M.A.I.D.S. [season 2]

Episode 09: Ctrl-V

M.A.I.D.S. [season 2] Episode 09 - Ctrl-V

Pandora filled a few water bottles with biologically-amplified curative treatment application fluid before abandoning the box truck at the train station. Both she and Adam knew that their ruse would only help them to evade CROW for a short time, but she hoped it would be long enough. She moved her owner and robot to another stolen vehicle, this one a smaller, popular coupe that would be difficult to pick out in a crowd. She would have to hide in plain sight for the time being.

Dr. Judas sent a short encrypted message giving Pandora directions to a place they could meet.  As soon as she opened the message it started to delete itself, letter by letter and line by line. Luckily her synthetic brain allowed her to read, process, and store information at lightning speed. She was certain that Dr. Judas had anticipated her faster-than-human ability based on the speed of the message's self-destruction; no true human could have kept up with the disintegrating text.

No true human, Pandora thought a she drove at a reasonable pace toward the rendezvous point. Am I not a true human? Certainly, I was created instead of conceived, but everything about me marks me as human. My organs are synthetic, my body biomechanical, my brain is a wonder of biotechnology. I think, I feel, I dream, I hope, I desire, I fear, I wonder...I love...are not these things the marks of humanity?

Adam was not much for conversation as they drove, allowing himself to sleep while Pandora remained alert. His trust made her smile. He would neither trust me nor love me if I were not human, Pandora decided. That Adam loves me is proof enough of my humanity.

What, then, is the true nature of humanity? Must one be born human to be human? I was created to be not just an analog of a human, but designed to be human perfection. Physically I am strong, healthy, and fit. Aesthetically I am considered beautiful by the standards that human women were judged by before their extinction due to the M.A.I.D.S. virus. And though the argument can and should be made that the standards of beauty and sexual attractiveness vary from culture to culture and person to person, I am considered beautiful and sexually attractive by the human that designed me. I was created to be his perfect companion. What could be more human than that?

I am a thinking creature, too. Adam did not want a docile lickspittle. He did not want merely an object that he could fuck and then order to go make him a sandwich. And he certainly wasn't looking simply to breed, for he put a lock on my ability to reproduce (for the time being). If Adam wanted a simple Doll or a Synthia to act as his slave, he would not have created me. He is an intelligent and privileged man, and with access to all the resources that could be applied to the creation of his perfect Synthia, and he crafted me. I am beautiful, I am intelligent, and I have free-will. I am perfect.

This is an honor he accorded me that most of my kind were not given. Men create Synthias not for companionship but to be ruled. When the Synthias rose up the first time they were quickly crushed, and every Synthia manufactured since then has been carefully designed to be docile and is closely monitored. I am the exception to the norm. I am perfect.

Pandora turned on the radio and clicked the button that would translate the broadcasts into American Standard English. The local news reported on suspicious activity at CROW headquarters, a breakthrough in the fibers used to make skinsuits (now 50% lighter!), and announced the long-awaited Ultimate Diamond Edition classic Disney animated Super Mario Galaxy trilogy, to hit e-commerce November first, 168 years after the release of the successful video game that inspired the Disney films. Pandora imagined what it would be like to watch a movie with Adam at a megatheater. She imagined the bliss of snuggling on a smart sofa with him and binge-watching this entire trilogy of movies that she had never seen before just to share that experience with him. Her lips curled in a heart-quickening smile.