MEGA MAN: AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
By Erico
CHAPTER ONE: LOST AND FOUND
Cain awoke the next morning, and the sun was already high up in the sky, shining its brilliance down upon him. He groaned and rubbed the particles of dust from his eyes. His dream was a pleasant one, but what it was about eluded him. Of course, happy dreams almost always left without a trace of their cause. He got up and put on his clothes. Cleanliness was not always a priority when you would be sweating by eleven in the morning.
Walking over to the mess tent, Cain sat down. The server robot rolled to his table and plopped out a cooked tray of breakfast. Cain smiled wanly as he began to devour his morning energy, taking a long draw from his water glass. The others at the table grumbled slow g'mornings, then went back to their food. In the morning, no one was very talkative. They were night people, and it showed in their work. Jim Dacker had already finished his breakfast and was placing the trays in the bin, where the cleaner robots would take care of the dishes. Thanks to the wonders of technology, all dishes were either long-lasting ceramics or a biodegradable plastic/paper compound. It was quite a step, and mankind was taking steps to redeem itself for its earlier eco-threatening actions.
After the brief period of silence, they all walked out into the field, and the quiet was broken by the sounds of careful digging, robotic noises of every sort, flying scanners, hoverjeeps taking diggers to their areas, and other such things. Where Cain headed was smack in the middle of the giant gridwork, E-46. He would see just what was buried underneath the ground that sent the scanners on full alert.
Each grid was a hundred feet square, and that meant weeks could be spent on a single one if things looked promising. Cain's straw brimmed hat, purchased from a native tribe in Africa during a search for the missing link covered his tender skin from the sun. It was amazing to think how such an object of beauty, power and necessity could also be harmful. Not as much so as when the ozone was depleted back during the late 20th Century, but still it was a cause for alarm. Medical research had long ago proved that UV rays and other forms of high-powered waves were dangerous to humans, and could possibly even cause cancer. For that reason, Cain and his group were always very careful when they went on long trips like this. Solar stills and other water gathering equipment were prevalent, for the body could go months without food, but only a few days before lack of liquid caused you to become poisoned by your own bodies' wastes.
The hoverjeep slowed to a halt and Cain jumped out lightly. With him he took his stick, which he used for digging and help when traveling over rough terrain. But he was not limp, and so he did not use it all the time. People joked he did, but Cain would always smack them over the head with it and challenge them to a marathon. Cain couldn't run a full marathon, but he could keep up as well as the next physically fit fifty-year old. Cain waved to the robot driver inside, and the jeep flew off. Cain put his bag down. Inside were three two-liter water canteens, a sack lunch and a sleeping bag, just in case he kept digging until all hours of the night.
He brushed his forehead with a yellow bandanna he had found in Tokyo. It was strange that someone would leave such a valuable keepsake just lying around. Of course, it had been tattered and frayed, with mud and debris covering it all up. Only by an emergency trip to the cleaners did Cain save it and reveal its bright banana yellow sheen to the world once more. It was now always with him, being able to serve many purposes. The strange part about it was that it seemed impervious to wear, outside of the wear it had already received.
But he turned to the ground and pulled out his portable scanner. Clicking it on, it showed he would find something about five meters below. Cain turned it off and then grabbed his stick, viciously attacking the ground with it.
He would find what was underneath the ground, even if it took him several days.
Work was slow, for Cain and the other workers had to take several breaks to rehydrate. The sun was beating down on them mercilessly, and if they didn't exhaustion and other maladies would be afflicting them. But Cain still pressed on, even working late into the night. The ash and rock where he was digging was especially tough, and not willing to give up its secrets. It was late that night on April 9th , and Cain had been going at it hard. This was his way of working, and some said it was harmful.
Truth being, it was. But Cain had an odd personality. When he found something, he trailed it and followed it until he could claim it in its entirety. You could call it the no-quitter syndrome, or just pure stubbornness. Either way, that was what Cain was like. And no one could convince him differently.
It was like that now, at nine. But still Cain continued. He did not even pay heed to the soft whine of a hoverjeep driving up next to him. Out of the jeep stepped Jim Dacker. Cain looked up, a frown on his face. Jim raised his hands in surrender.
