Post by happyatmywork on Feb 22, 2012 21:07:25 GMT -5
I have had a good amount of time off in the past few days, so I have been doing quite a bit of inconsequential writing. I got three chapters done on a non-MSTing fanfic which I am planning on posting to Fanfiction.net when I have at least half of it done. However, I wanted to post the first chapter here to gauge the reaction. I know this is not the most frequented board, but I figured I would at least give it a shot.
This is a tad dramatic, mostly because I feel I am better at that than comedy writing. It is mostly about the development of Joel's relationship with the robots. I know it's been done, but I hope to give a new spin on it. I want to continue post-SOL with Joel facing the consequences of his creations being the only ones of their kind, and a world that does not understand this love for them. I also explore how Mike and the bots were changed from their forays to the edge of the universe (hint: think Doctor Who).
Here is the first chapter. If you like, I'll report when I post it on FF.net. If you don't like, constructive criticism is appreciated.
CHAPTER 1 - Weird Science
Joel never thought he could feel as sorry for himself as he had on the past month. However, for the first time in his fairly happy life, he had a fleeting thought about ending it all.
The thought was quickly expelled, and dismissed as a product of loneliness, but Joel knew in his rational mind he would be hard pressed to find someone in a worse situation than he was in right now. He had been shot into space against his will by two unstable scientists at Gizmonic Institute, where he worked as a janitor. Now he lived on an experimental space station which had been turned into a laboratory to see how many bad movies could drive a person (in this case him) insane. The mad scientists who initiated the experiment never said what goal they had in mind, but Joel figured it was a cross between world domination and wanting to break a guy who was in opposition to their twisted values.
That was four months, five days, ten hours, and twenty-seven minutes ago. At first, he thought if he just watched the movies given to him and then kept a positive attitude, eventually someone would find out what the made had done and he would be returned home. However, as time went on, he began to lose hope, and the fleeting suicidal thought he had just experienced was the apex of an increasingly miserable existence.
Right now he was looking out his window after having woken up to face another day -or what could pass for a day in space. He had at least twenty things he had to do in the next couple of hours in order to keep the ship running, but right now he could not bring himself to leave this room. In fact, suicide re-entered his mind when he considered just letting the tasks on the ship simply go undone so the oxygen would go unmixed and the solar panels would no longer shield from the sun's intense rays. Again, he expelled these thoughts, but shaking them loose required an almost physical effort. It was enough of a chore that he reduced himself to tears. He did not consider himself a crier before this experience, but lately it had been a common thing. Every week or so, the former janitor would look out the window and think about simply being in close proximity to another human being. His inability to do the simplest things like pick a flower, go swimming, or even give him mother a hug hurt more than he could describe.
The past four months had not been kind to Joel. Not only had his hair grown almost to his shoulders, but he had gotten much thinner. In fact, the jumpsuit the Mads still required he wear was hanging off him as if on a clothes line.
He knew the only way to get his mind of everything was to get off his ass and start working, but the whole thing seemed so pointless. He had been shot into space in a vessel which was meant for a crew of five. The size of such a ship certainly added to the loneliness, but the work did more so. The inventor pushed himself forward, vowing to take it one minute at a time. Besides, the work load would likely not last for too much longer, at least if his current plans were successful.
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The ships duties were completed about a half hour ahead of schedule, so now he had a whole two and a half hours to himself in his favorite distraction (and sometimes obsession), tinkering and building. He had been trying to design a robot to take care of the ships higher functions since the Mads did not realize or care Joel could not possibly run this ship by himself. Running all the controls was only speeding up his descent into insanity, and Joel was not going to give up without a fight. After examining the robot which operated the camera, he figured he knew how to access the ship's power and the ways to make a machine out of the tools he had a available.
After several days, he felt like he had a versatile and helpful bot designed and mostly built. Right now it was nothing more than a head, but the "mouth" was able to store any items that might need and the "eye" was a flashlight able to see into even the darkest crevices. He was eventually going to install tubing for the body, but decided to program the software first. While proud of his accomplishment, he still felt like there was something missing. As he hooked up the CPU to the main computer, he suddenly remembered something.
