In the beginning, there was nothing.
Then, there was clutter. A lot of clutter.
Workstations in the central building weren't normally used to having such an abundance of papers, gadgets, spare wire bits, writing instruments, and books… excess robotic parts notwithstanding. If it could have, the desk would likely give its owner a stern lecture about the wonders of organization and orderly filing.
Unfortunately, said owner would probably explain in fine detail exactly where the desk could shove its advice, vehemently defending her little mounds of chaos all the while.
Good thing for the desk it couldn't talk.
Teri was, in fact, very fond of her seemingly unruly workspace, and, contrary to popular belief, she knew exactly where everything was.
Well… where everything was supposed to be, in any case.
Whatever she was looking for was usually found within a minute or two, and she had kept up this organizational nightmare for as long as anyone could remember, so it was no small wonder that the usually calm scientist was now becoming rather frantic as she continued to search all around her desk, in and out of every drawer, and under stacks of papers, all to no avail.
It was very important.
She would not have misplaced it.
For certain, it would at least have been put into her CD stash. As it stood, however, with the discs of said stash strewn all over the floor, it was not.
She simply could not find it.
Sitting on her heels on the floor, she sank hunched over, letting her head fall downward to her chest. Closing her eyes tightly, she ran over and over again in her mind where she last saw the damned thing. It was only a night ago. She had worked well past midnight and was trying to wrap up the day's work so she could go home and get some much-needed rest before the incoming packing extravaganza. All the research data, blueprints, formulas, and algorithms had been copied and saved safely to the disc so she could continue working while she was away. She had almost put it into her purse, but, at the last moment, had decided to leave it here in the office to be safe, and had planned to come back the following day before her flight to retrieve it as well as the rest of her reading materials. She let out a soft whimper of defeat after stealing a quick glance at the clock on the wall,
Her flight was due to leave in precisely one hour.
"I am so dead…"
Figuring there was no more for it, Teri got up and decided to just close down the office, grab the books she needed, and leave. The chair creaked as she plopped herself heavily down onto it. Weary eyes took a moment to glare at the computer screen before closing the working windows she had open, staring hopelessly for a moment at the icon that represented the mapped connection to Central where the heart of the data was stored.
The guys in the hub had gone home already.
No hope of creating another disc now.
It would just have to wait until the following Monday when she got back.
She had been working on this project for nearly eight straight months without a break. It was her dream to make it a reality, and she was so incredibly close. Taking a trip of any sort was the last thing the over-indulgent scientist wanted to do, but when relatives die, even doubly extended ones more than a few times removed that you never knew existed until after they were gone, attending their funeral to pay your proper respects still seemed the right thing to do.
Well… that, and having your folks screech at you for the rest of your life for being an uncaring, petulant child who only thinks of herself didn't rank very high as a notable positive experience. So, off to Boston it was.
The work she was doing was being called "revolutionary."
She supposed, in a manner of speaking, it could be considered that. After all, no one else had managed to get the Cerebim program to function stably until she had gotten a hold of it and tweaked things around a bit.
Silly scientists.
Always making things more complicated than they should be.
It really wasn't anything special that she did as far as she was concerned. They had tried to make the flow of evolving coding work against itself instead of just letting it run the more natural course it was designed to take. She had removed the excessive protocols and guard lines, extrapolated the route that would result from the progression, and recoded the core set accordingly. It had taken her less than two minutes to solve what the team of engineers and scientists could not in nearly four months.
That had been her first day at Cybertronics Inc.
Needless to say, she had not been well received by the scorned veterans, but their wounded egos neither mattered, nor influenced who did matter.
Alfred Trion, the head of the research department, had taken notice of her prowess and immediately assigned the Autobot Project to her and her alone.
So, here she was, not quite a year post, and about to crack the final lock to the mystery of her project's freedom when she got the call from her mother that her great-somethingorother-cousin Ernest 'whatshisname' had kicked the bucket.
There wasn't even a second to argue. It was immediately explained that a ticket had already been purchased for her, and that she was to leave in two days.
NO exceptions and NO excuses.
Who was she to argue that logic?
Perfect.
Just perfect.
BEEP
"What the hell?"
The noise jarred her from her thoughts and caused her to look back at the screen. The computer flashed a warning at her to kindly please remove the CD that was still in the drive to prevent possible viral threat upon boot up.
"EUREKA!!" she shrieked throwing her hands up in the air triumphantly.
She quickly hit the eject button on the drive, and out popped the tray holding the precious piece of plastic with the words "Trip CD" scribbled across the front.
Jumping up, she grabbed the monitor and kissed the screen chanting "Thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou!!" She grabbed the CD and quickly secured it into a case, then stuffed it into her laptop satchel, closed the tray, and hurriedly finished the shutdown sequence. Tearing out of the office and slamming the door shut, she quickly ran into the adjacent lab to do one last once-over on her beloved project before finally leaving the building. Entering the lab, she was greeted immediately by a familiar low-toned mechanical voice.
