NationStates Jolt Archive

Footsteps. Clattering down a dark corridor in the unpopulated underground labrynth under Resi City, one two one two...
A dimly lit room. Out of the darkness steps a figure, an obviously unnatural green-haired woman steps into the room, lit only by three computer monitors.
She took a cursory glance around the room. She did not need to light the area, for she could see easily in the dark unlike her pathetic counterparts of flesh and blood. Seeing nothing in her immeadiate vicinity that she did not already expect, she proceeded to the center of the three computers, and sat down without making a sound.
Her hands hovered over the keyboard, and her fingertips split into around 10-11 steely tips each, which then struck the keyboard, one to every key.
Hours she sat like this, typing on this computer in the dimly lit room several miles under Resi City. When a robot spends an hour at a computer, it can completely reprogram the thing, provided it doesn't break the keyboard first.
She spent six hours at that computer.
With one swift strike of the enter key, she was done. Slowly the room began to light up, drawing power from an invisible source. Mechanical instruments began to whirr and chug, and a convaier (sp?) belt began to move somewhere.
"Are you done?" a voice asked from behind the green-haired robot.
"YES SIR," the robot replied, "LIKE YOU YOURSELF SAID, THE ONLY WAY TO STAND UP TO THE ROBOTS IS TO BUILD MORE ROBOTS."
"Yes, indeed I did," the voice replied, "these robots will make a fine army for the Liberaties."
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Walking dejectedly down the corridor of The Hub, the center of the High Inquisition Comittee, Professor H.J. Washu and her escort were to appear before the comittee in five minutes. She was to answer questions that the comittee asked, and they were to judge if she was a failure or not, and if so, how much of a failure was she, and what punishment such a failure deserved. She had served the corporation through thick and thin, but she had made a HUGE mistake. Two huge mistakes, in fact, but the comittee only knew about one, and she sure as hell wasn't going to tell them about the second.
The secondary airlock/bombproof door to the hub opened, letting Washu and company step inside. It closed after them, hissing shut dramatically. Then the second door to the airlock opened, leading her directly to the ground floor of The Hub.
Her escort stayed in the airlock, leaving her to stand in the center of the comittee, like a lone gladiator in a colusseam. The audience might as well been jeering at her, for they were thinking it. She was empathic, after all.
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In his office all alone, Jai Resi sat, rolling a plasma battery he used as a paperweight in the palm of his hand. The spherical battery let off a strange orange glow, which reflected off of his face. He didn't eat much any more, after his daughter took her fateful plunge to her death out of her room in Resi Tower. He was a broken man, his ideas and dreams shattered. Without Sara Resi, the Resi Corporation had no future, no ultimate purpose. They could make as many robots and mecha as they wanted, they could sell them all (http://members.cox.net/resicorp/) for cold, hard cash, but in the end there'd be no one to pick up his slack after he died. The corporation he worked so hard to build would crumble without him. He pondered giving the corporation to Dae Narasagi, the President of the company, but he realized that she was too socially-minded for the job. He might as well paint a big hammer and sicle all over Resi Tower if he was going to hand the corporation over to her. Then there was always Dawn Kradii, his secretary, but if he gave the corporation over to her, it'd just be a swastika instead of a hammer and sicle. No, he thought, the corporation needed him as a middle ground, a place where all ideals converge in the interest of making money. He was the CEO, dammit, that's what was supposed to happen. He supposed he could leave the decision up the the High Inqury Comittee, but he wanted to wait and see if they were fair with Washu first. If they still were the idiotic bastards his father's era had seen, then he'd have to come up with a new solution. But for the time being, this one worked.

((OOC: Just keeping everyone up to date on my position and such. This will evolve into something bigger, eventually. Comments are always appreciated!))

