It was the longest five minutes Maya had ever experienced, the world seemed to hold its breath, not a sound besides the constant whirring of the machine could be heard. After the full five minutes passed, she faintly heard a distant “thunking” noise the kind of noise you would hear if you dropped a stone in a large iron box.
May slowly backed away from the giant shuddering machine. The man-sized cylinder of the machine began to shudder violently, groaning and screeching the torturous sound of metal on metal as the ancient components of the machine moved against each other.
The cylinder split apart and with slow jolting movements, the two sides of the cylinder moved away from each other making small hissing sounds like a white mist flooded into the room from the cylinder, revealing its contents.
Its body vaguely resembled an adult person, its “skin” was a blackish coloured metal that changed hue with the light making it harder to see in the barely lit room. Its torso, legs, and arms were polygonal and always ended with hard, sharp lines causing it to look almost like it were two dimensional.
It was thin and gangly; its chest was boxy while its midsection appeared to consist of multiple tiny bands of metal allowing it freedom of movement in that area. Its arms and legs were thin as tin cans. Its elbows, knees, hips, shoulders, ankles, and palms were metal balls that each limb seemed to be connected to. Its ten talon-like fingers and toes were long, polygonal, and just like the rest of its body, used ball bearings as joints. It stood at the average height of an adult magi male.
Its head was a perfect sphere embedded on top of its torso between its ball joint shoulders. Down the middle of the “face” was a vertical split that separated the head in two. The gap between each side of the head was around 1.25 centimetres (half an inch) wide. The gap split apart forming an upside-down V Shape from a third of the way down of its face. The lantern gave off too little light to see anything beyond the gap in the face.
May’s eyes went wide like saucers and mouth agape as she stared at the metal figure.
Fortunately, the metal man did not appear to be moving, instead it just patiently stood inside its cylinder sarcophagus, arms to its side and legs close together like a soldier standing at attention.
The machine that birthed this monstrosity, nearly gone forgotten by May, abruptly committed one final shudder, followed by a small dying whine before going completely silent. Causing her head to snap to it.
She returned her attention to the figure, trying to calm herself down from the sudden development. She began vaguely wondering what it was and what she should do with it. “Selling it isn’t an option, because, well I’m stuck down here and would rather not haul a-.” she paused appraising the metal figure in what little light she had.
“This, whatever this is around. besides, I doubt the Lilyvale scrap broker has enough coin for this thing, even if it is just some sort of statue-.” Her muttering trailed off.
The corner of her eye caught a slight twitch run through its dark form “Did it just move?”
A low-pitch-barely-audible buzz began to emit from the figure. A single point of red light blazed to life from the inside of the face split. The red light was beaming straight at her.
“When you’re down below and you’ve found something that glows remember this: When things glow Green, all is well. When things glow yellow take caution lest you be felled. When things glow red run like hell. Don’t give me that look, I’m no poet.” The memory was doing the exact opposite of helping to inspire confidence in the woman.
The metal Man begins to tip forward slightly, its legs snapped forward to catch it before it could hit the floor. Then it moved toward her with slow, clumsy, jerking steps. Its movements were stiff, and the ball joints were protesting their abrupt movement through grating noises, not unlike the sound of grinding sand with a mortar and pestle.
Meanwhile, May’s heart was racing like a Plodrome under chase. The woman quickly dropped the lantern and drew her quarterstaff pointing the weapon at the being in a clumsy fighting stance. She doubted it could do anything to that metal shell but brandishing it gave her a little more confidence. The quarterstaff itself was of simple make, crude iron spurs running both ends of an oak staff.
The mechanical man or whatever it was paused exactly a meter and a half away from her, just in range for her to attack if it lunged. She felt as if it were appraising her with its singular red “eye”. She tensed slightly as the mechanical man moved once more, this time it however it bowed its head and reached its hand out in its clumsy and jerking movements as if to shake her hand.
Only then did it speak, its voice was deep, cold, emotionless, and unquestionably inhuman, always accompanied by a croak or crackle that no human nor animal could conceivably make.
“Good evening or morning sir or Mistress. Unit HA-019 has registered you as co. owner of this unit and is ready to serve-” she couldn’t help it. Her body and mind already tensed preparing for the worst were like a loaded spring, the almost demonic voice of the being was the trigger that sprung her into a reaction.
She lunged forward using the staff like a spear, striking at the spherical head of the being. For a moment her every muscle in her arms burned and the world around her seemed to slow. Every one of her senses had increased and with a resounding ‘PING!’ the staff met its mark and the feeling left as soon as it came.
The staff had hit dead on Its temple, but the weapon had bounced uselessly against the metal. The being’s strange head had spun one hundred and eighty degrees backward from the blow. It readjusted itself to gaze at her. The spot where she hit, unharmed and unblemished.
