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".
