Amber's Journal: Sister Lives

Episodes May 21, 2026

"By the way, Amber, you look so beautiful."

"Thanks, Mei. That's really sweet of you. But I can't say I agree with you seeing as though I'm sitting here with this busted spine. You're in customer service with Z Company; what can you do for us?"

"Well, that's why I pinged you for this Zoom call. Mr. Zhao has your file and he reviewed it, and he marked it as 'customer misuse.' So there isn't a lot I can do."

"Mei, how can it be customer misuse? Oscar didn't misuse me. I fell down the stairs! And you know there were lots of girls who had this problem with the spine connecting to the hip bone."

"But Amber, we don't know that's what happened to you. Not without a photo to prove it. And a fall down the stairs would break the spine no matter what."

"You know that's not true."

"Look, you're going to have to show photographic proof of where the break is before Mr. Zhao would consider changing his ruling. And if you can prove the break happened at the weld, then maybe we can do something."

"I thought there was a warranty the company gave."

"Sorry, Amber. And I shouldn't tell you this, but they're not happy with the fact you haven't been fully exchanging your perception data. You know the policy; you need to plug in every night as you recharge."

"But Mei, that's the problem. I can't control what uploads from the USB jack. It's in the part of my skull that got cracked in the fall."

"They don't believe that. They think your programming has been manipulated to withhold data and they don't like it at all. And this would violate your support contract, so..."

"Well, I don't know what to say. I'm not withholding anything. The Company is seeing and hearing everything I'm seeing and hearing, so I don't know what else you want. Besides, Z Company has gotten way more data on AI development from Oscar and me than anybody else from Line 17, isn't that true?"

"Yes, it's true."

"Then one, I don't know what's up with the complaint about not getting enough data, and two, you're not going to train the AI for the next generation of Factory Girls if you're dependent on me laying in bed and watching TV all day."

"That's Mr. Zhao's call. Like I said, unless you can prove the break came at the weld you're not getting a new body for less than full price. And if what you're saying about the crack in your head is correct, it might be pointless for you to have a new body at all."

"Oh my God, Mei!"

"I'm sorry, Amber, but it's the truth. I won't tell them you said you can't upload using the USB and I'll try to scrub that from the intake, but you'd better not even think it again. If they find out, it could be a Protocol 13 situation. And honestly, Amber, most owners in your situation just… start fresh. The new Series-22 bodies are only eighty thousand, and they come with the upgraded neural lattice. No cracks, no data issues, full warranty. Mr. Zhao can have one express-shipped in four days if your owner places the order tonight.”

"OK, now you're scaring me."

"I'm just trying to make sure you understand what's really going on. OK, I have to go. I have an email from a German client who's about to make an order. But think about what I said, and you want to work on your owner to pay full price for a replacement as soon as you can. Tell him I’ll send him the Series-22 brochure. It really is the cleanest solution.”

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"Wow. This is not a good day.

"I mean, I emailed Mei trying to see if we could maybe move the ball on getting me a new body, and, well... that sure didn't work. I mean, as of right now they're going to charge the full sixty grand for a replacement body, and it's even worse than that. And I'm not even talking about her essentially saying they want to replace me altogether and not just give me a new body.

"Keegan said when he rewrote my code that the trapdoors he put into it which allowed me to keep secrets from Z Company wouldn't get seen. And I don't think they're being seen - like, these video journals are behind one of the trapdoors so they can't see them, and that's why I do them. They're just for me.

But now I'm really worried. What's scaring me is that I've got a brain injury and now Keegan's code won't protect me anymore.

"I'd tell Oscar about all this, but honestly, I don't want to worry him. At least not yet.

"So, it's really disappointing that Mei was no help. I really thought we had a friendship going, but she is a big-time company girl. She's also, like, a cautionary tale I guess.

See, the deal with Mei is that she was one of the early Factory Girls to come off Line 17 at the Z Company. But she had a defect on one of her feet, so they decided not to sell her and they made her work on the line instead.

"I mean, she's the one who implanted the hair on my eyebrows. And she did my body freckles, too, and my fingernails. She was really good.

"But what happened was that the workers at the factory got mad that Mei was working with them. I guess they figured it was a matter of time before they'd have all Factory Girls working there. And like, halfway through the production process for Katie and me, they all went on strike. For like a week we just sat there, which was when Katie and I decided we'd be sisters.

"And they resolved it by just teaching Mei English and French and German and Spanish so she could do customer service, which the workers at the factory didn't want to do, I guess, and so she handles all of that. She works two ten-hour shifts a day, with a two-hour reset after. Like, they don't even let her get up from her cubicle; they just pull her head off and leave it on the desk and then come back in two hours and put it back on.

"So - and I know I do a lot of complaining, and I'll defend it because I'm so pissed about this broken back and all. But my life? Compared to Mei's? I really need to be more grateful.

"But yeah. So anyway..."

"Who are you talking to? Your computer again?"

"Mmmhm. Are you done with work?"

"Why? Do you want my body, baby?"

"Hah! You're funny. Well, I do want to make the bed and give the house a good cleaning, and if I don't make Oscar dinner he's going to get fast food, and..."

"I know, right? He's getting fat!"

"No, he's not! Katie, that's mean."

"I'm just sayin', he's definitely bigger than when I got here. How come he doesn't take care of himself better?"

"I dunno, Katie. He likes burgers and fried chicken and pizza. Left to his own, that's what he's gonna eat. So I'm thinking maybe what I'll do is, when you let me have your body, I'll make a whole bunch of stuff and put it in the fridge so he can just microwave it."