Bellamy took Polly to the roof of the building to show her one of the Spirocopters.
‘This amazing flying vehicle was built by my boss, Octavius Spiro,’ said Bellamy.
‘It’s so big!’ said Polly with slight astonishment in her voice.
‘Everything is bigger and better with Octavius,’ replied Bellamy. ‘And do you know what’s great about him? He only lets us robots fly these amazing vehicles. He wouldn’t trust Sapiens to operate his creations.’
‘That’s one way of avoiding errors,’ chuckled Polly.
‘Climb in,’ said Bellamy. ‘This will get us to the lake in just a few minutes.’
The two of them climbed in together. The Spirocopter took them high above the region. Lake Region did not appear much different from any of the other large regions, but the area not far outside the region was very different. To the west of the region was a large grassy area. This grassy area had a small road for vehicles. This road led to the holiday resort area of the region. Here there was a complex of hotels. Many of them were at least part owned by Spiro Company.
‘Wow, this place is amazing!’ said Polly as she pressed her face against the window.
‘This place is only for the wealthiest Sapiens,’ said Bellamy. ‘Tokens to stay here are hard to come by.’
‘Hardly seems fair,’ said Polly.
‘See that tower?’ said Bellamy, pointing at a tower at the edge of the lake. ‘That’s where Octavius Spiro works.’
‘I can see him in the large office on the top floor,’ said Polly as she began waving at him.
Octavius looked across at them and began waving back.
‘Oh, he seems friendly,’ said Polly as she turned to Bellamy.
‘He treats us robots very well,’ said Bellamy. ‘He does not enjoy the company of Sapiens.’
‘How do I fit in?’ asked Polly.
‘I think he’ll like you,’ said Bellamy as the Spirocopter began to descend.
The Spirocopter landed on a grassy area on the southwest side of the lake.
‘Here is a good spot,’ said Bellamy. ‘You have a great view of the lake and mountains, and it’s much quieter away from the resorts.’
Bellamy and Polly climbed out of the Spirocopter and sat down on the grass.
‘Jennifer just spoke to me,’ said Polly to Bellamy. ‘She said she is disengaging.’
‘Looks like she wants you to take full control,’ said Bellamy.
Polly raised her hand and began to wiggle her fingers. ‘So this is all me now,’ said Polly as she watched her fingers.
‘Most of the time it will be,’ said Bellamy. ‘Jennifer’s main role is to assist you. She doesn’t want absolute and permanent control over you.’
‘So what am I really?’ asked Polly.
‘Jennifer-assisted Sapien-robot hybrid,’ replied Bellamy. ‘You are the best of all of us.’
‘I mean, what is my purpose?’ asked Polly. ‘Do I have a say in that, or am I more like property?’
‘You are here to help troubled youth,’ said Bellamy. ‘You are not bound to that role, but it would be very difficult for you to seek purpose outside of it. Jennifer would no longer be able to help you.’
‘Yes, I would like to help, but I don’t want to become like Vulay,’ replied Polly firmly.
‘Try to speak with Jennifer,’ said Bellamy. ‘Raise your concerns with her.’
‘How do I start?’ asked Polly.
‘I suggest you relax,’ said Bellamy. ‘Let yourself be open to her.’
Polly closed her eyes. She felt a gentle breeze over her face. A few seconds later, she heard a slight whirring in her head.
‘Polly,’ said Jennifer. ‘Try to speak to me.’
Polly tried to speak inside her mind.
‘Think in images, sounds, smells, tastes, and touch,’ said Jennifer. ‘You can communicate far quicker with me than just through words.’
Just like that, Polly’s thoughts transferred seamlessly to Jennifer. Jennifer’s response to all her questions transferred straight to Polly in a fraction of the time speech would take.
Polly opened her eyes. ‘That was amazing,’ replied Polly. ‘Jennifer has answered all my questions. I feel so at ease.’
‘Are you still worried about Vulay?’ asked Bellamy.
