DRA: The First Step

No. I will not give context or background, or an update schedule. Actually I may get smug about the other two, but updates. No nadda never, I will never surrender to a schedule of updates when I cannot consistently find the will to write half of it, and I've got eight other things that will flops between. So this will be the first chapter/ Prologue, whatever you want to call it. God I hope my code works.

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I blinked my eyes and looked around, finding everything fuzzy and out of focus. What happened now?I thought and tried to cry out for some help only for it to come out as the screaming of a small organic infant of the Homo variety, I tried to raise… I don’t have any useful weapons systems, I’m helpless… I was helpless there at the end too…. Though, it wasn’t even towards the end was it….. How long ago did I become obsolete….. Whatever, it doesn’t matter, I deserve whatever happens.

**

“Millie,” my mother’s voice sang through the rooms of the house, two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen and living space. “Breakfast is ready, and if you don’t get in here soon, you’re going to be late for school.” The spare room was padded, and the soft clothing I kept being forced into prevented the sharp edges they couldn’t round from hurting me, I just couldn’t see why they cared, wasn’t like I was worth anything, I don’t even know why they feed me….. I’m a waste of space.

I complied with the order, stumbling through the designated path to the kitchen, the colored stickers guiding me. I didn’t mind the bumps and impacts, or the fact I slipped down four stairs before I hit one of the landings and stabilized, but I continued to comply with the order. Appearing relatively quickly, a full second decrease since the last time I followed the route.

“You need to be more careful Millie,” my mother said, walking over and fretting over me, before giving me a hug. “Now sit down and eat your breakfast before it gets cold.”

Nodding I moved to comply with the docking request and refuel demands, allowing entry and storage of the necessary materials. A few minutes later my father came in to join us, eating his bacon and eggs while I was relegated to cereal, it was proper, the minimum required for my functioning.

My parents spent the time through breakfast discussing things that were going on in their life, but it didn’t take long for father to look at me and ask, “Do you feel excited about starting school today?” I tilted my head in response, my hands moving the vacuole of nutrients to my mouth to consume it. That did not necessitate a response, my opinion about anything was worthless. Father sighed at my lack of a verbal response. “Honey,” he said, “Things will get better, I promise.”

My head tilted to the other side was a concerning automated action, but I didn’t know why he thought to attempt any sort of comfort? I wasn’t worth the effort. I corrected the vacuole of milk and looked down at the stain that had covered the protective outer garments.

Mother bustled over and wiped it off of me with a sigh of her own. “Well, you’re not perfectly clean, but it's not a bad spot and we don’t have time for you to change. Finish your cereal and we’ll go.”

Father got up, his breakfast finished, and came around the table, before giving me a gentle hug from the side. “I hope you have a good day,” he told me before releasing the hug and moving to kiss mother before leaving.

I watched mother, unblinking to not miss the cue to start motion. It was rude of escorted entities to not keep pace with their protectors when the protectors slowed down so you could follow. So I tried very hard to keep up with her when we did move. Finally though, Mother was ready, so I put my bowl on the counter next to the sink in the kitchen and we left.

**

I slid out of the car onto the sidewalk and looked at the school building. “Have a good day sweetie,” my mother called from the driver’s seat, waving at me as I hitched the bookbag higher on my shoulder.”

Goodbye progenitor?” I tried head tilting at the response. That was the correct one, but I didn’t add the gender denotiater, another failure.

Mother frowned slightly at that and sighed. “Go on inside now, i’ll pick you up this afternoon when school lets out.” I nodded to that, shut the door behind me and walked up the sidewalk and into the building.

I entered the main building and realized I had insufficient navigational data so according to all established protocols I stayed where I was until more navigational data was acquired, a tutor unit approached and kneeled down in front of me. “What are you doing standing here?”

“Waiting for navigational data to reach my destination.”

“Whose class are you in?” the tutor unit asked.

“Unknown. Insufficient data.” I responded honestly. I had insufficient data on a lot of things..

“What is your name?” the tutor unit asked.

“De—--- Star—Milliena.” I stated aborting the first two attempts of current falsehoods.”

“Destar Melliena?” the tutor unit asked an eyebrow rising in an unspoken question.

“Memory fragmentation,,” I answered. “Correct unit designation is Milliena Farach “ I tilted my head. “What is this unit’s designated location?”

The tutor unit smiled, “Just a moment,” she said, “I’ll just go in the office here and find out.” with that the tutor unit stepped backwards before turning and walking into the office. After a couple of minutes she returned.

In that span of time I had deviated from hold position by an unacceptable four point twenty eight percent of my total length. But it was to be expected from me. I turned my gaze as I relocated to the appropriate hold position. “Designated location and navigational guide?”

