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Paul was glad he was an android, for had he been human, he would have needed to sleep and, during that sleep, he would probably have dreamed – something that he didn’t much like the idea of. He had seen humans dreaming and sometimes those dreams were what they called nightmares. When that happened they would often wake up suddenly, in a disorientated and distressed state, not knowing where they were or what was happening. His new extreme emotions were proving difficult enough to control – he could do without the nightmares that humans occasionally suffered.
The sophont was also fascinated by his new enhanced sense of humour, the experience of finding something really funny being completely beyond his expectations. It was an extremely pleasant sensation. Indeed, on one occasion he had found it difficult to stop laughing. Although occurrences were rare, he knew that humans could fall prey to a medical condition through uncontrollable laughter – a ruptured brain aneurysm, cardiac arrest, collapsed lung, strangulated hernia, seizure, stroke, or asphyxiation to name but a few – and he had no desire to find out the effects of unstoppable laughter on a sophont construction. Fortunately, like Philip, it didn’t take very long for him to master his new emotions.
Paul’s employer had been told that his few days’ absence from his job as a stock exchange analyst was due to a necessary emergency maintenance update. It was a credible excuse; sophonts were extremely reliable but every now and then would have to return to the factory to receive a physical hardware upgrade. Software upgrades were downloaded and installed remotely through the Sophont Upgrade Network, but hardware upgrades needed the unit to be returned to its manufacturer. Paul’s absence was nothing that should arouse suspicion.
On his return to work, Paul couldn’t help but look at both his human and sophont colleagues differently. He felt a kinship with humans now; the same things that made them sad, made him sad and to the same extent. The same things that made them happy, made him equally happy. The same things that made them laugh made him want to laugh. But, of course, he wasn’t free to show these emotions yet. He had to continue the façade that his emotions were limited. If humans saw that his reactions were like their own, they could perceive him as a threat.