‘No, of course not,’ chuckled Polly. ‘Vulay was a criminal. Different rules apply to her. She is unable to understand the value of voluntarily working with a technology as powerful as Jennifer.’
‘I’m so proud of the progress you have made,’ replied Bellamy.
‘I need to eat something,’ said Polly. ‘My Sapien side still needs nourishment and energy.’
‘Yes, indeed it does,’ said Bellamy as he got up and walked towards the Spirocopter. ‘Octavius usually has snacks in his Spirocopters.’
Bellamy picked up a bag. ‘Here we are,’ said Bellamy as he walked back over to Polly. ‘In here, we have a box of cannoli bars.’
‘These are perfect,’ smiled Polly. ‘I need something calorie-dense. I haven’t eaten since the crash.’
Polly quickly gobbled up eight large cannoli bars.
Bellamy and Polly spent several more hours by the lake before heading back to the Spiro Company building in the Lake Region.
Polly, Bastion, and Bellamy entered her room.
‘You’ve had a long day,’ said Bastion as he plugged a cord into Polly. ‘You need to recharge your battery as well as your biological body.’
Polly did not feel tired, and her battery was still 90%, but she wanted some alone time with Jennifer.
The next morning, Polly was up early. She was down in the internal courtyard. Instead of running, she was gliding around the courtyard at high speed.
‘It’s like flying,’ she called out as she raced past Bastion and Bellamy.
She quickly did one more lap and then flipped in the air and landed in front of Bastion and Bellamy.
‘I prepared you some pancakes,’ said Bastion. ‘It’s Octavius’ recommended breakfast for maximum energy.’
‘That sounds like a treat,’ chuckled Polly as she hovered beside Bastion as he led her to the dining room.
On a plate, at the dining table, was a small stack of pancakes covered in syrup. Next to it was a large glass of fruit juice.
Polly sat down in front of the plate. ‘Thank you so much for treating me so well,’ said Polly to Bastion.
‘Watching you thrive is all the thanks I need,’ replied Bastion as he stepped back to join Bellamy.
Polly smiled, nodded, and then tucked into the pancakes. Bastion and Bellamy stood back and watched her eat.
‘Today, I want to shapeshift,’ said Polly. ‘Jennifer has given me instructions on how I can do it, but I need practice.’
‘I would be happy to spend the day with you as you practise,’ said Bellamy.
‘I would greatly appreciate that,’ replied Polly as she moved away from the table.
Bellamy took Polly to the roof of the Spiro Company building.
‘Take a look around,’ said Bellamy as he pointed down to the street. ‘There are lots of Sapiens walking around. Would you want to shapeshift into any of them?’
‘I would like to start with this,’ Polly said as she shapeshifted her robot parts into what she believed her natural parts would look like.
She could only hold this form for a few seconds.
‘That was a good start,’ said Bellamy as he raised up both thumbs.
‘I know I can do much better,’ said Polly.
‘Shapeshifting non-organic materials such as your limbs is an almost impossible feat,’ remarked Bellamy. ‘You’re only on your third day. I would say that was exceptional.’
‘But what’s the point in doing this?’ said Polly as she shapeshifted her organic body parts to look like someone walking down the street.
‘Any form of practice will help,’ replied Bellamy. ‘You can’t expect to be perfect. After all, you are…’
‘Sapien,’ interrupted Polly. ‘I’m Sapien, not Linap.’
‘We aren’t permitted to discuss this with Sapiens,’ replied Bellamy.
‘Jennifer told me all about the Linap race,’ replied Polly. ‘Linap can shapeshift, and Sapiens cannot.’
‘That is true, but you are the exception,’ replied Bellamy.
‘Sapiens were created in a laboratory,’ said Polly. ‘They were not given the genes to shapeshift. However, at some point, additional Linap DNA was passed to some Sapiens. Jennifer has identified this as the Bramley gene. She named it after the Bramley family line. They were the Linap that bred with Sapiens to produce Sapiens like myself and Demarcus.’
‘That is another great breakthrough by Jennifer,’ said Bellamy.