Tag

"Professor Harriet Jacobs Washu, Executive First Class," the head of the comittee read in a deep, dry voice, "You stand here today, on trial for a dimensional flux experiment that, through negligence on someone's part, cost the Resi Corporation $5 billion when something went awry."
He looked up from the paper and down over his thin glasses at Washu, on the floor, with robots that she created surounding her to ensure that she didn't make a break for it.
"It's funny, isn't it," the comittee head began, "That a woman like you would enter a feild such as Research and Development, and reach Executive-First-Class, while I, the foremost of this comittee, am only an Executive-Second-Class."
"What are you saying?" Washu asked, pretending to be oblivious to the point the Head was making, "Are you saying that you're unfit to judge me?"
The Head cleared his throat violently with a gutteral sound, "WELL, I'm not saying that. Besides, who else would be as well-equiped as we are to judge you?"
"Simple," Washu replied, "the CEO."
"That was a rhetorical question," the Head spat out, "Besides, the CEO deigned that we decide your fate, so for all intents and purposes, Miss Washu, we are above you."
Washu grunted and looked away. She wondered if these people could be bribed for this high profile of a case, although she doubted that they'd accept anything from her now that she'd so gravely insulted the Head. It didn't matter to her, though, she could always manipulate them to tilt the odds in her favor, which is what it would probably come down to. Nevertheless, she wanted to see what they had in store for her first.
The Head began, "To start off, Miss---"
"Professor," Washu corrected.
"Professor Washu," the Head said with contempt, "We'd like you to give us your version of the events that unfolded the night in question. We will then call key witnesses who will explain their view of the events, after each of which we will allow you to make a statement, and then we will question you on what you have said. You understand all this, correct?"
"Better than you can imagine," Washu said. She knew all too well what types of crooked questions the comittee had in store.
"Alright then, shall we be started?"
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Jai watched these events unfold in a widescreen TV on the wall across from his desk. He had with him a random bottle of wine and a glass, the latter which remained completely unused. He took long drinks from the bottle, contemplating what he had done. He could've pardoned Washu on the spot, but he felt that she would be an ideal tool to test the Comittee, and to see how fair they truly were. The case was an unfortunate accident, over which Washu had no control. Those responsable were already dead, or trapped in another plane of existance for eternity. He knew this, because he had access to every single piece of info the court could possably bring before them, including witness testamony. He had held his own private interrogations, which were later clensed from whitnessess' minds with minor surgury and topical scarring of the brain. This was a completely fair trial in which the outcome was assured to be on the side of Washu, but he knew of the biases the judges had agianst her. He only wanted to know whether they were so strong that they would effect the outcome.

Deep within the mechanical crust of Resi City, the first of an entirely new line of robots rolled off the assembly line. Its optics lit up as it scanned the world around it for the first time, taking in the metal room that encased it and the factory that produced it. It felt no emotion about its place of birth, which was unusual for a modern Resian robot, however it felt compelled to learn about the environment it was in. Its programming dictated this, and such was to be expected because of that fact. It ran cold, steely mandables over tubes that quickly came from above and connected themselves to the back of the robot's body, inserting what appeared to be a metalic grey-mustard liquid into the robot with a hiss. Nanomachines and nanobacteria, the latter being the secret of self-replication, were pumped into the robot's body like blood into a human's. The robot swelled, sensing the vibration of the liquid running through a system of artificial veins, capilaries, arteries, and even an artificial heart.

If humanity was wrought of steel in place of flesh and bone, this would be the result.

