Spare Parts

“Curie, what the hell are you doing?” Ah. Well, it was good while it lasted.
“Science sir!” Why couldn’t they see that she was just trying to help people?
“You are aware that you can’t go around robbing graves, right?”
“Why not? It’s not like I’m a necromancer. Besides, these guys aren’t using their bodies anyways.” “You know damn well that isn’t the problem here!”

She genuinely couldn’t fathom what the issue was, the fact she was planning on using the cadavers for spare parts and not to raise the dead somehow absolving her of any moral wrongdoing. She, of course, knew that most people would find the idea ethically dubious, she chalked that one up to irrational instincts getting in the way of rationality and an unhealthy amount of Luddism. She was also aware that desecrating a corpse was illegal, though she didn’t actually have an answer to that one aside from some vague gesturing to “the ends justify the means”.

“Sir, I was simply planning on using the subject to do some anatomy studies. Any plans to actually install organs are far, far in the future, and frankly quite ridiculous I might add. The goal of my current project is to create a thinking machine, not a cyborg that can operate beyond death. Of course, if the prototype’s failure is any indication I might have to repurpose the amygdala, the hippo…” She started to trail off, looking down in shame. The look on his face was clearly not one that indicated he appreciated the explanation.

“Gods above Curie. You’re lucky I found you before you actually did anything.” Mond let out an exasperated sigh. “We’re going to have a long talk about what you did when we get back to the guild.”

Back to square one it was.

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She was planning on creating thinking machines, magitech tools capable of upgrading their programming beyond what their base parameters were. “A machine that can do simple surgery after the type of wound and the appropriate procedure is inputted is helpful. A machine that can accurately diagnose an injury and decide on its own what the best course of action is would be revolutionary. Think of all the lives that could be saved if the world had that kind of tech!” She imagined the technology would be used in all sorts of fields but this was the usual example she used to justify it to others. It very rarely worked.

This was as much a project born out of pride as it was altruism, she was already capable of constructing automatons capable of following basic commands, but that simply wasn’t good enough for her. It was pretty obvious by the slightly manic way she talked about the whole thing that it was rapidly approaching an obsession, rather than simply being a subject of interest for her.

“You still banned from the workshop Coco?” Asked Ciara. “Yes, I am. And I thought I told you to stop calling me that.”
“Sorry, sorry. Did the boss ever say when you’re allowed back in?”
“We- I- Father Mond and I discussed it already. To be quite frank I do not think I will be allowed back in for quite a while. He still seems rather upset about the whole ordeal.”
“You know, maybe this little break will be good for you. You’ve been acting more distant than usual since you started down this whole android business of yours, a nice vacation might be exactly what you need to get back to your old cheery self!”
“I highly doubt depriving me of my work will do me any good. My behaviour has not deviated in the slightest either, I have no clue what you’re talking about.” She clenched her hands into fists, trying but failing to show as little anger as possible to her guildmate.

“Jeez Curie, you might be a genius when it comes to machines but you have no clue how people work, least of all yourself. I’m just trying to help you find a silver lining to all this.”

“I don’t need pity Ciara, especially not from you.”

“See? That’s exactly what I mean. You never used to snap at people like this. Look, we all miss the old Curie, the nice Curie, the sweet gentle Curie, the Curie who made jokes with the rest of us whenever we bungled a job, the cheerful Curie who woke up each morning with a smile on her face and pep in her step. It feels like somebody killed the old you and replaced you with a gloomy shut-in who locks herself in the workshop whenever she isn’t in her room, you barely talk to us anymore and the last time you joined in for a guild dinner was half a year ago! You’ve becoming more of a recluse then even I used to be!”

And with that, Curie stormed off. She knew intellectually that Ciara was right, but accepting that emotionally was a different matter entirely. She had been more of a recluse than usual recently, but given the importance of her work what else was she supposed to do? Maybe in another month or so, it would all be clearer. Perhaps she would take a vacation, though not because anybody told her to or anything, her bruised ego simply wouldn’t let her admit that.