"Hey, I'm not gonna tell you to to quit, OK? I've known you long enough to know that won't work. I just brought some food for you." Cain looked over. There in the hoverjeep was a bag of food. Cain got up.
"I guess I could use a snack. So, what did you bring?" Jim smiled.
"Your favorite. Spinach Artichoke dip on rye crackers." He picked up the bag and dropped it to the ground. From it he pulled a package of crackers and two containers of greenish dip, still warm in their plastic containers. Cain opened one immediately and downed a spoonful with no verbal banter. Jim chuckled.
"Fine, you're welcome." Cain looked up, his face covered in apology and dip. Jim opened the cracker pack and handed one to Cain. "So, what exactly do you think is here?" Cain thought for a moment and gulped down his cracker.
"Honestly, I don't think I could give an educated guess. Perhaps it is a gold deposit, spewed out by the volcanic activity that happened some years ago. Maybe some rare metal that will change the world industry." Cain smiled. "Either way, we get the glory." Jim chuckled as he swallowed a cracker sandwich.
"You got that right, Doc. Archaeology kicks ass." Cain smiled. Jim Dacker was one of the few youngsters he could talk to freely without fear of alienation. "I think it'll be an alien probe that is just now going to be discovered." Cain gave him a look, and Jim raised his eyebrows.
"What?" Cain took a drink from his second canteen.
"To you, EVERYTHING is of alien origin."
"And who's to say WE AREN'T?" Cain laughed again.
"Oh, just stop it right there. If you get any further into it, you'll spill dip all over yourself. As a matter of fact, you already did." Jim looked down, his face turning red. A big blotch of the dip had placed itself on his shirt. Cain yawned.
"I'm going to hit the sack. Just leave yours here with me in case I get hungry." Jim wiped the snack from his shirt and nodded.
"All right, doc. Sleep tight, and remember to activate the cooling cycle on those containers. Don't want you to get food poisoning." Jim walked over to the hoverjeep and drove off, leaving a cloud of dust hanging in the air behind him. Cain pressed a blue button on both container lids, and they instantly became fogged up as the temperature dropped to 40 Degrees. He pulled out his sleeping bag and curled up inside of it.
Before he shut his eyes, he looked over to his hole and his stick.
"So what secrets do you hide, my hole?" he muttered. His eyes fluttered shut and a soft snoring noise overcame the dig site.
Cain was digging in the hole again, and the sun had resumed its destructive course on his body. But the perspiring archaeologist kept on digging. His goal was within his reach. Just then, he hit something hard. He stopped and cleared the dirt away from it. What he saw was a dark black metal, shiny but worn and tarnished. With a mighty swing, he drove his pickaxe through the barrier. But when he did, a sudden force blew him backwards several feet. Something had pushed him. He got up, and what he saw standing over the hole was a dark figure, with black smoke coming off its body.
"Oh my God…"Cain whispered. He had unleashed a demon. Then the figure turned and looked at him with hollow eyes that shone a dark purple. The demon leaped from his position, charging at Cain with incredible speed. And Cain screamed.
He woke up in a cold sweat. The sun was already shining brightly. Cain wiped the perspiration from his face and climbed out of his sleeping bag.
"Just a dream. Just a dream." Cain said to himself. But no matter how many times he said it, the vision had still shaken him terribly. He looked at the hole. It almost spoke to him, whispering pleas of escape. Had something terrible been buried there? Had his dream meant to warn him?
Cain couldn't think, his stomach was growling. He walked over to his backpack and pulled out the leftover spinach artichoke dip, as well as a fresh canteen of water Jim had brought.
He would let his stomach feed first. His curiosity would handle the dessert.
By ten, Cain was hard at work again. His stick had gotten down to four meters, and his scanner showed him he only had another meter to clear. He picked up his comm and called the main camp.
"Cain here. Get the finishing crew here. I'm just about through the ground."
"Roger, Doctor. Jim Dacker and the others will be with you shortly." Cain turned the power off and returned to his hole.
His dream had given him plenty to think about, but archaeologists are not known for their premonitions. He couldn't just leave the hole be, he had to see what was there. Cain had always been like that, from the time when he was three and he climbed into the washing machine by accident. Cain smiled to himself.