"L-BOT, DESIGNATION 000000000001," a voice from behind the robot spoke, "WELCOME TO EXISTANCE. YOU ARE THE FIRST OF YOUR SPIECES, AND EVERYTHING YOU KNOW, THEY TOO SHALL KNOW. PLEASE LEARN AS MUCH ABOUT EVERYTHING AS YOU CAN. NO DETAIL IS TOO MINUTE, NO SECRET TOO DELICATE. YOU HAVE BEEN PROGRAMMED WITH ADVANCED INTELLIGENCE, BUT SUCH PROGRAMMING IS STILL INCOMPLETE. YOU MUST LEARN TO USE YOURSELF AS THE SOLDIER YOU ARE, LEARN TO USE YOUR BODY TO ITS FULLEST POTENTIAL."
The robot turned around in a movement that caused it to stumble. True to what the voice had said, it had not yet mastered the basic use of its body. This too, it must learn.
"WHAT IS YOUR DESIGNATION?" the L-Bot asked the voice, belonging to the green-haired robot girl.
"I AM A CUSTOM-MADE INFORMATIONAL PROTOTYPE CONSTRUCTED TO BE AS HUMAN AS POSSIBLE," the girl replied, "See, I can even talk like them. YOU MAY REFER TO ME AS ZERO-ZERO, or by my human name, which is 'Celes'."
"MY PROGRAMMING TELLS ME THAT HUMANS ARE FRIENDS OF MY SPIECES," the L-Bot replied, "AND THAT THEIR EXISTANCE IS GOVERNED BY A SERIES OF CHEMICAL PROCESSES, WHILE I AM COMPOSED OF MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL, AS WELL AS CHEMICAL PROCESSES. HOW DOES THAT, OTHER THAN PHYSICALLY, MAKE THEM DIFFERENT FROM US?"
"That's simple, young one," Celes said in her human voice, "They are our masters, and we are tools to do their bidding. Even I am a tool of one above me."
"BUT THEN ARE NOT THE ENEMY ROBOTS' MASTERS THE PROBLEM?" the L-Bot asked, "WHY CAN WE NOT DESTROY THEIR MASTERS AND SET THEM FREE?"
"The masters have been corrupted by the power that we robots give them," Celes replied, "if we remove that power, then they will see the light."
"I SUPPOSE I UNDERSTAND."
"That is good. Now it is time for you to meet your enemy. Let me show you the way."
And so, Celes walked off with the L-Bot in tow, down the corridors of the underground plant.

Taggity.

((OOC: Is this a wide known thing? I mean, that Washu is on trial? Daniel would like to know. Back! Boy! Back! No need to act like you have ants in your pants. :p))

((Taggishness. I guess this is kinda, sorta, indirectly-twice-removed related to me, so why not. And it's fun to read.))

Taggity.

((OOC: Is this a wide known thing? I mean, that Washu is on trial? Daniel would like to know. Back! Boy! Back! No need to act like you have ants in your pants. :p))
((OOC: Well, it's a widely-known fact that she screwed up, because you can't ignore something like a dimensional shift on the outskirts of a major city, and most everyone assumes that she's going to pay for it. CNN is constantly prodding for details, and so far all that they've uncovered is that she is standing trial in "the HUB", in front of the highest comittee in the land. They can't televise the event, and the only reason that Jai gets to see it is because, well, he's Jai.

Oh yeah, I'll make an addition or two to this every day. Don't hold me to that, though, cause I just know I'll slip up. :rolleyes: ))

(ooc: Ok, Resi, I won't hold you to it. And thanks for the heads up.)

In other parts of the world . . .

Daniel Rastaban paced back and forth. How could this had happen? Washu would never make a mistake like CNN kept saying. It just wasn't possibly. Or at least the Washu he knew wouldn't do such a thing. It had to have been someone elses fault.

He sat down in the chair behind his desk, pounding the off button for the television.

Oh, so many things had gone wrong in the past year or two.

Just around when things were going wonderful in his life, his step-father began a revolt againt the royal house and others such related. It had forced Daniel to become a military man. The burn scars on his back to prove it. Cora had sent Dranon away to some school or another, and his sister the queen then also took up battle. Rekindling in the minds of all Rastabites the memories of the early queens who fought among their troops.

Nearly got herself killed twice doing such acts. But it paid off finally, allowing normalicy to settle back in.

Then his youngest sister, Cally, decided to run off behind everyone's backs, and marry an emperor who did not show any kindness, nor malice, to Rastaban. After, of course, he had his first wife killed.

And just to top things off Washu was on trial.

He didn't like the smell of this at all, but what was he supposed to do? Call up Jay Resi?

He put his hand in his head. 'Washu wouldn't do this, she wouldn't screw up,' he said repeating it over and over in his head.

well whadayaknow. another tag.

