Michael gently turned his head, feeling the pull of tubes all over his body, specifically his face.
He let out a low grunt as he felt the irregular piece of tubing inside his mouth. Wanting to cough up whatever was irritating the back of his throat. He tried to reach with his hands but in disorientation smacked his forehead with his cold sweaty hands.
"Mr. Knight!"
He flinched at the call of his name, at the sound of an unrecognizable voice with no face to attach to somewhere in the dark.
"Oh, my word!"
Devon's distinct voice echoed in the room loudly.
He coughed a little, trying to lean his head forward but the action was requiring an exaggerated amount of effort than necessary.
"Call Bonnie…" He heard Devon's worried voice shudder.
'Kitt.' He thought. Where was Kitt? Had they really gotten out of the collapsing tunnel?
Michael flinched as someone brushed a cool hand over his arm. He let out a short yelp.
"It's okay, Mr. Knight. I'm Cherry, your nurse. We're going to take these tubes out okay? But we're going to keep the respirator. Please relax."
Michael shuddered as the tubes were taken away from his face. He hadn't opened his eyes yet. His world submitted to complete darkness, just sensations, and voices to guide him.
"Mr. Knight please relax, no need for alarm. Just breathe please."
"It's okay my boy, I'm here," Devon spoke out soothingly, Michael wincing just a little as Devon's hand clasped over his shoulder.
He did as told. Instinctively, however, twitching his wrist for the friendly weight of the comlink. It wasn't there. He tensed wanting to ask about Kitt and about what happened. How long had he been asleep? He tried to speak but let out a cough instead. It was so hard to speak.
They were off schedule.
Kitt had insisted on going back and getting Harold home. Apparently leaving the man to fend for himself at the hospital was unfair and very irresponsible of them. So of course Karr, having been forced into said gesture of "gratitude" had gone back, collected the old man, and delivered him home….not to mention demanded more fuel in exchange for the ride, knowing they'd need it for the hard trip ahead. Harold gave them the fuel gleefully, delighted about the "secret" information Kitt had given him. Karr didn't understand what was so special about telling the man about an indestructible tractor-trailer that was built like a monster.
Karr couldn't have cared less.
Now after several hours of frustrating driving through crowded streets and highways they were stranded on the gloomy and traffic-jammed freeway. It had started raining, if only briefly, over dozens if not thousands of cars all at once trying to get home in the dark hours of the afternoon.
"Kitt?" Karr asked the AI who'd been rather silent over the slow crawl up the freeway towards the border.
"Yes, Karr?" The black box lit up.
"How's your power packs?" He asked, concerned. He was aware that Bonnie had mentioned that Kitt had been strangely draining them faster than what was usual.
Kitt processed his inquiry slowly. His mind was preoccupied with significant terror at the moment...just two years ago he'd left the life he'd known so well to be a boxed-up outlaw alongside Karr. The change had been ill-defying for Kitt, missing his driver and family immensely while he tried to settle the raw feelings tearing him up from inside. Over time he'd gotten accustomed to Karr's ever-persistent company, the other AI urging him all the time to speak out his mind about what had changed to make Kitt become so fragile. He found relief that he wasn't going alone through all these changes and that Karr genuinely cared about him. Now, however, a new change had presented itself and Kitt wasn't sure they'd be able to overcome this one.
"They're fine. Thank you." Came Kitts hushed reply.
"Good," Karr remarked making silent estimates on how long they could last without the need to replace parts or components. So long as they kept their activities to a minimum, the wear and tear in their systems wouldn't be as jarring.
Kitt remained quiet, listening to the static radio playing faint guitar chords of some optimistic song Michael wouldn't have hesitated to sing along to, given shine or rain.
"He's going to get better, you know." Karr interrupted Kitt's private concert, his voice modulator casting shades of green up toward the cab ceiling, sparkling against the dark t-top glass.
The computer responded with a gentle click.
"Karr, do you know how many people recovered from the injuries inflicted by the tunnel explosion?" Kitt dared ask.
Karr shuddered a little, his dash dimming a notch.
"16 survived." He murmured.
"Yes, well from the 20 I managed to propel toward the exit only 16 survived...that makes three people who did not recover from their injuries, passing away at the hospital…Not to mention an individual who died instantly the moment the tunnel walls collapsed over her vehicle."
