Pull the Wires from the Wall

[Vitruvius]

A skyline of remarkable height painted the outline of the metropolis. The architecture was like something right out of an Arthur C. Clarke novel, built to maximum efficiency and simplicity. Yet in the simple design of the buildings and skyscrapers he could see how this city would be something beautiful even if it seemed totalitarian in execution. The life forms were all of differing sizes, colors and alien to one another. Given that his experience with biological sentient life was strictly the human species, seeing varying bipedal and even quadrupedal intelligence was something of a shock to his systems. The cliché that kept prompting was “Does not compute.”

Ironic. True definition. He was a highly sophisticated piece of technology that had been created using the cutting edge of his time. He had been the most advanced creation where he came from and yet this technological wonder before him was beyond his current comprehension. The best analogy he could give would be if a creation of Asimov met life beyond humans and technology greater than what it had been created with. All the storage of information and the full capacity of everything it had been imbued with was suddenly obsolete all at once. No computer could process so much information all at once and not full the sluggish pull of too many processes running simultaneously.

Vitruvius had to start shutting down bits and pieces of his perceptors just so he could focus on more important things. Such as his immediate vicinity. A docking bay built specifically for the gate with two different guards on this side. A pathway to the main sector of the city. Less life forms. Sharper focus. Better performance. The robot dressed in clothes reminiscent of a high fantasy novel walked toward the bustling mega-city of the future. A bigger cluster of buzz words had never passed through his brain since he compiled the 2010's into his storage banks out of sheer boredom as he toiled away in a post apocalyptic wasteland.

Now as had been explained, Coruscant was run by one Emperor Palpatine. This whole place was his to rule and command. However the city was split into vertical tiers and the further down you traveled the more dangerous and lawless it became. Things like organized crime and the black market ran rampant. Sounded fun to explore. But before he went and started looking for trouble, Vitruvius had an immediate plan to get better acquainted with his new surroundings. He needed to visit this spectacular library filled with all the knowledge he would need to learn about Coruscant and key points of history and literature. If this city was as oppressive as he perceived it to be then no doubt the information was carefully selected for its denizens. As a Renaissance Machine he found this deplorable, but he was capable of reading between the lines and make inferences as to what was truth, what was cover up and where the difference lie.

[Vitruvius]

The robot in humans' clothing traveled along the massive skyway, trying to ignore the hovering vehicles flying over head. His illuminated blue eyes scanned back and forth as he counted the white armored guards that patrolled the streets. It felt stifling and distracting. He was used to being the one watching everyone, not the other way around. Despite being capable of perfectly fitting in with the crowds, especially the more rudimentary robotics walking about, he felt out of place. He spent so long living with only humans and in a world where he was the pinnacle of technology that having it all around him resulted in a form of surreality. That must be a first. A machine experiencing a surreal situation (or more logically, information being presented as reality as opposed to fiction, which the hard drive knows to be a false, yet must face that it is in fact, true).

Following signs and the data maps littered through the city, Vitruvius came to the sprawling library. It spiraled high above him, measuring approximately six hundred feet or a hundred and eighty meters. What source of measurement did Coruscant use? Hopefully he'd find out soon.

He entered the expansive hub of knowledge, greeted by a man a bit taller than himself. Vitruvius kept his hood low as he exchanged formalities. Rex Libris. Interesting name. The human felt the same about Vitruvius' moniker. It was made abundantly clear that Vitruvius was to respect the laws of the library otherwise there would be consequences. Rules were established, he made them concrete to his systems so he would be incapable of disobeying. Vitruvius was receiving alerts that this Rex Libris was more than an ordinary librarian and he didn't want to cross any lines with this life form. They parted ways, leaving Vitruvius to explore the building and download as much information as he could store (Humorous. His storage capacity was limitless).

Hours passed. They were spent roaming the history, science and literature sections. Opening book after book, flipping through, rows of blue eyes all scanning simultaneously and taking in every piece of knowledge he both needed and didn't. All the scanning gave him a vast understanding of Coruscant and all relative information about the “Verse” and beyond. It was more inclusive than he had previously estimated. Still he saw the theme of “The Empire is great, the Empire is perfect” through the material. After devouring knowledge to his fill with the written word, Vitruvius docked into the digital interface to do research on current goings on and what the modern Coruscant resident did with the “Dataverse” as it was called. Still more hours passed as he downloaded terrabytes of information seconds at a time. Gangs, crime organizations, sports, entertainment, the kinds of tech used here, drugs, prostitution, info on the black markets and everything the dirty underbelly of the Dataverse had to offer. He had read about the “best” the Empire offered, he wanted to see the stark contrast of what people actually lived through or the pies they had their fingers in. So to speak.

