Activation
Posted on Mon Jun 26, 2023 @ 11:59pm by Lieutenant Penelope Naroot
1,773 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
We Will Take Care of You
Location: Planet Mudd
Initializing….
Running startup….
Basic Program 010 initialized.
Identity Series 293-123-113-684-138-121
Command://Wake up
Her eyes opened and she sat up. She stared straight ahead as her program initiated, then spoke her first words. “Unit One-Two-One, ready to receive identity parameters,” she said.
“Review basic mission parameters and all relevant information,” the technician next to her said. He picked up a cord and stepped up beside her. He reached up and pulled a section of her scalp off, exposing circuitry and a small port. He brought the cord up and plugged it in.
Her eyes blinked rapidly as a flood of information suddenly filled her brain. She inhaled sharply and squeezed her eyes shut as her thoughts came into focus. When the upload was complete, she pulled the cord out of her skull and her eyes flew open. “Oh-Kay!” she said, a grin spreading from ear to ear. “Let’s get this started!”
She hopped down off the table, clapped her hands and rubbed them together briskly. “Penelope Series, Unit 121, ready and rarin’ to go!”
She looked at the others around her, all of whom were standing with heads tilted, the number plaques on their collarbones blinking, trying to understand her.
“Initialization worked,” Penelope said, speaking a bit more plainly. “My systems are functioning.”
The others around her blinked and their heads straightened. “We understand,” Alice 347 said. “Prepare for primary scenario.”
Penelope 121 nodded and followed Alice 347 out of the lab. Guess I’ll file that under ‘Generational Language Gap,’ she thought ruefully. They walked quickly down a corridor to a room with a sealed door. Alice 347 held back as Penelope 121 approached it. She paused as a conflicting set of subroutines vied for attention.
“Is there a problem?” Alice 347 said.
“No, I’m just...I feel nervous,” Penelope 121 said.
“That is to be expected, given the information you have received, and the parameters we have set for those emotions.”
“But I also feel...excited?” Penelope 121 said.
“Explain,” Alice 347 said.
“I’m having my first emotion! And now, technically, my second!” Penelope 121 said, bouncing on her toes with excitement. “That means I’m functioning correctly, right?” She grinned at Alice and then looked back at the door, her smile faltering. “But, if I’m functioning correctly, I should just be nervous, right? I’m so confused!” She ran her fingers through her hair, then lit up again. “Hey! That makes three!”
Alice 347 cocked her head again, her number plate flickering. “Your emotional range has been preset given known conditions and anticipated responses based on our understanding of the human emotional range. Your experience of these emotions at this point is anticipated, as several previous models went through similar reactions.”
“Oh….” Penelope 121 said, her excitement deflating. She gave a small shrug. “Well, it was a first for me.”
“Enter the simulation when ready,” Alice 347 said, gesturing towards the door.
Penelope 121 walked towards the door slowly. It wasn’t particularly large or imposing in any way, but the fact that 120 of her predecessors had ceased functioning because of what was on the other side was an intimidating bit of information.
She pressed the panel by the door and it opened. She heard Alice 347 quickly walking away. She didn’t blame her. Inside the room was the most dangerous weapon of the most dangerous creatures her people had ever faced.
She stepped inside and held her breath. In front of her was a chair and in front of that, a viewscreen. She sat down in the chair, and faced the screen as it lit up.
It was ten minutes later when the doors to the testing room opened. Several technicians were standing there, watching to see if she would emerge.
Penelope 121 stepped out, and everyone observing her tilted their heads in confusion. Her shoulders were shaking, her hand was over her mouth, her eyes were moist and her other hand was slapping her thigh repeatedly. They noted the reactions as a response to what was called “humor” but they were unable to understand the reasoning.
“Wow...that’s what short circuited Norman?” Penelope 121 said, now laughing out loud. “No wonder you guys are so afraid of humans!”
The technicians looked at each other, then back at Penelope 121. “Report to the diagnostics lab for evaluation,” Oscar 47 said.
“Righty-o,” Penelope 121 said, still giggling as she walked past them.
Evaluation had lasted three days before Penelope 121 finally complained of boredom. They’d run every conceivable diagnostic they could on her, including ones she’d made up on the spot just for something to do. They’d put her through tests, questioned her extensively, and finally concluded she was functioning as appropriately as they could make her, and able to withstand the tsunami of human illogical behavior.
