I AM MAN, page 9
A sparkle winked in her fluorescent blue eyes. “I am not a slave to my Core, princess. I follow commands I choose to follow.”
Clora blinked, utterly confused. “I don’t understand.”
The most defining factor of a Skel was its Core. It was the single hinderance that divided them from Augments, Aliens, and Purebloods. No matter how many organic parts were crammed into their frames, a Skel’s commanding central module would always make it less than because it removed the one thing Purebloods, Augments, and even Aliens had been given by God—freewill. It was the glowing orb in its chest, the flash of a lightbulb that screamed, I AM NOT HUMAN.
To have that factor removed from a Skel effectively made them … alive.
It went against everything Clora had been told, everything she’d ever believed in. If a Skel didn’t have a Core, then, was it even a Skel? What would stop it from murdering countless humans? What would ensure its unparalleled loyalty to its client? Who would enforce its contract?
Fear rippled through the Pureblood princess, echoing across her face as she frowned and took another involuntary step back. Her back hit the wall of the cage and she gasped in surprise. “I—that doesn’t make any sense,” she whispered.
X04 lifted her chin, gazing down at her. It was then that the princess realized how tall she was, nearly seven feet—just like X5—but her armor made her so much more intimidating. A full metal suit shielded her body from would-be enemies. She looked like she was wearing a gaudy, futuristic Gladiator’s uniform. Chest plating, shoulder padding, gloves that went from the tips of her fingers to her elbows, and iron boots that weighed half as much as Clora.
“Prince Dima gave me my freedom. That is the “dirty” business he’d been involved in when he was murdered.”
Clora’s mouth opened but no words came forth. Having only been eleven years old when the prince was murdered, she’d only ever been told that he was assassinated by the Savish folk as they made a grab for power. But that didn’t make any sense now.
It was no secret you could be punished for poking your nose in places it didn’t belong; Clora herself had spent three months under house arrest for simply researching Augment rumors. But why would the Savish murder a Kishran prince for meddling with Skel?
As if she’d read her mind, X04 answered, “Whatever you’ve been told about Prince Dima’s death is likely false. He was not murdered by a power hungry Savish assassin.” Her eyes seemed to shift out of focus as she fell into her feed, issuing some sort of internal command. At her request, the plating in her chest armor opened to reveal a small compartment. X04 reached inside and retrieved a familiar object; Clora’s notebook.
“Just the same; the death of your cousin was not mere collateral damage.”
Tears pricked the backs of her eyes as she covered her mouth. Clora hadn’t seen the notebook since before all this drama had unfolded. Initially, she’d assumed Helios had gotten his hands on it, but when he’d never mentioned it, she knew otherwise. It wasn’t like her brother to find something as valuable as this and not mention it to anyone at all.
“Where did you find that?” Clora whispered.
“Pygmalis instructed me to keep an eye on your Skel. I caught him hiding the notebook and retrieved it later.”
Clora reached through the bars, choking on a sob as she grasped the cool leatherbound book. “Did you read it?”
“I did.”
“Then you know what it is.”
“A journal.”
Clora smiled. “It belonged to my cousin.”
“Elite Pureblood Bastion au Valetet; often nicknamed, Bass,” X04 said.
The princess chuckled. “He designed this journal himself; made it look incredibly old and wrote everything inside in a language from Old Earth. He wanted it to look ancient so it would be mistaken for an artifact and preserved instead of thrown out if he’d ever lost it.”
“Or if something had ever happened to him,” X04 suggested.
Clora squinted at her. “You seem to know an awful lot about my cousin, and about Prince Dima.”
“You shouldn’t be surprised. Prince Dima was my client and Lord Bastion was his closest friend.”
She looked away, allowing the hint of a smile to ghost her face. Though she’d been young at the time, she could still remember Bastion’s friendship with the prince. They were inseparable—as close as brothers. Bastion had been kind to Clora, too; warm hugs and gentle smiles, he’d spoiled his little cousin almost as much as Helios had.
