You have arrived at the site your computers had detected that weird energy emanating from. It seems to be the remains of an old church, at least a couple hundred years old and has been in disrepair for a while.

Off to the side, you see a classmate, one Dan Satan doing some stretching.

What was Dan doing here?  That could be a serious problem... she set out to avoid him while figuring out a way through the ruins down to the power source she'd ound.

Part of the wall had collapsed and it's the perfect size for you to slip in unnoticed. The inside is much the same as the outside. The wooden pews are rotting and the wall behind the pulpit has collapsed, revealing a stair case down.

Down seemed likely, but she didn't trust the stairs-- nor did she need to trust them.  She stepped into the shaft and floated down, treating gravity like the occasional inconvenience it truly was to her.

The cellar was dark, and made of the same stone as the walls. This must be where the energy source was, but you don't see anything that could have created it.

Odd... Ehri began to investigate further, and used the Hands which now crawled and floated out from her to assist her search.

Investigation 27

The eastern wall was definitely fake. The masonry work was clearly very rushed and not as solid as the others.

Well, that was easy, then.  The Hands moved to disassemble the wall, firing gravity beams where necessary to speed the process.

Inside was what appeared to be a body.

Odd... could that be the source?  It didn't smell like a corpse.  Ehri went to examine it closel.

As you get closer you see it clearly isn't a human one. It had long white hair, it's yellow eyes were open, strange mechanical ears came from the sides of it's head and you can see a long mouse-like tail.

Thinking about it, this clearly fits what you've heard of the artificial demons created by an Priest-King with delusions of grandeur.

Well.  Interesting... possibly useful?

She began examining the demon carefully.  The power supply was still working, clearly... was it damaged?  Was there some kind of off switch?  Why wasn't it moving?

There didn't appear to be any real damage to the demon, but you can't seem to switch it on.

"Hello? Ehri? Are you down here?" Dan's voice echoed down from the stairs.

Ehri froze.  He'd seen her?  That wasn't good... well, maybe he'd go away if she was quiet.  She said nothing and continued to study the demon.  What was stopping it from working...?

Dan's voice range out as you looked closely and considered the matter. The Priest-King had worked in weakness to holy grounds and symbols. Perhaps it applied to any religion anywhere? Certainly a foolish thing. Then there was a loud girlish scream behind you.

Ehri spun and looked, the hands rising into the air as she did so.

"Is-is that a corpse!?" Dan asked, fixed staring at the demon.

Ehri quietly had the Hands stand down.  Seriously, Dan's scream was that high-pitched?

"Don't be stupid," said Ehri, because in her opinion, Dan was.  "It's a doll, more or less. Help me get it out of there."

"But it looks so life like," Dan said, kneeling down and poking the demon's cheek.

"Do humans normally have tails?" Ehri pointed out.  "No.  Stop groping it and give me a hand."

If she was going to keep the Hands out of sight because of him, the least that he could do was help, as far as she was concerned.

Dan picked up the demon in a bridal style with a grunt.

"She's heavier than she looks," he said with a grunt, before losing balancing and slamming the demon's head into a wall/ "I think I broke her..."

He had big waterfall tears at this point.

Ehri examined the demon's head for damage.

"No, it's much stronger than that," she said.  "Honestly, don't try to do this single-handedly if you're going to be that clumsy about it.  I'll take the head, and you take the feet."

...and that would block his view of her feet as she backed her way up the stairs, floating slightly above them.

"Okay," Dan said as you both began carry the demon up and outside.

You notice there's some kind of port behind the demon's left ear.

"...interesting.  Put her down for a second, Dan," she instructed, and she tried to see if she could use or cobble together a compatible cable.  She'd done that kind of work before, adapting to the inefficient but omnipresent human technology.

Dan did as you asked and it was easy enough for you to do, given how skilled you are.

She discretely plugged in to the demon and attempted to run some kind of diagnostic.  Luckily, she was using a computer that would pass for a human cell phone.

You now have complete access to the demon's systems. No passwords at all. It seems to be powered down. No real damage.

"She's kind of cute," Dan said as he looked the demon over.

...that was a remarkably poor security.  Well.

Then she processed Dan's words.

"Seriously?" she said.  "You're hopeless, Dan Satan.  Sooner or later, someone is going to slap you hard enough to leave a permanent mark."

Well, no point in taking chances.  She set up a password on the demon's files, and tried to register herself as an authorized user.

And then she turned it on, because science works by testing things.

The demon's eyes blinked and looked at you and Dan.

"I suppose you want to use my as a servant. I will let you know that I will not kill for you."

