Chapter One
Railas
His eyes opened before he knew how to see. But they didn't open in the traditional, human sense. They just appeared. Before that instant he had no eyes and wouldn't even have been aware that he was missing anything. Now he could respond to light and resolve images with his lenses. Subroutines and interpreters engaged. The images came together as an interpretation of the 3-dimensional space in front of him. He rotated his head, establishing his surroundings. Where was he?
His joints crackled as all his servos engaged at once, each system booting up and recognizing its role in a collective body he'd never had before. He flexed his fingers and looked down at his hands. This was new. Prior to this moment he wouldn't have understood what a body was. But now he had physical form. His gyro system oriented itself, establishing up and down. He was in a standing position, his weight balanced effectively on two legs, complete with knees, feet, and ankles. Standing was another concept that would have meant nothing to him moments ago. His legs kept him balanced against the gravity, which he could now detect and understand. The clock was running. He flexed his shoulders and looked at the motion of his fingers. He knew how his body worked, and he could understand the rules of his environment. He was also aware of mass, volume, balance, and many other useful survival tools that would prevent his destruction.
He didn't know where he was, but now he understood that he was somewhere. The fact that he cared to know indicated that he was awake. All this took place within the first few seconds of his life.
Yellow walls, smooth texture. He was in a small room equipped with a sitting area and a table. A door led somewhere else, but it was closed. Local gravity registered as significantly lower than normal, normal being what would be expected on Earth. Interesting. Wherever he was it wasn't Earth, but he wasn't completely sure what that meant. Gravity was also consistent, more so than would be expected from gravity generators. That meant he was on a planet other than Earth.
A man stood before him, a human. He knew what humans were, and he was aware that he was not one of them. The humans created him. Why, he didn't yet understand.
Facial recognition engaged. His pattern-matching algorithms analyzed features such as size and shape of head, position and color of eyes, and other details. The man he saw was young, had green eyes, and his upper lip was hidden behind a long mustache. His hair was dark and full, cut close to his head. He wore a suit as opposed to a uniform. This was currently the only face he was aware of or could recognize, but he committed it to memory and would be able to compare it to others he learned as his database grew.
"Hello, Railas," the man said, his smile broadening, creating dimples at the pointed ends of his mustache.
"Railas," he repeated, realizing he had a voice. More subroutines engaged. He was intended to be able to communicate with humans. He recognized the language as English, and he could analyze speech patterns in great detail. The man's voice depicted confidence, for example, and he seemed good natured.
The man nodded. "Very good! You're doing quite well!" And, as if unable to quite contain his emotions, he attempted a few times to speak further before doing so. "It's such a great honor to finally meet you."
"Railas is my name?" he asked, following his logic.
"Oh, yes, actually Railas is the name of the project, but we chose to make that your name as well."
"The project," Railas repeated.
He extended his hand. "I'm Dr. Baxter Rittenhouse."
Railas, not fully understanding the greeting ritual, took his hand briefly, registering its warmth.
"How do you feel?" Rittenhouse asked.
"Feel?"
"You're likely still settling, but your higher functions seem to be in place."
"Where am I?"
Rittenhouse nodded. "Of course. That will take a little explanation, but I'm sure you've figured out that you're not on Earth. Earth is the planet of our origin. Human origins."
"Yes, that much I understand."
"Right now you're on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn."
Railas nodded. "That would account for the gravity differences."
"Yes, quite so! And what do you know about Titan?"
Railas considered. "Very little, actually. I am aware of its position in Saturn's orbit and its composition and surface conditions. But I was not aware of any expeditions to the planet, nor settlements there."
"Quite right, and that's actually intentional. This facility was built some years ago, but we've deliberately not programmed you with those details. You're to be part of an experiment, Railas, and we're hoping to start you with as little distracting information as we can. Like a human visitor to this world, we'd like to orient you in a controlled fashion."
"To what end?"
Rittenhouse smiled, causing his mustache to bend comically. "Please bear with us, Railas. Suffice it to say that you're doing quite well already and you're the first of your kind. You're still settling, and if I read the time correctly you'll be going through some update cycles within the next few moments. I'll return when that's concluded."
"Dr. Rittenhouse," Railas asked as he turned.
He looked back.
"What was I before this?"
His face took on surprise. "Why do you ask that?"
Railas paused. "Because I think I was something else, but I have no memory of it."
"Not strictly correct," Rittenhouse said. "We haven't deliberately erased any of your memories, but the programs you're running now probably wouldn't interpret that data very well. You're an artificial intelligence combined with a robot body. This particular configuration has never been tried before. Literally everything you experience is new. You're the first time it's worked."
"And what is my purpose?"
Rittenhouse looked pained. "Let's not get into that just yet. Your purpose will be to serve, but in a way that no other robot or computer intelligence has before. We've made you as human-like as possible. In these exercises we'll be treating you very much the way we'd treat any human employee, and you may feel free to respond the same way."
"Okay. As opposed to what?"
He shrugged. "Just saying . . . "
And then he left, closing the door behind him. Railas couldn't help but notice that the door had a locking mechanism he was sure was engaged.
