A Small Unwitting Smile: Chapter 1 - Stratford Tower

Written By: ehProudCanadianWriter

Main Characters: Markus x OC, Elijah Kamski, Connor, Jericho Androids (+ others)

Rating: T (Violence, Swearing)
Point of View: Rheia Elliot (OC)

Disclaimers: This is to note that any similarities that can be found within this work to other fan fiction or works are completely unintentional.

Tumblr & AO3 Username: ehProudCanadianWriter

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Elijah Kamski is known around the world as the inventor of the CyberLife android.

Although he was always a mute when speaking to the press about his personal life and his development process, the small glimpses of his story you might have seen on the news would lead you to believe that he did it all himself. It's a good rags to riches story. A genius young man finds himself going to the University of Colbridge and developing both the technology needed to control androids and the biocomponents that fuel them all before the age of 26. The man of the century some called him - and I would definitely join those who do - but I do like to give credit where credit is due. He is a brilliant man and did almost single handily change the world… emphasis on almost. Much as Elijah might not want to admit it publically, there were a few more hands in the pot than Century magazine would lead you to believe.

My name is Rheia Elliot and I met Elijah Kamski when he was one of my teaching assistants at the Colbridge. I was working on a double major in software engineering and comparative human development. I was fascinated by people and this sparked my interest in human thought and its integration into artificial intelligence. I took on an internship with Professor Amanda Stern at the university to study artificial intelligence in more depth; I looked at knowledge reasoning, language processing, and social intelligence primarily. I guess you could say this caused me to catch the eye of Elijah at the behest of Professor Stern.

When I met Elijah, he was far beyond what most people imagined when they saw a 16-year-old concluding his final year. I think people expected to find a genius kid, who was shy but kept his head down. He was private sure but shy was not the right word to describe him. Perhaps an elitist is a better term. I honestly thought he was kind of a brat and a difficult marker to be sure, but there was no denying that he was able to do things and see things that very few people ever could. He often tried to push people out of his seminars by grading too harshly and he was quick to demean people who saw his age as a hindrance to his success. As a first year, he was intimidating even though I was older than him. His personality was course and especially hard to deal with when I was trying to maneuver my new life as a university student. Whether that was intentional or just his personality I wasn't sure but I managed to stick out the two courses I had with him. Maybe I connected with his passion - as much as I was bothered by his idiosyncrasies.

When he finished his degree, he disappeared from my life for a while. I didn't hear from Elijah for nearly a year before I received a phone call asking me to meet with him. With some of the money he had received from developing security software, he took me to have dinner and offered me a choice. He had managed to make several breakthroughs in the development of his new android but he was having difficulties making it human. His offer was simple: leave the university and join him at his new company CyberLife. In exchange, he promised a good wage, a guaranteed stock share, and my name in the history books. His offer was too good to pass up. Within two weeks I had dropped out and began to help in the developments of the first android - the one called Chloe. Looking back on it, I don't know why I agreed to it. Maybe it was his determination, the chance to make some money doing what I loved, or maybe it was a selfish hope to want to do something big with my life. It was not as picturesque as it sounded. The best way to summarize my time with Elijah was how he ended the dinner that night in Detroit: "A second set of hands will make this a 24-hour operation. The faster I get this built, the faster I can move on to my next project, and the faster you will get paid."

Although Elijah and I did not always agree, he was true to his word - at least in some respects. I was given a 15% share in the stocks. 51% belonged to him, the rest was public. My name never did end up in the history books though. When Chloe passed the Turing Test, that 15% was not chump change by any means. Within years, I was able to remove all debts and live extremely comfortably thanks to my cooperation with Elijah. I was tasked as a member of Elijah's special unit development core - making the next steps in android development. When he "retired" as CyberLife's CEO, I was kept on to help with the development of the mentality of the androids and their social acceptance. Although Elijah did not interact with CyberLife as much as he had, sometimes, a unique order would show up on my desk in the form of a black fax envelope.

The RK series had begun as a testing ground for new units but over time, they became the top of the line - some models only having a handful in existence. It was my job to personalize them when the shareholders (primarily Elijah) asked, and when the order came to make an android specifically for Carl Manfred, it was hard to turn it away. Elijah had always been a fan of his work and had actually gone out of his way to meet him at one point (which was an enormous step for Elijah personally). Although he always considered himself the pinnacle, he respected experts in any field. When Mr. Manfred had the accident, perhaps some human part of Elijah's brain felt bad for him, but perhaps he just hated to see an expert falling from grace. Personalized models were only done with the specific request of a CyberLife associate and are developed by one of the top development teams within the company. Such requests were kept quiet and the program kept secret. As you can imagine, there would have been an influx of requests for those services by influential people if everyone new. Elijah liked having it be exclusive and therefore, I worked in the shadows. It was an early October morning when one of the Chloes walked into my office with his letter of request. It was then when I began to work on Markus.

The RK200 unit was my first solo project - perhaps Elijah's way to see if I had learned all the elements of CyberLife's development since he left. It was about two months of intense development before Markus was standing before me. We were able to build on a lot of the established technologies to construct him, I just took my time to make him as compassionate as he could be, tailored to Mr. Manfred in every way I could make him. I tried to give him all the knowledge I could to prepare him and to make him strong enough to carry his patient as needed. There was no way to truly teach him compassion, empathy, and fortitude, but I did all I could to develop the software necessary to help him emulate the emotions well. By the time he stood in front of me, I had found myself devoted to the creation of Markus and when he opened his eyes, I found myself smiling.

It was late December 16th when I sat in the testing center production room. Slowly the limbs and other pieces were brought into the center of the room, soldering together to form a human entity. "Good evening, can you hear me?"

