The Descent

Chapter 58 - Alive

Denton took a step back, his hands up, palms facing outwards. "Eh, sorry, man. Just trying to figure out how to help my partner."

The tech furrowed his eyebrows. "Your partner?"

Denton nodded towards the table. "Yeah, right there. His name is Tanner."

Wide-eyed, the tech turned and looked at Tanner. "Wait...this is your partner?"

"That's what I said."

"Man, are you kidding me? You've got a robotic partner?" The tech's eyes grew larger, and Denton could sense the excitement of a geek on the verge of laying his hands on a new piece of tech.

"Well, not really. He's more of an..." Denton said sharply.

"Wait, this is the one they just brought in, right? You guys came from the Shadowlands."

"Yeah, that's right. He's been shut down since we found him. I'm not sure what to do."

"Ok, ok, ok," the tech said and stepped closer. "Lemme see. Ok, I see his eye glowing," he said and pointed towards Tanner's eye. "He's still online."

"I figured as much," Denton said and crossed his arms. "What's your name, by the way?"

The young tech looked at Denton. "Porter. You?"

"Denton, and you've already been introduced to Tanner."

"Tanner, eh?"

"It's short for Totally Autonomous Neural Network with Enhanced Responsibilities."

Porter's mouth fell open, his eyes wider than before. "Seriously? He's one of...them?"

"I don't know what that means, Porter. The only thing I care about is getting him up and running again. Can you fix him?"

"Oh, right, right. Well, err..." Porter said and leaned in closer and took a close look at Tanner's head. "I need to find a way to hook up."

Denton's eyebrows went up. "Hook up?"

"Oh, you know, interface with the robot's operating system. So I can see what state he's in." Porter looked at Denton and squinted. "What did you think I meant?"

"Oh, uh, exactly what you said," Denton said and walked around to Porter's side of the table. "What exactly are you looking for?"

"A port of some sort. Usually, there's one at the base of the neck of these things, or somewhere around the cranium. It's just a matter of...oh, here you go," Porter said and pointed towards a small circular gap just above the area where the left ear would have been on a normal human head.

Denton leaned in for a closer look. It didn't look like much. A circular cut-out in the otherwise smooth surface of Tanner's head.

"And you know this how?"

"I studied robotics. It's a pretty standard interface."

"If you say so," Denton said and straightened up, his hands on his hips. He suddenly felt that his knowledge of technology that he just moments ago had been so confident in was, in fact, shallow. Did he really know so little? "So, what are you waiting for? Interface away."

"Ok, ok, give me a sec." Porter dug through the spare parts bins on the other side of the table, found a few cords of various lengths and then disappeared behind the server rack, all the while mumbling quietly to himself. Denton sighed and sat down on a stool by the table, crossed his arms and waited. There wasn't much he could do anyway.

A few minutes later, Porter emerged and returned to the table. He pulled a cord with him over to the table and plugged it into the port on the side of Tanner's head. Without saying a word, he returned to the server bank, powered up the mounted terminal and punched in a few commands.

The screen came alive with rows and rows of data quickly scrolling by. Denton had no way of reading it, and he felt reasonably sure that there was no way Porter could read any of it either. A few seconds later, the screen turned black and then faded into white. A red dot flashed in the middle of the screen.

"What's that?" Denton said and approached the terminal.

Porter looked at Denton and shrugged. "No idea. I've never seen anything like it."

"You haven't...." Denton was interrupted by a scratching sound from somewhere within the server bank. "What the..."

"You made it," a garbled voice from somewhere within the servers said. Porter's face drained of all color, and he looked at Denton, wide-eyed. Denton himself was speechless, not expecting the servers to suddenly begin a conversation with either of them.

"Denton, is everything alright?" the voice said, this time crystal clear. It was then Denton realized what was going on.

"Tanner?"

"Yes, of course. That's why you hooked up me up to this cluster, correct?"

"Oh, well, yes, sure. How..."

"As you know, my personality within any physical form is limited, but as soon as the connection to the mainframe was established through this server cluster, I was able to sync up with my neural network identity. I have discarded the physical form on the table, and I am now fully operational again."

"In there?" Denton said and squinted at the screen while he gestured at the servers.

"Well, partially, yes. The connection to the outside networks allows me to operate at optimal levels. Fortunately, the backbone to this facility is military grade."

"Glad to hear it," Denton said and sighed with a smile on his face. "It's good to have you back, buddy."

There was a silence for a moment longer than usual before Tanner responded. "Oh, so you missed me?"

"Well, of course," Denton said without hesitation. "I'm not sure what I would have done if you hadn't made it."

"I'm pleased to hear that. Although, you do realize that even if the robotic body had failed, my identity would still be available on the network."

"It would?"

"Of course. It would lack the specific memories of this most recent mission, of course, but it's programmed to automatically awake from hibernation if I don't resync within a certain amount of time."

"How come I didn't know this?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes it does," Denton said, irritation in his voice. "That my partner has a backup somewhere out...there, yes, that would be good to know."

"My apologies. I thought for sure our superiors would have briefed you."

"Well, they didn't, " Denton said and crossed his arms across his chest again and furrowed his eyebrows.

"If I may," Porter said, his hand raised as if calling for his turn. "It's an honor to meet you, Tanner. I've read so much about your...kind."

"I am grateful for my revival," Tanner said. "I'd be happy to share anything about my kind that you may have questions about as a token of my gratitude for your expertise."

Porter clasped his hands together and cracked a smile as he glanced over at Denton. "Oh, wow..." he started before Denton cut him off.

"Since you're alright, I'm going to go check on Jarell. I'll let the two of you chat about, well whatever it is."

"No need," Tanner said. "He's not waking up anytime soon."

"And you'd know that how?" Denton said, his hand on the door handle.

"I'm connected to the resort network, I have immediate access to the medical bay's computer systems. Jarell will likely never wake up."

~~~

Tanner is back but Jarell is down. Will this affect the end at all? Will Jarell escape punishment by virtue of being comatose, or something worse? How do you think it'll end?

Leave a comment & vote!