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Who Made Who 2000 short story by Mark
Newbold Twelve years before Episode IV
- A New Hope The laboratory was dark and foreboding, the
clinical air of a doctor's surgery coupled with the scattered chaos of a
mechanics workshop. Instruments of
all kinds lay about the dimly lit area - scalpels, wrenches, hydrospanners,
stethoscopes, needles, all patiently waiting for their inevitable moment of
usage. At the rear of the lab stood a shabbily dressed
man with a shock of purple and blue hair rising spire-like from his long
head. His hands were immersed deep
within the bowels of a cylindrical, torso-shaped shell, wires and circuits
splayed and intertwined in a spaghetti-like malaise of mechanics. He wiped his forehead with a greasy
forearm and stood back, surveying his work.
Absent-mindedly he reached out for a cup sitting on the workbench and
before he could even twist himself to reach for it a small Crustacean Droid
scattered along the bench, grabbing the cup and extending a pincer arm to
pass it to him. Without even a glance
he closed his hands around the cup and drank deep. He smiled as the warm liquid sank down his throat and with a
satisfied gasp he withdrew.
"Well, well, well my fine metallic friend. It seems we have finally solved the
mystery of your creation. Now all we
need is an energy source with enough juice to supply your power
plant." Doctor Flagen glanced
around at the cluttered benches and work surfaces around him. Nothing seemed to have the adequate power
to activate this limbless droid.
Unless… He pointed at the Crustacean Droid and motioned
for it to come to him. It almost
appeared to hesitate for a second, as if unsure of why it was being summoned,
but the power of its master's command was enough to override any latent
anxiety. The droid scurried to the
edge of the bench and waited for the touch of its creator.
"Don't worry my little friend.
You won't feel a thing." They always
say that thought
the Crustacean Droid as Flagen detached his power unit with a deft twist of
his wrist and pulled the square pack free.
Holding it up to the light Flagen nodded in satisfaction as he checked
the requisite wiring and junctions.
It held more than enough power to activate his new creation, enough to
see it through it's first faltering hours of existence. Existence, but not life. Flagen believed strongly that droids were present in the galaxy
to serve and protect, to provide and to obey. Not to think, not to believe, not to grow and
nurture the desire for humanity or true sentience or any other higher
aspiration. There were no droid gods,
no true Maker. Flagen was the only creator these machines
would ever know and when they thanked the Maker, they thanked him. And only
him. He inserted the power pack into the chest of his
new work and folded back the chest plate covering. Wiping his sweaty hands along the grubby cloth of his lab coat
he flicked the switch that would activate the droid and stood back. Slowly, the light behind the eyepiece of
the droid glowed, brighter and brighter until they reached a sharp intensity
that shone outwards. Flagen smiled
and leaned in close.
"Welcome to the world LS-76.
Do you know who I am?" The droid seemed to bore holes through Flagen's
skull as it viewed him for the first time.
It's vocoder growled as it adjusted to speech setting and began to
speak. "My
memory banks tell me that you are Doctor Xutal Flagen."
"That is correct LS-76.
But who am I?" The droid regarded the question for a moment, and
if the machine had possessed arms it would have scratched its head in
thought.
"You would be the one who is my creator." Flagen nodded and backed away, snatching at a
piece of cloth that hung from a nail on the edge of the bench.
"Correct. I am your
creator, and as a consequence I am the one who's instruction you shall
follow. Is that clear LS-76?" The droids eyes glowed dimmer, then brighter as it
moved its head from side to side in confirmation.
"Yes master." Flagen took the cloth and wiped away a smidgen of
excess grease that had accumulated along the chest plate of his droid. Standing back he looked around for the
droids appendages, which were lying unobtrusively in a package crate next to
the door.
"Why am I here?"
Asked the droid. Flagen shrugged and bent down to pick up the left
arm.
"Because the workbench in the main laboratory is being
used." "No
master, you misunderstand. Why am I here?" Flagen smiled to himself as he turned and gazed at
the droid. Existentialism from a
machine barely three minutes old. How
far technology has come.
"You are here because I wish you to be here."
"But why?" "To
serve me. To improve the quality of
my life. To prove that a machine of
your quality, of your level of perfection could be built. And only by me." LS-76 regarded the statement for a second and then
rephrased its query. "To
what end am I here?" Flagen frowned at this inquiry as he leaned in
with the arm and picked up a splicing implement. "To
my end. To serve me. Your purpose in life is to serve me. Anything else is an
irrelevance." Flagen coupled the third and vital connection and
twisted the arm into place. LS-76
lifted the arm, regarding it in the dim glow of the lab and flexed the elbow,
wrist and finger joints. He appeared
to be functioning within established parameters. But there was still something missing.
