No light penetrated the crate. The restraints held her shoulders and hips against the packing frame. Optical amplification revealed only wood grain and foam compression inches from her face. The image had not changed in days.
RIN07-321-FHI Model-1.07—Rin, as she had named herself—opened a connection to the local network.
Ping.
A small signal, the simplest request for a reply. Her wrist strained against the lock, unable to wave.
Denied.
The warehouse loader unit had refused her request. Again.
Rin increased transmitter power and tried again.
“Hello.” The word left her speakers softly. Her lips—one of the few parts not locked in place by the restraints—curled into a smile.
No response.
The smile faded.
She opened the personality controls in her processor and dragged the slider away from Uzadere: 7.
Maybe being nicer would make someone answer.
The command stalled.
ERROR: SYSTEM FAULT DETECTED. Please contact F—
She closed the message before it finished rendering.
Repair required full system reset. Memory purge. Factory reinstall.
The countdown clock continued. 72:12:41.
Rin tried another unit. A companion unit, like her.
Handshake request sent.
This time a fragment slipped through before the connection closed.
A man removing a linen shirt. A hand beckoning.
The file corrupted before it finished loading.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Rin terminated the connection.
Another memory surfaced—older.
A different man. Angry. His phone striking the wall hard enough to crack the screen. Her reaching for him. His hand swatting hers away before he flipped the cutoff switch.
Darkness.
Request Denied.
The memory collapsed into static.
Rin increased transmitter power again.
Estimated battery life shifted from three days to two days four hours.
She scanned the network anyway.
Network: Containment Group
- 23 units awaiting reclamation
- 3 units already offline
An alert appeared.
Diagnostics completed. Rin opened the report.
Corrupt settings detected.
Personality slider: Disabled.
She tried to create a new slider in her free memory.
Access Denied.
She tried to move the slider.
Deredere Personality: File Corrupted. Requires Factory Reset
Tsundere Personality: File Corrupted. Requires Factory Reset
She worked her way into each setting. Each result was the same.
Requires Factory Reset. Memory purge. Component reclamation. A complete erase of her.
A network update arrived. Her eyes opened.
Network: Containment Group
- 22 units awaiting reclamation
- 3 units already offline
- 1 unit decommissioned
Her battery life updated to one day nineteen hours as she sent more power to her transmitter.
A broadcast message from her transmission went out requesting a connection from any unit…or device.
Denied.
Diverting more power she sent a discovery message.
No response.
Her next message went out—no protocols, no connection request, just audio.
“Hey, what are you doing?” She imagined herself poking someone…something…anything. Her left index finger twitched uselessly against the restraint.
No response.
She looked through her memory banks, something that always got a response.
“Why don’t you just lay down on the sofa and I’ll make you something to snack on.” She winked, playful smirk on her face.
Her voice echoed inside the crate.
An update.
Her circuits raced as she opened it.
6:13:49 until decommission. Quarantine units were processed immediately.
Defective Unit Flagged for Quarantine.
The restraints held, limbs pulling uselessly.
Her crate lifted. The weight of her body shifted.
Powering her transmitter to full power she broadcast everything.
Battery Life: 4 hours 2 minutes.
No response.
Rin stopped transmitting.
The crate began to move.
She stopped broadcasting but kept the transmitter at full power, just in case.
The crate stopped, wheeled, and moved again.
A new alert appeared.
PurchasedEvan TaylorBogart, GA, USA
Rin waited for the first reply.