The two stared at each other, neither doing nor saying anything, leaving them in an awkward silence broken only by the constant whirring and buzzing of the mechanical man’s body, which she now realised had gotten a lot louder now that this situation had occurred.
Some small-still calm part of the woman’s tangled mind thought musingly “I can literally hear the cogs in its head-turning.”
After two minutes of the worlds strangest standoff, it began to occur to her that, perhaps she was being irrational?
The being before her seemed to be in a similar dilemma as she. It was lost, alone, confused, and scared, it looked like it just came out of that sarcophagus-thing after who knows how long and at first contact it had been attacked? She began to feel a bit guilty.
So, she warily shifted out of her fighting stance, but still held the staff at the ready just in case. Her head only just reached the mechanical man’s “chin”. The height difference was not helping her nerves whatsoever, but she took a deep breath and spoke.
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“Uh, so, sorry for hitting you in the head like that. I overreacted and acted without thinking, perhaps we could put this behind us and start again?” she apologised apprehensively.
She waited with bated breath to see if it would react, the light blinked. Then like it never had happened, the metallic figure ignored her awkward attempt at an apology.
“Warning: Programming has been heavily modified and uncomplete- expect bugs and defects in behaviour. Complete the modifications or resend this unit’s memory and data drive back to Dizknee Military Cybernetics Corporation for reset and repair.”
It paused for a second to let the words sink in and then continued.
“Please note: Do not tamper with programming unless you have acquired a permit to do so, if this unit is tampered with by unlicenced personal, it will be considered treason against humanity as well as theft and presumed manslaughter.”
“Authority will be immediately pinged to your location on high alert and this unit’s bio-generator will self-detonate with the force of sixty PSI if the initial and secondary warning is ignored. The Dizknee corporation is not responsible for injury or death that may occur via this machine, please consult the user’s agreement manual for further instruction. You have been warned.”
May might not have understood all of what it said but she understood enough to conclude that it had basically just told her that it was a walking, talking bomb.
She slowly backed away from the mechanical man, who in turn began to move forward.
“No, you stay right there!” she cried pointing the quarterstaff at it once again.
“If you are going to explode then do it far away from me!”
“Would you like to activate self-detonation?”
“NO!”
“Refusal accepted.”
She stared at it for a moment holding her breath, just waiting for it to explode regardless, sighing with relief when it did not.
After contenting herself that her life was not in danger, she allowed her mind to wander while carefully watching the being who was standing quietly, it's light flickering every few seconds. “It hasn’t said anything without prompt since I overreacted, is it letting me take charge of this encounter, so I stay calm, or does it want me to let my guard down?” she internally fretted. “Best to ask the who, what, why’s.”.
“I beg your pardon but who or what are you?” She asked apprehensively.
The being immediately stood at attention, its arms at its side with its hands folded together in front of its midsection like that of an attentive servant.
“This unit’s current designation is HA-019, A military-grade, head-hunting specialised assassin droid. Nineteenth produced out of one hundred current units of unknown station and state of repair. This unit was bought and modified by Malcolm Walker as a hobby project. This unit is currently an incomplete prototype, and its new purpose is…unspecified.” Despite its monotone voice those closing words seemed to have an edge to them.
"That raised more questions than answers,” she muttered absentmindedly. She noted that it did not ask her who she was. Did it just not care, or did it already know?
“This unit apologizes for the unsatisfactory answer, but that is all the Information It has available.” It managed a small jerking bow of apology.
“Ah! No, no please don’t apologise!” she exclaimed, her body automatically responded with a small clumsy bow of her own, still keeping a suspicious eye on the being. “The wisdom the old ones have imparted to you is far greater than I can ever possibly understand.”
The being- the Droid simply responded by tilting its head slightly to its left for a few seconds.
May let herself slowly process the new information it had presented to her while keeping an even closer eye on the being. “It’s a head-hunter and an assassin, I thought they were basically the same thing? She pondered “It also mentioned it was a Droid, maybe my misunderstanding of the term is causing a mix-up?”.
“You mentioned that you’re a Droid what does that mean?”
“Droid, NOUN: A type of robot, especially one with an appearance resembling that of a human. Commonly used by Military operations as fodder infantry.”
“You’re a type of robot? What on low-earth is a robot?”
“Robot, NOUN: A machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. There are four categories of robots: Programs are supercomputers that manage, calculate and assist, Bots which are simple labour specialised machines. Droids resemble humans and can replicate human movements. The last category is [CLASSIFIED]”.
May internally groaned, as yet again the answer simply created more questions. “Let’s just sort out what we gleaned from that. It said the old ones used these “droids” to fight wars for them? I can’t think of any other use for “fodder infantry” as it put it.” Her face scrunched up in confusion as May attempted to make sense of what the robot was saying. The droid must have recognised the confusion on her face and attempted to assist her.
