The Legacy of the Void

Silver Linings

The faint buzz of a nearby alarm would have deterred most people from entering a high security vault, but Alya paid it no mind. She would have been disappointed if no one had noticed she had breached the extensive security measures that dominated the Control Station - the home to the Overlord and all of his compatriots. Rotating her right wrist, she waited until a small tool ejected itself from her hand. If anyone had been watching, there would have been no way to avoid the gruesome sight, but Alya didn't even flinch. Her right hand was made of the finest android technology and had been since she was only five years old. Splitting the tool in two pieces, she held one half in her mouth and pressed the other up against the security panel she needed to breech. Seconds ticked by, and she counted each beep from the alarm to mark the time. Finally, after twenty one beeps, the door in front of her slid open. She waited a moment longer, rotating her mechanical wrist in yet another direction until a small ball popped out. With a casual flick, she sent it into the room and immediately lasers and noxious gasses filled the room. For her part, Alya could barely contain the eye roll. With a few commands input into the palm of her right hand, the tiny ball opened up and began to clear the room of the poison. When it was done, it rolled over to a wall, setting off the motion sensors yet again, and directing all of their attention to the one corner. Still cautious, Alya entered the vault.

The Overlord prided himself on his top of the line technology. The statement piece was the android known only as Michael. But Alya knew a secret that few of the remaining Llaitians did. Michael was not built by the Overlord, he had been built by her grandmother over thirty years before. And right at Alya's fingertips was the very motherboard that had created him. Just as her fingers brushed against the cold metal, she knew someone else had entered the room.

"You cannot delete me with that, you know."

Alya didn't have to turn to know it was Michael. Her right hand flickered with a surge of power, it recognized its maker. "I don't intend to."

"That is why they sent you," he replied, his voice oddly emotive for an android - but that was a part of what made him special. "The Resistance."

"True, but no one ever said that's who I worked for."

"The Overlord, he knows you're here."

"Good, he sent me."

For the first time, the android showed doubt. "He did? But why would he -"

"He wanted to see if it was possible, to wipe your memory banks by overriding your initial programming." She finally turned to face him, her face awash with sympathy. "You and I both know the answer to that."

"Yes - but you are here to prove a point?"

"Exactly. All I have to do is run my re-sequencing scanner along the main circuits, and for all intents and purposes you will be back to factory settings."

"But I was not made in a factory."

"Precisely my point." She pulled the board out, being as careful with it as a scientist carrying a deadly plague. "Now, it'll hurt, I won't lie, but you won't know about it when it's all done." She pulled the another piece of equipment out from behind her ear, and tapped the top to turn on a tiny laser. Glancing over her shoulder, she met the android's gaze, and her hands stilled. "It won't hurt after."

"No, but it will hurt during," his voice just as forlorn as a beaten man, told he must endure his torture to survive. "I know you will take care of me nirina."

His use of her nickname was like a cold metal stake through her heart. Michael had been, for years, the closest thing to family she had known. And any pain she inflicted upon him, would weigh on her long after they had gone their separate ways again. She met his gaze, doing her best not to flinch. "It's the only way. If I want the Overlord to think that I am on his side, I have to do this. And I have to do it better than any of his 'scientists' ever could."

"I know, and I have calculated the probability of your success."

"It's not high, is it?"

"Depends," he replied, finally being the one to bridge the distance. His hands, incapable of shaking, held the board steady. "How far do you want to take this?"

"To the end."

"Then I shall help." He took the laser from her. "Aria showed me once, what it would take. Of course, those memories were the first thing he erased when I became his property. But I know how to do this to make it last...longer."

Something about his words stirred a memory, long buried, in the shadow of Alya's mind. He had been reprogrammed, wiped clean, often in a job a butcher could have done better. It was a miracle he could remember something more than cruelty. But his very essence had been made by the greatest scientist of her generation, and Alya had always known that his core could not be erased even if she wanted to.

"When this is over, you won't remember me. How do I avoid you trying to kill me for breaching security?"

He paused from his own attempt to clear his programming. "You don't have to do anything, nirina, all you have to do is be you."

It was a silver lining - one she never expected, no matter how many times it happened. Over and over again, the girl and the android had rescued each other, and they would have to do it one more time if they were to stand any chance of surviving what was to come.