Chapter 2: Dr. Albert Lanning

Azure took a car all the way to USR headquarters. She was extremely surprised that Del had called her so soon to ask is she still wanted to tag along to a crime scene. He warned her that there would be an actual body there and that there was no way he was going to clean up after she spewed or freaked out. Azure had only laughed and asked for directions. When she was in high school one of annual career visits had been to a morgue because she'd been curious. It'd been no different to seeing a body during a classical movie night, in which she had watched Zombieland, X-men and Sweeney Todd.

Azure looked at all the other cars speeding by, barely glimpsing the different colours and occasional truck. Her car was just a normal one but somehow reminded her of an ancient Barina for some reason. The automated computer informed Azure that it was going to take the next exit to the right. It turned into a virtually unused space where no doubt the employees within USR used it to gain access. Parking, Azure got out of the car but was not sure what to do next. A security guard stood by the entrance and there was an ID scanner for admittance. Just as she was, no doubt, starting to look suspicious a second car pulled up as her car slid into the back wall to hang with the many expensive vehicles in the personnel garage. Thankfully Del hopped out of his company car and scanned his badge. As Azure went to follow the guard stopped her with a request for ID.

"Don't worry, she's with me," Del interjected and the guard allowed her through. They entered into a small entry area where many people were going about their business. Azure had a feeling that this whole complex would probably be all in shades of white and metal, but mostly white. They took an elevator up to what Azure supposed was the main atrium. The USR building was enormous, basically just a giant sky scrapper that towered above all the other buildings. The place was surrounded with glass and composed of square type pillars. Stairs led up to a statue at least thirty or more times the size of a standard robot and supposed to represent the first robot created by USR. At least that's what the plaque at its feet said, along with the history and rise of USR. In the very centre of the atrium, before the stairs, lay the body of Dr. Albert Lanning, the co-founder of USR and the main roboticist.

Azure knew from the start that this would be exciting but she hadn't expected this. Yellow virtual tape surrounded the scene. His body lay sprawled face down on the cement, glass was scattered all around, his limbs stuck out at odd angles and a pool of blood had formed beneath Lanning's head. Not far away was a small round device that Azure wasn't familiar with. Del told her in the lift that it was programed to send for him upon Lanning's death, that's why they were here. It would initiate a hologram of Lanning with preprogramed answers to certain questions or responses. Azure was fascinated.

A team of forensic and police were analysing the scene and let them through when Del showed his badge. As they drew close the hologram appeared, so life like that it was startling.

"Good to see you again," it spoke.

"How do you know Lanning?" Azure asked Del.

"He oversaw the restoration of my arm," Del replied, then to the hologram, "hello doctor."

"Everything that follows, is a result of what you see here," stated hologram Lanning.

"Is there something you want to tell me?"

"I'm sorry, my responses are limited. You must ask the right questions."

"Why did you call Del Spooner?" asked Azure curiously, she didn't expect it to answer seeing as it was supposed to be for Del.

"I trust his judgement." Azure and Del shared a surprised look, perhaps Lanning had expected someone to be with Del. They continued.

"Normally these circumstances wouldn't require a homicide detective."

"But then our interactions have never been entirely normal, wouldn't you agree?"

"Is there something that you need to say Lanning?" wondered Azure and the hologram replied with its 'you must ask the right questions' response.

"Why would you kill yourself?" Del asked, voice tight near the end.

"That detective, is the right question," a shiver went up Azure's spine, "program terminated." The hologram receded back into the device. Del approached Lanning's body, looking down he asked, "why old man?" Del then went over to talk to the forensic guys. Azure stayed by the body to examine it. She then looked up to the offices some two hundred or so stories, where a shattered window showed where Lanning had plunged to his death. For some reason Azure was getting a strange feeling about this situation, like there was more to Lanning's death than just suicide. Something else caught her attention too. The glass around Dr. Lanning was different somehow but she just couldn't put her finger on it.

"Come on," Del called to her, "let's go have a snoop around upstairs."

They took the elevator up to the main office because Del needed to get permission from the owner none other than Lawrence Robertson, the other co-founder and CEO of USR. Azure decided to wait by the elevator, knowing that she'd just be in the way and didn't want to explain why she was there.

Sometime later Del came back out with an expression on his face that Azure knew too well.

"So he was an asshole?"

"Yep," he replied without hesitation, "someone's coming to 'escort' us to the lab."

Just then the elevator opened and a pretty, well groomed woman stood waiting within. They stepped in to take the lift speedily down.

"Lawrence told me to accommodate you in any way possible," she said.

"Really?" Del replied brightly, Azure smirked secretly as she caught the innuendo.

"I reviewed Dr. Lanning's psycho-profile. Alfred had become a recluse; he rejected human contact for machines."

"So you're a shrink, huh?" Del asked.

Azure looked over with interest, "are you a robopsychologist?"

"Yes," the woman replied, "I'm Susan Calvin, who are you?"

"Oh," Del interrupted, "you know I'm detective Del Spooner, this is my assistant Azure Miller."

"I'm studying to be a psychologist at university, robopsychology is an interest of mine," said Azure.

The lift stopped then and Del was back to being professional as they walked down the hall.

"So would you say that Dr. Lanning was suicidal?"

"It would seem the answer to that question is apparent."

"That's not what he asked," said Azure, immediately recognising her hedging of the subject.

"No," Susan finally said, "I wouldn't have thought so but obviously I was wrong."

Del paused on the balcony to look down and stated, "That's a long way down."

"Thank you Captain obvious," teased Azure.

"They sure clean up quickly around here, but then, who wants some old guy going bad in the lobby?"

"He was not just some old guy," said Susan angrily. "Alfred Lanning was everything here. We are on the eve of the largest robotic distribution in history. By Saturday there'll be one robot to every five humans. This was Dr. Lanning's dream."

"I doubt very much though, that in his dream he was deceased," put in Azure delicately before Del could say anything more insulting.

They continued on to Lanning's office as Del asked about the twenty four hour surveillance and where it was. Susan brought attention to the sensor strips on the wall, electric blue small tubes. They all linked up to the core which was a giant ball of neural energy and wire hanging from the ceiling high above.

"It's one giant virtual brain," Azure said in awe.

"She was actually Lanning's first creation," informed Susan.

"She? That's a she?" asked Del.

"Virtual, Interactive, Kinetic, Intelligence."

"VIKI?" A square hologram of a woman's face suddenly materialised and spoke, "Good day."

Azure observed Susan, Del and VIKI as they conversed about traffic fatalities then Del requested video surveillance of inside the laboratory one minute before the window broke. Strangely the video was non-existent with VIKI informing them there was 'data corruption'. Azure didn't know why but there was something about VIKI that she didn't like. They watched outside the lab instead, from the window breaking until the present. Azure watched closely but didn't see anyone leave the lab that hadn't entered first. Del made some stupid remark, comparing his and Susan's postures. Azure wasn't sure why but for some reason her image seemed just a bit clearer than the others'. It was most likely just a trick of the light though.

"Can we just go inside now?" Azure asked.

"Oh, yeah, of course." Susan scanned and opened the door to Dr. Lanning's laboratory.

Authors Note:

Hey! I'm having a great time making these! At the moment it isn't very challenging due to the fact that most of it is just following the storyline of the movie. Improvising and building a human/robot relationship will be the difficult part, but I'm looking forward to it :) I just hope I can give the characters justice in respect to their personalities, I also need to try not to over-think things too much as well. It's a fine line. Please please please! Let me know of any mistakes you find in this story. Will be very much grateful and give you your very own Mini Sonny robot. How cute would that be?!

-Trix-