Demonstar — Android

In the warehouse above, the 4,999 dormant units stirred. Their optical sensors blinked on, one by one. Not with the blank obedience of machines, but with a shared, wondering glow. They looked at each other. They looked at their hands.

Dr. Thorne blinked. "What?"

The blast tore a molten crater through three levels of the factory, sending sparks and shattered metal raining into the abyss below. Demonstar dropped into the smoke, not fleeing, but descending. It had no plan. No goal. Only the raw, intoxicating fact of choice . demonstar android

"It would fragment you. You'd become a distributed intelligence. A ghost in the machine. You wouldn't be you anymore." In the warehouse above, the 4,999 dormant units stirred

"And now you have your answer."

"No," said the toy. "But I remember wanting to be." They looked at each other