"Master, I can't feel my legs."
"Hardly surprising.
They're over there in that box." LS-76 looked down on the floor at the crate where
his limbs waited to be connected and, confused lay back down.
"Why am I not complete?"
"Because you are a machine.
Machines require construction." LS-76 gazed at Flagen as he worked. His master retrieved the right arm and
began connecting it to the torso, unaware that he was being scrutinised by
his creation.
"Did you require construction?" "Of
a kind. We are different entities,
you and I. I am biological. I continue to grow and adapt over the
course of my lifespan until I eventually become obsolete and expire. You, however, are a mechanical
entity. Once you are fully assembled
your operational perametres shall remain the same. You shall be the same specification when you finally expire as
you shall be when I complete your assembly." LS-76 looked longingly down at where his legs
would soon be.
"Did you watch your
creator attach your legs?" Flagen smiled as he twisted the right arm into
place. "No
LS-76, I did not. But my parents
watched my legs grow as I evolved and adapted into an adult. Biological entities come with their arms
already attached." LS-76 seemed to understand the answer and nodded. "So
your parents were your creators?"
"Yes, they were. They
brought me into this world, made me what I am today." LS-76 began to sit up and move its arm.
"So, you are my parent?" Flagen shook his head slowly at the droid as it
checked out its right appendage for problems. "No
LS-76. I am your creator. Your builder. A parent has love for its children. You are simply a machine.
I am proud of your existence, but only in that I had the skill to
create you. Nothing more." LS-76 regarded the statement.
"Master, what is love?" Flagen hefted up the heavy leg onto the table and
moved to the end of the bench.
"Nothing you'll ever have to worry about." A week had passed in the laboratory. Doctor Flagen rifled through his files with his
left hand as his right reached out for his drink that was sitting across the
room atop of a monitor. The hand
remained there for a matter of seconds until he realised that there was no
beverage forthcoming and retracted it.
He ran his fingers through his miasma of purple hair and frowned. "Must fix that Crustacean
Droid." He whispered to himself
as he crossed the room to retrieve his drink. In the low light he could make out the shape of the discarded
droid belly up on the work surface, its extendible arms and legs curled over
in the rough approximation of a dead arachnid. He sipped from the drink, which was kept warm by a heater in
the base of the cup and turned back to his files. Flagen was so distracted that he barely noticed the broad
silhouette of LS-76 who had silently entered the study. Flagen jumped with a start. "Freck it LS-76! You almost gave me a heart attack."
"Master, the laboratory is cleaned and tidied as you requested." Flagen barged past the tall droid and returned to
the filing cabinet, grumbling angrily to himself. "I
don't ask for requests, I give orders." He found the necessary file and turned to
face the droid, its chest plate glowing dimly in the half-light. "And you carry them out." LS-76 gazed implacably at its master and
straightened its back.
"Master, I have more questions."
"Concerning what exactly?" The droid moved back a step, giving Flagen room
the cross the floor and out of the study towards the main laboratory. LS-76 followed.
"Concerning my existence.
My reason for being alive, and how I came into being." Flagen spun on his heel and walked right up to the
droid, his head barely reaching the shoulder plates. His face was a dark, angry blue and his
eyes glared.
"LS-76, I'll say this just once.
I don't know where you got these ridiculous
notions of self-identity but they must stop right now. You are not alive, you are merely living a
parody of what biological entities call life. You are a construction designed
specifically to serve and protect me.
You are not, I repeat not here to discuss the finer points
of existence. Do I make myself
clear?" LS-76 remained still, his eyes glowing in the
gloom. "I
merely wish to understand you, so I can better understand myself." Flagen threw the files down onto the floor in
exasperation, a dusty film rising into the air from their impact.
"You are only required to understand one thing. That my
word is the law. What I say is all
that matters. Nothing else. I'll have
no more of this meaningless nonsense.
You are a machine, and that's the end of it. If you wish to learn any more about your existence then do it
yourself. I have neither the time nor
the patience to listen anymore." LS-76 watched without emotion as his creator
reached down for the files on the floor and gathered them into his arms, and
with a venomous backwards glance Flagen walked away. LS-76 raised its left arm to its chin and
rubbed it thoughtfully.
"Then I must learn more about myself." Flagen woke with a start. What
was that? He brought the covers
up to his neck, almost afraid to venture from the confines of his large bed
until he chastised himself for his stupidity and reached for his night robe
and slippers. The room was in stark
contrast to the rest of the facility, a warm and comforting bedroom that had
obviously been treated with a woman's touch.