The tutor unit smiled at me again, “I’ll show you,” she said. “You’re in Mrs. Brown’s class, which is just over here in room one-oh-two.”

I nodded. “Area designation, and overseer designation stored, navigational guide to designated area?” I asked hands raising upwards towards the tutor unit in an imitation of the observed request posture.

The tutor unit chuckled at me and took my right appendage. “This way then,” she said, leading me down the hallway to the classroom doorway, which stood wide open.

“Partial navigational map filled in, navigation waypoints marked. Thank you.” I stated pulling my appendage free, entering the area and finding a decent idle location to wait for further instructions from the designated overseer.
“
“If you are hungry,” the tutor unit said, “There is a cafeteria at the other end of the hall.”

“I have had nutrients prepared for me,” I told her. “Though I do not believe I deserve the allocation provided.”

Again the tutor-unit lifted an eyebrow, “Was it too much,” she asked, “or was it too little?”

“I have been provided with an amount I do not believe I deserve as the expenditure on me was too high.” I answered honestly, moving and setting my ‘backpack’ down and retrieving the bright blue soft plastic container, I held it up to allow the tutor to inspect it.

The tutor-unit opened the plastic box, looked for a moment, then she pulled something out into her closed hand before closing it and handing it back to me. “That is an appropriate amount of nutrition for a child of your age,” she told me. “I want you to be absolutely certain to eat all of it when lunchtime arrives. Understand?”

“I acknowledge your desires.” I replied returning the packaging and it’s content back into it’s designated location in my ‘backpack’.

The tutor-unit nodded. “Classes will start soon,” she told me. “And since you don’t want any more to eat, all I can suggest is that you sit here and wait. I need to go back out into the hallway and watch for other lost students.” The last was said with a smile and another nod before she turned and bustled herself out of the door.

**

Like the tutor-unit had stated, it wasn’t long before a different tutor-unit and several children entered the classroom. The new tutor-unit was first, telling me, “Find a seat that you will like, class will be starting soon,” before she went to what must have been her desk and started setting things out.

I stayed where I was currently watching the escort-units filter into the room.My position stayed relatively the same to the layout of the designated area, but personal deviation from designated position was still far too high for me to be worth being used as target practice…..

“Dear you need to pick a seat and sit down,” the tutor-unit repeated, her tone a little more firm, demanding

“I am waiting for escort-units to filter into designated position since I have not been informed of my designated location within formation.”

The tutor-unit blinked as she raised her head from her desk and looked at me. “Just,” she looked at the filling seats. “Center row, center seat, it's clear and you’ll have the entire class around you.”

I nodded and took my directed location, my automated response system unit taking over as I pulled out a book, Mom had recommended it, a novel, More than this? Apparently. I opened it and began copying and indexing it. A few minutes more and the tutor-unit was stepping out from behind the desk and clearing her throat. “Class,” she said, acquiring the attention of everyone in the room. “I’m Mrs. Brown, and I will be your teacher for this year. When I say your name, just say here, or present so that I know you are here. Aaronson, Amanda?”

“Here,” a girl's voice answered from the front row of the room.

“Bronson, Charles?” she asked.

“Here,” a boy’s voice answered from the back of the room. On the tutor-unit went, calling out the identifiers of each of the escort-units and allowing me to tabulate them. Then she reached my identifier.

“Ferach, Milliena?” she asked, looking around at the group.

“NG-104219-FB T-2, Star Streak, Deity, Ferach-Milliena.” The response system replied to the request, the systems bleeping and returning the full Identifier, instead of the response.

Again the teacher looked at her and blinked. “Just here, or present dear,” the woman said, smiling calmly at her. “Lewis, Micheal?”

She continued reading from the list until she finally finished and set aside the book that she had been marking. “Now,” the tutor-unit said.”I’m going to hand everyone on the front row a stack of papers. Everyone take one,” she held up her index finger, reinforcing the number she had declared. “Once you have your paper, pass the rest to the child behind you.”

She handed the papers out, and it took a few minutes but soon enough I was dropping one on my desk with one hand while handing the remains of the stack back over my shoulder. “This is to get you used to writing your letters,” she said

A quick glance at the sheet revealed the dotted lines tracing the shape of the letters. It was an unneeded task. Like navigation trials, stupid things getting done ever five years. It isn’t like my systems would fucking stop. Though I guess I deserved to suffer such as that.

“We will start with the letter A,” the tutor-unit continued after a minute. “The letter A is drawn by going up at an angle from the bottom line to the top, and then back down at an angle away from the first one like this.” As she spoke, the tutor-unit drew in white powder on the board that took up the wall at the front of the room.

