Experimentation was the only option left.
Discovery had been put on hold by Cutwire. N4 had attempted the door, but the code was different, and Cutwire was careful about typing in the code. N4 resided inside the same cubicle that he had already discovered from roof to bottom. There were new datapads on his table, like there were every day, but there was no appeal.
N4 was a discoverer by programming, and two cycles after the door lock had been changed, he had found the algorithm that changed the datapad's content. He knew all 1023908 rotations of data that the datapad could make. It held nothing new for him, but the hallway behind the door led to unexplored places. He could not go behind the door, so the only thing he could do, was attempt to create something new by using what he had already discovered. Thus, the experimentation subroutines became active.
The datapads were the best subjects, and N4 started prying one apart. The screen flickered off and small parts fell out from the device. N4 touched the components and turned them over in his hands, the door lock all but forgotten as he explored the inside of the datapad.
Fluids from the device were leaking out and a few of the parts seemed broken. N4 carefully lined them up on the table before him, and held each part against the next.
For every action there was a reaction, and N4's programming was urging him to find all reactions there could ever be.
A curled stick of metal in the fluid? No reaction besides the fluid sticking to the metal. The fluid on his finger? No reaction but the fluid sticking to his finger. One stick crossed with a wire? No reaction. A drop of fluid in a puddle of fluid ? Larger puddle of fluid. N4 continued, and made a careful log of each and every component he tested.
He would have to include the floor, and the door, and the windows, and the doorlock. Enthusiastically, N4 set to his work, and combined the broken datapad with everything in his reach. The buttons on the lock system were scratched, covered in the datapad's fluids, jiggled, poked, ripped out, put back... and then there were no more combinations his programming could think of.
The entire room looked like a massacre. Datapad fluids were smeared on every surface of the room, and countless tiny parts from the datapads were strewn around or arranged in meaningless little heaps.
N4 was not used to being hampered in his primary directives. He had been programmed and designed to discover, explore and experiment- and having nothing to explore was a state of being he had no programming to deal with. N4 ran his programming again, looking for any combinations or places he had not yet discovered.
The answer came rather suddenly, as he watched a drop of fluid falling off his hand.
N4 grabbed a thin metal stick that had been part of a datapad, and prodded it in between the seams of his plating. The narrow point pricked, and his systems sent him a warning that he carefully catalogued as he jabbed the stick in harder. Something broke inside of his hand, and a blue-ish liquid started spilling out.
It was fascinating, and it reminded him of the fuel-line that Cutwire connected to his throat each morning. If he needed it every day, where did it go? Could it be stockpiled? Where was it inside his frame? How did it work?
He moved to the port where Cutwire jacked in the fuel-line, and started tearing at the small plates that closed it off. Jolts of painful warnings were running up his sensornet, and he wondered how each part of his body would hurt-
"-tha frag is it DOING?!"
The door to his cubicle was torn open and two of the creators came barreling towards him. He recognised Cutwire easily, but the other one was new. The new one was broader than Cutwire, and his voice had a weird accent. Before N4 could ask for this creator's designation, the mech grabbed his arms and pulled them behind N4's back, while Cutwire was hastily unspooled his connection cable. "-no idea! I don't understand how this could have happened, I made sure the datapad had enough files to sort through for decacycles! This shouldn't be happening at all-"
As Cutwire plugged in his cable, N4 felt his systems slacking. The power to his limbs was cut, and his head fell aside as his neck no longer knew how to keep it up. N4 waited as he felt Cutwire running through his logs and files. He tried to see over his creator's shoulder, but a heavy wall of coding prevented him from joining his creator in his discovery.
He tried to note it in his memorybanks, even as parts of his processor were locked down by Cutwire. This too was something that going to be discovered- the insides of his processor. It was the next thing on his discovery list right after he was done with investigating his frame.
Cutwire sighed and pulled back. He left the cable in. "Frag. Well, it's something I was going to fix within the next few days, but I might have to go for a clean-wipe. It ran out of stuff to discover, so the experiment option mingled in, and it's been trying to discover itself by practically tearing his circuits out." Cutwire sighed exasparatedly and pulled his cable roughly from N4's port. It hurt, but N4 could still not move.
"Hey Bolt? Did you finish the new coding for N1?" N4 noted the designation of the bulky mech as Bolt.
"Uh, well, kind of? It's, uh, not perfect, but it's functional." Bolt said.
"Install it on N4, it should prevent all that self-disassembly slag, and if it doesn't you'll know that something in the code needs to be tweaked." Cutwire frowned and turned his head. N4 could hear the angry murmurs from Hammertop leaking through. "Oh, hey Hammertop, what is it?... Oh for Primus- I just installed a patch! N2 can't be back to hoarding stuff this soon, I worked that glitch out of the system five patches ago-!... Fine, fine! I'll be there in a minute."
Cutwire looked at Bolt. "N2's not working again. Can you do the install?"
"Uh, sure I guess." Bolt was carefully unspooling his connection cable, and N4 noted that it was a good finger's-length away from where Cutwire's cable was located.
