Why did Troy ever accept this job?

He should have known. Actions had consequences. Not thinking about why such a simple job, had such a great wage, was the definition of stupidity.

What did he expect that he would do?

Be a guide to an unknown entity that was desperate to look up at an all-knowing figure? How could he have ever believed that? The other job-positions were never clear on what exactly one was supposed to do, and this situation was a clear indication of why that was.

If Troy had been told exactly, what he would be doing, and not just in the general term, of test-participant, he would have denied it oh so quickly. Only the rarest of masochists would ever say yes to being blasted with sound.

He was glad that medical insurance was part of the job package. He would need somebody to fix his ears. If they were not broken from this, he wouldn't be surprised, if he just deafened himself, to simply have some peace and quiet.

'It is 1575 hertz.'

Troy scrolled down to it and pressed the confirm button. A brief silence was played before another frequency surfaced.

Adam didn't seem to have his ideas about it. He didn't even seem fazed with those annoying sounds. Troy was even criticized for his initial reaction. He was criticized for reacting to loud, unexpected noise.

Sure, maybe it wasn't common to drop to the ground and put one's hands over their ears. But that didn't mean that somebody could act so exasperatedly about it. No human being could not sympathize with Troy's aversions.

Adam couldn't sympathize, though. He likely wouldn't even understand why Troy would do so.

'It is 445 hertz.'

It was noted down. Brief silence, and then a piercing, high-pitched frequency. The deeper tones, Troy could live with them. But those noises, which would make a little girl scream seem deep, were something Troy despised evolution for. Why couldn't it have made us a little less receptive?

'It is 19545 hertz.'

Oh, really? Troy thought it would be a bit higher.

Couldn't say that, though. If he messed up somewhere, Troy wouldn't put it past Dr Fidelis, to make them repeat it all.

He moved, to note down the newest number, but the square disappeared before he reached it.

Troy blinked slowly, trying to see if his dreams had turned true. Had he finally trained himself to ignore specific things? If so, training his hearing was next.

*Hello, Hello*, Dr Fidelis' voice came from the earpiece. *Sorry, just cutting in.*

And, there it was. Definitive proof that deities did not exist. Even the cruellest of omnipotent beings would not let a world such as this exist.

“Let me guess”, Troy said, slightly ignoring just who he was talking to. “We will be doing the same test, but with some minor modification to it.”

*You're a bit witty today, aren't you?* Troy could hear Dr Fidelis laugh.

*But, yes, you guessed it. Adam is just too good, at these tests. I can already see what the results will be, and that's not good. So… we will be scaling up the difficulty by a bit.*

“Several frequencies at the same time?” Troy guessed.

*No. Yes. Kinda? The puzzle-room will still only be generating one sound at a time. The other frequencies will be a little something called you talking.*

Well, that was new. Active engagement. Could it be called a positive or a negative overhaul? He would be doing something more complex than rolling and pressing buttons. Yet, it would require him to think about it.

That was hypocritical though. He had been despising the simplicity of it all. This was complex… or, at least, more complex than being an over-glorified assistant.

“Well, that sounds fine to me,” Troy said, cracking his knuckles in the downtime.

*That's good, because you didn't have a choice in the matter*, Troy heard Dr Hale say in the background.

A fake cough was heard.

*Anyway, we will be continuing the test now. Just talk with him, and put in the correct frequencies like before. No opinions on that front, please.*

With that said, the connection ended, and the square reappeared.

Troy couldn't begin to count the reasons he should leave. But, he could count one reason he should stay. As they say, quality over quantity.

'So...'

Oh, this was interesting. Adam wasn't getting to the point.

“Yes?” Troy asked, his tone as jovial as his mood.

'Do you have any recommendations on talking-points?'

“No, can't say I have any. Got anything on your front?”

'The purpose of this test is to make you confuse me, by talking constantly. Would it not be best, if I simply asked questions, which you would answer as intricately as possible?'

Troy felt that there was some definite underplaying in Adam's plan, but he honestly couldn't make himself care about it.

“Sounds good. Shoot.”

'When not testing, what do you do?'

Asking into the details of Troy's free time? He shouldn't be too surprised, but he had been expecting something a bit more extravagant.

