Freak of Nature - By Julia Crane Page 0,1

was near. Even worse—what if he decided to reprogram her? Her only friend, Quess, had warned her to keep her thoughts to herself. The company wanted a robot, not a confused half-breed. She couldn’t risk them taking away anything more from her. Not even for Lucas.

The large double doors loomed ahead. She wondered absently what they had in store for her today. She’d long since accepted that her new existence meant she was a science project. Knowing what happened behind those doors didn’t fill her with loathing and terror like it would a real human. It would if she still had the flight or fight response, but her sensors overrode any sign of acute stress immediately.

Maybe what she felt for Lucas was nothing more than a short circuit. She glanced at him as he opened one of the doors. A persistent, spreading short circuit.

As soon as they walked through the door, Professor Adams pushed back his chair from his desk and stood, knocking a file onto the floor. His wiry gray hair was disheveled as usual, and his small, round glasses were perched crookedly on the end of his bulbous nose.

Kaitlyn’s sensors activated. The green screen in her right eye kicked into gear and the bulls-eye dot centered on Professor Adams. There was the usual ticking sound in her ear but in less than a second it stopped, and she had his diagnostics: Unarmed. Physically out of shape. Not a threat.

No one else was in the room; if so, her heat sensors would’ve warned her. There was just the hum of the computers and the distant whir of the lab refrigerator.

“Lucas, we’ve upgraded Kaitlyn’s microprocessor again, so I want you to compare her scans to last week,” he said, as if she wasn’t even there. Glancing over the top of his glasses, Professor Adams handed the clipboard to Lucas.

He flipped through the pages, and then nodded at Adams. “No problem.”

Kaitlyn stood completely still but fought the sudden urge to roll her eyes. She wasn’t sure why she would want to roll her eyes. The movement held no meaning; the very idea made no sense to her, though some part of her felt like it should. Maybe an old habit from her previous life?

She made a mental note to ask Quess later. She helped fill in the gaps that Kaitlyn often experienced.

“Kaitlyn.” Lucas’s sky blue eyes met hers briefly, then flickered away just as fast. The look made the pace of her breathing quicken, despite the mechanisms that regulated her body functions. “Please, sit down so I can attach the monitors.”

Wordlessly, Kaitlyn walked over to the stainless steel table and sat down on the white plastic chair with her back to Lucas. She stared straight ahead at the large double sink, sitting as still as a statue and willed herself not to react to his touch. They wanted a robot, so that was what she gave them.

For now.

Lucas pulled the tape off the back of the electrode and softly pressed the round pad to her temple. He was so close she could smell his aftershave: a mixture of sandalwood and cedar with a hint of rosemary. Scanning, she analyzed the scents, and a list of potential brands flooded her mind.

Her body tensed as Lucas reached around her to press the other pad to her left temple. For an instant, the nearness of his warm body and his arm around her made it hard to breathe. Why did he alone have this effect on her?

Finished placing the electrodes and completely unaffected by their encounter, Lucas turned on his heel and switched the machine on.

A pulse of current invaded Kaitlyn’s brain, and she straightened up in her seat. It wasn’t painful; it was more of an annoyance. Like a slight buzz between her temples. Maybe even a tickle. She found it somewhat interesting that the test never picked up on her body's awareness of Lucas. Obviously, the computers didn’t know everything.

She sat still as the test ran. Lucas scribbled notes on his clipboard, his face lit by the blue screen of the computer.

The door to the lab swung open, and a nurse walked in with short, brisk steps. Her long brown hair was pulled up into a ponytail today. It made her look younger. Kaitlyn had seen this woman every morning for the last eighty-nine days, but they never spoke. The nurse barely looked at her. Kaitlyn didn’t even know her name. Quess told her that the staff was forbidden to interact with