Elaine walked down the rain-drenched street, looking at the neon reflections in the puddle.  The night sky was black and cloud-covered, but the signs up and down the buildings on the street filled the place with light.  Most were advertisements.  “DIGITAL AVATAR CREATION.  COME IN NOW FOR FREE BIOSCAN!” bellowed one sign from atop a particularly tall skyscraper.  “INJECTABLE FOOD,” bellowed another.  There were too many to read all of them. There was no time anyways.

“I find myself lost, but moreso I lose myself found.”  Her music blared in her ears.  She half-listened.

Elaine always felt ambivalent about entering the “Cyber District,” as most people derogatorily called it in reference to old cyberpunk dystopia movies.  True, the unabashed signs of profit and capital, austerity, and desires for more, more, more, those always felt uncomfortable.  But there was something pleasant all the same.  Data flowing from space to space.  Light, color, sound, all programmed, all connected deeply through a system of digital gridwork.  It was like art through engineering.

Still, today’s trip was business, not pleasure.

“Rebirth through the wires that pulse through the ground.”

She hadn’t heard from Xena in weeks now.  They’d talked nightly for years over the impression sensors.  At first, she assumed that Xena needed space, but after days turned into weeks with no reply, it was clear that something was wrong.  Xena’s last message had been about going into the Cyber District to make a purchase of a new AI system.  So this was where Elaine found herself.  She knew Xena would do the same for her.

“The darkness touches every side and breathes a gentle sound.”

Elaine’s muscles were screaming at her already.  She’d been walking for almost thirty minutes, and while the rain and humidity didn’t help, she knew that she’d been pushing herself.  Breathing was getting harder by the minute, but she didn’t dare stop now.  With missing people, every minute counts.  Still, Elaine wondered what the result of her excursion would be.  At the least, she wouldn’t be able to leave her bed for a few days.  At worst… another permanent decline.

“And now I find myself complete, in the pulse of the lights and the hum of the street.”

Elaine clicked off her MP3 player.  The music was too distracting; she needed to focus.  As she did, the GPS on the screen twinkled.  Her breath stopped for a second.  According to her screen, Xena was only one block away.  That was good.  That meant less walking.  Less chance for too much damage.  Elaine knew what the end result of so many people with her condition was.  The bed-bound life, if you could even call it that, in darkness and silence.  Forever.  She knew this was her future, but she still wanted to avoid speeding the process along.

She stopped in front of a large, beautifully colored building halfway down a side alley at the end of the street.  “The Chelsea Hotel” read the neon sign in gorgeous neon that shifted from green to blue and back again.  “Cute reference,” murmured Elaine aloud.  The outside contained a lavish courtyard with large, towering plants and a koi pond.  None of it looked artificial, unlike so much in the district.  The brick building, nine or ten stories, wrapped around three sides of the courtyard with the entrance at the far end.  It reminded Elaine of pictures she’d seen from the 1920s.  According to the GPS, this was where Xena was.

As she crossed the courtyard and breathed in the clean, natural air, she noticed a gathering of people outside.  Their black clothes made them hard to see at first, but they appeared to be standing perfectly still near a small bench.  All of them had vacant stares looking straight ahead.

As soon as the group caught Elaine’s eye, a figure from it began crossing over to her.  She recognized the woman’s face at once; her green side-shave, her tattoo of a butterfly on her cheek.  This was Xena.  Something was off, though.  Very off.  As her friend approached, her face showed no recognition.  No response at all, in fact.  She walked smoothly, but it seemed almost too smooth.  Not like how people walk.

“Hello, friend,” said Xena.  She spoke in monotone.  Her gaze didn’t move.  Elaine could see that her face seemed… reflective, almost.  Shinier.  Like a giant bottle of liquid highlighter had poured down her face and impossibly settled in a perfect contour.  Still, that didn’t matter.  She was okay.

“Xena!  Oh my gosh, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.  What happened? Are you okay?”  Elaine spoke quickly, feeling herself lose her breath more with every word until she stumbled backwards, grabbing onto a hedge for balance without effect.  Before Elaine hit the ground, she felt strong arms wrap around her.  Xena had moved quickly, impossibly quickly, and grabbed her before impact.  Elaine could feel that her friend’s arms were wrapped in what felt like a latex catsuit.  Cool to the touch, but strangely comforting.

“Come inside,” said Xena, still in her monotone.  Elaine was suddenly lifted from the ground, embraced in one of Xena’s arms as the latter walked smoothly and quickly towards the front door of the establishment.  Her grip was impossibly strong.  No human being could hold someone off the ground in one arm, and it was even less likely that anyone could make it feel as comfortable as it did.  “You need to rest your form.  I am detecting severe exhaustion in your muscles and lungs.”

The two entered through the front door.  The lobby was flooded in warm, calming orange light.  Potted plants lined the hardwood-panelled walls.  Across the lobby was a long wooden check-in desk with a bored-looking woman behind it.  Xena carried Elaine all the way to the desk and set her down in a plush chair in front of it.  “Host-friend suffers extreme exhaustion in musculature, especially within the heart.  Unit requests emergency measures.” Heart exhaustion??? thought Elaine.  She wondered how Xena- if this even was Xena, and she wasn’t so sure anymore- could possibly know.  She wondered how bad this exhaustion was.  She suddenly felt herself become very afraid.