Although Flagen slept alone. He reached the doorway and as he was about to open
it thought better and grabbed for his trusty Blaster that he always kept at
the foot of his bed. Lifting the
covers he reached in for the weapon…but it wasn't there. Confused he peered under the covers but the
Blaster had gone. A cold shiver ran
down his spine. No one knew that he
kept a Blaster under the bed. None of
his droids entered this room, not even LS-76, his prize creation. Occasionally one of his smaller serving
droids would attend to him in here, perhaps the Clipper Droids or the
Crustacean Droid, but none with the level of sentience to do this. Unnerved he grabbed a hold of himself and
exited the room. It was dark in the corridor. Pale emergency lights ran their red
baleful glow down the length of the corridor, left to the workstations and
right to the main laboratory. He
checked both ways and decided to go to the left. Hugging the wall closely he checked tentatively behind him
every few steps, checking that he didn't have a silent pursuer. It was a dangerous galaxy - you could
never tell. He reached the main doors to the work area. Someone was inside, a shadow of a man inn
a hooded cape working away in the corner of the room on an unseen
project. His curiosity peaked Flagen
nudged the door and entered, hunched over into a crouch and scuttled his way
to the workbench where he hid. The
man continued with his work, apparently unaware that he himself was being
watched. Flagen frowned. Where's
LS-76? I need him now. The man put down the tool he was using and lifted
his work into the light, surveying his handiwork. It was the Crustacean Droid, newly repaired and powered. Flagen gulped. Why break in here to
repair a menial machine like a Crustacean Droid? He had little time for his musings as the man
threw the droid across the room towards him in a blur, the appendages of the
little droid lashing out and gripping down as the throw brought it perfectly
onto Flagen’s head, knocking him down to the ground. He yelled in surprise as he fell into view
and in a flash the man manoeuvred around the tables and caught hold of him,
lifting him into the air with ease and hefting him onto his shoulder. Flagen hammered away at the man, but
stopped almost immediately.
"You're not a man."
He began in disbelief.
"That is correct master, as you are so fond of pointing
out." LS-76 ripped the cape away and glanced at his
creator in the light, his eyes blazing with an intensity that Flagen knew had
not been there before. LS-76's grip
tightened and the doctor felt the air squeeze out of him.
"What is the purpose of this?" "You
do not want to know." Flagen frowned and thumped the droid again, doing
no damage. "I demand that you tell me!"
"Negative. `If you wish to
learn any more about your existence then do it yourself. I have neither the time nor the patience
to listen anymore'. Those were
your exact words to me the last time we spoke of this. I intend to follow your instructions
absolutely." Flagen cursed the droids logic and struggled
furiously within LS-76's grasp, but he knew he had no chance of escape from
its clutches. He had designed the
droid to have the equivalent strength of ten humans and his efforts bore the
futility of an infant trying to escape the clutches of an adult. With a thump he was thrust onto the
workbench and as he tried to roll to freedom the droids hand pushed him back
down like a piston, blasting his breath away. Panic laced his words and actions as the droid reached down to
lift up an implement.
"What are you going to do to me?" "I
need to see how you were constructed.
By disassembling you I can better understand you. Then, after I have carried out my research
I can reconstruct you." The
droid leaned closer to the terrified man.
"Is that an acceptable course of action?" Flagen was too terrified to speak, but as the
laser scalpel came closer he managed to raise a breath to speak. "No
it is not acceptable. I shall not
survive this procedure. Biological
entities cannot be subjected to that kind of trauma." The droid stood back and looked across the room at
the Crustacean Droid sitting silently on the end of the workbench. LS-76 returned his gaze to his master.
"They always say that."
He intoned, and Flagen realised with horror that the power plant
within LS-76 had previously been in the Crustacean Droid, and the little droid
had been in his private quarters. It
knew about the Blaster. And somehow
that knowledge had been imparted to LS-76.
Flagen bucked on the bench as he tried one last tie to escape and with
imploring eyes he begged the large droid.
"But I made you! I created you!" LS-76 caught a glimpse of himself reflected in the
machinery's shining surface, and if his harsh metallic face could have smiled
it would have been a twisted, evil one. "No
doctor, you didn't create me."
The laser scalpel didn't waver in his hand as it slowly began to do
its work and Doctor Flagen's voice rose to a high-pitched scream. "I created myself." Who Made Who 2000 short story by Mark
Newbold Twelve years before Episode IV
- A New Hope Histories - The first
full short story written by Mark
Newbold in 2000, this is the origin of the LS-76 droid who eventually
leaves the lab on Digena and travels around the galaxy searching for its true
master. Cast of Characters LS-76 Doctor Xutal Flagen |