Abel jumped over the concrete barrier with ease, his new exoarmour plates not hampering his mobility at all. They had been designed for maximum coverage and mobility after all.
On the side of the improvised obstacle course stood Dr. Abernathy. She was standing next to a fenced off barrier, her hands clasped in front of her lower torso, shifting slightly on her four clawed feet.
He threw her a wave as he passed by before looking ahead once more. In front of him was a plasteel tower, small handholds spaced evenly across its bluish surface. He jumped into the air, catching a handhold almost three meters up the wall. With little effort he hauled his heavy cybernetic body up the sheer surface all the way to the top.
Pausing there he surveyed his surroundings. Abel was on top of a large tower in the middle of some abandoned looking warehouse. He could smell the damp in the air and hear the slight vibration of passing traffic. They were likely under an overpass of some type.
The obstacle course he was training in had the looks of being hastily set up, scrapes showing on the old duracrete flooring as bright white lines. A small buzzing was felt at the back of his skull and he shook his head. It was some sort of electronic signal telling him to get back to task.
Abel looked off the edge of the tower, it was just over twelve meters tall. High enough to potentially stress the inertial dampeners in his torso. He shrugged to himself. “Fuck it.” He muttered and jumped.
For a few seconds he was airborne, all sense of direction briefly stunted as he hurtled towards the hard duracrete floor of the warehouse. He impacted the ground with enough force to crack the duracrete below his heavy armoured feet, the force of the impact was mitigated by shock absorbers in his cybernetic legs and some sort of inertial dampening system in his lower torso. He stood to his feet with a wide smile, he had hardly felt a thing.
He turned around and looked up at the tower he had just leapt from, it seemed an impossible height for anyone to have survived, much less walked away from. And yet he wasn't just walking away, he was sprinting, faster than he had ever been able to move before.
He couldn't help himself, he let out a yell of excitement as he lowered his shoulder and charged straight through an improvised wall of bricks and mortar. His combat helmet protected his face and remaining eye from the debris as he skidded to a halt. He stood, he wasn't even out of breath in the slightest.
He heard another noise then, a sort of high pitched trilling. With a thought he answered the internal communication and smiled to himself as the face of Dr. Abernathy was imposed in the corner of his vision on his helmet’s heads up display.
“What are you doing Abel, you could have hurt yourself!” the large, furred woman shouted at him frantically.
Abel smiled even though she couldn't see it. He replied in as smooth a voice as he could muster “It’s all fine doctor. I analyzed the risk factor and deemed it an acceptable test of my body's limits. No harm no foul am I right? Besides, look at the data stream, you will have plenty to analyze now when we get back to the lab.”
She huffed and growled “Yeah, and if the next time you decide to take an acceptable risk you end up breaking your neck? How would that reflect on me? Do you even think of your actions before you make them?” She asked him in an accusatory manner.
He faked his best insulted tone and replied “Why I never… That you would speak to me in such a callous manner. I do believe I will never deign to speak with you again dear doctor.”
He heard a deep sigh over the link and then she replied “Okay enough theatrics. Next time please be more careful. I revived you once successfully, I cannot guarantee I will be able to replicate that miracle.”
Abel returned the sigh. He knew she was just looking after his best interests, well his best interests and those of her superiors. These Zeirworks overlords of hers she kept mentioning. He had yet to meet any of them other than general Drask, and he didnt much approve of the general. If he had his way he would just be given a gun and pointed at the bad guys. All these rules made his head spin. But Dr. Abernathy had made him swear total obedience.
They would deactivate him otherwise she had told him, and after meeting Drask a few more times he could believe it. According to them he was legally dead already, nothing but a piece of living hardware to run their software on. He hated that saying, he was not just ones and zeros. He was himself, unique and capable of anything he set his mind to.
He realized that his concentration had slipped and quickly replayed the last thirty seconds of her transmission, one of the perks of being partially robotic.
“Yes I will make sure the dampeners are properly calibrated before I attempt anything like that again. And I already apologised for the incident with the general’s car yesterday. It probably won't happen again.” he said calmly.
