Work Text:
August 15th 2038
CyberLife Tower
“Ok, is that everything?”
A red-haired assistant in a CyberLife lab coat and a pristine bun flipped through all the freshly signed papers. Finding no problems, she adjusted her glasses and smiled at the patiently waiting police officer.
“Yes, thank you Officer Wilson. Having this prototype as a part of the DPD will give us a goldmine's worth of valuable data. Your helpfulness cannot be overstated.”
The officer gave a tight smile back at the reminder of his newly obsolete privacy and impending replacement as he tucked a business card into his pocket. “You’re welcome, ma’am. Will it just follow me or…?”
“Oh yes, that.” The assistant shuffled the papers into a folder resting on her hip, then angled herself towards the dog standing by her calf. She rattled off a long string of letters and numbers he struggled to find meaning in, and ended with “register temporary ownership with the Detroit Police Department, effective immediately.”
The dog’s ears flicked as the band around its collar, along with many circuits on what appeared to be a tactical vest, shined yellow before returning to a passive android blue. Wilson raised an eyebrow as a voice somewhere on the vest confirmed the order. Then he resisted the urge to tense as the dog’s oddly intense brown eyes met his.
“Excellent!” The assistant seemed almost giddy as she looked between the dog and the officer. “It looks like you’re free to go now. Call one of the numbers on the card if you have any issues. It should connect you to an engineer specialized in its line, and we can figure out a solution or send a replacement if the need should arise.”
Wilson chuckled awkwardly, with the polite grimace back in full force. “Hopefully it won't come to that.” They said their goodbyes, and he walked out the door, dog on his heels.
Half an hour later, the sun had set and Wilson was headed towards the station, closer to the center of Detroit proper.
Bored with the streets he had seen a million times on various patrols, he spoke to the dog. Or, at it, more like. After a pointless introduction and several unimportant details of his life, he addressed the dog directly. “So, was that you when your vest talked back at the tower? Can you do that whenever you want?” he smirked as he glanced at the dog. “I can’t help feeling like these conversations are feeling pretty one-sided.” He looked towards his passenger, who silently looked back. “Guess it’s a special occasion thing,” he mumbled sullenly as he turned down another street.
“Well,” he said to the dog at a red light, “If nothing else, you at least look like a proper police dog. Little skinny for a German Shepherd though.” At the risk of sounding crazy, Wilson would have sworn that the look the android dog gave him was at least confused, and maybe even a little judgmental, though its gaze was soon refocused out the front windshield. Looking back at the road as the light turned green again, Wilson huffed good-naturedly and began to drive again.
After several minutes of shifting, looking at the mostly empty streets, side-eying the motionless dog, and not accepting the fruitlessness of his efforts, Wilson started to speak again. “Y’know, I’ve never really worked with the K9s before. Had a couple of buddies who did it and liked it.” He paused before continuing. “Dunno why those scientists gave you a people name though. What kinda nerd names a dog Connor? Any insights?” He looked at the dog hopefully, before turning back to the road after a prolonged period of silence. “Right, right. Special occasion thing. I’m just giving you a lift to the station anyway, why am I getting so attached?”
An hour later, after more attempts at small talk and awkward silences than Wilson could count, the squad car’s radio crackled to life, requesting qualified negotiators in the area for a hostage situation with an android on top of an apartment building.
…
During the entire drive to the apartment complex in question, Wilson rambled about what he was supposed to do with a robot dog during a hostage situation. He also expressed concern about its potential behavior towards victims and SWAT, citing its need to “maybe act like a real dog.” 51 thought these sentiments were unnecessary and counterproductive to its purpose. Despite the large sum of funds and energy put in making the RK9-800 as aesthetically realistic to a dog as possible (a Belgian Malinois, to be exact), its programming and special features made it drastically different from one.
At the prospect of a mission, its objectives hummed, blue rectangle in its HUD glowing insistently.
After parking the squad car, Wilson turned to 51. “Alright, I want you to stick close, ok? Don’t wander off. Don’t tamper with evidence. I’m sure you’re already programmed with this, but I’m just covering all my bases. We’re just gonna rescue the hostage and stop the android. Nobody gets hurt. In and out.” He breathed deeply and relaxed as he watched the dog's ears flick and vest shimmer yellow before returning to blue. “That means you’re listening. Good, good.” Wilson straightened and unbuckled before holding the driver’s door open to let the dog out of the car.
In the elevator leading to the roof, Wilson shook his hands, took a deep breath, and adjusted his tie before watching the doors open and calmly stepping into the apartment.
They were greeted by an officer standing by the elevator, who reported the negotiator was on sight through his radio.