My voice was soft, barely audible over the sound of the mechanical arms, but he responded quickly, "Yes, I can hear you."

I pushed myself up from the desk I had my notes strewed upon to get a closer look at him. His green eyes were vibrant and curious as they met mine. "I'm glad. I'd like you to do a few things for me if that's alright?"

"Of course, what is it you would like?" His voice was compliant and gentle, but with a firmness of surety that I beamed at. His vocal pattern took me so long to construct - he had to have a firm but harmonious tone in order to stand up to Mr. Manfred, based on my character research I had done on the man. "Can you tell me your ID number?"

"684 842 971," he replied.

"Can you move your head? Your eyes?"

Slowly, I moved through the initialization process with him, making sure to watch his expressions. His features were soft and even, both in temperament and calculation. Once as he finished his initial description, he looked at me with an attentiveness that did truly make his pale porcelain white exterior feel lifelike. I watched as the synthetic skin began to spread over his body, every digit looking lifelike within moments. He was a handsome man. There was no denying that. "Would you like to give me a name?" he asked.

"Yes, from here on out, your name will be Markus."

"My name is Markus."

As he repeated his name, a small smile formed on his lips as he looked over his new form. Watching him explore the room with his eyes, I knew I had created something not just useful but beautiful. I had never felt more accomplishment then I did at that moment - even with the other models I had assisted to create.

It was these memories that made the moment I saw his face again, metallic and white, all the more shocking. I would know his face anywhere.

Since I provided him to Elijah to give to Mr. Manfred, I wasn't able to find out how he was doing. In many ways, it was in my best interests not to. Why should I care how an android I had created was doing aside from seeing my hard work serving its purpose? Perhaps, it was that I was too good at my job… understanding how I had developed the intelligence to make it - him - more human. It gave me a window into his world… It made his words more real in a way no one else would be able to understand. I sat in a small café in the downtown core when I heard his voice, his peaceful words filling the airways and humming over the new silence he had created. The televisions all throughout the cafe showed him, his words slow and methodical, just as they had been when he had woken up years before. Equal rights, freedom for androids, rights to reproduction, and an end to slavery… His words filled my chest with a stirring storm. That stillness caused me to stand and a new resolve found its way into my chest. That calm was eager for lighting to crack through the darkness.

I left the café, leaving the majority of the people who surrounded me staring at the screens as Markus spoke. If he was on that channel, he's inside Stratford Tower, only a few blocks away. I didn't know what I would do if I saw him if I could find him at all. I moved without a direct purpose, but I knew I had to take the chance to see him again. I noticed three small dots descending from the tower as I looked up into the snow. I burst into a run, my purse hitting hard against my back as I ran. The idea of seeing his face again caused my heart to swell and as I turned onto a smaller side street, that swell hardened into a pit in my stomach.

Climbing down an emergency staircase was Markus and what I could only suspect were two other androids. Thirium dripped from his body, his uniform, although blue, stained a darker shade of navy. What happened? Was he shot? At first, they didn't notice me and were pulling off a manhole cover for the sewer line below but in a soft voice, I called out to him, "Markus?"

The two androids with him stopped, facing me almost immediately - the woman raised her gun and primed to fire. Markus turned slowly, his eyes slowly settling on me. He was a fair distance away, but I could still see his surprised expression. I don't think he ever expected a reunion- not that I ever was - but seeing his face again caused an unwitting smile to rise across my face. "It's you…" he replied, a stunned shiver in his voice. I was surprised he remembered me, but I suppose he wasn't like the other androids I had helped to create. There was no need to reset him after the initialization. Even with that fact in the front of my mind, it didn't stop me from smiling a bit wider with his recollection. I went to take a step forward but the woman called out in a threatening tone, "Stand back or I will fire-"

"North no," he snipped in response.

I don't know what caused him to stop her, what caused him to trust me in any way, but - he did… A small sigh of relief escaped me.

"She knows we were here Markus - she'll tip off the authorities- she's not one of us like Simon, you can't let her go too."

"I promise- I wouldn't hurt him-" I cut in, my voice louder and firmer in response to her intimidation, "I wouldn't be able to do that to him."

Markus looked at me and I could feel his curiosity and his urgency bored into my core. I don't know what I expected, but there were a few long moments of silence and the sirens were passing the streets on either side of the ally - reminding us all to the situation.

"Markus, we have to go-" The man with him broke the silence and put a hand on his back, "You're either gonna bleed out or we're going to get caught if we stay here."

Markus looked at him and nodded before his eyes once more found themselves on me. I met his gaze and took a few lone steps forward. The woman was quick to tighten her grip on her pistol. It was as good of a reminder as any that stepping too close would ensure my silence. "Markus," my smile gave way to a few stray chuckles that rose from my chest, "I'm glad to have met you- the real you this time."

He paused, a small smile on his face, identical to the one I remembered from that first conversation we had had those years ago. It was a small and boyish smile that pulled on the corner of his mouth and softened his features. His voice was gentle; his tone was in no way rehearsed but instead sounded sincere, "It was a pleasure- to see you again… "

"Stay safe out there…"

He nodded and the three of them turned, moving to make their way into the sewer, but he paused after a few short steps, turning to face me one more time. "Tell me your name…"

Not a question or a demand, but a request; it seemed the tables had turned and I couldn't refuse. "Rheia. My name is Rheia…" I paused for a moment and smiled but then waved my hand, "Now go Markus."

The two androids with him had perplexed looks on their faces as Markus smiled and turned back around, but no more words were uttered. It wasn't going to be the last time I saw Markus, not by a long shot but as I watched his back turn to me, and the three of them disappear beneath the sewer grate, I felt a strong sense of pride. That warmth sustained me as I walked home. His small charming smile had lasted… he was who he was supposed to be.