In his ambition to move beyond the janitorial staff, Joel had attempted to get to know several of the finest minds in the institute when it came to robotics. Inventing was a passion of Joel's, but the only thing which eclipsed this in his mind was robots. He tried to learn everything he could about them in his youth and young adulthood, and even built a good share of machines himself. However, talking to the brains at Gizmonic Institute was the first time he was introduced to having a robot with a free will and personality, and the theoretical way to achieve it.
Joel knew he was lonely and was in desperate need of someone to talk to, but he didn't know just how desperate until he started typing the algorithms for both a maintenance and free-thinking robot, without regard for the possible consequences or what the Mads would do to him.
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"Hello?" Joel asked sheepishly to the purple bot head with the single eye. He had just connected the head to a power source by long rubber tubing, as well as wired her to sync with the ship's computer systems, and now he was going to see if the programs he created worked. He decided to make it female and give her some of the personality traits of his kid sister. When thinking of a name, the first thing that popped into his head was his first pet from when he was in Kindergarten.
"Gypsy?"
Immediately, her eye lit up. She hoisted herself upward and began looking around. Almost immediately, the air in the ship warmed to a decent temperature. Joel let out a sigh of relief since this was the first of many tasks he programmed the bot to do. Based on the smoother sound of the engines and lack of bumps in the ship's orbit, Gypsy was officially a success.
At least in her main function.
Now Joel had to test her secondary function. His stomach was in knots as he mentally prepared himself for the Arminius algorithms to be a dud. True, her response to her name was encouraging, but that could be achieved with any robot. If he wanted a true companion, then she would have to respond to much more complex stimuli.
"Hello, Gypsy," Joel said as he slowly approached his creation. "My name is Joel. I'm the one who made you. Uh...welcome to the..."
"Joel!" The bot shouted in a shrill voice. The man's heart skipped a beat at the suddenness of her response. He was somewhat disappointed that his name sounded more like echolochia than natural conversation, but again, is was not a bad sign.
"Yeah, that's my name," Joel said, slower this time. "I hope we get to like each other. You see, I'm kind of stranded up here, and..."
"Friends?" Gypsy blurted out, this time in a questioning tone.
"Yeah," Joel said as he approached his creation. When she was within arms reach, he touched the area underneath her eye with tenderness. Since Joel admittedly was an introvert and not very talented in the social arena, he was a bit unsure what to do to teach a free robot what a friend was. All he could do was show affection and pray it was enough.
"What have I gotten myself into?" He uttered softly to himself.
Almost as soon as he spoke, Gypsy lunged forward and took his free hand in her mouth.
"No!" Joel shouted as he firmly hit her on the snout. "Bad Gypsy!"
She pulled back, letting go almost immediately, and hung her head.
"Sorry," she said as she swayed back and forth.
Joel sighed and rubbed her head. "Its okay, Gypsy, but you can't bite me. That hurts. Do you understand?"
There was no response from the purple robot. Joel was a bit disappointed because it looked like he would have to train up this robot as he would a toddler. All Joel wanted was someone to talk to. He wasn't looking to become a dad.
Suddenly he remembered that the higher functions of the ship might be taking up a large amount of brain capacity, which might be hampering her in some way. He reached for the dial in the back of her head and dialed down her working capacity. Immediately, the air became colder and the rumbling in the ship returned. Also, the lights went down to a point where it was barely greater than a nightlight. However, Joel couldn't bring himself to care.
"Ah, much better," Gypsy said in a much less shrill voice. "I have only been running the ship for thirty seconds and it was getting tiring. Oh, hi Joel. Don't get excited or anything, you'll still need to be a teacher. I just absorb things a lot faster when I'm not hooked up to all those engines. Have you heard of the Internet, Joel? Well, I'm tapped into it now and your language is sure complicated, but i think I can master it in a few more minutes. Just don't turn the functions on yet, okay? I mean, if there's no oxygen, obviously turn it back on, but right now you look fine, so...oi, who is Richard Basart. He looks like a real man. I..."
Gypsy was cut off by Joel throwing his arms around the robot's large head and holding her close to his chest. Before he could reign in his emotions, he let a couple tears run down his cheek. The rambling was reminiscent of his sister, whom he missed terribly, but also this proved Gypsy was able to talk and make her own conversation. Joel had succeeded, and hearing another voice on the satellite other than those of his captors was enough to make his heart soar.
