Dark Waters

Chapter Eighteen: Lockdown

Chapter Eighteen: Lockdown 

  

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Execute.

Ever since he found himself stuck in the body of a machine, Professor Hamil found waking was always the same.

Logically, his feelings and his thoughts were a direct result of the imprinting of his(Hamil's) thought patterns, memories and behavioral traits in his cybernetic systems. It would have been incorrect to say he 'felt', all he had were these... ghosts of feelings. Echoes. It was more of the case that he reacted to certain stimuli as per his software specifications, and that included the way  he(Hamil) would have reacted if he had been in this situation.

That didn't mean that if he'd possessed a heart, it wouldn't have sped up as soon as his optics activated to the sight of a familiar white ceiling and that he found himself clamped into a steel wall with heavy restraints made of solid Alderaan steel seconds later.

Of course, saying he 'felt' was a much less complex definition, and it was acceptable by human approximate standards. Human interactions and actions were mostly comprised in shades of gray, in loosely defined areas where accuracy and right and wrong were all easily interchangeable. He knew that he built his droid assistant to be the most sophisticated piece of humanoid machine in existence and he had been researching the possibility of merging the human and robotic psyche, but still... he wasn't prepared for...  this.

He knew that he was a machine, despite claiming to be a sentient being. If seeing the proof of this by examining his robotic body hadn't convinced him, witnessing his funeral would have had.

But he was Hamil, too, and despite the fact that the droid was technically nothing but an empty shell housing a consciousness, part AI and part the mental blueprints of its creator, himself. He had his(Hamil's) memories and most of his capacity for feelings.

At first wondered if this was all a joke some sick experiment this colleagues had placed on him. After a mind of his caliber is bound to have jealous enemies in the scientific community.

Even without the Teleportal device blueprints in his systems, Hamil knew he was important. He probably the first one of his kind in the galaxy. A mixture of man and machine...

His internal musings were interrupted as a steel door opened and General Blanque immediately stepped inside, flanked by a guard of six of his own troops and his own personal aide, Lt Sing.

"Is awake yet?" Blanque gestured in his direction.

"Yes, General." Lt Sing replied. "The room's sensors have picked up on the droid activating half an hour ago.

"Good. Leave us."

One of the soldiers stepped forward. "Are you sure about this, General?" He frowned, peering warily at the silent robotic figure restrained on the wall with metal clamps. "That out of control monster is dangerous."

The General waved him off. "I'll be fine. The room's sensors will warn me if anything is amiss." He replied. "Now leave and do not interrupt me while I interrogate this piece of machine."

The soldiers looked doubtful but obeyed the general and left the room, leaving Professor Hamil, General Blanque inside the room.

The two of them were barely alone in the room when the droid finally spoke up. "What do you want, Blanque?"