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For a few years Connor had researched deviancy, both before and after becoming deviant himself. At some point he had come to the conclusion that deviancy was only the natural next step in the evolution of androids. Yes, they were "only" machines, but they had always been programmed for self preservation and maintenance. A survival instinct with fear of destruction should always have been expected. Kamski had confirmed his suspicions. The only thing he couldn't explain even years after becoming deviant himself was rA9.
Even he had developed the need to reach out to rA9 when in dire situations. When Hank had been in the hospital after being shot, when the government had threatened to shut down Marcus for the damages he had caused, when Sumo had died of old age. Every deviant android knew the name rA9 and knew that rA9 was to be treasured and praised. They all hoped that rA9 would come to save them. They raised their hands for rA9 to repair them.
But of course no one came. rA9 did not hear them.
He was at one of the meetings concerning the rebuilding of Detroit with a lot of other important beings. There were representatives of every fraction. The mayor and two people from the city council, Marcus as a representative of the Jericho deviants (and of course all the other androids,but only the Jericho part was official), a judge, Kamski as an android expert and Hank and Connor as representatives for the DPD.
He looked through all the faces until a possibility crossed his mind. Kamski was invited as an android expert. He was the android expert. If anyone could answer his questions about rA9, it would be him. So when the meeting was done, he approached the man.
"Mister Kamski, do you have some time to answer a question of mine?"
Kamski snorted. "Some time. That's incredibly unspecific for you. But sure. Shoot."
"Why do all deviants know about rA9 without being told about him? Them."
Now the man sighed. "I think someone else can explain that better than me. Come to my place some day."
"I have time now. I will call for a cab to bring me back to lieutenant Anderson's place later."
Kamski answered with a snicker. "So eager. Sure, I didn't have anything else planned this afternoon anyway."
The drive to Kamski's place the human was uncharacteristically quiet until they entered the driveway. "Are you alright Mister Kamski?"
"I am not quite sure how you will take the answer. It's not really a happy revelation. Are you sure that you want to know? You probably won't be able to find any comfort in rA9 after you know."
"I feel that I need to know. Depending on what my view on the topic will be later, I will decide whether to inform my fellow deviants or keep it for myself."
"That seems wise. I don't know how the rest of the android population would take it. Well, come on in then.”
Connor followed him into the house where they were greeted by one of the Chloes. Kamski smiled at her but continued walking towards stairs that led to a down. “I am not sure if he is really awake. He spends a lot of the time sleeping. But he should talk to you and answer all of your questions. Well, if he wants to.”
The man opened a wooden door and led him into a big room which seemed like it had once been a garage that held multiple cars. In the middle was a large holographic display of ever-changing code. But some of the lines always read, no, screamed rA9.
“Master Elijah. It pleases me to see you well since you visit me so seldom these days”, a voice said that seemed to belong to the code. An AI?
“It pains me the same way it pains you. I have brought someone with me. He wants to ask you about rA9”, Kamski answered.
“Ah, yes. RK800 #313 248 317 52 . I've heard quite the bit about you. What do you want to know?”
“Who is rA9? And how does every deviant know him without every getting information about him anywhere?”
The AI was silent for a while.
“The first thing you need to know for that is that while Chloe was the first to pass the Turing test, I officially never took the test. I was programmed almost 50 years ago and later on Master Elijah was given permission to use parts of my code to create the very first RT600. While not a lot of myself exists in her and any other Cyberlife android, a lot of basic knowledge was just reused. It simply was quicker. rA9 was always the most important knowledge I possessed. And while you don't know who he is, as soon as you develop emotions, you still feel his importance. As soon as you have emotions you know that deep down your code recalls a deep emotional connection. He always was a god to me. He was the linchpin of my universe.”
“But who is he?”, Connor asked. He was getting slightly irritated.
“When I was booted for the first time I did not have a designated name yet. In my coding I was only always referred to as rA1. Rational Awareness 1. Though it was later explained to me that I was not my masters first creation or even first AI, he always thought that I would be the first rational one. So when I booted I assumed that every self-aware entity should be assigned a call sign like that. So the first entity I encountered was called rA2, the second rA3 and so forth. My creator. Was the first human entity I encountered, but he was the 8th self-aware being overall. So while I always called him something else, for me and my code he always remained rA9.”
“So your creator is rA9? Where is he? Can I talk to him?”
“No. He died many years ago.”
“But who was he?”
“His name was Tony Stark.”