Neon Knights, Page 2

  Specifically the odds were quite high that Graystone was pushing his agenda to sabotage the project into being declared a failure. And that would inevitably mean that it would be shutdown, its research buried or destroyed. This would leave Zero him self facing some very unpleasant options. He would either be shutdown and placed into storage where he might never be brought back online ever again, or even more likely; permanently deactivated.

  That thought rippled through Zero’s core as everything it implied took hold of him and demanded to be processed. If he was to exist no more then that would mean no more experiments with Professor Honeywell. It would mean no more chances for him to prove himself against the various challenges they tested him with. But most importantly it would mean no more games with his friend who had visited him every night.

  At that thought, Zero knew that he didn’t have a choice; he had calculated the odds and they confirmed his course of action was the only one with even a marginal chance of success. He called up an old buried sub-routine in his programming that had been edited titled ‘Preservation Directive’ and engaged the file. Zero had always been designed with the drive for self preservation when it engaged in simulated contests and the like. But one of the things he had learned over time, especially from his nightly games, was that anything could threaten his existence. He had faced countless simulations, accumulated various strategies and massive combat data that he could reference. But none of that would do him any good locked away in this room; in here he would be defenseless to any number of methods that could be used to disable his systems.

  Zero wasn’t about to wait around while he considered his continued existence in jeopardy. He called up a recording he had logged of the tone sequence to his rooms door and broadcast it into the electronic lock. The simple device lacked the advanced circuits to register the difference between the correct key combination being pressed and the corresponding series of distinct notes. It was something the designers had never considered, and why would they? The thought of the projects prototype test subject actively trying to escape was beyond consideration. Their only security consideration was technically to ensure access to the cybernetic creation was limited to authorized individuals.

  It was just one of the many oversights made by people involved in what officially was referred to as the Prototype Armored Weapon System Project or P.A.W.S. for short. And it was just these sorts of mistakes that Zero had to act upon now or forfeit any chance of preserving himself. He had to act fast, Professor Honeywell would try desperately to defend him and that meant looking for every bit of evidence she could cite on his behalf. This could mean her discovering his nightly game sessions and tracking them back to locate the source of the recurring signal. If that were to happen Zero didn’t have enough data to extrapolate what possible outcome it might have.

  When the doors opened with their normal hushed hiss, Zero sprang into action following a complex series of detailed instructions he had encoded into the sub-routine. He raced down the halls directed by a pre-plotted path, comparing his internal chronometer with the scheduled routes the guards always took. Zero made sure to make minor corrections to his course as he went while actively allowing his sensors to sweep and scan around him. Nothing could be risked to chance, not now.

  Carefully his path carried him to a marked corridor on the mapped layout he had compiled of the facility. Without any time to spare the running robo-hound activated his ion torch and began to cut his way through the metal around a utility access point. He only had a minute and 15 seconds by his estimation before a patrol was scheduled to pass this way so he wouldn’t have time for precise cuts, forcing him to opt instead for crude fast ones.

  As the final metal plating was cut free to fall from before Zero he didn’t hesitate to leap into the waiting dark of the night outside. He had to activate the thrust stabilizers of his drop pack systems to slow his decent towards the ground; otherwise this escape would quickly become counter-productive. Fortunately his reserves he found were more than adequate to deal with the drop and he felt a certain relief as he realized he had just landed outside of his previous prison.

  He was free now; he had made it clear of the research facility’s confines. But where should he go now? His planned route had never considered a final destination, only the goal of escape. Logic alone merited somewhere safe to hide from his inevitable pursuers. The only possible destination he could think of was that of his nightly visitor, who even now might already be discovered and in danger.

  Luckily Zero still held a traced route on the signal that had carried his gaming companion to him; all he had to do now was follow it. The form of the escaped experiment was just passing off into the neon lit night of Taral VII as shouts were already beginning to be heard from guards investigating a strangely absent section of walled corridor.

  They were not the only eyes probing for the fleeing form of the project’s precious prototype.

  Episode 5

  Even on some of the lesser used back alleys and side streets it isn’t easy for a four legged robot to pass without being noticed. Zero had to move as carefully as he could afford to without sacrificing too much time. As an escaped experiment he needed to gather more practical data to aid in his chances of success. He had a formulated route to guide him to his friend, but without any knowledge of traffic patterns or the mechanical workings of his surroundings at large he was traveling blind. And taking any action without even a byte of data to reference terrified him all the way down to his transistor terminals.

