Dark Waters

Chapter Fourteen: The Droid

Chapter Fourteen: The Droid 

  

Professor Hamil, one of the most brilliant scientists on the planet Gunt-ai, was having a really bad day.

No, actually it was more like he was having a bad week to begin with.

He remembered being alone in his laboratory, peacefully working  on new his new invention, the Mentawave device, a gadget that enhanced brain power and allowed the wearer to manipulate objects with their mind, when the esteemed General Blanque, High Commander of the Federation army, visited him.

It seemed that the General had read about one of his earlier patents, the Teleportal device.

It was a machine he designed capable of transporting beings from planet to planet as a way to promote peace.

But General Blanque was more interested about the 'military' applications of such a device, especially how it will allow the Federation access inside an enemy home base or planet without even having to breach the defenses.

Naturally, the professor was horrified at the thought and wasted no time showing the General the door.

General Blanque ranted, raved and called him a traitor, but could do nothing else since planetary laws protected the scientist from being drafted against his will. Instead, he glared back at Prof. Hamil and told him he will bitterly regret his decision.

Something that Hamil tried to forget until two days later.

He was working alone in his lab in the middle of one of the worst electrical storms in the history of the planet when he received a distress signal from his assistant droid, Lou.

It seemed that his droid had been entangled in few cables outside and needed help in getting out. So Hamil quickly got out of his lab and into the pouring rain to help his assistant, completely forgetting that he still had the Mentawave device on his head.

The last thing Hamil remembered of the incident was helping the droid when a flash of light hit them, followed by the distant sound of thunder before everything turning black.  

When he finally woke up, he was shocked to find out that he was in the body of his assistant droid. He would later discover that the lightning that struck him caused the Mentawave device to transfer his mind to the robot.

This news pleased General Blanque since droids have no rights under the planetary laws of the Federation, and it would be just so easy to extract the data regarding the Teleportal device in the former professor's now digital memory banks.

But unfortunately Hamil did not share the general's enthusiasm of his condition and escaped the detention center before the general could go through his plans.

So here was he now, hunted in the streets of Gautani by the Federation army. He wasn't sure whether to laugh or scream at the cock and bull story Blanque fed to the public regarding his situation. The General made up a story about his droid malfunctioning during the electrical storm and killing and naturally having no witnesses to the incident, the citizens and the Federation Council believed the military commander, allowing Blanque full freedom to hunt down the so-called 'murderous machine' as the public holo-vids now calls him.

Hamil had no illusions that he would still be able to return to his original body. He had seen holo-vids of his funeral aired by the Federation's scientific community and he wasn't a fool to believe that General Blanque would leave loose ends just lying around.

He even had thoughts of just terminating his existence, really he had often wondered what happens to the AI of the droid when they terminate, but unfortunately Lou's original core programming prevented that.