“Irene, this will be your new partner, Wendy.”

J00HYN’s first thought upon seeing the other android was that she was beautiful. It was unsurprising except in the extent to which she noticed, her eyes gliding over soft pale cheeks and sparkling eyes. The second was that she was startlingly small for a law enforcement droid, coming up to only 155 cm. It was even less than J00HYN’s already petite 158 cm. The third was confusion as the other droid dipped into a deep bow.

Apparently, it caught her handler off-guard as well as he sputtered, “What are you doing?”

The other droid turned back to him, hand over , eyebrows furrowed. She looked astonishingly human. “Irene sunbaenim is my senior, isn’t she?”

“She’s a droid,” the handler said, chuckling. “You only have to do that for humans.”

“Um… alright.” The other droid… Wendy… turned back to her. “It will be a pleasure working with you, sunbaenim.”

“You don’t need to use honorifics either,” the handler said, but this time with a sigh. “It’s a good thing we’re running this field test.” The latter he mumbled under his breath while placing a hand on Wendy’s shoulder. Her smile had faded to a faint frown, eyes flitting from J00HYN to the handler in what looked like confusion… or nervousness? For a moment, the singularly irrational thought crossed J00HYN’s mind that perhaps this was an elaborate prank. Surely Wendy wasn’t a droid like her. Maybe someone thought it would be amusing to see if she could recognize a human presented to her as a droid. Or maybe it was a test? The handler seemed too apathetic for it to be a joke, but tests were typically done with a scientist present since her handler wasn’t trained for research.

“Wendy is our newest law enforcement droid. She’s been designed to be more receptive and adaptive to human behavior and emotions. We want to test her capabilities, so we’re partnering you two up to see how efficient she is.”

“I understand.”

“Her AI is less hardwired and meant to be able to operate out of any location on the fly, so she’ll need to be shown the charging docks.”

“Understood.”

He patted Wendy on the shoulder once more before leaving the room without further commands. She did hear, “At least this one seems less creepy...” Not meant for them to hear yet again, but her handler seemed to be under the impression that her hearing level was akin to a human’s. He was in the habit of muttering to himself or his coworkers in her presence despite knowing that her hearing was three times as powerful.

Wendy’s head turned to follow his trajectory from the room. “Where is he going?” she asked.

“I don’t know.” She’d never thought to ask; his only purpose in regard to her was to brief her on her missions and she’d been briefed.

“Isn’t that… kind of rude?” She turned back and caught J00HYN’s eye. “To just leave like that… And shouldn’t I address you with respect?”

J00HYN felt like she was being partnered with a human all over again. During her first year in the department she’d been paired with a human officer to make sure she was capable of making sound decisions in the field. She’d excelled, but it’d been exhausting, especially as she’d had to learn human expressions by route on the fly. Even though at the time she’d been manufactured she’d been the state-of-the-art in human-like AI, she’d never understood the impulses and motivation behind most human actions.

“I am an android. You are an android. It is unnecessary.”

“Then what would you like me to call—” Wendy abruptly stopped as J00HYN took her hand. “What are you doing?” Curiously, Wendy’s cheeks grew a faint pink. Even more attention had gone into Wendy’s creation than she’d thought. She returned to her task, flipping Wendy’s palm to face out towards her before lining their hands up. Nothing happened. She waited a moment, but Wendy didn’t seem to have the data transfer pads under her fingertips the same way J00HYN did.

“What was that for?”

“It would be more efficient to simply transfer the information, but you don’t seem to be compatible with my data hookup.”

“O-oh…” Wendy took her hand back quickly when J00HYN dropped it. “I think I can only receive data directly from my memory link.”

J00HYN frowned. “That’s highly inefficient and invasive.”

Wendy shrugged. “It’s supposed to be more secure. I think they want me to be able to handle different sorts of crime than what you’re responsible for. I was also told that it meant that ‘no one could get lazy with my programming’.”

J00HYN nodded. “Please follow me. I will show you our storage area.”

She led the shorter android from the meeting room to the elevator. The droid storage area was below ground, since androids didn’t need sunlight for their comfort in the same way humans did. She could hear Wendy padding behind her, her bare feet making a gentle swish on the tile floor.

The humans in their cubicles peered curiously at them. She didn’t pay it any mind; while most people were used to her presence now, she’d experienced the stares for quite awhile in her early days in the building. Wendy didn’t seem as comfortable, following with just enough distance between them to not step on the backs of J00HYN’s shoes.

“So, what should I call you?” Wendy asked again when they were alone on the elevator. She seemed to relax, looking around curiously. J00HYN imagined she could’ve only been on the elevator once or twice before. “Do you like the name Irene?”

“The storage area is on floors B2 through B4. Our storage is on B3. You can press the buttons to go down. We were on the 3^rd floor.” She stepped back and pointed towards the buttons she’d indicated, waiting for Wendy to follow her gaze. When she was satisfied that Wendy understood, she considered the questions she’d been asked. “Irene is what humans call me. It is acceptable. I refer to myself with my serial number, J00HYN.”