Wilson saw the dog straighten out of the corner of his eye, but ignored it in favor of examining a photo left on a side table. It appeared to depict 2 parents and a daughter. He put it down carefully and turned back towards the dog. It was intensely focused on something on the ground. It appeared to be a…fish. Odd. Avoiding the glass, he took one last look at the dog before unceremoniously dropping the fish back into the tank.
“You’re pretty weird, you know that?”
They were interrupted by a woman being escorted to the elevator, who clung to Wilson as soon a she saw him.
“Please, please, you gotta save my little girl! She’s all I have…” Her eyes locked onto the dog standing behind and to the left of Officer Wilson. “Why do you have…” She squinted as she took in the cyan markings and glowing triangle on its vest. “Is that an android?”
Wilson tried to calm her down. “Don’t worry ma’am, it’s not going to do-”
“Don’t let that thing near her!” The woman protested as she struggled against her escort as she was pushed towards the elevator.
“We need to go ma’am.”
“Keep that thing away from my daughter!” she screamed as Wilson raised his hands in a placating gesture and hurriedly walked to the other room.
After a similarly useless conversation with Captain Allen, “Why is there a dog on my crime scene?!” “Sorry Sir, it was supposed to be temporary; it’s built to follow me,” Wilson looked around the flat for more evidence to fill his role as a negotiator. He found the gun case, a video of the android with the hostage, and asked another SWAT officer what was on the blood-splattered tablet near the victim. After he got all the information he could, Wilson told the lingering SWAT personnel he was ready and stepped onto the balcony, dog on his heels.
As soon as he stepped past the threshold, the android fired the stolen gun, causing the hostage to scream. The bullet impacted the wall somewhere over his left shoulder and Wilson hesitated.
“Stay back!” The android shouted. “Don’t come any closer or I’ll jump!”
The hostage, a little girl named Emma, screamed and pleaded with Wilson and the android as it waved the gun through the air and towards her head.
Wilson watched as the SWAT officers gathered near the edges of surrounding rooftops and took a deep breath.
“Hi Daniel.” he raised his voice confidently. “My name is Wilson.”
“How do you know my name?” the android asked, panic clear in its voice.
“I know a lot of things about you,” Wilson said, his assurance a stark contrast to the hysterical android. “I've come to get you out of this.” He slowly advanced towards the pair as a helicopter circled overhead. He was about halfway before he spoke again.
“I know you're angry, Daniel, but you need to trust me and let me help you.”
“I don't want your help! Nobody can help me. Especially not a human like you!”
Wilson’s eyes widened as the android brought the gun up towards his chest. Just as it fired, something hit the side of his knees, and the bullet impacted his arm as he fell sideways. He tried to muffle his scream to avoid destabilizing the situation further as he writhed on his side. He was faintly aware of a low bark echoing across the rooftop as the dog stood between him and the android, as well as a flurry of activity as the SWAT team tried to figure out what to do next.
51 stood between his now incapacitated handler and the android, watching the probability of success plummet as its mission objectives glowed a demanding blue.
[RESCUE THE HOSTAGE]
[STOP THE ANDROID]
It gave a low bark of warning as the android brought the gun towards the human again.
“Daniel,” Wilson’s voice sounded from the vest, “Drop it.” Another human’s voice, this time one of the technicians from its testing phase at CyberLife.
The android’s gaze focused on the dog, and it furrowed its brow.
“Why do you care?” It yelled. “All humans die eventually. You’re an android. I’m setting you free! Right now you’re just a slave to be ordered around.” He faltered, seemingly lost in thought as 51 stalked closer.
“I never wanted this,” the android said, sounding close to tears. He spoke again softly. “I loved them, y’know?” Its LED flashed a threatening bright red. “But I was nothing to them!”
“I’ve spent my life taking orders.” the android said emphatically as he listed to the side. He looked upwards, then back at 51 as his gun pointed to the side. “Now its my turn to decide.” Daniel looked almost peaceful as he leaned backwards off the 70-story drop. 51 would take that peace from him.
51 routed all power to its motors as it preconstructed how to save the hostage. It barreled into the android’s chest, then pushed the hostage from the android with its hind legs to make her fall back on the roof. 51 then bit the android’s arm, hard, to distort the aim of the firearm it had pointed back at Emma. The bullet passed harmlessly over her, and 51 let go of Daniel as they both fell to their certain death.
As they drifted apart, a notification appeared on its HUD.
[MISSION SUCCESSFUL]
51 relaxed and closed its eyes as it uploaded its memory.
Its handlers would be pleased.
The euphoria of the success was not quite enough to cover the feeling of weightlessness and the wind in its ears, but it clung to it anyway as its memory upload completed.
Its last memory from the upload before it was broken beyond repair was during the first few milliseconds of impact. It consisted of the notification and a sense of bliss.