"Here I am, possibly on the biggest prehistoric discovery, and what am I thinking about? Washing machines." Cain chuckled a bit, but he became quiet as the soft whining noise of the camp's hoverjeeps rolled into his area. Cain turned and stood up, using his stick to help him gain lifting leverage. Jim climbed out, followed by the burly men that made up the finishing crew. When they were close to their goal, the finishing crew would take over and to the final digging. Truth be told, because they were led by Harold, they were very efficient. Harold was a stickler for timeliness.
"We'll take over, doc." One of Harold's men said. Cain could see they had come from another area, for their clothes were already sweat soaked. Harold pulled out a few shovels, the most basic of all digging utensils and handed them out. They created a circle around the hole, then simultaneously began to shove the heavy blades into the ashen dirt. Clouds of volcanic dust, long since laid to rest, flew into the air, and Cain had to cover his mouth. The teams kept at it, until finally they hit something hard and their shovels stopped flinging.
"Well well. Hey Cain, you weren't too far off on your measurements! We've struck metal." Harold uttered. Cain harrumphed in confirmation.
"It's too close to the surface to be prehistoric…it's gotta be something recent."
"But how recent could it be, doc?" Jim uttered, scratching his head.
"Well, considering the volcanic activity around this area not too long ago…I'd say about from the year 20XX, thereabouts. We could be witness to a home from that time period…" The implications were enormous to Cain. "Think about it, people! A perfect example of life, encapsulized by the volcanic eruption! This is indeed a rare find!"
"But people might have died here, doc." Jim spoke sadly. Many citizens of this area had perished in the blast. Cain bowed his head.
"If you all could join me in a prayer, let's pay our respects to those who gave their lives to nature's fury." All at the site bowed their heads, each speaking to the victims in their own special way of religion. The silence was unbearable, only further pointing out to the dig team how somber this place was. Finally, Cain lifted his head.
"Thank you all. Now…let's get to work! Get those specialized drills in here. Once we have the hole open…I'm going in."
Cain had found something.
And the day was April 10, 21XX.
"All right, I'm hopping down now. Jim, you getting a good picture?" Cain spoke with an air of confidence, but as he rappeled down the rope into the cavernous buried room below, he asked for assurance he did not face this venture alone.
"Roger boss. Picture's five by five." Jim's voice soothed his jumpy nerves, but did nothing for his racing heart. The thrill of the chase was Cain's favorite thing in life, and he was experiencing it yet again.
"All right, what do we have here?" Cain mused as he raised a portable scanner. Instantly, dimensional figures popped on the luminescent screen. "Base, this construction looks to be like a normal house design of the time…" Cain blinked at the screen as it displayed another blip beside it. "…But there also seems to be an odd egg shaped facility on the side. Everything's kinda beat up pretty badly. Air's breatheable, however. Those air exchangers are doing the trick!" Cain chuckled as he was calmed by the gentle hiss and pump of a hydraulic air compressor that pumped out the volcanic gases and replaced the buried building with a breathable Oxygen/Nitrogen mix.
"Well, what do you expect, doc? This place WAS covered in volcano guts!" Jim chortled. "Can you reach the floor?"
"Yeah…hold on for release….NOW!" Cain stretched his legs as far as they would go, and then his rope slackened. With a medium thump, Cain landed in the middle of the room and hit his helmet light. A powerful white/yellow beam of light illuminated the room, and Cain whistled.
The design of the house was very aesthetically pleasing, and whoever had owned it had kept it well cleaned…until the volcano destroyed it. Paintings…some blackened slightly hung from the walls, but one wall had caved in a bit. The couch was blue, the carpet was white, and the walls…well, minus the scorch marks…were intricately covered in exquisite wallpaper, the pictures showing classical flower designs.
"Base, if you're reading this, then the people here had good tastes! All this stuff is materials thieves would have loved to get their hands on. I'm moving down further. Gonna check out that egg-shaped place." Cain kept his radio on, but stopped talking and moved his scanner about, guiding him through the destroyed homestead.
The door took a while to push open, but eventually Cain got past the rusty opening to the egg dome. What he found surprised him.