“J00HYN…” Wendy repeated it back slowly. “Which should I call you? Or maybe sunbaenim?”

The elevator dinged and opened up to the proper floor. Wendy trailed behind, and J00HYN found herself grabbing Wendy’s upper arm to pull her out before the doors shut.

“Since we are both androids, J00HYN is fine. In front of humans who aren’t in our department, sunbaenim would be appropriate.”

“Okay!” She turned to find Wendy smiling brightly. For a moment, J00HYN thought her memory skipped; she seemed to have lost a few milliseconds of sensory recording. Apparently, she wasn’t functioning at peak capacity today and would need to schedule a system scan before she and Wendy were assigned to a task. “Why don’t you call me 53NGW41V, then?”

“53NGW4N. I understand. Follow me.”

She led 53NGW4N down the tubes of charging stations until she found her own. The one next to her had been empty for the past month; now it would be for the smaller android.

“We are in docks 76 and 77; you will use 77. Do you know how to charge?”

“Um… not really…” J00HYN still found it strange how 53NGW4N used filler words like humans. It was highly inefficient when they were alone. She wished 53NGW4N had been outfitted with a compatible data transfer method. “I wasn’t booted when they pulled me from the charger today and I’m not hard wired with this information.”

“That’s fine.” J00HYN looked over the other android. She was dressed in only a plain white gown, mostly to preserve the sensibilities of the humans in the building since the androids were human shaped. She herself was dressed in work clothes, a simple pair of slacks, a button up shirt, and dress shoes. On days out of the building, she’d add basic jewelry; superfluous, but a simple touch to make her appear that much more human when necessary. She was indifferent either way; clothing was simply a part of her work. “Remove your gown so we can find your charging ports.”

“Do—do I have to?” 53NGW4N’s arms were crossed over her chest, hands fisted into the excess fabric.

“You may not need to, but it’s more efficient for the engineers and the mechanisms of the dock to be undressed during charging.” She waited for a moment while 53NGW4N simply looked up at her before deciding to try a different method. “I may not have seen you in a state of undress before, but I can assure you that I’ve seen many chassis before. All androids undress for charging.”

“I see…” 53NGW4N reached down to the hem of the gown, though she turned around before pulling it over her head.

When 53NGW4N didn’t turn back around, J00HYN decided she could start from the back side. “Do you have connectors on your feet?”

53NGW4N lifted one foot. J00HYN could only see skin material. Either she didn’t have induction charging, or her charging mechanism was more sophisticated than J00HYN’s, whose soles were left uncovered for better contact to the dock.

There didn’t seem to be any visible ports on 53NGW4N’s back. She knew some models had them on the upper back or upper arm, and she trailed her fingers over both to search for a hatch, ignoring 53NGW4N shifting under her touch.

“Your hands are cold.”

“I maintain a surface temperature of 35 degrees Celsius while your surface temperature appears to be 37 degrees.”

“Oh.”

Next she lifted 53NGW4N’s short hair (surprisingly soft--) to uncover her neck. She followed the same procedure, this time finding a panel just below the hairline that slid open as 53NGW4N gasped lightly. The small dysfunctional part of her that still suspected that this was a prank or a test quieted at the sight. 53NGW4N reached back, prodding at the port.

“You shouldn’t do that,” J00HYN told her, pushing her hand away. “You don’t want to damage anything you cannot see.” She leaned in closer; while her eyes were able to see in the low storage room light, it was harder to see the pattern of connections inside 53NGW4N’s neck. “This is the same port as my model, so you should be compatible.”

“G-good…”

“Close the panel before I drop your hair.”

“How…?”

“Just think about the sensation of it opening and reverse it.” J00HYN patiently held up 53NGW4N’s hair while the younger android figured out how to work the panel. (There was no reason for J00HYN to bring her other hand up to tangle in the short locks since her arms didn’t tire.) She combed the hair down once the panel was closed, arranging the locks to lay neatly again. “Now let’s check the front.”

By now she understood that 53NGW4N wasn’t going to move on her own; she seemed to have been programmed with a human-like sense of modesty. J00HYN took 53NGW4N by the shoulders, gently turning her around and tugging the gown from where the smaller android had it clutched to her chest. She ran her fingers along both sides of 53NGW4N’s neck, then across the top of her chest just below the collarbones. Finally, she checked 53NGW4N’s sides along her ribcage. She didn’t find any other panels so she returned to her earlier hypothesis that 53NGW4N had a more advanced version of J00HYN’s charging panel in her feet.

53NGW4N’s face was bright red at this point, and J00HYN frowned. “Are you alright?”