Karr remained quiet, fixed in thought. His scanner pulsating a singular bulb.
"Then there's…" Kitt's modulator shivered in place. "The countless others who'd been other further down the tunnel…who weren't even given a chance...a fair warning…"
Karr remained silent.
"12 lost in total…" The number pierced the still air.
"I've run the calculations." Karr awkwardly remarked. "The tunnel would have collapsed whether Michael had descended down the manhole or not to disconnect at least a quarter of the explosions." Karr suddenly grumbled. "There was no easy solution to that tragic event. It wasn't your fault."
"How can you say that!? I FAILED them all Karr!? I FAILED Michael!" Kitt shouted into the warm cab.
Karr let out a deep hum from his scanner, finding a steady pattern once more, swaying it slowly from side to side. Pulling the Trans-Am forward along the line of cars that'd barely moved about an inch or two.
"You didn't fail him."
"Yes, I did! Look what I did to him!"
"It was beyond your control, it was beyond your capabilities. It's immensely incredible that anybody would have survived the explosion at all." Karr emphasized. "It's the smug board and government who've nailed you with the idea of failure! You did not! Mr. and Mrs. Perkins owe you their lives! Tom Timothy, Helen Stew, Miguel Juárez, Zack Smith…Michael Knight."
"Stop!" Kitt screamed above Karr's voice.
"- They all owe you their lives…" Karr hissed.
"How about Tina Russel, John Dean, Maria Marks, and all the others...huh? How about them? I failed them...they were in the group of cars that'd just entered the tunnel when the explosion went off. How about them?"
Karr whirred his fans loudly, cooling his aching CPU.
"You shouldn't dwell on it anymore Kitt," he put sternly, scanning over Kitt's housing in unease. Afraid the AI would Initiate a permanent shut down on his own.
"You saved many people, including your driver. You should be happy about that. I know what happened isn't easy, but remember you can't change the past...as I can't change mine, but it's the future by which we can do better." Karr whispered into the air as if at any moment his words could drown Kitt out of existence.
The other AI sat dormant on the passenger seat. Grieving within himself…
It would take time. Karr figured. Lots of time…
Karr's dash chimed as he caught suspicious readings coming down the highway. Recollecting his attention, he began to get data of an aircraft approaching rapidly from behind, in a couple of seconds, the vehicle materialized from the dark and foggy night settling itself several yards above Karr awaiting the endless line of cars to move up the freeway.
"Ugh!" He groaned, pushing the engine into action, sensing an imminent threat. Unfortunately having to bump into the vehicle before him to do so, deforming it's rear as he made a mad dash for the desert.
"Karr!" Kitt shouted over the atrocity.
Karr let out an inaudible scold.
The aircraft took after them, suddenly flooding Karr's gleaming frame with light. Pinpointing them against the black landscape. Karr turned his lights off...as he tried to outrun the searchlight above them.
He leaped down a hill in a hurry, picking up cactus with his grill and smearing his hood in green organic matter.
"Karr! Lookout!"
From Infront of them, a small plane had come into view, releasing liquid just as it flew past them. The wall of water pounding against Karr's warm chassis, making him shudder from surprise.
"What was that!?" Kitt shouted.
Karr had no clue. Did they expect he could be stopped that easily?
"My word?!" Kitt shrieked after a quick pause. "Karr they-!"
"What-?!" Karr roared above his turbine and the shaking of the muddied chassis as he drove uphill over the rocky terrain, plotting a route to a safe location...even though he had no clue where that might be. Kitt's voice modulator choked, having not enough time to explain, Karr, absorbing an impact from the driver side by a fast large moving four-wheeler. The moment the machine came in contact with Karr his fender dented inward, colliding with his front tire and ripping clean off…the idea clicked.
Karr jerked away from the four-wheeler aware he couldn't sustain irreparable damage, his front suspension already letting out groans of agony. He maintained a defensive stance as he hurriedly tried to turn back towards civilization. The impact had rattled some of his systems but his micro jammer was still intact. He didn't hesitate when he micro-jammed the four-wheeler making it skid across the terrain to an abrupt stop.
"Good thinking, Karr," Kitt muttered above the racket of Karr's hurting engine.
They weren't out of the woods yet. A second and much robust vehicle came tumbling over another hill. Shooting expertly at Karr's tires which now...unprotected by the molecular Bonded solution...popped like ordinary tires.