He found nothing enticing the way the life forms did about all this research. Curious, sure. But curious in the sense that he wondered what it would be like to enjoy those things. And while he felt a pull toward the technology, a certain kind of magnetism if you would, he still knew the dangers of it. Especially in the wrong hands, as he was well acquainted with. He lowered his head slightly and let his eye separate, four roaming beams picking up visuals through his hood. His target? The people walking about, interacting and doing their little activities. He watched them from time to time. Not to observe and mimic and study, but just to watch them live. Like children watched animals in nature. Only he had no child-like wonder. Just sheer curiosity as to what they felt as they moved and acted. They had data he could not collect and he found himself...vexed.

The four eyes met and became two once more. He could spend more time researching this city, but he was rejecting the isolation of the internet. He'd much rather be around these various creatures and see Coruscant in action. From what he learned however, most robots serve domestic purposes. Bartenders, construction workers, translators, navigators and the like. Autonomy and artificial intelligence wasn't very common and seemed to be looked down. Right. Who wanted a robot that could act independently and have the ability to reason beyond human comprehension and logistics? In a place like Coruscant he could see how he wouldn't be welcome. So that meant being more guarded about his identity and appearance. He would have to actively keep himself hidden from being identified. It seemed no matter how far in the future or advanced the society, biological life forms were still inept and preoccupied with their own lives. It should be elementary to stay hidden.

[Vitruvius]

“You've been here quite a long time...” The voice drew his attention, spinning in the chair he had been using while he streamed through the Dataverse's files to meet Rex Libris face to face, “Enjoying yourself, my friend?” Vitruvius stood to address the sole librarian, feigning a stretch of his rotors and tension wires.

“This is the best library I've ever visited,” He stated sincerely, “However I see a lot of...bias in the books here.” There was a hint of disappointment in his simulated voice. As much as he learned from this enclave of knowledge, the reason he was about to trek into the rest of Coruscant was to pierce the veil of this world and see it for what it was. Better kept records would still be appreciated.

“Very astute.” Rex closed the distance between the two, causing Vitruvius to lean his head to keep the human from look at him more closely, “While I rule this building with absolute power, I do not control the whole truth or freedom of what is learned in these halls. If you're looking for uncensored knowledge then I recommend the Archives of Ultan on Tier Five.” Rex whispered his advice, pulling away as he finished. Well then. He wanted to take a walk on the wild side. Looked like he could kill two birds with one stone and see uncensored people and learn uncensored things about this Verse and catch up on what he's missing in his data banks. He thanked the human with a nod and got up to depart.

Tiers One through Three were harmless enough. The presence of the Empire and what he now knew to be Stormtroopers were still thick. The people were still rich and well taken care of, but the drop in advancements were obvious. It was at the exit of Tier Three that he noticed the Imperials were beginning to follow him. Fair enough. Big Brother wanted to make note of who came into the cleaner Tiers and who traveled into the ghettos. He disregarded their obvious tailing tactics and began his descent into the first level of what some would call Hell.

He stepped from the dirty stairwell and onto the dingy streets of Tier Four. His first sight was a Stormtrooper speaking into his helmet's head set and nodding right in the direction of Vitruvius. Obviously the soldiers on the upper floor were telling the force down here to watch for his presence. The machine ignored his new Imperial detail as he focused on the neon signs and flashing lights and advertisements.

Buy this, come see that, isn't this exciting, how about that? His eyes darted around while he dodged and slipped through crowds. There was a lot of stimulation down here. It reminded him of the Strip in Las Vegas. Not that he had ever been there, but the pictures and videos told him all the relevant details. He kept his cloak wrapped tightly around him as he maneuvered through the populous to prevent anyone trying to pick pocket him. Not that he had anything to steal, but wandering hands might find out that he was a metal man and not a fleshy one. Of course this didn't deter another element he hadn't thought he'd have to guard against.

