She decides to return to her coffee. She asks the person in charge to give her a break. For a while, the person was hesitating before granting her the request to explore around the research facility. She checked on the place where Thea and Brian are. There they are, playing with toys, and the same bear she used to have, whom she adored during her time in the laboratory.
Ava walked near Brian, holding the bear. Ava then squats and looks at him with her eyes straight, "What is that you're holding?"
Brian looks at Ava while holding the bear and smiles at her. Then a voice came, "Oh, it's you." With cute innocence. Ava looks at him and starts cuddling him.
Brian emoted, "Ahhhhhhhhhhh." Brian smacks Ava's head, hurting her head, causing her anger, but she blows off steam.
Eventually, Ava asks, "Where is Thea?" Brian let out a sad face, "Somewhere. Not here," Ava understood. "I see," Brian stands up and starts walking away with the toy bear he just left, and moves on.
Ava followed him and asked, "Where are you going?" Brian puts on a pout-like expression on his mouth and stares at her. "Somewhere, that's none of your business." Ava's eyes widened, and she said, "Oh, I see. Good luck"
Ava retreats from her steps as she resumes her work on the computer. Her leader said, "Ava, have you worked on scientific computing for some of our machines?" Ava looked at the leader and answered, "Yes, I have been working on the data analysis software for the machine and its integration. I am trying to make it functional, sir."
The leader emphatically said, "Counting on it." Ava nods, she continues to work, she even makes herself some coffee, and then checks in with her job, she adds the necessary patches and pushes it - she goes to the scientists and asks them if the software is working without errors.
One of the problems was error correction in hardware interfering with software. The operators checked the update and had it updated. As the operators were waiting for the patch update, they were about to get a chance with her.
One of them said with something corny like "Hey girl, quite the eye catcher you are. You should learn to 'patch' with us." Ava ignored him as she looked away, rebuffing him, "Don't kid yourself if you think you have a chance with someone who's behind the new patches." The other operator laughed at him, "Ohhhh, quite the pickup line fail."
The operator in the scene was embarrassed as they both waited for the updates & patches to complete their download.
As the new version installation is complete, they boot up the machine and start to operate, they use the data analysis software embedded in the system, and it's finally operational.
The error correction does not interfere with the task of trying to get numbers for the software to pick up for analysis.
The operator expressed his satisfaction, "Nice, it's working. Not bad, patch girl."
The operators continue twiddling the controls. As the operators fetch the data from the software for analysis, they continue to analyze any residual energy signatures and quantum breakthroughs.
Even trying to ascertain the semiconductors at the microscopic level to determine the nature of the energy around the circuitry.
As it is complete, the computer begins to catalogue data.
The machine is like a big microscope equipped with lasers, hoping to validate and analyze new semiconductor circuitry for something at the minuscule level while keeping its electrical field and its resonance peak observable.
The operator uses the software and does his work with the machine, examining semiconductor technology.
(Just think of it as a machine for analyzing the material science of a circuit)
Ava's task was finally complete, she said to the boys, "Well, I should be heading back, boys have fun with that machine of yours." The operators ignored her as they navigated through the machine, fiddling with the view and controls.
Ava returned to her office. She drank her coffee and had a good time, she checked the system and today's trend, she went back to claiming herself near the air conditioner with noise outside- what a boring life she lives now, but hey, she is surviving nowadays. Just the chops of a boring human life.
She rests on her chair as she relaxes and meditates before waking herself up and starting to type code for fun.
She looks at her code, gazing at it. She feels rather bored; she looks at the algorithm. She then decides to read books.
To keep her mind off, she reads the pages in her head for some time before deciding to go back and check the IDE she is using.
Ava's mouth emoted, "Meh" she decided to listen to music, usually those with the chill vibe, eventually she vibed her ears to one eminem music - rotating through every music in the computer, she was bored to tears she looks at every website where she again decides to check the program, she looks at the screen where she continued maintaining the code even pushing it to the repository.