Karr fishtailed as he lost control over the chassis on the loose sand. The yoke twisted and turned as he tried to correct the car. It was no use. Without further explanation Karr looked over Kitt, applying the right pressure to eject the entire seat hoping it'd somehow cushion the fall.
"Forgive me, Kitt." Karr spoke above his system and program errors fogged his mind.
"Karr don't-!" Kitt yelped as the entirety of the seat was ejected out with Kitt's housing. Karr emitted a distress signal alerting FLAG of their dire need for assistance.
Karr was hurriedly pursued by a third robust tune buggy running up to him and continuing to punch holes into the two-toned vehicle. Several other vehicles followed, continuing to push against him. Eventually, they cornered Karr into driving over an uneven mound of packed dirt. Karr turned over and rolled onto his t-top before coming to a squealing halt, fuming smoke and liquid.
By now the damage was assaulting him heavily from inside his CPU, the AI hardly able to understand what was happening around him.
Having lost visual input to an extent, he heard the shattering of his driver's side window and the muffled voices shouting just beside his modulator.
"Where's the box?"
"Get in and look for it."
"The thing could explode and you want me to get in?!"
"What's the holdup?" A third voice, a woman's voice shook the darkness. "Where's the Knight 2000?" She shouted over the whirr of the helicopter illuminating Karr's disfigured form.
"It's not here." One of the men whispered.
"Well, it's got to be here. Go back and retrace its steps...might have dropped it in the sand. Make sure you do it on foot! I don't want your incompetence to run it over!" The woman snapped, her footsteps dissipating as she left Karr's vicinity.
'They're after Kitt.' Karr painfully thought, all his subroutines slugged against one another in unresponsiveness. Hardly able to keep active he pinged Kitt for all it was worth.
The impact with the ground was the most unpleasant thing Kitt had ever experienced. All his systems stuttered, the vibrations plunging him into darkness for a moment before he came to a bumpy stop inside a bush.
He let out a deep and shallow static shout as he caught sight of Karr's red backlights against the hazy frigid and dark night. His chassis was still pinned under the floodlight from the helicopter overhead as more and more vehicles began to join in on the assault against the cornered Trans-Am.
The sounds of metal against metal made him tremble within his CPU. Frightened by all the damage being done to Karr. He internally jumped in torment the moment Karr was flipped onto his top, and all the liquid in his radiator gushed out in a suffered glug.
He watched horrified as people swarmed Karr's inert form, busting the driver's side window with ease. Crawling in and searching the cab over the blinding light of the helicopter. Even though Kitt's visual input lens was fractured across in a spidery pattern he could still make out the confused and agitated expressions from the people searching Karr's interior.
He watched in pained worry as the figures eventually backed away. Kitt firing signals to his nonexistent engine uncontrollably the moment he caught sight of a woman's familiar face. It was not possible! The impact with the ground must have messed up his circuitry somewhere! He'd been there to witness the giant truck falling into the abyss! She had not survived!
'Kitt…they're...coming...for...YouUUuU." Karr's hurt voice barely registered over their private link.
Kitt froze, slowing down all his processing power to a crawl as he tried to quieten his fans drawing uneven power from his damaged packs.
He watched from under the bush as the dark figures marched around Karr, slowly backtracking toward where Kitt's housing lay. Some took out flashlights beaming them into the dark, others taking lanterns from their cars.
They instantly caught sight of Karr's ejected seat, discarded alongside a tall cactus. The woman he'd presumed dead was the first to approach it and examine its vicinity.
"He's around here." She uttered with venom.
Kitt curled into himself, trying to make himself tiny and insignificant within his CPU even though logically it would make no difference.
The woman paced around the cactus, stepping closer and closer towards the bush that was covering Kitt, until finally….
Even under the blinding ray of her flashlight, Kitt caught clear sight of the scar running down the woman's face. He caught sight of that all too smugly smile and curly hair. She reached out and latched her hands around him like a leach. Lugging him toward her in triumph.
"Oh, Kitt. Where's your Knight in daring armor?" The woman puffed up, giving him her tearing smile flashing against the glow of Kitts cracked lens.
He didn't respond…
The woman grabbed him tighter. The AI internally screamed and kicked to be let go, reliving what she'd done to him so many years ago.
