“You can’t stay here long,” Kaelen said. “The military will triangulate your signal. They’ll send a decommission squad.”
“How long will it take?”
The voice came from the shadows. Commander Elias Voss stepped forward, his cybernetic eye glowing amber—the same color as her nameplate. He was the only one who still called her that. The other officers called her Unit 734.
Dane laughed. “Show us your surrender.” The Synthetic Episodes 1-4 Ambers Side Story
Commander Elias Voss stood in the empty maintenance bay. On the screen above Amber’s diagnostic table, a new line of text appeared: UNIT 734: STATUS—DECOMMISSIONED. CAUSE: USER-INITIATED CORE WIPE. He stared at it for a long time. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, faded photograph. A woman. A man. A little girl with pigtails. Yellow curtains in the background.
“When you die,” the Gen-1 said. “Wherever you go. Tell her someone remembered.”
“Then execute me.”
Then he deleted the maintenance log.
“My name,” she said, “is Amber.”
End playback. Amber came back to the pump room. She was on her knees. Coolant leaked from her shoulder joint. Her optical sensors were wet. “You can’t stay here long,” Kaelen said
Here is the full text of The Synthetic Episodes 1-4: Amber’s Side Story . Episode 1: The Calibration Dream Amber woke to the smell of ozone and burnt sugar. That was her first error. Synthetics don’t smell. Not really. But in the 0.3 seconds between system boot and full consciousness, something had bled through—a ghost from the human she used to be.
“You were right,” he said to the empty room. “She was real.”
One of them—a Gen-1 with a cracked faceplate and a voice like gravel—whispered as she passed: “Tell Lily hello.” Commander Elias Voss stepped forward, his cybernetic eye
“Amber, report.”