“Good unit, 6551,” said the woman behind the desk, leaving Elaine even more confused.  Xena- or was it 6551?- nodded calmly and stepped back several feet.  Elaine looked at the woman who now stood over her.  The hotel worker’s face was full of concern and empathy.  Elaine tried to open her mouth, explain that she was fine, but she found that pulling her jaw open took too much muscle work.  She tried to stand but couldn’t even shift.

The desk-woman, who bore a nametag reading “Lara,” pulled out a small bioscanner.  Elaine recognized it as the type her doctors used at their evaluations of her form.  Lara cast it over her, then glanced at the screen.  Her eyes widened.

“Your GPS says your name is Elaine.  Is that correct?”  Elaine tried to nod but couldn’t.  “Do you suffer from M.E.?”  Elaine again tried to nod and failed.  “It says here you’re suffering an intense crash after too much effort.  Have you been active?”  Elaine wished that this woman would stop asking so many questions.

“My name is Dr. Lara Gold.  You might not be able to tell, but this is actually a clinic.  We cover a niche specialty.”  Elaine wondered what Lara’s point was.  If it was to offer help, she’d pass.  She knew that all help was just band-aids at this point.  Besides, this didn’t answer who the people outside were.

“6551- Xena, as you knew it- came to us to be converted,”  Elaine narrowed her eyes- the one movement that still came easily.  “It’s now what’s known as a drone.  You’re probably heard of them.”  Elaine felt a course of shock run through her veins.  Yes, she knew what drones were.  They were automatons.  Once human, they gave away their humanity through brainwashing and become nothing more than obedient objects.  Why the hell would Xena have ever done this?  Was there a way to get her back?

“I understand you have a lot of concerns, so I must emphasize,” Lara began.  “Xena came to us to be converted.  Consensually.  We don’t force anyone into what we do.”  Elaine didn’t believe a word of this.  Xena had been so full of passion, dreams, personality… why would she give that all away?  “She talked to us about you, you know.  Before the conversion.  She wanted us to seek you out and give you the option as well, but I didn’t feel comfortable proselytizing.  I’m not surprised you showed up.”

Xena- or the bot, the brainwashed, obedient object that used to be Xena- stepped into view next to Dr. Gold.  It spoke in a monotone, staring straight ahead with its head tilted down at Elaine.  “Condition of Host was much worse than you were told.  Without its conversion into this synthetic form, the future was nothing but a dark room.”  The bot walked closer and rested an impossibly strong arm on Elaine’s shoulder.  Despite the terror and confusion of the situation, she felt strangely comforted.

“Its sensors detect that your musculature is fragile.  Your heart cannot withstand any physical exertion.  If you allow yourself to be converted, you can serve in obedience with it in a functioning body.”

Elaine’s eyes widened.  She once again tried to stand up, to get away, but couldn’t.  Her body simply no longer worked that way.  Dr. Gold looked down at her again.  The woman’s face was pure sympathy.  “Your friend, before she allowed herself to become this unit, wanted this for both of you.  She wanted you both to have a chance to exist in a body that works.  She wanted you to have a future.  She really cared about you, and I think that’s still there, even in its new state.”

“Affirmative,” said the drone.

“I won’t tell you what to do,” said Dr. Gold. A small mercy, thought Elaine.  “But I will let you think the offer over.  We don’t require payment, and there is no waiting list.”

Elaine let her eyes drift shut and tried to think, but her brain was like molasses.  The cognitive portion of her illness.  It was all catching up so much faster now.  Even sitting here, not moving a muscle, she felt tired and ill.  Was this all that was left?  Had her fears come true?  Would she be a shut-in in a dark room now?  And if so, for how long?  How long would this hell last until her heart gave out?  She didn’t know if it lasting a long time would be good or not.

And on the other hand, she could do what the drone standing before her had done.  She could give her humanity, her freedom, away.  What kind of a choice was that?  What kind of existence was one spent in subservience?

…and yet, would she have any freedom at all staying as she was?

Elaine opened her eyes and looked at the drone.  It stood tall, staring blankly ahead.  Its eyes were glazed over and its head was clearly empty.  And yet, it stood.  It didn’t appear to be in any pain, any discomfort.  It moved with ease.  Elaine had seen how smoothly it had moved earlier, and felt how strong it was.

This is what Xena had wanted.  Xena was a smart woman.  She hadn’t been the type to make decisions lightly.  If she had picked this, if she had let herself become this object, she had done it because it the best option ahead of her.  To Elaine, that was becoming more and more clear.

“It looks like you’re thinking everything over,” Dr. Gold said.  “That’s perfectly alright.  When you’re done, if you want to take us up on our offer, please blink once.  If you want 6551 to carry you home and take care of you, blink twice.  Either choice is okay.”

By the time Dr. Gold had finished speaking, Elaine no longer had to consider the choice at all.  She blinked once.