Transmat World: Chapter 7, Episode 2
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Large Magellanic Cloud, planet Nebule; 897,473 B.C.
All the teasing and bullying Mundeen put up with since hatchling-hood accentuated his peevish, neurotic personality. The only reason Mundeen held a relatively high station in life is that he can do with artificial intelligence and robots what no other Kolpak can do. Mundeen was their superior in intellect, and he always felt he would have the last snort-whistle. One day he would show them, and they would pay for their disrespect. Soft cooing sounds of his mother’s lullabies as a hatchling interrupted Mundeen’s fantasy of revenge and mayhem on his fellow Kolpak. It was his communicator.
“May your hatchlings festoon the belly of a dervich,” answered Mundeen. “What is it?”
Pause. “Is this the famous robot engineer, Mundeen?” asked Stunperf.
“Yes. What do you need?” said a slightly mollified Mundeen.
“My name is Stunperf. I want you to build a robot that will give me a challenge in the hunt.”
“That will be 350,000 vorks,” said Mundeen with no hesitation.
“Okay,” said Stunperf with a lot of hesitation. It was the price of an upper class merchant home. Affordable but suprising, Stunperf has given no thought to cost until now.
“Half now and half when I’m done,” said Mundeen.
“That is agreeable. Adjustable levels of proficiency, it will look and act like a Kolpak.”
“All right.”
“And I want to leave out the artificial intelligence protocols.” A layman not familiar with robotics, Stunperf had only a vague idea of what he was asking Mundeen to do.
Mundeen used this lack of knowledge to advantage. “I can’t do that. Against the law. Prescript 42423a, Mandate 5472, Subrule 23 states standard artificial intelligence protocols shall not be deviated from upon painful death,” says Mundeen.
“You mean ‘pain of death,’” said Stunperf.
“No, painful death. It is one of the few capital offenses disallowing the criminal a choice of being hunted. One must be tortured to death… slowly,” Mundeen garnished the truth like any good hunter might, “but there is a way to get around that. Build a robot with a simulation of lack of protocols.”
“What’s the difference?”
“It will react as if lacking protocols up to the last split second before suspending harmful behavior and will cost you another 50,000 vorks.”
“Okay,” said Stunperf, “take strength, speed, and intelligence to the maximum.”
“And what material?” Mundeen inquired.
“Whatever you think is best,” replied Stunperf.
Nebule resided in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way. The entire galaxy lacked in metals, and this scarcity carried through to the planetary level. Metal was reserved for circuitry, stasis frame wire, magnets, and weapons–anywhere it was indispensable. Most structural bodies used a plastic much better than metal, and that was what Mundeen used for the framework of the “super prey” — standard enduraplast. Enduraplast boasted five times the tensile strength of steel and was almost as hard as diamond. The skin was a flexible form, slightly less durable.
Mundeen began assembly upon receipt of Stunperf’s payment. This prey would be the hardest kill of any hunter’s career. Not that Mundeen knew anything about prey or hunting. Mundeen was good at making robots. No one asked him to make robotic prey before, but he was up to the challenge. The ultimate robotic prey was what he would build. He got a little carried away, adding this and that feature, creating what would be a truly dangerous machine if it were not for the protocols. Mundeen payed special attention to the robot’s brain, making it the fastest portable computing device in the history of Kolpak technology. He added every piece of technology that would fit into a Kolpak body and be useful, including a wireless link to the Grand Network.
Mundeen admired the machine. He wanted to be like the machine–fast and strong. A method of transfer between a Kolpak brain and an artificially intelligent computer existed in an untested state. Bionic memory extraction sensors were recently perfected. The engineer decided to overlay his brain pattern on that of his cybernetic creation. Now was the time to put everything together. It would still have protocols, but also the flavor of his personality and character; his proxy, able to do all the things he could not. Memories tapped into during maintenance checks would provide centoks of entertainment. No one would ever know.
Unknown to Mundeen, a jet of quasar radiation chose that time in all the time since creation to cross Nebule’s path. The electronics of the new machine were bathed in gamma radiation for the ten centuks the imprint took. This created minute disturbances in the thin layers of exotic chip material comprising the robot’s circuitry, including the fail safe Mundeen had carefully crafted. Hailed by Kolpak astronomers as a treasure trove for science, the radiation triggered the government to investigate the condition of Nebule’s ozone layer. Only the most sensitive of Mundeen’s lab instruments would have detected it, and he was not watching them. Typical of Mundeen, he is oblivious to newscasts of the stellar event. With Stunperf’s final payment received, so confident was Mundeen in his creation he had the robot delivered untested to Stunperf’s abode.
Upon receipt of the machine, Stunperf called his nestling-in-law’s hunting buddy, Versed, a notorious computer hacker with an unfortunate addiction to kree, a powerful narcotic.
“Versed, I want you to hack into my new robot’s brain and turn off the artificial intelligence protocols.”
“But Stunperf, that is against some kind of order or law or decree and there is some kind of odd penalty for — ”
“There’s half a skreechee head of kree in it for you and nobody will ever know.”
“Done deal. On my way.”
Versed’s portable computer connected wirelessly with the robot’s brain at Stunperf’s quarters, and Versed’s fingers flew over the keyboard. “I’m almost done. Where’s the kree?”
Stunperf had no idea where to score kree. “How about I give you the cash equivalent and you buy it?”
Versed’s prehensile nose searched out a two-inch-long incisor in his slackened mouth slit and sucked on it, an indication of irritation or drug withdrawal or both. “All right,” Versed hisses through a mouth stretched with tension.
“Uh, how much would that be?”
“Oh, let me see,” Versed’s fingers now drummed on the top of his triangular head, one of his rear eyelids twitched, and his proboscis tried to tie a bow knot. “Twelve hundred vorks should do it.”
Stunperf’s eyes widened, and the scales on his buttocks opened a fraction, “I had no idea it was that expensive. Are you sure?”
Versed immediately tapped on his portable computer’s keyboard, “Let me turn those protocols back on, and we’ll call it a night here.”
“Okay, I’ll pay it. Turn the robot on for a centuk so I know it’s functional.”
