For a moment, silence reigned the near-empty corridor that lead to the bridge, as Archimedes stood there, awaiting the command of its current active user. The Head of Engineering, Kazuhiro, looked down at his PDA, devoid of notifications besides a note from his assitant: 'Lift-off. All stations nominal.'.
"Monica, why is there a assist-bot following me around?" he asked in a stern sarcastic tone.
"I don't have any mechs assigned to you, Chief. Can you get me an ID?" the voice came clearly into the man's earpiece.
"Piece of junk, give me your ID." the man was not in the mood for a rogue bot going around and wasting his time, that was clear.
"Serial: 4-r-c-h-1-M-3-d-3-Z. Active alias: Archimedes." the robot complied immediately, its chasis uncannily static despite the delay in the innertia dampeners.
"You got that?""Yes, Chief. One moment please..." the awkward moment of silence in the hallway resumed as the man tapped one finger on the PDA impatiently
"...I have him registered to a civilian on Level 1-B. Hold on...""What now?""I just got a flag from security cameras, that thing was flying at near mach speed over the Hub, Chief."The man rose his sight from the PDA and stared at the lumbering piece of steel that had identified itself as Archimedes, raising one eye brow in disbelief.
"Security has it flagged? Perfect, then this thing is their problem now." he said while opening a connection to the ship's register of employees, filtering it to Security Personnel, and then picked the first name that came up.
"Min-jae Jeong, security guard, perfect." he mumbled to himself and then turned to the machine,
"Archimedes, your new administrator is Min-jae Jeong, go help them."A second of silence was accompanied by a tiny hourglass icon on Archimedes display.
"Invalid Operation. User lacks the required priviledges to assign administrator priviledges." another moment of silence as Kazuhiro's eye twitched in irritation,
"Awaiting instructions from SubAdministrator Kazuhiro Okasaki?" Who could possibly have designed an AI so infuriatingly dedicated to annoy its user? Surely this thought must have gone through Kazuhiro's mind as he stared at Archimedes.
"Fine. Let's try this then. Archimedes, my instructions are to locate Min-jae Jeong and follow their instructions until further notice." A brilliant use of the machine's logic against itself, worthy of a head engineer.
"Instruction verified. Activating Protocol[3]." was what could be barely heard by the man, as the Archimedes swiftly turned on its place, pivoting over one magnetized leg, and lifted off the ground with the buzzing of the Ion Cannon.
"Chief! Incoming..." was what Monica had been screaming in his ear when the first salvo of
Devastator fire hit them, making the ship shudder and sending Kaz to the ground.
"Fuck! Status report..." the man resumed, looking in dread at Archimedes flight taking off.
The screen flashed with orange and silver icons, a mere relic of the past, in case someone needed a graphical interface to understand Archimedes' "thought process". Icons indicating height, speed, angle of entry and exit; in short, the perfect route straight into the main HUB, and from there to find Min-jae. That part was presenting a problem for Archimedes, as the ship's AI, Noah, fervently refused it access to its user database. But just as Archimedes about to declare the course of action an infinite loop, a ping came into the system. Sure, Noah was refusing access to the military personell, but it couldn't block broadcasts on the transportation system. And that's were Min-jae's user had triggered an emergency override.
The two dots that had finally reapeared on Archimedes' "face" now turned semi-circles, cut across in an attempt to make an "angry face". Pathetic, whoever programmed it must have been short of time or completely neglected aesthetics. Alas, with the processing finished, boosters engaged at full speed, the path being plotted live, straight through the quaking ship, as the second round of salvos arrived.
“Requesting a team near sector 2B, at the viewport. Civilians need to be escorted to the hub or the living quarters.” was what Min-jae was relaying into his radio, before turning back to controlling the distressed civilian. Archimedes had finally tapped into the correct radio frequency, and after making a quick adjustment to it's route it took only a couple minutes to arrive to the specified area. It was a complicated landing, as Archimedes piloted its slowing decent into the sea of people.
"Sector 2B. Target Min-jae located." the ominous announcement unnerved more than a few, who opened way to the officer.
"User Min-jae located. Protocol[3] - Caretaker in place. Do you require assistance, User Min-jae?
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