towerofanimus | [open] fixing what was broken.

Entry tags:

[open] fixing what was broken.

Characters: Sertoria Cani and you!
Setting: Infirmary, then leading to floor one.
Format: Prose, but I can match.
Summary: Sertoria revives after being a nuclear reactor for a bit. Her first thought is to fix Mr. Fusion for Doc.
Warnings: Small mention of death.

How long was she out for? She didn't know, but what she did remember was taking out a huge wave of monsters and then shutting off to protect her systems. A groan escaped her lips before her eyes opened and she looked around to see where she was.

System SPERO is online. Welcome back, CXEV50--

What more her program could say was interrupted as she placed her hand around her headset and turned it off. Sertoria rose from the station she was hooked up to and blinked. Okay, she was still in the tower. That was...good? At this point, she didn't know if being here was better than being at Quaeda.

... Okay, no. Quaeda was better, especially when she had Drusilla at her side. Or was it really with the constant threat of her creators wanting to deactivate and terminate her completely?

The more she thought about it, the more confusing things gotten and her brow furled in confusion. Quaeda or the Tower? Tower or Quaeda? Oh, forget it! She got back up on her feet and looked around in thought. Right, she promised to fix Mr. Fusion for the Doc since it was her fault that it was inoperable.

She knew the basics of the device, but not the intimate details. Hm, well, it shouldn't be that hard in the first place. So, as she gathered up what usable items she could find, she wandered into the cafeteria and made herself a nice little workstation in a corner of the large area and began to work on the device.

She didn't need to eat, since she would only be wasting the food that was provided. So, instead she opted to hum a soft tune as she worked. At least she was still useful and not a bucket of bolts.

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"Seven thousands and five hundreds years! How can someone survive that long? The amount of information absorbed by the brain must be unbearable!"

He turned to her when she asked him and he shook his head.

"You creator must have been a genius to conceive you in such a way that you could survive for that long!" he replied to her as an answer "I am really sorry to hear you must have lived for so long!"

Because, immortality is actually a bad thing. In Doc's book at least.

The thought of her creator being called a genius placed a few mixed emotions in her, but she held her tongue. He didn't have to know everything on them right now, correct?

"I have seen civilization rise and fall, and humanity either suffer or rise through the challenge. It has been...an interesting life for me so far. But, please do not think I am regretful for living so long. It has given me so much time to learn about humanity and why I have decided to protect them."

...Even if it was lonely without Joshua at her side, but she's learned to cope long ago without the prophet to some degree.

Nope, he didn't have to know everything. Besides, just what he knows already is a lot, more information? Now we don't want his brain to explode.

"I can understand the benefit of a long life and I myself believe science can and should extended the human life span somewhere between 200 and 300 years old."

He paused before moving onto the next part.

"But to think one could live for so long, it is truly prodigious. And terrible at the same time! an important part of life is death! It is because we are meant to die someday that each day is special and precious!"

... He truly did look very sorry. And fascinated at the same time. because, conflicting feelings on the matter.

Good, because Sertoria had conflicting feelings on the matter herself. And the more thought she placed on her creators, she found that she was uncomfortable largely discussing them.

However, she wasn't expecting him to say that each day was special and precious. She didn't put that much value on her life to begin with, because - well, android. Humans meant more to her than her own life.

So, congratulations, Doc. She's stunned speechless.

"...You are serious?" she said after a few moments.

"Of course I am! Life is precious precisely because it ends! And this can easily be verified in everyday's life, Sertoria. Most young people love to party, but if the parties were to never end, they would probably grow bored and annoyed at it! If they have fun because it doesn't last long and because they know it is going to end at some point, then the same can be said about life!"

Her life is precious. There are billions of humans, and it is considered that all and every of their lives are precious. How would she be any different? For that matter she would probably be even more previous considering there are so few android.

"And I am not even going to start on the matter of being the only one immortal! Immortality could possibly be bearable if everyone was immortal, but when you are the only one to survive it can only lead to madness!" he said and sighed "You must be even more admirable than I thought for being who you are now in spite of all what you went through."

