A Soulless Destiny (On hold, pending major revisions)

Part 5 - Of Humans and Robots

When Friday came about, Andrew wished he had asked for more time off. His report was still in shambles, written with the grace of a fledgling science project. He hadn't much time or energy to concentrate, let alone form strong conclusions. When he saw Sino in Maya's office, he realized this was but a trivial concern.

"Well, that explains why you weren't open today!" Andrew said to Sino. 

"Hello, Andrew! Maya stopped by last night and requested my presence here. It seems that you all need my help." 

"Really? Why is that... Oh no... " Andrew knew that Maya would not normally turn to the unethical, but she hadn't been herself since that meeting with Rinpoche. Just the day before, she had paid him a visit in the evening. Priya had returned to her apartment in the Second Residential District, so he was all alone, watching a documentary about dinosaurs and wondering if he had been a dinosaur. His existential worries weren't about to end there, for Maya had sprung a question that had kept him up all night.

"If God were real, is there even a purpose to what we're doing?"

"Go home, Maya!" he had shouted at her. His mind was already full of thoughts about that night with Priya, and he was in no mind to fill it in with anything else other than dinosaurs. But it was too late, and counting dinosaurs had not helped.

"Where is she?" Andrew asked Sino, slightly panicking.

"She stepped out to use the bathroom. What's wrong?"

"Sino," said Andrew, placing his hands on the droid's metallic shoulders. "Get out of here before she comes... "

The door swung open as Maya walked in, wearing her usual sweat pants and blazer business. She saw Andrew with his hands still on Sino's shoulders, and pointed to the empty chair by the desk. Andrew was going to have to talk this out.

"I know what you're trying to do, Maya," he said as he half-fell into the chair. "And I'm not gonna let you. Sino's my friend!"

"Oh really," she smiled her usual haughty smile, taking her seat at her desk. "And what is it that you think I want to do?"

"You're gonna give Sino a cloned soul, because he's a droid and therefore a perfect test subject."

Maya nodded slowly. 

"You're correct so far, care to go on?"

"What?" Andrew felt a mix of confusion and dread.

"We're planning to give you a cloned soul," she said, addressing Sino. "And then we're going to see if we can find a way to destroy it."

Sino sat motionless throughout the whole conversation. The two humans in the room thought for a moment that he had deactivated from shock.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand what's happening," came Sino's almost monotone voice. 

"Woah!" Andrew interrupted. "Hold on. That sounds a lot worse."

"Andrew, would you just shut up and let me explain!" Maya shouted. She had never raised her voice at him before. Andrew shrunk back into his chair, shuddering slightly. Sino continued to look like a robot. 

"Now," she continued after calming herself. "I never said we were going to do the full process of soul cloning. We're just going to give Sino an empty soul, skip that God part altogether. It should be fine."

There was silence in the room before Andrew began speaking again, meekly this time.

"Why Sino then? Why not me, or some other droid?" he asked.

"There are obviously risks in a procedure we don't fully understand. Sino was chosen for two reasons. The droid part you know already; if anything happens we can just copy his consciousness into a new body. The second reason is because Sino is the most intelligent droid we know of, from the Sun Dancer organization itself! We'll be able to derive the effects on other, more organic intelligences based on what happens to him."