Author's Note: Thanks for the people who reviewed the previous chapter of my fic. Here's Chapter 7. You might notice a few differences in this chapter, that's because I can finally save the words rendered in boldface and italics.
Disclaimer: Refer to the prologue
Story Title: Corrupted Programming
Chapter Title: So It Begins
Wakeman residence, Tremorton"Wakeman…" the robot said as he saw his creator before him. The very same creator who had demanded far too much of him, the one who had subjected him to the pain of repeated programming, the one who had locked him away for (he checked his internal clock) about 12 years just because he wasn't good enough.
A slight red sheen clouded his vision for a moment as his anger rose with each memory. Especially the memory of the pain he felt as his creator's reprogramming efforts induced pain signals in his biological mind's neural pathways. He clenched his fists at those memories. The reprogramming attempts had been like torture, and now, standing in front of him, was the torturer.
"Greetings, ADAX," he heard his creator say, pronouncing every letter of ADAX separately. From her tone he could tell that she was trying not to let her apprehension of him show. "It certainly has been a while."
ADAX said nothing, he just started to walk toward Dr. Wakeman in a menacing manner. He wanted nothing more than to wring the doctor's scrawny neck, to hurt her as she had hurt him. But as he came closer he felt something holding him back, something within him that wouldn't allow him to hurt Mrs. Wakeman. It wasn't his conscience or anything of the sort, it was just the fail-safe subroutine in his core programming that prevented him from hurting his creator.
He clenched his fists harder, he knew it would be futile to go against his core programming, no matter how much he wanted to. Finally, in a barely controlled tone, he said: "What do you wan't, Wakeman?"
The doctor let out a sigh, apparently relieved that the fail-safe subroutine in ADAX's programming still functioned. "I know you are not one to beat around the bush, ADAX—"
"It's Dax," ADAX interrupted. " The name's Dax."
The doctor looked at him and let out another sigh. This time it was an exasperated one. She'd had the same problem with XJ-9 as with ADAX now. They both had refused to refer to themselves with their proper designations. Why they insisted on doing so had always perplexed her. She shook that thought away and continued.
"As I was about to say, AD—, I mean, Dax. I need your help."
"Help?" ADAX said incredulously. Had he heard right? The very same person who had declared him a failure 12 years ago wanted his help? "With what?"
"I want you to help me retrieve two prisoners from a large extraterrestrial force." Dr. Wakeman answered.
ADAX snorted. "Another assignment for me to fail in, right? So afterwards you can call me a failure, torture me with a friggin' reprogramming attempt, then shove me into a pod for another 12 years?"
He sneered. "Not happening, Wakeman. Why don't you just lock me up again and send whatever robot you made to replace me to go instead. It would save both of us the trouble."
"I would, if the robot I replaced you with weren't one of the prisoners."
"Let me get this straight, you want me, a failure, to help you rescue my replacement who was dumb enough to get his/herself captured?" ADAX actually laughed at this. "What do I get out of it?"
"Get out of it?" Dr. Wakeman asked. "You're my creation, you were built to do as you are told without expecting rewards for it."
ADAX shook his head. "Tisk, tisk, after all this time you still haven't gotten it, have you? I'm not some mindless slave you can order around. I am my own machine, Wakeman. I do only what I wanna do."
"Which is why I locked you up in the first place." Mrs. Wakeman muttered.
"That's bull!" ADAX yelled angrily. "You locked me up right after some stupid assignment you sent me on just because I made a few mistakes!"
"A few mistakes?!" Dr. Wakeman said, getting angry as well. "You destroyed two buildings, damaged four more, & injured several people. And all of that just to apprehend a pair of bank robbers!"
"Hey!" ADAX said, jabbing a finger at the doctor. "I got those two. As far as I'm concerened, I accomplished that mission's objective."
"Yes, and it was accomplished with a large amount of unnecessary collateral damage!"
"I still got it done, and that's all that mattered."
"You…" Mrs. Wakeman started angrily. "You…"
She sighed and calmed herself down. "I don't have time for argument. I require your assistance, and I order you to provide it!"
"No, nein, nyet." ADAX said defiantly. "Not unless I get something for it."
"For the love of Einstein!" Mrs. Wakeman threw up her arms in frustration. "Alright! What is it that you want?"
ADAX smirked triumphantly. "I want your word that you won't lock me up after this is done."
What? You can't be serious! A robot as reckless and aggressive as you should not be let loose to do what he wants."
"Then," ADAX said simply. "No deal."
The doctor gritted her teeth. This little exchange was wasting her time and exhausting her patience. Clearly ADAX would not make things easy for her. "Fine, I promise to grant you freedom from storage after this task is completed. But on that condition that you follow my orders and with the knowledge that you will be locked up permanently if your aggressive behavior and recklessness results in anyone coming to harm. Understood?"
ADAX looked at her for a moment before finally saying: "Alright, Wakeman. You got yourself a deal."
Cluster Command Ship, somewhere in deep spaceGrand Marshal Yomex sat on his command chair, waiting. He peered out of the bridge's visual ports, his trapezoid-shaped eyes searching the blackness space outside his ship. Then, his eyes fixed on one spot. Out of the view port he saw a wormhole appear. Out of the cosmic portal came a wasp-like craft.
"Wormhole manifestation detected." A red roach drone reported, confirming what Yomex saw.
"Craft identified." A green roach drone reported. "It is High Commander Viruz, he requests permission to dock."
"By all means, let him." Yomex said as he stood up and made his way out of the bridge. He walked down several corridors and passed by several roach and ant drones who all respectfully saluted him as he passed them by. After going down a few levels he entered the ship's docking area just in time to see Viruz disembark from his Stealth Wasp. Following the High Commander in stiff cadence was a feminine-shaped blue robot dragging along a red-haired human who was restrained.
"Grand Marshal Yomex." Viruz greeted as he saluted.
"High Commander," the 5-foot-tall, orange-gold colored Yomex said, looking up to greet the 8-foot-tall, purple colored Viruz. The Grand Marshal turned to look at the blue robot that stood beside Viruz.
"Greetings, XJ-9," Yomex said. "We meet face-to-face at last."
The controlled body of XJ-9 just stood still, giving no visible acknowledgement of Yomex's words. But the smirk on Viruz's face showed that XJ-9's mind had indeed heard Yomex and was most likely mentally lashing out at both him and the High Commander. Yomex turned to face Viruz.
"You are to be commended, High Commander, for capturing XJ-9 with little damage to her person."
"Thank you, Sir." Viruz said, smiling.
Yomex then called out to two roach drones, one green and the other red. Both of whom came over immediately.
"Yes. Sir?" they both asked.
"Have XJ-9 reprogrammed, it is time for her to take on her new role as the queen of the Cluster." The Grand Marshal said to the red drone.
"At once, Sir." The drone responded. It immediately took XJ-9, who followed obediently, and went out of the docking area to another part of the ship.
"You," Yomex said to the green drone. "Take this human to his… quarters."
"Yes, Sir." The green roach drone answered curtly. It took the still struggling human youth toward the brig. Viruz and Yomex stared after the drone as it took the human boy out of the docking area. As the drone disappeared from view, Viruz turned to Yomex.
"And so it begins." Viruz said.
"Yes," Yomex answred. "Indeed it does."
Author's Note: Well, that's all for now. I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as I can. Please review.