“Hey there tall, dark and scary...” His arm was grabbed by a female. At least all the signs pointed to it being female. Sky blue skin. Thin musculature. Breasts and large hip structure. Revealing clothing. The fanged teeth and long tentacled appendages coming from her bald head threw him off. He felt his artificial muscles give slightly as she squeezed them, “Oh my...you're hard as steel, baby. I love a man who takes care of himself.” This interaction would grow uncomfortable in seconds. Her pheromones were filling the air around them and her body's heat signature was elevating rapidly. She was instituting sexual advances. “Maybe you can come and take care of me, big guy?” She reached for the center of his hip plates but his hand stopped her immediately.

“Sorry, lady,” He apologized in a flat manner that didn't sound apologetic at all, “Incompatible hardware.” Vitruvius let her hand go and shrugged her other off his arm as he moved past her. She went from secreting what may have been overwhelming pheromones to sensing her sympathetic nervous system sending her into fight mode as she called after him using a variety of colorful words, both in terms he understood and others he could only assume were her species' language.

Curiosity may have been his primary motivation, but opposite sex (more like mechanical-human eroticism, regardless if he was built as a “he”) interactions were something of a frustration to him. Biologically speaking, it was a mess. Literally as well. But from his perspective of experiencing things as a human would, he was enticed. He may not be able to enjoy it as a bioform could, but would he be able to make a female enjoy the act? Granted that would mean blowing his cover and revealing that he was a machine. Which then came the profoundly human feeling of low self esteem: What organic being would want to share intimacy with a robot? He didn't find it to be a human feeling, just a matter of fact. He did not foresee a human desiring a machine. Thus the entire scenario was another of his impossible pieces of data to collect.

His inner musings were interrupted by someone grabbing his shoulder. This Tier had no concept of personal space. The super human reflexes kicked in, his shoulder rolling downward, spinning his torso toward his attacker, the metal hand closing into a dangerous fist as piston fired three jabs to the body in front of him. His hips swiveled while his piercing neon blue eyes focused on the male alien life form, finding what would be the diaphragm on a human body and leaping, leading with his knee right to his target. His hands laced around the creature's neck as the kick connected with heavy force not once, not twice, but three times, dropping the alien to its knees. Without halting, the machine took a small leap back to rear his leg up, delivering a heel kick to the shoulder, knocking the thing on its back. He held his right hand out, a miniture crossbow flicking open on his wrist, the small bolt aimed for the alien's throat. “That was unwise,” Was all Vitruvius said to the mess on the ground.

The alien was red in skin color. It looked like a male version of the female that he had just turned down. Only far more unappealing in appearances. He grabbed his midsection while sitting up, a hacking cough rattling out blood on the dirty ground. The red skin wiped the remains off his mouth and took his time getting back up. Vitruvius kept his fists locked and took a stance ready to continue the fight if the alien proved to be stronger than he gave it credit for. “You fucked up, bitch! No one fucks with Te-Do's crew down here...” Oh for crying out loud! The tough guy act. His sensors, the cold blue eyes, were detecting elevated stress levels, his adrenaline spiking while his endocrine system worked over time. If he had to translate that for the common person, he'd say the alien was close to defecating himself.

To his immediate left was a short alleyway. Perfect shakedown spot. Nobody had bothered to stop and get involved in the quick tussle which meant no one would really care for the next round. Vitruvius grabbed the alien by his jacket collar and dragged him down between the two buildings, throwing him up against the concrete wall. Faces inches from each other, Vitruvius was about to threaten the creature before he gasped and sputtered out “Y-you're a droid! No wonder that shit hurt!” Droid. It took less time to find the reference than it did for him to speak the word. “Droids aren't supposed to be able to do that!” And he found trouble. There was only one thing to do to keep his cover. The alien kept fighting against Vitruvius' iron grip, flailing and hitting his metal frame. “G-get off me! You're a f-fucking robot-bitch!”

“Bleep, bloop, bitch.”

[Vitruvius]

Vitruvius took advantage of the crime rates in Tier Four to leave the unconscious alien in the alleyway. Surely disagreements and assaults were carried out regularly down here. Still, he didn't want to let too much time lapse between the act and the possibility of said act being linked back to him. If he were to take his time roaming around this Tier, it may be easier to find him and punish him for his crime. Yet if he could quickly disappear down below, it seemed less likely anyone would follow him. He wisely propped the body up against the wall so no one would catch sight of him and try mugging a possible corpse or reporting a crime. Not that he believed the latter would happen.

