Project Eden Zero

Ray of Hope Part-3

“Told you so! Now let’s merge that pad onto your Allserver...” he reaches the pad over to my Allserver and I touch the ring to turn it on. Then a blur of blue runs from the pad to my Allserver in a rush of five seconds and then it stops. The data pad is now just a black trim, no screen, no stars, just empty. He tries turning it on and hitting it on the table, nothing. I look at my Allserver and it now has those features, the ring and bracelet are both black with moving stars, and the blue gem is now glowing. I think about the screen opening up and it does! “You didn’t even touch the ring did you?”

“No, I just thought about it. I wonder if all of the things linked to the Allserver can do this now?” I imagine the crystal data ball floating over towards Dr. Tydis, circling around his head, looking at me, then returning to its position. And it does exactly what I was thinking at the moment that I thought it. “Wow, I do appreciate the help doctor, but I could never imagine...”

“No it’s ok dear! I’m far too old for something like that, this needed a young mind and a young body to really have the full effect. Now if you’re ready we will finish building this heavy mech.” I shook my head yes and we both got to work building a matrix for this behemoth. “Katie, would you say that we want this mech to do what it wants to do, or for us to control it?”

“Well, we don’t want it crushing anything important, but if we keep a safe distance then we won’t know its surroundings as if we were right there with it. So a little of both?”

“Alright So programming a mining VI with control output and input. Anything else?”

I look down at its head, “give it learning capabilities, that way it can learn from its mistakes, so long that we won’t have to keep controlling it before too long.”

“Right, good thinking. What about a name? I know that we don’t know much about it yet but I can program any kind of voice to it.”

“Give it just a normal VI voice and lets call it Athena, I’ve always wanted a dog and to name it Athena.” He types into the computer and then finally a matrix cube pops out of his KPR computer.

“Hmm, that’s odd. Never seen it pop out a cube before.” He grabs it and hands it to me.

“I never really paid too much attention to the shapes. Just always did repairs and reprogramming.” I placed it inside the compartment and started soldering everything together. “Alright, that should be it. Anything else before we plug it up?”

“Hmm, no, I don’t think so. Maybe just paint her name on nice and thick.” He gracefully takes a paintbrush and with a steady hand paints the word ‘Athena’ on the right side of the head in a beautiful cursive. “There we go, now plug it up.”

I grab the main power plug and plug it into the test capacitor in the middle of the work station. And there’s a huge spark and the power blinks and I yank the head out of the socket.

“What just happened?! What did we do wrong?” I set the head back down on the table.

“I have no idea Katie, I was sure we did everything right....wait, look it’s powering up!” The eye lights up a bright white light, it blinks a few times and looks around.

“Where? What....why can’t this one feel it’s legs? Is this one dead?”

“Doctor, please tell me you’re hearing this....?”

“Doctor? This one is no doctor! This ones name is Athena and it is programmed to assist Lt. Katie Ray, Dr. Tydis, and Dr. Ollison. But this one does not think it will be much help without.....it’s........bo......dy....” the voice drains away from the head as the power left its head.

“It’s a good thing it wasn’t plugged in for long. But how do you think it got that voice and talking like that?” I look at Dr. Tydis in confusion. Hearing the head speak with such a childlike voice was odd, it was like listening to young robotic girl.

“I don’t know Katie, I just don’t know...perhaps we should keep it. It seems to have personality and the voice definitely doesn’t match the mech. If anything, all else fails...if we run into trouble our enemies will be stunned by it.”

He and I both chuckle at his joke and I grab the welder out of my back pocket, “that’s very true doctor. It’s kind of odd that it noticed it didn’t have a body yet, I thought most programs just determine it to run and function a body when attached to one?”

“You’re right Katie, but I did throw in a little extra to the VI, just in case.”

“You’re kidding...right? No way...”

“I’m not kidding, but it’s as close as I could get with the data, after studying Sam and your notes. It should perform well, I hope.”

“It’s a nice thought. Maybe it will work out.” We both return to assembling everything together and even taking the mech itself apart to find anything that may need repair, or maybe be useful to us. We don’t have a crane in the lab for multiple reasons, but we mainly don’t work on anything bigger than the transport mechs that are just flat bed hover trucks that go from one facility to another. While poking around in the chest cavity I notice something odd, like a piece of shrapnel that doesn’t look familiar, “Doctor, what kind of metal is this?”

He grabs the tweasers holding it from my hand, “Hmm, not sure. We will have to ask Olly if she knows.” He takes a picture of it with his Allserver and sends it with a vid message to Dr. Olly asking for her opinion. “Maybe she will get it when she gets out of surgery. Now we shoul.....” he is interrupted when Russell walks into the lab.

“Hey guys!”

“Hey Russell! You’re just in time, me and Dr. Tydis were about to put this mech together, wanna help?”

“Sure, if you guys don’t mind... I got bored since Gen Ken decided to take all my scrap and now all my work is gone.” He looks at the heavy mech.

“Hmm...doesn’t seem right.” Dr. Tydis Starts rubbing his mustache and goatee that’s solid silver.

“Why is that doctor?” I direct Russell to how we are assembling the mech and hand him an arc laser welder.

“Because the general would need fully assembled bots to do battle, and if he has an assembly team then why doesn’t he just let Russell finish his work and send them, does he not trust you Russell?” Dr. Tydis walks to his desk and grabs a light paleon core drive chip.

“I really don’t know doc, I just break’em down and set them on the conveyer that moves them to recycling. Gen Ken just came in, said he wanted all the scrap I had in the shop, gave me a nice bonus, then walked out without another word.”

“Hmm, strange.” Dr. Tydis seems very concerned about this. At the time I didn’t pay it any attention and we finished assembling the mech with Russell’s help.

“Phew! That was tough, glad you came by Russell! It would have taken us a lot longer. I kind of wish it was already built and operating so we could’ve used it’s crane. Oh well, hey! You should go to the med bay. 8d, Olly should be getting out of surgery soon...” he looks up at me in shock, I forgot he didn’t know.

“Surgery?! What happened?! Is she ok?! Is she dying?! What....” his eyes were gleaming with concern and care.

“Calm down Russ!! You’re gonna give yourself an anxiety attack over a girl....”

“Why don’t you go with him, I’ll finish prepping the mech and getting it activated. Go on.” He turns to the mech and gets back to work.

“Alright let’s go I’ll fill you in on the way.”

We both exit the lab and head to the med bay, all the while I’m explaining everything that happened up until that point, “I know he’s your brother Russell, and I know you two had a big fight. Just call him and talk to him, trust me. You don’t want to regret not speaking to him if anything happens...” suddenly we get off the elevator and notice a squad of men dressed in all black outside Dr. Olly’s room.