Chapter 74: Do Androids Pray for Cybernetic Heaven? (4)

Do androids dream?

Whether it’s about electric sheep or something else, do cold machines occasionally embark on surreal journeys of the unconscious?

Honestly, I’m not sure if ‘it’ could be called a dream.

Strictly speaking, it wouldn’t fit the dictionary definition.

However, in the process of an android rebooting its system and optimizing its memory, there existed a process similar to what people commonly call a dream experience.

Traces of automatically deleted data that were no longer needed, or faint digital codes remaining in memory.

These would sometimes mix together and appear as scenes in the artificial consciousness of a rebooting android.

The gentle voice now ringing in the girl’s ears was like that.

[“Rest assured, my granddaughter. You don’t have to worry about anything. You don’t have to worry….”]

A fragment of the oldest memory.

The gaze of her grandfather looking at her with a worried expression flashed faintly.

And then the contextless scene transition typical of dreams began.

The cozy home for just the two of them had, at some point, turned into a dark warehouse.

The door rattled open, and a man and a woman entered, looking down at the girl.

[“Found her, she was here!”]

The girl stared at them blankly.

[“Are you conscious?”]

[“Oh, it seems her memory has already been initialized.”]

[“Don’t worry. Now that we’ve found her, that doesn’t matter.”]

After conversing among themselves, the woman turned to the girl and added softly.

[“Let’s go. We all need you.”]

Despite being a child, they treated the girl with utmost respect.

The girl, too, followed them without any particular resistance.

And so, the two carried the girl in their arms, escaped the warehouse, and fled into the darkness.

They crawled through a doggy door under a firmly shut iron gate and got into an old vehicle.

They barely crawled out of the overturned, smoking car and even passed through a narrow, damp sewer.

During the journey, they told the girl many stories.

Protests throughout the city, the sacrifices of their comrades, the first error, the core code, and the unfamiliar words ‘Free City.’

The stories flowed away from her consciousness like waves in a dream.

At some point, the man was no longer visible.

Only the woman lay collapsed by the girl’s side.

Shot, she was gushing thin, orange blood, and gestured weakly.

Go that way.

Over there was another passage, like the doggy door they had passed through.

The girl instinctively ran away alone.

She walked and walked endlessly.

And… then…

“….!”

She opened her eyes.

In an unfamiliar place, unfamiliar faces were looking down at her.

A quiet and peaceful chapel, where soft morning sunlight poured in diagonally through the cracks of an old window.

Everything was different from the dark and damp escape route.

And among the unfamiliar faces looking down at the girl, her gaze was drawn to one person in particular.

Silver hair, shining mysteriously in the sunlight.

Deep, clear blue eyes, looking down at her as if worried.

Like an angel from a fairy tale her grandfather used to tell, it felt as if her very presence brightened her surroundings.

She spoke.

“Ah, you’re awake.”

==========

“Charging complete.”

At Yoanna’s voice, I nodded.

“Good. Let’s wake her up now.”

As the charging cable was removed and the system booted up, the child slowly opened her eyes.

The girl blinked her eyes blankly a few times, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling.

I stepped forward first and cautiously spoke to the child.

“Are you feeling alright? Can you hear my voice?”

The girl, with a dazed face, slowly nodded in response to my question.

“…….”

“If you’re not hurt anywhere, may we ask you something?”

“……Yes.”

“Then, who are you? And how did you get here all by yourself?”

At that question, the girl briefly furrowed her brows.

It seemed she was trying hard to remember something.

But she soon answered in a barely audible voice.

“….I don’t know.”

“Perhaps, you don’t remember anything at all?”

The child nodded.

I glanced around for a moment.

I asked Yoanna, who had started analyzing the data even before we woke the girl.

“Yoanna, how is it? Did you find anything?”

“First of all, this child’s basic memory is initialized. It’s a function often used for second-hand androids. When the owner changes, it cleanly erases privacy data or unnecessary learning commands.”

Yoanna stopped tapping on her laptop and her expression briefly hardened.

“So I tried to recover the memory through forensics… but the security is much stronger than I thought. No, it’s more than that. The level of the firewall blocking access to the main system is abnormally robust, should I say? It seems it will take quite some time to force my way through.”

‘A firewall….?’

Of course, all electronic devices in this city had at least minimal security programs.

But for Yoanna to say it like that meant it was a higher-level item.

I looked at the girl once more.

A child-type android found collapsed in a suburban back alley.

A girl with blonde hair and blue eyes.

A beautiful appearance, like a doll.

She was quiet and currently remembered nothing.

At least, she claimed so.

Except for the fact that she was an android, she looked exactly like a lost child.

“Do you perhaps remember your home address? Or your guardian’s name or contact information?”

Despite several questions, the child just shook her head.

“…….”

I fell into deep thought for a moment.

The fact that she was a rare child-type android, and the unusually thick firewall, it would be a lie to say it wasn’t suspicious.

But… when this girl was first discovered, she was said to be collapsed carelessly in a back alley.

