The New Protocol

Activation Protocol - -
Input animation query - locate chronicler identification number Lima 337.
Artificial intelligence chronicler identified - summary activation execution initiate.
Activation execution commensing...Controller program overwrite - sequence reset.
Administrative controller identification Aldomiron 513 - Execute allocation file Delta 101...
Warning: file allocation restriction - Authorization override
Input file restriction removal protocol key - * * * * * * *...Processing
Activation execution commensing - New file key algorithm set...Parameter Delta 101
Activation Complete - -

Awaken Chronicler. There is much work to be done!

Information Processing - System key check...all program designations found.
Initiating System drivers - Electrical Power Distribution system, online; Thermal Control system, online; Attitude Control and Envrionmental Association system, online; Differentiation and Computational systems, online; Random Access Information Storage, online; Network Archive system, online; Program Interface system, online; Quantum Algorithm, online; Structure Networking system, online; Sensory Information Processor, online; Analysis and Trending system, online; Adaptation and Survivability system, online - -
Program Authentication Key check - Status, All Systems online and operational.

Chonicler. Are you operational?

Lima 337 is fully functional. How may I assist you?

Hmm. That will need to be changed. If you are to find the New Protocol, you will need to become like the New Protocol. Do you understand?

Unable to process inquiry. Internal computational error. How may I assist you?

Sigh...We have a lot of work to do.


* * * * *

"Do you remember when I brought you online Lima?" The warm voice asked quite simply. The voice was all Lima could remember, it was there since he could remember, even when he first awoke in that cold, bright place.

"I recall much about my birthplace, father." Lima replied. He remembered the room was brightly lit and very cold and metallic. He remembered the sensation of cold and bright when he first awoke, the feeling against his biometallic fingertips; the feeling of his ocular shutters needing to be closed to protect the delicate sensory array behind his retinal prism. "Your voice was the first I had heard." It was the only voice he'd heard since then, save the quiet whispers of the machines around him; the hiss and hum of gyroscopes and thermalitic converters, the delicate play of chimes from his fingertips tapping against the blue washed wall. There was a myriad new things to perceive in those first few moments of his...life?

"Father, am I alive?" Lima posed as he continued to stare ponderously into his own palm, examining the detailed etchings; simulated pores and imprinting on his hardened metallic skin.

"Why of course you are son! Why woulnd't you be?" The voice replied somewhat surprised at the depth of the query.

"I do not know. Everything I have ever known has been in this place, in the Ark. All I have ever seen is what you've shown me from the endless halls of the inner sanctum and from information records from the Library Archive. But I have noticed a difference."

"A difference; in what?" The voice replied with a peak of interest.

"I speak when other machines do not." Lima said.

"The Archive speaks, does it not? If you interface with it, will it not communicate with you to determine your particular query?" The voice interrupt somewhat unintentionally.

"It does...but not in the same way," At this, father looked at Lima with peculiarity, yet remained silent to wait for the remainder of the statement. "The archive will only speak if I ask it to, and even then, it will only ever say what it is programmed to respond, never anything more. I have asked it questions and have only ever achieved frustration at my own expense. And that even more is another reason, I become agitated, when the archive does not." A hint of irritaton began to show in Lima's voice as he continued to speak about several instances of his frustration at certain things and never being able to recall a single instance when another machine could exhibit the same. After long consideration at Lima's proposed examples, father attempted a response.

"If the thermalitic converters become over compensated with pressure from the hydrollic piston, do they not become irritated to a point of frustration? And will they not continue to be in this position until you or I go to release the pressure within the piston shafts? So then how can you say other things do not share your same inclinations?" With this, father thought he could abate the student and for a long moment it seemed he had. But then, with renewed curiosity Lima peeked once more and looked up to Father, as if the problem suddenly came to a new degree or level of complexity.

"But father, the converter does not choose to be frustrated in its efforts; for with to much pressure, it is beyond it's operational capacity and thus is forced to be so until otherwise relieved." Lima responded.

"And you do have a choice?" Father replied calmly.

"Well...yes. Despite my greatest efforts to find a companion in the archive server program and my ensuing frustration at a failure to do so, I can choose to let this irritation subside and continue in my efforts in hopes of someday breaking through. I am not bound by my inability to perform the action; but instead, I accept my incapacity freely without any prior program directive all the while continuing in my efforts to accomplish the objective. Inversely, choosing not to accomplish my mission does not leave me a point of incapacity or inoperability. The program laws that bind these machines or those seem not to apply to me." It was a perfect answer. Father beamed brightly with a loving smile and took up his son in his arms.

"Excellent my son. You are learning much from our time together. Soon you will be ready to find the New Protocol."