Work Text:
Year 2550, Planet Earth, UNSC Station -----
“Test 87”
-On/Off-
“On correctly”
Activating IA L-086TG9 (Lopez)
STARTING RECORDING
-
-Shit, why isn't it working? Maybe it's the connectors? I don't think so, they follow their order correctly, surely it's-
A noise coming from behind him interrupts his thoughts.
The 25 year old soldier/engineer Camilo Lopez Martinez was doing one of his best jobs, a robot that was supposed to have fighting and protection abilities, perfect for war and an idea out of other machines that served to defend.
He had been building this idea for a long time, since he had entered as a soldier for the UNSC he promised himself that he would build something revolutionary, after so much time of suffering for him, he needed a triumph in his life.
However, to say that it would be easy was completely wrong. Even Camilo being an expert in his specialty, let's say he had more mistakes than improvements, after all he was still a human, it was okay to make mistakes. But this was going more to ruin than anything else, even Camilo himself thought about quitting, but nevertheless the soldier was not one to give up so easily, just like his sergeant, he would finish what he started no matter what.
6 months without rest, each time being more difficult to see what his mistakes were, if he followed that machine someday it would kill him of stress.
Hearing the noise he turned quickly, after sleepless nights his senses had sharpened. He was surprised to see his creation turned on after so many tests gone wrong.
-Holy shit, it's working!- he shouts with excitement.
Camilo ran to his laptop, which was connected to the robot, and checked that everything was correct and that there was no fault.
The robot AI L-086TG9 (Lopez) had accessibility to dependent movements, Camilo had designed the AI intelligent enough to act like a human. The AI stared at the frustrated human, perhaps waiting for orders, or some change, who knows, after all robots “do not have intrusive thoughts”. Still, it didn't have to wait long for Camilo to give it instructions.
Camilo now calmer gives a big sigh, while he stands in front of the robot, trying to give it orders.
-Very well, there is no problem for now in your programming, let's try simple things. Walk towards me.-
The Lopez robot did so without hesitation, following the instructions of its creator.
-Good, good, now, follow the movement of my right arm with your eyes.-
Again, Lopez did so without any problem. By this point Camilo was impressed, after so many failures in a row this was new to him.
-Yes, you are doing well, now activate your voice and set it to a 75% volume percentage, say “My name is Lopez.”. -
This time the robot took longer to act, this scared Camilo at first, he thought he had screwed up again, but only a few seconds more the robot did what he was asked to do. -Mi nombre es López- In an obviously automated and edited voice.
In Camilo's mind he had only two ideas. The first, that he did not remember having changed the voice translation from English to Spanish and the second that it was Lopez's voice. At the time he started to program it he didn't have much budget in his hands, he thought about using the voice of someone he knew, but at that moment he had no one by his side, he was completely alone. So he had to use his own voice for the robot, at this point it already looked like a copy of himself, this made him laugh in a way.
-All right, I think you are completely ready, I would just have to check your articulation in more detail and change your voice, but other than that I think you are ready.- Camilo gaves the robot a big smile.
-Welcome to the world, Lopez.-
-
END OF THE RECORDING
Lopez was left with an image at the end of the recording, the face of what was once a living human with a big dream. The worst part was that it was only one of many recordings on the chip.
After Sarge's death, Lopez ended up keeping his stuff, most of it useless and some of it interesting. Photos of his past, childhood, wedding, and the odd photo of Sarge with a young Hispanic man. This would not surprise Lopez if he had not seen the face of that young man; that young man looked just like him, only he seemed much more human. This scared and surprised him, he never thought that Sarge had based his face on someone else's, but especially Lopez's biggest doubt was to know who that boy was.
As the saying goes: “Curiosity killed the cat”.
While digging through old files on Sarge's helmet he came across that chip with the name “Lopez (Camilo)", decided to see what they were from and found thousands of videos, rather recordings of what Lopez was before Sarge became "his" creation.
Lopez is more desperate than ever to find out who Camilo Lopez was, and who the hell is itself.