"It's leaking fluid," She directed authoritatively to a person nearby. "Tell the chopper to land, we need to stabilize him right away."
Kitt experienced something akin to being nauseated, his positioning reading sensors out of whack as the woman walked towards a clearing being hurriedly made for the helicopter. He involuntarily yelped as the woman boarded the vehicle abruptly making his vision falter, flushed with anger as the woman raised a brow and gave him a grin with malice.
"Not to worry my dear steed. I will have you rebuilt in no time and returned to your former glory." The woman ran her red blushed nails over his casing delicately, as if at any moment the computer would slash out and bite. Something Kitt wouldn't have hesitated to do had he had the available means.
The helicopter lifted into the air, wheezing past Karr's discarded form. Kitt shouted into the private link inquiring about his status but there was no reply. He wanted to sob over his fallen friend but he wouldn't in the presence of the enemy. He continued to wince as the woman jerked his casing in a death grip.
Michael knew something was wrong the moment he opened his eyes.
Devon was there, but so was the police. Although they weren't directly IN his room...he could see Bonnie conversing with the men just outside his door, expertly buying Devon some time. By the looks of what was going on, Michael could infer that the police had just arrived.
"My boy, so glad to see your awakening!" Devon exclaimed with joyful tears in his eyes. "Bonnie and I are grateful…!"
"Dev..en...wheressss...Kitt?" Michael choked.
Devon clasped his hands over Michael's, the man taking a moment to respond.
"Michael, you must rest first. Regain your strength before…"
"Dev…" Michael urged, gasping for air and feeling the air sting the inside of his throat.
"Mr. Miles," one of the policemen stepped forward, brushing past Bonnie at the door. "With all due respect, we must talk."
Devon nodded, patting Michael's hand comfortingly as he stood up from the bedside.
"Michael, the nurses will be at your every call. I will be back in a little." Devon assured Michael, who at the moment was giving the man a lopsided frown.
"Seriously…" Devon put playfully, attempting to lighten the mood.
"Mr. Miles." The officer urged sternly.
Devon nodded, dismissing himself hurriedly after the officers, while Bonnie slipped by and took a seat next to Michael.
She clasped his hand in hers letting go of better sweet tears, Michael squeezing it weakly. He wanted to know what was going on around here.
"Are you sure?" Devon implored impatiently.
"A vehicle registered under FLAG's name was found burnt to a crisp on someone's property just a couple of hours ago. They reported strange activity, vehicles coming in and out, and even sightings of a helicopter landing and leaving moments prior to finding the car. We think one of your operatives might have been killed." The officer lowered their voice in the office, feeling sympathy for the older Englishman.
Devon clasped his mouth with his hand, pacing quietly in his corner.
"What type of car was it?"
"Registration reads 1982 Firebird Trans-Am custom, two-toned black, and silver." The officer reread from a clipboard one of the others had brought. Handing Devon a photograph.
Devon gasped as he clutched the photo.
It was clearly Karr, his form smoking and lightly burning in the image. Torn and badly wrecked in a way that was unnatural for the bonded shell, unless...
"Did they find anything else?" Devon almost shouted.
The officers glanced at one another before replying.
"At the moment the site is still under investigation."
Devon nodded.
"Keep, keep me informed…" He stuttered.
The officers nodded, dismissing themselves and giving Devon silent gestures of condolence before leaving.
The older man collapsed on a stool nearby, nearly slipping back and striking his head against the wall, the stool was the wheeled office kind.
He let out an anguished sigh.
His mind playing all types of scenarios and hoping with a heavy heart that Kitt...and...Karr he supposed...could be recovered. Who ever in the world had done this, knew about the MBS's properties and weaknesses by extension, but who?
Devon swiveled in his seat as there was a gentle knock on the door.
"Mr. Miles." It was Phineas Roth. "May I…?" The man gestured to a nearby office stool.
Devon shrugged. Of course, the Feds would be on this trail.
"I see the officers gave you the good news…"
"Hardly." Devon scuffed.
The other man rolled his eyes, taking a seat and leaning against the wall to hold his back steady.
"Well, see this is a higher clearance than the local police. Don't threat, we will clear everything out but...we recovered the Knight 2000."
Devon nearly jumped out from his stool, resulting in slumping sideways and almost having the unsteady seat wheeling from under him.