"Uh, Joel? Joel?"
The man let go immediately, not wanting to scare his new creation or get himself too worked up. He learned long ago the key to surviving up here was to not let emotions become too intense. Once that happened, the success of the Mad's experiment would be imminent.
"Jeez, Joel. How long have you been up here?"
Joel let out a laugh before answering, "Four months."
"Four months? They’ve shown you twenty-three bad movies in four months?"
Joel furrowed his brow. "Wait, how did you...?"
"I have access to the ships computer, Joel, I know everything about the experiment and what the two doctors did to this ship. What took you so long to make me?"
Joel shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I guess I just hoped the guys who trapped me here would get caught."
"Not likely, Joel. Doctor Forester and Dr. Ernthart have covered their tracks pretty well. They may be insane, but they're experts at being evil."
Joel had assumed his chances of rescue were slim, but hearing it from his own creation was still a bit of a blow.
"Now, Joel. Being sad isn't going to do anything for you."
"Easy for you to say," Joel sighed. "You were made five minutes ago."
"Well, I'd you could just stop and think, you would be able to find ways to make your life easier. This ship wasn't meant to be a prison. It was made into one quite hastily."
"So, there's a way to pilot the ship back home?"
"Um...no, but there are mechanisms in which you can control when you watch the movies the Mads give you."
Joel was somewhat disappointed he was not in enough control to get home, but at least he could have freedom into his life to make him feel less like a guinea pig. If he could hide it from the Mads, this could be his salvation.
"How do I do that, Gypsy?"
"I can show you...but I actually have another recommendation for them."
"What do you mean another recommendation? This means I don't have to subject myself to a constant stream of these movies! I could actually make some semblance of a life up here."
"Yes, but that doesn't help you being stranded up here by yourself, and eventually the Mads are going to find out and make you pay for it."
"I don't care what they do to me," Joel said defiantly. "I have to be in control somehow. Besides, I have you now."
"You can't really talk to me, Joel, because I run the higher functions of the ship. You'll need others. You'll need robots who can help you keep your sanity. Even if you can't control the movies, that will do you more good than anything else."
"So you're saying I can make the parts which control the movie frequency into other robots?"
"Yes. The equipment is far more compatible with the Arminius algorithm than the computer parts you used on me. They would be more autonomous and able to join you in the theater if necessary."
Joel was about to say something else in favor of his previous plan, but he stopped himself. More companions would actually make sense, especially since Gypsy would be doing other things most of the time. Also, the Mads did keep tabs on him through a camera robot which could extend from his perch in the bridge to the theater. They could control his oxygen and often gave him painful shocks if he was not compliant. Even if he could control the movies, he would still not be in control.
"Is there any way you can cut of the Mads' control of the ship?" Joel asked in a last ditch effort to save his original plan.
Gypsy shook her head. "Sorry, Joel. The Mads have override control on this ship, and the shocks they give you come from a chip they injected in your head."
"What the hell?" Joel exclaimed as he felt the back of his head. "When did they do that to me?"
"Don't ask me, Joel, but I'm guessing it was while you were still working at Gizmonic."
The inventor sighed. A brand new anger had developed at the Mads for what they had taken from him. He almost felt like they were attempting to chip away his humanity by making him like a caged animal. Joel never saw himself as a particularly angry or vengeful person, The best thing he could think to do in response was the display the pure human trait of creativity and innovation and take Gypsy's advice.
Before he could think of a response, the red light which indicated an incoming call flashed.
"Gypsy!" Joel shouted as he grabbed the knob in her head and turned the higher functions back on. "You have to hide."
"Sure Joel, I..." she stopped and looked at something on the nearby table. "Ooo, RAM chips."
She darted forward and gobbled up the discarded RAM chips Joel left on the table. In the process she accidentally pressed the button to accept the call. Joel could have kicked himself for not asking her to hide before he turned the higher functions back on. He needed to think better in a crisis.
"Hello Joel, you weeping space animal," bellowed the voice of the mustachioed Dr. Forrester from the view screen. Beside him, as usual, was Dr. Lawrence Earnhardt, who seemed to enjoy smiling like an idiot and playing the sidekick role in the small control room they usually called from. It was always dark in said room since they were sneaking in after hours to call their ship and make sure it was still hidden. Joel was about to respond when Gypsy collided with his side almost knocking him over.
