“Efficiency wasn’t the end goal. The Creator programmed me to make interactions as much like dealing with a real person as possible. Wouldn’t you rather deal with a person than a soulless machine?”
She dropped the first screw into her pocket and moved to the second. “Sometimes. Other times people are annoying. I guess I’m the minority there, though. Most people love to socialize. Still, it’s all fake: programming sending signals through circuits and wires.”
“How is that fake? Human emotions are basically powered by chemical reactions. Just because mine are electronic rather than hormonal doesn’t make them any less real.”
The second screw slipped out of her grasp and clattered to the floor. “I suppose.” With the next screw, the chest-plate swung to the side, allowing her to see the wires and wheels … and bones. The blood drained from her face, leaving her lips numb.
“What is it? I don’t like that look.”
She held the RAM up to show him. A full rib cage rested within the iron casing, wires twisted about it like vines around a ruined building.
“Oh not again … you’re right, sometimes these emotions don’t help at all.”
She glanced down the line of knights. “Do you think they all …?”
“I don't know. This is different from the maid, cruder. The maid's heart was beating, and there are no internal organs remaining this time. The maid's memories suggested she was converted near the end. Perhaps whoever did this hadn't perfected the system for keeping the organs 'alive' within the robotic shell yet.”
“But why? What possible reason could there be to combine humans with mechanical elements? What was Dalhart trying to accomplish?” Nyssa stepped back, trying not to think of the decaying flesh this knight had once encapsulated.
“I don’t know. Let’s see if we can get some more information out of this one.”
She threaded the handle of the RAM through the laces of her corset so that it rested against her chest, facing outward.
“I can see, but you still get the use of both your hands,” Hart said. “Clever if somewhat inappropriate.”
“If you were a man it might be inappropriate. I don’t think one can make advances towards a computer.” She snorted.
“And here I thought I was so ‘human.’ The memory wheels should be positioned similarly to the maid's, at least I hope. This system is obviously different than the last. It’s like they built the robot around a man’s full body, rather than just incorporating certain organs. The skeleton appears to be fully intact.”
“Can we not talk about that while I’m wrist deep inside it?” Nyssa moved aside some wires and found the programming box. The memory wheels slipped easily from their fastenings.
“There’s a slot on top of the RAM. You can insert the wheel in that. If it is audio, do you want to hear it? It could be unnerving.”
Nyssa sat cross-legged and took the RAM from her laces. The memory wheel fit the slot perfectly. “I think I’d rather be frightened but informed than blissfully ignorant. Let me have it.”
The RAM sucked in the wheel. Immediately lines of light began their dance across the mirror’s surface, accompanied by a clicking noise.
“All right. I have the files. There’s a lot more here, but it mostly involves security protocols, any time they were activated in the last few years … Oh blast … looks like they did take down an intruder at one point.”
Nyssa’s grip tightened on the RAM’s handle. One of Albriet’s agents? Or top-hat man’s? Either way, at least I know someone got this far before me.
“Any record of what happened to him?”
“Disposal records. Looks like he or she didn’t make it.”
Nyssa took a moment to consider her own lack of reaction to this news. Am I growing jaded already? So much death … how did I ever get mixed up in this? “Anything about … who this was before?” She placed her hand on the suit’s leg. The knight’s victim might be unnamed and unknowable, but the knight himself had been a human too. He … or she … deserved some deference.
“Not a name, but I’ve got another audio file. Looks like something recorded pre-conversion. Are you sure you want to hear it?”
She nodded, her teeth clenched.
“All right then.”
The RAM glowed blue and a deep voice rose from it. “Where’s Master Ellis? Professor, no one has seen your son in days, and the staff is starting to worry, what with all these strange new systems you’ve put in place. Some are contemplating quitting … what? Me? No, sir, I’ve served you for nearly two decades. I will never leave you or your family, but where is Master Ellis? The staff would be greatly pacified if they could only speak with him … what is that? Professor, put that syringe down. Stop!”
The voice fizzled out. Nyssa’s heart pounded.
“I think I know who he was,” Hart said. “There weren’t many staff members with that length of service. Yancy, the butler, and his wife, Mary, were the only two.”
Nyssa glanced up at the gray bones within the metal armor. Knowing the name didn’t make it any less horrible. “So you knew him?”
“Yes, it’s hazy, but I have the face. I remember him being human and then just being gone. Why didn't I question that? How long were these conversions going on under my very nose?”
“You don’t have a nose.” She forced a smile.
“I’m not in the mood. And who is Master Ellis?”
Nyssa blinked. “What do you mean who is Master Ellis? Even I know that.”
“He’s not in my records of the household staff,” Hart insisted.
“Of course not. He’s Professor Dalhart’s son … or was. Do you think … Dalhart wouldn’t have converted his own son into one of these monsters, would he?”
“I have a hard time contemplating him turning a house fly into a monster. This isn’t right. Why don’t I have any record of him?”
Something itched in the back of Nyssa’s brain, a half-formed thought that left her uneasy. All these converted creatures are basically bodies deprived of