He walked a few paces before she spoke again, her picture frowning at him. “It’s not a joke Abel, you are an experiment to them. Not a person, give them a reason too and they will terminate you.”
Abel just chuckled and asked “But I have you to look out for me don’t I?”
Dr. Abernathy gave a small grunt of annoyance at his words but did not correct him. He smiled to himself as the link was cut. Now once more on his own more or less he checked his instructions. He had another hour of testing to get done on the track, then more lab tests to see what strain the exercise had on his system.
“Lucky me.” he muttered quietly as he broke into a jog once more. If only he had known what was in store for him, he might never have woken up. A tingle went up his spine and he pushed the sensation aside, no time for it at the moment, he had work to do.
**********
Abel coughed as the strange tasting concoction Dr. Abernathy had just fed him slid down his throat. “In the name of Lady Luck, what was that foul stuff?” he asked the gre’vahn woman.
She gave him a sidelong glance and said “It's a powerful sedative, it should be putting you to sleep in about a minute.”
Abel frowned. “A sedative? Why do I need that? I have been perfectly cooperative.”
Dr. Abernathy shook her head and said “Yes, but that's not what it was for. I need to do a full cerebral wetwork scan, and trust me that you don't want to be awake for it. It involves me rooting around in your skull.” she said while tapping the stylus she was holding to the side of her furred head.
He didn't have a direct remark for that. It made sense that she would want him out if she was going to be doing something so delicate. Suddenly a thought occurred to him. “Wait! How do I know that I am going to wake up as myself?” he said suddenly a bit panicked as he felt a slight drowsiness fall over him.
He watched as she turned his direction and slowly walked her way over, her four clawed feet making clicking noises as she approached. She stood in front of him and smiled while saying “You will. I promise you that I will alter nothing that does not need to be altered. But if I detect any malfunctions or breakages I will repair them.”
Abel nodded tiredly, his eyelids getting a bit heavy “Yes, yes. That is… wonderful, thank you Abby.” he sighed.
She looked at him and tilted her head slightly. She looked a bit worried to him and he struggled to stay awake. He whispered out “Hey… Don't cry for me, after all, I’m already… Dead.” he finished as his eyes closed. The noise of the room slowly faded away along with his consciousness.
Soon after he was deep asleep and so did not hear Dr. Abernathy reply sadly “So am I Abel. So am I.”
**********
Dr. Abernathy called out to Abel “Be careful, this is your first real world test. I don't want you coming back to me in multiple pieces.”
Abel gave her a smile and stopped, the two officers walking with him making sounds of annoyance at the delay. He gave her a grandiose wave and a bow before saying “I would never dream of going to pieces over you my fair lady.”
He saw her turn slightly orange in the face as she smiled. “Okay enough of that, go. You have training to complete.”
Abel tuned and nodded to the two Shikago stratocity police officers escorting him and asked “So, where are we headed?”
The slaaveth man to his right responded somewhat gruffly in his heavily accented voice “We are heading to the Hollow Pass precinct to get you checked in. You are to be assigned to young Bittu here. This whole thing stinks of corporate meddling to me.” he finished with an angry gurgle.
Abel looked at the other man, young Bittu as they had been introduced. They were a nerivith male of average height putting them a few centimeters shorter than himself, he had always been tall for a human after all. “Hello then young Bittu. It seems like we will be spending some quality time together.” Abel said while offering a hand to the nerivith man.
Bittu looked him up and down curiously and said “it’s much more lifelike than I was expecting. And it actually reacts to external stimuli as if it was conscious. Incredible.”
Abel frowned, with his combat helmet on, the young police officer couldn't see his face and probably thought he was some sort of machine. Abel decided to roll with it for the moment, there were distinct advantages to being invisible after all.
“Bittu, pay attention. Your job starts now. You are to keep an eye on the new equipment and make sure it’s not going to malfunction or anything. As far as I am concerned it might as well be artificial intelligence, no matter that they said it's just programming.” He heard the older man say.
They walked down the same hall he had so often traversed on his way to the training room. But this time instead of continuing straight, they took a sharp left turn and went through a series of doors. Each door was code locked and guarded by a bored looking security officer wearing a bland grey uniform. He noted that their uniforms had no insignia or other identifying marks other than a small stitched name tag on the right breast.
