specific functions. He also served as Mother's eyes and ears when the children left the safety of her hull. Using line-of-sight communication, Mother directed Guardian's physical actions with her own superior abilities.
The children were out of range of Mother's sensors though, and so would Guardian once she sent him to rescue the children. Guardian would be on his own. He would have to adapt to the flow of the coming fire-fight deep underground.
He would have to rescue the children alone.
Mother began to erase a large segment of Guardian's code. A large portion of it had been for aiding in the training and interacting with the children while on board. That would not be needed right now.
Mother felt her main processors begin to overheat as they reached one hundred percent activity. All throughout her systems, she focused her processes on only a few dozen necessary tasks.
The main task was reprogramming Guardian.
Even as she bent her systems to this task, the odd feeling increased in intensity, burning within her processors, causing her mental discomfort—her memories were shouting at her now. She was only a machine, not a mother. She wasn't even good at being a machine. Due to her mistake, her weakness, the T'kaan had captured the children .
Now she was creating Guardian in her image, as much as his limited hardware would allow. Was she doing the right thing? He troubled thoughts increased.
Am I a real being? Or just a machine? She had been primarily designed to destroy the T'kaan. But as the years of her life had passed, Mother had realized she wanted more. No, that she needed more.
She loved probing the vast human knowledgebase. It had shown her so much beauty, so much about life.
Music, science, literature, art and more.
Mother had begun to change. Perhaps that is why the T'kaan had trapped her children so easily this day. So much of her processes were involved in these other activities of learning and self-exploration.
But she did not want to be just a killing machine.
She wanted to live. She wanted more.
Mother put these thoughts into background mode. She could not stop them, but she had to put them on a lower priority thread. Focusing on her primary task, Mother downloaded selected battle algorithms as well as her best adaptive, self-learning subroutines.
Guardian needed them to complete this dangerous task.
Fixer5 arranged the weapons across Guardian's seven-foot body. Five assault blasters—three still holstered across his chest and one for each hand. Around his waist the small robot attached a belt that held eight more blaster pistols. Fixer5 himself would carry the extra charges. Standing to one side, Fixer5 stood mutely and waited for Guardian's command as directed by Mother.
Five minutes later, Guardian's memories were fully loaded and could not take another line of code. His eyes suddenly glowed bright red as he disconnected himself, like an umbilical cord being cut and freeing the newborn.
Raising both assault blasters, the giant robot began walking methodically toward the darkened door of the T'kaan complex.
“Come,” Guardian commanded Fixer5.
Chapter Eleven
Mother lost contact with Guardian as he reached the first underground level—just as the T'kaan began firing at him.
Guardian realized he had lost communication with the lifeblood of his essence. The faint glow of intelligence that was Mother faded immediately with the neural connection as the massive concrete structure of the complex interfered along with the edge of the T'kaan dampening field.
Now his new programming took over. Guardian's battle algorithms were his instincts. He still could not think. He did not have Artificial Intelligence as Mother had, but he was so close. For the first time in his short existence, he realized he almost was.
The blistering bolts from the T'kaan blasters shook his first, unborn thought away before it could be fully formed.
Crouching, his red eyes glowing brightly in the dense darkness, he
The children were out of range of Mother's sensors though, and so would Guardian once she sent him to rescue the children. Guardian would be on his own. He would have to adapt to the flow of the coming fire-fight deep underground.
He would have to rescue the children alone.
Mother began to erase a large segment of Guardian's code. A large portion of it had been for aiding in the training and interacting with the children while on board. That would not be needed right now.
Mother felt her main processors begin to overheat as they reached one hundred percent activity. All throughout her systems, she focused her processes on only a few dozen necessary tasks.
The main task was reprogramming Guardian.
Even as she bent her systems to this task, the odd feeling increased in intensity, burning within her processors, causing her mental discomfort—her memories were shouting at her now. She was only a machine, not a mother. She wasn't even good at being a machine. Due to her mistake, her weakness, the T'kaan had captured the children .
Now she was creating Guardian in her image, as much as his limited hardware would allow. Was she doing the right thing? He troubled thoughts increased.
Am I a real being? Or just a machine? She had been primarily designed to destroy the T'kaan. But as the years of her life had passed, Mother had realized she wanted more. No, that she needed more.
She loved probing the vast human knowledgebase. It had shown her so much beauty, so much about life.
Music, science, literature, art and more.
Mother had begun to change. Perhaps that is why the T'kaan had trapped her children so easily this day. So much of her processes were involved in these other activities of learning and self-exploration.
But she did not want to be just a killing machine.
She wanted to live. She wanted more.
Mother put these thoughts into background mode. She could not stop them, but she had to put them on a lower priority thread. Focusing on her primary task, Mother downloaded selected battle algorithms as well as her best adaptive, self-learning subroutines.
Guardian needed them to complete this dangerous task.
Fixer5 arranged the weapons across Guardian's seven-foot body. Five assault blasters—three still holstered across his chest and one for each hand. Around his waist the small robot attached a belt that held eight more blaster pistols. Fixer5 himself would carry the extra charges. Standing to one side, Fixer5 stood mutely and waited for Guardian's command as directed by Mother.
Five minutes later, Guardian's memories were fully loaded and could not take another line of code. His eyes suddenly glowed bright red as he disconnected himself, like an umbilical cord being cut and freeing the newborn.
Raising both assault blasters, the giant robot began walking methodically toward the darkened door of the T'kaan complex.
“Come,” Guardian commanded Fixer5.
Chapter Eleven
Mother lost contact with Guardian as he reached the first underground level—just as the T'kaan began firing at him.
Guardian realized he had lost communication with the lifeblood of his essence. The faint glow of intelligence that was Mother faded immediately with the neural connection as the massive concrete structure of the complex interfered along with the edge of the T'kaan dampening field.
Now his new programming took over. Guardian's battle algorithms were his instincts. He still could not think. He did not have Artificial Intelligence as Mother had, but he was so close. For the first time in his short existence, he realized he almost was.
The blistering bolts from the T'kaan blasters shook his first, unborn thought away before it could be fully formed.
Crouching, his red eyes glowing brightly in the dense darkness, he
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