"More RAM chips?" She asked, rubbing affectionately at his side.
"Oh look, Larry," Dr. Forester said in a mock-motherly voice. "Joel made himself a little friend out of the launch seats in the engine room. How clever."
"Yeah, that's probably the closest he's come to first base since...ever." Dr. Earnhardt said with his trademark gravelly laugh. "Almost makes me warm and fuzzy inside."
"Yes, it's sweet...WHICH IS WHY I'M ORDERING YOU TO DESTROY IT!"
The final part of the statement was so loud it made the walls shake and Joel's ears ring. Still, the message hit him harder than both of those things. As Gypsy hid under his arm from the loud noise, Joel realized he could not destroy her. Something in his heart knew he would die if this creature were to no longer exist. She was the first being he had really talked to in months, and he knew he could not give her up.
"Listen, sirs," Joel said after a deep breath. "I didn't make her for what you're thinking. Just look at her, it doesn't make sense."
"Than why is it a 'her,' Boobie?"
Joel gulped. "Because she's running the higher functions of the ship. You might have noticed that the controls turned off for a while. That was me...uh...hooking her up and making sure she did everything right. I honestly have no idea why she is doing this, but it's probably when I programmed into her to come to me if anything went wrong, or if there was a loud noise or anything unusual." Joel's stomach was in his throat as he finished his explanation and the Mads remained silent. He honestly made much of it up off the top of his head.
"Joel, of all the hair-brained things I'm sure you have done in your life, this is probably the first time you have done something correct."
"What?" Dr. Earnhardt asked, indignant. "But he made a robot without our permission, and he..."
"He made a robot which we will use for ourselves once this is all over," Dr. Forester grumbled to his companion. Though he tried to be discrete, Joel could hear every word he said. "The indicators all back up his story. If the robot is powerful enough to run the entire satellite, think about what it can do to in our quest for world domination once this experiment succeeds."
Dr. Earnhardt nodded, and then a large smile spread across his face. He started laughing that annoyingly cliched laugh he and Dr. Forester always shared and then looked back at Joel through the screen. "Okay, Jolene. We'll let you keep you're little robot friend, but make sure she only does the higher functions of the ship. I don't want you two having any heart-to-hearts. Understood?"
Joel bit his tongue as he nodded. Gypsy was still standing by his side staring at some random point on the opposite wall. Her brain was clearly too occupied to notice anything happening.
"Good. Your next experiment will be Santa Claus and the Ice Cream Bunny, and it will start a eight o'clock sharp. Until then, happy orbiting where no one can find you!"
The transmission immediately cut and Joel let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding. He was not going to lose his robot after all. True, it was only because his captors wanted to use her for world domination, but this was something he could not bring himself to worry about now.
"Hey, Joel!" Gypsy said as she turned to face her maker. "Want to see the parts of the ship you can use to make more robots?"
Joel opened his mouth to say something, but looked up at the camera robot who had extended from the wall and was slowly panning the room and stopped for a fraction of a second when it focused on him.
"Oh, don't worry about him. He's on our side."
Joel furrowed his brow and looked at Gypsy. "Him?"
"Oh, yeah. Cambot likes you. He wouldn't sell you out to the Mads. He wasn't made to be loyal to them."
"The camer...Cambot has an Arminius algorithm, too?"
"Yes, but the experimental kind that is very limited. Not like the kind I have. Also, he requests to be detached from the wall at some point, whenever you can, of course."
Joel let out a slight smile and looked at the strange contraption which extended from his perch and continued to pan the room. For some reason, Joel saw something different in the way the small robot moved, almost as if he were trying to act "cool" and not look like he was listening in on a secret conversation. Joel decided to try talking to the bot and see if Gypsy was truthful.
"Um, Cambot?"
The camera immediately stopped panning and faced Joel eye-to-eye.
The man laughed at this and said, "I'll do my best to get you detached from that wall, okay?"
Cambot let out a series of beeps and moved up and down as if he was bouncing. He then darted forward and wrapped his tubing around Joel's torso. At first the man was scared, but he then realized that the small bot was hugging him. In return, he apprehensively stroked his tubing. As soon as he had come, Cambot unwrapped himself from the former janitor and retracted into the wall.
