Oelia was Registry no. 8847, the fifth 8800 series replicant and the third built by Merisa Cerena.

She was completed in 7314 and given a free no-ownership status as allowed under Commonwealth law, which recognized sufficiently advanced Artificial Intelligences to be sentient beings.

But it was a painful lesson for Cerena, who did not have her father's gift for making people out of androids.

Oelia was a beautiful dark haired female with the most life-like replicant body possible. But even given the Commonwealth's high level of technology and computer works, mistakes can happen. --------------------------------------------------------

It was 3:13 AM local time in the Western Valley Annex on the Commonwealth world of Ketaterra.

Merisa Cerena was sleeping in her apartment above her massive workshops.

A loud beeping, the comset, woke her. She answered it to see a law enforcer on the wallscreen.

Wearing only a sleep shirt, she carefully stayed out of the pick up camera's view so he could not see her. "Yes?"

"You are Merisa Cerena, the android builder?", he asked sternly.

Cerena frowned in the darkness. What was it now?, she thought. "Yes, I am. Is something wrong?"

"Ill say there is. One of your androids has killed some people."

She was shocked, deeply. This was the first time in her 300 year career this had happened. She didn't know what to say.

"Ah, um, which one?"

The law enforcer checked his datapad. "Hmm....Unit 8847."

Cerena gasped, even more shocked. "Oelia? Are you sure?"

He nodded. "'Fraid so. I have a photo-image if you wish to confirm." He held up an unmistakable picture of a bloodsoaked Oelia weilding a wierd looking knife.

Cerena couldn't believe it. "I-I don't understand, Officer. Why?"

The law enforcer cleared his throat. "She said, quote, "I need to cleanse my mind. People must not see me for what I am.' I have no idea what she means but its clearly a public danger. It must be dealt with."

Cerena looked down. She knew what he meant. It wasn't the first time in her career that she had to do the unthinkable. "Do you, want me to....kill her?"

The law enforcer frowned. "Kill? Its a machine, Ms. Cerena. Can't you just turn it off?"

She shook her head at his ignorance. "They are people, Officer. You can't just 'turn them off'. If they harm real people, they must be put down for good. Where is she?"

He frowned at her tone. "She is at large in a large grassland. We have contained her there. The Sci-Tech Ministry told us to call you to deal with it...um, her."

Cerena sighed with great sorrow. "I will be there as soon as I can." She cut the channel and went to her shower.

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Cerena looked at her gun as it lay on her worktable. She had killed six androids in her time on order of the Commonwealth Ministry of Science and Technology. But never one of her or her father's. What had gone wrong?

Oelia was built exactly the same was as Orena and Olara, who worked in a hospital even. There was no trouble with her.

Cerena had went over the plans and her work notes. She could find nothing that was amiss. Whatever this was, it wasn't her fault. That bothered her even more. She would not get the opportunity to ask Oelia what was wrong.

Her gun was a heavy NR-22 semi-auto magnetic powered rifle that fired heavy metallic slugs designed to shatter electronics. It was usually highly illegal to have but she had a permit and it was furnished to her by the government, which was keen to sweep bad AIs under the rug without an explanation of what went wrong.

She did not want to kill anything but it was a necessary chore when this kind of thing happened. She loaded it and put it in its case. She took it to her ship, placing it among the thousands of other tools inside its work area.

She then set off for the Commonwealth world of Lietra, where Oeila had somehow ended up.

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Merisa Cerena was not very big. She didn't have the air of authority her father did. As she sat in the police helo-craft, setting her gun up on supports, she wondered if he ever had to do this.

The gun was too big and heavy for her to hold on her own so it was set up on supports in the helo-craft's door frame.

She was told to shoot Oelia, then land and make sure she was dead. Then was made fun of because she considered Oelia a person. She was. A sick one.

The helo-craft raced though the cool clear morning air over a wide yellowish-green grassland.

A trail of disturbed vegetation marked Oelia's path through it, making it painfully easy to find her.

"Target in sight," the pilot said through the comm system in the helmet Cerena wore. "Get ready."

Cerena sighed as she activated the powerful optic scope, scanning below with it. She found Oelia standing in a clearing. using a water jug to clean her red-stained blue jumper she wore.

A tear blurred Cerena's vision. She wiped it away.

The pilot said, "Hey, hurry up."

Oelia looked up at the helo-craft.

Cerena whispered, "I'm sorry." She took aim on Oelia's head and fired.

Oelia was struck with terrific force, knocking her back onto the ground hard. Liquified cytec and pieces of composites sprayed out from the impact as did one of Oelia's eyes.

She lay shuddering on her back as the helo-craft landed a few feet away.

Cerena leaped out and ran to her, kneeling beside the mortally wounded replicant. "Oelia? Can you hear me? Its me, Merisa."

Oelia's eyes and forehead were missing and had become an awful dark colored crater. She jerkily moved her head. "I- I have b-been d-damaged. I d-do not unders-stand-d," she said liquidly as her vocal processor malfunctioned.

Cerena couldn't stop her tears. "Why, why did you kill those people?"

Oelia shuddered as her power cell failed, the battery back-up taking over. "P-people? I-I do n-not under-rstand. P-people called m-me a m-mach-chine. I-I am a p-person."

Cerena closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, Oelia."

"s-sor-ry?," Oelia asked, obviously worried.

Cerena turned the limp replicant's body over and used a unique key to open the back of the head.

Oelia could not resist. She had lost control of her motor functions.

Cerena exposed her AI Core, seeing it shattered. She pulled a probe and extractors from a pocket on her worksuit and deactivated Oelia.

She tried to say something but it was lost as she went off-line.

Cerena worked fast to withdraw the operational memory and the logic memory modules before the police overcame thier fear of the dead replicant and came over. She put the modules in a special pouch for them and slipped it into her suit's abdomenal pocket.

She then extracted the shattered AI Core and put it into a Sci-tech Ministry pouch to be sent to them for assured destruction.

The government would not care why Oelia did it. They would just destroy her so it would not happen again.

The police and a Sci-Tech engineer came over and took the pouch. Cerena helped them place Oelia's body onto a anti-grav sled. She would be taken for recycling and the materials checked and returned to Cerena.

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Reviewing the memory baffled Cerena. Oelia had somehow come to believe that real people were a danger to her. It made no sense. A real person wouldn't be able to tell Oelia was artificial unless she told them.

Cerena placed the memory modules in a special vault that would remain sealed. She then buried them outside of her workshop as a simple memorial to Oelia.

She did not build anything for a year after that, spending that time checking all the androids and replicants she had built over the years. None of them were like Oelia.

The experience would haunt Merisa Cerena for the rest of her life.

� 26 Feb 04 Gregory Thompson