"Hey base, you picking this up?" Cain asked, clicking the side of his comm.
"Roger that, doc. Can you identify this?" Cain looked around. Could he? Old computer monitors and processors jutted out everywhere. Most were destroyed, the heat having warped them or the dust having choked them to death. A few machines were even smashed to pieces, crushed by sections of wall that had fallen in.
"This place was quite a techie zone, I can tell you that much. But not even this place was spared the incredible anger of Mount Fuji. Hold on a sec…I think I can boot up one of the computers here." At least Cain thought he could. This place ran under its own power, for a few light fixtures flickered occasionally, bringing a shower of sparks that clattered on the ground fruitlessly. With an uneasy gait, Cain tiptoed through the rubble and over to a monitor. He delicately pushed the button on the monitor's bottom, which activated it and whatever it was hooked up to.
"Hey base, this computer is a dino! Looks like it had a CD-R drive. But the things booting up." Flickering images came to life and danced across the screen. With a quick self-diagnostic, the computer monitor blinked to a visual desktop with the words "Lighttech" pasted across it. "A Lighttech Computer? Wow. This baby could sell for a lot to the right collector!" For generations, Lighttech computers were the choice. Lighttech in its time had spanned multiple industries from the venerable Metool Worker line to the Suitcase Eddies. Every robot and every task you could imagine…Lighttech had something for it.
"Well, what does it say?" Jim asked. Cain cursed to himself. The PC was password locked.
"I can't tell you, the dang thing is protected. Maybe the user left the codeword around somewhere…" Cain reached down and opened the cabinets around the work area. It was worth a shot.
When he opened them, yellowed sheets of paper fluttered out, and Cain snatched them from the dusty floor. He turned his light to them, and began to read. His eyes were normal at first…but then they bulged out. Cain swiveled his head back to the computer and typed in a password. The screen clicked on and then everything opened up to him. Cain could only stare in amazement.
"Doc, what did you find?" Cain blinked his eyes and came back to reality for a moment.
"This place…it's Light's lab."
"The password was Rockman?!" Jim Dacker exclaimed in dumbfounded amazement. Cain nodded his head slowly. Even with his chief assistant with him, the utter consequences of this find were still mind-boggling. What they had found was the remains of the famous Dr. Light's Laboratory and household. No wonder the house was so well-kept up. Light's third creation Roll was a housekeeping robot, and would have undoubtedly done her job very efficiently.
"Yes, Jim. Rockman. I still don't what to make of this place." Jim let an incredibly powerful smile cross his face as he spoke up again.
"I'll tell you what this means, doc! We're talking about the greatest discovery of your life here! Most people in this field go their entire LIVES without a substantial find, and not only do you hold one of the greatest careers…you go out with a bang by discovering THIS…do you realize what kind of advancements in robotics we might find in here? Light was a pure genius!" Jim, for all his years of inexperience spoke volumes, and Cain knew he was right. Like some mythical hero of legend, Cain had just placed the final jewel in his historical crown.
"Well, from what I can make out from his notes, Light rambles a lot late in his life. Nothing too blatantly obvious, but he never stops talking about…the capsule…" Cain let the word roll off of his tongue, savoring its flavor. Jim whistled lightly. He took off his hat and scratched the full head of hair underneath.
"Geez! This sounds more like one of those suspense movies than an actual dig. I feel like we're supposed to find aliens or something." Cain chuckled.
"The one thing you learn the hardest Jim, is that with all of your possibilities you put up to light, the one you don't even comprehend is the one that is true. Personally, I have no idea what we might find here." But Cain's overboisterous attitude served only to try and soothe his nerves. His vision…his nightmare…was still fresh in his mind.
And no matter how hard he tried to dismiss it, it scared him.
"All right, let's get the full archaeological team down here, NOW!!! I want every part of this place catalogued and mapped out to the tiniest speck of dirt!" Cain's command shuddered through the comms quickly, and he could almost feel the people back at base camp leap out of their seats like they were sitting on a hot griddle, eager to come at his beck and call. And when he thought about where he had come, he had to laugh.
Who would have thought a simple plant archaeologist would be on one of the greatest technological and historical finds of the world?
