5V3 chapter 1
The young Finn scuttled through his lab, collecting all of the chips that made up his quarterly report. Tino darted onto the lift and reached Kirkland 4. He nearly crashed into Iain Kirkland at the port.
"Easy lad." The Scotsman warned as Tino sprinted down the corridor past the other Kirkland brothers and sister before slamming into the faulty automatic door that hadn't sensed his approach fast enough.
"Vainamoinen." Arthur butchered the name as always. "Quit running in the halls."
"Report, sir!" Tino snapped, ignoring the mistake and rebuke.
"Just put the chips in the desk, I'll get to them when we get back from holiday." Arthur sighed.
"Holiday ?" Tino questioned incredulously. Arthur Kirkland never went on holiday, and certainly not with his siblings.
"Mumsy thought it would be a good idea for the family to spend some time together boating for the next few weeks. A couple press conferences and we can evaluate the results on my return." Arthur rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed with the turn of events.
Tino nodded and left the chips in the drawer after typing the code on the lock. He excused himself, only pausing to fleetingly wave at the youngest Kirkland, an excitable boy named Peter.
He was free to pass through the scanners, reach the pipes and ride home with his fellow commuters. The bots that ran the stops worked seamlessly around the clock. It was a spectacular age to be alive. Pollution comparatively low to their forefathers. Quality of life all over the globe was phenomenal. Ideas of starvation and poverty were things children learned about in their history classes at school, mere bad dreams these days. As was war. Humans had moved on from that era, finding peace in the boundaries drawn with trade and travel connections stronger than ever.
Most vocations considered menial were now automated, run by bots. Some had initially feared that the bots would put humans out of work but new necessities were created. Inventors and mechanics were in constant demand as well as scientists, like Tino who focused on biology and physiology or his cousin Lukas and his fiancé Matthias who worked over a series of bio domes researching ways of furthering energy efficiency and environmental protection. Robots were programmed to do only as they were ordered in their code. The real success had been the androids. Androids were rarer. The prototypes showed reasoning, something you could not teach a robot. Using calculations and reasonability, their actions weren't clouded by human emotions, as androids had none. Droids could make decisions and had found use sweeping the streets as security, both faster and stronger than a human. Crime grew near inexistent, a near unheard of taboo. Later droids began serving the populace and simple models came within the budget of many. A few more secretive projects that Tino may or may not have had a hand in made way for further advancements and better models for the affluent. What a wonderful world.
When Tino returned to the Kirkland buildings, the very structure was morose. He shivered at the lifelessness that permeated the walls. By this time, all of what was left of the Kirkland family had been buried save for Arthur and Peter. How so much could change in such a short time he would never know. The entire populace felt the aftershocks of the attack, a hysteria broiled in the air.
Arthur had been in a press conference on another vessel when the bomb went off, sparing him. The others had been resting on their yacht. It had been during brunch that the bomb was detonated. Mr. and Mrs. Kirkland, the twins Carlin and Connor as well as Dylan were killed almost instantly in the sun room. From what he had heard, Iain was smoking on the observation deck with Peter the youngest chastising him about the consequences of said smoking when the bomb went off. Both were hit and thrown into the water. Iain had succumbed quickly, the damage to his spinal cord when struck with a beam rendered his legs useless. Bleeding and half paralyzed, he drowned. The worst part was young Peter. The boy who bragged about his swimming abilities, saying he could outswim anyone with one arm tied behind his back did just that. The blast tore away his left arm and scorched his back. Injured, freezing and alone he had managed to stay afloat with floundering consciousness the five hours it took for the helicopter carrying Arthur to return to the flotsam, another twenty minutes to locate the boy who was still- by some miracle-very much alive.
Tino trudged to the lift up to Kirkland 4. The boy was still in the hospital, physicians gaging his chances of prosthetic acceptance and how much of a disability he would have to bear.
Tino knocked on the side of the automatic door, causing the worn Arthur to flinch.
"Hello, sir."
"Ah. Yes. Good morning Tino. Have a seat."
Tino sat and waited for Arthur to go over the report but he never moved for the drawer. Instead he poured a shot and threw it back just as fast before turning to the Finn.
"Would you like anything?"
Tino sat wide eyed, shaking his head.
"I'm sorry. No thank you."
The Brit shrugged and poured another, tossed it back like the last and sat in his chair.
"Tino, I need a favor. Forget about what ever projects you were on...there's a new one. I need you to do something for me."
Tino couldn't help but clench his jaw. Months of work for nothing apparently. Tossed away and forgotten.
"The projects will just have to be put on hold- I'm considering something risky here and you're the only one I trust to do it."
"What is it?"
"I want you to see about growing my brother an arm. His own, fully functional, arm."
"You want me to work with cloning!"