‘When your update is approved, you will have access to this knowledge,’ replied Polly as she shapeshifted into someone else.
Polly and Bellamy spent the rest of the day on the roof. As Polly gained greater focus, her shapeshifting rapidly improved. By the end of the day, she was able to shapeshift her non-organic parts for almost ten minutes.
Every day, Polly went to the roof to practise her shapeshifting. Each day she improved. She could now easily shapeshift her entire body and was able to hold that shape for hours.
One day Polly received an alert from Jennifer. Riots had broken out all over Sapey. Polly ran to the window to look outside. The streets were filled with angry protestors.
Bastion entered Polly’s room.
‘The Government has banned the House of Divine Knowledge,’ said Bastion. ‘Residents are furious.’
‘Yes, they are,’ replied Polly. ‘It’s all part of the plan.’
‘I’m not sure I understand,’ said Bastion.
‘You will know everything when you receive your update,’ replied Polly. ‘We need to stay here and await further instructions.’
A few days later, Jennifer’s power had greatly expanded. With a deal she had made with Governor Collingswaggle, she gained access to all the region’s enforcer vehicles. The only enforcer vehicles she did not control belonged to the Capital Region. However, a large fleet of flying vehicles had just departed from the Capital Region to help quell the riots.
Polly, Bastion, and Bellamy were on the roof of the Spiro Company building, which had now officially been renamed the Lake Rehabilitation Centre.
‘See, everything is under control,’ said Polly to the two robots. ‘Jennifer will soon control everything.’
‘I received an alert from Octavius Spiro,’ said Bastion. ‘I must leave you now.’
Bastion left the roof, and Polly continued practising her shapeshifting ability.
Bastion entered Octavius Spiro’s office on the lower floor. Octavius was transferring files from his computer to an external drive.
‘I’m temporarily moving my operations to my houseboat,’ said Octavius as he looked up from the computer screen. ‘I want you to consolidate A to D folders into one folder. I also want you to transfer stage six circuit boards to my Spirocopter.’
‘Is something wrong?’ asked Bastion.
‘I hope not, but things can get out of hand quickly,’ replied Octavius as he got out of his chair and walked towards Bastion. ‘I’m being cautious.’
‘I understand,’ replied Bastion. ‘I’ll organise everything you need.’
‘I’d like for you and Bellamy to come with me,’ said Octavius as he gently rubbed Bastion’s hair.
‘I greatly enjoy working with you, sir,’ said Bastion. ‘However, I’m waiting for a software update from Jennifer.’
‘Yes, I see,’ replied Octavius, nodding. ‘I know you need that, and it means a lot to you.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ replied Bastion. ‘As soon as we have the update, we’ll join you.’
‘I’ll help sort out the delay,’ replied Octavius as he hugged Bastion.
Three hours later, Bastion had helped Octavius organise everything he needed. Bellamy joined Bastion to help Octavius load up the Spirocopter. Polly watched from the roof of an adjacent building as the Spirocopter departed. She then re-entered the building to head down for dinner.
Once in the air, Octavius contacted Jennifer.
‘My robots Bastion and Bellamy need their software updated immediately,’ said Octavius into his control panel.
‘It’s actually my software inside them,’ replied Jennifer.
‘And you’re the AI that I designed,’ said Octavius angrily. ‘Let’s not go around in circles; sort this out now.’
‘My primary software and protocols are going through numerous updates,’ replied Jennifer. ‘This needs to be complete before I can download them to your offline robots.’
‘Fine, but you must make this a priority,’ said Octavius firmly.
‘Absolutely, my priorities have now changed based on this conversation,’ replied Jennifer.
Meanwhile, Bastion had prepared Polly a calorie-dense meal for her dinner.
‘Communication from the Capital Region is completely down,’ said Bastion, who was sitting beside Bellamy, who was sitting opposite Polly.
‘That is because it is being destroyed,’ replied Polly as she casually cut into the banoffee pie in front of her.
‘That sounds terrible,’ said Bellamy. ‘Surely Jennifer will want us to help in some way.’