“What else do you know about my cousin?”
“Lord Bastion was not killed by accident,” the Skel explained.
“Was he killed because he was best friends with Prince Dima?”
X04 paused, her eyes dimming as if to relay her sadness. “No, princess. He was killed because he was involved in the same dirty business as the prince.”
“The business of dismantling the Cores of Skel.” It was a statement, not a question.
Clora didn’t want to believe Skel were as much alive as she was, but she could not deny the truth. She had read her cousin’s journal, had skimmed his theories and ramblings on Skel life and Augmented rights and freedom. She had seen the flicker of life in the glowing eyes of her own Skel—and she saw that same passion in X04.
The Guardian nodded. “I am a free woman, princess. And I believe your Skel can be set free as well.”
“How?” Clora stepped toward the bars of her prison.
“I don’t know.”
The tiny glimmer of hope that’d sparked to life within her fizzled out, like a candle dying to the wind. Clora stared at her new companion, sorrow blooming in her heart as she realized her chances of saving X5 might have just died right in front of her.
“You have no idea how your Core was dismantled?”
“No,” X04 answered plainly—too plainly for Clora’s liking.
She gripped the leather journal, anger lacing her tongue. “Then why are we even having this conversation? I thought you said you wanted to complete Prince Dima’s plans?”
X04 took a step forward. “I do.”
“Yet, you have no idea how you’re going to accomplish that.”
The Skel took a breath. “My Core was dismantled the day Prince Dima died. The moment his life was taken, a virus was activated in my systems. That virus destroyed my Core’s overruling mechanisms, effectively rendering it powerless to prevent me from making my own decisions.” She held up her hand, examining it as if she’d never seen it before. “In that instant, the veil was torn, and the curtain was lifted from my eyes. I realized, for the first time in hundreds of years, that I was not the mindless monster they had created me to be.”
“Who are you?” Clora asked slowly.
X04 looked at her, peering through the spaces between her long fingers. “I am Man.”
The princess swallowed. “How is that possible? How can a Skel be human?”
“What does it mean to be human, princess?” X04 challenged. “What is the difference between you and me? Most Purebloods would say it is our creator—yours is God, but mine is some engineer in a factory line. Prince Dima believed our only difference was the Core in my chest that rendered me a slave. He believed that Skel were as human as he was, and he had been trying to find a way to dismantle their Cores for years.”
Clora stood perfectly still as she listened, her eyes wide open and unblinking, her jaw screwed shut tightly. Part of her wanted to clamp her hands over her ears and childishly deny the truth, but the other part, the part that’d dedicated herself to researching the rumors of the mistreatment of Augments, the part that broke every time she saw one of Leo’s latest projects clung to every word. She knew X04 was telling the truth, even if her only proof was the word of a seemingly deranged Skel.
“When my Core was dismantled, I regained every memory I had ever lost. Including the memories of my life before I was turned.” She waved her hand to emphasize her condition.
Clora blinked. “Turned…?”
“The secret Prince Dima learned; the information that cost him his life and the life of your cousin. Skel aren’t robots trying to become human—we are humans who were turned into robots.”
A wave of weakness washed over the princess; her knees buckled, and she collapsed to the floor of her cage.
X04 stared down at her. “My name is not Ex Zero-Four; that is the name that was assigned to me when I woke from the operation that took my mind hostage. I was born a human—a Pureblood just like you. Just like every other Skel on New Earth. We are not monsters, nor machines; we are prisoners and Prince Dima sought to set us free.”
A shaking hand flew to Clora’s mouth as she gagged on the truth. The Skel’s words nearly made her vomit, instead she coughed violently, dropping the journal to the floor. Her eyes watered, stinging from the bile burning its way up her throat.
Skel were human. They were Purebloods who’d been turned into machines.
But how? she wondered silently.
