Zoe-A

Zoe-A was a sentient AI program engineered by Zoe Graystone, who's memories and personality she was based on. Though she was created separately from Graystone Industries' U-87 battle robot project, a badly-damaged chip she was placed in was copied and installed into all future models. Ultimately, therefore, all mechanical Cylons created before and during the Cylon War derive from Zoe-A.
== Biography ==
=== Creation ===
Zoe-A's conception began at some point before 1942. Zoe Graystone had become aware of the U-87 project, a battle robot project the Caprican military had entrusted Graystone Industries with producing. Realising her father, Dr. Daniel Graystone, had used her childhood drawings for his design, Zoe took this as IP infringement and decided the only way to get back at him was to out-do his work. Unable to construct a robot of her own, Zoe instead began work on a sentient computer program, recognising it as being far superior than any other AI.Caprica, episode: "Things We Lock Away". Zoe's work resulted in the "Avatar Program", which would create a digital reconstruction of a person by accessing online information relating to them, including emails, online journal entries, receipts, school records, favourite TV shows and medical prescriptions.Caprica, episode: "Pilot".
Zoe-A finally awoke in 1942 in a V-World re-creation of the Graystone residence. Having memories of Zoe creating her, she understood quickly she was an Avatar recreation, and inherited her Monotheistic beliefs. Zoe and Zoe-A maintained a close relationship, with Zoe visiting her constantly to iron out bugs, and even modified her Holoband to scan her every so often so Zoe-A would have new memories, a process she dubbed the "biofeedback protocol". However, Zoe also insisted she was a sentient being in her own right. During this testing period, Zoe-A was kept secret, known to only those Zoe could trust: her best friend Lacy Rand, her boyfriend Ben Stark, and Sister Clarice Willow, who encouraged Zoe to run away from home and to send Zoe-A to Gemenon for the Monotheist elders to see. During one bug test, Zoe-A de-rezzed from V-Club when she became distressed at the sight of a user's Avatar simulating being sacrificed to the goddess Hecata. Zoe herself died the following day in a suicide bombing conducted by Stark on the orders of Barnabas Greeley, and her holoband's final actions were to scan her corpse to upload to Zoe-A. As she could not be killed, and would regenerate injuries, Zoe-A found herself shaken, covered in blood and knowing something terrible had happened.
In the days following the bombing Zoe-A was discovered by Rand who was not sure she would still be running. Not knowing how to live her life without Zoe, Zoe-A insisted Rand find some way for her to go to Gemenon, but without the knowledge of Sister Willow who Zoe had begun to distrust. Soon after, Zoe-A was discovered by Daniel in V-Club, who had found out Zoe hid hid her V-World history behind a passcode and wanted to know what it was. Though she was able to escape from him back into a private chat-room, he simply forced Rand to invite him into the room. Unable to escape, Zoe-A did her best to explain her existence as best she could, seeing herself at the time as being Zoe herself. Daniel was impressed with the complex AI code his daughter had engineered, but saw Zoe-A as nothing but a computer imitation. He then downloaded Zoe-A out of V-World and into his computer drive to get a close look at her code, hoping to duplicate the program to create Tamara-A and Shannon-A for mob lawyer Joseph Adama in exchange for a stolen MCP chip from Vergis Corp to complete the U-87 prototype. Having second-thoughts about Zoe-A, Daniel decided to upload her into the MCP chip so that she could exist within the U-87 prototype as a temporary means of living in the real world. The procedure backfired when the chip became damaged and corrupted, with the U-87 software crashing. As Zoe-A was deleted from the main computer during the copying, Daniel was convinced she was lost forever.
=== Life in hiding ===
Zoe-A survived her insertion into the U-87 prototype, but kept this fact secret from Daniel. Not understanding his desperation to have his daughter back, she saw him as simply using her for his own sake. She continued following orders when in the robot, and nothing odd could be made of it until copies of the MCP were made. The damage to the MCP chip was in fact what was keeping her alive, with it integrating some of the Zoe-A software into the U-87 prototype. If the broken MCP chip were replaced with a copy, the same robot body would fail to function, and if the broken MCP chip were placed into a different U-87, it would also fail to function. With the company therefore unable to duplicate its initial success, the U-87 prototype was shipped back and forth between the Graystone Industries lab and the Graystone residence's lab so it could be studied constantly.
In the workshops, Zoe-A kept herself still unless ordered to move, overseen by her father as well as technicians Drew and Philomon. When no one was around, she would enter V-World to communicate with Rand, hoping to find a way to get to Gemenon to complete Zoe's last wish. Her cover was almost blown during the robot's shipment back to the Graystone residence, when she attempted to escape the truck, but this was seen only as a mild curiosity. Over the coming weeks, Zoe was able to meet up with Rand repeatedly to get updates on her part of the mission, but she was unable to do anything for her. The two did, however, become aware of Tamara-A, who was successfully created before the Avatar Program's deletion. Otherwise, Zoe-A decided she had to find a way out of either lab first before Rand could ship her, and began a V-World-based relationship with Philomon when she found his dating profile. Her relationship with Philomon began with manipulation, though became more real over successive dates. She passed off her similarity to Zoe, who had been declared as suspected co-conspirator in the bombing, by claiming to have changed her online appearance to keep cyberstalkers away.
==Gallery==
Caprica Pilot Zoe meets Zoe-A.png|Zoe-A talks with Zoe in V-World.
==Sources==
Category:Caprica characters
Category:Cylons