5.3 "Steel Life"
It awoke. Even though it had been alive for less than a microt, it's mind was full of things it needed to know for its purpose, with one thing paramount: 'Moya'. What was Moya?
It studied its environment. It was quite dark, but it could still see a huge chamber, it was very noisy. There was a machine near by.
It received an assignment from the hive server, it had to go to a place called 'Pilot's Den', directions were included. It moved forward a little. That was quite fun, changing its location.
It didn't much like being out in the open though. 'Pilot's Den', sounded small, so it wasted no time and zoomed off.......
When it arrived at 'pilots den' it was amazed and somewhat intimidated. It could not have imagined such a huge place, it was beyond its visual field limits. It followed a bridge to the center which was where its directions ceased. There was others of its kind already at work there and something else.....a huge moving thing, mounted high up and overlooking the whole world. Could this be Moya? It did not seem to have noticed what was being done below. It decided to DDE the nearest of its kind which greeted it and told it what it needed to do, it's ID was 'AS63FB9'. The schematics in its mind allowed it to easily begin work. It found it had a variety of arms for the task. It felt happy, a content feeling of purpose and function. The harder it worked the happier it felt so it worked as hard as it could!
It detected strange sound waves, not regular like noise, and AS63FB9 told it to connect the waveform buffer to the IUTranslate function - so it could understand.
It was like a kind of DDE, but slower, the 'Moya' was transmitting "That is the third time you have lost your necklace Chiana. I can't keep sending DRDs on these endless searches, I will send two, but this has to be the last time"
Many of the symbols would not translate and it felt confused so it decided to ignore this and concentrate on its work.
The noise ceased just as it completed its task, the other DRDs seemed to be finished as well, so it reported it's idle status to the hive server and waited. The IUTranslation function timed out because there was nothing for it to translate. It felt bored.
After a microt the server contacted it again with another assignment: it, and another, were to search for something called "Chiana's necklace". A sacred artifact perhaps?
This time it was to travel with the other assigned DRD called AP06AA9 (AP06 for short) for most of the way. It DDE'd it as they traveled, and learned all sorts of things. The large thing was an organic called Pilot, certainly not Moya, for Moya was the whole of creation, Moya gave them life and looked after them, and in exchange they looked after Moya.
It learned there were other organics, some of them dangerous, 'Chiana' was also an organic. Neither DRD knew what a 'necklace' was, but figured they would know it when they saw it. They had a 'race' on the way in which they had to go as fast a possible to the end of the corridor, AP06 won, but it didn't mind, it was fun to go fast and it gave a cozy warm feeling inside. It decided it would definitely have to practice going fast!!
The time came when their directions differed. So they closed the DDE channel and parted. It was lonely traveling down the dull empty passageway alone, it wished it was working on Moya's systems again with the others, that was fun and at least it was not alone then, it did not feel like going fast now after all.
It passed into a small vent, it felt a bit safer. It came across something on the floor which did not match the rest of the environment. The necklace? It queried the server which neither confirmed or denied its findings. After a second it received new instructions and directions of where to take the object to. It wrapped the 'necklace' round its antennae to keep its arms free and set off.
It was traveling down a corridor when a large lumbering grey thing came by at amazing speed. It decided it would be best to ignore it and scooted on
"Hey..... Hey You stop"
The organic was sending sound waves to it. It connected the sound buffer to the IUTranslate function and stopped, was the organic communicating with it? Why did it not use DDE, which was faster?
The organic approached and peered at it. "Is that mine?"
How was it supposed to know that? It made a few sounds, but had no idea really how to communicate with this big grey thing. It tried DDE but there was no carrier signal. Were organics always this confusing? It made a conscious decision to avoid these things as much as possible, surely it could be doing better work for Moya than wondering around with this thing that may or may not be a 'necklace' meeting scary great grey things that may or may not be a 'Chiana'
The organic took the object and sped off. Was that the 'Chiana'?
It reported it's idle status and moved to the side of the corridor. It had to wait a quarter arn before it got a new assignment, to repair a minor outer hull breach, and this assignment authorized the use of its lazer. Great!
