Chapter 1: Safety First
A/N: I'm redoing this chapter to fix inaccuracies, misused words, and spellings. If I'm still missing something in this chapter let me know.
Monday, November 16, 1981,
Knight industries field testing sight
Accelerating to 85mph the new 1982 Pontiac Trans-am concept, weaved easily around the rebar-inforced cinder brick walls and several small to large vehicles.
Wilton Knight was watching from the side of the track as the Trans-am took the turn to come back. Taking the 180-degree right turn its body began to turn over.
The passenger wheels came off the ground. Mr. Kight's heart jumped as the Pontiac looked to be about to flip onto its roof and role.
He could not tell from this far away but in his binoculars, it look like the vehicle locked its back driver wheel and turned its driver front.
The vehicle came to a stop as it landed back on all four wheels.
K.A.R.R. was following Ed's instructions on letting the test driver operate his frame while K.A.R.R. went over his systems. This was to let him get used to having a drive control his movement and he could fine-tune his data analyst software. That used the scanner bar built into his frames grill.
His CPU had a capacity of 800Mb and the sensor data was a lot to process without filling his memory Matrix which houses his consciousness.
The large amount of data is processed through his 1.5GB RAM module and then split.
The data is sent to his mass temporary storage, separate from his Matrix and a small compressed digital catalog is created so K.A.R.R. can find the data location in mass storage within 4.8 seconds.
K.A.R.R. was in the proses of reducing his data recovery time when his gravitational inertia sensor went from normal white to Green.
Green alerts are above normal but well within spec. K.A.R.R. did a quick scan and found he was traveling down the testing field at 85mph swerving around the testing obstacles. The green alerts were from his suspension dipping from the movement. Since he was not continually changing his suspension to compensate.
K.A.R.R. did not see a need to change anything on how his frame was performing for the test drive. Changing his suspension would change the way the driver was handling K.A.R.R.'s frame.
Going back to the task of reducing the 4.8 seconds to 2.4 seconds. K.A.R.R. had just run a date recovery analysis test that shows a 3.6s total time when the gravitational inertia sensor again flashes him a warning.
This time it shows up as a caution yellow and then jumps to a red alert.
K.A.R.R. ran the alert straight from RAM to his Matrix getting the information in 1.2s. That was crucial his frame's gravitation was at +1.62 and it was increasing, +1.68, +1.73.
This should not be happening, his gravitation at this altitude and weather conditions should be at +1.00.
Going through his diagnostics and checking for any other logs that said when his gravitation was off he found it in 6.3s. That was also when his driver screamed "K.A.R.R. COMPENSATE FOR ROLL…"
K.A.R.R. was already on it he found that doing sky mode, his gravitational inertia sensor would have this over +1.00, but the warnings were disabled from its activation.
By the time K.A.R.R. activated his auto cruise and came up with a solution to the test-drivers error the gravitation on his frame was +1.92.
Disconnecting the rear driver drive shaft and locking the brake, K.A.R.R. turned his wheel as far to the left as it could. In that split second, he activated his passenger side turbo which caused his driver-side wheels to slip sideways to his left.
K.A.R.R.'s frame slammed back to the pavement on all fours but he forgot to alter his suspension.
The Pontiac's suspension in its soft mode slammed the weight of its frame down onto the front transfer case and transmission case.
K.A.R.R. did not have him under carriage protective plating installed so when he slapped into the ground multiple damage errors came up.
Transfer /front,drive /fluid /compression::loss
Transmission /prime /fluid /compression::loss
Tire /front,right /air /compression::low
Wilton watched K.A.R.R. slam back down onto his four wheels then nothing else happened. Getting on the radio he called. "What happened are you two alright? Do you need assistance?"
K.A.R.R.'s voice came over the radio. "The driver lost control of the turn and I prevented our rollover. In doing so damaged driving components."
Wilton orders the EMTs and recovery truck to bring the K1000 back to the garage.
