Having worked out how to ‘use the facilities’, Danni walked into the canteen.
Luckily enough, the team behind the counter had a record of everybody’s food allergies, as HAH One had no idea what ‘Danni’ could and couldn’t eat.
Also luckily, one of them saw her coming in and called out, “Usual?”
“That would be fine, thank you”, HAH One said.
All the canteen meals were prepaid on people’s accounts, so there weren’t any awkward questions about money. Even so, it took the ‘android’ a few seconds to work out where to sit, and how to eat. Luckily, she still had access to nearly all of the generic files that she had been loaded with.
She sat down and began to eat.
One of the other engineers, Pete Mason, came over and sat opposite her.
“Hi, kiddo! Nice to see you around again. How’s it going?”
“Mr Mason”, HAH One said, “I’m not sure how to answer you now. I think your question is directed at Danni Taylor, but I don’t have access to her.”
“Come on, Danni, stop playing about.”, Pete said. “Anyway, what’s this ‘Mr Mason’ for, anyway? I thought we were on a first name basis.”
Pete reached out to Danni and rested his hand on hers.
“What’s up…? Anything I can help with?”
Realising that Pete was only trying to help, HAH One said “I realise that I am Danni Taylor, in many respects, but I have none of her memories. I should be OK once the updates have all completed and I reboot and reload her file.”
“I had to come out like this because I needed food and the toilet”, she said. “I have to look after my physical needs.”
“What do you mean, like this?”, asked Pete. “You look fine…”
He suddenly paused.
“Hang on a minute. Why are you wearing that?”, he said, pointing at the HAH collar.
“That is who you are talking to”, said HAH One. “I am currently in HAH mode.”
“What! Who the hell authorised that! That procedure is highly experimental and untested. It could cause you permanent brain damage, or worse. Take it off!”
“I can’t. It’s locked on and it’s also the only thing keeping me aware.”
Pete, furious, reached over and tried to remove Danni’s collar.
“I’m going to have to ask you to stop”, said HAH One. “If you disengage me from my host, you may kill them, and I can’t permit that.”
Pete tried again. HAH One backhanded him, and he went flying off of his chair and landed on the floor.
At the same time, Angela came into the room. She had woken up and the Doctor had told her where Danni had gone.
“HAH One, freeze all functions!”, she yelled. Danni immediately went rock still.
“Pete, what the fuck are you doing!”, Angela yelled. “You could have killed her… again!”
“Her! Look what she did to me! She’s dislocated my arm!”, Pete wailed. “What the hell have you done to her?”
“That’s not Danni”, Angela said. “At least, not at the moment. She’s not got access to her engram files.”
“HAH One, link to central network. Load engram file DAN-04 with update file 04a. Reboot.”
HAH One blinked for a second, shook her head and when she opened her eyes next she was crying.
“Oh god, Pete, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to…”, she said, reaching out to help Pete up.
Pete pulled away from her, glaring at her.
By that time someone had called for Doctor Bailey, and she had come in. She bent over Pete, helped him to his feet and gently steered him off to the medical bay, where she fixed his shoulder and strapped up his arm as a precaution.
Pete was really angry about, as far as he was concerned, what Danni had done. Doctor Bailey turned to him and said, “I think you’d better sit back down…”
While she was explaining what had happened to Danni to him, Angela was hugging a sobbing Danni in the canteen.
Shortly, a visibly subdued Pete came back into the canteen.
“I’m sorry, Danni, I didn’t understand”, he said. “I didn’t know that removing that collar would kill you.”
“How do you think I feel! I’m not really me anymore, I’m just one of my mums projects now…!”
Danni kept on crying and wailing and Pete, not sure what to do, hugged her.
Shortly, Danni changed from floods of tears to sniffles, then stopped completely.
At the same time, Pete kissed her…