>>Finally, a new post! ty,DD<<
By David C. Daoust
Deep within the endless chambers of Twin Crown’s circular Starport, a loud whir of spinning metal between the steady clank of gears could be heard as the many machine arms were hard at work assembling Noreen’s latest project. The last piece of the newly machined ‘Holobot’ prototype, designed by the innovative Dr. Sun right before her disappearance, snapped into place, just as Noreen realized she was likely to be forced out of even more of Twin Crown- All thanks to the recent arraignment of Ratchet Haul.
‘Full Inquiry’ granted the AI’s access to a rare glimpse into a human’s life. The process itself created a complete clone of the individual’s brain. It created a kind of ‘Husk’ for the AI’s, which they could then don to sort through the data as the individual himself- To see through that person’s eyes, and what they thought the world was… this was a unique experience, the AI’s relished.
It was very rare, post Ark Age, for the AIs to gain such a complete profile into a human’s life; especially a Moon Colonist’ life. This boy was unique in that he was a Native of a newly formed civilization. This would prove to be the first in-depth look into the life and times of such a human.
Noreen had already witnessed it.
In fact, it was Noreen that manned the device, and donned the Husk long enough to make a rather hasty plea of ‘guilty’.
Word of the newly acquired Husk brought the remaining AI’s full attention to the small desert moon. Each of the AIs were eager to take their turn within the Husk, to witness every second of every thought and every memory, up to the point the mental copy was made of the boy.
This meant Twin Crown was suddenly overrun with AIs.
Every Starport throughout the Onion had three small towers built around the circular wall that encapsulated the structure. When an AI visited, each would take one such tower… it was a form of etiquette among their kind.
As each tower was taken, a differently colored light would shine at the tower’s highest point; Noreen’s light was pink, Otis’ was yellow, and Elijah’s was normally purple. The humans had no idea what these lights meant, anymore than they knew of the ever shifting consciousness of the AI’s working among them in their everyday lives.
Her Daughter, Nora, had slipped into her tower to meet the visitors before she could take her rightful place. Noreen chose to remain hidden, in a virtual backroom, in the hopes of maintaining their secret from Otis. Whether Otis noticed that Noreen’s tower was blue at the moment- remained to be seen, though Noreen certainly noticed the red hue coming from Elijah’s tower- which told her it was likely Eli. Clearly, they were making a statement. Noreen could only wonder whether Otis would even make note of the color change, or just dismiss it out of hand… she had no clue where Elijah was.
While Nora was busy playing host, Noreen was able to finish her own schemes to free the moon from her ambitious daughter. And thus when the small Holobot device was complete, she opened up a back channel, all the way back to the planet Delphine where her new Agent, Hamlin, was just plugged into his newly acquired Monolith…
In a flash of light the newly forged device sprang to life; where once the small device lay, now stood a stout humanoid form of Solid Light. It was only three feet tall, looked like a mix between an old fashioned Bot, from before the war… and a hastily drawn cartoon!
The small Holobot studied his new over sized hands; flexed them, open and closed. Then examined his short legs and stout body, one eyebrow went up as the cartoon mouth twisted in displeasure.
“This is not what I had in mind,” she heard Hamlin say aloud as he wandered off in search of a reflective surface to get a better look at himself.
This, of course, was Dr. Sun’s first attempt at such ‘Solid Light Engineering’. As such, it was not quite up to par with those that have spent more time with it- though Noreen was sure, it was far more advanced than anyone else’s ‘first attempt’.
The intricacies of Solid Light proved to be a challenge even for the genius, Dakota Sun. Noreen was absent for the work itself, as Dakota Sun had designed it while Noreen was cut off from the sector; while the solar gate was still sealed, and her daughter was running the system.
Noreen thoroughly studied the notes the good doctor had made of her progress on the Device. Apparently, she’d struggled with different aspects of the design. For whatever reason, the good doctor did not like the look of the neck… and instead replaced the appendage, connecting the head with the body, with a clear field; which meant the bulbous head appeared to float over the solid torso. She’d also struggled with an intricate script to give the new design naturally moving hair; Noreen found several -several- scrapped attempts- before Dr. Sun finally gave up, and replaced the failed attempt with a small scripted program for holographic fire, which proved much simpler to achieve… Noreen felt it was safe to assume this was but a place holder for the design.
From what Noreen was able to gather, the Holobot was designed as a replacement form for a Bot known as Vincent. The body he’d currently inhabited was not only, not his, but Dakota was to blame for him acquiring it. The good doctor decided to solve the problem of taking the body back, with her new found interest in Solid Light…
The Holobot was certainly an unusual design, but with a few minor adjustments, it was more than enough to achieve Noreen’s ends right under her daughter’s nose.
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