After getting K.A.R.R. back to the garage the damage he sustained was minor. The tech found he had a cracked front passenger rim which just got replaced with another stock wheel assembly. The more advanced tires and MBS rims were still at the lab getting tested.
K.A.R.R.'s transmission pan seal broke from the impact to the ground and a new one, this time MBS coated was installed.
The front transfer case was more damaged since K.A.R.R. had it open to prevent the rear wheels from working. The impact jammed the locking ring in the wrong position.
The engineers noted the problem with having the transfer gear open and that a solution needs to be found for the future.
Tuesday, November 17, 1981,
Knight industries field testing sight
By the next morning, the techs had the damages fixed, front and rear undercarriage plates installed.
K.A.R.R. ran the same maneuvering course as the day before this time paying way more attention to what the driver was doing.
The test driver even got on the radio several times to complain that K.A.R.R. was being too much of a backseat driver.
"If I had been more of a back-seated driver yesterday we would have passed and according to my data, we would have rolled 8x at that speed. That would have damaged more than just me."
K.A.R.R. driver said something about the car of the future not being able to compensate for a 180-degree turn at such a low speed.
K.A.R.R..s logic did cater to the preservation of himself as is his primary function of self-preservation it was not in his best interest to allow this temporary driver to make the turn this time.
Coming up to the turn K.A.R.R. took control of his frame before the driver could say anything K.A.R.R. spins the wheel to the right.
Adjusting the Trans-am's suspension K.A.R.R. slid sideways taking the turn at 90mph. The Trans-am stayed planted to the ground as the weight shift was countered by K.A.R.R.'s adjustments. Completing the turn he shot down the field at 143mph, keeping under the max speed of the tires he is equipped with.
After some data analyses after passing this test, K.A.R.R. was ready for the next one. Testing out his armor and the MBS.
K.A.R.R. armor was a classified alloy that not even Mr. Knight or himself knew. The armor was strong on its own, able to deflect Eagle .50 AE with the MBS that Mr. Knight developed. Making it resistant to M2HB .50 FMJ and that happens to be the weapon that they were pulling behind an armored humvee.
K.A.R.R. ran a scan over the weapon after they loaded the rounds. The Weapon armament system threat or WEST.
It told K.A.R.R. that the weapon was loaded with .50 soft hollow points and only 200 rounds. WEST gave the weapons threat a white marker for spread-out fire and green for concentrated points.
K.A.R.R. was to attempt a recovery under fire. He was to drive himself to a structure and recover his driver.
The person acting as his driver would be a straw dummy in the compound to not get hit by a stray bullet.
Wilton walked up. "K.A.R.R. this test is about your ability to maintain control under fire. There will be times when you have to evade armament that could damage you or easily pass through your windows and injure your passengers.
The person responsible for that armor you have is working on a suitable replacement for that MBS-coated glass."
"I understand and you know this, is not glass it's a…" Wilton interrupted K.A.R.R. "K.A.R.R. not everyone here has the clearance to know what your windows are."
The test started K.A.R.R. drove as fast as he could without losing grip on the track and flipping. The humvee could not keep up at first but was gaining. Doing a scan on the truck K.A.R.R. realized that the vehicle was not carrying any ammo, meds, or any military equipment.
The bad traction of the stock tires did not help either and this was a problem for bullets too. K.A.R.R. weaved as the M2 aimed for his tires.
Getting close enough to the building to do a scan he saw that the dummy had a heat source and it seemed to be positioned in a cell.
The building had an outer reinforced concrete wall then a gap then another non-reinforced brick wall inside.
K.A.R.R. collected the data and then drive straight into the building plowing through the outer wall and the inner.
Coming to a stop with his whole body inside the building. The dummy was still standing no bricks or rebar hit it.
Waiting the 2 minutes it would take a human injured or dehydrated to get in his frame, according to the test.
K.A.R.R. went over his symptoms and hardware that is when he, after sorting out the normal warnings about hitting a wall, he found something missing.