"See, told ya so,"Gypsy said from behind Joel. "So, do you have more RAM chips?"
This is a tad dramatic, mostly because I feel I am better at that than comedy writing. It is mostly about the development of Joel's relationship with the robots. I know it's been done, but I hope to give a new spin on it. I want to continue post-SOL with Joel facing the consequences of his creations being the only ones of their kind, and a world that does not understand this love for them. I also explore how Mike and the bots were changed from their forays to the edge of the universe (hint: think Doctor Who).
Here is the first chapter. If you like, I'll report when I post it on FF.net. If you don't like, constructive criticism is appreciated.
CHAPTER 1 - Weird Science
Joel never thought he could feel as sorry for himself as he had on the past month. However, for the first time in his fairly happy life, he had a fleeting thought about ending it all.
The thought was quickly expelled, and dismissed as a product of loneliness, but Joel knew in his rational mind he would be hard pressed to find someone in a worse situation than he was in right now. He had been shot into space against his will by two unstable scientists at Gizmonic Institute, where he worked as a janitor. Now he lived on an experimental space station which had been turned into a laboratory to see how many bad movies could drive a person (in this case him) insane. The mad scientists who initiated the experiment never said what goal they had in mind, but Joel figured it was a cross between world domination and wanting to break a guy who was in opposition to their twisted values.
That was four months, five days, ten hours, and twenty-seven minutes ago. At first, he thought if he just watched the movies given to him and then kept a positive attitude, eventually someone would find out what the made had done and he would be returned home. However, as time went on, he began to lose hope, and the fleeting suicidal thought he had just experienced was the apex of an increasingly miserable existence.
Right now he was looking out his window after having woken up to face another day -or what could pass for a day in space. He had at least twenty things he had to do in the next couple of hours in order to keep the ship running, but right now he could not bring himself to leave this room. In fact, suicide re-entered his mind when he considered just letting the tasks on the ship simply go undone so the oxygen would go unmixed and the solar panels would no longer shield from the sun's intense rays. Again, he expelled these thoughts, but shaking them loose required an almost physical effort. It was enough of a chore that he reduced himself to tears. He did not consider himself a crier before this experience, but lately it had been a common thing. Every week or so, the former janitor would look out the window and think about simply being in close proximity to another human being. His inability to do the simplest things like pick a flower, go swimming, or even give him mother a hug hurt more than he could describe.
The past four months had not been kind to Joel. Not only had his hair grown almost to his shoulders, but he had gotten much thinner. In fact, the jumpsuit the Mads still required he wear was hanging off him as if on a clothes line.
He knew the only way to get his mind of everything was to get off his ass and start working, but the whole thing seemed so pointless. He had been shot into space in a vessel which was meant for a crew of five. The size of such a ship certainly added to the loneliness, but the work did more so. The inventor pushed himself forward, vowing to take it one minute at a time. Besides, the work load would likely not last for too much longer, at least if his current plans were successful.
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The ships duties were completed about a half hour ahead of schedule, so now he had a whole two and a half hours to himself in his favorite distraction (and sometimes obsession), tinkering and building. He had been trying to design a robot to take care of the ships higher functions since the Mads did not realize or care Joel could not possibly run this ship by himself. Running all the controls was only speeding up his descent into insanity, and Joel was not going to give up without a fight. After examining the robot which operated the camera, he figured he knew how to access the ship's power and the ways to make a machine out of the tools he had a available.
After several days, he felt like he had a versatile and helpful bot designed and mostly built. Right now it was nothing more than a head, but the "mouth" was able to store any items that might need and the "eye" was a flashlight able to see into even the darkest crevices. He was eventually going to install tubing for the body, but decided to program the software first. While proud of his accomplishment, he still felt like there was something missing. As he hooked up the CPU to the main computer, he suddenly remembered something.
In his ambition to move beyond the janitorial staff, Joel had attempted to get to know several of the finest minds in the institute when it came to robotics. Inventing was a passion of Joel's, but the only thing which eclipsed this in his mind was robots. He tried to learn everything he could about them in his youth and young adulthood, and even built a good share of machines himself. However, talking to the brains at Gizmonic Institute was the first time he was introduced to having a robot with a free will and personality, and the theoretical way to achieve it.