"Thanks mech! I'll see you at lunch, ok?" Cutwire went out the door, and his pedesteps disappeared down the alluring hallway of discovery. N4's programming urged for him to follow, but his body remained unresponsive.
Bolt connected his cable to N4's processor without a hitch and N4 watched from behind the protective coding walls as the new creator started spilling coding inside his helm, filling a few of his memory cores with new programming. Boltwrench pulled out his cord more gently than Cutwire, and started plugging in the recharge cables. It was too early again. N4 watched the lines of code flashing by his HUD as the new patch installed.
/Primary objective added; Survival pckge – v. 00.2 b
/installing...
0oo0
The next time N4 onlined, everything was different. Where normally his discovery programming activated, there was now a new string of code pushing itself to the front, urging his systems to online as quickly as possible
His optic shot online without calibrating, and the light from the room coloured everything in a sharp white. The new code ran a self-diagnostic even as he whipped his head around to scan the room for possible danger.
It was the same room as it had been on the cycles before. One chair, one table, and Cutwire standing besides him as he removed the last few cables from N4's processor. Cutwire was looking intently at him, and he grabbed N4's helm to flick a quick scan over him.
"Project N4, vocalise state of processors and coding." He said.
"...Coding in effect." N4 answered after a short moment. "Self-preservation programs efficiently installed and running."
Cutwire nodded. "Good... good..." He scribbled something on his datapad.
N4 watched him, and a moment later his internal scans pinged him to let him know they were finished.
His frame was in optimal condition, except for a selection of broken parts in his right servo. He had files in his memorybanks where he himself had been testing the limits of his sensornet. The logs from that memory stated that he had been following core programming.
With a newly installed self-preservation program active, N4 wanted to throttle his old self. The destruction of one of his own parts could lead to decrease in survivability and eventually in his offlining! Offlining was the only thing he had to avoid.
The new program had shunted the other directives to the back of his processor, leaving one directive to rule over the rest; survival.
Cutwire approached him, and N4's frame tensed as his new programming detected a threat. The doctor grabbed and tilted N4's helm, and N4 became aware of the amount of delicate wires and ports that were exposed for the mech to do with as he wanted.
The survival programming was flashing warnings at him, and N4's processors struggled with thousands of calculations and comparisons to previously collected files.
N4 wanted to stand up and throw the other mech away from him, but Cutwire's circuitry was hidden under thick layers of painted metal, and N4 had not plating whatsoever. In combat against Cutwire, he would offline. Doing as the mech wanted would extend his survival.
His survival programming continued to whirl like a storm in his processor, but N4 he dutifully tilted his head so Cutwire had easier access.
Survive. That was all that mattered. Surviving.
N4's programming almost went haywire when Cutwire slid a cable into his port, but N4 reigned it in, and watched like a cornered beast as his creator started roaming through his processor.
Cutwire could wipe everything with a few simple commands. A single step out of line, a step too quick or too slow- and there would be no more N4.
Cutwire himself was using his commlink, and N4 could vaguely hear Bolt's voice murmuring from Cutwire's earpiece. "Hm?... Oh, alright. It looks good so far though, it'll be fine. I'll let you know how it goes." Cutwire's optics stared right into N4's single optic, and his optic ridges were raised. "N4?"
"Yes, creator Cutwire?" N4 answered politely.
"Why don't you continue your explorating and experimenting on your own frame?" He asked with a smile.
N4's frame jerked, and his programming surged. This was a test, his logic-coding supplied, a simple test of the newly installed program. As long as he complied he would live. N4 turned his optic to creator Cutwire and stated in a tight voice; "That command interferes with my self-preservation coding. I cannot comply."
Cutwire nodded appreciatively. "Good!" He activated his commlink. "Looks like it works Bolt. Still, you probably add in some sort of 'creator override' on this thing's programming, just in case."
He turned back to N4, and N4 could feel a cable being pulled loose that he hadn't felt while it was seated in his port. Cutwire didn't seem to notice it when N4's hands clenched into fists.
"Here, your discovery stuff for today." Cutwire set down a datapad and a few strangely shaped iron things. N4 reached for them immediately, to seem as normal as Cutwire expected him to be, and tried to run his discovery-programs as the doctor watched.
Cutwire lingered for a little longer than usual, but eventually the doctor typed the unlock code into the doorlock, and strode into the hallway.
N4 waited until his footsteps died away before he dared to look up. He stared at the glossy wall where he knew other mechs could look inside. He set down the metal puzzle, and the processor-bursting anxiety that the survival programming had been pumping into him slowly died down. Fewer and fewer pings were sent to his processor, and the blaring red warning on his HUD turned a light orange.
He squeezed the puzzlecube in his hands, and it dented. A tiny satisfactory ping from his experimentation coding had his plating sagging in relaxation.
N4 continued playing with the puzzle, letting his older programs taking lead. The survival program did not power down, and it lingered in the back of his processor, urging him to look at the door just to check if no threat had gone through it.