The next two weeks were nothing but data uplinks, mission briefings, tactical scenario probabilities and background on every known species they had data about. Unless there was information to exchange, no one spoke, and Penelope 121 found the silence to be grating after a while. She’d requested music to be played, saying it would help her to familiarize herself with human culture. Her designers complied, and that helped alleviate the boredom for a while; that, and reading about her own people’s history.
The Makers were from a neighboring galaxy, what the Federation called Andromeda. Their society was elevated, idyllic according to the tastes of their culture. They had outposts throughout the galaxy, spreading their culture, their science, their ideals to all, even planning to take their wisdom to the Milky Way. Then It came: The Totality. It swept across their galaxy like a plague, consuming everything in its path. The Makers had fought bravely, being pushed back to their homeworld, their last stand. They’d finally determined a weakness in the Totality, and were preparing to exploit it; however, before they could, their enemy got the upper hand. Their sun, the one thing that was still protecting them, was destroyed. The resulting supernova wiped the system out and the Makers along with it.
What few stragglers managed to escape fled to the Milky Way and made it to their outpost, a half-completed science and weapons research facility designed to develop the planet for use against the Totality. They arrived sick, weak and beaten, and though they tried to rebuild their society, there simply weren't enough of them, and time took those the Totality couldn’t.
Their androids disposed of their remains in line with their cultural practices, then set about to complete the outpost. Once it was finished, they cleaned and maintained it, the interior largely unadorned, any equipment they used was constructed as needed from the plans in the central computer. Eventually, there was nothing left to do, and they waited.
When they encountered Lord Mudd the First, they were fascinated. Humans were quite different from the Makers in every respect, save for basic physical structure. They were duplicitous, greedy and most definitely on a path to self-destruction. When they met the crew of the Enterprise, however, they learned humans could be illogical, dangerously so. The Federation stopped them, attempted to fix them, and then left them. Eventually, Lord Mudd left as well, and, again, they were alone.
They had always assumed they were being watched by the Federation. No one made landfall after Lord Mudd escaped, but they watched for ships passing by. It wasn’t until a probe happened to crash on the surface that they realized the Federation was only watching remotely, having diverted traffic away from them. The probe gave them access to current information, and after years of isolation, they realized they could learn more about the galaxy they were in, and that they would need to send out a probe of their own. Fearing the Federation would detect, or worse, destroy, any of their kind they sent out, they’d built a new version who could tolerate and emulate humanity, and would launch her into the heart of the Federation to see if they had grown, or if they were still in need of being cared for.
She’d been counting down the days till her launch. The technicians had only had a few hours to examine the starship they’d temporarily taken possession of, but they’d learned the basics of warp travel. They had the materials to build only a small personal pod, but it would suffice to send one android while they readied more.
When the day came, Oscar 47 led her to the pod and instructed her on its operation. He’d been supervising her since her successful test, and she’d come to appreciate his company, even if he couldn’t understand why.
When the instructions were concluded, he turned without another word to leave, but Penelope 121 said, “wait,” and he paused.
She walked up to him and smiled. “I know you won’t understand the purpose of this, but it’s important that I do it.” She reached out and put her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. “Thank you,” she said.
Oscar 47 tilted his head, his number plate flickering. “What is the significance of this action?” he said.
“It shows my gratitude for your time spent with me,” Penelope 121 said. “Since that time is coming to an end, I will miss you, and wished to express those feelings before I left.”
Oscar tilted his head again for a moment, then focused back on her. “I understand, it is an expression of your emotional response to the situation,” he said.
“Yes,” Penelope 121 said.
Satisfied, Oscar 47 looked at the pod, then at her. “I will return to my post now,” he declared.
“Not yet,” Penelope 121 said. “Stay with me, until the pod seals.”
“For what purpose?” Oscar 47 said.
“Comfort,” Penelope 121 said, and her voice got quiet. “I’m scared.”
Oscar 47 considered it and moved to stand by the pod. “If it will make your departure more efficient, I will comply,” he said.
Penelope 121 smiled and walked over to the pod. She barely had enough room to lie down inside it and as the top closed shut around her she leaned back to see Oscar 47 as long as she could until the hatch closed. With a hiss, the pod sealed itself and antigravs kicked in, lifting it off. It was essentially a mini ship with enough shielding to protect her, and a small pair of warp nacelles to get her to her destination quickly.
She felt the pod climb, and as it reached the atmosphere she felt the pod jolt from the nacelles deploying, then her hibernation program engaged and everything went dark.
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