The frame schematic he pulled up showed the blueprint sketch of his outermost layer.
K.A.R.R.'s blueprint showed his body panel and underframe white except for two black panels on his doors.
Wednesday, November 18, 1981,
Knight industries field testing hanger
01:26
K.A.R.R. (Knight Automated Roving Robot)
KNIGHT ID. S.
Access clearance: KnightTech8580
Key clearance: ***/Bypass/Key/
Key Accepted~Logs disabled~Matrix manual override enabled
KnightTech8580/upload/YelowKnight_D5២
File uploading…error duplication
KnightTech8580/upload/YelowKnight_D5២ /Bypass/error
Key Accepted~Logs disabled~Matrix manual override enabled~
Full access error override enabled
File uploading…60%
File uploading…100%
Complete Y/N
Y
KnightTech8580/Ext
Logs erased
Wednesday, November 18, 1981,
Knight industries field testing sight
07:00
K.A.R.R. was loaded up with 250 rounds of 6mm in the two guns positioned in a compartment inside his fenders.
K.A.R.R.'s fender had three pandals that slid into each other. The barrel of the custom-designed guns angled out. The firing angle was terrible he could not hit a target directly in front of him. He needed to be at a slite angle and the firing zone was small.
K.A.R.R. was also loaded with 4 flashbangs, 2 Knight Ind shock lines, and 1 prototype interceptor rocket. This was connected to the outside of his right quarter panel. If something went wrong in its launch he can drop the whole apparatus and drive away.
K.A.R.R. was going over the projectile weapon systems when that green system error came back. This was the third time it come back after he came out of sleep mode at 06:00.
Looking over the error again it came up as a random Matrix data memory.
Being an AI, K.A.R.R.'s Matrix is a random set of rearranging data. Some data in his Matrix is not random like the starting building block that Wilton Knight and his colleagues created and the base self-preservation.
K.A.R.R. took the Matrix data and sent it to the RAM module to be compressed then it would make its way into the permanent storage of his Matrix.
"Ok K.A.R.R. your task is to hit the target while the test driver is driving. I am well aware that you could do this with one sensor off and driving backward. There will be a time in the field where you will have to operate alone or trust your partner."
K.A.R.R. agreed with Wilton on the alone part. He hope that his true partner was much better than these temps.
The live maneuvering test started. K.A.R.R. driver stomped on the accelerator so hard that the stock tires began to burn off the rubber as they spun without getting a grip of the pavement to move his frame forward.
After heating the rubber they caught, getting launched forward. The heavy-footed driver kept his foot and my accelerator to the floor.
K.A.R.R. tried to make his shots but the driver would turn the wheel causing him to fishtail.
Trying to collect trajectory data from his scanner bar, the green Matrix data error began to show up more. Setting up a protocol to just send the Matrix data to the RAM module. He would ask Wilton to look at it with him later.
Wilton Knight was thinking about improvements they could make to the K1000 frame when bullets started hitting the spectator as the Trans-am spun facing him.
Wilton watched in horror as K.A.R.R. shot several people and then the interceptor rocket shot from the vehicle.
The interceptor was designed to take out a missile from a chopper or jet. Instead, it arced up then twisted in the air, and crashed into the humvee with three people inside.
The concussion blast from the interceptor caused the heavy humvee to flip end over end 5x. It landed on its roof and slid.
The sound of bullets stopped as K.A.R.R. quickly ran out of ammo then two cylindrical objects flew from the trunk of the Trans-am and landed next to Wilton.
Wilton did not have time to cover his eye and turn away before the two flashbangs went off.
K.A.R.R. was in trouble, the error was not going away it was piling up. The Matrix data error fill the RAM storage and then began to fill the mass storage.
The compression programs froze and the viral data analysis software locked up causing even more errors that tried to get to the RAM, but that was full.
The Matrix data error went from threat level green to red in 0.6s.