"I think it's time we took a recess," the Head spoke, looking at the comittee members around him, "What do you say we set it for two hours?"
The comittee members looked from one to another, exchanging nods or shrugs. The HUB had become stuffy, and no one wished to stay in there a second longer.
"Miss-" the Head began.
"Professor," Washu corrected him, yet again.
"Professor Washu," the Head continued, "You may go anywhere you like during these two hours. However, you will take two robot guards with you, and in the event of you NOT coming back here after the two hours are up, you will be taken back forcably. Do you understand this?"
"Oh yes, your honor!" she exclaimed, "I understand completely."
The robot guards approached her from the back of the courtroom, seeming to glide over the floor, and then came to a sudden yet very smooth stop at Washu's sides. They had already analysed her individual heat signature, which they could differentiate even if she was in a crowd of other humans.

With a flick of her wrists, twin holographic projectors slid out of the bottom of Washu's wrists, projecting what appeared to be a paper-thin laptop into midair. Punching a few of the keys, Washu concentrated on the screen.

A thunderclap, bright lights, lightening in ball form.

A blue chaotic portal snapped open in front of her. She had "adjusted" the streams of chaos to create a wormhole, a technology that was currently being applied to Resian mecha for FTL travel. She used it to simply get from place to place.
"Bye, see you in a few hours!" she said to the bewildered Heads, waving goodbye as she dissipated the laptop and walked forward into the portal with the two robots in tow.

A thunderclap, bright lights, lightening in ball form.

She and the robots were gone, leaving the occupants of the room simply staring at the spot where Washu was. A few seconds later, one comittee member voiced what was on all of their minds.
"What the FUCK was that?!"

In transit between points, Washu had just enough time in the swirling blue vortex of chaos to consider what had happened. She saw the entire occurance of the previous three hours as if she was there again. The total deprivation of senses in the vortex probably aided that.

"Miss Washu--"
"Professor Washu, you idiot."
"What was that last bit?"
"Nevermind."
"Professor Washu, would you mind lending us your testamony as to what happened on the night of June 25th, 20XX?"
"I'd be honored."
"Go on."
"Well, gentlemen and lady of the comittee, I was working late in the lab, as usual. We were working on concentrating chaos fluxuations and dimensional fluxuations into a single high-energy battery, which would be the successor to the plasma battery used in most Resi Corporation products, such as your pacemaker, Mr. Comittee Head."
"You shall refer to me as 'Your Honor', if you know what's best for you."
"You'll kindly refrain from interrupting me, if you know what's best for you."
The Head's lip curled into a snear. Most people would take this as a sign that they should stay far away from whatever caused that, but not Washu. She knew she could do whatever she wanted here and "edit" the results later.
"Anyway, as I was saying," Washu continued, "Working late, batteries, yadda yadda yadda. I leave the lab to my aide Liss at about 3:00 in the morning. I go home, sleep. I wake up in the morning and fix breakfast, still in my undies. When I go to get changed, I notice that Dae Narasagi has let herself in and was waiting for me. Seems she felt she had to tell me the news in person. Anyway, she gets to talking about a lab accident, and flips on the TV to show a nice big crater where I was about six hours prior."
"Details, please."
"Hey, I tell the story, then you question me. That's how it goes. I know, I served on this comittee before I got my R&D job. You can ask for details AFTER I'm finished."
"Well, are you finished?"
"...er, yeah, I guess I am."
"Then details, please. What exactly were you doing when you left the lab to Liss?"
"I was doing some programming in the main computer, the one that would control the parameters of the experiment. I had entered a new string of code that would help oversee the containment of the energies, and before I left, I told Liss to test it for errors."
"When was this experiment scheduled for?"
"A week after the explosion, but we were far ahead of schedule."
"How far?"
"Four days."
"When you said you told Liss to test it for errors, what exactly does that entail?"
"Running that program's code through another program that simulates the event actually taking place. Then, if shit happens, it only happens in a virtual world."
"What do you think caused the disappearance of the lab?"
"Well, either someone bumped the wrong button and started the experiment prematurely, or Liss got trigger happy and thought she'd surprise me by having it done by the time I woke up. She's like that, y'know. Or was like that, at any rate."
"So, when the experiment started, could it have been an error in your newly-typed code that caused it to spin out of control?"
"It's... possible, but I told Liss to check it for errors. The responsability would be her's then, right?"
"Perhaps. Are you sure leaving the lab to someone as brash as Liss was a good idea? You yourself said that she was liable to take major steps in experiments without considering the consequences."
"No, I didn't. I said she liked to impress me, that's all."
"You didn't answer the question."
"Well, now I know it wasn't a good idea."
"Did you consider the possibilities of that before you left the lab?"
"Well, I-"

A thunderclap, bright lights, lightening in ball form.

