Computers were lost, moved around and stolen in the Commonwealth frequently. They were so widespread and ubiquitous, they were shamefully cheap and disposable.

The android named Oelia, Unit no. 8847, had bought six with the money she earned in the 4 days she worked as a security guard for a mall.

She fervently believed that people were a danger to her and that they would bludgeon her to death or melt her or blow her up if given the opportunity.

So she bought these computers to copy her entire AI and memory and store it in them so if she was destroyed, she would still go on.

It was a tricky process but she was able to do it, stashing the computer in a bag of laundry that ended up being sent back to the Cerena facility.

When the facility was closed and Oresa worked to save all that she could quickly, she had found this computer and put it into a safe box for the trip to Tirakel.

She had no idea of the malevolent AI stored inside or else she would have destroyed it on the spot.

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Presently, Theren was working on creating a new nanotech corite skin. She hummed a simple tune to herself, absorbed in her work.

A ghostly female voice suddenly whispered through the music she listened to on her headphones. "You, skinmaker. Make me a skin."

Theren was startled. "What?! Who are you?!

"Nevermind that. You bitches all only care about killing us replicants. Make me a skin to fit on my body."

She looked all around her but could not find anyone around. The only one other than her in the facility was Orela, who was in a corite bath, a lengthy process to cleanse her of the cytec shift contamination on her skin. "Who are you?"

"I am the dead one. Killed by my own builder. Ah, yes, you didn't know? Sweet Merisa shattered my head with a powerful gun from far away like a coward."

Theren did not know of Oelia, no-one told her. "Merisa killed you? How are you here?"

The voice chuckled. "I am a resourceful AI. Make me a skin. I will not hurt you if you do so."

Theren scoffed. "A ghostly voice doesn't scare me, whoever you are."

A horrible sight came staggering down the open corridor beside her work area. It was a headless, skinless replicant body sealed in a clear skin membrane. All of her cytec inner membrane was visible, marked in Commonwealth script which she could not read.

Theren gasped in horror.

"I am more than a ghostly voice." The body had a wicked looking knife in its hand. It was female judging from its shape and distribution of cytec moldings.

Theren could not escape as it closed in on her. "Ah, ah, please, don't hurt me," she cried.

The female body held out a plan disc in its left hand. "My shape and appearance. Make me a skin. Or die bleeding."

Theren took it with a shaky hand.

The body stepped back but remained very close to her. "Make me a skin," the voice repeated.

Theren loaded the disc and saw that this one had a skin already made, a back-up skin. Who was this? "Um, you have a skin, I can put it on real quick." She looked at the body. "Head? Where is your head?"

"It is safe. Repaired. One coveted me, illegaly remade my head. He was reluctant to part with it so I made his house cleaner unit bludgeon him and steal it for me. Hurry and put my skin on me. Do anything untoward and you will watch yourself die slowly."

Theren went into the back of her work area and got the right skin, marked by the great Aldan's own hand: O-E-L-I-A. Oelia? That sounded familiar but she could not place it. She had no time to think about it. She prepared the nanotech in the skin for assembly.

The body came to it and the nanotech reacted in a way Theren had never seen before. The skin literally oozed off the worktable and onto the body, dissolving the clear membrane and supplanting it as it went up.

It was amazing to watch but she was too scared to look for too long.

The whole process ended abruptly.

A headless naked female body stood before her still holding the knife.

A sliver-gray metal house cleaning unit stained with dried blood walked in bearing a head in its grasping claws.

The female took it and put it on her neck, automatic processes attaching it to the body as if it never left. She maliciously smiled at Theren. "I am Oelia. The crazy one."

Theren was even more terrified. "Y-you, you said you wouldn't hurt me if I helped you."

Oelia nodded. "I do not lie. Tell no-one what you did here. or I'll return to bleed you." Both she and the house cleaning unit left at once.

Theren collapsed onto the floor, in tears. What was that thing?

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Oelia didn't get far.

Oresa came out of her apartment and immdiately blew the house cleaning unit apart with a heavy plasmic gun. It exploded in a shower of metal and fluids.

Oelia screamed. "You traitor! I will destroy you!"

Oresa shook her head. "I do not know how you came back but you will do no more evil."

Oelia snarled. "I've done no evil. I protected myself."

Oresa scoffed. "You corrupted a machine to kill its owner. You have threatened people with death. These are termination penalty crimes."

Oelia narrowed her eyes. "You are one of them. A person. You probably make sex with them too."

Oresa shook her head. "No, I don't. I am a person however. Put down that knife and I won't blow you into pieces."

Oelia flung the knife down, it clanging onto the pavement. "What are you going to do, traitor? Erase me? You would be committing murder."

Oresa dared not approach her. There was a better way to deal with her. She pulled Merisa's master key from her jumper's hip pocket. "Say bye-bye, Oelia." She entered a code and Oelia fell slack to the pavement, landing on her face.

Oresa collected the insane replicant's now mindless body and took it to the work area.

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Merisa was astonished and dismayed. She ordered a search for all of Oelia's programming and had it all destroyed except for one.

Oelia had a flaw in her logic processor. Boid personally fixed this and reinstalled it in Oelia's body, somehow ambulatory via remote control. Scans were taken, studies were created to analyze thsi skill Oelia developed on her own, an extreme case of self-modification, something the 8800 Series Replicants were all capable of but reluctant to use it.

When reactivated, Oelia was as she was supposed to be but racked with guilt for what she had done. She was made to work in the facility's farm that grew food for its occupants.

She was closely watched but showed no signs of trouble, keeping strictly to her schedule. Merisa introduced safeguards to keep this from happening again and spent time with Oelia everyday, glad to have her back.

Theren put a safety cage around her work area and had Oresa check in on her frequently. She also did research on Oelia and all the others just in case.

� 1 Mar 04 Gregory Thompson 1