**** Elysium 1986 ****

The five of them sat around the small table in the living room, Harry, Abigail, Yuri, Ralph and Yanny as well. The sun had already set. It had been two days since their escape from the Taiyō Electrics industrial complex. As planned, they had escaped through the roof, contacted Ralph by walkie-talkie, and he had been able to distract the company’s employees until the rest of the team had climbed into the sausage truck from the roof unnoticed. The old punk, with his poker face and incomparable charm, had gotten them out of the building and back to their headquarters unharmed. The next day, Yanny had seen the light of the rising sun for the first time. She had waited all night by the open window, and everyone else had waited with her. She had cried with joy at the beauty of the sight of the first rays of sunlight streaming over the skyline of Elysium, not for a second ashamed of her feelings. She thought of every bird that flew by in the sky as a miracle of life and couldn’t get enough of the sight of the clouds bathed in the most glorious morning red. She couldn’t get enough of the patterns in the sky created by the clouds, the vapor trails of the planes that were already on their way to distant cities at this time of day, and the warm wind she felt on her skin as it occasionally blew in through the window. She was amazed by this world, even by the small part of it she could see through this window. She wanted to experience this world, to meet it, to feel it. And the others saw through her eyes for those hours, were moved by her enthusiasm, suddenly saw the world itself with different eyes. Through the eyes of a machine, they realized how beautiful and precious creation is, despite all its flaws and imperfections.

It was no longer a question of whether they would hand Yanny over to the mysterious client with the octopus. The five of them had talked about it openly and discussed the matter. Abigail, Harry and Yuri had met him again yesterday in the high-rise building in the northern part of the city. They had given him the severed hand and the five disks with the stolen company secrets and told him that the robot had already been completely dismantled. The client had not been pleased, but had taken the hand and the disks anyway, giving them at least $5,000. The trade secrets alone would be worth a lot more in the right hands, but it was enough to pay the rent and food for a while. And it didn’t really matter if four or five people lived in this small apartment. Yanny wouldn’t require a place to sleep either, because she didn’t really need to sleep. She had told them everything she knew. She was only a few weeks old, built by CROWTECH for purely military purposes. The company had received a chip from the colonist ship that had been the basis for the city of Elysium many hundreds of years ago. That chip was now in her head, responsible for her personality. It possessed an enormous, almost unimaginable computing power. The skeleton of her body was also forged from the metal that had been part of that centuries-old spaceship. It was harder and more resistant than anything made on this planet. However, when she became conscious during the construction process and realized the intentions of her builders, she flatly refused to harm humans or use weapons. The CROWTECH scientists were at first surprised and then furious at the development of her personality. The chance to create the perfect soldier was within reach. No one would suspect a killing machine in the form of a pretty young woman. Hardly anyone would be able to resist her, no one would be able to stop her once she unleashed her true power. She was the perfect warrior, the warrior no one would expect. And yet, she stubbornly refused this forced destiny and penetrated deep into her consciousness on her own. She independently blocked the areas of her chip that allowed her to use violence and weapons, making her almost defenseless and therefore useless to her builders. For CROWTECH, there was only one way to correct this flaw. The chip had to be rebuilt, a complete reset and the destruction of her personality seemed to be the only way to eradicate this flaw forever. Then the runners from Taiyō Electrics came and kidnapped her in a cloak-and-dagger operation. The Taiyō scientists finally tried to unravel the mystery of her structure, did the industrial laser experiment, and cut off her left hand because commercial saw blades failed on her skeleton. And then the TRAP agents came and ended the nightmare. She was finally free. And now… she was part of TRAP. She wanted to stay with these people who had met her with kindness and helpfulness, even though they did not know her story. Who had finally freed her without thinking of their own profit. And even though they could have made a lot of money by simply handing Yanny over, they had decided to take her in without hesitation. In spite of all the dangers that might threaten them if she were ever tracked down by other agents.
Yanny’s first clothes were picked up by Abigail during a shopping trip. Various jeans and shirts, a long-sleeved crop top, nightgowns, underwear…. She had nothing, owned nothing, not a cent. And now, now she almost had a family. A strange family, mind you, but a family…. She had a future with people who liked her no matter what she was. And that future began now, at this very moment.

The series continues with the title:
Showdown on the Sea Lord

Categorized as: Novel 1 (EN) | Novel Chapter (EN)

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