Joel knew he was lonely and was in desperate need of someone to talk to, but he didn't know just how desperate until he started typing the algorithms for both a maintenance and free-thinking robot, without regard for the possible consequences or what the Mads would do to him.
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"Hello?" Joel asked sheepishly to the purple bot head with the single eye. He had just connected the head to a power source by long rubber tubing, as well as wired her to sync with the ship's computer systems, and now he was going to see if the programs he created worked. He decided to make it female and give her some of the personality traits of his kid sister. When thinking of a name, the first thing that popped into his head was his first pet from when he was in Kindergarten.
"Gypsy?"
Immediately, her eye lit up. She hoisted herself upward and began looking around. Almost immediately, the air in the ship warmed to a decent temperature. Joel let out a sigh of relief since this was the first of many tasks he programmed the bot to do. Based on the smoother sound of the engines and lack of bumps in the ship's orbit, Gypsy was officially a success.
At least in her main function.
Now Joel had to test her secondary function. His stomach was in knots as he mentally prepared himself for the Arminius algorithms to be a dud. True, her response to her name was encouraging, but that could be achieved with any robot. If he wanted a true companion, then she would have to respond to much more complex stimuli.
"Hello, Gypsy," Joel said as he slowly approached his creation. "My name is Joel. I'm the one who made you. Uh...welcome to the..."
"Joel!" The bot shouted in a shrill voice. The man's heart skipped a beat at the suddenness of her response. He was somewhat disappointed that his name sounded more like echolochia than natural conversation, but again, is was not a bad sign.
"Yeah, that's my name," Joel said, slower this time. "I hope we get to like each other. You see, I'm kind of stranded up here, and..."
"Friends?" Gypsy blurted out, this time in a questioning tone.
"Yeah," Joel said as he approached his creation. When she was within arms reach, he touched the area underneath her eye with tenderness. Since Joel admittedly was an introvert and not very talented in the social arena, he was a bit unsure what to do to teach a free robot what a friend was. All he could do was show affection and pray it was enough.
"What have I gotten myself into?" He uttered softly to himself.
Almost as soon as he spoke, Gypsy lunged forward and took his free hand in her mouth.
"No!" Joel shouted as he firmly hit her on the snout. "Bad Gypsy!"
She pulled back, letting go almost immediately, and hung her head.
"Sorry," she said as she swayed back and forth.
Joel sighed and rubbed her head. "Its okay, Gypsy, but you can't bite me. That hurts. Do you understand?"
There was no response from the purple robot. Joel was a bit disappointed because it looked like he would have to train up this robot as he would a toddler. All Joel wanted was someone to talk to. He wasn't looking to become a dad.
Suddenly he remembered that the higher functions of the ship might be taking up a large amount of brain capacity, which might be hampering her in some way. He reached for the dial in the back of her head and dialed down her working capacity. Immediately, the air became colder and the rumbling in the ship returned. Also, the lights went down to a point where it was barely greater than a nightlight. However, Joel couldn't bring himself to care.
"Ah, much better," Gypsy said in a much less shrill voice. "I have only been running the ship for thirty seconds and it was getting tiring. Oh, hi Joel. Don't get excited or anything, you'll still need to be a teacher. I just absorb things a lot faster when I'm not hooked up to all those engines. Have you heard of the Internet, Joel? Well, I'm tapped into it now and your language is sure complicated, but i think I can master it in a few more minutes. Just don't turn the functions on yet, okay? I mean, if there's no oxygen, obviously turn it back on, but right now you look fine, so...oi, who is Richard Basart. He looks like a real man. I..."
Gypsy was cut off by Joel throwing his arms around the robot's large head and holding her close to his chest. Before he could reign in his emotions, he let a couple tears run down his cheek. The rambling was reminiscent of his sister, whom he missed terribly, but also this proved Gypsy was able to talk and make her own conversation. Joel had succeeded, and hearing another voice on the satellite other than those of his captors was enough to make his heart soar.
"Uh, Joel? Joel?"
The man let go immediately, not wanting to scare his new creation or get himself too worked up. He learned long ago the key to surviving up here was to not let emotions become too intense. Once that happened, the success of the Mad's experiment would be imminent.