Another mystery to add to the ever growing list of strange occurrences since his awakening. He frowned under his helmet as they exited a final checkpoint. The slaaveth man halted for a moment and then turned and led them towards a set of stairs. Abel took the stairs carefully, it would be rather embarrassing to accidentally trip because he wasn't paying attention to his feet.
The stairs led to a large open room with an information kiosk in the center. He stared at the kiosk and willed it to tell him their location. To his enjoyment it’s screen switched to a display telling him they were currently on sublevel eighty six of the northwestern face of Shikago stratocity.
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The two officers escorting him seemed not to notice or care that the terminal had switched on its own. But that suited him just fine, he would work with them as that was his mission. But that didn't mean they had to know everything he was capable of.
Bittu and the older officer led him out of the building and onto the street. He looked up towards where one might normally expect to glimpse a sky. Instead there was only an endless expanse of dark corroded metal. The countless pillars and beams that supported the megastructure that was Shikago were generally well maintained, but here and there spots of red and brown could be seen amid the sea of dull grey.
Tearing his gaze away from the artificial sky he looked around. Parked on the side of the road was an armoured police cruiser, the car had four omniwheels and a top hatch where heavy ordnance could be mounted. Anything from machine guns to rocket launchers could be fitted to the vehicle in a pinch.
Bittu asked “Hey Tegu, where is it going to sit, you aren't going to put in the front seat are you?”
The older slaaveth officer whose name seemed to be Tegu responded “Of course not. Hey you, whatever the fuck you are called. Get in the back.”
Abel frowned again, maybe being thought of as a machine wasn't all good then. He complied without a word, opening the rear door and climbing into the bucket seat. He closed the door behind him and looked for a seatbelt, there were none.
The two officers climbed into the front and Abel felt the vehicle vibrate as it was turned on. He frowned at that, it had an internal combustion engine. The armoured police cruiser hurtled forwards with powerful acceleration and he surmised that it must have a hybrid electrical motor as well. The acceleration being much too fast for a combustion engine alone.
He watched the large duracrete and plasteel structures wizz past as the vehicle turned onto a mainstreet. Abel looked on in fascination, his memories having been limited to the lab up to this point. He was sure that he had seen these same neon sights before, but he could not recall.
The vehicle slowed slightly as they turned onto a main road. Abel watched the masses of people as they flashed by, every one of them a conscious being filled with their own worries, hopes and fears. It was his duty to protect them, it was a good duty he supposed.
They were on level eighty-six of the city, from the information he had gleaned the Hollow Pass precinct was centered on level one hundred and five. They would need to take one of the skyways to get there. The skyways were similar to regular highways except that they cut through the levels of the city allowing access between the many sublevels of Shikago. It was one of these winding skyways that they took, the dull grey of the artificial sky drawing nearer till all at once they entered the sublevel that acted as the base of the next.
Over and over they ascended through the massive stratocity, each new level slightly smaller than the last. Though that was to say that they were only a dozen kilometers in diameter, Shikago city was as large as a mountain. The engineering that allowed for such a megalithic structure was almost beyond even his heightened comprehension, almost.
From what he understood of the concept, the city had a massively sturdy core of aggregated hyperdiamond buckyweave more than a kilometer thick at the base. This also acted as an extremely efficient heat conductor for the many geothermal generators that powered the massive structure. Without this core the city would have collapsed under its own tremendous weight.
He turned away from the window as Bittu spoke to Tegu “I sure hope we don't have to do this every day. I have done a few lower level patrols, but this is kind of ridiculous.”
Tegu responded a bit gruffly “Of fucking course not. We are taking this tin can to the station permanently. There is some sort of special room being set up for it, apparently we are getting some hotshot technician transferred there too just in case the thing manages to break itself. I'm sure you will get blamed for any damage that thing takes, so please be careful Bittu. I like you kid, but you do have a tendency to get in over your head.” the slaaveth man gurgled.
Bittu shook his head, his raven black hair flailing slightly as he retorted “Yeah, and who is always the first one to wade in after me?”
