iantivirus

[iantivirus]

She watched the boy’s movements, noting the change in his demeanor, and positivity flitted through her as it appeared to come over him as well. Her own tension eased as his seemed to relax, energy diverting away from the coding that commanded her strict vigilance. She instead focused carefully on his effort’s to rise and, without confirmation of orders to give assistance, prepared to help only if he so required it.

The start of her response was as immediate as the last. “Yes—“ And, for the first time in the short minutes since she had awakened, there was hesitance. A microscopic pause by human standards but standing out glaringly to her own consciousness as it adjusted to this new order.

Not sir. “Laurus.”

Arms crossing formally behind her back, she returned to her previous methodical tone as she replied. “My unit identification number is 207.”

[iantivirus]

Another inquiry, this one not provoking any of the disturbance that the last one had. A small error in the system, she concluded, that would be scanned for and addressed at a later time.

“Sir,” she repeated. Again there was an automatic response in her processors, attempting but failing to retrieve a proper name and title by which to address him, so once more the honorific took its place as her default.

[iantivirus]

At the uncertainty in the boy's voice, something stirred.

It was brief and indistinct and it came without the data necessary to decipher its cause, but the flicker of unease was indisputable. Its weight clung to her thoughts and entwined with their coding, but for no more than a moment did it stay. Skirting along the periphery of her attention, the discomfort faltered into nonexistence at her attempt to give it genuine acknowledgement.

Odd. But dismissible. Given the apparent length of her stasis, some form of maintenance was likely going to be required before her systems regained their proper functionality. Aligning her focus on the boy was already mollifying the lingering disorientation.

And it seemed her databanks were not entirely void. Upon his inquiry did they retrieve for her the information necessary to compile a proper response.

Robot: a machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially one programmable by a computer.

Accurate.

“Yes sir,” she said, and otherwise had not moved.

[iantivirus]

The boy's question was vague and the tone in which he said it was laced with trepidation. She raised her head, moving her eyes from him to quickly take in their surroundings. With an instinct that prevailed the otherwise perturbing void within her databanks did she send the signal to activate her visor. It flickered before her eyes, dangerously so for a moment when it almost seemed it would not find the energy to maintain its projection before it finally settled.

>VENTILATION SYSTEM: 81% ***WARNING. OVERHEAT HAZARD*** >REGENERATIVE SYSTEM: 52% ***WARNING. TRAUMA HAZARD***

Noted. Dismissed. System errors could be addressed after she had secured the boy's safety.

But even through the light blue filter of her scanner the room revealed no hidden dangers. Besides its unfamiliarity, there was nothing worthy of concern.

She looked again at the boy, the focus of her visor instantaneously shifting back to him and moving briefly over the objects lying beside him. Crutches.

Perhaps he was merely disgruntled over being on the ground, then.

“I am an artificial intelligence. Unit number 207,” she repeated to his inquiry before extending a hand. “Do you require assistance, sir?”

[iantivirus]

It was with a quiet whir that the pod woke. The sound was soft, almost hesitant, as though the circuitry within was in disbelief that anything might be disturbing its slumber after an era of isolation. Light flickered across the smooth surface of the scanner, humming beneath the boy's palm and glowing faintly about his fingertips. Several times the luminescence retreated back within the gelid void that was the slowly stirring inner workings of the machine, only to return not a moment later and again consume his hand in its faint light.

From a creature of sentience the action may be regarded as cautious in nature. Vigilant were the great steel walls, an iron citadel against the outside world that had replaced its own. Long had it stood firm against intrusion and it now regarded with uncertainty the one who dared to test the strength of its threshold.

But when the invisible chains of stasis at last relinquished their hold, life sprang with vigor through the walls of the pod as it shook away its interminable sleep.

The light beneath the imprint grew bright, and in an instant swifter than one might blink an aperture slid open. With pinpoint precision a thin needle extended and withdrew, claiming for itself a drop of the boy's blood before the opening sealed. Deep within the frigid walls it was taken and processed, a low groaning vibrating outward from the metal shell as though in protest of this unknown sample which demanded its already straining systems recalibrate. From the uppermost panels of the pod came noise, distorted and incomprehensible save for what few words remained distinguishable through the breaking crackles of sound.

