"I wish until I say otherwise, Karyn here will be our experimental android girl, fully programmable and 100% under our control."
There was the familiar flash, and Eric & Keith glanced away. When they looked back, they saw Karyn still standing there. At first glance, she looked the same as she had moments ago. However, they quickly saw key differences. Her skin was now a pale, matted silver. Her eyes, once bright and sparkling, were now flat and dark. Her visible joints - jaw, fingers, wrists, elbows knees - were segmented. She stood stiffly - unblinking, unmoving, not even breathing.
Eric cautiously aproached the immobile form. "Karyn?" he whispered.
Suddenly, Karyn turned to peer at him. "Subject Identified," she said. The voice was hers, but it sounded flat and unemotional. "You are Doctor Eric Stutman, a primary codemaster for project K.A.R.Y.N."
Keith's mouth fell open. "Unbelievable."
Karyn's head swiveled to face him in turn, the two of them hearing tiny servomotors as it did. "Subject Identified. You are Doctor Keith Wooley, a primary codemaster for project K.A.R.Y.N."
Keith merely stood gaping. Eric, however, continued. "Tell us, what is project K.A.R.Y.N.?"
In the same flat voice, the reply came, "Project K.A.R.Y.N. is the attempt by primary codemasters Eric Stutman and Keith Wooley to create an artifical humanoid, known colloquially as an 'android'. This unit is the fruition of the project's development."
"Then you are an android?"
"Affirmative. This unit is officially designated K.A.R.Y.N. - Knowledge-Based Artifical Relational Yottabyte Neuroprocessor."
Now even Eric blanched. A Yottabyte was roughly equivalent to one hundred million billion gigabytes - an immensely powerful piece of computing equipment tha would be unmatched by anything else on the planet. And here it was, in front of him, all at his command and ready to be eploited.
