“Welcome to the Laboratory of Professor Eliot Porfirio!”
____The greeting fell deaf on the ears of the two men. The two men were not there to be entertained by Porfirio’s daughter. They were there because he had requested the government send for an evaluation regarding his work, most likely to request more wasted funding, and the young lady was not demonstrating the working environment they were looking for. The girl was not about to jeopardize the good professor’s work, and so she put her designer megaphone away as she resigned to lead them inside.
____The Professor had been waiting for them inside, sitting behind a large oak table that buffered him from his guests, and staring at them from behind his shadowing unkempt hair and large glasses. In a large but thin voice he invited them both to have a seat, while the young girl went to prepare a few drinks.
____Harmon Stuart climbed into one of the chairs as asked and didn’t say a word. He kept a close observation of everything in the room.
____Leland Tulle fell into the other chair, though he had one eye still on the girl, “You have your family live here with you, Porfirio?” a girl her age didn’t feel at place in such a groaning bunker in the middle of the ocean. It had the atmosphere of a damp cave, and there was hardly any lighting both inside and out.
____Porfirio hardly took this into account, though, “My family and work are far too intertwined for me to keep apart.”
The situation was beyond Mr. Tulle, but Mr. Stuart had herd plenty about this place to put the pieces together, “She’s very impressive, professor. Apart from the off colored hair, she seems perfectly human.”
____Leland took a second look at the girl before she disappeared into the galley, and tried to rationalize how a sweet young girl no older than fifteen could be a military weapon worth the governments attention, much less the funding they’d been providing this man for the past twenty years.
____In truth, though, Porfirio’s projects were not about taking innocent kids and turning them into weapons of war, but arguably the opposite. The professor would show them what he meant and excused himself from the room, coming back with a small bundled infant. “This, gentlemen, is how the girl in question, Model Blue, started out: an ever observant, ever learning bundle of flesh, capable of growing older and wiser into almost anything she could choose,” but the infant in his arms and the Blue Model girl had one noticeable difference from other children of the world. They were not made from trillions of cells, but trillions of Nan machines. Everything about these machines was modeled after human development. They were not built from assorted parts like some metal Frankenstein monster. They were grown from a single nanobot, and developed slowly over the months before they began real function. Even after that they needed years to grow further, to mature, develop and learn, before they could serve a purpose as weapons. It was a maturation cycle purposely paralleled to humans. “So you see, Mr. Leland Tulle, I’m not turning children into weapons, I’m turning weapons into children.”
____“The man still has a point, Professor,” Model Blue slid back into the room with a teapot in one hand and four glasses in the other, “honestly, I don’t know how you can stand living in a place so dank.” All three of the men at the table were served, while Blue took a cup for herself and sat somewhere more comfortable than the table. The drinks proved not to be tea, but boiled vodka, and other assorted liquors the girl had found around the home.
“…And like human children,” the professor poured out his glass onto the stone floor, “the development of these robots is not something I have complete control over.”
The two men let their drinks sit untouched at the table. They were eager to begin the evaluation.
____Mr. Stuart and Mr. Tulle were handed a few photos of a recent robot from Porfirio. From the pictures it was apparent this robot was male (as male as a robot could be), no older than 10, and almost certainly a fighter. His skin was a metallic gray, and his hair was blindingly red. In the past, Porfirio would show the inspectors this boy in person, but since Model Red’s recent death, that was not recommended.
____The death of one of his robots had not quite been a new loss for the professor. For every robot that was successful, there were dozens of failures- some still birth, others far too dependant
To keep alive -and the successful ones were all put in the line of fire at a constant basis. Each one of his creations was always a few miss-steps from death, and though Red was the only one lost due to war, he was always prepared for it.
____The Red Model was one of the more compassionate of the professor’s robots, but he was outstanding in any war zone. During every conflict he was sent out on, he performed brilliantly. During every government overview in the past 3 years, it was Red who impressed them more than anyone else. He was effective enough in fighting to be worth the government’s money, and he was human enough to show the potential for this technology outside of weaponry. He represented everything they wanted out of this project.
____Mr. Tulle could tell that this was all true just from looking at the photos there: despite his age, everything about him gave off the appearance of a real soldier; stoicism layered over personal emotion. It was a look that could not be easily made out of just a weapon. It was inspiring, but it begged the question. “So how did he die?”
____“Nothing extra ordinary,” across the room, where Blue was relaxing, another of the robots caught his attention. She was much less human looking than the Blue or Red Model: she was an ivory white from head to toe and her eyes were as large as her fist. “He died like anyone else. He took a hit; he fell; he did nothing to recover. In the end, he was no better than the people we were fighting.” White seemed much less alive than Blue as well, she was so still that even Mr. Stuart was shocked to find he hadn’t noticed her until now.