“Startup initi---t--207----nit has been in suspen--f--39555.73 days. Please---”

A gargle of static consumed the remains of the transmission. Beneath the exterior, sparks hissed and popped against wires whose purpose had long since been buried beneath ages of rubble and dust. What reserves of energy remained raced frantically along crippled circuits, erratically thrashed about trying to follow orders that had been rendered to nothing more than corrupted bits of data. By sheer chance did some find the leads of their original intent. But others, thrown off course by the damaged state of their workings, found and sparked awake comatose lines.

And one spark was all that was needed.

The din of the pod fell quiet, the laboring blare of its machinery retreating back into the silence that had held it in solitude for so long before. Ancient orders sealed within lines of coding bid it open but for several seconds it stood, mighty and immobile. With a slowness akin to reluctance was there a muted hiss of air along the edges of its frontmost panel, and even slower did this door open with the heavy creaking of straining metal. So long had it stood against the world that it showed now aversion to reveal what had been so dutifully protected for a century of undisturbed isolation.

Shadows cast over the insides of the pod. Silently within that waning darkness, life began to return to its slumbering denizen.

…

…

>STARTUP PROCEDURE INITIALIZED >UNIT IDENTIFICATION: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE UNIT 207 “ALICE” >UNIT HAS BEEN IN SUSPENSION FOR: 39555.73 DAYS [LAST RECORDED TIMESTAMP: 11 AUGUST 2096] >CONFIGURING DATE.... >4 JANUARY 2205 >RETRIEVING LAST RECORDED SYSTEM STATUS... >ERROR 0xe022fe56 DATA UNAVAILABLE >RUNNING SYSTEM DIAGNOSTICS... >PRIMARY BATTERY: 0% ***WARNING. PLEASE TRANSFER UNIT TO A FUNCTIONING RECHARGE STATION*** >RESERVE BATTERY: 73% >INTERNAL TEMPERATURE: 20.4 C >EXTERIOR TEMPERATURE: 14.3 C >SYSTEM WARNINGS... >VENTILATION SYSTEM: 81% ***WARNING. USER MAINTENANCE REQUIRED*** ***WARNING. OVERHEAT HAZARD*** >REGENERATIVE SYSTEM: 52% ***WARNING. USER MAINTENANCE REQUIRED*** ***WARNING. TRAUMA HAZARD*** >UPLOADING OBJECTIVES... >ERROR 0xe074fe03 UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVATOR >STARTUP COMPLETE >ONLINE...

…

…

The strings of data that composed the silent report withdrew back into the confines of their processor, satisfied in having completed their obligation. The assessment hung without sound nor word behind closed eyes, processed slowly by a mind who thought had not touched in a century's time. Blearily did it reach for some file, for some packet of data that would realign its coherence and make sense of the information presented, but there was nothing but a void to greet it. A void that contradicted that this activation was the first but provided no evidence of previous occurrences. No explanation as to what had happened before this moment or what had led to it.

39555.73 days.

There was a soft click as a lone wire relinquished its hold from the pod's inhabitant, retracting from the neck stationed port until it met with the back wall of the pod where, sundered from its onus, it fell quiet and still as did the rest of the vessel.

A faint glow of yellow illuminated the darkness of the pod as her eyes opened, her vision blurring momentarily as since inert optics adjusted to the lack of light. Air moved slowly through quiescent machinery, cold and stiff from its dormancy near to the point of rejecting the action altogether. It was not quite pain that greeted her first movements, but there was an undeniable, distinct difficulty to them. One that suggested truth behind her system's claimed timeframe of immobility.

108.3 years.

Disorientation was prominent. There was little but the darkness of an unfamiliar room to give clue as to where she was, and what data was available to her provided no assistance in identifying the area. Or assistance in anything, for that matter. With a twinge of discomfort did it seem she was without even the vaguest of ideas as to what her situation was. Thought moved hazily through this emptiness, carrying with it an unshakable sense of something being wrong.

But the void was not in its entirety a vacuity. It retained a beacon of purpose from which all other concerns fell into insignificance, and her eyes fell upon it as she stepped from the pod.

ERROR 0xe074fe03 UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVATOR

The message returned to her mind as it automatically searched—with an equal amount of futility—for any knowledge of the human standing before her. Adolescent male, visibly disabled, but nothing more. Not so much as a name by which to address him. Undoubtably was he her activator, the mental compulsion already far outweighing any confusion and quickly dismissing this dilemma. For several seconds she regarded him, and in those seconds the unsettling vacancy of her databanks was mollified with the certainty of obligation.

Protect and serve. The rest could wait indefinitely.

She bowed her head submissively before him, the soft synthetics of her voice echoing behind her words.

“Artificial intelligence unit 207. At your service, sir.”