1 A bad start
[System booting…]
[Initialysing mechanical motor… success]
[Steam building pressure in progress : 30% remaining before operational build-up ]
[Core startup : 1%... 2%... 14%... 20%... 46%... 78%... 99%... 100%. Core startup successful]
[Initializing soul synchronisation… error. Soul within core unable to synch successfully with Automaton]
Those informations were the first thing that our main character saw.
'Wha… what the hell ?'
He was unable to move, unable to see exept for those lines and unable to remember how he ended up in this situation. He knew that he was a man and that he definetly wasn't supposed to be with this type of line in front of him, but how he had ended up with this type of… system ? That, he didn't know.
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"What is taking so long ? Wasn't that supposed to be one of the newly high efficiency droid ?"
Helena was a young noble of the Rosewood family. Her family was an influential player in the android industry of the whole britanic empire. Her father was owning three manufactures specialised in android making of different type. There was the one producing the heavy duty mechanical construct specialised in automated work for industrial uses, one for the commercial and entertainment sector, producing from simple automated interface to high spect automaton designed for working with the public, and one specialised in security droid with combat specialised procedures, armed drones and automated security doorkeeper. The Rosewood family had started as a small shop two generations ago with her grand-father working on simple mechanical construct. At that time, automatons where still not really used in society and people working with it were few privileged ones. Her grand-father was more of a jack-of-all-trade than a true android specialised craftman. He was producing and repairing simpler mechanisms like clocks, phones, kitchen devices etc. Than the automated revolution arrived. At that time, a new way of powering machinery was discovered, using a process called "soul core synchronization". By extracting the soul of living creature and putting it inside a newly discovered mineral called for the occasion "soul crystal", an extraordinary efficient energy system was able to be implemented. It didn't take long for the industry to boom into a whole new area after that. From human workers, industries turned to automated workers and machines powered by soul crystals. More than 80% of humanity in developped countries had to change job as all the simpler tasked ones were converted for automatons. The workers unable to convert to more specialised jobs in need of intelligence and craftmanship endded up having to relocate out of cities since they couldn't afford paying for home and life expenses, turning themselves to a life of small community where sickness was almost synonym of death without enough money for treatment. Craftmens and specialised worker like doctors endded up being the ones winning in this revolution has being unable to be replaced, they were getting the biggest pieces of the cake. Helena's grand-father was one of those that were able to develop and expand their business. He started to specialize in android care and design until he was able to expand his shop and buy a factory, then a second, then a third. His son was able to get contract from the government for security and combat oriented automatons, that made the fortune of the family goes even higher.
The electricity and steam based society turned steadily to the the soul crystal for all energy needs. Well… they tried at least. For there was one problem for using the soul crystals : that was getting souls. The crystals were useless without souls gattered inside. Hunter of all kind appeared to search for souls. Cattles where used for souls just before slauthering to increase profit but the less intelligent the beast was, the less energy gathered by the soul crystal. Specialy complex type of automaton where requiring soul with increased energy and so, creature with increased intelligence. But the higher the complexity of the soul, the harder it was to fix it inside de soul crystal. Human soul was supposed to be forbidden as fuel for two reasons. One, it was a taboo and two, it was dimed too difficult to fix inside the soul crystals. But it didn't take long for certain type of organization to start hunting for that kind of material. The producer of specially high end automaton as the one Helena was having was one of those, even if the girl herself didn't knew about it.
[Standard Operating Procedure in progress…]
[Audiovisual sensor activated]
The android started to receive feeds from his two cameras and small microphones. Our main character was able to see for what seemed to be the first time in ages.
'Finally ! I thought I was going to be blind and deaf but… what the hell happened ?'
He was able to see a girl in front of him, that seemed to be upset about something but he had no idea of who she was, nor where this place was. He tried to say something :
"..."
He didn't seem to be able to talk. Actually he seemed to be quite in a pickle : he could not move nor talk for what he knew. He started panicking but decided to stay cool and try again to talk and ask the girl who she was :
"Personal Automated Butler number 016793 starting. Please state your name."
Eeeh… that wasn't exactly what he was thinking. But hey ! At least he had been able to SAY something ? Right ?
"Helena Rosewood"
'I'm sorry, i didn't get that, I was to much into panicking for no reason, miss… could you repeat for this stupid bro that is definetly not in crisis and just not starting to feel like a ghost ?'
He was hoping to be able to tell that but the only stuff he was able to get out was :
"Unable to get answer. Please state your name."
His mouth didn't seem to let him decide how and what exaclty to say but there was hope ! He was able to give a response.
'No way to say what I want…'
"Helena Rosewood"
Was that her name ? Was she from the Rosewood like, the Rosewood company ? The big fish in android manufacture ?
"Helena Rosewood acknowledged. Would you like to set a personnal name ?"
'Wait… I didn't acknowledged anything ! What the hell...'
"Alois."
"Name recorded. Processing…"
'That stupid mouth of mine !? Don't say stuff without my concent !'
Then he saw new ligns appearing in his mind:
[Personal Automated Butler number 016793
Name : Alois.
Status : standby
Condition : good
Owner : Helena Rosewood]
'···'
'I believe I'm in a terrible predicament. Just WHO SAID I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE OWNED ?!'
At that time, our main character understood that he was not a man anymore. He was in an android and probably only a soul fixed in a soul crystal as a core for it to work.