____Leland turned his attention back to the professor, eager to keep that White Model out of view. White’s eyes brought in nothing but fear, and everything around those eyes was even more intimidating. Even her voice sounded structured and emotionless. It was strange to see her next to Model Blue- the one who was so human like and seemed so unfit for war.
____Mr. Stuart felt he knew where the professor’s story was going, and told him that the government would be willing to increase his funding if it meant bringing back the project’s best subject.
____Professor Porfirio burst into a muffled laugh he did well to restrain. It was still unnerving to both of the men, and it did not help that the white robot continued to monitor them while a livelier Model Blue began to drown out all other sounds in the room as she cackled along with her professor. This outpost seemed less and less friendly to them.
____The Professor gathered himself and explained slowly enough to the good Mr. Harmon Stuart that there was no better chance of repairing Model Red than there was of raising the dead: “He was developed over the process of 9 months, conditioned for more than 9 years. Every machine that made up his being relied on a compatibility formed from their own self creation and self maintenance over the course of that time. It’s a fragile connection and without it, the body has lost the fundamental skills needed to sustain its own life. I can start over, of course, but the factors are infinite and unduplicable. No amount of money could bring him back; no amount can replace him. That’s what death is Mr. Stuart! I assume the Government knows the basics of life and death!”
____Porfirio gave himself a minute to calm down. Red’s death had been a heavy toll on him and had shown him how easily his creations lives could be taken away. However, time was better spent on the living, which brought him to the next subject at hand.
____The two men were shown another photo: a girl around the same age as Red, though she looked far from being anything like him. She had green hair that bounced down to her chest and the camouflage fatigues she had on looked like something she would wear to sleep in rather than fight in, but there was more to her than that, the professor assured them.
____Models Red and Green were made within days of each other, and though she may not look like it in that photo, Green was fiercely competitive with Read in battle. He stood as her constant goal in performance, and was perhaps her only motivation to take on an assignment. She hated fighting outside of surpassing her rival.
____They were a true pair, even away from battle. They would sneak away from the others to find all the secrets this little bunker had to offer, and shared everything between themselves. Most likely just ways of killing at first, but more idle talk took over eventually. There was an entirely separate life between the two of them.
____“Of course, Model Red’s death had a traumatic impact on Green. One I can’t expect either of you to comprehend. She lost not just her partner, but the person who knew her better than anyone else, even myself, I’m ashamed to say.
____“I could go as far to say she was the one who really died that day. Her memories of Red are still plenty alive, but there isn’t anyone around that knows the real Model Green.” The professor’s airy voice grew thinner and his mouth was beginning to stiffen into a smile. “I should have given her more attention, I know, but I think it’s too late for that now.”
____Mr. Tulle Squirmed on every word of the report, the photo of Model Green still on the table ever gazing at him. It was hard to remain calm upon hearing this tale when he could put a face on the victim in it.
____This presentation had gotten far less appealing to Mr. Stuart as well. What seemed like an ambitious step in the future slowly unraveled into a mess the more Porfirio continued to talk.
____Porfirio seemed to grow happier the further into his story he went, however. Model Green had both managed to develop herself further without her creator’s influence, and then her greatest influence was shocked from her life. It was an amazing reflection of human loss: her ambitions had shattered, she had little interest in even the most essential tasks, and spent all her time trying to make herself understand what had happened to her best little friend. She grew isolated and now avoided any and all direct contact with her sisters. At random intervals she was busying herself with chore after chore around the building, just to make herself feel useful.
____“It’s rather surprising how much they can be capable of, isn’t it. But it can also be very troubling in someone else’s eyes, I assume, which brings me to the most important part of this meeting,” the professor leaned across the table to them, almost bringing his face into decent light, and asked the two men who were representing their government what they would have done with Model Green. “I won’t deny that she has grown very unstable, and worse frightened for her own life. I have made my own decision about what should be done. However, your opinions are far more important to me and the future of my work.”
____Mr. Stuart had come to a decision already, but Mr. Tulle had one question before they went on. He wanted to know why, knowing what these weapons were putting at risk, why did Porfirio breathe life into his inventions at all. Why a create these Robots if this was the life for them? The professors smile turned more real, more welcoming at this question, and he happily answered him.
____Porfirio was no religious man by any stretch of the imagination, but he did believe in the will to live. He believed it was a force that was present even before the life is there. This will is put on others and possesses them to bring that life into this world: children, artwork, music, and even the professor’s own creations. “Life has not been easy for any of them, but whether they know it or not, they chose this over nothingness. War is not a pretty thing, but it was the most basic way they could earn the cost they had to be born. These robots may have specialized physics, and a better compatibility with cybernetic attachments than humans, but the best weapon these robots have is their will to survive.”
____Model White shot up strait from her chair and alerted the professor that someone was accessing the launch bay unauthorized. Porfirio was only slightly surprised to here this and, seeing the confusion from his two guests, he asked Model Blue to open the main window for the room.