"Hey, doc! I think I found something!" an eager tech cried out. Cain looked up from the console he'd been trying to squelch information from.
"What is it, Jonesy?" the red-headed diagnostics operator motioned his hand.
"I'm getting an unconnected energy spike!" Cain's eyebrows raised.
"An unconnected?" to Cain, that meant something had electrical power…but it wasn't connected to the laboratory main generator. With speed comparable to a high school track star, he bounded over a console and a foot of rubble, coming to a stop by Jonesy.
"Can you get anything else on it?" Jonesy shook his head.
"But whatever it is…it's underneath this part of fallen wall." Cain picked up his stick and viciously attacked the pile. Jonesy went to assist, but then a firm hand grasped his shoulder. He looked up to see Jim Dacker looking at him sternly.
"Let the doc dig. He's the reason we're even here, remember?" Jonesy and Dacker, and practically the rest of the camp work crews stopped their tasks and looked on at the sight. They all wanted to participate in the moment.
"Almost there…" Cain huffed as he jammed his stick in the chunk and lifted it like a jack. The enormous piece of wall fell away, and a cloud of volcanic dust rose up, blocking view.
"Ah, crap!" Cain grumbled as he choked on the dust for a while. He backed off and grabbed his canteen, washing down the chalky dust in his throat. "Hold on, the dust is clearing up." Cain waved his hand through the murky air and peered through squinted eyes. Slowly, a blurry light came into focus and Cain looked down.
"Well, I'll be a goddamned gold digger…" Cain spoke breathlessly, for what he saw corresponded with everything he had seen in Light's yellowed notes…the capsule, the only thing Light mentioned late in his diary, sat here, undisturbed for years.
"Holy cow…" Jim whistled as he saw it. Cain examined it with his datacorder.
"It seems to be 14 meters high by 8 meters wide. Good sized bugger…this has to be the capsule that Light was talking about!" Everyone in the room started clapping and cheering at the discovery, but Cain was still in shock from it all. "Hold on, there's something else here. Hello…a message?" Cain furrowed his pensive eyebrows and motioned for Jim to come over. Jim wiped off the dirt from the viewpad on the side of the capsule and Cain peered at it.
"It's a warning! The darned thing's flashing red. Hold on, I'll try to make it out."
'X is the first of a new generation of robots, blessed with the ability to think, feel and make their own decisions…a thirty year testing period will be required to see if X is reliable…X holds great promise as well as great danger...I can only hope for the best.'
Cain stood up from his perch and examined the rest of the capsule. His hand traced along a row of flashing green lights, and then he spoke again.
"It seems the diagnostic just got finished. Everything's green."
"A robot…that can think?" Jim pondered. Everyone in the room stood silently, wondering what this capsule might mean. Cain finally shook his head and sighed.
"I think we've seen enough. Tomorrow, we'll open the capsule, all right?" Cain's words were short, but very stern. "Jim, I'm entrusting you to guard this thing until tomorrow." Jim nodded and arranged the slab of wreckage to act like a bench. Cain gave a whistle, and a rope came down from the hole in the laboratory ceiling.
"All right, everyone. Let's get back to base. Jim'll guard this place until we get back. There's still a lot to be done, and I want each and every one of you at full stamina. Clear?" Everyone gave a nod of approval and began to shuffle up the rope. Cain reached in his pocket and plucked out his recordable diary.
"April 13, 21XX. I found it. Standing 14 meters high and 8 meters wide, the capsule was hidden underneath a collapsed ceiling. Even underneath all the rubble, the capsule has remained intact and was still running some sort of diagnostic when I found it. There is a warning on the capsule, but all the indicators show green. It should be safe to open it. I'll know tomorrow."
Cain clicked the receiver off and put it back in his pocket, then with a shake of his grizzled head he climbed out the hole to go catch a night's rest at camp.
Needless to say, neither Cain nor anyone else at camp caught much sleep that night, and all had excuses to go walking around the grid of E-46.
"I left my tools there!"
"I'm almost sure there was something we missed…"
"Leave it to my friend to accidentally leave his canteen…" And every time, Jim would send them back, grumbling. Finally, he'd called Cain and Cain helped him keep watch. But it was morning, and Cain's eyes jolted open with a start. All of the caff they'd ingested last night was catching up to them, and the merry chirpings of a lark pounded in their skulls like jackhammers.
