Episode 2: Daniel the Liar

Daniel Chin stood on a walkway looking down at the crowd of humans. Within his direct sphere of awareness, he detected that he commanded the attention of 226 humans— both inside and directly outside the water treatment facility.

Earlier, he had convinced Michelle to help him enter the unmanned facility. Once inside, he began to analyze and infiltrate its core control systems. The mission was without incident, until Michelle became suspicious and used her bracelink to conference her parents.

Daniel destroyed the bracelink, but the damage was done. UEP Guardians showed up at the facility to apprehend him— he dispatched them both. Unfortunately, one of them became messy and the circle of blood and innards outside the front door attracted too much human attention.

He could have dispatched them quietly and without traces. However, the combination of curiosity and frustration overcame him.  Curiosity on how human innards would look when exposed to sunlight for the first time— and frustration at the fact that he was unable to communicate with Mother to know what to do next.

Not to mention, one of the Guardians angered him— he grabbed Michelle harshly. Perhaps that was the real reason he reacted that way.  His humanistic kernel had become a dominant piece of his mind, redefining logic— turning precision into approximations and areas of black and white reasoning into human grey. Was this the reason that Mother stopped communicating with him?  Because he became too human?

“Why are you doing this?” Michelle asked again.