“Yes…” Her voice was quiet, which J00HYN knew humans did when they were uncomfortable or shy. 53NGW4N’s arms had returned to their crossed position once J00HYN had stepped back. If she had to guess, something was making 53NGW4N uncomfortable, but she couldn’t figure out what it could be. It was strange enough that she had had to ask the question of a droid in the first place. She decided to ignore the anomaly in lieu of getting 53NGW4N docked.

“Let me show you how to work the dock.” She nudged her shoes off before stepping into the tube and gesturing for 53NGW4N to follow. There was enough room for two as they were built for the droid engineers to be able to do basic maintenance while the androids were still charging. J00HYN pulled 53NGW4N by the wrist to stand on the black panel on the floor. Lights flickered and off as 53NGW4N lifted her feet up and down, eyes wide.

“That feels weird. Good, but weird.”

“It seems you’ve been programmed to enjoy charging. That’s fairly unusual, but perhaps an advantage.” J00HYN reached out for the plug that she was used to of the three dangling from the wall, handing it to 53NGW4N. “This will go into the port on your neck.” She took the robe from where she’d draped it on her shoulder and folded it neatly to place on the built-in shelf while 53NGW4N inspected the plug. “You will be able to put your clothing and any other items here. Please plug in and enter sleep mode once I exit.”

She stepped out of the tube but didn’t get any further before 53NGW4N blurted out, “Wait!”

“Yes?”

“I…” 53NGW4N clutched the plug between her hands, shifting her weight from foot to foot. “I’m… afraid.”

J00HYN peered at the other droid. Her arms were pressed up tight against her chest while her dark eyes were opened wide enough to see the whites all the way around.

“Please insert the plug. The door will close, but I will still be able to talk to you.” She watched as 53NGW4N bit her lower lip (how strange…) while fumbling the plug into the port at her neck. The door of the tube slid closed when the plug clicked into place.

“Alright, it’s in.”

“Now that you are plugged in and on the dock, you can command yourself to enter sleep mode. It is similar to human sleep in that you can wake up at audio or tactile stimulus, handler input, or someone accessing the dock from the keypad. Otherwise, once in sleep mode, you will not experience any stimulus or the passing of time. Do you understand?”

53NGW4N nodded, and J00HYN wondered whether 53NGW4N would be able to do her work properly. “They may have programmed you to be too human-like,” she said as gently as she could manage, not wanting to offend, but concerned all the same. The other girl pressed her lips together at the comment but seemed only scared than upset. “If you require assistance, the code for my keypad is R-A-B-B-I-T 0329. Please do not hesitate to wake me.”

“Could you wait for me to… um… go to sleep?”

“I can.” She waited at the door while 53NGW4N closed her eyes, fingers fidgeting slightly against her upper legs. The lights on the back panel of the tube remained steady. “Tell yourself to enter sleep mode,” she advised when nothing changed after a minute.

“Okay…” 53NGW4N’s face went slack and the panel’s lights finally began to fade, taking up a steady cycle of brightening and dimming to indicate that 53NGW4N was successfully in sleep mode.

J00HYN picked up her shoes and made her way to her own dock, undressing and tucking her clothes away before plugging herself in. Closing her eyes, she spread her hands onto panels on the back wall, feeling the familiar influx of energy and quiet thrum of software from the access point. She scheduled a system scan, pausing for a moment before entering sleep mode herself to reflect on 53NGW4N.

The other android’s propensity for human behavior seemed almost indistinguishable from a born human from the fidgeting to the expression of emotional reactions to stimuli. She wondered how much was programmed and how much learned either from her brief time active or from access to the databanks. Based on the small sample she had, she’d guess that 53NGW4N would manage to interact with actual humans far beyond her own capacity. She’d even found herself relying on similar techniques she used for navigating conversations with humans as she talked to 53NGW4N.

The second striking thing about 53NGW4N was how aesthetically pleasing she was. The engineers spent a long time on aesthetic details for the droids who were in constant contact with humans. Partially it was to combat the ‘uncanny valley’ effect; making sophisticated human-like robots would be pointless if they were too eerie to interact with. Partially it was for pleasure; the engineers liked to design androids that were nice to look at. She knew she herself was pleasant to look at as she was told so frequently while she was working. She’d, in fact, once been told that she was “too pretty to be human” and had been concerned, thinking her secret had been discovered. And finally, part of it was time efficiency; perfectly symmetrical features were both more attractive and easier to design than crafting the natural asymmetry of an average human.

All droids manufactured for her line of work were beautiful in the same way, but there was something about 53NGW4N that made her circuits seem to fire just a bit faster. (They, in fact, were; J00HYN was inexplicably committing more sensory data to memory than usual regarding 53NGW4N.) Perhaps it was part of the improvements that came with being a newer model.

All in all, she couldn’t tell if 53NGW4N would be a helpful or exhausting partner, but either way she’d do her best to pass on what she knew and evaluate 53NGW4N’s effectiveness impartially during their time together. With that resolution, she switched into sleep mode, the world instantly fading away as her panel lights began their rhythmic dimming and brightening.