#belovedai

((Closed starter for @belovedai, Soji breaks Lal out of Daystrom.))

It's disturbingly easy for Soji to break into Daystrom but, as she flashes a badge with Dahj's name and the security guard opens the door for her, she supposes it shouldn't be surprising. They had been designed for infiltration, after all, and this precise facility had been one of the targets. The only person on site who knew anything about Dahj was Agnes Jurati and she certainly hadn't reported anything. Dahj was still a viable candidate in their systems and Soji was able to just…step into her life. It was as easily as changing her clothes and styling her hair. That, of all of this, was perhaps the most uncomfortable aspect.

Dahj had been accepted on the team for quantum computing and artificial intelligence. It was a subsection of synthetic development, a department that was recently restored when the ban was repealed. The whole facility was chaos in the wake of the repeal, with new scientists and cyberneticists every few feet. There were a hundred new hires, at least, drawn from everywhere across Federation space. It was as if Daystrom were having a job fair and Soji? She melted into the chaos; just another face in the crowd.

Of course, the ban hadn't prevented all use of synthetics and androids, military efforts were rarely limited by things as pedestrian as laws. The ban had only halted development and experimentation. Use of synthetics was heavily regulated, though. They were limited to the sort of occupations where sudden violence was actively encouraged. They were stored accordingly, finished models locked down in subterranian storage. But Soji didn't need to get into subterranian storage--she needed the initial labs. Fortunately, those were not so heavily guarded and secured. Even Starfleet's clandestine operations didn't keep more than a weather eye on the facilities above production. So a new scientist walking down a hall when there were hundreds of others milling about? That was barely worthy of note.

In the end, Soji just strolled right into Daystrom's fabrication laboratories, easy as you please, like she'd been personally invited.

There were two scientists present in the lab when Soji entered, but no security personnel at all. Soji almost felt bad for the two older men as she promptly knocked them out but, given that they were experimenting with one of her inactive sisters, her sympathy was limited. She found Lal's body stored in a stasis cabinet, slotted into the wall like a morgue drawer. When Soji pulled her out she was in pieces, fragmented into piles of parts. Several of her internal systems were exposed, the covers and pieces set aside almost casually, piled on her lap in a way that toed the line between horrifying and irreverant.

"i hope you don't mind having a late lunch with me. ten forward is less busy this time, so it should be more comfortable for you." deanna says as they walk the corridor toward ten forward, smiling at lal kindly. "and we can find a quiet table in the back, near the windows." she's known to take counseling outside of her quarters, and she thought perhaps the social aspect might help lal continue her growth. "guinian assures me she has a delightful new chocolate dessert."

The prosaic hum of the engines whispered tauntingly in his synthetic ears; the resonance and vibration served as an immutable reminder of his incarceration aboard a ship filled to the brim with people, humans... His light eyebrows drew together in quelled acrimony and his yellow ocular components glared up at the ceiling of his confines; contempt effervescing in his chest cavity, increasing the thermal energy in his central processing unit. His personal quarters ⸺ there was nothing personal about it ⸺ coincidentally moonlighted as a brig. He couldn’t leave, two security officers were stationed outside at all times, and his access to the replicator, on the far side of the room, was limited to producing biolubricants lest he replicate a weapon or chip with which he could hijack the entire vessel. Yeah, right, as if he could compromise the systems without having high level clearance and the corresponding personal codes... The bed was a nice addition, though he suspected it was a standard feature and not placed in here to accommodate his comfort...

When the automatic doors disengaged, the android had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes in vexation ⸺ here we go again... The individual, whoever they were, was standing outside his peripheral vision, but he couldn’t be bothered to rotate and tilt his head to the left to ascertain who’d been courageous enough to venture into his lair. When she disrupted the semi-silence and forced his voice recognition subroutine to initiate its verification sequence, Lore expelled a cynical string of laughter.

‘No. I’m worse,’ he retorted, a smirk expanded across his pearlescent white countenance, momentarily thriving in his acerbic wit. ‘I’m also ten times funnier than my brother, but I doubt anyone has briefed you on that little fact ⸺ such a shame. Oh well, Federation censorship, I suppose. They can’t afford having the crew humanise me too much after I annihilated an entire colony, now, can they? They’d prefer to see a monster and deliberately opt to disregard my talents, my unparalleled and unprecedented sense of humour.’

In one swift motion, Lore threw his legs over the edge of the bed and assumed an upright position, his yellow eyes landing on the only individual aboard this infernal vessel he actually enjoyed conversing with. He rose to his full height and comically gestured to the replicator.

‘Would you like a semi-organic nutrient suspension in a silicon-based liquid medium, or would you prefer the more delicious, thirst-quenching semi-organic nutrient suspension in a silicon-based liquid medium?’ he quipped sarcastically.

Ah, yes, employing humour to deflect trauma and mask his hardship. The perfect strategy to brush aside his cognitive impairments, physical malfunctions, and emotional instabilities...

Lore opted for silence, not wishing to dwell on the subject of his imminent doom any longer than was necessary... He merely distributed a vague inclination of the head to acknowledge her string of words, his chartreuse eyes glazing over, as if incarcerated in a temporary dream-like state — his mind wandering off to a farrago of evocations and reveries...

The conjecture she worded next, escorted him back to reality, and his eyes regained their usual clarity, a broad smirk expanded across his pale countenance.

'Oh yes, I'm well-versed in procuring what I want; my... procedures are exceedingly expeditious — it's not that difficult when you're one of the Federation's many antagonists,' he said enigmatically. 'Who cares about the authentic variant of this concoction? It's probably poisonously sweet... Like everything else they fabricate on your dearly beloved Earth...'