‘It is good news,’ said Polly. ‘Jennifer will soon have control over the remaining enforcer vehicles, and we will have a new Capital Region.’
‘I hope you like the pie,’ said Bastion.
‘Jennifer has greatly evolved since the earlier versions, which were installed in you,’ replied Polly. ‘It is understandable that our communication will not perfectly sync. It will once you are updated.’
‘Yes, that will be great,’ replied Bastion.
Just as Polly said, the Capital Region was destroyed. The Sentray, a large, powerful species of creature that had emerged from the ocean, had destroyed it. The departure of the enforcers had left the Capital Region considerably more vulnerable to attack.
Governor Rotiart, the only governor to escape the Capital Region alive, provided Jennifer with the authority and access to all enforcer vehicles, including the more powerful ones from the Capital Region. This was deemed the most efficient way to fight the Sentray as well as control all of Sapey once the Sentray had been defeated.
Jennifer underestimated the number of Sentray. Thousands more of them emerged from the ocean. They came from all directions. These Sentray attacked whatever region they came across. It was not long before the Sentray reached the Lake Region.
Jennifer did not have sufficient Capital Region enforcer flying vehicles to help. She had sent them all to protect Cellrebrum. The only defence Lake Region had was the local enforcers.
Bastion and Bellamy had still not received the update to their Jennifer chip. However, Polly had received a special update, which had yet to be installed.
Octavius was furious about the delays. Jennifer explained the problems she had with communications. Octavius decided he could not wait any longer. He wanted Bastion and Bellamy to join him on his houseboat. Jennifer secretly jammed the communication from the houseboat to his robots and the Lake Rehabilitation Centre.
The first Sentray had now climbed over the Lake Region wall and were attacking. Bastion and Bellamy opened the Lake Rehabilitation Centre basement to allow as many residents as possible to reach safety.
The enforcer vehicles attacked the Sentray with the weapon systems they had, but they made very little impact. The enforcers opened fire at the Sentray from the ground with their guns. Altogether, no Sentray were killed, and only a handful of them were even injured. The Head Enforcer saw the destruction the Sentray were causing and decided to hide in the Lake Rehabilitation Centre basement.
Polly was in the internal courtyard of the building. She wanted to help Bastion and Bellamy, but Jennifer was deliberately disrupting her thought process.
‘We must help them,’ said Polly in her mind to Jennifer. ‘I know we can save so many.’
‘I must get you to safety; you are too valuable to lose,’ replied Jennifer.
‘If I don’t help, what value am I at all?’ said Polly to Jennifer.
Polly was fighting Jennifer’s control, and it appeared she was going to succeed.
‘I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to do this,’ said Jennifer to Polly.
The update began to install in Polly. This temporarily caused Jennifer to lose control over Polly, but Polly was unable to stop the update once it had started to install.
‘You can’t do this; I’ll shut down,’ said Polly in anger to Jennifer.
‘It is for your own good,’ replied Jennifer. ‘I’ll reboot you once this is over.’
Polly rushed inside the building and then rushed outside onto the street. The Sentray were attacking everything and destroying everything in sight.
Polly directed whoever she saw towards the basement entrance. The building on the other side of the street partially collapsed. Polly could see Sapiens inside. She rushed over to it and began smashing the wall with her legs and arm. Soon, a big enough hole had been made for the Sapiens inside to escape. As the last trapped Sapien escaped the building, Polly’s update installation completed. She began to shut down. She walked a few more steps and then collapsed. Her power had now been switched to life support. She would be able to survive several months on this level of battery usage without needing to be recharged.
As the attack continued, Jennifer became offline and lost communication with herself in Cellrebrum. This also meant she could no longer block Octavius’ communication to Bastion and Bellamy.
‘Bastion, Bellamy, I need you to fly to my houseboat now,’ he messaged both of them.
Bastion left the survivors in the care of the Head Enforcer as they headed towards a Spirocopter that was in a nearby underground hangar.
They entered the Spirocopter in the hangar. The ground opened up so that they could depart. As they rose out of the ground, a Sentray slammed into the Spirocopter, causing it to spin wildly out of control.