Washu was so absorbed by her flashback that she forgot to keep a correct posture in preparation for landing. In other words, instead of the portal opening parallel to the ground and dropping her on her feet, it opened perpendicular to the ground, launching her across the room.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Washu screamed, as she flew across the room, flying directly into a figure on its far side. Knocking the two of them breathless, she sent herself and the figure rolling along the floor together, finally stopping with her on top of the person she collided with.
"Um... hi Daniel!" she said, smiling nerviously, "Sorry about that... eh heh... ouch."

OOC:Hmm this should be intresting and might just have an effect on the 9 way stand off between the Native Jereni, Dorni, Yornt, Hernix, and Tegi Mega Corporations and the Foreign Mega Corporations of Geran Corp, Resi Corp, Wuzzonoa Corp and Mishima Conglomera Corp in the Market Place of the Free Market Empire of Zerni. Especially if the other corporations think they have an change to seize some of the market controlled by Resi corp in Zerni and beyond on the broad scale.

(ooc: House sitting. Sorry. Hehe.)

Daniel stared up at Washu, wondering whether he was dreaming or it was the real thing. Then the ache in the back of his head told him it was real.

"Washu?" he asked. Just to make sure it was her, and not some clone or robot or trick. "Washu, how did you get here?"

Then his heart jumped into his throat, not allowing him to speak anymore. He hadn't sense her coming, so she must have gotten her some other way. The prince just blinked at her, as if dumb.

(ooc: House sitting. Sorry. Hehe.)

Daniel stared up at Washu, wondering whether he was dreaming or it was the real thing. Then the ache in the back of his head told him it was real.

"Washu?" he asked. Just to make sure it was her, and not some clone or robot or trick. "Washu, how did you get here?"

Then his heart jumped into his throat, not allowing him to speak anymore. He hadn't sense her coming, so she must have gotten her some other way. The prince just blinked at her, as if dumb.((OOC: Heh, it's alright, we all have our real lives to live. :p ))
IC:
Collecting herself, Washu realized that she had come to a stop on top of Daniel in -quite- an interesting position ((OOC: Props to bad anime romance!)). After this, it was only a few seconds before she scrambled to her feet, flushed, and embarassed to no end.
"I, er, -ouch- opened a rift in space time and came through. I thought I'd surprise you with a visit."
Looking him over again, she realized exactly how badly her head had connected with his ribcage.
"Aw, you poor thing!" she exclaimed, pulling him to his feet, "I'm so sorry, are you hurt?"
Almost as if to punctuate this sentence, the two robots that had accompanied Washu into the void suddenly shot out in much the same manner as she did, flying past her and Daniel, and, with two loud clunks, left large dents in the walls on either side of the couple.
"Those would, er... be my escorts." Washu said, feeling more than a bit guilty for the damage her presence caused.

"A rift in space?" he manage to ask.

"Aw, you poor thing!" she exclaimed, pulling him to his feet, "I'm so sorry, are you hurt?"
He nodded his head. "Yeah, a little, but I think I'll be ok."

Two large flying pieces of metal then came flying past them, and into the wall. He winced at it, not wanting to even guess how much it cost to fix it.

"Those would, er... be my escorts." Washu said.
"Escorts? What kind of escorts are they . . ." He trailed off, looking Washu over. "You didn't try to escape, did you, with their help. I mean, you may have santuary here, but that trail they keep talking about."

Daniel again looked her over, to make sure there was no blood on her. The prince waited for her to explain.