A.I.: Orphans of Terra (HTTYD)

21

Chapter 21

"You." Rang through the headset and Astrid's processors had difficulty understanding it.

"Hiccup can you repeat that?" Astrid asked. "How can it be me?"

"Well not you you, obviously," Hiccup mumbled as he just stared at the woman in what he supposed was a stasis chamber. He'd heard of these. The rich had used them in hopes of prolonging their lives in the past. It didn't end well. "Remember your digital self?"

"Yes?" Astrid said this as more of a question. Since she couldn't see what Hiccup was seeing she was quite confused.

"I think this body is in stasis Astrid and it looks like a younger version of your digital self." Hiccup mumbled as he heard Astrid suck in a breath through the headset. "Astrid did you used to be human?"

"What?!" Astrid shouted suddenly and Hiccup had to cringe at the volume of her voice through the headset. "Hiccup, that's......... how? That science shouldn't even exist!"

"I don't know Astrid!" Hiccup hissed back but a lot more quietly. "How do you explain this body and your digital self?! They are nearly identical."

"I need you to find me a computer terminal." Astrid said. "It's the only way I can figure out what's going on here."

"Right.... Uhm...." Hiccup mumbled as he looked around, since seeing the woman in stasis he had been distracted. The room didn't look like it had any hub to connect to the system though so Hiccup exited the room and went to one of the other bulkhead doors. He was a bit reluctant to leave but he was sure that Astrid could figure this mystery out.

The corridor was as empty as when he had first arrived and Hiccup sneaked to the second door that was quite a few paces away. The door looked innocuous with paint chips peeling away and several bits covered in rust. The doors in this part of the facility looked old but they seemed well maintained as there wasn't a screech of metal when Hiccup opened the second bulkhead. The room was similar to the other one and the area above. It seemed to have been just a laboratory. Hiccup quickly scanned the room but no connection device could be found. "Are you sure there is one?" Hiccup whispered into the headset as he checked door after door and ventured deeper into the unknown.

"There has to be," Astrid said with a hint of frustration mixed in. "The labs we saw along the way and that stasis pod. They have to be connected to a network. The power outputs have to be regulated."

Hiccup stopped for a moment and mumbled "Do you think this area has another A.I.?"

"No," Astrid managed to say. "I can say with 90% certainty that these laboratories are just under the control of an automated system."

"And the other 10%?" Hiccup asked. He didn't want to sound pessimistic while sneaking around but he was very curious as to what would happen.

"Then....... We'd have a problem." Astrid stated.

After what was probably half an hour of sneaking around Hiccup managed to find a lab that was massive. The walls were dark grey and there were control panels all around. Near the back, the lab was separated by a glass pane and a set of stairs. On the other side was a massive sphere that was lit up. Hiccup assumed that this was the main hub.

"Astrid I think I might be able to plug you in." Hiccup spoke as he looked around the dark room. One of the workstations would have to do. "I wish you could see this," Hiccup said as he started booting up a computer. Hiccup found the right port to plug in Astrid's nanomachine drive and then he waited as the monitor screen flickered for a bit at the workstation. Numbers and data he didn't recognize started scrolling across the screen. Hiccup was so engrossed in watching it that he barely heard the footsteps approaching.