Everyone has a tale to tell. One about their lives, an account of how well they lived...or one of how they were fortunate enough to have a little bit of both good and bad intermingled in their existences. Or maybe they have lived a terrible life, one full of regret, anger, pain, and anguish.
I am the latter. I have lived that life so full of anguish, pain,
anger...and...
Regret.
The thing that eats you alive, so terribly
blinds you that you can't tell up from down anymore. It tortures you to the very
point of insanity.
And I am filled with it. It hurts me, worse than
anything Dr. Wily could have ever
inflicted.
Wily...
...............
And so where shall I
begin my tale? What should I divulge upon first? Should I start from the end and
work backwards, or should I start in the middle and separate in two different
directions?
No...
I think I will be conventional. I will start
from the beginning, from my very first memories. I will tell my tale, from
beginning to
end.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was...what was it? The very first feeling I ever had...it seems so long ago.
Yes...I think it was...
Comfort.
It was cold and frightening...but
at the same time I was unafraid, because there was someone holding me. Someone
who wouldn't let any harm come to me. She was beautiful, with large emerald
green eyes and sandy blonde hair. She smiled at me and made me feel safe. I
blinked, unsure of myself.
My...self? Was this me? Who was I?
A
word seemed to appear in my mind as I looked at this
woman.
Human...
followed closely
by
Female.
Human. Female. This was a human female.
---ANALYZING: HUMAN---
CLASSIFICATION:
MAMMAL.
WARM-BLOODED.
TWO-GENDER.
INTELLIGENCE LEVEL: HIGHEST
---SYSTEM SCAN INITIATING---
..............
..............
SCAN
COMPLETE.
ANALYSES OF DRN000
CLASSIFICATION: ROBOT
AGE: 0 YRS. 0 MOS. 0
WKS. 0 DYS. 0 HRS. 10 MINS.
STATUS:
STABLE/FUNCTIONING
I wanted to ask this female. I tried to but...I didn't know how to speak her language. That was not in my programming. So I attempted to communicate with her in Machine Language, the language of ro--
......
...of androids. Ah...to clear this up...Machine Language. Hmm...analogy, analogy....ah! It is what a modem speaks when it is dialing up.
I asked this female, "Who are you? Who am I? What am I?" I had so many questions to ask...
At first I thought that she could understand me, because she was smiling from ear to ear. Shouts were heard, and two other humans came rushing up to the woman and me. Startled, I pulled back, tried to hide myself in this woman's chest. But alas, I hadn't hidden well enough, for I was picked up by one of the other humans. This was not a female human - it looked different.
Two-gender...of course! This human was male, as was his colleague.
The man who had picked me up grinned at me. It was a kind and warm grin; it made me feel at ease. I relaxed. This man was not harmful, and so I should not harm him.
A sharp sensation in my mind -
RULES OF ROBOTICS
1 - NEVER CAUSE HARM TO ANY
HUMAN
The man with the kind smile had black hair with a matching beard, but the color was beginning to fade; his eyes were sapphire, and gentle. The other man had eyes as black as pitch, with brown hair in a style difficult to describe. They were talking, but I couldn't understand them. It must have shown, because the brown-haired man slapped his forehead, laughed, and then reached behind my head. He flicked a switch, and a fog was cleared from my mind. Now I knew what the humans were saying.
"I can't believe we forgot to activate his speech recognition!"
"Caught up in the moment, I suppose." A strange accent - it sounded German.
"Yes, you boys have accomplished quite a feat - the first human-like robot in history!"
"I know...it's wonderful!"
"We'll be famous, Albert!"
Albert. That was the name of the brown-haired man.
"Yes, Thomas!"
Thomas. The name of the bearded man.
"Carrie, go and call Sarah down here!"
Carrie. The name of the beautiful woman.
---ANALYZING: THOMAS---
THOMAS XAVIER LIGHT.
SPECIES:
HUMAN
GENDER: MALE
AGE: 40 YRS.
EYES: BLUE
HAIR: BLACK
HEIGHT: 5
FT. 4 IN.
WEIGHT: 200 LBS.
STATUS: CREATOR
---ANALYZING:
ALBERT---
ALBERT W. WILY.
SPECIES: HUMAN
GENDER: MALE
AGE: 43
YRS.
EYES: BLACK
HAIR: BROWN
HEIGHT: 5 FT. 5 IN.