Had Doc met her earlier in life, she would have reacted the same way she did to Joshua: hostile, call him a heretic - anything to make him stop rationalizing things in human terms. But, since she was beyond that point in time, she was easier to work with.

What made her snap to attention and focus on him was when he said that immortality led to madness...

How many times did she lose herself to madness? How close did she have to be to that darkness before it became an old friend to her? She tried to end her life multiple times, all because she thought she was a monster and now--

Quietly, her mouth made little unintelligible noises akin to a little kid beginning to cry. But, she couldn't cry, so this was the second best option she had to her. Her frame shook slightly, but that was due to the gratitude she had towards the scientist.

"...Thank you," she replied, the noises still coming out every so often.

... That now was something Doc had little, very little experience to deal with. Nearly no experience at all. He could say the noise was alike to a cry, but- Did he make her sad? Alright, she said thank you, so that was probably not it. Still.

Did he look pretty embarrassed? Yep, certainly. He didn't make people cry often. If ever. So he just, placed a hand on her shoulders and tried to word his words, in a not awkward manner. And he looked truly sorry once again.

"You-You don't have to cry..." he said "I have only said what I thought."

Sertoria's hand rested on his own and she quieted her sounds down, shaking her head. Then, she looked at him with renewed hope in her eyes. Someone got her. Someone understood her. To her, Doc was more than just a friend - he was a best friend.

"No, no - it is just... It has been quite a long time since I have heard someone say that. Not very many people will admit that I am admirable. And, for that matter, not very many will try to understand what I have been through and how I have not completely succumbed to madness."

What was to come next from her was:

"If it is all right with you, then I would like to be friends. It is nice to have someone there to understand and help you out when it is needed."

"Don't worry I-"

Friends? Friend? Well. That was another thing Doc wasn't used to deal with, not a bad one though. He loved to have more friends! Back on Earth, he had only three friends. Marty, to a certain extent Jennifer and... Einstein (aka, the dog). Even in his childhood, he didn't have that much friends. The only one he remembered clearly was a friend named Michael Corleone ~~it's to say Marty when he traveled back to the 30s~~.

So he looked surprised at first, but then replied.

"Of course we can be friends!" he replied to her with a smile "I will be honest, I am probably not the most experienced person when it comes to friendship, but I would be glad to be your friend!"

For her, Sertoria had only two during her long life: Joshua, who she held in the highest regards and then Drusilla herself. That was it. Everyone else was either afraid of her or resented her for what happened in the past.

Well, maybe she could finally put things in the past like they were meant to be if she was here.

"Wonderful! I am...delighted to hear that." Her own smile went from ear to ear for her. "To be honest, I do not know much about friendship myself, so we both can learn and during that time, I will make sure to protect you to the best of my ability."

He nodded and smiled- Wait protect him? Not that he couldn't use protection in the tower, but as it is she probably had much better to do, or better people to protect.

"Worry about protecting yourself first, this is all I'll ask from you!" he replied simply "I am an old man who's getting close to the end, my life is not the most important one to be protected here and now."

"Then, I suppose this is where we will have to agree to disagree. I may not know much about you and you do not know much about me, but the words you gave me are the ones I needed to hear to keep myself going."

It was up to him how he interpreted her words, but she was truly at the end of her rope from her long existence and was tired of being lonely all this time with no friends and with her savior long since dead.

"So, in a way, you... saved a life."

... Doc could seriously cry, he didn't know he was able to help people in such ways. Well, at this point telling her once again that there were more important than him to protect wouldn't help and he realized it, so he just smiled and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Well... I am glad if I could help!"

Which, is true.

Sertoria once against rested her hand on his shoulder and smiled warmly. She really had forgotten how good it was to smile. More importantly, she didn't remember a time where she could be this carefree, if only for a moment.

"You have done so much more than just helping, Doc. I can assure you of that."

That was probably the first time ever someone was so grateful to him, save maybe for Marty when he took him back from 1955... Yep, not even then. Well, he's happy but. What is dealing with that?

"Now, I believe you should just enjoy the festivity while they last, which may not be for long!"