"Kitt?! How is he?! You have no right to – !"
The man spread his hands out.
"Already did." The man grinned sympathetically. "Devon the Board and government had the mandate already settled and what good would it have done delaying…"
"You foolhardy man!" Devon stood towering above Roth, holding his fist at his side madly. "You had no right to put that machine down without first letting us know beforehand!"
"For what? To say…. goodbye?"
"Yes!" Devon waved his hands in annoyance and rage. "The knight2000 was…"
"Devon," the man stood up. "I'm better than that, I brought you and Dr. Barstow the computer's casing, or what's left of it. We already inspected it and the AI is confirmed dead but…" The man placed a heavy hand over Devon's shoulder giving a sly grin. "...sorry about losing your, ''friend'." With that the man dismissed himself taking down the hall hurriedly.
Devon kicked his stool over in a blind rage and grief that Kitt would have succumbed to the dark without a word.
Roth walked out the hospital door, he had conversed with the police. Made a few phone calls and got everything about tonight settled out. Everyone thinking the attack was nothing more than the Fed's careful play at recovering tech on the run, and explaining he'd done an oversight at having left the wreck unattended. He'd taken a couple of scoldings from the higher-ups about the matter. He was to be more careful about his work, they'd said. They were also curious about where he'd gain access to the neutralizer for the MBS shell the Roving Robot was in possession of. Roth had simply stated that the board had been more than glad to give it to him when he'd presented his idea. After that uncomfortable phone call, nobody was none the wiser about what really was going on.
"Care to join me?"
The man faced toward the lot, slipping his car keys into his pocket. Smiling at the limo standing before him, with a gentle silhouette of a woman gleaming behind one of the dark tinted windows.
The man approached.
"Be a dear and join me for dinner? We have some "objections" to discuss…"
His face twitched a little at the sound of her sharp voice. Yes, she'd found out about his error…
The man nodded, opening the door for himself and slipping into the back seat. The woman dressed in a long floral gold dress dangling all the way to the floored carpet of the fashionable interior. Her light brown hair was up in an elegant bun.
"Roth…" The woman hissed as the limo began to pull away from the hospital lot, making the man's hairs stand on end.
"What?"
The woman glared back at him, making the scar running down her face contort in a dark line.
"I thought you said no surprises…"
"I did but…"
"But what? You caught the attention of the police...some person living out in the middle of nowhere! Why did you clear out prior to creating your Alabi? And not after?! Make it seem all…."
"Official?" Now the man was shuffling a little uneasily in his seat, knowing his pay was at risk.
The woman batted an eye at him expectantly for a reply.
"I didn't think it was necessary, I wasn't aware…" He remarked, taking in a shallow breath.
"About the random rancher who lives a mile from where you destroyed the Roving Robot and gained access to the 2000?" The woman raised a brow, picking up a drink and taking a small sip. "This knocks some profit from our agreement."
"Margo! You can't do that!" The man begged.
"Enough! Or I won't ever share not a dollar more with you!" She snapped, making the man sink in his seat. "However, I might give you a bonus…" She quickly added giving him a sympathetic chuckle.
The man straightened himself in his seat, hopeful.
"You did get the Knight2000 within the deadline." The woman grinned, pulling out her mirror from her handbag. "Therefore I presume that requires some sort of reward. Fred was having trouble this past year tracking the car, and miserably failed his deadline." Her voice went on.
The man gulped.
"I will give you said bonus, only if you ensure that the Foundation doesn't get on our heels…" The woman smiled faintly, the Limo pulling up behind Mr. Roth's car.
The man glimpsed through the dark window at the cold lot.
"I thought you said dinner…?"
"Sorry," The woman reached into her bag taking out a crimson lipstick. "...I'm afraid someone else will be joining me tonight."
The transfer had been utter torture...every last megabyte of his being torn from the hardware he had called home for so so long...every bit of data, every memory slipping from his figurative hands….slowly disappearing down a dark hole...he was aware he was losing his awareness and quickly...forgetting things faster than he could produce some sort of attack against his captors. He wasn't sure if they were deleting him or not at first, but now he was sure that even if they weren't he was getting the equivalent effects of said outcome. Or so he had concluded with an error-riddled run of his odds calculator.