K.A.R.R. started dumping the data in mass storage but the RAM was not responding, meaning that he had no way to compress the data and the data was starting to spill into his Matrix. If his Matrix overfilled it could crash and corrupt his core.
One of the four mass drives went black and another is overheating in the red.
K.A.R.R. quickly place a section lock on a mass storage drive and converted it into a dedicated Matrix buffer. By doing this he was able to limit the data coming from his scanner bar and other interior and exterior sensors.
K.A.R.R. accessed the internal mic and one of the cameras built into the grill, not the scanner bar.
"K.A.R.R. you need to stop, your heading for Mr. Knight."
K.A.R.R. could see through the camera that his frame was heading for Wilton standing near the stands and rubbing his eyes.
He could not hurt Mr. Knight, he was supposed to help save me. No K.A.R.R. thought Wilton trust me he will help me even if.
Accessing the engine lean control module designed to deal with diluted fuel and allow him to make adjustments.
K.A.R.R. turned on the internal speakers and wrote a note. "Driver, tell Wilton I'm sorry and good by."
Wilton was just getting his vision when he saw the Trans-am coming for him. He noticed that K.A.R.R.'s scanner bar was dark and that the driver had a terrified look.
Then Wilton heard a sound he would never forget. A high *SQUEELLLL* sound above everything.
It took Wilton a second to recognize the sound then there was a *BANG* as K.A.R.R.'s engine detonated.
K.A.R.R. was racing towards his father when he commands the electrical timing tensioner to slide up and angle 30 degrees. He could hear the *SQUEELLLL* from the interior mic as the belt and chain blew off the gears.
Friday, November 20, 1981,
Knight industries Lab
Wilton was worried about the other of course but after that bang, he could tell that all K.A.R.R.'s systems went. the first clue was that the hydraulic control suspension blew out, causing the Trans-am to nose-dive into the pavement leaving groves.
A mix of different fluids spurted out from the undercarriage plate like an exploding water balloon
The worst part is that K.A.R.R.'s engine bay is protected from the outside not inside. All the energy of part of the engine would destroy everything in the compartment.
The techs were setting up the tool needed to open the Trans-am hood. The cable that ran from the cabin was snapped in the engine explosion.
Wheeling the cart over to the front of the vehicle they place the electromagnet to the hood over the latch. The electromagnet hummed on and with a *Clunck* the tech slide the magnet to his left.
*Click* and a pull-up the hood opened. Turning off the magnet and getting it out of the way. Wilton and the techs could see what was left of the engine.
The engine was a total loss, bits of gears, hoses, plastic reservoirs, fans, and electrical wiring. Was all over the place. Both power distribution circuit boxes were in a hundred little pieces.
"Someone get me the memory modules from the firewall compartments." Wilton orders the stunned techs.
The first mass storage drive came out in one piece and looks to be in brand new condition. The second one pulled out looking like a spool of dull blacked copper wiring. The last two mass storage drive and the RAM module circuit boards were warped and cracked.
The drives were taken to the recovers lab where new drives waited. The old drive data would be sourced for memory and simple log data.
The data would be put in the new drives, sequents then moved to another new drive.
After 48hr of analysis and sequencing, the data would be placed back into the restored Trans-am.
Monday, November 23, 1981,
Knight industries Lab
The K1000 frame was restored the only thing different is the engine is not tuned the same, being the backup.
Wilton had agreed to take precautions when restarting K.A.R.R.
The Tans-am was stripped of its weapons and was lifted 2Ft off the ground. The lift was also locked and disconnected from power so K.A.R.R. could not control it.
"Ok start him up" Wilton Knight ordered. The tech in the vehicle turned the engine on. The alternator is needed to charge up the capacitors that deliver the proper voltage to K.A.R.R.'s Matrix and other sensitive electric components.
After a minute and checking the readouts the tech flicked the switch that would turn on K.A.R.R.'s CPU
Wilton could hear the relays *Click* as they power up then the scanner bar lit up except for one problem the light of the scanner was not red but amber.