Andromeda
By Jessica Swanson // September 29, 2023
Marie has asked Devyn about the android before, many times. “She’s like my sister,” he explained, glancing up from his computer to meet Marie’s gaze. “I built her when I was 14. She’s always been like… like the sister I never had.”
Marie has never had a sister or an android, so she wouldn’t know.
***
“Why Andromeda?”
The treehouse behind the library has blown down after the storm, and she’s helping Devyn and his sister hammer the boards back in place.
Devyn winces as he pulls a splinter out of his thumb. “Why don’t you ask her?” he says.
So Marie turns to Andromeda, who’s currently lifting three two-by-fours over her head with ease. “Why is your name Andromeda?” Marie asks.
“I’m named after the galaxy next to ours,” Andromeda explains, passing one of the boards up to Devyn in the tree. “But I also like to go by Andi.”
“Andi the android?”
“I was 14,” Devyn reminds her. “I wasn’t that creative when it came to names.”
***
But he was creative in other pursuits. If it wasn’t for the way she walks and talks, Andi would look completely, organically human. Her deep brown eyes, dark skin and bouncy hair truly make her look like she could be Devyn’s biological sister.
Marie finds her fascinating.
“Do you even like coffee?” she asks, watching Andi clean out the coffeepot in the library’s kitchenette.
“It’s warm,” Andi says. “Sometimes I don’t drink it, I just like to hold it. I have heat sensors in my hands, you know. And taste receptors on my tongue— just like you.”
“So you can taste it,” Marie says.
“I can taste it,” Andi confirms. “But I do not like the taste. I prefer hot tea.”
***
Devyn explains to Marie that he created Andi’s voice by blending audio from a broad variety of actresses and singers. Jennifer Hudson and Keke Palmer coexist alongside hundreds of other phonemes, cadences and pitches from hundreds of other people. And yet, there is something uniquely her own about the way Andi belts out Broadway show tunes and cartoon jingles while she’s returning books to their shelves after hours.
***
“I didn’t just make her because I was lonely,” Devyn admits darkly one evening, propped against one wall of the treehouse with his eyes shut. “It was more than that. I was scared, Marie. I was scared out of my damn mind and I just wanted…”
“Someone who could make you feel safe,” Marie ventures.
“More than that. Someone who could fight for me. Not someone who could make me feel safe, Marie, someone who made me safe. You ever noticed how Andi can benchpress three times her weight?”
But he doesn’t elaborate. Not that night.
***
Marie learns the story in little pieces. She learns it in the way that Andi gets quiet when certain subjects come up in conversation. She learns it in the way Devyn sometimes flinches when a visitor drops a heavy book too suddenly and the loud clack-thump against the table echoes in the quiet of the library.
***
Devyn does finally tell her in words. “It was my mom’s boyfriend,” he says, again in the treehouse, this time with the gauzy haze of smoke around his head and Marie’s. “He scared me. Hurt me. I just wanted Andromeda to keep me safe, but… see, her protocols, I didn’t realize how much she was capable of, and she— It wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t her fault, Marie, you know that, right?”
“I know.”
“To everyone else it looked like he just fell down the stairs,” Devyn explains. “The police never even knew about Andi, and Mom, well— I mean, she’s better off without the bastard, so. You know?”
“I know,” Marie says, and she’s never been a very touchy-feely person but she leans over and puts a hand on Devyn’s shoulder. She can feel him shaking. “I won’t tell anyone, ever.”
“It would never happen again,” Devyn swears. “I fixed her programming, put in safeties… She’s not, she wouldn’t… I mean, you know what she’s like.”
“It never occurred to you to deactivate her,” Marie says, not accusing or even questioning, really. It’s just a statement. Something she noticed.
Devyn says, “Of course not. She’s my sister.”
______________
Jessica Swanson works in content marketing. She grew up in Wake Forest and graduated in 2014 from Heritage High School. She likes robots in science fiction, hates AI in real life, and loves getting a London Fog from the Wake Forest Coffee Company.