M.A.I.D.S. [season 2]

Episode 08: Rescue

M.A.I.D.S. [season 2] Episode 8 - Rescue

Robobot location: Room 200A (interior)
Problem: locked/room
Solution: pick/lock
Problem: no lock panel @Room 200A (interior)
Solution: search/lock panel @Room 200A (interior)

Adam stared in disbelief at the maintenance robot. Either he was completely barmy, or the machine just responded to his question. The voice Adam thought he heard was strange and tinny, but the man was fairly certain that it had come from the robot.

The robot in his cell.

"How did you get in here?" Adam asked. He was slumped on the floor beside the door, wincing with every breath, but his mind was coming back to him. He wished that the pain would go away, but he knew that would take time. He would have to soldier on through the agony and rely on his training and experience to see him through.

"Robobot pick lock located exterior Room 200A," Robobot stated. Its words came at a slow pace, and the response itself came several seconds after Adam had asked. Though its speech pattern was strange, Adam gained vital information.

I know precisely where I am in this building, and I know that Robobot can pick locks.

"How is that possible? You are a maintenance droid," Adam asked. Even speaking made his body hurt, from his lips to his chest and back again. He waited patiently for Robobot to respond.

"Robobot upgraded Robobot," it replied. Adam laughed softly, his head throbbed, and he groaned. Robobot moved back to the door and was still.

"Ok, good," Adam said. "You can upgrade yourself to pick locks. Can you get me out of here?"

Clicks and blips could be heard from Robobot, but no speech came for what seemed like several long minutes. "No."

"Great," Adam responded. "I'm in too much pain to make a run for it."

"Designation: Adam move location: bed?" Robobot said. Adam looked at the bed, which was firmly attached to the wall. He shrugged.

"If you're asking me to move the bed, that's not something I could do even if I wasn't in thirteen different flavors of pain."

The room filled with clicks and whirring, and Adam thought he saw Robobot vibrating.

Problem: speech/unclear
Solution: download/skillset (improved speech)

Robobot's noise-making reached a crescendo that felt like knives stabbing into Adam's temples, then suddenly the robot was quiet. It moved slowly in a circle once.

"Please Adam, start to move, end on bed?" Robobot asked.

"You want me to get on the bed?" Adam asked.

"Correct."

"Ugh, why?" Adam groaned as he negotiated his aching body into a crawling position. "If I go to sleep now I'll never get out of this cell."

"Adam now to obstruct Robobot. Adam-on-bed will not obstruct Robobot."

"I'm...I'm in the way?"

"Correct."

"Why didn't you just say so?"

"Adam...in the way," Robobot said. Adam carefully crawled away from the door, but Robobot would not move until he was seated on the bed. Then Robobot moved to where Adam had slumped down and extended its manipulators, pawing at a small panel on the floor. The panel was no bigger than Adam's hand, and was completely inaccessible to Robobot while Adam was sitting on it. After a few movements the strange robot had the panel open and could access various wires and circuits. Adam watched with fascination as the droid worked. Its manipulators would carefully, almost tenderly, touch and move wires. Often Robobot would stop and seem almost to shut down, but soft electronic sounds indicated that it was still internally active.