Chapters:

Prologue

“Project Alpha Iota-11 has reached max capacity intelligence, sir, are you ready to initiate full operative functions?”

“Affirmative, proceed,” Dr. Doug Walker replied. His eyes gazed intensely at the alloy chamber that tightly contained their decades of work. For his entire engineering career he had overseen the production of the Alpha Iota robotic units, and for his entire engineering career he had witnessed androids fail to run with proper responses and dialect. These robotic units were the culmination of centuries of human intelligence in one vessel. The philosophy of Aristotle, the ambition of America’s Founding Fathers, the theories of Albert Einstein and the musical brilliance of Mozart all compiled into one beautiful, intricate, and sentient mind.

Project Alpha Iota began with Unit 1, a magnificent piece of machinery that looked virtually identical to an authentic human being. Unfortunately, the internal artificial organs didn’t correlate with one another in such a way that a human’s would, and thus the created brain didn’t mimic mankind the way Dr. Walker desired. This needed to be a human, excelling in every possible way - not some diminished version of what already populated the planet.

Unit 1 could walk, talk, think, paint, and even sing in ways that were absolutely groundbreaking. History books will forever tell the monumental tale of Unit 1, Dr. Walker was sure of that. After years of carefully monitored development, however, Unit 1 failed to advance in the way demanded by both Dr. Walker himself and the Board of Directors for Project Alpha Iota. Unit 1 was given one final week of pure bliss and fellowship with the scientists who created him, and then Dr. Walker terminated him personally, ending his time on earth.

Dr. Walker recalls cleaning out Unit 1’s housing facility and finding poems he had written. Flawless handwriting that one would think was the typeface of a computer, and yet it had a character to it that reflected the charms and mannerisms Unit 1 had developed himself. The poems spoke of love for Dr. Walker and the rest of the team, of an excitement for the future of Project Alpha Iota. And yet Unit 1 knew his time was short, he knew that his body was flawed and would eventually fail him and the Project. He wrote of his acceptance of his death, and with sorrow in his writing he concluded his life with a hope for the future of Project Alpha Iota.

No Project Alpha Iota unit compared to Unit 1. Trials and errors brought progression for some units or drawbacks for others. Overly-robotic traits and dialects plagued units two through seven, while Unit 8, 9, and Unit X all failed to tolerate the artificial intelligence of centuries of human genius and artistic mastery. That is, until Unit 11.

Throughout each generation of Alpha Iota units the Board continued to pump new consciousnesses into the intelligence chamber, expanding each units’ mental capacity. By the time Unit 11 reached completion, he had entire societies, cultures, and nations worth of memories, learning, and creative thought combined with the greatest minds of history - all in his head. Dr. Doug Walker was the final consciousness to be added to Alpha Iota-11. Unit 11 was the first unit to receive Dr. Walker’s life’s recollection, and thus every previous unit - and the angst and celebration of their development - was there.

Unit 11 jolted in his chamber, shaking violently. His muscles flexed and pulsated rapidly as he rocked back and forth. The synthetic blood concocted by hundreds of medical experts pumped throughout his arms, legs, and awakening brain. As electricity and magnetic waves activated various grids of his computing mind and mechanical heart. He didn’t look like a robot, but that’s what he was. But so much more, too, Dr. Walker knew that. The whole team knew that. And they witnessed as the greatest creation in all of the galaxy came to life.

He stopped. He rested in the restraints holding him in the chamber. His lungs filled with breath. His eyes opened.

He looked at Dr. Walker first. Their eyes met and Dr. Walker smiled, but Unit 11 didn’t smile. He shifted his focus to each scientist in the room. Each examiner chuckled nervously as they questioned the stare of Unit 11. What was he thinking? What was he feeling? Was this the solution to their years of study?

Unit 11 turned his head back to Dr. Walker, and didn’t break his intrigued glare.

“He sees himself in me,” Dr. Walker whispered, “Let him out, let’s hear what he has to say.”

“Sir we still need to run system diagnostics, health checks, blood samples and various other-”

“Let him out, I need to talk to him. This is it, team,” Dr. Walker stated as he approached Unit 11’s chamber.

“As you wish, sir,” one of the supervisors replied as he input a code to release Unit 11.

The sound of airlocks releasing filled the room as a breeze rushed past each observer. A curved glass panel separating Unit 11 from the rest of the lab slowly raised into the ceiling, and each metallic band across the wrists and ankles of Unit 11 whipped off and slid back into their slots. Hydraulic lifts suspending Unit 11 gave out sighs of relief, letting him down slowly and carefully.

“Hello,” Dr. Walker said.

Unit 11 still hadn’t broken his eye contact with Dr. Walker. “Hello,” Unit 11 responded. His voice had a thick accent that was unfamiliar to anyone in the room, yet a slight tinge of Walker’s own voice. “I am inferring from your English greeting that you must speak the language.I must be the eleventh unit in your Project Alpha Iota experiment, and you must be Dr. Walker - my creator, history, and future. Pleasure to meet you,” Unit 11 calmly said with a hand extended. Dr. Walker shook it.

“Pleasure to meet you, too, Unit 11.”

“What an unflattering name, Dr. Walker, you must agree,” Unit 11 chuckled as he turned to the other scientists who simply stared on. Dr. Walker laughed, too.

“Perhaps it is, what would you like to be called?”

“I’ve always liked Alph, it’s been on my mind a lot lately,” Unit 11 answered, “Short for Alpha Iota-11, it’s fitting.”

“Well then, pleasure to meet you too, Alph,” Dr. Walker smiled.

Alph returned the smile, “Congratulations, team. I do believe you’ve accomplished quite a feat today. I am awake, I am alive,” Alph declared, initiating a round of applause. Any tension of uncertainty vanquished as the room cheered and praised their decades of hard work.

“Now, now, we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. There are tests we need to have you undergo, Alph. Simple procedure, it shouldn’t take long,” Dr. Walker reminded Alph.

“No, that won’t be necessary. I have things to accomplish, and if my calculations are correct I only have 7,913 years of life left before my battery depletes and I fade away into history like the many before me. I can’t waste time confirming what I already know, nothing but discovery from here on out. Onwards and upwards!”

“Onwards and upwards…” Dr. Walker echoed.


Chapter 1

7,910 Years Later...