When Danni next awoke, it was dark outside. Her mother was still there, working away, her face lit by the glow coming from her workstation.

“Mum”, Danni said, weakly, “I feel weird. Sort of spaced out. Also, I’m hungry…”

Angela came over. “Of course you are”, she said. “I forgot about your accelerated metabolism. Also, don’t be scared, but I think you may need a charge…”

Danni was suddenly wide awake and shivering with fear.

“Mum, what do you mean?”, she said, in a shaky voice. “Mum, you’re scaring me…!”

“Do you remember the project I was working on? It wasn’t classified, so I was able to tell you a bit about it.”

“Yes, the HAH project, I think you called it. It was sort of an advanced AI system, wasn’t it?”

“In a way, yes”, said Angela. As she spoke, she carefully connected a cable to the collar round Danni’s neck.

“What did you just do?”, asked Danni. “My head’s suddenly come clearer… Oh my god… No!”

Danni had ‘accessed’ the HAH project records through the cable, purely by reflex. She now knew what had happened to her…

“Mum! How could you! Your own daughter…!”

Danni started sobbing and went to pull the cable out.

“Danni! No, please! I couldn’t lose you…!”, Angela cried, trying to stop Danni from pulling the cable out. In the end, she had to use an HAH override code to put ‘Danni’ into standby mode; the equivalent of giving her a sedative.

Now crying herself, Angela staggered away and collapsed at her desk.

Doctor Bailey ended up taking Angela back to the medical bay.

Danni was left in the lab, connected to the computers. As the project was Angela’s ‘baby’ (now, quite literally) no one had any idea how to look after her. They just let her ‘sleep’…

Shortly after all this happened, Danni sat up again. She was, however, not in Danni ‘mode’…

Swinging her legs off of the bed, she unplugged the cable from her collar and then went to find Angela.

She entered the medical bay, much to the surprise of Doctor Bailey.

“Oh, Hi Danni”, she said, cautiously. “I wasn’t expecting you…”

“There is no cause for concern, Doctor Bailey”, Danni said, emotionlessly. “I am in HAH One mode. I am just checking up on my creator, as I need a small amount of maintenance. I think you humans call it ‘food and drink’, as well as ‘visiting the restroom’.”

“You see”, HAH One continued, “even though I am an AI based lifeform, I still must care for the substrate on which I am based. This means attending to the comforts of my host.”

“Oh, I see”, the Doctor replied. “Do you have a map of the facility in you?”

“No, I’m disconnected from the network at the moment, and not accessing my ‘Danni’ file. I believe my best option is therefore to ‘ask for directions’…?”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, the Doctor laughed.

“OK”, she said. “Go straight down that corridor to the end. First door on the right is labelled ‘Ladies’. That’s your restroom. Food and drink are the door on the left, labelled ‘Canteen’.”

“Thank you, Doctor, I appreciate it”, said HAH One and she set off down the corridor.

It was only after she did that the Doctor realised that she would be interacting with the off duty staff in the canteen, and none of them would be aware what had happened to Danni…