"What am I coding exactly? I need to check on it real quick."
Ava stands up and decides to check on the others. She watches people do their thing, you know, enjoying life, some of them interacting with each other.
Ava reflected on what she had learned; she had realized that she wasn't the only one with cybernetic augmentations in her neurobiology or biology in general; other children like Thea and Brian were also involved.
Ava continues staring at the monitor, trying to see things before she can finally be dismissed. As soon as the dismissal begins, she walks out and starts looking over the children being monitored. Here it is other children on the scene, one kid caught her interest, definitely had an interesting share of insight.
The child expressed that he recalls that he was in the womb, only for him to suddenly be extracted to the pod. This was a rather remarkable encounter of a kid's uncanny memory to recall his life, especially during his infancy.
This registered to her as an abnormality, but somehow a thought crossed her mind. This is what she's likely to be if not for some circumstances - A lab rat.
She knew she was special because she was the mad scientist's daughter, and she induced her mother to convince Ava to live a normal life for some unknown reason.
The child's nature prompted Ava's curiosity and asked, "What do you feel about technology?"
The child looked at her and responded with "A part of me, I guess."
Ava asks, "What about your parents?"
The child answered blankly, "They don't exist." Eyes all blank, as if the knowledge of his parents never existed at all.
Ava was dumbfounded. Had they managed to integrate nanotechnology into their child's brain inviolably? No, it can't be. She was the only one with the tech integration; now her life feels like a lie. But at the same time, these children were not given care; they were lab rats of some organization for what purposes. Ava nods her head and says, "Very well."
"I hope you have a good life, child."
The child made no reaction to her. The child nodded and walked away, indifferent to her being and the others. Other children were still being monitored by scientists.
Ava saw this scientist. He was completely cold to them, checking their vitals, their eyes, their ears, their senses, how they process data, what will happen to them in the future, what's her place in the grand tapestry of schemes and new order.
Either way, it doesn't matter; these kids' parents have them extract their baby during the unknown mother's pregnancy for unknown reasons, maybe money, finances, or even a better life for the children.
"Are the children destined for a better life and role? Is my purpose engineered? What was the purpose of my existence?"
"I'm living the transhumanist dream of my father."
Grokking it wouldn't give her any answers. Eventually, Ava decides to undertake enquiries regarding her origins.
She went to some scientists and asked them something, "Do you know who I am?" The scientist said, "New employee?" Ava shakes her head and says, "Do you know a former experimental child whose name is Ava?"
The scientist waved his head and said, "I am sorry, but I am a new scientist here."
Ava puts on a sad face as she walks around. She infers that scientists who were veterans are probably old; she went to people who had beards or sorts.
She asked one person who fits the qualities of an elder the same question, "What was I like when I was a toddler?"
(This scientist that Ava found and the scientist whom Victor spoke to in a classified area are different.)
The scientist turned around with his hands on his back, looking at Ava and answered while scanning her face, "You are a little child, you were like others gifted, but observation shows you were aware, this place - you were here before?"
Ava nods, then asks another question, "I was, do you have any information about Victor Sumeris?" The scientist looked at her with wide eyes and said, "Yes, him…. That guy is weird, I know he's the reason for most of our child experiments with cybernetics, but"
"He's obsessed… Extremely obsessed, he worked in this facility for a while, but he's not often seen around. Rumor has it that he has augmented himself to an insane level for most of the things he is doing."
"In some sense, I don't understand the full nature of your father's work," he confessed.
The scientist asks, "I wonder who your father is. Compared to other experiments, you seem to have a normal background."
Ava said, "Normal background, what do you mean - you're not implying that the kids who dispatched here are already gone and discarded?"
The scientist puts on a solemn face and says, "To those who yielded results were then recruited to other places of the organization, from number calculators, engineers, and hackers. Their cybernetics had a purpose in the organization, and I don't know if this is true, but anyone who disobeyed them was then electrified. It looked like slavery to me."