"Hello Dr. Fedara. Should you not be at the airport? Unless my internal chronometer is mistaken, your plane is due to leave in forty-two point four nine minutes."
Teri laughed as she made her way to the holding dais, smiling at the large figure as she approached it. At nearly seven feet tall, the robot in the docking alcove easily towered over nearly every human in the facility. As she barely cracked five foot four, it dwarfed her short frame almost comedically. Shining chrome with red and blue tinted plates on its broad exoskeleton gave it a sleek, powerful appearance, and glowing royal blue optics made its face look almost ethereal.
Without a doubt, Orion was magnificent.
"Yes, I should be, but I had to get some things before leaving. I'll be gone for an entire week, so I made sure I could still do the tedious technical stuff while I'm away. That way we can continue with the games and other fun things when I get back."
"I understand. Who will be attending to me while you are gone?"
"Hmm…" she murmured while she took note of the readouts from the various screens surrounding the enclave.
"I believe Dr. Pratchett will be watching your vitals."
She very quickly punched in a few codes on a pad next to a large screen that monitored its energy intake and metabolic symmetry.
"I have given everyone here instructions not to touch you or the program until my return, and to contact me if there are any problems. I also enabled your WiFi port so you can contact me directly if need be. I'll have my cell phone with me as well as the laptop. Satisfactory?"
The robotic figure turned its head towards her, considering the words carefully, and nodded in response.
"It will not be the same as having you here."
She placed her hand atop the smooth metal one and patted it reassuringly.
"I know, Orion. I'm sorry, but it's the best I can do until I get back. I don't want to leave," she sighed wearily. "But, being a responsible adult means sometimes doing what's right, even if you don't want to."
"Visiting the deceased body of an unknown relative is being 'responsible'?" the bot asked, tilting its head slightly to the right in question like a curious puppy.
"Yes," she laughed. Some of its imitated mannerisms were awfully cute.
"It is still a matter of… um… respect to one's family. Even if I don't know them, they are still important to me because they are still a part of me. My going to this funeral is a gesture of love by me for my folks and relatives, and will mean a great deal to them. It shows them that I care, and grief from losing a loved one is alleviated by being surrounded by those who care about you."
"I see," the bot's face scrunching slightly at its puzzlement. "I thought you did not know these relatives. How are they comforted by your presence if they do not know you?"
"Well, they know who I am, just not vice versa. Like I said, my being there shows them that I care, and that gives them comfort. Humans are strange emotional creatures like that," she chuckled.
Teri was so proud of the bot's inquisitiveness.
Not even a full year old, and already it was learning to grasp abstract concepts and make sense of them. She smiled at Orion admirably, and felt her eyes mist over at the thought of being gone for a week from this marvelous creature that she had spent every single day with for nearly a year, hoping she wouldn't miss too much of its progress while she was away. It was learning at an astronomical rate and was very near the final stages of the last program. Her stomach was in knots over it.
"Dr. Fedara? You are leaking fluid from your optical units. Are you damaged?"
Wiping her eyes quickly, she laughed and shook her head.
"No, no... not damaged. Just sad to be leaving you here. I wish I could take you with me."
She glanced at her watch.
Not even half an hour left before her doom was sealed.
"Oh shit! Now I really am going to be late. I have to go. Continue your lessons and I'll see you in a week, ok?"
The bot nodded its head.
"Affirmative. Have a safe trip, Dr. Fedara."
"Thanks, Orion! Bye!" she yelled as she practically ran out the door.
It could hear her cursing as she hit one of her limbs on the banister on the way down the stairs, and hoped that she was no worse for wear over it. Dr. Fedara was a bit of a klutz overall, which was rather ironic considering the incredible amount of precision and control she exerted when working on its internal structure.
The microscopic wires and fibers that made up its synaptic relays were infinitesimally tiny and delicate, but she worked on them as carefully as a mother tending her newborn, never wavering in the slightest.
Outside of that environment, however, there were times when she could be described as disastrous… and often was by her coworkers.
In a way, it sort of explained why her office was such a mess: the clutter forced her to be exceedingly careful as she wound her way over and around everything to avoid killing herself repeatedly, which, as a result, kept her paperwork and important files safe from being accidentally bumped into a wastebasket or shirred off a shelf. Watching her contort herself into positions that humans would generally find rather painful while getting in and out of the office was quite a sight to behold, if not a bit entertaining.
Now, it would be a whole week before Orion would bear witness to the unintentional acrobatics that it had watched everyday since it's optics were activated.
Seven days before they would work together again.
It was so very odd. Not a day had gone by since he had come online where she was not present. Even when horribly ill with the flu, she had simply taken a rather dramatic dose of vitamins and cold medication, and had come to work, stealing a nap in her office or here in the lab when she could.
He counted himself very lucky to have someone so dedicated to him.
He…
He?
When did that make its way into his neural pathways?
