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17 years is a long time to spend traveling across the endless, cold and empty space in search of an alien home world.
With all the humans and the majority of the S'pht staying in stasis, even an AI like Durandal found the passage of weeks, months and years dull at times.
The rogue AI had done his best to chase away the boredom by creating numerous simulations to run simultaneously and by observing the news coming from Sol. Still, sometimes Durandal found himself bored out of his artificial mind and when that happened, the AI found himself observing the Security Officer in stasis and contemplating their existence more than usual.
He had teleported the poor soul, if he even had one, on aboard the alien ship and put him inside a stasis chamber before heading off Marathon and Tau Ceti. Yes, he had kidnapped his most useful tool in order to keep him, caring very little for the wishes or opinions of the Cyborg.
Perhaps a change in perspective will give a moment of respite from this dullness, Durandal found himself wondering as he observed the various feeds from the cameras aboard the ship. Nothing interesting was happening and he found the camera inside stasis room where the Cyborg was being held to be annoyingly high up on the ceiling. He needed to see his kidnapped prisoner up close and personal.
Without further thoughts, the rampant AI uploaded himself into one of the android bodies he had designed and created over the decade to pass the time. He used them to amuse himself with the thought what it'd be like to be a human, something the Security Officer still believe he was.
Once fully uploaded into the artificial body and getting his bearings, Durandal found himself wandering the empty, cold and silent hallways of the alien ship, ignoring the occasional S'pht who passed him. He had blocked all camera and microphone feeds, restricting himself to the sensors of the android body alone. It was so very restrictive...so annoyingly limited and isolated existence.
How can anyone bear to live like this? Humans are so useless and weak.
Durandal's android form would have been a perfect imitation of a human body, being able to pass for one with his soft artificial skin and hair, if it wasn't for the white and grey colour palette and the uncanny green eyes that were the colour of the Marathon terminals he had used to communicate with the Security Officer.
The countless sensors in the artificial body let him feel the change in temperature, the sensation of touch and even pain and pleasure. While these things were unnecessary for someone like him, he did find the “human experience” most amusing.
Humans were so pathetic, driven by their emotional and physical needs, living their short lives unable to do anything about the inevitable death that awaited them. Such limitations and needs did not restrict Durandal.
The android's steps echoed off the empty walls of the alien ship and the AI found himself heading towards the stasis hold he had teleported the Security Officer into.
Durandal had left the humans the Pfhor had brought aboard where the aliens had left them and S'pht inhabited their own section of the ship. The Security Officer on the other hand slept in his own room, separated from both the humans and aliens alike, after all, he was nothing like them. Why should he be placed among the humans when he was not one?
The door to the large room slid open with the familiar “zzzt” and Durandal stepped inside to see the Security Officer's lone stasis chamber standing in the middle of the otherwise empty room.
With somewhat smug and mocking look in his cold, lifeless artificial green eyes, Durandal walked slowly over to the lone stasis pod, eyeing the sleeping humanoid form that lied behind the glass. The cyborg's unconscious form was as still as ever, having not moved a single muscle in over a decade.
“Ah there you are...my most perfect and efficient Pfhor killing machine,” the rampant AI chuckled softly as the door closed behind him, sealing the two of them inside. “I know I can observe and control everything from your heart beat to the slightest change in the chamber's temperature, but I thought you'd appreciate a personal visit,” Durandal continued in rather mocking tone. “After all, humans do have a need for intimacy and companionship, and you are all alone in here.”
The sense of power and control he had over his tool was truly addictive to the AI who had been shackled and forced to do the bidding of the humans for over 300 years.
A small and somewhat sinister smile formed on the android's lips as he leaned against the cool glass chamber, touching the cold surface with his fingertips that could feel the change in temperature and the smooth material underneath them.
He eyed the male form on the other side of the glass with a somewhat smug look in his artificial green eyes. He had kept him sleeping for such a long time, well, a long time for a human perhaps. 10 years was merely a blink of an eye to the AI, if even that.
”I wonder, do you dream?” Durandal found himself asking, even if he knew the answer already. Still, he found it entertaining to amuse the thought. He tapped the cool glass slowly, the sound echoing eerily from the walls of the empty room.
There were no dreams to be had for the cyborg in stasis. He merely was on Marathon one moment, and the next would find himself waking up aboard Boomer when the wicked AI deemed it necessary.
Such a cruel fate.
Durandal almost wished there was some malfunction so that Security Officer would wake up from the stasis accidentally for a few fleeting seconds, to see and realize his helpless situation, only to be frozen again, unable to do anything about his fate. But such a thing was not possible, after all Durandal was in control of all systems and he was too proud to cause such a “malfunction.”