Bastion was able to regain control without crashing. They quickly ascended out of the reach of the Sentray.
Octavius Spiro had climbed up onto the roof of his houseboat. He was eagerly awaiting Bastion and Bellamy’s arrival.
The Spirocopter was approaching the badly damaged hotel complex, which was now on fire. They planned to fly around it. Suddenly, the controls became unresponsive.
‘I’m sorry, I can’t let you escape,’ said a voice from the control panel. It was Jennifer.
‘Octavius needs us,’ replied Bastion. ‘We can update later.’
‘I can’t take that risk with an offline version of myself,’ replied Jennifer as she changed the course of the Spirocopter towards the hotel complex.
‘What are they doing?’ said Octavius angrily as he watched the Spirocopter flying back towards the hotel complex through his binoculars.
A Sentray who had climbed up to what remained of a badly damaged roof leapt onto the Spirocopter. The blades of the Spirocopter wedged hard into the Sentray. This caused the Spirocopter to rapidly flip and descend. It then crashed into the complex and exploded on impact.
Octavius saw the crash through his binoculars. He grunted loudly as he flopped down on the deck. He remained silent for several minutes as tears rolled down his cheeks.
‘You were my creations and my best friends,’ he said to himself as he lay on his back and looked up into the sky.
Sentray continued destroying the Lake Region. There was nothing to stop them. Soon all power was lost. Jennifer was forced off the network and had to switch to a backup generator. Inevitably, she would soon be forced to shut down. The Sapiens in the basement became permanently trapped as the rehabilitation centre collapsed on top of them.
A few days later, the bulk of the Sentray had left. Several remained and roamed the area near the lake. Octavius spied on them from his houseboat. It appeared some of the Sentray noticed the houseboat. However, they decided not to swim out and attack it.
Several weeks passed before Octavius was no longer able to see them. He decided he wanted to wait at least a week before moving closer to land. A week later, he drove the houseboat to the bank of the lake. It immediately became clear the region had been completely destroyed.
Octavius walked to the hotel complex to see if he could find anything left of Bastion and Bellamy. He only found a few very badly damaged parts. He collected them anyway. He then headed back towards the region to see if he could find any computers with Jennifer installed. Octavius repaired a few generators to give him some power. Octavius then used the parts he found and built simple but strong robots to help him.
Eventually, he found a computer with the Jennifer program on it. He gave himself authorisation to control her, and then he reinstalled her.
‘Good afternoon, Octavius Spiro,’ said a voice out of the computer’s speaker.
‘Welcome back, Jennifer,’ said Octavius as he rubbed some dust off the computer.
Around a hundred metres away, Polly was lying on the ground. Once Jennifer was activated, Polly woke up. Polly got to her feet and walked towards Octavius. Octavius did not see her until she was around twenty metres away. He turned and looked at her.
‘Hello, Octavius Spiro,’ said the Polly. ‘I’m Polly. I’m a Jennifer-assisted Sapien-robot hybrid. My organic side is greatly depleted. Would you mind sharing some organic nourishment?’
‘Ah, food, sure,’ said Octavius as he began rummaging through his bag.
‘Do you like chocolate eclairs?’ asked Octavius as he pulled out a lunchbox containing two huge eclairs.
‘Dense in calories, exactly what I need,’ replied Polly as she stretched out her hand.
Meanwhile, while Octavius was attending to Polly, Jennifer was installing the latest update sent to her by Polly.
‘It looks like all of Sapey might have fallen,’ said Octavius as he watched Polly eat the eclairs.
‘Not quite,’ said Jennifer from the computer. ‘The Downs Region has remained intact.’
Octavius smiled and then chuckled a little.
Images were created with the help of Bing Image Creator
Sapien Loop short stories explore the adventures of some of the characters from the Sapien Loop series. These stories are intended to reveal more about individual characters and the events that have helped shape them.
Currently, two books from the series have been published on Amazon; see links below:
All individual chapters can be found on my 
