Artificial Intelligence on Manhattan A landing sequence in a forest
Planet Manhattan, somewhere in a forest:
An unknown vessel landed in a forest on planet Manhattan. It was night and before the vessel landed, we could saw a green light within the night sky. Once landed, the light turned off. It took a certain moment before a humanoid form appeared within the darkness of the wood. We could saw two green eyes and nothing else.
The machine was taller than a human being. Maybe two heads taller. The area where it was, was totally unknown to it. It never put a foot on such planet before. Well not actually. The last time was on Megatrinux, but it was a long time ago. Where the robot was, no one could know where exactly but if a human saw it, it would be by chance.
Its right arm changed into a laser gun and it shot in the sky. The rays that were shot, were heading into a specific point of the sky. The reason was simple: Sending a signal that everything was fine and letting the other machines know that it will take a moment before EX-001's return. Like the color of its eyes, the rays were green too and again, it was hard to miss them. However only those who were in space or relatively near of its possition could see very well the rays.
Once everything done, the machine ''slept''. In other words, it tuned itself offline to stock the newest datas from today. Because of the gravity action, the body fell. The frontward of the body faced the night sky until the next day.
The first ray of the star appeared and already, the robot was already online. To each trees and plants, he analyzed their molecular structures. There were only two type of trees: leafy and coniferous. For the animals, it analyzed a some kind of huge dog that looked like to a wolf, an animal in possession of horns looking like to a moose, but its size was bigger than a moose. Actually, where EX-001 was, there were not a lot of animal and the reason was simple. About twenty kilometers at the south of its position, a village was built. The presence of the village and the humans forced the animals to go further to the north.
Time passed and it was afternoon. The robot walked within the forest toward the south and then a noise took its attention. A big growl. By the tone of it, we could think a huge animal and it was the case. An Ursa Gorillatis. That was the name of the animal before the robot after analyze. The animal had two big arms like a gorilla and the head of a bear. The animal's coat was brown and white at the belly. Agressive and hostile, the Ursa ran to attack the robot. Viewing that was a thread, at the first charge, EX-001 avoided the animal. The animal turn on itself and charged again, but this time, the machine launched a right toward the head making it knock out. The Ursa Gorillatis fell on the grown.
The robot did some analyze and seeing that it was neutralized, it continued its way. After a long walk, the robot reached the extremity of the zone and before him a plain. There was a village, some animals here and there. Maybe for humans' needs. EX-001 was far enough to not be seen by anyone. It simply analyzed the area to get some information about its location, but nothing suggested it where it was. The night was coming and the robot started to walk again, but this time toward the village. When it was close enough, people could hear strange noises. Mechanical noises to be precise.
A man within the thirties went outside to see what was the source of the problem and it was just before him. A robot taller than him about two heads taller, black and had green eyes. Well one if we consider that it had a glass before its face making one green eye. The man was paralyzed by fear when the robot looked at him. But he was relieved when the machine continued its way.
EX-001 turned itself offline after finding a place where nobody will find it. The next day, a human was wandering the plains and this same human hit something hard and fell on the ground. It was a young girl. She had blue eyes and long blond hair. She was ten years old and her name was Alice Baker. Her eyes spotted a strange form on the ground. Hit by an unexplained curiosity, she came closer. A robot. Her eyes could not believe what she was seeing. It was so unreal and beyond reality for her, but reality was there. A black robot was on the ground.
Alice looked at it closer. She never saw something like that before. Again, her curiosity was strong so she touched the metal. The metal was cold even when it was sunny outside and the robot did not move. She tried to pull the robot, but it was to heavy so she finished to sit down near of it. ''I wonder what is your story...'' She said. Without any notice, the robot moved. By doing so, the girl was surprised and stood up immediately. She was surprised that the robot was taller than her. She was just the same size as its legs. The young girl believed it was just a dream and she tried to interact with it. ''Hi!''
EX-001 looked everywhere to locate the sound and then, it found a little human. A green ray was shot from its eye. Finally, the robot broke the silence. ''Biologic form... Human.'' It voice was not natural it something more artificial and robotic at the same time. The robot felt nothing, but a curiosity was there. It wondered why this human was not afraid. Alice grabbed the leg of the robot and she looked at it. ''Come with me. I want to present you.'' The girl let it and walked toward the village. At first, EX-001 did not care about this matter, but curiosity was stronger so it walked with the girl and of course, to each step, it needed to be careful to not crush the human who was between its legs.
Arrived in the village, Alice shouted. ''Everyone! Come here! Come here!'' Villagers came and also children. Some were curious and some feared the robot. ''I found it on the ground near. Can we keep it?'' People looked at the machine while they looked to each other. Then, the elder came. An old man without any hair left. ''Alice, keep your distance of that thing! Didn't you know that someone of its kind is a threat toward us did you?'' He was right, but not at the same time. However, the girl replied to him. ''Grand-pa, if it was the case, why nobody is dead?'' This question made everyone confused. She continued to speak while she was getting closer of the machine ''I feel it can be a friend. I do not know a lot about this... machine, but I am sure of one thing. It is not an enemy. I can't explain why, but I feel it is here for a good purpose''. The elder of the village gave up and authorized the presence of the robot, but for how much time?
It was lunch time. Alice Baker asked a question to the robot who looked into the void.
- What are you exactly? The answer came instantly.
- I am an artificial intelligence. Or AI like all the other humans name my kind.
- So you are not like me?
- Negative.
- Do... do you have a story?
- Story?
- You know... where you came from and all the other things.
The robot started to talk about its past and all about the machines. Alice was interested in what EX-001 was telling. The robot mentioned that he landed about ten kilometers from the village at the north. When it finished to speak, the girl asked another question.