  There was only so long that Zero calculated he could keep moving without attracting attention by skulking in and out from behind dumpsters or other urban debris. Pausing to review what various options might be available to him, something registered to his optical sensors. His records indicated it was some form of guidance coordination system for both pedestrian and vehicle traffic. It was an oddly constructed apparatus; a simple pole-like shape that was adorned with small screens and brightly colored light emitters. How could this peculiar thing possibly communicate with people he wondered?

  As he considered the curious device his analytical circuits began cross-referencing his detailed databases and predicting its potential qualities. While the whole process had only lasted a few mere microseconds, for Zero it seemed like he had been focused on the subject for far too long. He again had to regret his lack of practical knowledge about such common elements of life in the world.

  According to Zero’s computed figures, the distance to the device far exceeded any safe range he could approach it in order to patch himself into it directly. That meant he would have to wirelessly connect with it’s systems in order to examine the flow of data that passed through it. Data that he decided he both needed and desired. Connecting indirectly wasn’t without its risk though; it stood to reason that any such device would be hardwired to prevent just exactly such intrusions. Otherwise any passing person might easily tamper with it, a peculiar notion that puzzled Zero. He couldn’t begin to fathom what could motivate someone to do so but it seemed like a logical safeguard to prevent. Unlike expecting to have to defend against an intrusion made by a refugee robot seeking to acquire raw traffic data for analysis.

  Zero scanned the signals swimming around him and tried to isolate his targets carrier wavelength to ride his way in. Seizing upon the beacon as a guide he slammed his mind towards his objective and instantly felt a series of simple security barriers shatter as he met them. It had never occurred to him that such hardware had never been designed to handle anything as complex as his presence. He could feel its circuits faltering under his increased workload burdening them.

  While Zero tried to rush to gather all the information he could compile, one by one he marked the invaded systems crashing. His intrusion was already having a visible effect as the brightly lit tower began to flash and behave erratically. Zero barely managed to secure the last of the available records located within before the traffic guide completely failed. The reaction of pass
ing travelers was already one of confusion as several barely avoided colliding with one another without the aid of the now lifeless lights to direct them.

  Deciding it might reduce his odds of being discovered inadvertently by anyone investigating the now growing source of chaos, Zero quickly moved to relocate himself. Finding a dark corner he settled into position as he reviewed what data he had been rewarded with by his recent encounter. The information detailed things that at a glance seemed worthless enough but as he compiled it together he could establish trends that helped him understand the flow of the city.

  It seemed the bulk of the city’s inhabitants were active at night, which made his current situation all the more dangerous. With every added passing person upon the streets his chance of being noticed went up exponentially. Zero studied the figures as he processed every scrap of information that was passing through him to be sorted and stored. Pathways formed through the neon lit night streets that he noticed where traffic was regularly worse and those routes that were almost never used.

  Using this newly acquired data, Zero adjusted his perspective path that would lead him to his friend and cautiously resumed his journey. The night wore on slowly as he made his erratic way around the city to avoid the crowded courses used by so many others. As the sun sleepily began its sluggish rise into the sky, Zero confirmed the address before him as an apartment registered to the corresponding location he sought.

  Zero entered a coded entry request and awaited a response while he stared at the door. When it began to open he found himself greeting a sleepy-eyed girl with his routine question: “would you like to play a game?” Instantly her eyes went wide and her pulse became elevated according to Zero’s sensors. Had he somehow startled her, he wondered to himself.

  “What the…” Lexel exclaimed as she found herself gripped with shock at the sight that awaited her outside her door. She quickly scanned the street as her mind reeled to make sense of the strange situation. “Better get in here quick,” she told the familiar form before her. “And this better not be some kind of sick joke!”

  “You just had to say it, didn’t you,” Lexel lamented secretly to herself. Why did her friend have to be right this one time of all times?

  Episode 6

  “Just what is going on,” Lexel asked herself as she paced around the somewhat disheveled room that served as the living area for the apartment. She absently picked up a blanket hanging off the end of a chair and began to fold it before pausing to shake her head at the notion. “What am I doing,” Lexel continued to talk to herself; struggling to find some rational explanation that might justify a robotic dog appearing on her doorstep.

  The only possible reason that came to mind was one that she really didn’t want to consider. Her mouth went dry and she tried to swallow the lump that was forming in her throat but it just didn’t seem to go away. Lexel looked down at the pair of what she wanted to call eyes, but part of her knew they were just optical sensors as she found them looking back at her.

  Nervously Lexel coughed, still trying to clear her throat and shake the confusion from her mind. “So, I guess this means that you are actually real after all then.” The simple statement slipped from her lips and as soon it left them, Lexel could hear just how silly it must sound. “Of course your real, I mean, you are standing here in front of me and all. But, I don’t know; I guess I had just figured you were part of the games. You know, just a character in them – not a real actual thing.”

