s bothering him.

What if he doesn’t want to talk? What if I’m intruding?

Well you won’t know if you don’t try. He’s your friend. Do something!

Fine.

Good girl.

Spitfire got up off her bed and headed to Jett’s room. The door was unlocked and she entered. He wasn’t in his room but the window to the roof was opened. She walked up to it and peered out into the night.

Sure enough, Jett was sitting on the roof, staring at Jupiter’s form in the night sky.

“Mind if I join you?” Spitfire asked.

He turned, “Sure, hop up. Be careful not to fall.”

She climbed out the window and onto the roof. She crawled over and took a seat next to Jett as he stared out beyond the dome. Jupiter stood there like a monument. The swirling gas and storms on the planet left neat patterns along the surface of the gas giant. The city under the dome glowed in the night.

Jett had remained silent to Spitfire’s presence. She hoped he was alright. Even if he was a machine she still wanted to be sure. Something was getting at him and if he wasn’t going to speak to her then at least she could be there for him in case he did.

Jett sighed, “I’ve never spoken about this before so listen up… You already know part of my childhood but not all of it. Not the important parts.”

“None of that was important?”

“Compared to this? No. A few years ago, I was visiting with my parents on Earth with Cat. We had a fun time and did all the things normal families did. But soon it was time for us to leave. So my mother and father met us at the spaceport to see us off before we returned home. That was the day Cat told my dad about her big government job she landed. It started off normal enough at the spaceport.”

“What happened?”

He sighed and visibly shook himself before continuing, “This… This girl was running. She had broken through security and onto the tarmac for the ships. She was a part of this organization that wanted to flatten and burn Earth. She obviously wasn’t the friendly type. She… She was carrying a bomb on her back. She was running towards one of the ships. Ours. The police shot her several times but she kept running until she reached the landing gear for the plane before she detonated the device. The ship exploded and ripped apart the Gate we were waiting in. Cat and my parents were far enough away to avoid serious injury… but I wasn’t so lucky. A piece of shrapnel from the ship severed my left arm at the shoulder. Others pieces and flames from the explosion did even more damage. I still have a piece of the ship lodged in my head still from that.”

Spitfire had her hands to her mouth. That’s why. It was an attack. He was in an attack! That’s why he didn’t want to talk about it earlier! That’s why he had those scars.

“When I woke up in the hospital they still hadn’t covered me up correctly. That’s when I got the shock of learning that I wasn’t a real person and never had been. That’s when I learned that I was a science experiment for my dad. The reason I don’t consider myself a person is because I didn’t even earn the right to know what I was until I nearly died. My entire identity as a person was ripped apart…”

A silence followed as Jett continued to stare at Jupiter’s giant form far off in the distance. This explained everything. In that attack he lost everything he knew. If he wasn’t real then what was he? Spitfire realized this conundrum for him. After losing his identity in that accident he’d been attempting to find out who he was all over again. That’s not something you get over easily, even for an android. She could only imagine the internal battles he must have fought with himself when he tried to figure out what he was.

“But I at least have a purpose in life. Whatever data these people get off me and what I want to do gives me a sense of purpose.”

Spitfire who had been silent the whole time spoke, “What is your purpose?”

“I want to fly. I want be a pilot. I want to fly planes, skim the surface of Jupiter, navigate the asteroid belt, ride the tail of a comet. I just want to have the right to find out what who I am.”

Spitfire smiled. She scooted over on the roof and put her arm around him, “Well I don’t know who you are to you, but to me you’re my friend. And that’s all that matters to me.”

Jett looked at her. He looked surprised. Extremely surprised. He stared at her for the longest time, trying to figure her out, trying to find the catch. There was none.

That’s right big guy. You ain’t gettin rid of me that easily.

Spitfire leaned her head against her friend. Jett, finally feeling comfortable returned to staring at Jupiter with Spitfire.

He smiled and sighed, “Thanks Spits. Thanks for being there.”

Spitfire sighed, “Don’t mention it.”

“Don’t think this gets you off the hook for the hippo incident.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

***

Cat was worried. Jett had been locked in his room for the past three hours. Sure this date was burned into his memory a little too brightly but this was extreme. He normally simply got his psyche under control and was fine an hour later. This was a little too long. Even for him.

She stood up from the couch and walked up the stairs toward Jett’s room.

“Jett? Are you ok?”

The door was slightly ajar. She peered inside and smiled. Spitfire and Jett were sitting on the roof, just… talking. She caught a bit of the conversation.

“… and then Cloud Chaser pushed Fire Streak into the pool!”

“What did he say?”

“He did a bad impression of Prench accent and said, ‘Julieta! Whya ya gotta be so meana to me ah?’”

“That’s sound Italian.”

“I know! That’s why I said bad!”

Cat smiled and whispered, “Well it’s about time that kid finally opened up to someone.”

She exited the room and headed off to her office. She sat at the desk and pulled up a schedule. She had a family reunion to plan for on Sunday and a week of nonstop parties and crazy activities the week after.