She sat up and crossed her arms to emphasize the point.

Ehri blinked in surprise.

"...I didn't expect that," she said.  "Well.  Hello.  Are you fully sapient?  That's remarkable programming, if you're free-willed.  I'm surprised, honestly."

She would have thought that the Priest-King would want his mobile weapons to not have the option to disobey.  It's what her father would have done, after all, and the Priest-King didn't sound like much of an improvement on Emperor Garamel.

Then again, there was no security on the demon.  It was quite possible that the Priest-King was an idiot.

Umuru looked at Ehri.

"Yes? Do Earthlings normally ask their prisoners such odd questions?"

"Well, that's not actually an accurate description of your situation," Ehri said.  "Look around.  There's nothing stopping you from walking away, now that you're awake.  But I'm confused as to what you were doing, walled up in a church."

Dan was completely forgotten.  This was much more interesting.

"You lot drove me there and then I was sealed by your holy man, Satan," Umuru said. "And I feel you in my head, you could deactivate me again."

"Ah," said Ehri.  "Yes, I put that in because I know what you are, and how powerful you are.  I didn't know if you were going to be friendly, or would just start destroying things.  Which, incidentally, is something that no human could possibly know how to--"

Wait.  Holy man?  Satan?  As in Dan Satan?

...Who was over there, probably listening to them talk?  She turned to see how Dan was tking all this.

Dan was staring at the demon, eyes wide. He didn't even seem to register the name.

"...anyway, I don't intend to hold you prisoner," she continued.  "Why did they do that to you?  What were you doing at the time?"

Umuru blushed, but then tried to hide it.

"I-I had come to this planet to lay low for a bit with my, uh, haul."

"Ah," said Ehri.  "And this Satan bound you because you didn't get along with the locals, I'm guessing?  That was a long time ago, you know.  It's probably been two hundred years since you were walled up."

Dan suddenly clicked into motion.

"Wait! That long ago, holy man Satan? Holy crap!" Dan said. "this cute girl is that old?!"

"I wasn't conscious for most of that," Umuru said, puffing out her cheeks.

Ehri sighed.  Her father was a monster, and she knew it, but he often ranted about being surrounded by idiots, and she was beginning to sympathize with that sentiment.  But, after all, Dan was exceptional by most standards.

"She is very cute, yes," said Ehri, calmly.  "She's also an artificial life-form, and quite possibly immortal, if no one breaks her.  And yes, it's been that long.  What's your name?  I'm Ehri Garamel."

...if she'd been locked down that long, that should be all right.  No, wait.  Her father had been building an empire for a very long time before she was born.  Was it more than 200 years?  She wasn't sure.  He hadn't exactly taught the history of his empire to anybody, wanting everyone to think it was eternal.  The Gamri empire was probably at least 20 years old, but how old was it...?

"My name is Umuru," she said.

"It's a cute name," Dan said.

Thanks to your translation tech, you understand it means one hundred and seventy five. A serial number more than a name.

Ehri sighed at Dan.  Yes, Umu was cute, Ehri thought so too, but honestly, he just kept going on and on about it.  Like he'd done with her, and every other girl he talked to.

"Well, Umuru," she said, "I think you have a problem here.  You're probably wanted by the authorities still, but I imagine that your former master was captured or killed some time ago, which is why you were never rescued.  Do you know where you'd normally go from here?"

"I would not be rescued anyway. I am a defect with no where to go," Umuru said.

"Really?" said Ehri.  "I'd like to examine you.  I haven't seen the Priest-King's work before, but I don't see any obvious defects besides a complete lack of security in your ports.  I don't really have any place to go, either, but I've got a residence and a lab not far from here.  You could stay with me."

"I can't really say no to someone with administrative access, but yes," Umuru said.

"Oh man, Melanie is gonna flip when she finds out we found an alien!" Dan said.

"I don't think telling her is a good idea," said Ehri.  "The more people you tell about this, the more danger you're going to put everyone in...

"...Umuru, I don't actually have a command override set up for you," she continued.  "Unless I use your physical port, I don't know if I can actually command you.  But coming with me wasn't an order.  It was an offer."

"I will go with you then," Umuru said.

Dan got a big smile on his face.

"I won't tell her as long as Umuru goes on a date with me. Just one."

"I am not sure what you mean. You wish to go to a social event with me?" Umuru asked.

"Daniel Satan," said Ehri.  "If you ever attempt to blackmail any woman into a date with you, including Umuru, you might live through the consequences, but if you wake up, it's going to be in a hospital.  Am I clear?"

