Doctor Who_ Corpse Marker - Chris Boucher [14]
Leek had already seen the group from the tribe of the storm cloud emerging from behind a low square blockhouse. There were ten of them and they were marching quickly in a two-by-two formation. They looked much more disciplined and determined than the ones she had so far faced and she was tempted to fight them as a matter of pride, but she knew that was not a good enough reason to kill. Another group, eight this time, appeared from the opposite direction. It was beginning to feel like a trap.
Padil pulled at her arm. ‘Come on, Leela. This way.’
Reluctantly, Leela allowed herself to be led through a maze of pathways and then out across a patch of open ground to a place where a large gap had been cut in the high perimeter fence.
As she watched Padil duck through the gap Leela was already wondering how it was that the other woman had followed the complicated route so easily and without hesitation, and why they had not been pursued by any of the members of the tribe of the storm cloud.
Its first crisis had happened when it had been told TO BE WHAT IT
WAS FOR. Perhaps it had already been told what it was for and had not understood TO BE.
The development laboratory was deep underground and was classified as a level seven security zone. That made it so secret that it had no official existence. Humans had not been involved in the basic installation, which had been carried out to an unremarkable, off-the-shelf design by robots that were subsequently and routinely serviced. Thus it was that nothing had been done to arouse curiosity and none of the construction details remained in the memory storage of any of the actual builders.
Once the fully equipped underground rooms were completed the hidden access could be put in under the guise of building maintenance by robots that were serviced quickly but not so quickly as to arouse suspicion. After that the completely self-contained living quarters were surreptitiously stocked out by Supervocs, which then remained within the laboratory as support and supply workers.
A small group of top robotics engineers were secretly offered the undreamed-of opportunity to do research in a previously forbidden field. They all accepted eagerly and readily locked themselves away in the hidden complex.
Working with plans and schematics which had been found in Taren Capel’s cabin on Storm Mine Four, it had not taken the development team long to duplicate his breakthrough and refine it to the point where it was optional and fully reversible.
In doing this, the team deliberately ignored the official developmental line despite its having produced an experimental model that showed remarkable potential. That robot had even gone undercover as a Dum, designated D84, and had been partially responsible for bringing the renegade Taren Capel to book. The problem was that in attempting to extend robot capabilities, the standard research line was tending to produce idiosyncratic machines that showed elements of individuality and potentially dangerous unpredictability.
It was felt that the perfect robot should have all the most advanced capabilities, but have them available to be triggered only on instruction. The capacity to go from simpler than the simplest Dum to more advanced than the most complex Supervoc without, crucially, the robot itself being aware of the change was the challenge the team set itself. To achieve this ideal every level of control had to be accessible.
Taren Capel had found a destructive way to access and alter a fundamental limitation in all robots. The tech team set about removing the destructive element and carrying Taren Capel’s discovery to its logical conclusion. In SASV1 they were building the ultimate robot. At least that’s what they thought they were building.
Its second crisis happened when it had been told NOT TO BE
WHAT IT WAS FOR. Perhaps it had already been told what it was for and had not understood NOT TO BE.
It understood TO BE now. NOT TO BE was more complex.
Poul slumped back in his chair and yawned. He didn’t know why he was so tired, he