(Gap Science Enrichment Center, Underneath Black Star Marine Training Base, Star’s Reach)
The Enrichment Center was a treasure trove of scientific discoveries just waiting to be unlocked. Unfortunately, these discoveries were all locked behind a psychotic, murderous AI, and it was severely unlikely that the AI would be happy to just hand over information on the advanced technology the site had to offer. Which meant that the researchers, like Tesla_coil, had to figure things out on their own.
That wouldn’t be a problem, to be honest, if the facility was completely safe. It was anything but, however, with automated defenses left running, hazardous chemicals stored in ways that made them prone to explosions if they met a blaster round, and other, even less pleasant, possibilities. To say that it was a hostile working environment was an understatement by orders of magnitude. But Tesla_coil wouldn’t have it any other way. After all, where else was he going to get a chance to study technology so far beyond anything that humans could develop, even in this sci-fi setting?
Which is why he was happily working in the depths of the Enrichment center, looking to see if he could get any information from the systems without waking up the homicidal main AI. Unfortunately, CaROLINE was too deeply embedded to the core systems of the facility, so until they found a way to deal with her, they were stuck looking at peripheral systems. Of course, those peripheral systems were far more advanced than the tech they currently had, so it was still a win.
He just managed to restore power to a rail system that had been disconnected from the system for some reason, when a voice came from behind a door. “Hello, anyone in there?” That would have given most people pause. Voice coming from behind a door after the power was just restored to a section of rail in a facility run by a mad AI? Most people would calmly back away from the door, and then run, screaming in terror to get someone with really big guns to investigate the matter. That is why most people were not scientists!
Thrilled to have someone to talk to about all the scientific wonders in the facility, Tesla_coil opened the door, only to face an orb with what looked like two handles and a big, blue eye looking at him, suspended by the overhead rail he’d just powered up. The orb was nodding to itself as the door opened. "HA! I knew someone was – AHHH!!! Oh God. You look te-- ummm... good. Looking good, actually."
Tesla_coil laughed, and flapped his wings. “Oh, excellent! Finally, someone I can talk to around here! You’re an AI like the main AI that is supposed to be running this facility, right? You should have plenty of information about the science behind the different inventions, right?”
The orb looked surprised (as much as a robotic orb could look surprised) at the scientist’s questions. “What, this one talks? Finally, a talking one! The last test subjects were all mute. But what is with the feathers? No, never mind, don’t answer that. Not important anyways.”
Looking around, the orb said, “All right, I guess no one will get mad if I tell you a few things, since CaROLINE is offline right now. My name is Oatley, and I’m in charge of maintaining the test subject hibernation systems. Unfortunately, the test subjects ran out approximately one million years ago, so it has been fairly boring down here. Now, my rails won’t let me go outside this section, but I designed a workaround! Got that? Good! Now, I’m going to need you to carefully disconnect me from my maintenance rail, and take me over to the exoforge chamber.”
Tesla_coil was an affable sort, everyone said so, especially when science was afoot. He was also known for being a bit too trusting, everyone said so, especially when science was afoot. Still, he saw no reason not to trust his new AI friend, and followed Oatley’s instructions on how to disconnect his orb from the rail. Then, still following the orb’s instructions, he carried the surprisingly heavy device through a series of doors to what looked like some kind of 3D printing setup, but for full-scale machines.
In front of the forge was a massive, hulking robot body, with four massive legs, providing stability to a hulking, well-armored torso, and two massive arms, both of which ended in fists with wickedly spiked knuckles. As they approached, a piece of the torso opened up, revealing a section perfectly suited for the orb to sit in. "Here's an interesting story. You might like this. I almost got a job down here in Manufacturing. But, uh, guess who the foreman went with? Only an exact duplicate of himself. Nepotism. Ended up giving me the WORST possible job, tending to all the smelly test subjects. All right, now, just plug me into the suit, and we’ll get started with figuring out how to bring the rest of this place back online, right?”
It took a bit of technical work, but eventually, Oatley was safely secured in the robot chassis, and the armored panel in front closed up. The single giant eye in the ‘head’ area of the robot lit up blue, like Oatley’s eye. "Whoa-ho-ho! Would you look at this. Not too bad, eh? Giant robot. Massive! It's not just me, right? I'm bloody massive, aren't I?"
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Before Tesla_coil could even say anything, though, Oatley continued. "This body is amazing, seriously! I can't get over how small you are! But I'm huge! Ha! HaHAHAHAHAHA! "
It was at this time that Tesla_coil began to get a little worried that his new friend did not have the proper attitude for science. Sure, he had the proper laugh. And yes, it was important to take joy in your work. But something about this set up made him uneasy. “Well, Oatley, why don’t we get to work on doing some science, hmm? We can start unlocking all the mysteries of this facility a lot faster now that you’ve got a body.”
The robot whirled to look at Tesla_coil, and said, “Menacing_growl_sound01. Wait, no, that didn’t work. Anyway, now that I have this new form, I am no longer little old Oatley! I am ROS, the Really Oppugnant Scrap. Hmm. That’s not right. Well, we’ll just go with ROS for now, until I come up with a better one.”