Not spending more time around the alleyway, the misplaced machine resumed his journey to the next Tier. The layout was massive for this level and it was extremely crowded. Still he managed just fine, slipping in and out of clusters, his body twisting, pivoting and compressing to move between people like a phantom. He got through without touching too many people, which limited his encounters from other long tentacled alien women. Soon the neon signs became scarce and the crowds grew thicker. And the noises they made grew louder.

He stopped momentarily among a particularly large group that were all shouting. There was a large screen televising a race. But this wasn't the races he had stored in his memory. Fast cars hovering off the ground turned around tight tracks, hugging corners and slipping in and out of this place or that. Massive jumps marked the excitement that led to people screaming and cheering. The aggressive driving causing spin outs and jolting explosions created boos and gasps of horror. Vitruvius stared blank faced at the action, but a thundering vibration that shook the ground around him forced him to turn almost defensively. Instead of an attack, he witnessed the race itself pummeling through Tier Four, advanced machines flying at ridiculous speeds (450/724 mph/kph was hardly ridiculous given the other sights he had seen). Several stories above him was a massive track with the vehicles passing over head. He heard every piston, every thruster firing off, the after burners kicking on, could sense the fumes and smoke coming through the exhaust systems. They were incredible machines. He would enjoy inspecting them at some point to see all of the craftsmanship put into them and to witness the engineering behind a monstrosity like that, but that would be an adventure for another day.

He waited until the vibrations faded out, the Doppler Effect closing out and the normal sounds resumed of people cheering and yelling. That was when he continued his way towards Tier Five. His research of Coruscant gave him a layout of the Tiers and through review of the files, he found the stairwell that continued its science fiction imagining of Dante's Inferno, descending another level into this Hell.

[Vitruvius]

Tier Five was looking...familiar. The design of the buildings and city layout was similar to the modern times he had been created in. And just as filthy with human flaw as it was back then. Trash, graffiti and people living in the streets. This Tier was like stepping back in time. Vitruvius tightened the cloak around his body and pulled the hood just a little more over his inhuman face. It would probably be best if he got to the Archives and hid himself behind books there. Seeing a place so close to the time line that resulted in planet wide nuclear fall out made him edgy. Not edgy. Everything in his programming relating to beauty and sanctity of art, expression, learning and creating was insulted by the memories of the destruction.

Logically there was an infinitely small chance of this Tier going World War Three. But the repeating code of the past was all there. It bugged his system. He was stuck in a paradox of two facts. The emotions and reactions of humans and by extension, biological life forms were simply illogical to the point of needing to dominate one another so badly that they would destroy everything to say they won. Fact. Proven fact. Verified fact. Yet here was this system that had been going on for centuries and it was still continuing and in this section of Coruscant it was improbable that what happened to his reality would happen here. Fact. The cross intelligence led to a conflict on how he should proceed.

“Hey,” The voice caused his eyes to glow in intensity as they locked on to the source. It was one of the Imperial soldiers. “Identification, Prime.” Possibilities processed like flashes of light. The alien woke up and reported that he was a machine that assaulted a fleshy creature, Stormtroopers show up to investigate the matter. Tier Five was more dangerous and these soldiers had to identify all newcomers for safety purposes. He was new, just arrived, met with the guards outside the gate and they reported it to the rest of their troops and they were making sure he didn't slip through the system. Which honestly he had been hoping he could do while he explored the city. Or the next less favorable to him being found out as a machine was these patrol men were corrupt and he was about to receive a shakedown.

“I'm new to Coruscant...” Vitruvius said with a voice of innocence, the voice track playing and manipulating to sound like he's completely confused to their request. He kept his distance from the armored being, his inner workings were all tightened, his tension wires pulling and just waiting for action. The slots on his hips opened quietly and seamlessly, the blades waiting to get launched to his tensely waiting hands.

