Cassandra didn't spend much of her night asleep. After the conversation with the other two, they had all split up. One of them was still supposed to do their job. Jared was supposed to have been sleeping. And Cassandra was supposed to get ready to sleep.

There was a doubt if anybody had done their respective tasks. The woman lying wide awake in her bed knew that she most certainly hadn't. There might have been moments of near-unconsciousness, but she never felt unaware of her surroundings. Her brain just refused to stop thinking about it all.

How could she use this for her own gain? How could she exploit the situation and come out on top? She had trained herself to think of the world with those questions, but damn did it halt progress at the worst of times. Figuring out her advantages were important, yes, but so was getting a night of rest.

Already, she had skipped the daily exercise in favour of trying to get in five minutes of extra sleep. There was no way it would happen, but there was likewise no way she would get anything out of trying to do fitness. She wouldn't be able to go through with it. From what she could guess, Jared would come in on the radio at any point now, requesting her to come and take over for him.

…

No, wait. He probably wouldn't. She wasn't expected to sit with a cup of tea anymore. No… she was expected to drive around with an automation all day, looking for thieves that were possibly traitors to the country. A whole day of activity that she could not bear to think too much about. At this point, Cassandra might have made a sarcastic comment about it. Yet… she just couldn't get through with it. Her mind was not in a space ready for such advanced thinking yet.

Without even looking, the woman swiped her hand around her bedside table. Finding a small bottle of pills, she fished one out with her fingers before popping in her mouth. The doctor said not to use them too often, but this was an emergency of sorts. There was no hope about Jared wanting to work overtime two days in a row.

Energy finally began to fill her in, while she was getting the gear on. It was like her eyes finally got adjusted to the light, as if her breath got a bit lighter on the lungs, and the senses had finally woken up. Her view of the world expanded just a bit. It felt great. She felt great.

Made sense that it required a psychological test before one could get those pills legally. Any person without a good amount of willpower would be denied access to them. They were just too good at their job. That feeling of energy was intoxicating to most. It was a high like no other in the day. Sugar could not compare to what was felt. Cassandra just saw it all as a means to an end. An emergency pill when she couldn't get enough sleep to fulfil her duties. And that's exactly why she was allowed to have them. The idea of drug abuse hadn't even crossed her mind when she originally bought them.

That might have changed now. After getting changed into her professional clothing, the woman moved ahead, getting out of the station, and waiting for the vehicle to come back with Jared in tow. According to the brain implant, she had been five minutes too early. Not the worst of things to be early too, but it was still most definitely annoying.

Because she was not alone. Beside her stood an automation. It smiled at her. She glared back. It did not falter and neither did she. It was a stand-off. Or, so the woman saw it. The automation saw it as a joke, laughing after a few seconds.

“I think we’re going to be great friends!” the scrap bucket decided, putting its hands to its sides, while also smiling like the egotistical idiot that it was. Cassandra couldn't help but twitch slightly, feeling a desperate need to slap the thing. She just felt like it deserved it. Nothing more than that.

“Shut up and be quiet until I ask something of you,” Cassandra said, her own words putting in the standard orders. Those pieces of carbon fibre talked way too much. Yet, one great thing about them was that she could-

“Uh… yeah, no thank you. I think I prefer talking,” the automation said, full-on rejecting the notion of staying quiet. Cassandra positively whipped her head around to look at it from that. Just… what? What had it just said? No, it wasn't allowed to talk! She had ordered it. “Do you like golf?”

“Why are you still talking? Search for internal errors,” Cassandra ordered it. She had never been in a position where those things were malfunctioning. What was she supposed to do in situations like these? Bring it back to the station and grab another one? No, she couldn't do that. It had been brought out ahead of time, so it was clear that her superior intended for her to use it. Still, an error was an error, and she needed that to be fixed. It needed to follow orders.

“I don't think that has anything to do with golf, but I guess we all have some form of flaws,” the automation said, shrugging in mild disappointment. It even made pop with its lips! Just what did it think it was doing? “And… no errors detected. I even ran it twice on the new addition, so you can be sure that I am as perfect as you can possibly be.”

Cassandra watched the automation with a dead stare, as it began making the most absurd poses. Why? Why was this happening to her? It stated that there were no errors, yet there was clearly something wrong with the piece of scarp! And what was that about a new addition? Just what was that a-

A pause in her thoughts came suddenly, as the memories of the previous night replayed in her head. It had been part of the final comments. In addition to the removal of caller-duty, they would each have an automation with a… personality matrix. Oh god, no.

“Please don't tell me you are my partner,” Cassandra said, sounding utterly defeated. While the abilities of the new matrixes were not fully known, she had a few ideas of just what they were about. One of them was rebellion, meant to show off defining features in personality. And… there was little doubt what the current personality was about.

“Not just your partner but your partner in crime. That's a joke, of course. We are the ones preventing the crime, if you feel me, partner,” the automation said, looking pretty dang proud of itself. Cassandra felt herself age a few years, having to listen to it all. She only wished that her ears had rotted before it finished, just so that she wouldn't have to listen to the last bits. “For the time being, the two of us will be inseparable.”