"Jeez, Joel. How long have you been up here?"
Joel let out a laugh before answering, "Four months."
"Four months? They’ve shown you twenty-three bad movies in four months?"
Joel furrowed his brow. "Wait, how did you...?"
"I have access to the ships computer, Joel, I know everything about the experiment and what the two doctors did to this ship. What took you so long to make me?"
Joel shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I guess I just hoped the guys who trapped me here would get caught."
"Not likely, Joel. Doctor Forester and Dr. Ernthart have covered their tracks pretty well. They may be insane, but they're experts at being evil."
Joel had assumed his chances of rescue were slim, but hearing it from his own creation was still a bit of a blow.
"Now, Joel. Being sad isn't going to do anything for you."
"Easy for you to say," Joel sighed. "You were made five minutes ago."
"Well, I'd you could just stop and think, you would be able to find ways to make your life easier. This ship wasn't meant to be a prison. It was made into one quite hastily."
"So, there's a way to pilot the ship back home?"
"Um...no, but there are mechanisms in which you can control when you watch the movies the Mads give you."
Joel was somewhat disappointed he was not in enough control to get home, but at least he could have freedom into his life to make him feel less like a guinea pig. If he could hide it from the Mads, this could be his salvation.
"How do I do that, Gypsy?"
"I can show you...but I actually have another recommendation for them."
"What do you mean another recommendation? This means I don't have to subject myself to a constant stream of these movies! I could actually make some semblance of a life up here."
"Yes, but that doesn't help you being stranded up here by yourself, and eventually the Mads are going to find out and make you pay for it."
"I don't care what they do to me," Joel said defiantly. "I have to be in control somehow. Besides, I have you now."
"You can't really talk to me, Joel, because I run the higher functions of the ship. You'll need others. You'll need robots who can help you keep your sanity. Even if you can't control the movies, that will do you more good than anything else."
"So you're saying I can make the parts which control the movie frequency into other robots?"
"Yes. The equipment is far more compatible with the Arminius algorithm than the computer parts you used on me. They would be more autonomous and able to join you in the theater if necessary."
Joel was about to say something else in favor of his previous plan, but he stopped himself. More companions would actually make sense, especially since Gypsy would be doing other things most of the time. Also, the Mads did keep tabs on him through a camera robot which could extend from his perch in the bridge to the theater. They could control his oxygen and often gave him painful shocks if he was not compliant. Even if he could control the movies, he would still not be in control.
"Is there any way you can cut of the Mads' control of the ship?" Joel asked in a last ditch effort to save his original plan.
Gypsy shook her head. "Sorry, Joel. The Mads have override control on this ship, and the shocks they give you come from a chip they injected in your head."
"What the hell?" Joel exclaimed as he felt the back of his head. "When did they do that to me?"
"Don't ask me, Joel, but I'm guessing it was while you were still working at Gizmonic."
The inventor sighed. A brand new anger had developed at the Mads for what they had taken from him. He almost felt like they were attempting to chip away his humanity by making him like a caged animal. Joel never saw himself as a particularly angry or vengeful person, The best thing he could think to do in response was the display the pure human trait of creativity and innovation and take Gypsy's advice.
Before he could think of a response, the red light which indicated an incoming call flashed.
"Gypsy!" Joel shouted as he grabbed the knob in her head and turned the higher functions back on. "You have to hide."
"Sure Joel, I..." she stopped and looked at something on the nearby table. "Ooo, RAM chips."
She darted forward and gobbled up the discarded RAM chips Joel left on the table. In the process she accidentally pressed the button to accept the call. Joel could have kicked himself for not asking her to hide before he turned the higher functions back on. He needed to think better in a crisis.
"Hello Joel, you weeping space animal," bellowed the voice of the mustachioed Dr. Forrester from the view screen. Beside him, as usual, was Dr. Lawrence Earnhardt, who seemed to enjoy smiling like an idiot and playing the sidekick role in the small control room they usually called from. It was always dark in said room since they were sneaking in after hours to call their ship and make sure it was still hidden. Joel was about to respond when Gypsy collided with his side almost knocking him over.
"More RAM chips?" She asked, rubbing affectionately at his side.
