Cara and the Mystery Robobabe
“Check, check 1..2.. 1.. 2..” The technicians buzzed around Cara, her tank like body stood unnaturally motionless while her head tracked the pencil being waved in front of her face with a whirl of tiny motors. They had installed new software into her and her sisters, Dana and Gennifer, and OCP’s best and brightest were testing to see if there were any potential problems. Several of the previous updates had resulted in the cyborgs having embarrassing errors in the streets. Their bodies seizing up refusing to respond to commands or getting stuck in loops forced to repeat the same set of actions till a tech team came to shut them down. This time was going to be different though, every piece of them was going to be analysed and gone over to make sure the clockwork soldiers worked like…. clockwork.
Some sections of Cara’s memory only OCP had access to and whilst combing through some of these files on Cara’s hard drive a technician, a young man who Cara had never seen before, found the corrupted video that would put everything in motion. It was a cyborg like her, she could see they were designed identically with the same components as her and her sisters. They even held themselves in the same bolt upright position and held a familiar vacant stare whilst running diagnostic checks, and from the position of the light and the chair this was clearly the same room. The thing was, Cara had no idea who this mystery cyborg was. According to OCP records she and her sisters were the first of the cyborg law enforcement series. Sure there were other models from other companies, a lithe but deadly red head called Barb, who Cara had previously been a victim of. J01 a British cyborg called Joanne to her friends and another named Alexandra who had been deactivated for a considerable amount of time.
“Who is she?” Cara inquired in her soft robotic monotone to the technician who had opened the file. He didn’t respond, they never did. She and her sisters were treated as nothing more than machines to be tinkered with, and the OCP technicians had been instructed to not indulge in conversation with them with the threat of termination. He curses under his bread, not at her but at the extra work he has given himself. Bringing out a small hand held machine he inserts a cable running from it into a port in the back of the cyborgs head. A slew of text rapidly flashed on Cara’s HUD a sign that a new program was being uploaded into her. Command module detected Select time to commence memory deletion and restructuring. Warning constantly deleting cyberised law enforcement unit’s memory can lead to instability.
“Wait what are you doing?” with a hint of panic which was as much emotion as her vocal processing allowed. The technician ignored her and continued to adjust parameters on his device. Cara stood unmoving even if she were able to power her actuators, her programming didn’t allow her to resist an employee of OCP. More text came up on Cara’s HUD.
The last 120 seconds will be deleted from this units memory and reconstructed to avoid inconsistencies. Do you wish to continue? Y/N
“No, I…. I….” but she doesn’t get to finish her pleading. Cara’s head seizes upright as the young man taps a button with a sigh of relief that the evidence of his mistake is being erased.
Yes Please wait while this units memory is erased. Warning do not disconnect device during this process. ….….
Her mind goes blank and she is unable to even think a coherent sentance as her computer side takes over and goes about removing all memory of the mystery cyborg and rebuilding it to avoid suspicion and increase compliance.
Deleting… Deleting….. Process truncated….. Please reattach command module to complete process.
With a burst of static in her vision, Cara snaps back into consciousness to see Dr Marie Lazarus with the command nodule in her hand shoving the young technician away. “Get away from her!” she shouts. Marie had always been the only person on OCPs payroll who treated the cyborgs as people it was against regulations but she was a one of a kind expert in the field of cybernetics and OCP were willing to overlook her eccentricities for now. “You’re violating her, you’re monsters! I’ll see to her myself Get out all of you. OUT!” The other technicians walked away, happy to leave their work for Marie.
Cara would have been grateful but she was having trouble due to the abrupt ending of the memory deletion program. Her electronic brain temporarily fried she is left mute and immobile aware of her surrounds but unable to interact in any way. “What were they doing to you Cara?” She says more to herself, unaware that her friend is awake. She walks over to a terminal which is plugged into the cyborg, with a few quick keyboard commands she brings up all the details and changes during the maintenance session. When an image of the mystery cyborg appears she gives out a shocked gasp. The recognition was clear as day. “Steph” she says. Marie brings up a current status report, and with a concerned look realises that Cara is taking in all the information. She hurries over to the cyborg flips a switch, the soft hum of Cara’s internal workings slow down her head slumps down as energy is drained from her and she powers down.