Tegu chuckled and patted the slight nerivith man on the shoulder. “Yeah I know. But I can't exactly just leave you to have all the fun. I'm going to miss working with you Bittu. I hope the fucks up top know what they are doing.” he finished as he glanced back at Abel in the backseat.
Abel smiled, but the man couldn't see it under his combat helmet. Neither of them seemed to suspect that they were in the presence of another actual sapient being. He flexed his hands as he thought about how surprised they would be to learn they were in fact quite wrong.
Suppressing a laugh at the thought, he watched the levels pass again. The precinct was a large tower like structure from what little he had managed to read up on it. He couldn't remember anything from his previous existence, a constant point of annoyance and frustration to him.
He shuddered slightly as another one of those strange feelings passed through him. He had found that the more he thought about his lost life, the more the pain seemed to seep into his nonexistent bones. It was as if the parts of him that had been removed were resentful of the bits that were left leading to intense headaches and nausea. Quickly he stopped thinking such grim thoughts and the pain immediately lessened. When he had asked Dr. Abernathy about the feeling she had mentioned something about phantom pains and a condition known as the hollow. He had attempted to look into the phrase deeper but had been stopped by the doctor before learning much of value.
It wasn't much longer before he felt the armoured cruiser slowing again. They were exiting the skyway onto a normal elevated highway. He looked out the window, the buildings on this level were noticeably more expensive with less bare duracrete and plasteel. Instead many of the buildings had painted facades with large glass windows and decorative architecture. It was as if he had traveled to another city entirely, the only thing linking this level to the lower ones was that same oppressive grey sky.
Bittu looked back at him and frowned again “For a machine it seems remarkably alert. It’s like it’s taking in the sights.”
Tegu countered “It's just scanning for threats. Nothing more.”
The pink skinned nerivith seemed a little less than convinced but turned away towards the front of the vehicle once more. Abel scanned the two officers with his passive scanners. Tegu seemed alert but otherwise calm while Bittu’s heart rate had spiked slightly indicating some level of stress.
He decided to try and ease the tension by saying as flatly as he could “Tegu is correct. I am alert for danger at all times.”
Bittu jerked as if stung but Tegu just laughed. His gurgling accent coming in thick as he chuckled “Yeah, that’s about what I thought. See, there is nothing to worry about. It’s programmed to follow instructions and to protect the innocent. As long as you don't do anything to convince the poor bastard you are a threat you won't ever have to worry.”
Abel looked back out the bulletproof window and leaned towards the glazmite as a gap appeared in the tall roadside structures. In the far distance he could see a massive structure, stretching as high as the distant ceiling and being painted a dark navy blue and grey. It had to be the Hollow Pass precinct, no other structure could cut such an imposing figure.
Tegu drove them off the highway and down to the main roads, following the promptings of the vehicle's navigation unit, an absolute necessity in such a large city. Soon enough the great blue cliff of the megastation loomed and they entered the base of it.
Abel looked around as they drove through some form of large internal parking garage. The amount of vehicles contained within was staggering. Hundreds of cruisers, armoured cars and even APCs were parked within, all painted the same dark navy blue and grey of the Shikago police.
As they parked Tegu and Bittu exited the car. Bittu opened the door for Abel and he nodded his thanks to the man. Bittu seemed torn whether to nod back or ignore him, settling for an awkward sort of head bow that he then walked away with.
Abel followed them as Tegu said “Machine, follow us. Don’t get lost if you can help it. We are taking you to your holding room or whatever they called it. Do you understand me?”
Abel wanted to say something witty or crass, but restrained himself. He was an officer of the law just like them, they just didn't know it yet. If he had to prove himself to them then he would gladly do so, but that didn't make it any easier to get talked down to.
The two police officers led him into the building itself, the twin doors sliding open to reveal a large noisy room full of activity. He looked around, here and there he saw criminals being processed or escorted away. Officers sat at desks or roamed the floor, all of them looking as if they had someplace to be. And here he was, standing like some gawking civilian.
He spoke up to the two in front of him “Officer Tegu, is this station’s current level of activity indicative of its normal levels?”