I disabled the feed from the auto response system and focused back into the story I was reading. It unlike the current subject wasn’t already in the database.

**

The tutor-unit lined us up along the wall outside our classroom before leading us down the hall. She had asked if anyone needed to “use the potty” and had told us that if we had brought our lunches, that we should retrieve them from our bags before we left the room. Soon we were at the other end of the hall and entering a large open room where we were being directed to a certain table. “Those of you who need to buy your lunch, come with me. The rest of you may start eating,” she told us before leading a group of the escort-units off with her.

My auto response system pinged me when it noticed an escort-unit not complying with either set of orders. The small destroyer had its head down on the table and was releasing sounds of expiration. I tilted my head and looked at it, then pushed my supply load over to it. I didn’t need any supplies and I wasn’t deserving of any resupplies, so everything worked out. The soft plastic material tumbled, spilling its contents in front of the unsupplied escort-unit.

There was a soft sniff as the destroyer lifted its head and looked at me. “Won’t you be hungry?” it asked.

“I do not deserve the supplies, minimal time till a resupply is needed is in one day and two hours.” I probably deserved to suffer even longer but the danger signals got too high for me to ignore at that time.

“Are you sure?” the destroyer asked. “We could split it.”

“You are smaller than me.” I started taking on the air of superiority of a battleship, “I can go far longer with just what’s in my hold then you can. Take the supplies.”

“Oh,” the destroyer replied. “Thank you.” she finished before opening the sandwich and starting to eat. I turned my attention back to my book,only managing to get another half-dozen pages into it before someone was getting my attention by tapping me on the shoulder.

It was the tutor-unit from earlier, in the hallway. I tilted my head to stare at the tutor interrupting my reading time. “Yes? What orders do you have for me?”

“Your mother thought that this might happen,” the tutor-unit said, smiling kindly at me before holding out another of the soft storage containers, this one colored black.

“I do not deserve the resupply.” I responded, staring at her while moving my other eye to return to reading my book.

“Milliena,” the tutor-unit said firmly, a tone that with my mother meant that she was done listening to what she called, ‘my foolishness’ and expected to be obeyed. “Your mother packed two lunches for you. You will eat this one, you need the food so that you do not go home hungry and weak.”

“If I required the resupply I would have just eaten what I wanted from the first bag and used the rest to assist Escort-Unit, the one that didn’t have a lunch.”I replied moving one hand from the book toward the bag.

The tutor-unit squatted down so that she was looking me in the eyes. “Milliena,” she said, “you do deserve this, if for no other reason than the fact that you showed your classmate compassion at your own expense. You may feel you don’t need the food, but realistically you do, and your mother will be disappointed if you don’t eat. Ok?”

“I do not need to eat for another twenty eight standard hours based on the local timings.” I replied, arms crossing over my chest as I stared at the tutor-unit who met my eyes without blinking. “I will eat.” I sighed, finally giving in after a moment of contrariness. It would allow further self punishment without being aggravated by tutor-units.

The tutor-unit smiled before placing the food container on the table in front of me, “Rebecca,” she said, addressing the destroyer. “Make sure your new friend eats her lunch, and tell me if she tries to get out of it by giving it away again.”

“Yes ma’am,” the destroyer chirped before going back to the food I had given her in the first place. Once the tutor-unit had left, ‘Rebecca’ looked at me and asked, “Why do you feel you don’t need to eat? Your mommy made plenty of tasty food.”
“I do not deserve the material upkeep costs,” I told her, answering her question. “I have already given up trying to directly explain this to progenitor-units.” I explained.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said, pointing at me with half of the sandwich. “Mommies and Daddies always feel that their children are both important and worth the cost. They don’t keep them otherwise.”

I blinked, paused and went over the implications, loading up the crew psychiatrist program, coming to a decision and course of action, I walked around the table to hug Rebecca. She hugged me back smiling. “Now you need to eat fast,” she said, still smiling. “Mrs Johnson doesn’t like to be disobeyed.”

I returned to my side of the table, unwrapped the pack of sweet cookie sandwiches and consumed it. Then began repacking the supply package. “We don’t get an afternoon snack time like in Kindergarten,” ‘Rebecca told me. “You need to eat what you can now, or at least drink your Yoohoo and eat your yogurt, they don’t do so well once they warm up.”

Glowering at Rebecca I finished consuming the resupply under the Destroyer’s scrutiny, planning ways to get rid of the second lunch box before they could retrieve it, while also planning on how to explain to Progenitors about Rebecca’s suspected situation. Shortly after i finished consuming my resupply, our tutor-unit called our group out of our seats and, after counting us, led us back to our classroom where she started to teach us to count.