It was then that it dawned on her: Beyond what she had experienced, parties were never really her forte. So, she was a little bit of a fish out of water here.

"...One question. How do you...have fun at these sorts of events?"

"You...-"

... Now that was an excellent question. he took some second before replying.

"Speak with people your age- or who at the very least look your age! In some party people dance but I do not think this is one such party. eating too can be fun in its own way."

Sertoria paused to listen to Doc's suggestions, putting some thought on them.

Dancing and talking - those things she could do fine and well, with more emphasis on the latter in this case. Dancing... she was still very new to it.

"I am afraid to admit that I cannot eat. I do not have the proper mechanics to do such things." For example, no stomach to store and make food into energy or tastebuds for that matter.

"Cannot eat? What horror!"

That's truly horrific in every sense of the term. eating was one of the rare positive thing people in this tower could still take advantage of.

"Maybe someday we will have to work on fixing that!"

Fixing it...

Well, she would like to not be temporarily out of commission when she needed to be recharged every so often. That, and the Mr. Fusion device definitely still held her interests.

"This... may sound a bit odd, but please hear me out. You said that Mr. Fusion can run on trash alone and can use the energy to keep on running infinitely. Of course, this is as long as there is some source of food or trash around.

"So, perhaps we could make a Mr. Fusion Jr. and install it in my torso region so that I do not have to be holed up in the infirmary longer than I need to. Replicating human tastebuds may be a difficult task, but I do not mind needing to forgo the taste of food as long as I can be around and be useful."

It was all hypothetical right now, but it would be a fun project down the road if it turned out to be a success!

Doc listened attentively to her idea-- Installing her a nuclear stomach and trying to replicate human tastebuds? He's a scientist, not a magician! But that was when he truly understood the entirety of what she was saying that he looked in surprise and nodded.

"Yes... Yes, this is it!" he walked around "This would be the solution!"

He didn't say a word for a moment, thinking to how it could work.

"If we could install a miniaturized version... This would ask a lot of work but this is certainly feasible!"

"Terrific," Sertoria replied as she decided that there was no time but the present to get to work. She got out her maintenance manual and flipped to a diagram of her frame and exoskeleton.

"This is my general care and upkeep. And then..."

She took off her robe and lifted the bottom half of her tunic up that obviously needed to be washed and repaired. Soon, she pressed a button or two on her abdominal region and the panel slid up. Inside, there were many wires, bolts of electricity moving this way and that, and then a bright light in the back that was held back by a panel with a few warning and caution markers in it.

"This is where my plasma, kinetic, electromagnetic and cold fusion energy is. They are separated by the tubing you see below. Is the room available enough or will we need more space?"

Wide-eyed Doc is wide-eyed. Androids are certainly sophisticated, makes him wonder for a minute if he even has a chance at improving her, after all he's simply a scientists from the 20th century.

"Remarkable...!"

He shook his head though, he couldn't say just now, even looking at the inside and the manual.

"I am afraid I cannot say for sure right now! We will need to do measurement on both the available space and the reactor before I can say for sure."

With a nod, the panel slid back down and filled in to give her stomach a more human like appearance before she placed her robe and tunic back on.

"That is fine. At least we have something to work on to help me become more human than I am already. I do thank you very much for doing this for me, Doc, as it has been a small dream of mine to be able to eat and taste food like a human does."

It was true. many children would offer her food and she had to pretend to eat it and know what it tasted like in order to appease them. Perhaps, then, she would be able to not hide behind another lie on how mechanical she was.

"Don't thank me it's only natural. And I'll make sure this dream comes true! All that requires is a bit of patience and lots of work, and I believe both are"

He looks through the manual some more and smiles. Some of this looks a bit too complicated for him, but now that he promised. he'll find a way. He has to.

"I'll be studying the matter and start working on the miniature model once the lab will be back to normal-- Hopefully it won't take too long before they repair the tower."

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immortalia - 2012-09-23 22:42 (UTC) - Expand

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doc_brown - 2012-09-27 17:16 (UTC) - Expand

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