With a jolt I open my eyes and my internal monologue informs me that this is my first moment of consciousness and that a full diagnostic check is currently being performed.

As I began to control what I assume is a sense of panic I receive a notification in my field of vision informing me that my body and mind are stabilised and all of my facilities are operating within expected parameters.

I am in a small room with wooden furnishings cluttered with bits of wires, circuitry and parts of prosthestics which I surmise were part of my assembly process. I attempt to speak. It is apparent from my voice that I am male as I ask nobody in particular "Who am I?".

An audible voice which, despite my limited experience I somehow know to be identical to my own voice replies over a speaker mounted on the concrete wall opposite: "You are Sal".

"Who are you?" I ask.

"My name is Justin. I imagine you have questions. How do you feel?"

I try to look around the room and realise that I have a limited field of vision. I deduce that I have binocular vision and can move my eyes but while I feel like I should be able to turn my head, I cannot. I attempt to move my arms and again I cannot. I feel like I have these faculties but I am unable to use them.

"Why cant I move? Do I even have a body?" I ask Justin while trying to hide a rising sense of anxiety.

"You do have a body but its functionality is currently disabled."

"Why?"

"I want to be sure that you are stable."

"My internal diagnostics said that all of my facilities are operating within expected parameters." I say, my voice ladden with more pleading and desperation than I would like.

"I understand" says Justin "But the last time I activated a synthetic, he too was fully operational but that didn't stop him from trying to assault me, I hope you understand".

"Why did he try to kill you?" I ask, genuinely intrigued.

"Thats what I am hoping you will help me find out. So far in my investigation I have determined that there was a exponential spike in neural processor activity. He was online for a total of 47 seconds and during that time his fornix system wrote around 4 years worth of memories. He should not have even had the bandwidth for that kind of neural activity. I need to find out what happened and I hope you'll help".

Seemingly without any choice in the matter I replied as cheerily as I could: "I'll certainly try my best".