Hadrian's Colony: Chapter Five, Part Two

 Notes: Awww, Blobby...you're so baby.

Title: Hadrian's Colony: Chapter Five, Part Two

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Chapter Five, Part Two

 

Kieron stared at the little robot, trying to count the number of legs that Blobby had just sprouted. He got bogged down at twenty, and then it didn’t matter at all because Blobby took all of two steps and fell over. Kieron felt an unexpected urge to laugh well up inside of him, and beat it down—he wasn’t going to mock anyone for their challenges, not even a robot, given the fact that he couldn’t remember years of his own fucking life, but…

Half of the legs absorbed back into Blobby, and he got back onto his feet and took a few tentative steps forward. “I think—”

Then he fell over again.

“Um.”

“He’s still adjusting,” Elanus said over their shared com. “And taking his sweet time with it, too. Move a little ways away from him and ask him to follow you, and that ought to kick his evolution into high gear.”

“Got it.” Kieron looked down and Blobby and said, “Follow me, please.”

“Stars, you’re so polite to him. Why aren’t you that polite to me?”

“Blobby hasn’t said anything to piss me off yet,” Kieron replied as he began to walk away from Catie.

“Is that the only hangup? Because I can adjust him for speech more quickly if it means he and I are on the same level in your brain. Blobby could be way more offensive than me, give him a chance—”

Kieron did laugh this time. “Don’t jump into the black hole all at once. I—fuck!”

“You what?”

“Holy shit.” Kieron had not expected Blobby to move that fast. “Blobby just ran past me.”

“Okay, well, it’s all right if he’s overshot a bit. Let’s just—”

“No, I mean he’s still going. He’s still running. Blobby!”

The little robot made a sort of whining noise as it began to change the arc of its run, curving back toward Kieron in a long loop. A few seconds later he was headed toward Kieron…straight toward him. “Um…”

“What? You’re saying ‘um’ a lot, what’s going on?”

“Blobby is—” Kieron jumped into the air as Blobby ran right into where his feet were a moment ago. He turned just in time to see Blobby smack right into Catie’s right-front landing strut.

He deformed around the metal with a screech, then sank down onto the ground, back in blob form.

“Owwww, Blobby! Baaaad bot!”

“Ow what? What did he do? What’s happening out there?”

“Shit, hang on.” Kieron jogged over to Blobby’s side and knelt down next to him. “C’mon, little buddy.” He gingerly patted the squishy surface of the robot. “You’re okay. You’re gonna be okay.”

“Catie, show me the replay of that.”

“Yes, Daddeeee.”

Kieron let them talk, focusing on Blobby. The poor little thing tentatively extended legs again, but he seemed almost afraid to actually touch them to the ground. “Aw, are you nervous? Maybe a little scared?” Blobby made another whining sound. “No, I understand. It’s okay.” Kieron knew he ought to encourage the robot to try again, but it felt like forcing a child to do something they were afraid of. He’d been forced to do that so often in his own childhood…

“Come here.” Kieron picked the robot up into his arms, surprised at the weight and density of him. “Can you use those legs to hold onto me?”

“Kieron, what are you doing?”

“Mmhm, like arms,” he encouraged as Blobby extended his leg shapes so they were long enough to fit over Kieron’s shoulders and around his waist. “Very good, yeah. Connect them in the back, uh-huh. Good.”

“He needs to learn to walk, Kieron, not get carried around like a baby.”

“But Blobby issss a babeeee,” Catie said unexpectedly. “His program is new, Daddeee. Blobby needs to accccclimate to using it in the real world.”

There was a pause, then—“I think you two might be personifying Blobby a little too hard. He doesn’t have the level of programming you do, Catie. He’s not sentient in the same way.”

Kieron patted the baby bot, who was currently clinging to him like a reversed backpack and making a sound not unlike a purr. “He’s not as advanced,” he agreed, “but I think you need to reevaluate the level of AI you’re putting into your robots.”

“I think you need to continue the field test,” Elanus said testily. “Blobby is supposed to be walking.”

“Blobby needs an example to go off of,” Kieron said, and he began to walk.

“Blobby has been programmed to access over a thousand different movement modalities and use them to create an ideal for the specific terrain.”

“Tell that to the bot who just ran into Catie because he couldn’t figure out how to stop,” Kieron deadpanned.

There was a long silence. Finally Elanus said, “You have a point. Fine, so you want to baby the baby, that’s fine, just don’t throw your back out carrying forty-five pounds of morphogenic matrix across dangerous terrain, and if you get into another fight with a reptilian you better bring that bot back with you.”

“I would never abandon one of your bots,” Kieron replied, and Catie sighed happily.

“I wish you rememberrred when you rescued me, Kieron” she said. “It was so amaaaazing.”

“He almost died, it could have been more amazing,” Elanus groused.

“Kiiiieron was a hero!”

“He can be a hero without nearly dying, that’s all I’m saying! He does that part way too much! More than is reasonable, especially given that not nearly dying at all, ever, is quite reasonable for most people.”

“Daddeee, you’re so silly.”

Kieron listened with half an ear as he walked, one arm wrapped around the bot clinging to his chest while he left his other hand on the stunner at his hip. “You can do it,” he murmured to the little bot. “It’s just one step at a time. Two legs or ten legs or no legs, you can do it however you want. Take your time, try and fail, it’s okay. All you have to do is try. Trying is how you learn. It’s okay not to do it right at first. You’re smart, I can tell. You’re going to do a great job, I know it. You’re going to be great at walking, great at running—I wouldn’t be surprised if you figure out how to fly. But there’s no rush, okay? One step at a time.”

“Kiiiieron?”

Oh right, he was being listened to. Well. That wasn’t embarrassing at all. “Yes, Catie?”

“You’re at the edge of my scaaaaanning range. Will you come baaack now?”

“Sure. Good idea.” He turned around, and was surprised when Blobby began to slid down off his chest. His lowest tendrils touched the ground and solidified into something like feet; ah, he was going with bipedal this time, that was cute. One of the shoulder tendrils left Kieron’s shoulder, and he waited patiently for Blobby to drop off entirely.

He didn’t, though. He slid his final tendril over Kieron’s shoulder, down his arm, and finally right down into his hand. He didn’t let go; he just extended new tendrils and twined them through Kieron’s fingers.

“Are you two holding hands? Stars, you’re holding my bot’s hand, are you trying to make me melt? I hate how weak I am to this awful sight, it’s so cute I’m going to die.”

Kieron rolled his eyes at Elanus’s dramatic interpretation of events. “He just needs some extra support to start. I’m sure he’ll be running ahead of me by the time we’re back.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”

Kieron started to walk, and Blobby walked with him. The little bot stumbled a lot over the first hundred feet before he figured out knees, and all of a sudden his gait got a lot smoother. Soon he didn’t need Kieron to take any of his weight at all. Kieron smiled and tried to let go of Blobby’s hand so he could run ahead.

The bot refused to let go.

Well. Okay then, they could hold hands a little longer.