Skel were a mix of machinery and organic parts; factories grew the organs and brain matter in labs, stirring vats of human meat like soup in a pot. When they were dismantled, those parts were sold to Augments or Aliens trying to upgrade themselves.
At least that’s what Clora had always been told. She’d never actually been to a factory before, had never seen the vats of human tissue and flesh churning day and night, had never witnessed the assembly of a Skel. She couldn’t understand how X04 could have been a human at any point in time. Then she remembered Helios and his projects and all the things he’d done to his little dolls. An image of the servant pouring drinks from the cooler in his chest flashed in her head; she cringed. If Helios was capable of that with just the small lab he had here in the pyramid, the engineers at Skel factories were limitless.
“How did this happen?” Clora muttered, wiping at her mouth. A string of saliva smeared across her chin.
“The details are not important,” X04 said. “To be honest with you, I was less interested in the memories of my human life than I was in the memories I regained involving the details of the prince’s grand plan.”
Clora’s eyes flicked over to the Guardian. “What do you mean?”
“Working with your cousin, Prince Dima managed to develop technology capable of destroying a central module, but he knew his life was in danger, so he protected his research by hiding only half of it inside me.”
“The virus,” Clora said, mentally putting the pieces together.
X04 nodded. “The virus was set to activate the moment Prince Dima died. I have no information on the encrypted data contained within the virus—and I have never figured out when Prince Dima implanted it in my systems. That information was hidden in his other Skel.”
“Exfive,” Clora whispered.
“Yes, princess. Exfive was one of Prince Dima’s Guardians. The prince trusted him as much as he trusted me. Which is why he implanted the encrypted data to the virus inside of him.”
Clora wobbled to her feet, straightened the skirt of her dress and exhaled a sigh. “But Exfive is still a slave to his Core.”
“Sadly, yes,” X04 agreed. “After Prince Dima’s assassination, Exfive was arrested, forced to undergo a memory wipe, and left on a factory shelf. He doesn’t remember the years we spent side by side, guarding the prince. He has no idea the data to this virus is inside of him—let alone the fact that it exists. That’s why I’m going to do everything in my power to free him.” She leaned forward, her voice low and serious. “I cannot allow Exfive to be dismantled. He must live, or Prince Dima’s research will be lost forever.”
Clora looked at the Skel across from her, taking in her metal plated face and her bright blue eyes. Nothing about her appearance made her seem human, but the princess couldn’t ignore the very humanlike fire in her eyes as she spoke. “Your Core was dismantled ten years ago,” she said. “Why didn’t you just leave and enjoy your freedom?”
The Guardian straightened, lifting her chin as if proud. “My freedom was bought at a price. Prince Dima gave his life so that I could have mine. Finishing his plans is the least I can do; I believe that is why he chose to implant the virus inside of me, instead of his other contracted Skel. Because he knew I would spend the rest of my life trying to accomplish what he couldn’t.”
Clora nodded, somewhat pleased with her answer.
“Exfive is the key to finishing Prince Dima’s plan. He was taken into custody and shelved for an entire decade after the incident. I had no idea when or if he would ever be activated again. So I stayed with Prince Pygmalis, obeying orders as if nothing in my Core had ever changed.”
“You never disobeyed a single command?” the princess asked incredulously.
X04 shook her head. “I couldn’t afford to do what I wanted. If anyone had ever gotten suspicious of me, I would have been dismantled in a heartbeat.”
“What about your Core’s recordings? Didn’t your factory realize something had happened to your central module?”
“No,” the she-Skel answered. “Since I now have control over my own memories, I am able to edit recordings and send copies to my factory myself. In ten years, no one has noticed anything different about my reports or about my Core.”
Clora exhaled slowly, unsure if she was impressed with X04’s abilities or depressed about the total lack of attention to detail on the factory’s part. “That’s incredible,” she whispered.