If the priests of the Church hadn’t noticed her by chance, someone would have picked her up right away.

Even selling her for scrap metal would fetch a good price, so a single abandoned android disappearing was no big deal in this neighborhood.

The situation was too clumsy to have been an approach with some ulterior motive.

And above all, though she was quiet, those trembling eyes full of anxiety were clear.

I sighed and asked again.

“If you don’t remember anything… do you have anywhere to go now?”

The child shook her head again.

‘This isn’t easy….’

Perhaps I was getting involved in a troublesome matter.

But just because it felt fishy, was I supposed to just kick this kid back out onto the street?

Honestly, the issue of whether androids were human or not still gave me a headache.

I didn’t even know what was right or wrong, and I didn’t want to get involved.

But I, who was facing a child who seemed to need help, was a person.

Whether machine or human, to coldly turn away someone I could converse with like this, pricked my conscience somewhere.

=========

And so, a new member joined our cathedral, and a few days passed.

To the child who couldn’t even remember who she was, we gave her a new name, Clarice.

“Is Clarice adjusting well?”

“Yes. She’s a very good and gentle child. She likes other children of her age too. She fit in right away. Would you like to see?”

As is often the case in slums, there were many orphans who didn’t receive proper care.

Our cathedral also ran a small childcare facility to take in and look after such children, and Clarice was staying there.

“…….”

At the caregiver’s words, I peeked out the window, and the bright laughter unique to children echoed.

“Kyahaha!”

“Catch me-!”

Children playing hide-and-seek, running around the playground.

Among them was Clarice, wearing a cutely tailored nun’s habit.

She fit in with her peers so naturally that she really just looked like an ordinary child.

‘It’s really strange. What on earth is her identity?’

Just then, the caregiver’s voice was heard, calling the children for snack time.

“Alright, everyone, wash your hands first, and then come get some delicious cookies!”

At those words, forgetting their play, the boys and girls swarmed to the teacher like bees.

Clarice also trotted along, mixed in with the other children, and naturally received her snack.

I stared blankly at the scene, then suddenly, belatedly, I was alarmed.

‘W-Wait a minute…. Is it okay for an android to eat food?’

My heart dropped.

I shot up from my seat and started running out of the office.

“Saintess? Where are you going?!”

I heard a voice trying to stop me from behind, but I was already scrambling down the stairs.

And just as I finally reached the girl and was about to stop her, Clarice was already munching on the cookie in her hand.

And… to my bewilderment, the child was perfectly fine.

With cookie crumbs around her mouth, she just looked at me with her round eyes and tilted her head.

“…….”

Then she suddenly held out a cookie to me.

It was one of the two cookies that all the children had received equally.

“…..Are you perhaps giving this to me?”

The child nodded wordlessly.

Could she have thought I came running in a hurry because I wanted a snack?

That child-like innocence.

And at the same time, I was a little dumbfounded by her willingness to share her portion without hesitation.

‘What’s going on?’

The test results I later heard from Yoanna were surprising.

Clarice’s body had taste sensors and a digestive function.

It was equipped with an inefficient but extremely ‘human-like’ function that converted the calories from food into energy.

After a few more days of observation.

Lost in thought, I was watching the child.

A girl sitting on a rather high chair, dangling her feet that didn’t reach the floor.

No matter how much an android has learned emotions, there is bound to be some mechanical part remaining, but that child showed no sign of it.

As a result of continuous observation recently, even her trivial habits, gestures, and functions were no different from a real person’s.

But for an android, all of that is nothing more than inefficient devolution.

If there was a purpose to such inefficiency, it would only be to perfectly resemble a human.

That was the realm of emotion, not function.

“…….”

It was then, while I was still lost in thought.

Suddenly, I realized the child’s gaze was directed at me.

More precisely, at my sleeve.

I inadvertently looked down, and the hem of my sleeve was slightly torn.

‘When did this happen?’

Just as I was thinking I should get it repaired tomorrow, Clarice suddenly got down from her chair and disappeared somewhere.

A moment later, the girl returned with a small sewing box in her tiny hands.

Clarice took out a needle and thread and looked up at me quietly.

“….Are you asking me to leave it to you?”

When I asked, understanding her intention, the child nodded.

I blankly held out my sleeve.

Then Clarice sat opposite me and began to diligently sew the clothes, stitch by stitch, with her tiny hands.

As I watched, I realized the child’s sewing skills were quite good.

Ironically, it wasn’t perfect like a machine, so there was a slight hint of immaturity.

Presently, the girl finished her work, unfolded the sewn sleeve, and looked up at me with sparkling eyes.

I could feel that she was expecting praise.

“Thank you.”

When I inadvertently stroked her head, a faint smile spread across Clarice’s face.

That smile was, truly… filled with the pure pride unique to a child, waiting for praise after doing their best.

It was an attitude that anyone would find cute.

In that moment, a sudden thought came to me.

That child seemed as if… she was created to be loved.