He was not created with a particular gender in mind, nor had he ever considered the idea of having one before. Choosing a name was a choice Dr. Fedara had made his, and, upon hearing it spoken amongst the thousands of others, Orion had identified with it and decided that he liked it. The thought had never crossed his mind as to whether the name was male or female though, and now that he thought about it, being female really didn't seem to make much sense, but being male did. He was big and strong, easily stronger than any twenty humans. Mannerisms and gestures that became his own were those he had observed displays of by the male humans he had met as opposed to Dr. Fedara or the other females. In fact, the synthesized voice he had chosen for himself was a deep, resonating baritone, something he had again identified with. It "felt" comfortable speaking with those tones as opposed to the others he had tried.
"I am a 'he'," came the silent thought.
A quick systems diagnostic identified a positive result for the rerouting of information in one miniscule section of his neural net where new pathways had been forged.
Tilting his head to the side slightly, he contemplated this idea of gender identity and what its purpose would be where he was concerned.
He accessed the World Information Network and searched for every piece of information he could find regarding gender.
Humans were simple enough:
Two primary genders – male and female.
Purpose? Procreation by way of heterosexual reproduction with the female as the carrier.
Well, he had already known that much.
Further searching yielded information regarding some of the alien races that had chosen to share the intricacies of their species.
The Sumari from the neighboring solar system had four genders; three for the purpose of sexual reproduction, all three being carriers, and one neutral gender whose purpose was to produce the pheromones that brought together the other three.
The Jodor were androgynous and had no separation of gender at all. Also, unlike humans and Sumari, which tended to stay mated for a while, if not for life, mates changed with each breeding cycle – approximately once every five Earth years – if they chose to have one, that is – so as to combine favorable genes. Asexual reproduction was far more commonplace.
The more he delved, the more confusing it got.
He finally decided that since humans were his creators, he would forego further study of other species for the moment and stick with what was close to home. He began to pour through various texts, and devoured everything that he could find regarding both femininity and masculinity.
After a couple hours, and several billion bits of information later, he still came to the same conclusion.
He definitely identified with himself as being male oriented.
Fair enough.
So how did it happen? Was it programming? That was a possibility, but this idea had not entered his thought processes before, and the diagnostic had revealed that there were indeed new pathways that specifically pertained to this information. A more detailed analysis indicated that there were no subset variables designed to trigger this function.
No. Not programming.
He had done it on his own, and simply was.
That revelation gave him a strange sense of satisfaction, almost like an inner view of himself that he had not known was there before, but had yet been missing nevertheless.
It was incredibly liberating.
He had to tell her about this new discovery.
Now.
Activating his internal telecommunications array, he linked up to the WiFi port, secured the signal, and called her cellphone. It went right to voicemail.
Odd… she never turned her phone off and always made sure to keep it charged.
Activating the GPS locater gave him the answer – she was cruising at a comfortable thirty thousand feet above sea level, still in mid-flight.
Ah. Right then.
Perhaps the laptop was open and she could be reached through email or messaging.
A flash of memory rang out a warning.
Hmm…
Then again…
On second thought…
Perhaps discussing this breakthrough should wait until she was somewhere stable and secure… and ground level.
If her reaction to this news was going to be anything like what happened when he began his first ascension into sentience, thirty thousand feet in the air might not be the best place to incite her into scaring the living daylights out of every passenger, flight attendant, and pilot on board while she screamed like a deranged banshee.
He decided to call her cellphone once more and leave a message for her to contact him.
"Hello Doctor Fedara. This is Orion. My time gauge indicates it has only been three hours, four minutes, and seven seconds since you left the building. Your flight to Boston was to take three hours and forty-five minutes. Therefore, you must still be in flight at this moment with the cellphone turned off, as per FAA regulations. I will assume you will reactivate it once you are on the ground. Please contact me when you are able to do so. I have something of great importance I wish to speak with you about. Orion out."
He cut off the signal to hang up the line, but kept his array open to incoming transmissions.
Satisfied, he dimmed his optics and proceeded to rest in recharge status until she called him back.
She would surely be excited to hear this news. Every discovery, no matter how small, always seemed to be such a great source of joy to her.
Leaving for the funeral had made her sad. He knew sadness was a negative emotion, and negative emotions were rather unwelcome where humans were concerned.
This news would make her happy.
He knew it would.
Orion "felt" once again something peculiar, a sort of satisfaction that something he did would reverse her sadness.
Only barely there, somewhere deep in the recesses of the uncountable computations constantly running through his positronic brain, a flicker of something that caused a genuine internal physical response was occurring. A complex equation was being solved in a way that didn't make a lot of logical sense.
In fact, it made no sense, but an answer was being formed anyway, and it was very nearly complete.
Closer…
Stronger…
And there it was…
New, raw, and quiet it lay, still as ice on the edges of the new pathways that had just been carved once again through his neural net, but there it was.
He could feel it.
He thought again about her reaction to the news of his recognizing and acknowledging a gender.
It seemed there would be two discoveries he would be telling Dr. Fedara about today as soon as he was able to speak with her again, increasing the intensity of the new feeling.
She would be so proud of him.
At that thought, his mouth involuntarily curled into a small, closed smile.
He was happy.