WEIGHT: 175
LBS.
STATUS: CO-CREATOR
---ANALYZING: CARRIE---
CARRIE MAY
LIGHT.
SPECIES: HUMAN
GENDER: FEMALE
AGE: 35 YRS.
EYES:
GREEN
HAIR: BLONDE
HEIGHT: 5 FT. 3 IN.
WEIGHT: 130 LBS.
STATUS:
WIFE
---ANALYZING: SARAH---
SARAH EDITH WILY.
SPECIES:
HUMAN
GENDER: FEMALE
AGE: 38 YRS.
EYES: CRIMSON
HAIR:
VIOLET
HEIGHT: 4 FT. 11 IN.
WEIGHT: 160 LBS.
STATUS:
WIFE
"What? What is it, Albert? have you and Thomas finally done it?"
She was a portly little woman. She approached me and smiled.
"He's very cute. Looks just like Carrie." Then she went over to Albert, hugged him, and congratulated both him and Thomas, who had set me down on the floor. Carrie kept a watchful eye on me, but I couldn't go anywhere. I didn't know how to walk. I watched the humans doing it, and it seemed strange to me. But I wanted to learn. I wanted to learn everything they knew.
A movement nearby. I looked up and into the face of a small human child, who seemed uncertain of me, as if I were going to jump up and attack him; he peered at me with wide eyes.
---ANALYZING CURRENT SUBJECT---
XAVIER DANIEL WILY.
SPECIES:
HUMAN
GENDER: MALE
AGE: 2 YRS.
EYES: CRIMSON
HAIR: BROWN
HEIGHT:
2 FT. 4 IN.
WEIGHT: 40 LBS.
STATUS: NONE
"H-hi..."
An invitation to talk. I tried as hard as I could, and Carrie laughed in amusement. I suppose I must have put on a strange face while trying to speak. But no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't do it. I became frustrated. At this, Carrie peered intently at me.
"Thomas...look at this."
"What is it, dear?"
"The prototype...he's showing emotion!"
"Oh?" He leaned down close to me and looked into my face. "Why...you're right! He looks upset...what was he trying to do just now?"
"I'm not sure, but it looked like he was trying to talk."
"Incredible...amazing...so lifelike! Just like a real human child!" He called Albert over, and he was impressed as well.
"We've outdone ourselves, Thomas. All these years of trying to create the perfect AI...no one will dare mock us again!"
"Perfect? Oh, no, Albert, he is hardly from perfect. He's just the prototype, after all. But by studying him and his growth patterns, we'll be able to actually create the perfect AI at long last."
This angered Carrie. She picked me up and held me close.
"How could you, Thomas? This is your creation! He's like your son!"
Thomas shifted, uncomfortable; he stood up.
I was starting to dislike this Thomas. What he was trying to say was that I did not matter, I was only the blueprints for another ro-
.........
android.
"But he has feelings, Thomas! You saw it yourself!"
".......yes, you're right, I suppose."
Now Albert seemed angry, too.
"I totally agree with Carrie, Thomas. We should treat him as a son. If we want to get the best results for the next robot, we need to treat him like a part of the family."
Thomas threw up his hands. "Alright. We'll do that, then."
"Well, he needs a name, doesn't he? We can't just call him "prototype"...what should we name him?"
This deemed a mystery to the humans - they couldn't decide on what to name me.
As for myself, I still hadn't gotten answers to my questions, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I tried talking to that little voice that told me information. I told it to tell me everything it knew.
And it did.
It told me that I was an android created by Doctors Thomas Light and Albert Wily. That I was the very first of my kind - a prototype for all other droids after me. That an android was a machine that closely resembled humans, but had no emotion. That I was programmed to obey Dr. Light and Dr. Wily. That I had ten Rules of Robotics that I had to adhere to. It told me everything about me, about my system, my function, programs within me, everything. But when I asked it what my purpose was, it didn't have an answer. Illogical question, it said.
Illogical...?
And why, if I was something that wasn't supposed to have emotion, did I experience it? Was it an error in my programming? A bug, a flaw?
Data unknown.
Unknown...?
Now I was even more confused. I decided to set goals for myself. The first goal was to be to learn how to speak human language. The second...well, that would be to walk. I figured if I was going to be more human, I would have to act like it.
But I had no idea that trying to be human would be so difficult.