What Lies Behind: A New Adult Dark Science Fiction Romance Read Online Free

a question.
    “No.” Brandon shrugged. “This just isn’t part of her programming. She’s never questioned things before.”
    “Alright, just lay back and let me take a look,” Doctor Gerard instructed. The paper crunched under her back as she lay herself down on the table. “I’m going to have to switch you off for just a moment while I look, if that’s okay?”
    Cass nodded. The doctor smiled at her, and the room faded from sight.
    Memory cell activated:
    “Well, what do you think of android rights?” the blond woman asked. She leaned back in her chair, watching her husband over the flickering candles on their dinner table. Cass knew these two. She knew the slender blond in the black sweater and faded jeans as Olivia. The man sitting across from her with the dark disheveled hair and five days’ worth of beard was her husband, Jack.
    “As much as I cherish androids, I’m just not sure we’re ready for android rights.” He sat the forkful of pasta on his plate.
    Olivia nodded her head, her teeth worrying the edge of her lip.
    “There just aren’t enough androids yet to warrant such a thing,” Jack said. The argument sounded feeble even to Cass.
    “And then what? When there finally is enough androids are we just going to fumble our way through equal rights like we have every other time we try to incorporate different classes of people into our legal system?”
    Jack sighed and rested his head in his hands. “Maybe you’re right,” Jack said.
    “There’s more to it than that, isn’t there?” Olivia asked.
    “It’s just—” Jack let out a huge sigh and leaned back in his chair. He rested his hands on his lap. “It’s just that androids aren’t humans,” he said.
    Olivia nodded her head, not like she agreed with him but like she was finally hearing something she knew he believed for a long time.
    “Androids only feel what we program them to feel.”
    “What if they are programmed to learn, to adapt? What if they are programmed to be an exact replica of a human?” Olivia wondered.
    “Why would someone do that?” Jack wondered. “Why would someone make a robot able to comprehend things outside of their programming?”
    “You don’t think that will happen some day?” Olivia asked.
    Jack shook his head, defeated. He knew it was a possibility, as Olivia knew it was possible. “That day is very far away, if we are coming to it at all.”
    “We need to have something in place for the androids that are being made now. We need to safeguard the automatons we are producing. Just because they aren’t human doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be protected.”
    “Would you treat your computer like a person?” Jack wondered.
    “If my computer could walk and talk and think and cook and clean and—”
    “Okay, okay,” Jack held up his hands in defeat. He laughed. “Point taken.”
    “We make a really interesting couple,” Olivia said.
    Jack smiled. “What, I’m an engineer working on advancing androids who doesn’t believe they are human enough to deserve equal rights—”
    “And I’m an android equal rights activist.” She returned his smile. “I don’t understand how you can be working on advancing automatons so that they can one day live as humans, but at the same time think they don’t deserve the same rights the humans they are imitating enjoy.”
    “Because it’s just that,” Jack said. “They are imitating humans, they aren’t actual humans. I believe everyone should have the right to live as they choose, but androids aren’t really alive.”
    Olivia nodded. This time there was more heat behind her eyes when she contemplated. “So what is the ultimate end goal of androids? Will they be able to be birthed? Will they be able to breathe and have to take medicine and face the same kinds of issues humans face? Will they be able to reproduce?”
    “Olive, I don’t see how androids would be able to reproduce.”
    “Science is growing by leaps and bounds every day, so