A drive under the cottenwood
The car chassis jolted slightly over a pothole as Michael hurried Kitt along an undermaintained street. The man yawned a little as the light was just starting to trickle in through the sky.
While the AI didn't insist on knowing where they were headed, having come slightly accustomed to Michael's unusual habit of driving whenever wherever; Kitt was suspicious as to where they might be headed on this particular morning. The man wasn't usually this quiet based on the limited behavioral patterns Kitt had begun to weave into his system as he continued to strive toward better understanding the man. So there was a thought of concern looping itself through Kitt's electronic mind as the sustained silence unnecessarily hung in the air.
While vital signs alone did not provide the answer, Kitt scrutinized over the man's facial expressions for a moment. It was fairly easy, after making use of former knowledge, for him to pick up on the tell signs of sadness meddling within the man. While afronting circumstances of this nature were still challenging for the computer, Kitt decided to have a go at it.
"Michael," The voice modulator pulsed a solid red. "Your vitals exhibit high levels of stress."
The man shuddered in his seat; tearing his gaze away from the long avenue they'd just turned toward. The man hesitated to reply, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand while the sun began to grow in strength just over the scattered tree line making him squint momentarily while Kitt expertly adjusted the overall tint of the windshield.
"I'm just thinking…" The man whispered finally. "Tired, just tired." He responded gloomily.
'That hardly sounds convincing.' the AI thought to himself, wondering what would be best to approach the unsaid topic hazily wondering the air. "May I suggest I assume control of the chassis?" The computer replied thoughtfully.
The man sighed.
"Not now Kitt," before adding. "You know," The man perked up; even for a second catching the computer off guard. " — run me down on Albert J. Perkins, check his bank accounts for any activity."
The request was rather peculiar given they hadn't spoken to Devon since yesterday evening and unless Kitt had missed the memo they'd not been assigned a mission yet. Whatever the case the computer would not give a no for an answer…priding himself when it came to data retrieval.
"Right away, Michael." The computer chimed contently, hoping Michael's unusual demeanor was just a bug and would soon go away.
The man only smirked, holding his breath as he coasted the t-top into an empty space along a crowded curb inside a partial residential area. Killing off the engine and stepping outside, he paused for a second. Grasping his wrist and noting the suspicious presence of the com secured tightly around his aching wrist; the man frowned cautiously away from Kitt's observant "eyes' '. Overcoming the predicament and removing the comlink, the man hung the com over Kitt's yoke; giving the car a faint grin before pushing the door shut and strolling along the neighborhood's far-from-maintained sidewalk. Kitt emitted a rather faint hum from his scanner as he questioned what the man was up to this time. The man dismissed the hint, making a point of visibly vanishing through a row of thickets working as a natural barrier outlining the domain of an open area that lay behind it.
If the computer had at all ever bragged of knowing his driver inside and out, he couldn't have been more "disappointed" than now. It was little things like these that sent Kitt's system spiraling into madness. How was it that something as advanced as himself could not even grasp the most comprehensible traits of Michael's character? Whenever the computer was beginning to think he knew the man well and was capable of predicting his next move, something of this nature would present itself and Kitt would lament that he was being left in the dark again.
Kitt internally sighed, dismissing Micheal's annoyingly weird and strange behavior as he looked over this Albert J. Perkin's history instead.
He was surprised to find there wasn't much to uncover overall. The last outstanding transaction of his bank account read that he'd recently purchased a second hand car from one of his neighbors. Other than that, the man seemed to be living an honest life maintaining a butcher shop along the main roads…Kitt went over the provided information once more, brushing it with a fine comb so to speak; keeping himself extremely busy while Michael — The computer jolted a little at the lack of his driver and at the dead connection limply strung around his yoke. Where ever had the man scurried off to, anyway?
While Kitt prided himself with his unfaltering obedience and stayed put no matter the circumstances — anxiety was shooting up the car's circuitry.
With two quick sweeps of his bright scanner the car picked up with ease the presence of the man a few hundred yards away. So Michael was still in the vicinity; what a complete relief. Though he begged to differ, why in the world was Michael hanging around a cemetery at 6:56 in the morning?
Eventually Kitt was completely uninterested in skimming through Albert J. Perkins' history any longer. The man was more on the ordinary side of things, actually the information he'd accumulated echoed closely that of the textbook examples he'd worked on in his pre-alpha days. If Michael had hoped at all to find an opening toward a clue then he was mistaken to ever consider finding it in this man's transactions.
The t-top continued to stand alone on the curb, watching over the pedestrians and neighbors pulling out of driveways; the working hours dragged ever closer as they got a start on their day. The majority he figured were in fact on their merry way to clock in for work, drop off the kids or visit the local physician; since a few people were packing in their ill relatives on board a wide variety of automobiles. The ones that clearly amused Kitt however — as strange as it seemed — were the minivans. These seemed to always contain the most precious of cargo: children.