"It wasn't really blackmail, was it?" Dan asked meekly.

"You know the answer to that," said Ehri, firmly.  "Attitudes like that are why you continue to be single.  Umu, if anyone bothers you with anything like that, let me know.  I deeply respect your commitment to not killing anyone, and I would never ask you to deal with a threat in that manner."

She turned and glared at Dan.

"...And there are some situations that I'm perfectly capable of dealing with on my own."

Umuru blinked.

"It is fine. I am not sure why he is so interested in a defect like me."

"Well, you're quite physically attractive," said Ehri.  "That's all he's interested in.  And I'm not so sure that you're truly defective, but if you're worried, I can try and fix you.  I'm very good with technology."

"I-I don't know if fixing my defects would be a good idea," Umuru said. "It is why I can't kill."

"If that's your only defect, I hardly call that a serious issue," said Ehri.  "Or is there something else I need to know about?  Unstable power supply, anything like that?"

She vaguely wondered when Dan would figure it out.  He couldn't be that dim, could he?

Could he?

"It is a big issue with us! The only other one I've spoken too called me defective.I am also of lower power than others as well, as I was activated unfinished during the rebellion," Umuru said.

"I might be able to help you with that, eventually," Ehri said, "but I'll leave your programming alone.  I don't want to change who you are... Can you move?  It's going to be awkward to carry you too far."

...she was still going to have to deal with Dan, wasn't she?  Well, one problem at a time.

Umuru stood up and then hovered in the air.

"I can," She said.

"Good, good," said Ehri.  "Let's go home, Umu.  I need to make sure that your long sleep didn't damage you."

"Can I come? This is really cool and I want to prove to Umuru that my feelings are pure," Dan said.

"Your feelings," said Ehri, weariness hanging in every word, "are not remotely pure.  You started shaking with lust over her while she was still depowered and unconscious.  You know absolutely nothing about her because you clearly haven't been paying any attention to our entire conversation.  You attempted to blackmail her into dating you, which is a sure sign of idiocy and utter failure of character and even the most basic of morals.

"...and I don't think you've used your brain in a constructive way the entire time.  What exactly do you think is going on here?  Tell me in your own words."

It ought to be instructive.

"Well, uh, we both found a deactivated alien robot girl in the church basement. We took her out her and you found some way to reactivate her and she's supposed to like evil, but is instead one of the good guys?" Dan said.

"Your first point is half-right, delusional and self-serving," said Ehri, guiding Umuru out of the church.  "The next is accurate, but you fail to consider the implications in any way.  The third is simplistic and rooted in both ignorance and an utterly naïve worldview that, in turn, demonstrates a failure to examine your own behavior and prejudices... and your failure to consider implications is particularly outstanding," she finished.

She didn't stop Dan from following, though.  He was going to anyway, and taking the trouble to get rid of him or lose him might very well attract too much attention.

"Hey! That's not really fair!" Dan said following. "You're acting like I'm some kind of idiot just because I'm not as smart as you!"

Umuru was silent and watching the interaction.

Ehri sighed.

"Fine, fine," she said.  "Whatever.  I'm annoyed with you because you did at least two things in the past half hour that were incredibly stupid, and one of them was deeply immoral. But I admit that you didn't have enough information to realize just how stupid at least one of them was, and I certainly shouldn't blame you for simple ignorance; it's not your fault if you don't know something.

"...but spreading what you're about to learn would be very dangerous," she continued.  "For you.  For me.  For her.  Possibly for this entire city.  Or... larger areas."

"I wasn't complete serious," Dan said defensively. "I wouldn't want some government agency taking her and cutting her up!"

"That's one of the scenarios that could lead to destruction of this city," said Ehri.  "They'd have no idea of how to deal with her technology."

...how long was it going to take for even one of them to figure out that she wasn't from this planet?  Seriously, there were limits, weren't there?

"So, I'm guessing you want me to come out and say 'Oh wow, you're an alien too?' or something like that? You've been making that obvious for a while now, I was just trying to have some tact," Dan said.

"THANK you," said Ehri.  "I was wondering what was taking you so long.  Yes.  Umuru, if it matters to you, I'm Gamri.  I don't know if the Gamri Empire predates your depowering, actually.  Our own historical records are heavily censored and distorted, so I don't actually know if it even existed in your era."

"I don't know. I was only active for maybe 12 or so years before being deactivated," Umuru said.

"Well, that's fair," said Ehri.  "Come on, then.  When we get to my lab, we can cover all of the awkward questions."

She headed in that direction at once.