The scientist starts to probe her, "Wait a minute, who is your father?"
Ava's face turned to confusion, and she replied, "I don't actually know. But he was a tall man with eyeglasses."
The scientist, "I see. You are a lucky one, Victor Sumeris seems to be indifferent to what's happening to those children. As he was too obsessed with engineering working experiments, the failed ones were discarded by the organization."
Ava said, "I see…." She cannot seem to comprehend the moral insanity of her father, and considering she was the first subject of this Project Cybernesis, for her case, his father had to procreate with a woman with a particular inserted payload.
This payload that will rewrite the DNA sequence, synthesizing it with something, that's what Ava assumed.
But this father… His genius knows no limits. He has decided to go a step further based on what this person is saying, no.
He was a puppet of the organization; he managed to engineer a way to extract a fetus from someone's body and grow it as an embryo, where the babies are not experimented on with nanotechnology. It's sinister - a mad man, a man shrouded in mystery.
Ava realized what this person was saying, this theory of hers that was concocted in her head. It's bad, she decides to just cool herself when she nods to the person, her eyes dilated as she walks away - she saw the children, and she can't even fathom their existence, their existence stolen from them.
The scientist followed her and shared, "They don't have a choice, their parents agreed to the contract to have their fetus extracted, where they are turned into Living, working computers for the organization."
Ava looked at her own inner self, "Then why…. Wait. I don't understand why I am able to make my own decisions.
The scientist answered, "That's what I wanted to know. Maybe your guardian allows you to experience life before setting here, maybe it's just determinism."
Ava then asked, wanting to see more, "I see, is there anything you want to say?"
The scientist made his final words to Ava, "No… Be careful of yourself, Ava."
The scientist left the vicinity Ava was in, as she processed the very nature of her existence. She was stunned, and she then walked and stared at the children.
The children were just doing fine, doing tests and breathing. One kid was playing with blocks, the other one was just running on a treadmill, and the third child she eyed was doing calculations on paper.
Ava observed them and said, "They seem like normal kids. At times, this is like daycare to me." Ava then proceeded with her doubts, "I don't see anything sinister about this place… Unless, of course.. The scientists are observing them."
Ava backtracked her steps, back to the office she was working in. She didn't believe the scientist's words about the children; she was so confused that she shook her head and focused on the computer.
She continued programming and doing code maintenance and stuff. She looks at the monitor, having felt jaded out, she wants to dismiss herself while maintaining code, she just wants to go home.
Soon enough, she stands up from the chair she recently sat in and decides to ask the boss if she is dismissed.
The manager looked at her and said, "Sure, you are already near your dismissal time, you should be good now." She was handed her paycheck, and she left the room.
As she walks, she is still thinking about the children. Whenever she looks at the building, it's like this huge facility with gates and AI, even security systems; it's crazy.
And from her cybernetic mind, she was able to make some inferences about the place.
The facility is highly protected, with a hidden defense grid capable of neutralizing threats from ground and sky. Imagine a missile hurling towards the facility, a turret would come out of some hidden hatch and dismantle it.
The facility is wide and huge, like a huge cuboid. A three-dimensional projection of a rectangular prism with an antenna.
A place where even unfathomable technology and genetic experiments are developed for one big secret organization. Surely there is a thrill to it, being a part of it.
Ava spoke to herself while touching the side of her trench coat on her front, trying to keep it neat, "Now what? So I simply am going to be the organization's lapdog?"
"Very well. My specialized training should be next week. And that's all I need."
Ava makes a note vocally, "Unless there is something I overlook."
Ava then thinks, "Hmmmm, those children prepped for the organization as living computers, yet here I am having a comfortable past. Maybe, perhaps I was predestined for this. What's the point of existence?"
Ava went to the train as she planned to return home. As she returned to her hotel, she went to her room and put out her trench coat, leaving only her long knit dress with working pants. She rested on her bed as she watched videos on her phone or stuff from the internet.