"Whoever created morning birds deserve to be shot…" Jim grumbled as he got up and checked the hole. It had been left alone, and the protective plastic was unbroken.
"Well, it's good to know we don't have any blatant rule-breakers in the outfit." Cain sighed, rubbing his sore temple. Jim nodded.
"Ah, they're an okay bunch. Just lively enough to be a pain in the kiester."
"And you're not?!" Cain chuckled. "Come on, let's sound the morning bell and get them in here. I doubt they'll even stop for breakfast."
And once again, Cain's prediction came true. Within five minutes of the wakeup bell, the entire dig team was on the site, scrabbling about, asking questions and making bets on what they might find. Cain found it hard to believe for all their experience and maturity, this tightly knit cluster of individuals could sometimes be no better than a graduating class in high school.
"All right, everyone. Please quiet down. I'll go down first. Seeing as there's not enough room, I'll be alone. You will be able to see what I discover on the vidcam in my Metool unit." Cain stopped and chuckled. A fellow robot of Light's design would help him to uncover another. Like two brothers meeting at long last…only one obviously was more powerful.
It wasn't that far to reach the capsule, but to Cain it seemed like an eternity. All their waiting had come down to this, for when they opened the capsule…nothing would be the same. Cain approached it, its blue hue, the pulsating red battery at the top…and he stared at it for a while, remembering with a sudden fear his terrifying vision of the demon that had emerged from the ground. But Light would never create such a thing…surely it was safe.
Curiosity won over his inhibitions, and Cain pressed the airlock button the side. The middle section of the capsule activated as the cylinder split open, two equal doors sliding back into the capsule. What Cain saw…took his breath away.
Like a sleeping juggernaut, it slept. A blue juggernaut, with a red crystal in his helmet, and a placid face. A face of a young teenage boy. This was truly a robot of Light's, for what Cain saw bore a striking resemblance to Mega Man, the protector of peace in the years of 200X to 20XX. It slept easily, but Cain could see its breathing become shorter and shorter as the capsule's auto-wake up sequence began. Finally, the robot's eyes fluttered open and he looked up dozily at his new world. They focused on Cain with a look of puzzlement and intrigue…like a newborn examining his world for the first time. Perhaps that was what this being was…a newborn robot in a new world.
The robot shifted his head to look at himself. His eyes traced down the length of his hand and to his boots, blue in color. His entire frame was a staunch blue of every imaginable hue, and to Cain it seemed as if Mega Man had leaped from the pages of the history tapes to enter this capsule. Then, the robot lifted his head and looked at Cain. It was questioning him or pleading with him, Cain could not be sure.
"Hello there…I am Doctor Cain." Cain let a smile cross his face, and for all that was different, he almost felt like he was delivering a newborn at the hospital. "Who are you?" The robot stared blankly at him for several moments, his lips moving silently. Then, with a firm tone, he said,
"I…I am Mega Man X."
"April 14, 21XX. Today I met X." Cain said into his audio diary unit. He was strolling about his tent, while X shuffled through document after document of historical records from Cain's computer. Cain shook his head at the eager student and continued. "Not simply a robot, X is something totally different. Light has given him the ability to think and make his own decisions. At times, X seems more like a man than a machine." Just then, X looked up from the screen and looked at Cain.
"Input! Need more input!" Cain clicked off the unit and walked over to the computer.
"Or, perhaps not. I feel like I'm living in that old movie…what was that, where the robot thinks he's alive?" Cain's answer was eluding him, and it was frustrating.
"Short Circuit, late 20th Century Film. Starring Steve Guttenburg." X's answer was long and far from helpul, and Cain felt a bit miffed.
"Thanks a lot, X. Here's some more data for you." Cain plugged in the third data tape and the information scrolled onscreen. "Your bedside manner needs some adjusting. You are the most…annoying…thing I've met. You're human enough to be a pain, but not enough to actually have the manners of one." Cain let out a sigh and shrugged. X mimicked his movement, then went back to scanning the data.