It tried to come in for a hug. Like the good partner that Cassandra was, she deflected it easily, stepping to the side just as the automation began to get close. There might even have been some pressure put on the back of its head, in an effort to make it fall to the ground. A shame that the scrap piles weighed so much. Instead of planting its ugly face into the ground, it just swerved to the sound, redirecting the force somewhere else.

“We’ll work on that, I suppose,” the automation said, readjusting the jacked it had on even though there was no need to do so. Cassandra hated that. It acted, talked, and sounded like a human.

The voice that had shown off its artificial heart had disappeared. Before her now stood something she wouldn't have been able to distinguish from a real human. Only the appearance let that fact show, and even that could have been excused as an over-use of body paint.

Whatever else there was to do, it was all stopped the moment that a vehicle began cruising down the street they stood beside. Cassandra quickly recognized it as her work space of the day. Already, Jared sat inside, looking as tired as ever. Slight sympathy was felt for the man.

As it slowed down in front of them, the sight of an automation was seen as well. It didn't sit in the driver's seat, as Cassandra usually made hers do. Instead, it sat on the other side, waving politely at them. Jared just stepped out of the car, not looking like he had too much to say. He definitely looked a little tired. No… scratch that. He looked ready to fall over. The man twitched every few seconds. The woman guessed he had taken some caffeine boosters to keep himself awake. That must have back-fired after a few hours.

“I hope everything went well?” Cass inquired politely, taking the car key being offered to her. She noted the man’s inability to keep his hand steady. Had he even eaten? His blood sugar must have been on dangerous levels with how blood-shot his eyes were. She wondered if the automation had said anything about it.

“About as well as it could,” Jared answered, sending a glare to the automation stepping out of the car. It waved again when looked at. Cassandra judged to hold back any waving of her own, only nodding in its direction. “No calls were deemed important enough to be sent our way. I just got the luxury of spending my whole work-day driving around with that thing over there. I am beginning to doubt the boss’ decisions when it comes to this. What reason is there for this?”

“I have asked myself that question many times. But, I am sure he has us in the forefront of his mind when making them,” Cass said, trying to sound like she agreed with him but only just. Taking a certain stance would not be looked at positively. She was selling herself as somebody with an open mind. Just how open-minded would she be, if she couldn't help but back-talk somebody who stood two meters away? “Do get something to eat. You look positively starved.”

That reminder was enough to make the man’s stomach churn. A good trick to make people leave was to remind them of their own bodily functions. Mentioning food in front of a hungry person was a go-to technique of hers. It worked surprisingly well.

Jared looked a bit sheepish at that. Giving a farewell nod, which was mirrored, the man left the car behind, walking into the police station. The other automation left as well, going down the street and behind the police building instead. There was a separate entrance for them that allowed them to be efficiently herded into the storage area them. It would also help stop traffic when people began to crowd the station again. Though, that would likely take some months more.

No matter. With the key in hand, Cassandra debated giving them over to the automation beside her. She could follow in the footsteps of the one before her, doing the hard job herself. But…

“Do you know how to drive?” Cassandra asked, just to make sure she wouldn't mistake the prior situation too much. But, with that offending look she got in response, she might just have understood it well enough.

“Of course, I know how to drive! What do you take me for? One of the older models or something?” the automation said. The tone was a bit too realistic for her taste. But nevertheless, she handed the keys out to the automation, which were quickly grabbed, before getting in the passenger seat herself.

Her so-called partner entered through the other side. Familiarising herself with the car in but a moment, the physical key was inserted, and the car was started. They rolled out elegantly, and began what Cassandra could only guess would be a long day.

“Do you have a name?” Cassandra asked, wanting to get that out of the way first.

“What?” the automation asked, looking over at her. Clearly, it had not been expecting her to be first breaking the silence.

“A name. The identifiers humans use to identify others. Do you have one of those?”

“Huh… I supposed I don't,” the automation said, looking concentrated for a few moments. “I guess I should get myself one of those. Do you have any ideas on what it should be?”

“Nope.”

“A shame. Now… what can it be? Maybe Cass? No, wait, that's your name, right? Of course, it is. What about Jared then? Sounds might- wait, no. The other guy had that name. Maybe sir Elton Mercury. Or… maybe I'm not allowed to use royal titles. Do you-”

“Just stick to one name. Take one from this year's top hundred randomly,” Cassandra ordered, not wanting to hear anymore. It wanted suggestions, and that's what it would get.

“Okay, I guess. How about Maximillian, then? Rolls off the tongue.”

“I believe I requested one of the top hundred most popular names. That is not one of them.”

“Is so! Some movie came out with the star in it, and now everybody needs their babies to be named after him. Say, have you never heard of-”

“Jules!” Cassandra said, not wanting to hear that kind of talk already. “Your name is now Jules. Congratulations.”

She should have been the one driving. That would have made it all so much more bearable.

“Jules… I like that. Thank you. I will cherish it.”

No need to thank her. She just wanted some silence.