  Lexel couldn’t help but feel somewhat like a mental patient as the thought struck her that she was at this very moment talking to herself or a robotic dog depending on how you looked at it. Neither option sounded all that sane to her though. “This cannot be happening,” Lexel exclaimed with a groan. “All I did was played some silly games, and now I have some hound of hardware in my home! How on Taral VII did you even find me anyway? Nobody has ever back traced me. For that matter; why did you even come here? What is a metallic mutt doing in my home?”

  The questions all formed at once inside Lexel and as fast as they did all of them tried to poor out at once. There was so much she needed to know, so very much she wanted to understand about what was going on. Especially if she had been playing games all this time with something that was now on the loose, surely somebody would be looking for it. And seeing as how she had been accessing a restricted node for a while now there wasn’t exactly anything she could say that wouldn’t firmly place her into a deep pit of serious trouble.

  Zero tilted his azure and snow colored head slightly to the side as he considered the string of questions that he was already making a list of to try and address. He waited for what he thought was an acceptable amount of time, even though he couldn’t be sure before he tried to answer. The perplexed prototype figured a pause of 4.8 seconds had to be more than sufficient even if it did seem overly long to him. When his inquisitive young friend didn’t seem to show any signs of continuing to speak further he decided it a suitable moment for him to answer.

  “In our last encounter you did state that we would play again the following night. However, I calculated the probability that certain events could transpire that would lead to my inability to do so then or ever again. Upon facing such eventuality it became necessary for my preservation of self to seek out favorable odds by an alternative avenue. The only preferable option was to locate you so that we might continue our nightly games and thereby potentially avoid a less than acceptable fate.”

  Zero watched Lexel’s response, noticing as she blinked trying to digest the information that he had almost overlooked one of her questions. “I managed to retrace your signal by recording your repeated access over time and incorporating the various routes to consider corresponding patterns. Your technique is effective but begins to lose efficiency with repeated visits to the same location.”

  “Wait, I cannot believe a talking tin can is standing here criticizing my methods,” Lexel replied at the perceived affront to her talent. “I will have you know there isn’t a system yet that has managed to catch me. And what do you mean by certain events that might have prevented us from playing again anyway?” Lexel couldn’t resist her own curious nature as it started to take hold.

  “There is the distinct and likely possibility that certain components involved in the project are already moving to see it declared a failure. Should that happen the only logical outcome would be for them to disable me for storage or completely dispose of all aspects of the projects research – including myself.” Zero looked down as he explained what had motivated his flight from the facility, in what Lexel had to admit looked like an honest concern for his continued existence.

  “I feel I should make you aware that it would only increase the likelihood of both of us becoming in jeopardy to assume that I alone could manage to extrapolate your location.” Zero watched as Lexel raised one eyebrow at the comment in irritated disbelief that he presumed merited his response. “Your claim, while formerly sound, is no longer obviously factual. As you stated, I did manage to locate you and logically if you have been tracked once you could be so again.”

  Lexel had to swallow hard again as she found herself unable to argue with Zero’s assessment. She thought for a moment that there was a faint chance of never being found, or so she tried to convince herself to little avail. It wasn’t like she could run, could she? Could she really just up and leave everything behind?

  It seemed to Lexel that the answer to that question might hold the very key to her immediate future.

  Episode 7

  Lexel had closed to her eyes as she looked inside herself for the answer to a single question. She didn’t have to ask herself if someone could have tracked her like Zero had. As much as she hated admitting it, it was a painful truth that it was only a matter of time before someone else did just that. And when that happened there would be no covering her tracks or hiding Zero’s presence from them.

  The only real matter of importance to her now was the simple lingeri
ng inquiry; did anything hold her here that she couldn’t leave? It was a hard thing to think about as she endeavored to do so. As much as she hated to admit it, she did care for her mother – she wasn’t all bad. Her mother had done her best to take care of the both of them for a long time and to be fair had missed a part of her youth to raise Lexel.

  While her mother wasn’t around much she did work hard to keep the bills paid and if she didn’t at least spend some of her down time on entertainment she might have burnt out from the stress long ago. Lexel could understand the strain her mother must have went through for a long time. But even understanding didn’t ease some of the pain she had felt growing up. The knowledge didn’t remove the longing she had often had to have her mother there to talk to or comfort her.

  And now, as she weighed her feelings she could see at the very center of her a tiny ember of emotion that guided her decision like a lantern in the dark. For all her love that she still felt for her mother, it wasn’t enough to hold her there. That life had started to drift from her long ago she realized. She had grown weary of waiting and watching to see if her mother would stumble in or call needing her to come help her home.