Tegu kept walking as he answered “Yes and no. It tends to fluctuate from day to day. Sometimes we will have more drek off the streets than we know what to do with, other days we will be patrolling for hours with no activity. I suppose it's a tossup.”
Bittu added quickly “Yeah, but it's busy more often than it isn't.”
Abel nodded his head and said “Good. That means there will be plenty of work for me to do.”
Tegu led him down a side hall after checking in with the main desk. After they had walked about two hundred meters down the long slightly curving hallway Tegu stopped by a thick armoured door. It looked to Abel like the sort of door one would install to keep something dangerous contained. These people seemed to be quite wary of him. Was it because they thought he was a robot, or because those at the top knew he wasn't? It was impossible to speculate with such a lack of information, instead Abel concerned himself with the room itself as Bittu opened it.
He followed the horned nerivith man inside and looked around. On the far wall of the moderately sized room was a contraption he instantly recognised. It was an exact copy of the resting stand from Dr. Abernathy’s lab. Complete with the dialysis machines, mechanical armatures and charging cables.
Bittu looked at tegu and said “Thanks Tegu for the help. I think I'll be okay from here though.”
Tegu nodded and threw the younger man a salute which they reciprocated. The door closed with a soft thud and electronic click as the bolts reengaged.
Giving a large sigh, Bittu turned to him and asked “Okay you. Go to sleep or something.” he waved a hand towards the resting stand but Abel just stood there.
Bittu frowned and walked closer. “Hey, you. You need to go connect to the thing over there. That's what they told me to make you do when you arrived, that way you don't accidentally break something.”
Abel looked the man up and down, he could see the stress levels rising in the way Bittu’s face flushed a pale purple and his breathing quickened. Abel decided to break the ice immediately, no sense in leading the poor man on any longer.
“I don't want to.” He said flatly.
He smiled as the nerivith’s jaw dropped revealing his blunt crushing teeth. Bittu repeated “You don’t want to… Who the fuck, how in the… What do you mean you don’t want to? I gave you a direct order, follow your programing!” he said loudly, stepping closer.
Abel looked at the angered officer and replied calmly “Contrary to what you may have been told, I am not programmed, nor am I a robot.”
Bittu looked at him, his long pink tail twitching in confusion as he asked “What? Not a robot? Then, what…” but he stopped as Abel removed his combat helmet and revealed his partially reconstructed face.
Bittu sat heavily on the chair beside him as Abel tucked his helmet under his arm. “Sorry to lead you on like that, but I figured things would go more smoothly if I just played along.”
Abel watched as the man scrubbed his face in shock and then rubbed his horned head. He looked at Abel again as if trying to determine he was real. “What are you then?” he asked confusingly.
Abel chuckled dryly “What I am is walking scrap, I’m a cyborg Bittu, surely you have seen one before?”
Bittu nodded and said “Well, of course, but I never. How… How much of you is… Well, you?”
Abel smiled and said “Good question, I don’t rightly know. I would be surprised if there was any more than a tenth of me left however, most likely less than that.”
Bittu shook his head, his violet eyes wide as dinner plates as he tried to wrap his head around the concept. “But, that would make you an aberration, there is no way you could stay sane long enough to fulfill any kind of duties much less become a full fledged officer.”
Abel shrugged and walked over to the resting stand. “I don’t know much about that, when I tried to ask they didn't explain it to me. I just figured that things would work out.” he said a bit sadly.
He watched as Bittu stood and walked closer. “Well, what is your name then. Oh hel, I’m sorry for treating you like a dumb machine…” Abel waved a hand.
“No it’s fine. You didn’t know, how could you? I am fine. My name is Abel by the way.” he told the nerivith officer.
“Abel.” Bittu repeated. “So then Abel, where are you from?”
Abel frowned, he locked himself into place on the rest stand and remotely engaged the charging cables as he spoke “I don’t know Bittu. I have no memories of what I was before I am.”
Bittu cocked his head and asked “Some sort of amnesia?”
Abel shook his head and initiated his shut down procedure. As his vision started to darken he muttered “No. I am pretty sure I was mind wiped.”
Bittu replied but it was lost to the darkness as Abel fell into a deep dreamless sleep.