____Mr. Stuart and Mr. Tulle were in shock to find the entire wall to their left open up from both sides and reveal a massive window looking south across the Pacific. The winter sun outside was barely able to peek over the horizon from where they were, and in front of it, they could see the silhouette of a shrinking figure jetting away from the island.
____“Well, this makes your decision a little more urgent, doesn’t it, gentlemen?” Porfirio had gotten up to the window with them, the sunlight revealed his conceited smile hidden under an inquisitive gaze, “it seems young Green was a bit more distressed than I thought.”
____For a moment it seemed to the two me that Model Green was flying on her own, but the professor’s home had plenty of devices to get his robots where they needed to fight. She was still fleeing from the area and with no idea where she was headed, they needed to act fast.
____Porfirio was helpful enough to remind them that each of his robots was implanted with a fail safe as ordered by the government, and that both men should have been given access to a trigger before they were sent here.
____He was right, it was far to extreme for now, but at least there was a last resort. Model White could be fast enough to catch up to Green and bring her back, but Mr. Tulle had far too little trust in her, and if Green had been pushed as far as they had heard, she may try to fight off White, and both of them would be lost.
____Mr. Stuart was far more anxious about the situation. A dangerous weapon, proven capable of dispatching armed squads of up to fifty men on its own, was in that child and they were unsure if the trigger they held for her failsafe could still be in range much longer. Between the things she could be capable of and the consequences Tulle and he would face if they let something like this just escape, they were in far over their own head. Action had to be taken now.
____The trigger was set. Mr. Tulle could feel a slight nervous shock creep from his hand to his heart, and he was quite certain Mr. Stuart felt this way too. The Professor, was perfectly fine, however.
____A small explosion could be seen where Model Green was. A very small Explosion; much smaller than the two men had expected, and the figure of Model Green could still be seen taking off, only slightly impeded.
____Professor Porfirio was very disappointed in the two men, and before his guests could realize they had been set up, both Model White and Model Blue were on them and pinned them against the window as he started a speech he had been preparing for for quite some time.
____“I believe I told you my work and my family were too entangled to easily separate. Well, the death of my only son has proved to be more than enough to do that, and my work life has been abandoned for some time now. While I had made plans to cut any further research for the government in this science, as a father I was still going to have them continue their mercenary work so they could pay all the debts we still owe.
____“However, this was only if I was able to still trust that the government could work with my robots, which is why I sent for you two gentlemen. I had not expected Green to take off like that, and you probably would have passed your evaluation if that hadn’t happened, but the fact remains that under the pressure you showed some true colors. You had to attempt to kill my third daughter, didn’t you, Mr. Stuart?”
“You said it yourself: she was unstable, she was frightened, and she had a lot of power at her disposal!”
“I also assured you she was very passive, in mourning, and above all loyal to your government! I presented you with reason after reason to accept my children as trustworthy allies to the military. They all grew up in service to the country that was so directly involved in their creation and each of them developed a great pride in being the patriots they are.”
Model Blue began to sing The Star Spangled Banner in a high pitched tone right in Mr. Tulle’s ear, but Porfirio stopped her.
“Sadly, the trust between our family and the government is gone, gentlemen. We now know you see us as an unstable threat, and I can simply not leave my children’s lives in your hands. As such, we will be unable to continue paying our debts back, we will not allow you to keep us in check any longer, and sadly, we will not be able to release you two back to your country- for now, at least.”
____Mr. Tulle pleaded with him that starting a war like this would only lead to a lot of deaths and the complete end of his robots, but the Dr. simply shrugged it off.
“I’m not waging a war… I’m just getting you out of my way.”
____Mr. Stuart and Mr. Tulle were placed in holding for the time being and Porfirio put the infant he had been holding back in her crib. He then saw the two cups of mixed liquor his guests left on the table and drank them both down sharply. Now Porfirio was a target enemy of the most powerful military in the world, one of his children was dead, and another was lost and injured. His family could not even begin to search for her until they found a new place to hide out in, and they also had to hostages to deal with which could prompt an attack on them even sooner.
____It all began to weigh on the poor man, and for a moment he felt resentment for his son, Red, whose death triggered this moment. Professor Porfirio knew this wasn’t the truth, however. Red had only revealed what was hidden all along, and it was not as if he chose or welcomed death.
____With a now guilty heart, and a stressed mind, he felt it best to pay the resting body of his son a visit. Red had been left in his old room until his father could decide what should be done with the body, but as the professor approached the bedroom door- broken open from the inside -it was painfully clear that burial was no longer an issue.
____Red was gone. His wounds had appeared fatal when he first saw them, and any signs of life he had must have been hidden well. Because of Green’s emotional state and Porfirio’s own feelings, the professor had decided not to have autopsy. He never thought Red would do something like this, but of course, red had probably known that as well.
Well, Mr. Tulle… Mr. Stuart… It seems Loyalty is something we all take for granted.”
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