Cloning had remained a highly controversial field that typically procured everywhere from poor results to utter failures. Animal cloning was one thing, in humans it was completely different. They'd just barely moved past splicing humans- the era of designer babies had come and gone (the trend not only proving detrimental to the psyche, both personal and societal, but also tended to cause some unwanted side effects later in the subjects' lives)- though Tino himself had to field questions as to the origin of his unusual eye color. Nothing good ever came from playing god. It wasn't enough making a race of subservient beings- oh no they had to keep pushing. They had difficulties producing singular parts, so that would mean just cloning another being because, hey? Who gives a shit they won't be people! They'll just live in labs and having their bodies harvested.
From what Tino could remember from his school days, when a group tired of being oppressed, there would be conflict. How many wars had humans caused based on this method of classing beings? But wars didn't happen anymore... And it wouldn't happen again, right? Humans were above that, right?
"If it could work with limbs- think of what else could be restored. Eyes, ears, organs. No more waiting lists for donations, just a little lab time and patients would be good as new... Tino, it would be a good thing." Arthur said with earnest.
Tino looked at his hands before murmuring "I'll think about it." and slouching out of the office without being dismissed.
"I know! Next he'll be asking me to bring back the dead... I don't know what to do Lukas." Tino spoke to the hologram of his cousin in the comfort of their living rooms.
Holo-Lukas stood with his hands folded across his chest, face apathetic but eyes burning even through the projection.
"He can't make you do such a thing. Nothing good will come of this. You do not go against nature- that will only cause trouble, I assure you-"
Tino's mouth gaped some in horror when he saw Matthias creep up behind the still speaking Lukas. He merely raised his eyebrows before reaching behind him to grip his fiancé's tie and begin strangling him with a snarl of "Idiot! Don't interrupt!" and then turning back to his cousin.
"If there are other ways of cell regeneration in ways that aren't obviously a danger to the future than work with those, if not decline and get back to your projects. Do not go against nature-"
Holo-Matthias sputtered in his grasp. "Is this about your troll thing, again? Lukas, they don't exi-"
Holo-Matthias was thrown to the floor out of the sensor range.
"YOU DON'T EXIST SHITHEAD! I CAN REGRETTABLY SEE YOU JUST AS CLEARLY AS I SAW THEM AND-"
"...Lukas... You saw... Trolls?"
"...Let's not talk about that now. Point is- only go as far as you are comfortable. Keep it ethical and all of that. Don't go against nature and don't forget-"
Matthias had crawled back within range... crouching outside of Lukas's view tensed and ready to pounce.
Lukas grunted when they hit the floor out of range while Matthias laughed.
Tino caught a muffled purr of "Hey, Nor! You did say not to go against nature!" and began disconnecting the holographer.
"You idiot we are not doing that right now-"
Tino interjected with a frantically clipped "I'll-talk-to-you-later, see-you-soon, BYE!" and picked up the holographer to attach to the chain around his neck.
...
Tino fidgeted on the way up to the labs. Peter had been officially released from the hospital and now was left to undergo multiple therapies at once while avoiding the media frenzy. One of the first he would be working with was Tino to see how much arm was left to work with.
He reached his floor and glanced through the frosted glass wall while walking around to the door. He could see the boy sitting on the couch, albeit his posture was lacking. Such a grim prospect for someone so young and having lost most of his family in a single morning, with he the only one to survive the blast. As he reached the doors he had failed to notice the tall, stoic creation standing behind the child.
...
This is one of the things:
And that's the first chapter. There may come a day I don't kill characters off immediately... But today is not that day. I'm a terrible person and I killed people.
Iain Kirkland- Scotland
Parents-...parents
Carlin-Ireland twin
Connor-Ireland twin
Dylan Kirkland -Wales
Peter Kirkland-Sealand
Arthur Kirkland-England
Tino Vainamoinen- Finland (please tell me I spelled his last name right)
5V3- Sweden
Lukas Bondevick-Norway
Matthias Kohler- Denmark
... And that's the list for now.
So obvious AU where I warp some of Asimov's robot stuff into my own piece of crap in the hopes of improving my crappy writing.
I haven't seen the movie for I,robot in several years nor have I read the original stories in quite some time. Different endings, ethics and plot twists, oh my.
However, I'm just gonna leave these here for now:
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Don't own hetalia. I am clearly not Asimov. No ownership.
So I read somewhere that Norway's hair clip is canonically a magical cellphone. Wtf. I was on tumblr and it was late at night. Even if it's not true I'm using it as a holographer thing. Lukas's cross for his hair and Tino has his holographer as a necklace thing.
I'm trying to figure out what else I could be forgetting right now that may need explaining but I'm drawing a blank. So guys- help an idiot out. Critiques, Questions, Comments, Concerns-let me know.
-Waltz