Written from an RP where the science team leader invited Khim to be a guinea pig for some droid-control tech. He ends up in full control of a giant robot, and things of course don’t go as planned.
It’s 1400 words, so... mobile users please forgive me. Suggestions on how to post stories are appreciated.
Khim’s red eyes widened and his face was overtaken with surprise as he stepped onto the lab’s roof, where a massive four-legged robot filled his vision. He had been expecting a technology test, not a battle mech showcase. Rhiacih kept walking ahead of Khim and Aspecta, motioning casually to the metal monster.
“This is just something I put together, what we’re really testing is the remote-control system I’ve been working on for a month. See? I told you it would make more sense once you saw it.”
The chiss snapped out of his bewildered look and caught up to Rhi while Aspecta oohed over the robot. The armored scientist stopped at a complicated-looking console and pointed to the ominous looking chair that was nestled in a cove of machinery and technology Khim didn’t recognize.
“Basically, this machine is going to allow you to project your brainwaves directly to the droid.”
Khim furrowed his brows.
“Wait, project my brainwaves? You mean I’ll be controlling this thing with my mind?”
“Is this safe? It’s not dangerous, is it?” Aspecta piped up from behind the chiss.
Rhiacih just shrugged, doing nothing to alleviate the freckled hunter’s concern.
“It should be. It miiight hurt a little but probably nothing more than that.”
Aspecta tugged on Khim’s shirt, looking up at him nervously. “Don’t die, okay? And stop the experiment if it gets too bad.”
The chiss smirked back at her. “I’ll be fine, Speck. Rhi’s good at what she does. You don’t have anything to worry about.” He glanced at the gadget-encircled chair again. “Probably.”
At Rhi’s instruction, he climbed up into the chair and sat down, now eye-to-optic with the hulking automaton in front of him. His slight smile as he waited for Rhi didn’t let on any hint of nervousness for Aspecta to notice, and he wanted to convince himself he wasn’t nervous either, but he couldn’t stop his mind from following its never-ending protocol to plan for every possibility.
He quickly ruled out plans for the scenario where the machine fried his brain upon activation—that didn’t need further investigation. His thoughts jumped to scenarios where the robot did nothing, where it rampaged through the lab, where it exploded, where it managed to kill either of the two friends down below, or where it simply did as it was supposed to and obeyed his every projected command.
The cascading fractal trees of thoughts abruptly paused when he realized Rhi was talking to him.
“Okay, I’m going to turn the machine on now. After that, just focus on telling the robot what you want it to do with your mind and let’s see what happens!”
He nodded to her and gave a thumbs-up before gripping the armrest again.
“Fire it up.”
The moment Rhiacih entered the command to activate the machine, Khim felt like a vice had clamped down on his brain. He winced—it wasn’t that bad, he could go on—and looked at the mechanical monster in front of him.
Focus. He remembered how to do that, right?
The branching fractals of earlier thought were shoved out of view as he replaced them with a single enclosed idea that filled the entire space of his mind and left room for nothing else. All the energy that had been swirling around before now powered this single thought:
Lift the robot’s head.
He almost thought he could feel it when motors moved the pistons on the the mechanical beast pulling the head up and into a more alert-looking position. Khim couldn’t help a smirk as Rhi recorded the results.
“Wow, first try! Okay, try lifting its paw.”
Khim nodded without breaking eye contact with the machine, and his smile faded as he continued to hold his focus and telegraph the command. Almost instantly, the robot’s clawed foot lifted and landed on the ground again with a thud.
“That went well. Readings are looking good…” Rhiacih continued to give him commands to try, and he continued to puppeteer the robot with nearly perfect synchronization.
Yes, he remembered how to focus now. It was just like on a hunt, or chasing a bounty, when the task at hand pushed every other thought from his mind.
He sat, eyes unfocused, letting his natural senses take back seat to the information he was now receiving from the robot. Video feed, sensors, energy readings. He began to imagine he was the robot, since it made carrying out the commands even easier.
