SEQUENTIAL ━ Connor // RK800 ✔️

three ━ new priorities

"It occurs to me now," Connor stopped the coin's movement and placed it back on the table's surface, his palm flat over it, "some humans may not share in on your conformity to rules and law. Which is rather concerning, given Officer Owens' status."

Though he did not use an alarming tone, but rather a calm one trying to show that their undesirable situation was not in fact a surprise and that even with such a setback, the project shouldn't be too affected, but merely extended due to an additional challenge to overcome, Mia's stress levels increased right before his eyes. She abandoned her coffee cup on the table and turned away from Connor, leaning her head back, closing her eyes to ponder.

He could have tried to make her see reason — that it didn't matter all that much that the challenge was greater than expected or that he should still be able to reach out to Officer Owens, given time, even with him being so outright hostile. But watching Mia's neck muscles tense and knowing all too well just how much of a perfectionist she really was, Connor opted instead to accept that she will not see this situation through neutral lenses.

"How do you want us to proceed?" He inquired instead.

Mia opened her eyes and corrected her posture to simply sitting on her chair once more, "The trial can't provide the data we require if you are stopped from interacting with the police station and the environment of a detective by the orders of one selfish individual."

"I'm an android," Connor furrowed down his eyebrows, confused as to how Mia would have come to need that reminder. "I am programmed to obey."

"Yeah," she lightly shook her head, causing Connor's LED to flicker again as he tried to understand the conflicting information between her words and her body language. "And that's a clear mistake." Meeting his eyes, she finally noticed that he wasn't following her train of thoughts. "Think about it, Connor," she raised her hand, then closed it into a fist and lowered it, realizing at last that she once again chose the wrong words to dispell his confusion. "Compute this scenario for me," she corrected herself. "What happens if the human partner you are assigned to work with in a real life police investigation, for whatever reason, in a moment of crucial split second decision, makes the wrong call? You are built superior to the human intellect, so you would know that is the wrong call and also be aware what the correct course of action would be. If your knowledge contradicts with the order you are given, what do you do according to current protocol?"

Connor blinked a few times, "I obey the human decision in the moment."

"Even if it's wrong?"

"Yes," he answered without hesitation, but his eyes narrowed, spotting the flaw.

"There's the mistake then," Mia crossed her arms over her chest. "I believe you should be able to prioritise your core mission to help the police force over the mistakes of a human. You aren't just another android from the production line of CyberLife, Connor." In a state of restlessness from how much this issue was starting to bother her, Mia reached out and placed her hand on Connor's shoulder; he remained still. "You are our most advanced prototype. To treat your programming like we would that of a caretaker android is simply counterproductive. It's stupid!" She retracted her touch, "Which is something I have been telling everyone for a while now, but without Elijah present at the meetings, God knows the board would much rather ignore the existence of this project altogether."

"Mr. Kamski named you in charge of the project," Connor threaded carefully in stating that fact. It held a paradoxical 50% chance of helping Mia find some relief, with the other half of probability inclined to the belief that hearing this might set her off further in despair, all thanks to a trait of hers he learnt long ago. Unfortunately, it seemed his reminder only deepened her frown, but remaining silent from there on wouldn't have helped either, so Connor continued, "Do you know how to fix this issue?"