Andromeda

Jack led her and Ali to the armory to let them pick out their weapons.

It was a high-ceilinged room, every surface of sleek, once-shining grey now masked in grime. Ali was seized in a coughing fit as they entered. "We don't clean up much," Jack told him, waving a hand in the dust-filled air. "But you can go ahead and pick out a gun."

Plasma guns, pistols, laser guns, and rifles hung from one wall, barely adding up to ten in all. Andromeda ventured forward, scanning the selection. (Ali was making excited noises beside her.) She turned to Jack. "Any of them?"

"Well, we don't have much of a budget, so you're obviously limited to one," Jack replied. He walked closer, eyes on the weapons sitting on the racks. "Andromeda, you're a slightly above-average runner, but you seem to have amazing upper-body strength. I mean, the only reason I can catch up to you at all is because I've had about twenty enhancements on top of my original cyborg-ness." He pointed at a sleek grey plasma gun that was about half Andromeda's size. "Try Gemini."

She took the weapon off the rack, the weight settling comfortably in her arms. Andromeda pointed it at Jack, who didn't even flinch. "Doesn't activate until I enter the code."

Andromeda nodded. "I figured." She moved it from one hand to the other. "Kinda bulky."

"That's why..." Jack reached forward and swiped something on the side of the gun, releasing the top half from the bottom. Andromeda took one part in each hand, relishing the balance and power it brought. "Castor and Pollux. The Gemini twins."

She shook her head. "Weapon names are ridiculous."

"Accurate, though," Jack prodded, smiling. "It's got more force when it's put together, and it's easier for most people to handle. Fusion reactor right here"--he tapped on the large globe forming the base of the gun clutched in Andromeda's right hand--"usually provides energy for the ray gun, so when it's detached, Gemini forms a ray gun--Castor--and a rifle, Pollux. But when the two halves are put together, the energy from fusion is used to propel the bullet through the rifle. And man is she powerful."

"Okay," Andromeda said, weighing the two weapons in her hands. "So this is a ray gun, this is a regular rifle, and if I put them together it's a super-powerful ray-rifle."

Jack laughed. "Basically. Like I said, it's easier to handle when put together, but it's much more versatile when it comes apart. You like it?"

Andromeda nodded. "Does Ali get one?"

Ali snorted. "I don't think I could take Gemini. I'll get a pistol, yeah?"

"Take Ninja," Jack told him, nodding toward a small, black pistol. "It's pretty basic, but it'll be for defense only if there's an invasion. I doubt you're gonna be on the field much."

Ali took the pistol in both hands, and Andromeda looked him up and down. It fit him, somehow. In his black hoodie and slim-fitting jeans, trying to go unnoticed, Andromeda figured a larger rifle or plasma gun would make him feel out of place. Besides, as Jack said, Ali wouldn't be on the field with her; she didn't have to worry about him.

"Cool," Andromeda said, sliding Castor and Pollux back together until she heard the click that meant they were stably attached. "We can leave now?"

Jack was staring at Ali, his thumb over his lips. "Mmm...Ali, here." He grabbed a black cylinder from the wall next to him and tossed it to Ali, who fumbled with it for a moment before catching it securely. He twisted the cylinder, and it slid open, unfolding to reveal a large black shield that covered most of Ali's body. The weight made him stumble a bit, but he leaned back and recovered quickly.

"We're gonna have to work on that," Jack said. "But you might need it. Let's leave; you two need to get some rest for tomorrow's training."

"Ah, yeah," Ali yawned. "I'm getting tired."

They headed back to the room where the others were still soundly sleeping. Andromeda checked the time: only 2 a.m. She could pack in a few hours of sleep to clean out her system before tomorrow's events.

Ali dropped into the bed and started snoring almost as soon as they walked inside; Andromeda eased herself down on the ground, Gemini resting beside her before Jack snatched it up with a grin. "Only after we can trust you."

Andromeda shrugged. "Fair enough." She closed her eyes, set a subconscious alarm for 5 a.m., and began the system cleanse, drifting away to the closest to sleep that she could reach.

***

The next morning, Andromeda found that a few of the others had woken before her. She stumbled to her feet, rubbing her eyes and brushing her fingers through her knotted hair. Ali's sleeping body still lay in a fetal position on the bed next to her, and she smiled fondly before turning to get ready for the day.

Janine chirped a "good morning!" to Andromeda as she entered the bathroom, and Andromeda nodded in response. "So," Janine said, clapping her hands together, "you should probably change into one of the uniforms we have in the dorm, and you should put your hair up. Training starts at seven, so you can eat breakfast and do whatever you want until then. Lunch is at noon, and you'll have dinner just before night training. Most of us take the sleep we can get, but there's no curfew."

"Okay," Andromeda said. "I don't eat, by the way. I'm a pretty hardcore cyborg."

Janine laughed. "Yeah, we've got a few of those. They use their mealtimes as free time, so it doesn't matter."

Andromeda splashed her face with water and ran a brush through her hair a few times before pulling it up into a ponytail. She walked to the dorm and rummaged through a few drawers before finding what seemed to be a uniform that fit her. Andromeda looked around the room to make sure no one was intently watching her (they probably wouldn't mind anyway) before taking off the blouse and pants she was still wearing from her interview, and putting on the uniform. It felt freeing and much more comfortable, hanging from her frame loosely.

She found another set and tossed it at Ali's sleeping form. He curled up more tightly in response to the impact, and Andromeda smiled slightly. For some reason, the reaction reminded her of Polaris.

Polaris. She'd spent the past few hours trying not to think about Polaris, but she always edged onto Andromeda's mind somehow. Even now, as she tried to distract herself by continuing the design of a plan to get them back home, it just didn't seem worth it without Polaris there.

Andromeda's throat tightened as memories of the meager time she had shared with Polaris flashed through her head. She snatched up her clothes and bundled them up in her arms, trying to tear herself from the emotion overwhelming her. Polaris was dead; that was a reality she had to accept.

Yet something else occurred to her, something she hadn't considered until now: why was she so emotional?

Andromeda was an android, after all. She'd been in zero-oxygen environments many times, and her functions had never been impaired in the slightest. There was no way she was somehow a cyborg. And in spite of how perfectly her featured resembled those of a human girl's, they had been designed that way specifically so that intelligent extraterrestrial life could have the most realistic experience meeting humanity. Andromeda's original purpose was to discover sentient alien life and interact with it. There was no reason to incorporate any emotion, any humanity beyond mere appearance, into her design.

She crossed the room to shake Ali by the shoulders. "Alistair. Wake up," she hissed.

Ali groaned and flipped over, wiping at bleary eyes. "What?"

"I wanted to ask you...when you programmed me, did you add anything experimental? Unusual?" Andromeda asked softly.

Ali blinked several times, his eyes now open wide. "W-why would you ask?"

"I'm obviously much more emotional than androids are supposed to be. There's no explanation for it other than something in my design. Something in my programming, or my brain chemistry--but I'm an android, I don't have brain chemistry, so it's got to be programming," Andromeda said.

"Yeah. You just have complex programming," Ali replied, looking up at her. "That's all. I used my own algorithms to make you react to things as if you're feeling emotions. But you're not really feeling anything; you're not human, after all."

"Oh," Andromeda said. A strange sense of disappointment welled up inside her, but she brushed it away. Not real.

"Can I go back to sleep?"

"Sure, if you want to miss breakfast."

Ali was out of bed in a flash, running outside toward the smell of pancakes.

***

I'm going to begin working on another story (and the school year is almost over thank god) so I'll probably be more active now! Vote, follow, comment as always :)