CHAPTER 2

Miles away in a ruined and abandoned mountain fortress, a long- deactivated red robot wakes up. Covered by a thick layer of dust, he sits up on a familiar angled table. Swinging his legs over the side, he stands up, shakes himself off and runs his hands through his long, blonde hair. "What happened here", he wondered aloud. As he looks around, he catalogues everything he sees, appraising the situation and taking account of his resources. In no time, he understands that after his last mission, he was deactivated to be repaired, something went wrong with the Doc, and he ended up lying inactive for nearly a hundred years. Upon that realization, he quickly runs a self-diagnostic. His eyelids fluttered as the programs scan his software and hardware, searching for any anomalies or defects, using auto-repair where applicable. It was as he suspected, his physical circuits had been damaged by natural decay and dust build-up from the 100 years of inaction. The damage was far beyond auto-repair's abilities, but repairs needed to be made. Fortunately he was in a robotics lab, he had everything he needed. So he set to work cleaning up the dust and debris and restoring the electronics and machinery. He would be at full capacity in no time. He was not aware however of the secondary intelligence within his programming that had reactivated him upon the reception of a very specific radio signal. A secondary programming with only one objective: destruction. As he went about fixing the lab, the secondary intelligence was sending out a radio signal of its own, detectable, in theory, by only one individual. That individual would be along to investigate the signal eventually, and that would be the chance it needed.
****
Dr. Cain sat impatiently at the corner table of the university library. Tapping his fingers and wondering, how could anyone have ever tolerated such slow load times? "Damn DVD's," he muttered to himself. In actuality, the load time was only a few seconds, but an eternity to anyone accustomed to technology that was 100 years newer. Then he remembered how fortunate he was that he had even found a working drive that would read the mysterious "X" disc. He would have to remember to thank the university's museum curator profusely the next time he saw him for actually letting him borrow such an antique. He had been rather rude to the poor old man initially; the gentleman had only been curious about the disc and nervous about any possible damage that could be done to the exhibit. Thankfully he had at least understood the importance of the discovery. Cain was getting incredibly irritated at this point and the wait was beginning to ruin his excitement. Finally a chord sounded from the speakers and a message on the screen informed him that the load had finally completed. Cain could not remember how long it had been since he was last this anxious, if he ever had been. He was so anxious in fact, he even temporarily forgot how to operate the old-fashioned computer and told it, "Proceed." It took him a few moments to realize why the screen hadn't changed upon his command. When he did finally figure out his mistake, he nearly snapped the mouse cord as he snatched it from the desk. Then, he forced himself to calm down, replaced the mouse on the desk, and moved the cursor to the on-screen "OK" button and clicked. The computer took a few more moments to completely display the document, during which Cain nearly lost his temper again. Another chord sounded and it was finished. Cain couldn't contain his excitement any longer and began reading. He sat there in awe as he read, as everything was finally explained to him. Next to a picture of a very advanced and modern looking robot was a description of the various main parts on the robot's body. Cain stared at the picture for quite a long time, marveling at the amazing design. The robot was 100 years old yet appeared far beyond anything that was currently in existence. This, Cain mused, is why he was the master. The Father of Robotics was the most appropriate name for the man there was. When he finally finished staring at the picture, he clicked to the next page where a large document was flashing red and an obnoxious siren was blaring. The text read:
"WARNING: 'X' is the first of a new generation of robot which contains an innovate new feature- the ability to think, feel and make their own decisions. However this ability could be very dangerous. If 'X' were to break the first rule of robotics, 'A robot must never harm a human being', the results would be disastrous and I fear no force on Earth could stop him.
Approximately 30 years will be required before we can safely confirm his reliability. Unfortunately I will not live to see that day, nor do I have anyone to carry on my work. Therefore I have decided to seal him in this capsule until his reliability has been confirmed. Please do not disturb the capsule until that time.
'X' possesses great risk as well as great possibilities. I can only hope for the best.

September 18, 20XX T. Light"
Dr. Cain sat back in his seat and stared. "The ability to think, feel and make decisions?" he whispered to himself, repeating what he had read. His mind boggled at the possibilities as he wondered what could be done with this new discovery. Suddenly he realized that there were many more pages to the document on the disc. He continued to explore the contents, finding everything he would ever possibly need to take advantage of this amazing technology, the complete design blueprints for "X".