Relic from the seas
By
Dr Facer
-4-
She stood at the edge of the docks, staring at the waves in silence and remembering what had happened the day before after X had carried her to the temporary laboratory where Doctor Cossack was working. Splash Woman recalled the moment she had seen the open capsule, and within it the now-useless parts which, long ago, would have been used to create Eve-Y. Seeing them meant she had failed her primary objectives, and the implication caused her electronic brain, already strained by operating without the Three Laws of robotics, to cease all but the most basic functions while it evaluated the information and decided on a course of action.
In other words she had collapsed, suffering the equivalent of what humans called fainting.
She came to several hours later, only to find X sitting at her side. She soon learned he had been there looking after her the whole time, an unexpected development which only increased her uneasiness around him. And to make matters worse, her electronic brain had restarted with no clear solution to offer after her problem-solving subroutines had spent hours running simulations, trying to find a possible course of action that could compensate or substitute the loss of both the Laws of robotics and the Primary objectives.
In all fairness, her systems had presented her with three options, leaving the choice of the preferred course of action to her conscious, more analytical mind.
She didn't like any of the options, however.
"What am I supposed to do?" she thought as she climbed down the steps so she could walk on the snow-covered sand around the far end of the docks. "None of the solutions are plausible, are they?"
Splash Woman walked for a long while until she sat down on a rock and opened the hidden compartment in her boots where her fin parts were stored. She held them in her hands for a moment and then used them to assemble a simple harp. Pleased that she could at least still do this, she started playing a melancholic melody, hoping the soft notes of her music would aid her tired electronic brain select the best option.
Focusing on the song she played to the ocean, she started evaluating the situation again, trying to decide which one of her three options she should choose.
Option 1: Abandon primary objectives, ask Doctor Cossack to reinstall the Three Laws of robotics on her and ask for a new purpose.
Option2: Use current technology to attempt building Eve-Y using the partial information stored in her own databanks.
Option 3: Replace Eve-Y so that her function is completed.
Splash Woman didn't honestly like any of those options. The first one was the safest, but she had already gotten used to functioning without the Three Laws and since there was no chance she would be reprogrammed into a combat unit again by a mad scientist, she didn't feel it was necessary to ask for the laws to be reinstalled since hurting humans was the last thing she would ever do. She did want a new purpose, but she couldn't just decide on one by herself, could she? A human or a Robot Master with higher hierarchy had to assign her a job or a purpose; that was how things worked. But there weren't any other Robot Masters from her time still active who outranked her and her programming no longer forced her to obey orders from human beings. In other words she was free to do as she wanted, but she didn't know what it was she actually wanted to do.
The second option was impossible. While she did possess information about Eve-Y that would allow for her body to be replicated, she didn't have anything else and wouldn't know how to program her, so an Eve-Y built under her supervision would be just an empty shell, incapable of completing the task Doctor Light had devised for her.
The third option… she missed a note as she considered it. No, that option was something she could never do. She simply wasn't capable of replacing Eve-Y that way. Eve-Y had been designed to be like X, an advanced Robot Master so far ahead of her it was literally impossible to compare their specs, and his cognitive programming was also so advanced it wasn't even funny. X was as close to a human being as an artificial man could be.
"I… I can emulate emotions in a very accurate way but… how do I know I really feel them?" She wondered. If she ever decided to take Eve-Y's place, emulating emotions properly would not be enough. "But I did feel real emotions once. I remember that feeling was not one of my preloaded responses designed to emulate a reaction. What I felt at his side was not an emulation. It was real."
Splash Woman, however, was not sure if she could experience those feelings again at some point. How could she? The Robot Master who sparked those strong emotional responses in her was long gone and perhaps she should have perished with him.
"Blues…"
Her thoughts were interrupted by a massive form that jumped out of the water and touched ground right beside her. It was a tall robot… no, reploid, she corrected, remembering the term she had heard Nina use when referring to herself and others like her. But this one was not human-looking. This one looked like a ferocious humanoid shark.
"Greetings, I am Tsunami Mako. I'm the one who found the capsule you were sleeping in."
She tilted her head to the side, waiting to see if he would provide any further information about her discovery, hoping such knowledge offered clues about the fate of her friends.
"I was wondering how you're doing?" the marine reploid asked, slightly surprised when she didn't answer his greeting. "It must be difficult adjusting to a world that is so different from what you remember, right?"
The Robot Master nodded and placed her harp on her knees, waiting for him to continue.
"I… I guess that is why you were here alone," Mako said, interpreting her silence as him upsetting her peace. He realized that she was probably having trouble understanding the new technology around her and the idea of reploids being so prominent in society. He also started fearing he was making her uncomfortable. Not wanting to give her a bad impression, he bowed as courteously as he could and pointed back at the sea.
"It seems I came at a bad time. I'll visit you again once you are more accustomed to the idea of living in our times. Please excuse my rudeness."
Saying nothing more, Mako jumped back into the ocean, vanishing in a matter of seconds.
She wondered what the shark reploid had truly wanted from her but, being busy with her own problems, Splash Woman soon forgot about him and continued considering her options and remembering certain grey and red armored Robot Master who had a penchant for whistling and wearing yellow scarves. A robot who, like her now, never had the Three Laws installed, but who never gave up and always strived to do the right thing, to live life his way and to the fullest.
"Maybe I should try to get to know X better, I think that is what Blues would ask me to do," she decided and started playing her harp again, reproducing the simple notes that characterized his whistle and smiling tenderly as she remembered him.
Yes, she would try to be friendly with X first. She could decide what to do later, once she had gathered enough information about him.
It was probably the best course of action she could take.
Notes:
Thanks to Adam for beta reading this chapter.