After several more successful tests of walking, jumping, and rearing up, it was confirmed that the control tech worked.
“Okay, that’s all the tests I really need. If there’s anything last thing you want to do with the robot, you can go ahead.”
Khim smirked and poured his focus into the control of the robot, letting it fill every corner of his mind. The mechanical beast seemed to look around before doing a little side-to-side dance that shook the floor.
“You have a giant robot to control and that’s what you decide to do with it, Khim?” Aspecta sighed with a smile.
Khim turned the robot to look at her through its optics and gave a whining mechanical nod. It moved forward smoothly and lifted a foot as though it was going to poke the small Aspecta in the chest before it relented and stepped back.
“Huh, these readings… they’re incredibly strong. Like they’re starting to get off-the-charts strong.” Rhi flicked through graphs and readouts on the console as the robot continued to follow Khim’s orders.
The monster craned its head down to look at its own foot, which it wiggled experimentally before letting out a synthesized series of bloops that may have been Khim projecting a command for speech. The whole movement of the droid shifted to become noticeably more lifelike. Rhi seemed enthralled by the change.
“These readings are crazy! It’s—” a small explosion of sparks burst from the console, abruptly turning the screens black. “It’s breaking my system. Huh. It’s so lifelike, could it be… evolving software? Could it be learning a personality?”
The robot turned its huge head to Rhi and let out a string of incoherent bloops and doots and beeps in rapid succession. Its movements started to become wilder, almost panicked. The optics focused on the chiss in the chair, and the robot paused before shuffling uneasily again.
He could see himself sitting in the chair, by why couldn’t he see the robot from the chair? He hadn’t planned for this.
Aspecta looked nervously at Khim and found him slumped in the seat, eyes focusing on nothing.
“Rhi, shut it down. I think something’s wrong.”
“What? But it’s going so well—”
“Rhi, he’s my friend, not a test subject. I don’t want him to get hurt, shut it down.” Her tone was serious, despite her small voice.
“Alright,” Rhi sighed and nodded, moving towards the power controls.
Before she could reach them, however, the panicking robot suddenly seized up with a wild synthesized beep, jerking to one side and smashing down onto the console in a shower of sparks and electrical arcs.
Khim jolted in the seat like he was waking up from a falling dream, blinking a few times. He turned to the surprised-looking scientist.
“COULD YOU NOT HEAR ME?”
“What? Hear what?”
“I was calling for help! I was kriffing… stuck or something, I couldn’t disconnect my mind from the robot!”
Rhiacih took off her helmet, staring at the only-slightly-hyperventilating chiss.
“Fascinating…”
Aspecta bounced up to the machine as Khim hopped down with a hand on his head. The feeling that his head was in a vice remained in a steady, mild headache.
“Khim! Are you alright?”
“I… yeah, Speck, I’m fine now. See? I told you it would be fine. I guess I just focused a little too much,” he smirked. He looked at the now smoking pile metal and pistons. “Sorry for uh. Crashing your robot…”
Rhi waved dismissively.
“Ah it was going to be scrapped after this anyway, used for the next project. The control mechanism is all I needed to test and that obviously works.”
Khim smiled, glad he wasn’t going to be billed for the destruction of very large scientific equipment, and that he still had his brain more or less intact after that adventure. The three then headed inside to celebrate their successful experiment with drinks, painkillers, conversation, and rest.
Khim hired Aspecta, a really short bounty hunter, to help distract a cyborg target. She ended up getting slightly rekt in the process but it worked out.
Also, a hungover chiss realizing he spent the night on the stairwell of his ship and now everything is sore.
@chroma_global_flooring and #aspecta joined forces for the amazing new product launch party at @blueprintcoffee in the famous #shadthames #london ! #bigdogagency #aspectaflooring ##chromaflooring #towerbridge #mareksikoraphotography #interiorphotography #interiorlondon #londonatnight #architecture #londondesign #flooring #interiors #interiordesign #creative (at Blue Print Cafe)
