Vegis felt as though he was falling again. Jumping up, Vegis fell off the table with a loud smack, causing Tulip to giggle. “This happens every time” Tulip said after helping Vegis up off the floor. Once the metallic tester helped Vegis up, it started to instruct the slightly embarrassed man. “The next test will be the compatibility test which will take an hour. Follow the arrows to get into the next testing facility. I will be there in a bit after I send the report.”
Walking into the hall and following the arrows, Vegis noticed that this was taking much longer than the walk to the last testing room. The arrows lead him to a gymnasium filled with deactivated androids. These androids were of a hybrid design, flesh and steel. A vat grown brain is visible due to a glass view port for a forehead, metallic skeleton with spikes piercing the engineered skin that covers most of the body except for the head, and 2 wires sprouting from their backs which connect them to a standing charging port.
Vegis stepped closer to the one closest to the door to inspect it. Vegis did this to 3 different androids since it seemed like no one was in the room with him. The three he had checked had slightly different designs, with the first one being relatively simple, closer to baseline humans, the second having more mechanical and having more weird bits and pieces, and with the final one having strange biomechanical arms, metal wings, and their eyes have more unnatural parts added to it.
“Oi, step away from the androids” boomed from the entrance where Vegis came from. Vegis turned over and saw a new person standing next to Tulip. “Ah, okay. Sorry if I wasn’t supposed to get close to them.” Vegis said as soon as he got close to the 2. “It is fine, I just need to now do a check on them for tampering. So step out of the room, it will just take a minute.” said the new person. Vegis complied and waited outside the room before the room blared with bright blue lights and crackling noises. When it stopped, the doors slowly opened and Vegis entered. “Is everything alright?”(Vegis) “Everything passed. Hi I am Bates” Said the stranger.
Vegis nodded at this and then asked, “So how does the test work?” “That is simple, you see this head gear I got on?” Bates said as he pointed to a green star on his forehead. “This will make a temporary link between one of the testing units and you. You will try to do some basic stretches and movements. We’ll start with Unit 1. The left side uses servos and motors to move and the right side uses muscles and ligaments.” Bates then pulled out a star shape out of his pocket and handed it to Vegis.
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Vegis then slapped it onto his forehead and a menu appeared in his left eye. It was a basic fill in the blank window that asked what Unit did he want to use. Vegis pressed 1, and mind was sent into the android. Opening his new eyes, Vegis felt normal. He walked forward and backwards, spun around, and touched his toes. “Seems like he got basic controls down” Bates said to Tulip. “Okay, I need you to walk over here and try to do some more complex task. Vegis turned the android to Bates and asked, “Do the cables go that far?” and received a nod from him. Vegis walked slowly to Bates, trying to feel if there was anything that felt wrong.
He couldn’t really put his finger on it, but something on his left side felt slow, and not as responsive. “Vegis, you will need to pick up 4 logs from over there and place them in a row. Then strike each with a punch and kick. 2 logs for your left and 2 for your right.” said Bates when Vegis got in front of him. Vegis followed the command and noticed that he had less control over his left side as compared to his right. Tulip was marking things down on their clipboard as they stared at Vegis’s actions.
Bates spoke up after Vegis was done. “Seems like you have a harder time controlling the machine bits. Time for you to swap to Unit 32 then. It follows a mostly conventional human design but has mechanical enhancements, like carbon tubes lacing your nerves and a few other things.” Vegis nodded and pulled up the menu and typed 32 into the blank and his mind flew to the new android. Vegis then repeated everything and performed much better. The only discomfort he had was the mind connection to the network which Vegis said, “felt slimy”.
They repeat this process 4 more times. Unit 12 had a full Machine internals with new appendages but felt slow and unresponsive to Vegis. Unit 40 was a full biological android with complex additions that Vegis had little control of. Unit 79 had a wide range of complex appendages, organs, miniature weapons systems, and a full eye redesign. The controls were way too complex for him to control, so Bates and Tulip managed to find what they considered the perfect one for him until they made the clones.
Unit 16 was an android very similar to Unit 32 but had a couple of key differences. Those were that the left eye was cybernetic, a small energy pump was connected to the heart instead of the head, and the fingers were removable and could both be customized and plugged into other devices for data transfer.
Once the testing was done, Bates removed the star from Vegis’s forehead, dragging Vegis into his own body and making him fall to the floor. “Are you okay there Vegis?”(Tulip) “I am. Just a little disoriented from all the body swapping.”(Vegis) “You will get used to it when you do it as much as I do”(Bates). Vegis stood up and took a couple of deep breaths to center himself. “Can I take a break before I have to go to the next Test”(Vegis) “Yeah. Most need a break before the last test.”(Tulip)
