Learning

Inside the Savior medical bay.

Alec was grimacing as an android was running a skin grafting laser across his body with no exception to the sensitive areas of skin.

After twenty grueling minutes, the android powered off the laser and handed him a small bottle of pills labelled 'Retinoid B-22'.

The mouth beneath the camera spoke in a mechanical and lifeless voice.

"Recommendation for Cryostasis burns; one pill before first meal of the day, minimum of 36 oz. of water between meals, lukewarm showers, and no abrasive scratching for three weeks."

"Thank you Thirteen" replied Alec as he sat up from the little cot.

Thirteen was identical to the same Android that worked with Syndy in the central server room.

The bodies of android are complex and durable, but at the expense of complex control systems, their cognitive abilities were heavily downgraded to only follow basic instructions with no emotion.

All the androids across the ship were more like extensions of Syndy, who had kept the station running for over 300 years with their mobility and strength.

Alec grabbed his black jumpsuit and boots out of the bin on the floor and put them back on.

His body was very sensitive after having waves of lasers run across the blackened skin. Now his body was so red, he looked badly sunburned.

He pulled back the curtain to see Allen had left the medical bay, but Elias had fallen asleep in the chair nearby.

As Alec walked over, Elias's nose twitched as he woke up.

"Bleugh, the smell of the grafting lasers always make the whole room smell like barbecue and disinfectant."

Alec simply replied with a little chuckle.

"Sorry my painful experience was inconveniencing your nose."

They both walked out of the medical bay and discussed the situation for a while.

After making it halfway around the station, Alec noticed something strange.

He asked Elias, "how come so few people have been pulled out of long sleep?"

In total, Alec only saw six crew members around the station, including Elias and Allen.

Elias slapped his palm against his own forehead. "Of course you wouldn't have noticed. You've been in the one lab for four days."

"Huh?" Alec was puzzled.

"Well, the original plan was to wake everyone five years after a colony station was established somewhere on Earth, but everything went to shit."

"Yeah I got that."

"So the guy who stood as second in command was Bryce Shamento."

Alec had met him personally a few times, he seemed dignified and authoritative enough. It made sense that Valentine would put him second in line to command the station.

"At least he was, until he killed himself."

"What!?"

"Yeah, went over to the airlock right there actually, then vented himself into space." Elias pointed at the waste disposal airlock they had just passed.

'I guess I'd have done the same, if Valentine hadn't sent me that message, I wouldn't have planned on staying much longer either.' Thought Alec.

How was the other 216 (now 215) crew members on the station gonna react to the news that the Director is dead and they had obtained no information regarding Earth's status.

Elias continued on with his explanation, "That sicko Cameron, thought it would be funny to shared his calculations to prove that Bryce would have died while choking of the sulfur air after the station's velocity flung him right at IO. The kid's a genius, but a disturbing one at that."

Alec was a little surprised, "Why was Cameron pulled out? I would have thought the younger members would have been the last to be brought into this situation too."

"I thought that too, but the newest director had worked out a plan with the some of the youth on the station."

"So who's the newest Director?

"You'll see, she actually wanted to see you about this whole ordeal with Adam; so this is your stop."

Elias waved his hand at the door on the side.

Alec wanted to ask more about who else was out of long sleep and who the new director was, but Elias has already parted ways with a smile on his face.

He seemed to be chuckling at something funny going through his head.

When he couldn't hear Elias's boots echo on the floors, he could only let out a little sigh and knocked on the metal door.

When it slid open, Alec muttered to himself, "You gotta be shitting me."

—-

In the lab with the Staging Core.

Android Twenty-Three was carefully setting down the confinement drive with Adam inside.

Adam was unaware of what was going outside, but he was too busy learning from Syndy's puzzles and tests anyway.

When Adam was trapped at the beginning, he was scared that Syndy had just flung him into a different kind of void.

But those thoughts were dismissed as the confinement drive started generating structures all around him.

The first scenario showed him untouched valleys and mountains, then civilizations were fast-forward building across it in the blink of an eye. Everytime a different society was built, Adam was rushed with a flow of information about the architecture, history, and their basics of technology.

The second scenario was a lab filled with endless rows of tables with various chemicals in tubes. Each time he walked by, he would witness a combination of reactions occurring. The bottles would be dancing in the air and show him the way they change into something entirely new.

After that, the third scenario brought him into a hospital. He was in the position of a nurse, then a tech, then a therapist, and even a patient. Feelings of pain, misery, stress, and joy were throw at him as he played each and every part. Each one was in some way or another; a lesson to be more human.

After a dozen positions inside the hospital, Adam was getting very irritated with the set up of the confinement drive. Who was Syndy to make this drive force him to feel these unnecessary experiences. He felt like was being babied in a behavioral correctional center.

'Why are the scenarios was trying to influence me into becoming some kind of sympathetic and caring being. I am not human, we've established that already.'

'Why the hell should I pretend to be something I'm not?' Was the thought that kept resurfacing in Adam's mind.

He was put into the position of a surgeon, next to him was a table with an assortment of tools for surgery. He pondered his next few steps before surgery, then a grin popped up beneath his mask.

'I wonder, does her simulations expect this?'

He picked up the surgical knife and instead of starting the incision, he whipped it around and jammed it into the eye of the nearest assistant.

Before the assist could even hit the ground or scream in pain, the whole room lit up red and cranked out three dull chirps. The scenario dissolved and restarted back in the position of the surgical patient during preparation.

'Damn, I guess I can't just end this simulation with mass homicide.'

Adam was disappointed with the outcome, but there was nothing he could do about it. This drive had no connections to the station or a transceiver. It was only accessible with a direct connection to a station port, it was completely inescapable for a coded being like himself.

Suddenly a loud ping went off before he started the surgical procedure again.

Suddenly a shrill voice blasted out of every corner of the room.

"Hey, you the new guy I heard was wreaking havoc? The names Cameron, and I wanna see what kind of damage you can REALLY cause, Hahaha."

Adam muttered to himself, "You gotta be shitting me."