Adjusting itself, the large robot shifted as it looked down on Taylor closely, parroting her in the monotonous voice, "T-Taylor?"
Correcting it, Taylor informed it that she primary went by her last name.
Unless she's alone with Paul.
"First name?" Taylor hears the monotonous robot ask her.
Gesturing, Taylor tells it, "Grace."
The robot then spelled out, "Grace. Taylor…?"
Slowly nodding, Taylor confirmed that it was her name.
The robot slowly processed the information before moving slowly throughout the area, seemingly searching for something.
Uneasily, Taylor asked what it was searching for, and it told her, "Primary protocol: unknown."
Confused Taylor tilts her head as she asks, "What are your functions?"
The robot proceeded to tell her that it didn't have a set protocol before asking what its protocol should be, almost like it wasn't sure of what its protocols and functions should have been.
Oh, well, this never happened to Taylor before and well, she didn't know what to say other than, "Oh, I can't get back out to the main corridor, can you help me?"
She's a museum curator turned adventurer, not a programmer.
"Acknowledged," it only said.
Propelled by the small pistons in its legs, the robot begun moving forward, Taylor trailing behind it as it went through the same corridor Taylor took.
Upon reaching the room before the corridor, the robot scanned the locked door preventing Taylor from leaving prior.
Taylor watches as the locked door sprang to life, bright light enveloped the robot, before another robotic voice spoke out from somewhere in the room.
"Designation: 101."
"101," mimicked the robot, affirming its designation as 101.
The robotic voice in the room then said, "Classification: Alpha."
101 mimicked, "Classification: Alpha."
The robotic voice in the room proceeded to say, "Alpha-101."
Following this, the newly designated Alpha-101 repeated, "Alpha-101."
Alpha-101 heard the robotic voice say to it, "Function."
It stalled answering the robotic voice, incapable of answering, before Taylor spoke up, "Aiding and guiding!"
The robotic voice accepted the answer as Alpha-101's, it didn't account Taylor's presence in the room, so it had no reason to disregard her voice.
In its own way, the towering robot thanks Taylor for giving the robot voice an answer with its upper off-white and black blocky torso moving downwards briefly in Taylor's direction.
The previously locked door opened on its own, the red valve turning effortlessly, allowing Alpha-101 to leave the room with Taylor following it closely, behind them the door closing on its own, locking until Doctor Ivo overrides the security lock.
Freed from the room, now back out in the main corridor, in an instant Taylor felt an improvement as she no longer felt the mental block affecting her.
Blinking, Taylor proceeded to reach out to Paul, telling him that she's fine, how she wound up trapped in what appeared to be an off-shoot for a factory that Doctor Ivo had in his complex, and that she met an odd robot that looked like was made with remnants of whatever Doctor Ivo found.
"We'll meet you back at the entrance," Taylor tells Paul, but he hadn't responded, yet.
He would've suspected something wrong when he didn't feel her presence in his mind and not answering when he attempted contacting her, but he hadn't.
"Alpha," Taylor turned to the odd robot. "Where is Doctor Ivo?"
There's a chance Paul found the elusive doctor and perhaps got into a bit of trouble himself that prevented him from communicating with her.
Given the mental block she dealt with in the room, maybe there were more areas with mental blocks.
"Unknown command," Alpha monotonously says to Taylor, not understanding her wishes in finding Doctor Ivo.
Blinking, Taylor questioned, "Do you know who created you?"
She heard Alpha respond, "Yes."
Gesturing, Taylor asked who created Alpha and it said, "Invalid."
Confusing, this lot.
Her emerald eyes narrowing on Alpha, Taylor found it hard to believe that the robot wouldn't know its functions, its creator, it's almost unheard of.
"Alpha, I need to find the Doctor, can you help me?" Taylor changed her desire to find Doctor Ivo to finding Paul, not expecting a change in the robot's behaviour.
Surprisingly, the robot became lively as it parroted, "The Doctor."
Slowly nodding, Taylor insisted, "Yes, the Doctor, he means a lot to me, we went separate ways trying to find Doctor Ivo, I don't know my way around here, could you please help me find him?"
She's surprised when Alpha responded, "Acknowledged."
Like that, the curious robot went ahead of Taylor, guiding her through the corridors.
Upon arrival at the entrance that Taylor and Paul came through, Paul was nowhere to be seen, and Taylor grew worried.
However, Alpha-101 trudged along without questioning Paul's absence, Taylor had to catch up to it as it walked, the pistons in the legs hissed as it walked.
"Alpha, what are you?" Taylor asks it.
She heard it say, "Classified."
Under the corridor light, Taylor was able to see the robot clearly.
Bulky, looked like it was wearing body armor, it had no neck, the gun grey head was domed shaped with a flat top.
On its back, Taylor sees small propeller jets that help Alpha jump higher than normal and levitate in the air for several minutes until it safely lands on the ground.
The mechanical groans from the pistons in the legs, the heavy footsteps echoed throughout the corridors as Alpha seemingly looked for Paul.
"Er, Alpha, are there any more of you?" Taylor asks the robot if there were more like it and it hadn't said anything to her as it continued walking meticulously through the corridor.
Walking beside it, Taylor prodded for answers, and it finally replied, "Unknown."
It didn't know if there were more like it.
It only confused Taylor more and she dealt with the likes of the Cybermen and the robotic variants of the Daleks, yet the way Alpha reacted, she couldn't for sure understand it.
Alpha wouldn't tell her if Doctor Ivo created it, what its original functions were, as if it's dodging her.
Though, it didn't seem sentient, either.
Trailing Alpha, Taylor followed it, hoping that when they encounter Paul, he could shine some light on the matter, as Taylor didn't know what to make of this unusual situation.
It gave her time to study Alpha's chassis and seeing how it was made with different parts that were either brand-new or salvaged.
Going back to Doctor Ivo's dossier, it didn't surprise Taylor that he went into robotics.
He didn't present any danger to the committee, eccentric, but never someone with a chance of harming anyone, not even malice.
Of course, Taylor would've believed that had this been her first adventure, but she quickly began piecing context, questioning everything and everyone, this might've been true, but what would a doctor like Ivo need a robot with a modified plasma canon mounted to one of its arms.
"Paul, are you somewhere in there?" Taylor tried contacting Paul in her mind, but he didn't respond, but she still felt his connection to her.
Maybe this is what he felt when Taylor gone through the rooms…?
"Alpha, what's the purpose of these mental blockers?" Taylor wanted to know Alpha's formulated programming on the mental blockers that she encountered before meeting it.
In its stilted monotonous voice, Alpha tells her it's classified.
Doctor Ivo certainly didn't want his creations telling all and Taylor didn't trust herself to try and force Alpha to tell her the reasons by forcibly rewiring it, and the fact it's carrying around a plasma cannon didn't help, at all, either.
Unable to find out more, Taylor's at the whims of the robot as it continued to move through the corridor, searching for the Doctor.
"How do you know him?" Taylor tried finding out how Alpha knew about Paul, hoping there's something the robot can tell her.
Monotonously, it tells her in a broken tone of voice as it struggled, "Declaration: dOcTOR… ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-ex-ex… DES-TRO… Invalid operation…"
Seeing it struggle, Taylor tried understanding what happened, she assumed it was a minor malfunction, but Alpha seemed to be better now after "clearing" the errors in its HUD before replying that it cannot complete that action.
Going down the corridors that Paul took in his search for Doctor Ivo, Taylor and Alpha walked as Alpha seemingly followed its programming looking the Doctor (Paul.)
