Earth date: April 2. 11103

Location: Dessix

Outer Territories, Scutum-Centarus Arm

The Citadel

A buzzing sound resonated through the cold steal body of the small DG6 unit laying lifelessly on the repair table. It had been salvaged from the Dessixian Forest for repairs. Orders straight from Epsimus Thanatos himself. Doctor Ilgo Vecon had worked three days on repairing the small unit and restoring its memory banks, it had not been recoverable, and Thanatos understood this.

The two blue optic receptors lit up as it received light from the environment around it; the DG6 unit did not move nor show any signs of life. Still plugged in, Ilgo quickly ran a few diagnostics to confirm that the optics were receiving data. It was as he expected, but no functions were running to process the data; it was another failure. The robot had been in the forest for too long.

It was believed that the DG6 unit ran out of power in the middle of its scouting mission, it did not have the chance to return home safely. Additionally, the moisture in the forest managed to rust all its circuit boards and cause widespread shorts that fried its systems. Most of the little robot had been replaced with old replacement parts meant for units elsewhere in the Citadel, still functioning as expected.

This particular unit had been in the personal employ of the Epsimus for centuries; it was a personal favor he requested from the monks of the Citadel to retrieve the Unit. The monks had sent Izzar out to selvage any broken unit scattered in the forests.

The DG6 unit was the signature robot of the Citadel, and they were used for all manners of tasks; Thanatos would send out a dozen of them in search of lost ruins where only one or two would return with some measure of success. Though for the most part, they were not useful in the harsh environment of the Dessixian forest.

This DG6 unit had been sent out for a particular purpose. Unfortunately, however, it had not fulfilled its purpose. To the Doctor, it was unknown; to the unit, with its memory banks fried and all memory lost, it was not the information it would have had in its possession anymore. Nevertheless, Thanatos was eager to see the small DG6 unit back in action and by his side.

Standing at one point one meters tall, the unit was pretty heavy for its design. However, it moved quickly and was equipped with an array of gadgets to help it along its journey. Through photoelectric receptors to help the robot see its environment, the two bulbous eyes can also light up its surroundings in the dark. The head was abnormally large for its body, where all the computing power was built into. Some gadgets such as various hand tools and cutting tools were also stored there. At the back of the head and both sides, there were small storage compartments for anything it had to transport. The rest of the body was made of solid metals and rubbers, with nano-hydraulics helping it move. The energy source, a potent crystal able to recharge without a power source, the Cyonopa Power Crystal, was embedded in its back to power the unit.

Ilgo shut the robot down again; he opened the front of the head, revealing the main boards sending and receiving signals and commands to the rest of the body. Unfortunately, a positive circuit was disconnected; it could not send new data to the central processors. Very carefully, the doctor reconnected the small wire; his forehead was sweating under the intense light next to his face helping his failing eyes to see the fine craftsmanship of the Dekade engineered robot.

Ilgo took a big breath and sighed; Thanatos was not a man to keep waiting; he wanted the unit to be up and running three days ago. An impossible task, though he never knew Thanatos as a man who gave simple tasks.

He slowly switched the unit on again; the two eyes glowed blue, almost in a living fashion. Furthermore, the inner circuitry of the robot sounded different; this time, he was sure he was successful. Finally, he turned to the holoscreen to look at the diagnostics report. It was faint, but the unit was registering new information through its processors and into its memory banks. Ilgo sighed a breath of relief; it was the sign of life he worked tirelessly to achieve.

“Can you hear me?” Ilgo whispered softly and quickly glanced at the continuous cycling diagnostics data.

No new data was registered for a long minute, telling Ilgo that the audio receptors were not working. But something else in the data caught his attention. The robot was staring up to the ceiling; it was processing that without end. A processing glitch? He thought to himself; he looked at the data intently and realized that the unit was formulating memory. It was a feature built into the units; their purpose was to eventually become Artificially conscious. However, this unit couldn't have these kinds of processes yet. It was only still in diagnostics mode.

“Are you here?” Ilgo asked; he was hopeful for some kind of neural response, but the robot stared blankly at the ceiling.

“Execute command thirty-two,” Ilgo said aloud. Command Thirty-Two was a self-diagnostics command it could execute; it would be effortless to see on the external diagnostics tool.

Ilgo did not have to hold his breath for too long; the command executed and confirmed the robot’s audio receptors were functioning. However, it was alarming to Ilgo that the unit could run its artificial consciousness protocols without it being activated externally.

Thinking he had achieved enough success when he tried to switch the unit off, there was no response. He tried again, but it stayed on. Finally, he turned his attention to the screen displaying the data from the diagnostics and could not believe his eyes.

The DG6 unit was trying to learn how to sit up without activating its movement protocols. Though unsuccessful, the robot kept on trying. Finally, Ilgo removed everything off the table laying with the unit; he ran to the other side of the table to stand closer to observe the robot better.

“You can do it!” He said aloud, encouraging the robot to formulate the functions that would allow him to sit up by himself.

Keeping an eye on the screen, he could see those processing events spiked; the encouragement truly helped. He knew deep down what the robot was missing to complete its task, but he wanted to see if the unit could figure it out by itself.

“It is easy; all you have to do is sit up.”

The robot did not flinch; the data on the screen suggested the unit was now aware of the room around it, the algorithms it was creating were printing quicker than the doctor could read it. It was like looking at a fully functional DG6 unit learning advanced Astro-mathematics.

“That’s right, you’re getting there.”

Ilgor quickly realized the unit was not wholly aware of its body, how it operated and what it could do.

“Concentrate on the electronic pulses surging through your circuits, find the paths and make them function.”

The data raced on the screen so quickly it was a white flash, though seconds later it stopped entirely, and the robot’s blue, glowing eyes switched off; Ilgo could hear the internal mechanics of the unit was no longer functioning. It was like the robot had just given up.

With shoulders down and a sigh of disappointment, Ilgo made his way to the screen; there must have been something that would help him pinpoint the problem. Scrolling and reading the data gave no clarity. It clearly indicated that the unit was rapidly learning different functions and deleting redundant ones to make a single hydraulic move in its body.

Ilgo took two steps away from the screen; he was defeated; it seemed like the robot had inadvertently cleared all its memory again, causing an emergency power down. Although it did not indicate why it did that, it really seemed like the robot was making good progress, something a brand new unit would only achieve after twenty years of constant learning. Ilgo shook his head and turned away from the robot, looking at the rest of his lab. Again, he was defeated; Thanatos would not take this failure very lightly.

As he gave up and tried to walk away, the internal mechanics of the robot once again switched on. Ilgo dismissed it as just his imagination. He did not attempt to switch the robot back on again after his failure; it was now up to Thanatos to decide whether or not he was still to continue reviving the unit.

The indistinguishable noise of metal moving made him look back quickly. Then, to his shock and surprise, the unit was sitting up straight on the table, looking ahead. At first, Ilgo was unsure what to do about this, but then when the robot looked at him with its bright blue eyes, he was overjoyed by the sight.

In a childlike voice, gentle and innocent the robot spoke:

“It is easy; all you need to do is sit up.”

Ilgo laughed under his racing breath; the robot did not know much speech, only the words he told the robot were now part of its vocabulary. Then, doubtful that the robot understood what it meant, Ilgo approached with a broad smile.

“Welcome back, young one.”