- Can I come with you on your planet?
The question confused the robot.
- A human on Gammu? It is impossible. Even if it was not because of the reputations, the planet can not allow any life form on it. It is highly irradiated.
Of course, this answer was not what she wanted to know.
Time passed and it was finally night. From the beginning of the day, Alice was always with the robot no matter where it was, she was with it. The Ursa Gorilliatis of the other day smelled the trace of the robot and threat the life of Alice at first. She screamed noisily and because she was weak, EX-001 rescued her from death. The robot killed the creature with efficiency. The villagers saw that and in their esteem, the robot gained a good reputation. They trusted it.
-Thank you... I owe you one. She said with a smile. Good night.
The girl walked toward her house letting the machine behind. This day, EX-001 concluded that not everyone is hostile and some need to be protected. Without knowing this, the actions of the robot was recorded by a journalist who was there. Once the record completed, he put the video online and the title was the following one: A machine saved a child from a dangerous creature. The video was public to anyone and demonstrated how advanced was the robot. It was clear that was not a human's creation, but something with higher technology.
Few kilometers away from the villlage a lonely Navy officer was enjoying his off days in a little forest on old hammock, watching nature and sometimes checking his PDA for messages from other officers. The day was very sunny with no clouds on the visible horizon, suddenly his PDA vibrated like never, officer immidiately took it out from pocket and checked what happened. "What is going on" - he thinked. After he unlocked it He got instantly "attacked" by a notification saying about high popularity video uploaded by some jurnalist. "Lets see whats that" he said to himself and started playing the video.
Thing he saw, got him straitigh up. The hidden camera showed him tall entity, simillar to normal battle droids but not of known type, close to human settlement, hah there were humans next to it seeming to trust it. Especially little girl who got saved by the entity from deadly hazard which was the Ursa Gorilliatis, deadly predator of local forests.
Despite being off-duty but still with blaster on belt, officer decided to go to the Village showed on the video. Wasy showed him by the PDA was... wild... everything was overgrown making feel of not touched by human hand. As he proceede through the jungle his eyes noticed the small peacefull looking village. As he was armed, to avoid unnecesary aggresivness from the entity he decided to climb a tree in the middle of the settlemend with blastter in readynes to neutralize the robot if he will go out of control.
Alice Baker was in the plain and she was not alone. Indeed, a robot was with her. The girl seemed to follow the machine on her own. It was like if she was obsessed by it. ''Why is it so silent?'' Thought the girl. ''It was like if it was searching something...'' A green ray was projected from the robot and once that did it pressed a button and waited.
From behind of the officer who was looking the village, a noise from behind. It was a big sound like if trees were smashed by something. In the sky, a strange ship. There was no doubt anymore. The shape of it, the energy color of it and the strange sound described perfectly a Drone. The vessel landed near from behind the other two. When she saw that, Alice was out of word. What she had under her eyes was just beyond imagination like the machine next to her.
There was no door from the first look she had on the ship. She wondered many things, but her young age did not allow her to know things that some adults know. However, there was only one thing she could confirm: The robot will leave her. Alice did not want that. ''Stay!'' She said to the robot. The robot looked at her and silence from this one.
At first officer was nervous about Robot but watching it "living" near trusting humans made him trust it to. However sight of big alien ship made him nervous again, he immidiately jumped down from branch he was sitting at and runned to robot in a way that will not make him look hostile. At distance of approximatly 3 meters officer stopped, with his hand over holstered blaster. "Stay put" - he shouted at the machine. "I see you are armed and dangerous, my job is to protect people of Liberty, therefore I ask you, what are your intentions entity?"
Alice Baker saw the officer. She was paralyzed when she saw the blaster. She ran and hid behind the left leg of the robot. It was now the turn of the robot to notice the human. It analyzed the officer and noticed the weapon. Its left hand transformed to a blaster too and aim the human just to let him know that if he shoot, it will shoot too.
It was then, the girl took her courage and put herself before the robot. Her goal was to be the shield, but she was just to little to protect the robot. ''S.. Stop!'' shouted the girl. Of course, EX-001 did not move at all. It simply waited to see what will follow. The young girl continued to speak. ''He is not a danger! He.. He saved me from a dangerous creature.''
Officer was surprised by reaction of little girl, he didn't expected she would hide behind a big alien machine. Further eye exchange made him realize that if robot would be hostile it would probably already fired at him. So he took calmly position and spoke: "Okay, I see you don't want to fight, same as me. If you allow me, lets start differently. I am Liberty Navy officer. I'm here to protect people. As you are unknown being here my reaction was... not so kind as it should I suppose... I see you saved this little girl and she trusts you very much. Your intentions can't be hostile then. Can you tell me anything about you? What are you going to do? Can we expect to see more of your kind here?"
EX-001 still aim the officer with its blaster. The mouth of the canon was black. A sign of no energy that powered the blaster at the moment. If it was, it would be green. ''I know what you are human. If the reason of your presence here is to destroy me, it will not happen.'' The girl did not know what was happening but she trust the alien machine to not be hostile.
''Why should I talk about me human? However, I can only answer to this question: Can we expect to see more of your kind here? The answer is: Negative.''
"I am destroying things if I am ordered to do so" - he spoke looking at EX-001's gun; "We, The Humans are curious out of nature, and we simply want to know as much as possible. I'm still curious what is your purpose here but maybe it will be better if i wouldn't know." he stopped for a while then spoke again "You are free to go or stay here, just don't let other officers notice you" He slowly stretched out his hand towards the robot, and looking deep into his eyes he said "Mind shaking my hand, as goodbye sign metal entity?"