“I don't really do much in my free time. Maybe lie in bed, staring up at a ceiling, watch older tv-shows. You know, relaxing stuff. Anything, which doesn't require me to work too hard to get or do.”

'Why would you not want to work hard, to attain something? Isn't the hardest thing to get superior in quality?'

The sound started up again, becoming an unignorable thunder, to Troy's ears. But he persevered.

“Well, you aren't too wrong, in what you're saying. Yes, most hard to get things are something we all want. But, even if we work hard, harder than we have ever worked before, attaining it isn't guaranteed. Sometimes, it can all come down to chance. Those who don't try will never get it, yes, but those who do try may never get anything either. The chance of getting nothing is what puts it off everyone's to-do list. We don't want to fail in our goals, so we don't have any.”

Adam was silent for some time. Troy expected that he was trying to process it.

'It is 6754 hertz.'

Or maybe he was using Troy's silence as a way to give himself a crutch.

“Got any more of those questions?” he asked, putting down Adam's answer on the panel.

'Plenty.'

“Then let's hear them all.”

The talking was distracting. Troy could give it that.

This time, the test had been much longer. Yet, in a blatant contradiction, it had felt shorter.

Was this the mystical feeling, which Troy had only heard in mutters, coming from the criminal back-alleys? Was he… enjoying himself?

Yes. Yes, he was.

Who could have guessed it? Having engaging and non-repetitive work experiences helped in making one stay focused, and stop feeling useless. Troy should have tried it sooner.

Walking out of the puzzle-room, and over the crackling, metal grating, Troy was in a nearly jovial mood. He didn't even feel annoyed, when Dr Fidelis helpfully assisted him, in taking off his recording equipment.

“So”, Troy said. “What's after this one? Another round of calibration?”

“Ah, no”, Dr Fidelis said.

“Then… what will the next test be?” Troy was ready for this. If the next test ended up anything like the last, he could get used to-

“We're done for today,” Dr Fidelis said. Troy's face fell a bit. Some could say he aged half a year in just a moment. “You don't seem too happy about that.”

“I didn't think we would be done so soon.”

“Yeah, the situation isn't the greatest.”

“You said that we could do up to eighty-three, or something. We've only done a couple!”

“As I said, the situation isn't, what I had hoped for”, Dr Fidelis said, with a half sigh at the end. “This is what happens when I modify the tests. It gives me paperwork to do. Paperwork with a time limit, which stops me from putting it off.”

Well, this wasn't as fine as Troy thought. His mood was slowly falling to his usual levels.

“Look at the bright side”, Dr Fidelis said, giving Troy a clap on the shoulder. “You get to go early today. Here's a tip for you. In the shelves, in the personnel rooms, there is something you're gonna love.”

Something to look forward to. Oh, how Troy loved getting vague hints.

He looked over to Dr Hale, who nodded her head in the direction of the door. Work was over. It was time for Troy to have some free time.

Troy stepped out of the testing room, Dr Fidelis mildly waving him goodbye.

Once outside, and the door closing behind Troy, a thought crossed his mind.

Where were the personnel rooms again?

…

Troy could knock on the wall, and see if Dr Hale would show him. But that would not improve any impressions there already were.

He walked to the left. Simple probability would say that he would stumble upon something, at some time. It could be the personnel rooms. It could be the cafeteria. It could even be some secret place, which he would be reprimanded for even finding. No matter what, there would be somebody who could most likely point him in the right direction.

Troy sighed. Honestly, he needed to pay more attention to the things around him. Spatial location may never be his forte, but that did not mean that he shouldn't put in any effort into it.

Adam probably didn't need to put effort into it. From the few conversation topics, which he had had with Adam, it looked like Adam had something of a memory. He could instantly quote anything said in front of him, no matter at what time it was said.

Troy lightly slapped himself on the side of his head.

He was not going to make himself jealous of Adam. Frankly, there was nothing to be jealous of. He had a body. Adam had… something inferior to his body. Troy could move around unhindered, kinda, while Adam couldn't… yet.

You know, in the future, would it be sustainable for Adam to need somebody to carry him? Troy wasn't gonna argue the values of having assistance, but one should not need assistance for movement for no good reason.