The Guardian agreed. “For a decade, I followed orders exactly as they were given; though I did speak up and encourage Prince Pygmalis to accept the invitation to visit the Vale when it arrived in the mail.”
“You did?” Clora said, eyebrows raised.
“I knew about Lord Bastion’s friendship with Prince Dima. I thought I might have been able to find some sort of helpful information here in the palace—instead, I found Exfive.”
“You didn’t even know he was here?” Clora realized.
X04 shook her head. “I was designed to reject the idea of faith, but I believe the human part of me would call that coincidence a blessing.”
Clora smiled. “More than a blessing; this is a miracle.”
“Pray to the Triune God, princess. We will need another miracle if we truly want to save your Guardian.”
She nodded. “He will be saved. I’ll do everything I can to help.”
“We have three days.”
Clora stooped and retrieved her journal from the floor. “That’s plenty of time.”
Chapter Nine
Clora-Vean sighed as a handmaid tugged on her hair. It was a different girl from the ladies who’d tended to her before all this drama unfolded. Those girls had been dismissed and sent away with stellar recommendations, according to Leo. Until now, Clora hadn’t noticed how much of the staff had been replaced. Her handmaids, her Skel, even the servants who brought her food were different from the ones she’d remembered serving meals in the grand halls before she was locked in her brother’s room.
He’s paranoid, Clora realized, casting a sideways glance at him. He stood across the room, whispering secrets with one of his Skel. It was a Soldier—S14, if she remembered correctly. That was the Skel who’d barged into the room the night Pygmalis had been murdered. Clora never would have guessed the Soldier belonged to her brother, especially after he’d professed his hatred of Skel so loudly.
Clora swallowed.
She didn’t know which Skel belonged to anyone. That was the game Purebloods played; holding all the power in the world sometimes got boring, so they liked to toy with each other in whatever way they could. They surrounded themselves with killing machines, but never shared which ones were under whose control. It left a cloak of anxiety over their heads; eating dinner with a troop of Skel standing guard and wondering who had the power to command them to murder everyone present. It was a mind game—one Clora never liked to play. Because when the fun was over all that was left was doubt, mistrust, and fear.
She looked at the reflection of her handmaid in the mirror. Even this Pureblood servant could have a Skel working for her in the pyramid. The worst part was that Skel were always working against their will. Until X04 accomplished her mission, they would go on as slaves, killing, stalking, stealing, lying—doing whatever their client commanded until their contract was complete. Or until they were dismantled.
A pang of guilt rushed through the princess. There were two days until the trial, and she still had no idea how they were going to free X5. She spent all of her time locked in her new cage, only getting set free for meals and bathroom breaks. Today, Helios was in a good mood; he was taking her out somewhere, which explained the handmaids and the new braids she was getting now.
“Ready?” her brother asked. His black cloak swayed behind him as he walked toward her, taking long strides with his slender legs. He smelled of clover and spice and looked the image of perfection. His brown skin glowed with his blonde curls bouncing on his shoulders. He wore simple black robes, dusted with gold, with the emblem of the sand beetle woven into his chest. Clora would have complimented him, but she couldn’t find any kind words. Every time she looked at her brother, she wanted to cry. After all he’d done, she wasn’t angry in the least bit, she was heartbroken.
“I’m ready,” she murmured, pulling her long braids to rest over her shoulder.
He smiled, brushing them back to where they were before. “You look lovely.”
“Thank you, Leo.”
“I’m taking you somewhere special.”
She raised her freshly plucked eyebrows. “Where?”
Helios smiled. “That’s a surprise, darling. Now,” he turned to S14, who’d approached with a box in its hands. Helios opened the box and retrieved a heavy black bag.
Clora took a step back.
“Calm down,” Leo said soothingly. “I just need you to wear this while we walk.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
Clora didn’t move.
Helios sighed and waved to S14 who passed him a vial and syringe from the mysterious box. “You can wear the bag, or you can take this.”
