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

Episode 5: Upgrade

Robobot continued wandering the hallways of CROW headquarters. The cleaning robot was indistinguishable from the models that CROW employed, being a top-of-the-line janitorial machine. It passed by various CROW operatives, employees, and Synthias without notice. One young, portly agent gave Robobot a strange look and about three seconds of thought when it rolled onto an elevator, but he had more important things to occupy his time. The odd behavior of the robot was forgotten by the time the man's destination was reached. Robobot had to ride the elevator up and down a few times before it finally stopped on Adam's floor.

Robobot location: Room 200A (exterior)
Robobot: scan for utility entrance...........scan complete: none found.
Problem: locked/room
Solution: download/skillset (lock-picking)

Robobot used its manipulators to prop its body at an odd angle against the wall, then stretched slowly and carefully to the keypad beside the door handle. Robobot could barely reach the electronic lock, but "barely" sufficed. The lock-picking software wasn't top-shelf, but it good enough to enable Robobot to execute a soft bypass that did not trip the facility's alarm system. It entered the room and made short work of Adam's restraints. It used its manipulators to poke and prod the human until he was awake.

Robobot journal: 17MAY2175 CE @ 0504 EET
Problem: wake/human = manipulators: poor
Solution: acquire/improved manipulators
Logic: no improved manipulators present
Logic: Robobot incapable/installing improved manipulators
Robobot mood: sad; cause = cannot resolve/Problem/manipulators

"My head feels like it's going to implode," Adam groaned as he sat up. He looked around his cell in confusion, then noticed Robobot on the floor. The cleaning robot was perfectly still.

"Is that...is that Pandora's pet robot?" Adam asked himself. He cursed because he couldn't ferret out the name from his murky memory.

Problem: impossible/speech
Solution: download/program (signal); download/skillset (speech)
Solution: use/indicator effects (speech)
Problem: cannot use/indicator effects (speech)
Solution: write/program (indicator speech)

Robobot did not respond to Adam. It sat very still and seemed to be shut down. A soft whir came from the machine, the sound of technology. Adam decided that the robot was rebooting or upgrading or whatever. He took a step and pain so fierce erupted in his head that he dropped to a knee and waited for the sensation to subside. Suffering was replaced with enervation, and Adam decided that was a major improvement.

Adam's head throbbed so hard that he felt he would faint, but he knew that he had to escape as quickly as possible. The "initiation program" that he was subjected to was nothing more than neural torture. The helmet targeted various parts of the brain, turning them on and off as if the brain was a computer. It also induced hallucinations of pain and suffering, so though Adam was subjected to no physical punishment, his brain registered the damage and reacted accordingly.

"At least Old Man didn't set the helmet to brainwash me," Adam uttered through gritted teeth. "Although it probably would've been a lot less painful."

Adam did his best to shake off the cobwebs as he ran his hands around the seam of the door. This wasn't the first time he had been captured, but it was probably the worst. His every move brought shocks form the torture he had endured in the previous hours, which he bore as best he could Adam was looking desperately for a way out. He didn't know what had happened to Pandora, Monroe, or Sotiria, and thinking about them hurt his brain-box. He pushed them from his mind and tried to focus on the door. It difficult to focus on the task at hand, and he found that concentrating hurt just as much as thinking. His instincts, honed by years of soldiering, were all that kept him from sinking into unconsciousness.

Adam stopped groping around the door and, leaning against it, glanced around the room. There was a low bed along one wall and a vacuum-toilet in a corner. The room was less than ten feet on a side, windowless, and dimly lit by light panels set into the ceiling. The ceiling was high--more than ten feet--and the only means of ingress and egress was the door, which lacked a handle, window, or any form of ornamentation.

He stretched and felt above the door to see if there were any weaknesses in the wall--a vent that was covered up, a hidden intercom speaker, something he could use. The motion caused him excruciating pain, and even just the simple pressure of his fingers along the top edge of the door was as fire in his flesh. Adam groaned as he stretched as high as his hands could reach...then he lost his balance.

He banged his head on the wall and screamed in agony as he fell. Adam's howling was interrupted by retching. His insides felt as if they were being used for a speed bag. If Hell were a sensation, it was the sensation that Adam experienced on the floor. He barely moved for the better part of an hour, silent except for a few whimpers he could not hold back. When Adam could form a coherent thought, he focused his pain into anger at Old Man, at CROW, at FIST, at anything he could think of to be angry about. Anger kept him conscious and gave him strength.

"Son of a bitch, that hurt!" Adam swore. He managed to rise to his hands and knees. Adam glanced over at Robobot and saw three lights blink in sequence.

"Well, at least I have you, uh...damnit, CROW really scrambled my eggs. What's your name?"

"Robobot," Robobot said.