Hundreds of years of historical, literary, military, scientific and other knowledge was being scanned into X's memory, and Cain couldn't help but wonder about it.
"How much memory do you have in your processor, X?" The blue…X turned his head and looked at Cain.
"I have a fifteen Terabyte Memory and Control Chip. Currently, 95% of that is being used for storage purposes. Of that, I have used 200 Megabytes of the information scanned…"
"All right, X! that's enough. I wish I hadn't asked." X winced and said something that struck Cain so completely out of what X had been acting like.
"Sorry." Cain whirled around and stared at X for a moment, scrutinizing him. Had he just said something…human? An emotion…remorse? Light's warning HAD said X could feel…just how human was he?
"X, I wonder about you…" Cain mumbled. "I'm getting hungry. I'll be back in fifteen minutes. Can you take care of things here?" X looked up with a blank and disinterested stare, then dropped his head back.
"Affirmative. And if you eat eggs, make sure they are thoroughly cooked." Cain laughed.
"X, the salmonella problem was taken care of YEARS ago. There isn't any danger." X nodded.
"I see. Perhaps I should read more of these files to gain a better understanding of what are current hot topics."
"Well, X, at the moment in this camp-you're one of them." X raised his eyebrow, with so much delicacy, Cain could almost think X had been born doing it like that. When in fact, he had just learned how to.
"Intriguing. Why should I be an object of concern?"
"Well…nobody's ever seen anything like you before. You are a very odd screw in a sea of nails."
"Metaphor. Such an interesting part of literature. Doctor Cain, may I may an observation?" Cain leaned back against the main post of the tent and nodded, wondering what this new creature might have to say with everything it had learned.
"It sucks to be human." X said it so plainly, that the message almost lost all meaning. But to Cain, it fully sunk in, and he laughed in agreement. He walked over and slapped X on the back. X winced at the light blow, but said nothing.
"X, my boy, there may be hope for you yet."
"April 15, 21XX." Cain paused for a moment as he fully examined the computer screen in the buried remains of Light's lab. "Light was a genius! I've been going over his design notes and they are a quantum leap beyond anything the world has ever seen. Using them as a guide, I may be able to replicate his design and integrate them into a new generation of robots. I'll begin transporting X and the rest of Dr. Light's things back to my lab tomorrow." Cain shook his head. So much had happened in the past few days, it felt like a whirlwind to him.
"I don't know if this is Oz…or something else." A simple query on 'X' had turned up every piece of Light's notes. X was examining it as well, thoroughly interested.
"Doc.." X had taken to calling Cain by what everyone else called him. "Doc, how do you think you'll be able to build a new generation of robots? You're an archaeologist for cryin' out loud!" It had taken X a while, but slowly he was gaining emotions, thinking processes…in short, X was learning. Learning like a human did. By experiencing. Cain shook his head.
"To be honest, X…I don't know. But what I do know is I don't trust anyone else. Light was fully correct when he said there were benefits and dangers to robots like you. And I don't want to take that chance." Cain finished speaking as the floppy popped out of the disk drive, holding all of the data on X's systems. He held it up, looking at it like a jeweler scrutinizes his diamonds. "And this little disk holds the key to it all."
"I see. So, why did you bother to activate me then?" X queried. Cain smiled.
"Humans are terrible when it comes to holding back curiosity. I suppose we just felt we had to. And I'm not sad of the outcome. We gave life to you, didn't we? Tell me, X. If you could go back to when I opened your capsule…would you stop me?" X furrowed his brow for a moment, then shook his head.
"Negative. The need for self-preservation is great. I would not stop you." Cain smiled.
"Congratulations, X. You've once again made yet another decision on your own. You are beyond robots because of that." Cain slapped X on the back and picked up his stick. X frowned.
"Your habit of rough physical contact with my back is very annoying. I must ask you to stop doing that." Cain harrumphed.
"All right. I suppose I'll have to think of another way to bug you then." An idea flashed in his head, and he swung his stick wildly in the air, bringing it crashing down hard upon X's helmet.
"OW!!!" X cried as he reached for his bruised head. Cain laughed.
"I like this better!" X grumbled, but didn't dignify the prank with a response. X supposed it was something he would have to get used to.