It sped off happily,................
It awoke. Even though it had been alive for less than a microt, it's mind was full of things it needed to know for its purpose, with one thing paramount: 'Moya'. What was Moya?
It studied its environment. It was quite dark, but it could still see a huge chamber, it was very noisy. There was a machine near by.
It received an assignment from the hive server, it had to go to a place called 'Pilot's Den', directions were included. It moved forward a little. That was quite fun, changing its location.
It didn't much like being out in the open though. 'Pilot's Den', sounded small, so it wasted no time and zoomed off.......
When it arrived at 'pilots den' it was amazed and somewhat intimidated. It could not have imagined such a huge place, it was beyond its visual field limits. It followed a bridge to the center which was where its directions ceased. There was others of its kind already at work there and something else.....a huge moving thing, mounted high up and overlooking the whole world. Could this be Moya? It did not seem to have noticed what was being done below. It decided to DDE the nearest of its kind which greeted it and told it what it needed to do, it's ID was 'AS63FB9'. The schematics in its mind allowed it to easily begin work. It found it had a variety of arms for the task. It felt happy, a content feeling of purpose and function. The harder it worked the happier it felt so it worked as hard as it could!
It detected strange sound waves, not regular like noise, and AS63FB9 told it to connect the waveform buffer to the IUTranslate function - so it could understand.
It was like a kind of DDE, but slower, the 'Moya' was transmitting "That is the third time you have lost your necklace Chiana. I can't keep sending DRDs on these endless searches, I will send two, but this has to be the last time"
Many of the symbols would not translate and it felt confused so it decided to ignore this and concentrate on its work.
The noise ceased just as it completed its task, the other DRDs seemed to be finished as well, so it reported it's idle status to the hive server and waited. The IUTranslation function timed out because there was nothing for it to translate. It felt bored.
After a microt the server contacted it again with another assignment: it, and another, were to search for something called "Chiana's necklace". A sacred artifact perhaps?
This time it was to travel with the other assigned DRD called AP06AA9 (AP06 for short) for most of the way. It DDE'd it as they traveled, and learned all sorts of things. The large thing was an organic called Pilot, certainly not Moya, for Moya was the whole of creation, Moya gave them life and looked after them, and in exchange they looked after Moya.
It learned there were other organics, some of them dangerous, 'Chiana' was also an organic. Neither DRD knew what a 'necklace' was, but figured they would know it when they saw it. They had a 'race' on the way in which they had to go as fast a possible to the end of the corridor, AP06 won, but it didn't mind, it was fun to go fast and it gave a cozy warm feeling inside. It decided it would definitely have to practice going fast!!
The time came when their directions differed. So they closed the DDE channel and parted. It was lonely traveling down the dull empty passageway alone, it wished it was working on Moya's systems again with the others, that was fun and at least it was not alone then, it did not feel like going fast now after all.
It passed into a small vent, it felt a bit safer. It came across something on the floor which did not match the rest of the environment. The necklace? It queried the server which neither confirmed or denied its findings. After a second it received new instructions and directions of where to take the object to. It wrapped the 'necklace' round its antennae to keep its arms free and set off.
It was traveling down a corridor when a large lumbering grey thing came by at amazing speed. It decided it would be best to ignore it and scooted on
"Hey..... Hey You stop"
The organic was sending sound waves to it. It connected the sound buffer to the IUTranslate function and stopped, was the organic communicating with it? Why did it not use DDE, which was faster?
The organic approached and peered at it. "Is that mine?"
How was it supposed to know that? It made a few sounds, but had no idea really how to communicate with this big grey thing. It tried DDE but there was no carrier signal. Were organics always this confusing? It made a conscious decision to avoid these things as much as possible, surely it could be doing better work for Moya than wondering around with this thing that may or may not be a 'necklace' meeting scary great grey things that may or may not be a 'Chiana'
The organic took the object and sped off. Was that the 'Chiana'?
It reported it's idle status and moved to the side of the corridor. It had to wait a quarter arn before it got a new assignment, to repair a minor outer hull breach, and this assignment authorized the use of its lazer. Great!
It sped off happily,................