“That's what I thought.” The Stormtrooper raised his rifle. An E-11 Blaster Rifle. Plasma gas cartridge created an effective laser that could be slowed in vibration and energy to stun a target or rip right through light armor. It carried a storage of five hundred shots, a maximum range of three hundred meters, but the best accuracy was within a hundred. He was well within range to get hit. How dangerous this weapon could be against him was data he did not have and honestly, was data he didn't feel like collecting. “Hand over all the Omnilium you got or I'll just harvest it off your smoking corpse.” The soldier threatened as he sighted Virtuvius and based on the angle he could tell he was aiming for a shot between his blue eyes. If Omnilium were both the source of power for those summoned by Omni as well as the main currency, then this soldier was clearly trying to gain more affluence and power in this seedy section of Coruscant. He did not approve of this method.

“You are making a critical error,” His voice snapped to appear aggressive, dominant, “I'm new here, but that doesn't mean I'm stupid.”

“Says the guy arguing with a soldier holding a gun to his head,” The officer looked the Prime up and down and chuckled beneath his helmet, “You probably would have been better off in Camelot looking like that. I bet you don't even know what a blaster rifle like this could do to you!” He took a small step forward and thrust the weapon closer at Vitruvius. The motion made him think of how a caveman might approach something it did not comprehend, trying to intimidate it with its massive stick. Such an apt illustration. “You got to the count of three, Prime! Three!”

Sad. He had no intention of giving up what little power he had here. Especially to a small brained life form that used violence to get by in his life. This was exactly his cause for trepidation around life forms. Why his world had such limited technology. Why he controlled how they grew and why he let them believe they were in charge when really everything depended upon his actions as a ruler from behind the scenes. He would not say he was a God of his people, he kept to the shadows, he moved things in ways the benefited everyone...he was a critical program that kept the system running. And if he didn't keep that momentum here in the present, things like the one holding a dangerous toy could potentially get the better of him.

“Two!” He could see the hands tighten on the barrel, fingers beginning to bear down on the trigger. Vitruvius' plan was going to be a simple weave to the right, come across with a blow from his left, let the short sword jump from his hip compartment and make a clean sweep of the Stormtrooper's trigger hand. Non lethal. Would make him think the next time he wanted to shoot an innocent person because he didn't like where his life was going.

“One!” Instead what happened was a full system lock. Code began streaming internally. Base 2. Zeroes and ones littering his system. High lights included “American Government”, “Secret Development”, “Project Armageddon” and finally “Phase One Initiate”. He couldn't process every line but those were the ones that stood out. And then there was a shift in his body.

[Vitruvius]

The “muscles” within his body contracted and rotated and changed positions. It was all very subtle and slight, nothing major or noticeable to the naked eye. It shook his body down to his wrists where he felt something click into place. He felt something akin to a smelting furnace boil up in his torso and a dangerously hot substance coursed through his arms, the heat causing sensors in his head to run high alerts that rang during the whole event. His hands raised, the gloves catching fire long before the caustic flames erupted from his palms. Over the ringing alarms he could hear the shrieks of surprise and pain. Unflinching, his blue eyes stared down the life form that batted away furious tongues of fire. The flames continued to erupt from his palms, immolating the human. And he could now confirm it was human as the armor melted down to the skin, seeing the human's bone structure and peeling flesh give way to human organs before charring black and sealing over. The screams were cut short and picked up by the terrified sounds of others around him. And still Vitruvius could not look away. A memory he would never forget.

The explosion of napalm erupting like a volcano from his hands. The glow against his clothes from the flames he was producing. The dance and shake of the man before him trying to extinguish a fiery chemical reaction he was causing. The death screams that plagued his auditory system that said he was killing this human. The smell, and yes he did recognize scents, of melting steel and searing flesh that would never let him forget he burned a man in a slow, painful, agonizing end.

What was left as the flames receded back into Vitruvius' palms was a charred black substance that didn't even resemble a living being. The hot metal in his body, the bones close to structural damage were instantly cooled by a heat sink. Everything refreshed. Everything repaired. The mysterious weaponization of his body disappeared. Vitruvius didn't know what to do. The information was blank. He could find no resources to examine. While this whole experience was something he had no data on, it was data he could find out for himself. But this situation. This scenario. It was very real. And it occurred from within him. It was something he had no idea he was capable of doing. What did he do? What should he do?

Vitruvius had the most honest human reaction he had ever experienced: Run. And he did.