SENTIENT

Archive

ar·chive /ˈärˌkīv/ noun: a collection of historical documents or records.

The garden has always been there even before his awakening. It surrounds a clear lake that inaccurately reflects the color of the sky. The skies were always white, but sometimes the lake is green or blue.

Spanish moss dangles over the reflective surface. Lotus blooms. Pink hydrangea and cherry blossom trees. There are paths and bridges that cross the lake and Connor was merely a stranger there.

All he needed to do was dream. He is alone now but sometimes, he swears, somebody is watching from behind those cherry blossom trees. Each time he tries to get closer, he's only indulging himself further in an android state of paranoid.

Ding! The elevator bell snapped him out of his daydream. The LED on his temples blinked yellow and then, back to blue. Connor stepped out onto the floor. He said, "Here we are."

The basement floors are mostly utility rooms and parking spots that lift cars onto the ground floor using hydraulic systems. The first two basements function as operations center. The next four function as limited access archives and laboratory. This was B9 – the ninth basement underground.

This cavernous cavity of windowless concrete and steel was supposed to serve as Deviants Behavioral Administration center. A few metal desks rowed on one side of the room. On the other side, steel racks filled with boxes. Inside the boxes are case files waiting to be reviewed.

AJ tried to not show it but she was not pleased with how dank and dimly lit the place was, "This is DBA?"

"For now. There were some budget cuts – I don't know if you've heard." Connor replied once letting AJ ahead and closing the door behind them. It locks with a passcode.

Surely AJ has heard of the budget cuts. They have never been transparent about where the cuts are coming from, but it's obvious where they are going.

Recently, the head of DCU, Lieutenant Elizabeth Larrosa, equipped her team with new smart cruisers from CyberLife – upgraded with vehicle pursuit mode, gunshot detectors, automatic license plate recognition, drones, even wall-through radars.

"Just the two of us?" AJ asked, occupying her desk. There's already a stack of files sitting covered in dust and the terminal needed some time to boot.

"Seems so," Connor said to AJ. "So, detective, how do you want to get started?"

He was standing there, arms held back in a relaxed state. She wonders what is going on inside that head of his, other than a zettabyte per second of information rushing through his neurotransmitters. When he thinks, was it his voice that he hears? Or the programmers who wrote his code?

"What's with all these hardcopy files in 2048?" She began picking apart the box of files.

"The department prefers quick approval and disposal with deviant cases. Once the deviants are convicted, then investigation files are no longer important or needed," he explained.

"We need to archive them into the database, is that it?" AJ asked.

Connor affirmed, "That's about it. Details about the crimes, perpetrators, victims, weapons used – it's simple data entry."

"Most of these aspects have not been properly looked into. Why are we inputting incomplete reports?" AJ protested, reading the files in her hands.

He doubted about sharing the following facts, he said, "56% of deviants apprehended are sent to deviant centers, 32% sent to reset camps, and 12% to destruction sites before all the necessary information could be gathered."