"Oh look, Larry," Dr. Forester said in a mock-motherly voice. "Joel made himself a little friend out of the launch seats in the engine room. How clever."
"Yeah, that's probably the closest he's come to first base since...ever." Dr. Earnhardt said with his trademark gravelly laugh. "Almost makes me warm and fuzzy inside."
"Yes, it's sweet...WHICH IS WHY I'M ORDERING YOU TO DESTROY IT!"
The final part of the statement was so loud it made the walls shake and Joel's ears ring. Still, the message hit him harder than both of those things. As Gypsy hid under his arm from the loud noise, Joel realized he could not destroy her. Something in his heart knew he would die if this creature were to no longer exist. She was the first being he had really talked to in months, and he knew he could not give her up.
"Listen, sirs," Joel said after a deep breath. "I didn't make her for what you're thinking. Just look at her, it doesn't make sense."
"Than why is it a 'her,' Boobie?"
Joel gulped. "Because she's running the higher functions of the ship. You might have noticed that the controls turned off for a while. That was me...uh...hooking her up and making sure she did everything right. I honestly have no idea why she is doing this, but it's probably when I programmed into her to come to me if anything went wrong, or if there was a loud noise or anything unusual." Joel's stomach was in his throat as he finished his explanation and the Mads remained silent. He honestly made much of it up off the top of his head.
"Joel, of all the hair-brained things I'm sure you have done in your life, this is probably the first time you have done something correct."
"What?" Dr. Earnhardt asked, indignant. "But he made a robot without our permission, and he..."
"He made a robot which we will use for ourselves once this is all over," Dr. Forester grumbled to his companion. Though he tried to be discrete, Joel could hear every word he said. "The indicators all back up his story. If the robot is powerful enough to run the entire satellite, think about what it can do to in our quest for world domination once this experiment succeeds."
Dr. Earnhardt nodded, and then a large smile spread across his face. He started laughing that annoyingly cliched laugh he and Dr. Forester always shared and then looked back at Joel through the screen. "Okay, Jolene. We'll let you keep you're little robot friend, but make sure she only does the higher functions of the ship. I don't want you two having any heart-to-hearts. Understood?"
Joel bit his tongue as he nodded. Gypsy was still standing by his side staring at some random point on the opposite wall. Her brain was clearly too occupied to notice anything happening.
"Good. Your next experiment will be Santa Claus and the Ice Cream Bunny, and it will start a eight o'clock sharp. Until then, happy orbiting where no one can find you!"
The transmission immediately cut and Joel let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding. He was not going to lose his robot after all. True, it was only because his captors wanted to use her for world domination, but this was something he could not bring himself to worry about now.
"Hey, Joel!" Gypsy said as she turned to face her maker. "Want to see the parts of the ship you can use to make more robots?"
Joel opened his mouth to say something, but looked up at the camera robot who had extended from the wall and was slowly panning the room and stopped for a fraction of a second when it focused on him.
"Oh, don't worry about him. He's on our side."
Joel furrowed his brow and looked at Gypsy. "Him?"
"Oh, yeah. Cambot likes you. He wouldn't sell you out to the Mads. He wasn't made to be loyal to them."
"The camer...Cambot has an Arminius algorithm, too?"
"Yes, but the experimental kind that is very limited. Not like the kind I have. Also, he requests to be detached from the wall at some point, whenever you can, of course."
Joel let out a slight smile and looked at the strange contraption which extended from his perch and continued to pan the room. For some reason, Joel saw something different in the way the small robot moved, almost as if he were trying to act "cool" and not look like he was listening in on a secret conversation. Joel decided to try talking to the bot and see if Gypsy was truthful.
"Um, Cambot?"
The camera immediately stopped panning and faced Joel eye-to-eye.
The man laughed at this and said, "I'll do my best to get you detached from that wall, okay?"
Cambot let out a series of beeps and moved up and down as if he was bouncing. He then darted forward and wrapped his tubing around Joel's torso. At first the man was scared, but he then realized that the small bot was hugging him. In return, he apprehensively stroked his tubing. As soon as he had come, Cambot unwrapped himself from the former janitor and retracted into the wall.
"See, told ya so,"Gypsy said from behind Joel. "So, do you have more RAM chips?"