Kitt had had his first run with one on his maiden voyage when Michael and him had visited the region of Silicon Valley. There he'd had the pleasure to meet Buddy. The boy was unwholly when it came to following etiquette and manners however. For crying out loud the child had inexplicably disobeyed his mother and stowed away on board in search of a joy ride insead! It was a little overwhelming that Michael sometimes exhibited characteristics that outlined a child's behavior. For one, the man exhibited an increased level of awareness whenever they visited a burger joint and Michael strolled happily inside more or less childlike. The computer felt "jealous" that no such awareness existed when he tried to explain, for example (in layman's terms) the functioning role of neuroscience within the realm of medical science.
If displaying childlike behavior was normal in grown men then Kitt wasn't too sure what to expect from overall humanity. People were simply far more complex than Kitt had been led to believe — well, he was in a class of complexity on his own after all; though it was worth mentioning that he for one wasn't that complex either. Baring no emotions whatsoever or generalization, Kitt was the ideal computer. Or so Kitt thought to himself whenever he'd stumble across an automated system that only echoed the bare bones of practicality.
Kitt's scanner quickened its pace as he caught readings of Michael moving somewhere beyond Kitt's "vision". The computer getting a little green around the gills at the lack of a "connection".
"M-Michael?" The computer asked embarrassingly outloud.
Taking a quick glance at his surroundings, the car noted with distaste that all the other vehicles were being beckoned to join their driver's and owner's on their daily commute! One by one the curb was going empty but Kitt on the other hand had been completely forgotten along the sidelines! Feeling the assault of "lonliness" the computer pulled once more over the job Michael had assigned him before he'd left…trying to push past this evergrowing knot in his processor. Whatever was it!?
Cautiously surveying his own thoughts and setting aside his current task momentarily the computer realized that he'd subconsciously was yearning for the comforting company of his driver. Though Kitt would NEVER admit to himself or anyone, somteimes — things that he could only best describe; and better fitted the description of emotions — afflicted him enough to disbalance his system just enough to become uncomfortable.
He was feeling the latter at the moment.
The computer greatly esteemed the man, no matter how one looked at it — Kitt had come to understand that no one quite understood him like Michael Knight did. Even if the man was still learning like himself, the connection was there; even if partially. The only problem was that sometimes Michael seemed to "distance" himself from the computer which only made a mess of Kitt's processes when the computer was in dire need of his driver's stimulus.
"Oh, Michael." The computer sighed static to himself, startling a passing pedestrian who darted sideways in surprise.
Kitt loomed over the problem a little longer, figuring a valid point to move and join his driver without hinting at his "lonleness" that much.
After a short while Kitt gunned the engine and backed out of the space hastily, heading toward the front cemetery entrance — deducing that entering through the thickets as Micheal had done wasn't too…adequate…for a several ton computer like himself.
He slipped past the gate nonchalantly and drove along the dirt path toward Michael who had his back turned. The man staring blankly at overturned dirt that looked suspiciously several months old.
Kitt spoke not a word. Finding consolation in his driver's close presence and company as he came to a slow stop and silenced his engine.
Michael made no attempt to glance behind him or even bothered to look in Kitt's direction.
This bothered Kitt a little, sending a chill down his motherboard. The man seemed so — detached. Something that Kitt had never atributed to him.
"Michael?" The computer asked in a shushed manner. "Shouldn't we be leaving?" He pressed on, trying to sound convincing and unbothered.
The man didn't budge, his lips trembling as he continued to stare down at the less than barren grave. There were a few flowers laid on top and a few other items too. It took Kitt no less than a few seconds to categorize each item but it took him more than three disconcerting minutes to realize it was Michael's own grave.
The computer's scanner flickered anxiously as he meticulously examined the site while keeping a keen eye over Michael's vitals. Something was desperately telling him to tear his driver away from the place — unsettling was the feeling that lodged itself somewhere inside Kitt's memory boards. The computer however made no attempt to say nothing more.
The man just continued to silently stare, mentally going over the items left behind in his memory by whom Kitt could only presume were once his closest friends and relatives.
Michael's footsteps jolted Kitt from his thoughts, the computer quietly scolding his systems as these blinked in and out of error. The computer was terrified — panicking inaudibly, the thought of losing his closest friend was utterly terrifying.
The man sliped into the driver's seat in an instant, the AI hardly registered Michael's weight as his thoughts crashed from one end to another. The man adjusting the comlink over his wrist, the vitals "snapping" the computer back to reality while the man pushed the throttle speeding away toward the gate.
Relieved, the computer was determined to never return to that forsaken place if he could at all help it!