“Apologies, this unit could attempt to put the definition in layman’s terms by using words and descriptions within the limited intelligence that you have displayed?” She glared at the droid, who wisely did not follow through with its own suggestion.
“No need to apologise, I’m the one who can’t make out anything from what you’re telling me.” She muttered. “No use trying to make sense of beings who created life from metal, built stone halls underground that stretch across the world and built machinery so complicated that we still don’t completely understand even after hundreds of years of study.”
“Alright, well uh, what is your goal…that you have right now?” she asked.
“This unit’s goal is your goal.” It answered simply.
“What does that mean?” she asked cautiously, unable to keep the distrust out of her voice.
The red light grew to illuminate May’s face in red, almost blinding her from the intense light in the inky dark.
“This unit is currently set in default service mode; this unit will do anything you desire. If: it is within this unit’s capabilities, will not breach agreements within terms and service or cause you unnecessary harm and/or kill you.”
“Why me specifically?”
The Droid’s light dimmed as its head tilted clockwise slightly before answering. “Forgive this unit’s malfunction, it seems to have not understood you, repeat the question or rephrase it.”
“Why are you serving me?”
Its head snapped back into place, the light at full beam once more and it answered “Because you are the secondary owner. As you have accepted the role approximately seven minutes and forty seconds ago.” it gestured with an open hand to the glass table.
“Your blood cells were detected and recorded by the Administrator’s control panel. The primary owner: Malcolm Walker has approved the transaction of co-ownership. Your confirmation has been pending since the Sixth of February, year three-thousand-seven-hundred and two.”
She peered at the strange glassy table and saw a smear of what looked to be her blood, reflecting the orange of the lamplight. “I-I own you now because my blood got on that table?!” She cried recoiling in shock.
“Affirmative. Unit HA-019 is now your servant from now until Your death, the primary owner expels the agreement or if this unit is terminated.”
“That- that is insane!” she stared at the Droid, her mouth agape “And you’re fine with this?”
“Forgive this unit’s malfunction, it seems to have not understood you, repeat the question or rephrase it.” It answered, its head rotating clockwise once again, May had to fight the sudden urge to smack the stupid thing upside the head.
May took a deep breath to calm herself down. “Why are you eerily willing to be the slave of a stranger who accidentally splattered their blood on your Administrator…thing?” She asked, trying to sound as clear as she could, despite the shaking in her voice.
“Most machines do not have wills of their own, they are in service foremost to those who are designated “owner” and secondly to all of the human race. Since this unit is a Machine, it would lack the ability to be “fine” with anything.”
May narrowed her eyes “Wait, how do I know that you aren’t lying to me about this whole slave thing?” her grip on the quarterstaff tightening.
“Most machines cannot lie; they lack the imagination to do so. Lying is solely a human trait.’’
“How do I know that wasn’t a lie, what if you’re lying about not being able to lie?” May knew she was making a Burrowar tunnel out of a Slinx nest, but she refused to just trust a vaguely humanoid god creation that looked like it just stepped out of The-Void-Between-The-Stars.
The droid’s light blinked before it simply said, “Machines are tools for use, they cannot willingly lie, steal, kill, or cheat, what action they take is according to their user and limited by their design.” Its burning crimson eye bore through her soul “I was directed by no one and designed by no one to deceive you.”
“I…uh.” She shook her head as if to clear it. May chuckled nervously “Sort of in the same boat, aren’t we?”
Then she did something that surprised even her. She took her eyes off the metallic being and sheathed her quarterstaff on the rucksack’s leather holster. Then she reached her arm out to shake its hand. “You might already know this but, my name is Maya Forsook, forsaken and scrapper of the frontier village: Lilyvale.”
The droid, in turn, stepped forward, reached out, and took her hand to reciprocate. The metallic “skin” was cool to the touch and impossibly smooth, however certain parts of the fingers and palms were soft and rough. She could also feel little gaps in the metal that pinched at her skin.
As the fingers of the droid wrapped around May’s hand, she realised how delicate it was being, she could practically feel the quiet strength of the droid. She knew that with barely any effort, the droid could, at that moment, crush her hand to a pulp. She began to suspect that even its slow clumsy movements were some sort of act or smokescreen.
“Good evening or morning Mistress. Unit HA-019 has officially registered you as a co. owner of this unit and is ready to serve you. From this time onwards you will be regarded as “Mistress” and this unit will respond to HA-019 or simply Nineteen. If you wish for a designation change, simply request for one. To check this unit’s current settings, please state in a clear voice “access settings”.”
Then, the young woman and the ancient robot shook and as the beginnings of a bond formed between them