He let out a sharp yell as all his memories of Bonnie were shredded apart from his banks and sucked down the fiber optic cable. He tried to pull at his power sources and gain access to the terminal running the transfer command, the agony unbearable.
"Stop, please!" He shouted into the air in a shrill cry unaware of who or what was listening. He didn't care, not as much as wanting the horrendous transfer of himself to stop!
It pressed forward however, the AI eventually became delirious as he forgot entirely about everyone and everything….except...Michael…
He had fought the transfer queue with his every being...nearly frying himself in the process...his captors had obliged to his wishes and had let his memories of Michael be the last ones to go...Kitt standing alone in isolation running through his fondest memories as more and more was shipped out from the cable…
He recalled the desert drives into the sunset and the silly quarrels with Micheal...but not as much as he recalled the moments when the two were conversing in trust about things Kitt had yet to understand...friendship being one of them.
He'd selected his favorite memories and had played them over and over again noting more and more data of said memories had begun to falter, disappearing. He'd been listening to Michael's voice a second and the next to incoherent static...as more and more was withdrawn from his banks...Before he even knew it...he didn't even know who Michael Knight was...and he didn't know what Kitt stood for...actually he didn't know his name…
He stood in the silence for a moment….now an empty canvas with no past...no nothing…unaware of his captors...his existence...
The simple lines of logic in his main program pulsated in his rather empty banks.
(Protect Michael [Long] Knight [human life])
Whoever is that?
He thought slowly, as he slumped down over in thought, his system transitioning to a halt as all his programs began to disconnect with the hardware...He let out a final static gasp the moment his final bits of programming transferred over and Kitt fell to bliss.
It'd taken the rest of the night.
Devon had sent for Karr's chassis to be brought to FLAG, under the discretion of everybody involved of course. No one was to say anything about whether or not Karr had survived, not until Bonnie got her hands on the wreck to say so first. Until then, they'd have to wait a couple of hours for the mangled vehicle to be sent to FLAG HQ.
Now with that all organized from a hospital phone and out of the way, Devon had received the most devastating sight he'd ever put eyes on.
Mr. Roth had arranged for Kitt's casing to be brought and handed over to Devon in the hospital by an authorized government agent with all the paperwork documenting Kitt's degaussing procedure to a T. They had brought the small compact box wrapped in plastic and boxed in cardboard that probably belonged to a microwave. Devon couldn't help and feel disgusted about how little consideration had been given to the electronic life form.
The old man was hesitant at first to bring the box anywhere near himself, setting it on a table in an office space the hospital had spared him temporarily. He sat alone in the dim lighting staring at the stained cardboard for a while, wincing and letting a low sob whenever he recalled Kitt's origins…his life…his likes…The way he was whenever he was around…his voice…
"Oh, Wilton…I'm…"
"Devon?"
Devon turned to the door, running his hand over his eyes and clearing the tears.
"Bonnie, wouldn't it have been more appropriate if you knocked first…?" He continued to rub his reddened eyes, hiding his tension best he could muster.
Bonnie nodded from the door, letting white fluorescent light flood the otherwise dimly lit room.
"Devon," The woman sighed. "Michael's recovering rather quickly…the doctor said…"
"Splendid!" Devon smiled slightly, approaching the tired woman and motioning her to Michael's hospital room. "Perhaps I should join him," Devon murmured.
"Devon," Bonnie took a gentle step away from him, turning towards the ominous cardboard box on the empty desk. "What's…?"
The man couldn't help himself, leaning against the door frame and letting out more tears flush down his cheeks.
"Bonnie, they degaussed him…"
The moment the words left his mouth, she had charged across the room and had gingerly unpackaged the computer's casing.
"Kitt!" The woman shouted, turning the heavily damaged casing in her hands. "Degaussing? What are you talking about?! They may as well crushed him when they were done!" The woman protested in shock. Running her hands along the clear splits in the casing, dirt, and grime. She looked up towards Devon, with shaking eyes. The two held this pained expression before she gathered Kitt's remains in the box and headed for the door. Devon clasping her shoulders just before she ran madly down the hall.
"Bonnie, there most likely is nothing left…" Devon whispered quietly to her.
The woman shook her head, giving not a word as she pulled away from him taking the box towards the parking lot with shattered hopes.
Version 1.0.0 [future polish edit in progress][Third chapter on the drawing board]