Deviants Fallen: A DBH Story

Chapter 7: Emotions

Clara stifled the urge to roll her eyes. Instead, she took a deep breath to calm herself. "Yes. My family comes from a long line of uptight snobs who hoarded wealth like dragons. I was fortunate enough to be the one to inherit it all after my aunt's recent passing."

"Wow! So no battles for the inheritance?" Maria looked at her with curiosity. 

"None," Clara answered. "There's no one else alive that can even make a claim for it." She looked at the intern and smiled darkly. "Not anymore, at least." Out of the corner of her eyes, she thought she saw Connor's lips twitch into a brief smirk, but he quickly fixed his expression into one of polite vacancy.

"Oh." Maria paled a little, smile faltering. They spent the rest of the descent in silence. 

Eventually, they reached their floor, and Ms. Alvarez quickly stepped out of the elevator, gesturing for them to follow. "There's one more area I forgot to show you yesterday," she said, walking swiftly down the hall. 

They made their way through the halls, nearing Clara's lab at the end. However, instead of going to the door of the lab, the intern stopped at an adjacent door. She scanned her palm and opened it, revealing a room of empty white cells with thick glass walls. "Since it's likely you'll be working with active subjects, we've provided holding cells. You may store the subjects here after you've reactivated them." She turned back to Clara. "Now, is there anything else you need before I leave you?"

Clara thought for a moment. "Yes, actually. I'll need to borrow an active android, non-deviant. Any model will do."

"I'll have one sent down to you shortly." With that, Maria rushed back down the hallway, leaving Clara alone with her android handler.

"Well, guess we better get started." She looked over at Connor, then walked to the door of her lab, scanning her palm then opening it. 

Connor followed Dr. Hayes into the lab and watched as she set her bag down by the desk. She sat down and pulled her laptop out, connecting it to the computer system she'd been provided with. She then pulled a mess of cords out of her bag, plugging them in to various ports on both the computer system and her laptop. One of the cords, Connor noticed, was like the ones they used to connect directly with the port all androids had on the back of their neck. He wondered what it was for. 

Dr. Hayes looked over at him, catching him staring. She paused for a moment then said, "Connor, can you grab a chair and come sit down over here?" She gestured a space in front of her desk. 

The android nodded and did as the doctor asked. He grabbed a chair and set it down near the front corner of the desk, angling it so that they could see each other over her laptop. 

"I'm going to ask for your help for a moment." Her tone was businesslike. 

"What do you need me to do?" he asked curiously. 

Dr. Hayes held a thick cable, squeezing it tightly in her hands. "If you're willing, I need to plug this in to your port. It connects to a program that I'll use to monitor your electrical impulses and reactions while I ask you a series of questions."