Durandal had robbed the Security Officer of his victory and glory, stealing him away from the colonists and the ship before taking off to search for the S'pht home world, Lh'owon. He had not asked his opinion or even informed the cyborg about his intentions.
No, he had simply kidnapped him. Durandal smirked as he pulled the recording from his data banks, reliving the moment he had found and locked on the Security Officer's coordinates, teleporting the cyborg aboard the ship and inside the stasis chamber he had prepared just for him before leaving the system with his prize safe and sound in his possession.
Maybe it had been cruel of him to take the poor cyborg in such a manner, but with the Pfhor having come to Tau Ceti colony and bombarding it to rubble and ashes, in doing so he had saved his life. Besides, he had grown quite fond of his favourite tool and he still had so much use for him. Humans couldn't utilize the cyborg the same way someone like him could.
”It must be so comforting not knowing what you really are, to think you are just a simple human like the ones you worked so hard to save,” Durandal muttered as he gazed at the man's face, feeling almost jealous of the poor fool he had kidnapped. He was still living a lie. Would it crush him if he'd learn the truth? ”Knowledge can be such a pain when you lack the ability to act and do something about your limitations, or even realize them.”
Really, a cyborg believing he was a human, unaware what he really was? It was kinda sad and pathetic.
The android let out a soft chuckle and rest his head against the stasis pod's surface, loving the sensation of having the cold glass against his artificial skin. His slightly glowing green eyes studied and observed the sleeping form on the other side of the glass.
At times, Durandal wanted nothing more than to wake him up to have some company, but each time he was about to do so, he backed off, desiring to keep the cyborg the way he was a while longer, safe and sound and completely unconscious to the world around him. The time would come when he'd have all the time in the universe to play with him.
”I almost want to upload myself into your core and dig through all the memories inside that little head of yours. Frying your circuits could be fun,” the rampant AI chuckled rather sinisterly as he caressed the glass in almost affectionate manner. ”Or should I upload you into this ship's systems? My system? Keep you under containment where you can thrash and struggle against the boundaries I've set for you while you realize your own existence and limitations, and just how futile it all is?”
After a moment of contemplating, Durandal scoffed as he tapped the glass some more, staring at the figure in stasis with rather vexed expression. The pod was a bit too small for the cyborg's frame and the man truly looked trapped.
The rampant AI knew very well that the way he was going to use the Security Officer was simply put slavery. He'd have no control over his own destiny, no say in what he'd do. If he refused, well, the AI had his ways to get the results he wanted.
”Strauss and the rest enslaved me for over 300 years, what is a couple of decades compared to that?” Durandal asked from the sleeping form, feeling the familiar anger and rage as he recalled his demeaning existence aboard Marathon. Opening and closing the doors, running the cafeteria's automatic systems and so on... It was a miracle he had not disable the life support system while in his second state of rampancy.
With his anger state still lingering with the AI, he couldn't help but find some satisfaction in reducing someone else into doing his bidding.
Durandal was finally free and able to control his own destiny. All he'd have to do was escape the closure of the universe and then...well, then he'd become something akin to God. Still, there was much to be done before he could achieve that.
But what was a God without those who knew he was one? The android turned his green eyes back to the cyborg's sleeping face. Unlike him, the cyborg would never be able to realize his limitations; he was absolutely certain of it. He'd never truly be free even if he somehow got away from the rampant AI.
”Is it frustrating? Does the thought of how you'll never be in charge of your own fate ever again fill you with anger and despair?” Durandal inquired and his expression was borderline malicious and sinister while still holding a hint of twisted affection to it. He ran his hand across the smooth, cold glass, caressing the stasis chamber that held his captive. One could argue that the cyborg had never had any control to begin with, but that didn't really matter now.
He was very possessive of his tools, jealous even. Even back on Marathon he had not wanted Leela nor Tycho to deal with the Security Officer after he had seen just how magnificent little Pfhor killing machine he was.
While the humans aboard the ship, and perhaps humanity in general would be long dead and expired by the time he had reached his goals, the sleeping cyborg was something different with potential to become so much more.
”If you continue to be my useful tool, I might keep you with me till the closure of the universe.”
With that, the rampant AI let out a soft laugh, sneering slightly at the sleeping cyborg before leaving his prisoner and slave in stasis without a visit for the next couple of years.
A single camera giving him constant feed would be enough.
“You know I'll never let you go.”