Androids were already a thing. Some could say they were more advanced than the human body. Why haven't they given Adam access to one of those? The testing conditions would be so much better. The human error of it all could be removed.

They could even forsake all these calibration tests. They were designed with the human body in mind. Why waste so much time on it?

To Troy, so much of it seemed so poorly planned. Was he simply not understanding their goals. What were their goals even? What did they hope to accomplish, with all this testing?

Were they hoping to go all David Schmidtz's on it, and create a whole new species of AI? Another point; Why had they only created one AI? Why was Adam unique?

Maybe they had created more, but-

“Hey, dude, where are you going?” Charlie said, waving a hand in Troy's face.

This had the logical reaction of a minor bit of muttered swearing, some quick hand waving, and a realization that one shouldn't space out. Especially while walking in a classified government facility.

“Oh”, Troy said, having quickly realized the existence in his closer proximity. “Hello.”

To this, Charlie snickered. He was certainly in a rather dandy mood.

“As stated for the fifth time in the last minute, greetings, young one,” Charlie said, with an elaborate bow, that would cause pain in the back of any over forty-three. “What would one such newly-employed as you be doing out here alone? Especially in this part of town- I mean, facility.”

It seemed like Troy's plan had been a perfect success. In the wrong part of the facility, and somebody to ask.

“Well, I was told that I was done for the day, so I've been looking for-”

“That's perfect timing”, Charlie said, with footsteps that put thirteen-year-olds looking at boy bands to shame. Was he being ironic, Troy wondered. Maybe there was even some post-irony sprinkled in somewhere. “Have you had a tour of the facility yet?”

The truth had been uncovered. Dr Hale had not been lying. Troy needed to getaway.

“Yes. I was shown around by Dr Hale, on my first day,” he explained.

Charlie scoffed at his words.

“If you got anything out of being shown around by her, you would be a walking oracle”

“I did get the general location of the cafeteria and personnel rooms,” Troy defended.

“Listen. I feel genuine sadness when you say stuff like this. Dr Stone-Face can't show you around, because she's barred from most of the places that are even slightly interesting.”

Interesting places, huh? How would one get barred?

“Would you mind giving a few examples?”

“Oh, if you insist,” Charlie said, with the tone of a posh, aged, British lady. “That superior of yours is a crazy one, let me tell you.” He put an arm around Troy's shoulder, and off they went.

“Don't let her appearance fool you. That woman can drink. It is a mystery, where she even gets the liquor from. You know, she is not allowed to buy any of the stuff, but she still shows up with a bottle in her hand. I, and a couple of others, actually have something of a betting pool in place. You put in a fiver and guess how she gets it. If you guess right, you win the whole pool. Something you would be interested in?”

“Let us focus on my question first. What are these interesting places, which you will be able to show me?” Troy said, beginning to untangle himself from Charlie.

“Those places aren't important,” Charlie said, giving Troy a clap on the back, before withdrawing his arm.

“Then where are we even going?”

“We aren't going anywhere. We're already where we're supposed to be,” Charlie said, stretching his arms to the side as if showing off the place around him.

Troy looked around. Nothing was out of the ordinary. The normal blue gradients on the walls, with some nonsensical… No, not nonsensical.

He walked over to the wall. Charlie stood still, just enjoying Troy's reaction.

On the wall, a banknote had been drawn. It seemed weird to him. Most other paintings had been simplistic. Something one could draw in under a minute if they had some talent.

This… This looked incredibly realistic. If he held his face still, it even looked slightly real.

Charlie gave Troy a slight push to the side, letting him close to the painting.

“Focus on, what I'm doing”, Charlie said. Troy obliged.

Charlie drew his finger up to the left, upper corner of the banknote. He held it there for a second, before making an oval shape down the side before he stepped back from the wall.

But, it wasn't a wall. No. Another room had been revealed. Yet, it wasn't a testing room. Far from it, in fact.

It was a city. Or looked like it, at least.

“Are you a vampire?” Charlie asked, which got an odd glance from Troy. “If so, I formally invite you inside.”

Troy accepted it, stepping through the doorway. Not even the France-That-Was would stop him this time.