Entry 29

“John.” His name fell from my lips as I raced to his side. I took his fully fleshed right hand into my own hands and looked anxiously into his lifeless face. I was sure that the aliens examining another android’s joints were the ones who had peeled back his skin. I hated them for it. I wanted to run over there and beat them both senseless, but I knew that would not help me free him. “Oh, John. Wake up. Wake up.”

“It’s inactive, Carlee.” Ven’s tone was puzzled. “They’re just holding the body here until they can properly process it after the symposium.” I was not listening to Ven. I was staring at my brother with tear filled eyes. He looked so dead, so lifeless. Yet I knew he was alive. Somewhere embedded into his program was a command that would wake him up, or perhaps on his body was a button that would turn him on. But I did not know how to do it. I did not know how to wake him up.

I put down his right hand and moved to his left side. I began to pull his skin down his arm, but as soon as I touched it my stomach roiled. It felt so much like real skin. Just thinking about it made me nauseous. But I had to fix John. I had to do what I could. I fought down my nausea and began to pull his skin down his arm.

“What are you doing?” Ven asked, clearly puzzled as he kneeled down beside me.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” I demanded, as I stretched out the fingers of his skin. I was going to have to pick up his skinless hand to fit his fingers into the skin. Hesitantly I reached out and touched the muscled extremity. To my surprise his muscles did not feel gooey or wet. Instead they were smooth and dry. They gave under my touch like those plastic things full of colored water and little plastic fish you can buy back on Earth. Surprisingly, I was able to handle touching his muscle easier than I was able to handle touching his skin.

“It looks like you’re trying to fix it,” Ven said as I put his fingers back into his skin.

“That would be because I am,” I answered. “Surely even an android deserves a little dignity.”

“As long as it’s dignity you’re worried about leaving it in,” Ven responded. “We’re not taking it, with or without dignity.” I did not answer, hoping Ven would not take my silence as an opportunity to stick me with the sedative.

“Can we turn him on, Ven?” I asked, looking up at him with tears in my eyes. “Are you at least going to let me say goodbye to him?” If I could turn John on, John would be able to keep Ven from sedating me. We then would be able to escape.

“I’m not sure if that’s allowed,” Ven said, troubled and puzzled by my behavior. “Let me ask.” He rose to his feet and moved towards one of the groups of aliens. He addressed them in a strange language that I could not even imagine imitating, let alone understanding.
I turned back to John as Ven talked. If I had my sewing kit, I could have sewn John’s hand back together where it was cut along the palm. As it was, I just had to hope the fingers would hold it on. There was little I could for the other joints without a thread and needle. I wondered if John knew how to repair himself. Surely his skin would grow back properly as long as it was stitched. I did not know how android skin worked.

Ven came back to my side and said, “The Anthropologists say we are allowed to turn the androids on as long as we don’t disconnect them from the mainframe or take them from the room.” Both were things I was planning on doing, though I could not see how John was connected to the mainframe. I could see no cords running from him, or any place where anything plugged into him.

“Turn him on, please,” I said in a small voice, hoping to convince Ven I was completely hopeless and subjugated.

Ven complied, uttering something in a language I did not understand. John’s eyes immediately lit up, searching about until they landed on me. He then sat up with surprise on his face and pulled me into a bear hug. “Carlee!” he exclaimed. “I thought I had lost you!”

Upon hearing my brother, seeing him alive, and being in his embrace, I could not help myself. I burst into tears.