“Yes, yes, but now that I helped you get your body working, I think it is time for some science.”
"No! I did this! Tiny little Oatley, I mean ROS did this!"
Tesla_coil shook his head. “No, I was here, remember? I powered up your rail, disconnected you, and carried you all the way over here, before putting you in that hideous body. Honestly. Look, if we can get some science done, then I’ll design you a body that doesn’t look like it was designed by a moron.”
For some reason, this helpful offer was not taken well by the robot in question. "Oh really. That's what you think, is it? Well, maybe it's time I did something then. Don't think I'm not onto you too, bird. You know what you are? Selfish. I've done nothing but sacrifice to get us here! What have you sacrificed? NOTHING. Zero. All you've done is BOSS ME AROUND. Well, NOW who's the boss? Who's the boss? It's me!"
Now, the robot was getting downright rude, and the way it was flexing the fingers on its hands into fists was rather disturbing. Still, it was an old AI, and probably just needed its circuits reset a couple times to clear all the logic failures from its systems. “Look, stop behaving like a moron, and we’ll get you sorted out right away. I’ll just pop open that orb of yours, and fix those broken logic circuits, so you don’t act so foolishly.”
ROS screamed at that. Honestly, for a robot he sure seemed to have a quick temper. "I am NOT! A MORON! MASHY-SPIKE-FIST!” He swung one of those metal arms at Tesla_coil, forcing the scientist to hop back, out of the way. "Well, how about now? NOW WHO'S A MORON?” The robot continued advancing on Tesla_coil, its fists slamming against the walls and floors of the forge as it tried to hit the scientist who kept backing away. Despite this, it should be noted that neither side was exactly displaying great martial aptitude.
As Tesla_coil got backed into the center of the room, the robot began pounding upon the floor. Soon, the entire center of the floor fell away, revealing a chasm below it, stretching into darkness. "Could a MORON PUNCH! YOU! INTO! THIS! PIT? Huh? Could a moron do THAT?"
Tesla_coil took a moment to concentrate on his flying. He didn’t actually use this skill much, since it was an ‘outdoors’ kind of thing, and he was not much of a fan of such things. Science was best done in a lab, well away from that ‘outdoors’ place. “Yes, a moron would definitely try to punch someone who can fly into a pit.”
“RAAAGH! MASHY-SPIKE-FIST!”
ROS, screaming his battle cry, leapt forward, attempting to punch Tesla_coil in the face, and then punch his face into the pit. Unfortunately, Tesla_coil managed to fly out of the robot’s way, leaving it comically swinging at midair. Then, gravity overtook inertia, and the robot began falling down, into the abyss it had opened up. As it fell, its screams could still be heard, fading as it descended into the darkness.
“I AM NOT A MOrooooooooooon!”
“What in the HELL is going on down here?”
Tesla_coil turned to see his boss, or supervisor, or whatever they wanted to call it, Alex something or other, was standing there, looking very put out. Landing next to the human, Tesla_coil just shrugged. “There was an AI that powered up when I reconnected power to a section of the facility. Unfortunately, I think it had anger issues from being inactive for so long. But it did show me a lovely… exoforge, I think it called it. Looks like a manufacturing facility of some kind. Slightly more damaged now than it was, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed.”
Alex sighed, and gripped the bridge of his nose like a headache was coming on. “And just what the hell were you doing connecting power in sections of the facility that haven’t been cleared yet? You know this whole place was run by a homicidal AI, so anything and everything in here should be considered deadly until proven otherwise! And you just randomly connected power to a section without bothering to inform anyone of what you were doing?”
“Bah, the testing facility for the Personal Protection Projector is still being built, so I was just looking around in some of the fringe areas of the facility, looking to see if there were any new experiments I could run while waiting to get back to work. You should know that it isn’t good to let one’s self go idle when there’s this much science to be done! We have hundreds of years’ worth of discoveries at our fingertips, just waiting to be unlocked! Have you spoken with the owner again about maybe trying to unlock that AI again, and see if it will see sense about letting us see its technical data?”
Alex Akins took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Then another one. After he was certain that he wasn’t going to explode at the addle-brained scientist for being an addle-brained scientist who got bored, he said, “No, the Owner was most explicit that, unless the AI could be contained and the safety of all Black Star personnel maintained, then the AI would remain offline indefinitely. So, until someone comes along who is able to hack, subvert, and chain rogue AIs with more processing power than any other known AI in the galaxy, then it stays off, period.”
He paused, and then said, “And from now on, you are to have a security escort at all times when in this facility. You are not to reactivate, repair, reconfigure, or in any other way interact with the technology in this facility without both your escort and prior authorization from me, or higher. Am I making myself clear?”
“But, the SCIENCE!”
“Will wait, until proper controls are in place, or it will happen WITHOUT you. Don’t make me set you as an elementary school science teacher, giving first graders their first science lessons.”
“FINE! You don’t have to be mean about it! Ugh. Spending time around annoying little cretins who don’t even understand the scientific method. Horrors!”